Mary, Sue and Traci, our wonderful Art Docent Trainers,

would like to introduce

the CLASS of 2016

Meet our new trainees!

They are very excited and each have the commitment, drive and desire we need to accomplish our mission.

Frances B.
Residence: Los Gatos and lived here 33 years
Education: San Jose State University
Current Career (if working): retired

Frances is retired after working 15 years as the Art Docent Administrator. She has a grown daughter who attended Los Gatos Schools and is now a teacher. Her husband is a retired History Teacher. She loves to travel, go to museums, paint, read, hike and sewing. After retiring, she joined the Art Docents as a volunteer for the love of children and art. She believes that exposure to art is very important for children education

John B.
Residence: Los Gatos, Albert Ct.
Education: Electrical Engineering MBA
Current Career (if working): Marketing

John has been in the area for 14 years and 2 years in Los Gatos. He is an Electrical Engineer, MBA and currently works in Marketing. He has 4 sons ranging from 1st Grade at Van Meter, 4yrs, 2 yrs and 3 months. He loves to plays soccer and basketball and coaches both. He joined the Art Docents because he likes art, teaching children and previously worked with Cornerstone.

Theresa B.
Residence: Los Gatos
Education: BFA, UMass Amherst
Current Career (if working): Stay at home mom

Theresa moved here from Boston and lived in Los Gatos for 1 year . She has lived in many areas in Europe, Prague, London,Barcelona and Munich. She has a daughter who attends Fisher and is in the 6th grade. She was previously a volunteer at her daughter’s elementary school and was in Human Resources before that. She came to the Art Docents to meet people and to support Art in school. She is a painter focusing mainly on encaustic and acrylic works.

Christina C.
Residence: Los Gatos
Education Rice University
Current Career (if working): Tutor

Christina has lived in Los Gatos for 2 years. She currently is a tutor for AJ Tutoring here in Los Gatos. She enjoys painting, exploring and writing. She joined the Art Docents because she is an artist who loves to learn and participate in creative communities.

Jenny G.
Residence: Los Gatos for 29 years (on Cherrystone)
Education: Accounting , BA UCSB
Current Career (if working): Accountant (part-time)

Jenny is an accountant by education. She has lived in Los Gatos for over 29 years. She has 2 grown sons, one 23 who graduated from UCLA and one who is 26 and graduated from UCSB. She loves to scrapbook and bike. She joined the Art Docents to learn about art.

Irene G.
Residence: Los Gatos on Cherry Blossom
Education: Nurse
Current Career (if working): Not right now but will take the nursing exam at some point.

Irene has been in Los Gatos for the last 3 months. She is originally from the Netherlands , lived in Australia for 13.5 years until she moved to Los Gatos. She speaks 4 different languages and is a nurse by education. She has 2 daughters who attend Blossom Hill.

Kate H.
Residence: Los Gatos
Education: Scientist
Current Career (if working): Works part-time in Medical Devices

Kate has been in Los Gatos for 5 years. She moved to the US from England about 12 years ago. She currently works part time in Medical Devices. She has 2 children and enjoys doing art with her kids. She came to the Art Docents because she watched a First Grade Art Docent lesson with her son and wanted to join the program and learn more about art, language of art and how to talk about it.

Rene J.
Residence: San Jose
Education: BBA Finance and Economics

Rene has lived in Los Gatos for 3 years. Previously she lived in Santa Cruz for 15 years. She currently enjoys volunteering. She has 2 sons, one at Fisher and the other at Van Meter. She is from Louisiana and loves watching LSU and Dallas Cowboys football. Rene loves studying and collecting art. Her favorite type is mid-century and modern art with lots of color.

Eunjung K.
Residence: Los Gatos for 7 months
Education: Food Engineering and preservatives

Eunjung moved to Los Gatos 7 months ago from South Korea. She has a degree in Food Engineering and preservatives from the University in South Korea. She loves to watch movies and joined the Art Docents because her neighbor, Maryam invited her.

Misa K.
Residence: Los Gatos and lives on Lester Lane
Education: Home Economics (in Japan)
Current Career (if working): Not Working now

Misa has been in Los Gatos for the last 9 months. She is currently not working and loves windsurfing and gardening. She has a son who attends Blossom Hill Elementary in the 4th grade. She joined Art Docents because she wants to improve her english and get to know people in her community.

Vera K.
Residence: Los Gatos
Education: Interior Design
Current Career (if working): not at the moment

Vera moved here from Moscow, Russia in August 2016. She lived in Los Gatos in 2014 and loved it. In Russia she worked as an architect and interior designer. She has 3 girls, 8 ½, 7 and 5 years old who go to Van Meter. She likes to paint and loves art. She loves spending time with her kids. She joined the Art Docents to something that is interesting “just for me”. She went to her daughter’s Los Gatos first grade art show and loved it making her want to be an Art Docent too.

Kelly M.
Residence: Los Altos
Education: University, ASID, Interior Design
Current Career (if working): Stay at home mom

Kelly is from Los Altos. She was very active with her kids all throughout elementary school. She has worked for many non profit organizations having to do with art and learned about the Los Gatos Art Docents who follow the California Standards. She loves to read, ski, golf, run and hike. She joined the Art Docents to become active in the schools again.

Harla N.
Residence: Los Gatos Residence of 20 years
Education: Social Worker
Current Career (if working): Currently not working

Harla has lived in Los Gatos for the last 20 years. Her 3 children went through the Los Gatos Schools and now are adults. She loves Crafting and wants to volunteer. She joined Art Docents to discover herself and loves art as well.

Laura S.
Residence: Los Gatos
Education: Architect
Current Career (if working): Not Currently Working

Laura is an architect by education. She taught Architecture at the university, the first year classes. Then she moved from Argentina to Sweden then here and has been here for 1 year. She has 2 children one who attends Daves school and the other in preschool. She loves yoga, making crafts and designing things. She joined the Art Docents because she is interested in art and loves to be in the schools.

Carolyn W.
Residence: Los Gatos
Education: BSN Nursing, visiting nurse and postpartum
Current Career (if working): Volunteers at the Heritage Home-San Jose

Carolyn has lived in Los Gatos for 3 years. She moved here from the Boston area and has lived in Pennsylvania, Texas and New Jersey. She is a nurse by education and loves cross country skiing, biking, hiking and the outdoors. Previously she was very active with her kids and joined Art Docents because she likes art and wants to meet people in the community.

Laleh Y.
Residence: Los Gatos (From Sweden, born in Iran
Education: Engineer (electrical)

Laleh lives in Los Gatos and has 2 children, one 4 yrs old and one who attends Blossom Hill and is in First Grade. She loves to run, shop and watch breaking bad. She joined Los Gatos Art Docents to get to know people and to learn some art.

Training Update: Week 2

Week one our Trainees learned the dynamics of our organization, our curriculum and the extent of their training program. The Trainers are utilizing the docent website and showing our new trainees how to navigate through the site, sign-up for observations, view our learning videos and sign-up for docent event.

Week two & three they begin studying together, with class participation the visual vocabulary necessary to teach our curriculum. Through the use of our library of fine art prints the trainees are beginning to verbally answer questions and describe works of art using the elements of art, principles of design and additional art terminology. The Trainees print presentation skills will progress from a single print group presentation, to a single print individual presentation and finally to a full (January) print presentation.

Throughout their training they will be observing October and November print presentations and helping with workshops. Learning from seasoned docents is an excellent way for them to gain insight into techniques and procedures that will make them successful in the classroom. They will be sharing their experiences each week with the class. If you have a new trainee observing or helping in your class we greatly appreciate you taking the time with them.

Class of 2016