1. To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter on behalf of Catrina Gotuaco, former counseling intern
at Harvest Park Middle School in Pleasanton, California. It was a pleasure to work
with Catrina while she was enrolled in the counseling program at Cal State East Bay.
While she was at our school, I witnessed her actively engaging with many individual
students, small groups, and conducting classroom presentations in multiple classes.
Catrina was an asset to our school in many ways; however I most directly
experienced her talents and dedication to students in my 8th grade AVID program,
an elective class that focuses on college readiness. Catrina volunteered to create and
present a lesson to my students on goal setting. In addition to her professionalism, I
was impressed with the immediate rapport she developed with the students. Her
enthusiastic and positive approach was disarming and created a classroom
environment in which my students felt safe asking questions and offering opinions.
She had all of the students engaged in self-reflection, small group activities, and
class discussions. In fact, I have incorporated several components of her lesson into
my weekly curriculum this school year.
Catrina also coordinated two career days in which she arranged for several
professionals from our local area to come into the classroom and speak to my
students. Her panel selection was based on the student’s potential career interests.
In order to facilitate the student’s engagement and interactions with the speakers
throughout the day, Catrina provided the students with a list of insightful questions
from which they could select and ask the speakers. This was followed up with a brief
survey Catrina created to gather feedback from both the students and speakers. Not
only was this a valuable experience for the students that they talked about for
months, but she also passed on the speaker’s contacts and her project materials so
that the career event could be replicated for future classes.
I was sad to see Catrina go, but was confident that she would readily find
employment, given her experience and drive. I know that she would be a great asset
to any school and community. I hope that she chooses to apply to Pleasanton
Unified, as I would love to have a chance to work with her again.
Respectfully,
Rene Christensen
Harvest Park Middle School
Science & AVID Teacher