Alumni Stories

Aliza Gazek, Class of 2009
Faren Clum, Class of 2004
Adria Le Boeuf, Class of 2000

Aliza Gazek, Class of 2009, meets the President!

As the president of NFTY (the North American Federation of Temple Youth), a 10,000-member Reform Jewish youth movement for teens across North America, Aliza Gazek was invited to a White House reception in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month.

Aliza, now attending Stanford University, recalls that at first she didn’t take the invitation seriously, assuming “it was just one of Nana’s silly cards in which she pretends to be someone famous, often ‘Brad Pitt’ or another celeb.” But she soon realized that she was really going to meet the Obamas!

“Once I neared the front of the line, I pronounced my name clearly for the Marine who would introduce me,” Aliza remembers, “repeating it after seeing his initial reaction to my two not-so-usual names. ‘Aliza Gazek,’ he read correctly, and the President extended his hand and smiled, saying, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ An incessant smile consumed my face, and I recall managing to get something out about being so happy to be there. “This is my wife Michelle,” he said as I moved to shake her hand. (No, really?) They towered above me as we put our arms around each other for a picture.”

Aliza also met many other important Jewish figures, including Bob Woodward, the famous investigator of the Watergate Scandal, singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, and Sandy Koufax, a former Dodgers player who refused to pitch in Game One of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. Aliza describes Obama’s speech to the assembled crowd: “He started off by listing various groups of people who were in attendance, ending with Sandy Koufax, clearly his own category. ‘Sandy and I have something in common,’ he told us. ‘We’re both left handed.’ People laughed. ‘Sandy can’t pitch on Yom Kippur,’ he said, pronouncing ‘yom’ with a short o and then pausing. ‘I can’t pitch.’ The crowd loved it.”

Faren Clum, Class of 2004

Faren Clum, class of 2004, graduated in June 2010 from Stanford University with a BA in human biology and a concentration in Genetics and Disease. Elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society in her junior year, she is now applying to medical school for entrance in 2011 and taking some time to concentrate on her love of theater and film while fulfilling medical school prerequisites.

Faren has an incredibly strong commitment to community service. She deferred her admission to Stanford for a year in order to continue directing “Project Dance,” a Watsonville program she founded. At Stanford, she was involved with HOPES (Huntington’s Outreach Project for Education, at Stanford), an organization run by undergraduates who “seek to make the science behind Huntington’s Disease accessible to patients and the public.” Faren is now working with the Karimu International Help Foundation, started by former Kirby teachers Marianne Kent-Stoll and Don Stoll to help the Ufani Primary School in Tanzania.

Valedictorian of her Kirby class, Faren has fond memories of her high school experience: “I really appreciated the atmosphere – how it felt like teachers cared about who you were and how you were doing, and how we as students cultivated a close-knit community. The small atmosphere forced us to learn how to work with, and even enjoy, the company of people who were very different from ourselves. This has really served me well post-graduation.

“Most of my great Kirby memories are just of hanging out on the couches (occasionally trying to see just how many people we could fit on them) and having fun,” Faren remembers. “I loved how we never locked our lockers. I felt very much like Kirby was an extension of my home.”

Adria Le Boeuf, Class of 2000

Adria Le Boeuf, class of 2000, was one of the first students to attend Kirby for six years – seventh through twelfth grade. She then graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in three years with a BA in Evolution and Neuroscience. She is now working on her PhD at Rockefeller University in New York City, studying the biophysics of the inner ear. Before starting at Rockefeller, Adria spent two years as a paid research associate doing lab work on Alzheimer’s disease. Next year, she plans to move to Lausanne, Switzerland to do postdoctoral research on olfactory communication in ants.

Adria is a typical Kirby student: multi-talented and involved in many different passions. During high school, she not only immersed herself in science but also in music, singing in choir and playing with the Jazz Band. While in New York, she sang with a choir called C4 (The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective) and in the smaller, “scientifically-minded” choir Darwin’s Finches. Four years ago, she began an improvisational theater group for fellow scientists that she teaches weekly. “In the spirit of guerilla theater (improv everywhere),” Adria explains, “we do performances for the unsuspecting public.”

Her interest in evolution grew out of her background in drama. “Until I was around fifteen I swore I would never be a scientist – both my parents are ethologists,” explains Adria. “I was interested in people and behavior and expression, things I explored through theater. But in a bio class at Kirby I had a pretty high level realization: the idea that many of the behaviors that humans display have actually been evolved, that emotions as we perceive them are actually just our genes manipulating our behavior and choices to get themselves passed on. I thought this was awesome. I still do.”

When asked for her best Kirby memory, Adria replies, “Very tough question. Could be backstage at the Actor’s Theater, could be cracking up hysterically in Dr. Huyck’s Latin class, could be chamber choir, jazz band, could be eating Bagelry bagels in the sun on the deck, could be disseminating anti-religion pro-ridiculousness propaganda for fun, handing out pope cards, playing a physics game with plastic frogs, going to the beach for PE and running into the ocean and coming back to school all wet with sea water…. too many good memories to pick just one favorite.”