AN AMAZING SUCCESS STORY

Whitney High School Alumni and one of my former art students,

Julie Su,

was recently sworn in as our United States Deputy Secretary of Labor.

I was trying to remember which class of graduates she was a part of 

so I did a bit of math.

  I'm guessing it was the Class of 1987.

I,

 and the rest of the Whitney High Community are bursting with pride!

She has always been the companion of the underdog 

and fights hard to bring in better working conditions here in America.

 Su was born in Wisconsin as a second generation immigrant. Her mother came to the United States on a cargo ship from China; her father is from Taiwan.^[8][9] She graduated from Gretchen Whitney High School in Cerritos, CA. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.^[10]

Su started her legal career at the Asian-Pacific American Legal Center. She was a Litigation Director for Advancing Justice L.A., a non-profit civil rights organization.

Su was the lead attorney for the El Monte Thai Garment Slavery Case.^[11] As the lead for civil case brought by the El Monte garment workers, Su successfully pursued a legal theory that held manufacturers responsible for the wage theft, as well as the operators who actually kept the garment workers captive. She and other activists also petitioned for the workers to be able to stay in the United States under a visa program for those who cooperate with the government in criminal trials. This led to the creation of the T-Visa for victims of human trafficking.^[12]

During Jerry Brown's tenure as governor, Su headed California's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE).^[5] Under Governor Gavin Newsom, Su served as Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.^[4]

As my husband says "She knows some big players".

Pretty darn cool I say.

Here are Julie and her daughter's,

 AnLing and LiMei, 

getting their selfie taken with Joe and Kamala.

How about those apples??

LiMei was also a very talented art student of mine a few years back.

One of the perks of teaching at the same school for 39 years,

you get to teach the parent and their children.

Love that!!!!

You can read more about Julie here on Wikipedia.