Huge Thanks to Parents who help SFUSD Schools

PTA Honorary Service Award Winners

•••••••••• March 9, 2023 ••••••••••

Throughout San Francisco, parents devote substantial time and expertise helping to improve our schools. Without any expectation of financial reward or fanfare, they volunteer because they care about our children and our communities.

Parents help in many ways–from supporting children at home to volunteering in their school and school district.

Research shows clearly that family engagement works:

“Better homework completion, attention during instructional tasks, and class participation rates.
Students are more likely to have higher grades and test scores, attend school regularly, have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school.
Volunteer activities or Parent-Teacher Association involvement have been shown to have a positive effect on student outcomes.
Connections between school performance and their long-term goals are correlated with higher achievement levels for these students in secondary school.”

The PTA Honorary Service Award

The Honorary Service award recognizes people for outstanding service to children and youth who go above and beyond what is asked of them. Congratulations to the folks below who received the 2023 honorary service award from the San Francisco Second District PTA.

Award Winning Parents and Nomination Statements
Ruby Turalba	Ruby Turalba, PTA President at Bessie Carmichael. Ruby encourages all families, no matter their background, to share their voice and provides space and opportunity for them to do so.
Cathy Tran	Cathy Tran, DEI Committee Founder and Auction Chair at Claire Lilienthal. She has tireless energy, is always focused on inclusion, is trustworthy to all and has a spirit of joy and community in everything she does.
Catherine Homesy	Catherine Homesy, Vice-President of Fundraising at James Denman Middle School. Catherine’s positive outlook, energy, and enthusiasm keeps many families engaged.
Esther Gilland	Esther Gilland, President at ER Taylor. Esther has a great relationship with the staff and connects so easily with our parents. She loves to engage our school kids with PTA activities.
Dung Tran	Dung Tran, Executive Vice President at Galileo High School. Mr Dung Tran has created and maintained a wonderful website for Galileo PTSA. He is enthusiastic, energetic, and generous with great passion, serving on the executive board for many years.
Jenny Qiao	Jenny Qiao, Treasurer of the Galileo PTSA. She is patient, enthusiastic and careful – with great passion and said that her extraordinary work definitely deserves an award.
Linda Tsang	Linda Tsang, Treasurer for Grattan Elementary School. Linda leads with a smile, compassion, and the organization skills that would make even Marie Kondo jealous
Ibone Santiago, School	Ibone Santiago, Vice-President of Volunteers at Grattan Elementary School. Ibone brings her passion, positive energy, eye for design, and wonderful sense of humor to everything she does.
Janet Yieh, George	Janet Yieh, Communications Chair at George Washington High School PTSA, and Communications Co-Chair at Presidio Middle School. With her keen eye on communications at Presidio, Ruth Asawa SOTA, and Washington she has impacted hundreds, if not thousands of students, families, and staff. She was the driving force in creating connection and community.
Tiffany Abuan	Tiffany Abuan, former President and current Advisor to the Lowell High School PTSA. Tiffany never tires of advocating for the community and jumping in to lead and help. Her dedication & drive for results is relentless and awe inspiring…She makes the impossible possible.”
Amiya Stroumza	Amiya Stroumza (student), Vice-President of Grants in the Lowell PTSA. Amiya has played a vital role with the Lowell PTSA for 3 years. Her institutional knowledge and commitment to supporting the Lowell Community and beyond is inspiring.
Ana Garcia	Ana Garcia, Secretary of the Paul Revere Elementary School PTA. Ana is always present, handing out invitations to attend PTA meetings, raising funds for the PTA, selling t-shirts, and supporting the PTA efforts on monthly staff appreciations.
Burcu Hasdemir	Burcu Hasdemir, secretary of the Presidio Middle School PTSA. Burcu, who is currently serving her second term as Secretary, is the “glue” of the PTSA board. She’s passionate about public school education and is a joy to collaborate with.
Liz Jaroslow	Liz Jaroslow, Volunteer Coordinator and VP of Fundraising at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. An amazing example of quiet service, Liz is the parent that finds out how many kids can't afford yearbooks, and then makes sure that we have enough yearbooks so that every student gets one. Liz truly makes Ruth Asawa School of the Arts a better place for everyone.
Shamma Din	Shamma Din, Vice-President of Membership at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. Shamma has been instrumental in organizing many community events, particularly a Native American summit that was pioneered at RA-SOTA and then taken district-wide. She brings kindness and humanity to the school and SFUSD.
Amalia Gonzalez	Amalia Gonzalez, Garden Committee Leader at Sunnyside Elementary School. Amalia has taken her passion for gardening and used it to work with Sunnyside Elementary's want for an educational, relaxing, and fun lunchtime recess enrichment.
Irene Fung	Irene Fung, member of the Sutro Elementary PTA. Irene quietly does so much essential work for the school and students, including putting together and ordering the entire yearbook, as well as coordinating the details of bringing many after school programs to their school.
Anna Chan	Anna Chan, teacher at Visitacion Valley Elementary School. Ms Anna has devoted herself to maintaining and promoting the PTA throughout the pandemic. She has helped to keep the Visitacion Valley PTA alive and growing through these tough times.
Kristin Smith	Kristin Smith, Literacy Specialist at Visitacion Valley Elementary School. Kristin has helped the PTA facilitate meetings and kindly shares office space, too. Her dedication to helping the PTA during these Covid times deserves recognition and praise.
Cindy Viola	Cindy Viola, president of the Wallenberg High School PTSA. Holding down the fort through last year’s pandemic and stepping up to be president this year, Cindy is gracious, welcoming, level and just genuinely friendly, a trait that can never be underestimated!
Julie Yee	Julie Yee, secretary of the Wallenberg PTSA. Julie is, hands down, one of the most helpful PTSA members – always pitching in and inspiringly effective. We appreciate Julie’s pragmatic and practical sensibilities, mixed with a great sense of humor.
Lisa Abrons	Lisa Abrons, teacher representative on the Wallenberg PTSA board. Ms. Abrons was nominated for faithfully attending as the voice of the staff and educators at Wallenberg. Your help and the consistency of our staff being there is a commitment that shows up strong in the Wallenberg community.
Melissa Mountain	Melissa Mountain, the Second District PTA President. She is a patient, dedicated leader who is great at seeing the best in others and helping with any task - big or small. She is inclusive, humble, and hard-working. She helps us build better systems to support all of you and works hard to build trusting relationships with everyone she encounters.