Big news. Catherine has expanded the Hiking group to include bike rides! First ride is this Sunday, March 3rd. Click for details.

I wanted to take a few lines to thank Ernesto Gonzalez for supporting the SUWC. Last fall, he helped us explore options for an updated logo. While the Board of Directors opted to stick with tradition, Ernesto generated a great range of logos for SUWC. And he also gave us a fresh look for the Redbook cover art. As such, I wanted to give Ernesto our highest recommendation for graphic design work—so keep him in mind if your organization is in need. Work samples shown here: Project 1, Project 2.

Ernesto’s sister is an administrative associate at the School of Medicine. When she learned about the SUWC pro bono project, she told us about her brother.

About Ernesto…he was born in San Francisco and raised in the East Bay. He currently attends the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he is studying Graphic Design. Ernesto’s love of art started at an early age, around 11. His interest in graphic design blossomed in high school through a class on “Commercial Art” which uses art mainly for advertising purposes. One of Ernesto’s favorite graphic artists is M.C. Escher who is known for his mathematically inspired woodcuts and lithographs. Ernesto likes to incorporate geometry into his art using large, bold typography designs. His interests, apart from art, include sports, running, and exploring new places. He also loves the city of San Francisco. Its urban environment, with its natural beauty and diversity is a huge inspiration to his art. Ernesto will be receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art University in the summer of 2013.

Just a friendly reminder about our annual Wine and Cheese Party, Sunday, January 13th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm at the Harrison’s Home, 817 San Francisco Court on campus. $10 per guest may be paid at the door. Please be sure to sign up with Joy Scott at (650) 857-1834 or joywscott@yahoo.com before January 4th.

The Spanish Conversation Group met in late November at the home of Sherrie Epstein in Menlo Park. Five members came for general conversation. We were fortunate to have a native speaker of Spanish as our guest. Luis (a former Ph.D.in the Geophysics Department) and friend of Diane Claerbout, was happy to hear each of us read in Spanish from some excellent notes, provided by Diane, about meeting and greeting people. Luis spoke in beautiful Spanish about his travels and education in the United States and abroad. We all felt we had gained experience in speaking Spanish in an informal setting and in having Luis help us with good pronunciation. If you’d like to join our group, please contact Diane at (650) 493-1393 or dclaer@hotmail.com!

Barbara Baxter reports that art enthusiasts enjoyed a lecture by potter Judith Kays at the newly renovated Palo Alto Arts Center this month. Join the Visual Arts email list by sending a note to Daniele Archambault at lingua@danielearchambault.com.

Do the kids make you climb the walls sometimes? Well now it’s their turn! SMAK has reserved a private two-hour indoor climbing clinic at the Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation Climbing Wall. Children ages 4 and up are welcome. Contact Audrey Gold (audreygold@gmail.com) for reservations. The cost will be about $20 per child.

Cafe Pro Bono hosted 10 SMAK moms!! Great food and even better company.

Nancy Creger retired as chair of the French Conversation group after over 40 years, at our annual “Déjeuner sous les arbres” this year. Très impressionnant.

Ladies, if getting to the SUWC daytime meetings is tough, we hope you’ll consider joining our new evening book club. Stay tuned for more details. The first meeting will be in January!

A note from your hard-working Program coordinators…