Fond Memories

I have so many fond memories of gathering students to practice English on Saturday mornings! One morning a young man not in the Castaway Kids program wandered in to the classroom and asked if he might join us as he’d heard about our mentoring program. Jose Martinez Zanzarric with his charismatic personality, witty intelligence and desire to learn soon found himself in Castaway Kids scholarship program with Phyllis Levine as his sponsor. He successfully graduated from CBTIS high school and went on to attend the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California (UABC) in Tijuana, as well as, a semester in Monterrey, Mexico. Judy Allwood, Phylis, Terry and I helped Jose graduate with a degree in Megatronic Engineering. He is now employed by Toyota, working on his practicals, and so grateful to Castaway Kids for the support that allowed him to fulfill his dreams and anticipate an exciting future!

Jose lived with his parents in Guaymas and a younger sister, Marianne. His mother has had some health issues which have led Marianne to study Bioengineering at UABC. This degree can take her into microbiology work or biomedical engineering-which she has chosen. She has dreams of some day even teaching at a hospital. She’s just completed her 6th semester with a 91.2 average!! This semester she’ll also be taking classes at Tijuana General Hospital. Marianne has a couple more semesters to complete, and hopes to pursue a Master’s Degree in Biomedicine!!! What a pleasure and honor it is for my husband and I to now sponsor this lovely, intelligent, motivated young woman.

It was a great pleasure and honor to help found the Castaway Kids scholarship/mentoring program with Terry Challis and Diane Wine. And then to mentor dozens of students along their path of learning, growing and moving forward in their lives. Terry carries on an incredible job as President of Castaway Kids, and lives her passion of helping others…what an amazing woman. Castaway Kids is so blessed to have her as their leader! Jim and I are now sponsoring our third student in this program, and consider it a life long project for us. I hope you’ll also consider being involved as a sponsor and/or volunteer in this amazing program.