Ellen Rissman-Wong:  

I spent most of my childhood in a house in the Sungold area of Whittier, but my family moved to an apartment in the south of Whittier when I was sixteen. I spent my freshman and sophomore years at La Serna High, from which my three older siblings all graduated, but went to Monte Vista High for my junior and senior years, graduating in 1975. The summer after graduating high school, I worked as a cook on a cattle ranch about 40 miles northeast of Elko, Nevada. That fall I started at Scripps College in Claremont, California. The first semester of my junior year, I studied in London, England. In May of 1979, I graduated from Scripps College with a B.A. in British/American Literature, and a minor in Humanities. My wedding was held in June of 1979, and we've been married 30+ years, now. My husband, Shing, is ethnically Chinese, but he was born and raised in Calcutta, India. We're quite a multi-cultural family! We have two daughters, both now in college: one at Caltech in Pasadena, and one at my alma mater, Scripps. My husband has worked in commercial refrigeration sales for all our married life. I worked for almost a decade in various capacities at a couple of non-profit organizations, but became a stay-at-home mom after my first daughter was born. She is a special-needs child, and was a tough one to raise. We didn't know exactly what we were dealing with when she was younger, but she has now been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. She is high functioning, but needs regular monitoring because she struggles with executive function, social anxiety, and clinical depression, among other things. I have held a few part-time jobs here and there over the years--substitute teacher in our public school district, back office in a local retail store--but mostly have kept busy chauffeuring my girls to their many commitments and activities, and volunteering at their schools, at church, and with 4-H. Now that my...Expand for more