List Brings Out a Background Person

Sharon Gomez, 35, says that when she reaches age 70 “I want to be satisfied with my life and know I was successful at something.”

She certainly has a good start.

The national Hispanic Business Magazine recently included her on its list of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States.

“I was surprised and flattered, but I’m not one of those people who like to be out front,” said Gomez, associate director of the National Chicano Council for Higher Education’s Science Fellowship Program at UC Irvine. “I’m more of a background person.”

Her role at the university for the last 10 years has been to influence Latinos and other minorities to pursue doctorate degrees in mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology.

“We have a lot of shining stars in the program,” said Gomez, who says Latinos should work to enhance their self-esteem as well as view education as a top priority.

“It’s a sad situation that they have low esteem since some work very hard and are not treated very well,” she said, complaining that there are too few Latino role models in higher education and especially in the sciences.

She monitors 100 Latino students, half of them women. Gomez believes that women in general have a tougher role because there is a traditional prejudice against them in the hard sciences.

“The students I work with are all top-notch students, and they’re all movers and shakers,” she said.

And so is high-energy Gomez, who also is associate director of the International Chicano Studies Program, is involved in the statewide UC Hispanic Faculty Assn. and the national Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

In addition, she is vice president of La Raza, an association of Latino faculty and staff members at the college.

“I like working and get satisfaction in getting the job done,” she said. “I’m known as someone who looks for perfection. I don’t like shoddy work for myself or other people.”

When she first arrived at UC Irvine she developed her own sort of educational program.

“When I first came here everyone thought I was American Indian,” said Gomez, whose father is Latino and whose mother is a mix of Hawaiian and Chinese. “Upstairs in my parents’ house we would sit at a tea table and downstairs we had sombreros and serapes. It was fun.”

She said it was not unusual for her mother to prepare a five-course Chinese dinner.

“My father spoke Spanish, but I had to take college courses to speak, read and write it correctly,” said Gomez, who lives in a 1907 house in Santa Ana that she restored with her husband, Robert Gomez. He is a career counselor at UC Irvine.

Besides her work and caring for their two young children, Sharon finds time--by getting up at 6 a.m.--to run a couple of miles every other day. “It keeps me energetic and youthful,” she said.

To help a clothing chain celebrate the opening of new stores, E. Lesly Martin, a public relations professional from Laguna Niguel, promoted two eight-hour kissing marathons.

The promotion won her the prestigious Protos Award from the Orange County chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and gave her a lesson since it was her first experience in kissing marathons.

For instance, she found out that kiss marathons are legal, but dance marathons are not.

Then she had to find couples who were going together, engaged or married.

“We didn’t want anyone to think we were encouraging people to randomly pick up a kissing partner just to win the prizes,” she said.

The winning woman got a $1,000 shopping spree and the man got $500 in cash.

“One couple took part just to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary and another couple announced their engagement while taking part in the marathon,” said Martin.

Just as humans, mountain lions suffer from arthritis, and the one at the Santa Ana Zoo recently underwent surgery to correct arthritis in her spinal column. “She’s doing quite well,” said Claudia Collier, zoo director.

She said the 12-year-old animal doesn’t have a name.

“They are wild animals so we don’t name them,” she said. “We don’t want people to think of them as pets. We give them a number.”