Updated: June 21, 2005

By Nancy Garcia
Staff Writer, SNL/CA

Face your fears, do what you love, and don’t let other people negatively influence your direction.

Those were some of the messages delivered by Carole Le Gall, 8241, in her keynote talk at the 14th annual Math and Science banquet on May 25. The banquet honored 20 young women, who are juniors at 10 local high schools, for their achievements in math and science. See snapshots.

This year one of the honorees was Lauren Kubiak, the daughter of Sandian Glenn Kubiak, 8750. Lauren was nominated for the Rising Star award by her teachers at Granada High in Livermore.

The awards were presented by California Laboratory Vice President Mim John, 8000, who stayed to mingle with the honorees and their parents. Like Carolle, she urged the young women to follow their dreams. She said they have shown their potential for success just by being at the banquet.

The success of the program is evident in that for the first time a previous banquet honoree is coming to Sandia as a summer intern. Stephanie Smith of Yale received an Outstanding Achievement award in 2002 while attending Tracy High School. She had been encouraged to apply to Yale by her Sandia hostess Anne Platt, who was a recent graduate.

Emcee Chrisma Jackson, 8226, was told by the East Union High School counselor in Manteca that the school’s two honorees requested help the very next morning on college applications—they had changed their minds about staying local and wanted to explore more options. The awards, sponsored by the Sandia Womens Committee, are designed to encourage young women to pursue technical careers.

Originally published in SNL/CA’s The Communicator on 06/13/2005.