Carmen M. Chavez
Carmen M. Chavez was born and raised in San Diego and attended Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish school from 1st through 9th grade. She is part of the class of 1981. Her older brother Sergio also attended OLSH School as did her young brother Arturo. Having active and nurturing parents who were very involved with the parish, Carmen learned about faith, service and leadership. She was the first altar girl for the Spanish mass, participated in parish’s Mexican folkloric dance troupe, performing right here in Hannon Hall, and part of OLSH’s Camp Fire Girl troop lead by Mrs. Conradt. Additionally, she participated in the numerous musicals directed by Mr. Bob including: A Christmas Carol, Fiddler on the Roof, Music Man and others.
After graduating from OLSH, she attended Marian Catholic High School (now known as Mater Dei). She then went on to graduate from San Diego State University with a B.A. degree in Political Science. While in college she became very involved in campus activities and community service, especially in the area of law.
Following her desire to help her community and those in need of legal assistance, she continued her education and went to law school. She is a 1999 graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. After passing the California Bar Exam, she began working at Casa Cornelia Law Center in 2000. Casa Cornelia is a ministry of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and non-profit law firm providing pro bono legal representation to victims of human and civil rights violations. During her tenure, she has served the community by providing free legal services to indigent victims of abuse and those seeking refuge from persecution in their home countries. She has handled cases before the Executive Office for Immigration Review and has argued successfully before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. During this time, Carmen has given numerous presentations and trainings to colleagues, social workers, community groups, students, parents and clients in San Diego County, including City Heights. In 2004, she became the Associate Director and in charge of all legal programs at Casa Cornelia, including the Asylum, Domestic Violence and Detained Unaccompanied Children’s Programs. In 2007, Carmen became the Executive Director of Casa Cornelia and continues to serve in that role.
Abraham Viet Nguyen
Abraham Viet Nguyen attended Our Lady of Sacred Heart, starting in 3rd grade and attending all the way until graduation from 8th grade in 2005. He attended and in 2013 graduated with a 4.13 GPA and ranked number 10 in his high school graduating class at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), competing against others who had been at UCSD’s Preuss School since 6th grade. Every summer, Anthony attended a summer program: COSMOS, Center for Talented Youths at UC Santa Cruz , Health Information Partners. He also participated in Freedoms Foundation, a program in 11th grade that 24 San Diegans were selected to go to a leadership conference and tour Washington D.C.
In school, Abraham’s extracurricular activities included the National Honor Society, Science Olympiad, Medical Dynamics Club, and Math Club. In NHS he was part of a committee that tutored students online in math and science. As a Science Olympiad student, he studied and competed in local competitions. Abraham also took a few AP classes a year, passing AP European History, AP Chemistry, and AP Government.
During this time, Abraham also volunteered at the OLSH Vietnamese Language Program (Saturday School) and Vietnamese Catechism teaching assistant all four years of high school. He joined the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement in high school too, eventually becoming a leader of a team, performing in a few anniversary fundraising show performances, and coordinating 2-3 camps, and also started to teach the English Kindergarten catechism class.
Because of his involvement in so many extracurricular activities and his strong academic foundation, he won both the Pell Grant and Cal Grant paying off all four years of college.
During his undergraduate years he worked under Dr. Percy Russell at a UCSD laboratory as an intern in the CURE Program. Since then he has worked in multiple labs and attended multiple conferences to present his research.
Abraham continued to teach in the English 8th Grade Catechism, Confirmation, and Vietnamese 4th Grade Catechism on the weekends at OLSH. In the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement, he became a Division Leader for the Companion Group which comprises of high school students, and eventually became Vice President, Academic Coordinator (third in command) of the youth group, where overseeing the curriculum of the entire youth group (of about 250 children) and train upcoming youth leaders. He also started another youth group for all ethnicities last year called the Youth of Prayer, which started out small, but all members of that youth group are now teachers in the English Catechism program and TAs in the confirmation program.
Abraham graduated from UCSD maintaining his GPA at a 3.5 for four years in a row, with a BS in Neuroscience and Physiology. He has since worked with Dr. Judith Varner from the Moore’s Cancer Center and will be a contributing author on two research papers and a first author on another. Abraham also won a grant, which serves as a fund that paid his salary from around March 2014 til July 2015. Recently he received a 5-year Fellowship to study cancer biology at Duke starting in the Fall of 2015.
Carmen M. Chavez was born and raised in San Diego and attended Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish school from 1st through 9th grade. She is part of the class of 1981. Her older brother Sergio also attended OLSH School as did her young brother Arturo. Having active and nurturing parents who were very involved with the parish, Carmen learned about faith, service and leadership. She was the first altar girl for the Spanish mass, participated in parish’s Mexican folkloric dance troupe, performing right here in Hannon Hall, and part of OLSH’s Camp Fire Girl troop lead by Mrs. Conradt. Additionally, she participated in the numerous musicals directed by Mr. Bob including: A Christmas Carol, Fiddler on the Roof, Music Man and others.
After graduating from OLSH, she attended Marian Catholic High School (now known as Mater Dei). She then went on to graduate from San Diego State University with a B.A. degree in Political Science. While in college she became very involved in campus activities and community service, especially in the area of law.
Following her desire to help her community and those in need of legal assistance, she continued her education and went to law school. She is a 1999 graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. After passing the California Bar Exam, she began working at Casa Cornelia Law Center in 2000. Casa Cornelia is a ministry of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and non-profit law firm providing pro bono legal representation to victims of human and civil rights violations. During her tenure, she has served the community by providing free legal services to indigent victims of abuse and those seeking refuge from persecution in their home countries. She has handled cases before the Executive Office for Immigration Review and has argued successfully before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. During this time, Carmen has given numerous presentations and trainings to colleagues, social workers, community groups, students, parents and clients in San Diego County, including City Heights. In 2004, she became the Associate Director and in charge of all legal programs at Casa Cornelia, including the Asylum, Domestic Violence and Detained Unaccompanied Children’s Programs. In 2007, Carmen became the Executive Director of Casa Cornelia and continues to serve in that role.
Abraham Viet Nguyen
Abraham Viet Nguyen attended Our Lady of Sacred Heart, starting in 3rd grade and attending all the way until graduation from 8th grade in 2005. He attended and in 2013 graduated with a 4.13 GPA and ranked number 10 in his high school graduating class at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), competing against others who had been at UCSD’s Preuss School since 6th grade. Every summer, Anthony attended a summer program: COSMOS, Center for Talented Youths at UC Santa Cruz , Health Information Partners. He also participated in Freedoms Foundation, a program in 11th grade that 24 San Diegans were selected to go to a leadership conference and tour Washington D.C.
In school, Abraham’s extracurricular activities included the National Honor Society, Science Olympiad, Medical Dynamics Club, and Math Club. In NHS he was part of a committee that tutored students online in math and science. As a Science Olympiad student, he studied and competed in local competitions. Abraham also took a few AP classes a year, passing AP European History, AP Chemistry, and AP Government.
During this time, Abraham also volunteered at the OLSH Vietnamese Language Program (Saturday School) and Vietnamese Catechism teaching assistant all four years of high school. He joined the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement in high school too, eventually becoming a leader of a team, performing in a few anniversary fundraising show performances, and coordinating 2-3 camps, and also started to teach the English Kindergarten catechism class.
Because of his involvement in so many extracurricular activities and his strong academic foundation, he won both the Pell Grant and Cal Grant paying off all four years of college.
During his undergraduate years he worked under Dr. Percy Russell at a UCSD laboratory as an intern in the CURE Program. Since then he has worked in multiple labs and attended multiple conferences to present his research.
Abraham continued to teach in the English 8th Grade Catechism, Confirmation, and Vietnamese 4th Grade Catechism on the weekends at OLSH. In the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement, he became a Division Leader for the Companion Group which comprises of high school students, and eventually became Vice President, Academic Coordinator (third in command) of the youth group, where overseeing the curriculum of the entire youth group (of about 250 children) and train upcoming youth leaders. He also started another youth group for all ethnicities last year called the Youth of Prayer, which started out small, but all members of that youth group are now teachers in the English Catechism program and TAs in the confirmation program.
Abraham graduated from UCSD maintaining his GPA at a 3.5 for four years in a row, with a BS in Neuroscience and Physiology. He has since worked with Dr. Judith Varner from the Moore’s Cancer Center and will be a contributing author on two research papers and a first author on another. Abraham also won a grant, which serves as a fund that paid his salary from around March 2014 til July 2015. Recently he received a 5-year Fellowship to study cancer biology at Duke starting in the Fall of 2015.
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