I am a native Californian with maternal grandparents who were Basque immigrants. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County. My mother was one of ten children, my father one of four, and I have one sister and three brothers along with thirty-six first cousins. When I was growing up in southern California, a "family gathering" usually involved around fifty or so people.
I've always loved mathematics. Growing up, solving math problems was like solving a "brain teaser" and the whole family got involved. One of my uncles used to always come to a family event with some math problem. He was a frustrated mathematician who never got to go to college. I was the first in my family to get a college degree. I earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Master of Arts in Mathematics from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. If things had been different for women in those days, I might be a mechanical engineer today (I loved the applied math problems I did while getting my degree). But, as a senior in high school, when I was deciding what to do with my life, my mother's advise was, "the best job for a woman is either nursing or teaching. With teaching, you can have summers off to take care of your family." My sister and I are both teachers today.
I've been teaching since 1970. I taught high-school mathematics for nineteen years and have been teaching full-time here at Cabrillo since 1989. I've taught Arithmetic, Pre-Algebra, Elementary Algebra, Geometry, Intermediate Algebra, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, Pre-Calculus, Advanced Placement Calculus, Calculus, Elementary Statistics, Fortran Programming, Mathematics for General Education, and Number Systems. I truly believe that it is my job to prepare my students to succeed in their future math endeavors, whatever they may be. I take my job seriously and I believe the best way to succeed in math is to attend class regularly and do your homework. You can't learn to play a piano by watching somebody else play, you have to get your hands involved. It's the same with mathematics.
I have been married since 1974 to Terry Fetterman, who I met in 1964 in our high school physics class. Terry is a heart transplant recipient and reached his three-year anniversary on September 2, 2010. After taking the year off for his new heart, he has returned to teaching in the Psychology Department here at Cabrillo College. We have no children but do have two dogs, Cody and Cassie. We live in the Santa Cruz mountains with a great view. We love it and the dogs love it too.
Some of the things I enjoy doing are camping and hiking in the
mountains, especially Sequoia and Glacier National Parks, reading
a good mystery in a comfy chair with a cat on my lap (my dogs are
too big for my lap), baking goodies in the kitchen on a cold,
stormy day with a fire in the fireplace, and sewing while
listening to good music on the stereo.