December 2013 Advocate – New Part-Timer Reps


Introducing Skyline’s new AFT 1493 Part-Timer Reps:
Paul Rueckhaus and Janice Sapigao

Ed. Note: Two new Part-timer Reps. from Skyline College–Paul Rueckhaus and Janice Sapigao–have joined AFT Local 1493’s Executive Committee this semester, so we asked them to introduce themselves.

Paul Rueckhaus

Greetings colleagues! I am thrilled to introduce myself as an adjunct faculty representative for Skyline College in Local 1493! I have been teaching at Skyline since 2011. Like many of my fellow adjuncts I am a freeway flyer–not only between prueckhaus-webcampuses, but between disciplines. I teach in the Health Science & ESOL Departments at Skyline and the English and (occasionally) Health Education Departments at San Francisco State.

    My graduate training is in both public health and English composition. Prior to teaching, I’ve worked in a range of jobs from healthcare program planner to HIV/STD prevention counselor, to clinical research assistant to phlebotomist & phlebotomy trainer to preschool teacher to daytime bartender/night club coat checker at large, and more!

    Above all of these, teaching has been the most thrilling, pleasurable and possibly most challenging job I’ve had yet. I absolutely love the community of students, staff & teachers that I have been privileged to work with here at Skyline. I am truly honored to not only be a part of a faculty as passionate, innovative and accomplished as Skyline’s, but to represent you all in our chapter of the American Federation of Teachers!

Janice Sapigao

Hello, everyone! I am happy to be a part of AFT 1493 as the adjunct faculty representative and I can’t wait to meet everyone in person.
janice-sapigao    Fall 2013 marks my first semester as an adjunct instructor at both Skyline College and San Jose City College. In addition to being a teacher, I am a writer, poet, and community organizer. I am originally from San Jose, CA, but I come to you by way of Los Angeles, CA where I lived for two years, earned my MFA in Critical Studies/Writing from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), organized with a Filipina/o American community group called Kabataang maka-Bayan (KmB Pro-People Youth) and co-founded a Historic Filipinotown open mic series called the Sunday Jump. I was also an undergraduate student-organizer at UC San Diego, where I worked with the campus community centers (LGBT Resource Center, Women’s Center and Cross-Cultural Center).

    I have also worked in educational, literary arts and publishing non-profit settings for the past four years – my passions of teaching, working with students and writing have always been at the center of my work. In addition to changing the world one word at a time, I enjoy running, drinking tea, and collecting big earrings.