Suzan Hawbaker:
CLASS OF 1977
Clayton Valley High SchoolClass of 1977
Concord, CA
Suzan's Story
I left school a little known geek and after much effort became a bigger geek. I started with getting married at 20 and having kids immediately. I then went back to school to study electronics. I got a job and moved to Ohio for a year. After I moved back to CA I ended up in Sacramento with 2 kids and a husband.
After way too much drama I am now divorced and a grandmother of 4 with a small house and 2 cats. By day I am a data analyst at Intel, I went back to school in 1999 and got my degree in Marketing and Business in 2003, and at night I write for fun, play heavily in Toastmasters, and teach adults various subjects. I did take a break in the middle to get my 2nd degree blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do and spent a few years as an instructor.
I am starting a new business related to training adults and spend lots of time in Toastmasters preparing. I recently started a new club in Sacramento focused on Professional Speaking and have given many lectures at conferences and at various schools and training venues.
While working at Intel during the day I also teach some core classes around Data Quality, Data Modeling, and Business skills. For my day job I am a Data Analyst focused on Data Quality and reporting systems. I work closely with project teams and help design the data structures needed to support their reporting and any applications using the data they create. I create data models and help determine the best way they can meet their needs.
While I know most of the class will not remember me I plan to make a difference before I leave this planet. I wanted to be a writer when I was young. My family and freinds did not see the fun so I gave it up to have kids. I have recently taken that up again. I should not have listened. You will not recognize the name as I write under a pen name but I hope you will enjoy my books.
I feel like I am back on track and still growing up. I am not listening to the negative voices and opinions and am instead doing exactly what I wish. Looking back I made a lot of choices that have shaped my life. I do not regret most of them but could sure have done with a little less drama in the middle. We could have skipped getting my car stolen, skipped the fire that took most of my personal posessions, left out the lay-off and return from Ohio. Matter of fact we could have skipped Ohio all together.
I did have some interesting careers. While in school I had been a day care provider and had worked in a green house creating designer plant gifts. After graduation I added Restaurant work as a bre...Expand for more
akfast cook, line cook, deli cook, sauce chef and pastry maker. Once I left that career path I took a job as a mall walker where I surveyed people on various topics. I used my electronics degree and assembled kidney machines, worked in a warehouse shipping orders of posters to stores, did shipping and receiving in a manuafacturing facility, customer service manager at 3 companies and ultimately ended up in a start up company that made computer chips. We were acquired by Intel and I have been there ever since.
I loved learning how chips are made and while I acted as Test Floor manager and subcon manager I also managed process improvement projects and managed a team of 28 who worked the test floor, inventory control and shipping. I moved into planning and took on supplier manager and was responsible for scheduling work on 5 test floors in 3 countries as well as worked in Singapore and Taiwan to set up drop ship warehouses at supplier sites. Great fun and lots of travel during that time. I then moved into Project management and ultimately into data quality.
While my personal life was full of drama I will not go into, I did get 2 great kids and 4 of the world's best grandkids out of the deal so it was all worth it. My oldest daughter lives nearby and has 4 kids. My grand kids range from 2 1/2 to 10 years old and they are great fun to be with. 3 boys and 1 girl. My youngest daughter lives in Colorado and is still working on kids. Maybe next year I can update again...
Unrelated to the marital drama I have survived Cancer, 2 kinds (Breast and Skin), a Gall Bladder removal the hard way, 2 Knee surgeries, 1 Foot surgery and 2 Hand surgeries. I have suffered severe Pneumonia and several other fun illnesses. I feel like I should be renegotiating the health side but you get what you get. The good news is I still have my Appendix... I went thru a period last year when I was losing the ability to walk but that has been resolved by latest surgery and I am now walking strong.
I have learned not to let the bad times win. I still have both parents and all of my siblings. We are all happily divorced except for the parents. They are still happily married after 54 years. I believe that if I keep a positive attitude and hold strong I will be successful in life.
In 10 years I hope to be well known for my speaking and training. I am actively working out the details and I am working with a great group of people with similar goals. I look forward to connecting with more people from my past and would love to hear from all of you.
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