you know how i talk about finding or creating my own sense of 'family' with students and mentees here at ATDP? well, this summer, it has been quite literal, on one count. last spring, when i was still in Maui, i got an e-mail from one of my colleagues here who said they had received an application from one Aaron Nebres of John O'Connell High School in San Francisco. at that time, i thought "oh cool..." but somehow this fact slipped my mind as the time drew near for me to return to the Bay Area, and then when i was back again in the tumult and hubbub of Berkeley, preparing for the summer session and reveling in the wonderful cultural life here -- not that there's none in Maui, but it's quite different in Cali, of course -- i had simply forgotten about my putative relative. (and no, Angel, Jorge, Giancarlo and all you other Spanish speakers out there, putative isn't a bad word. haha.)

so anyway, the SFUSD Orientation night at Thurgood Marshall HS came, in late May, and i finally got to meet Aaron there. turns out he and a couple of his schoolmates had a few probs with the ATDP class and Study Lab they were assigned, but i fixed it on the spot sin problema, earning what seemed to be incipient admiration. ;-) too bad Aaron wasn't in either of my Internet Classrooms, though, as he struck me as an articulate, thoughtful kid, whom i would have enjoyed having in my lab.

as things happened, i didn't get to see Aaron again until the very last week of the program. he was working hard on his Writing for College course, and so was i in my IC courses. but it wasn't too late, by any means. we sorta ran into each other outside of my office one day, got to chatting again, and i invited him to come hang out in my class, which he did a couple of times. and we started talking too, on AIM. which is how we found out, definitively, that our dads do hail from the very same province and town in the Philippines, so we're most definitely related. not too many Nebreses around, in the Philippines. (a 'Nebres' there ain't like a 'Smith' over here.) in any case, the photo above is a clincher, isn't it? (click on it to see the larger version.) definitely a family resemblance there, and my bro in Castro Valley agrees.

{ net.casting }
^