The fifth degree

Meet Jessie Garibaldi ’74, M.A. ’77.

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Three generations of Garibaldi women: Jessie '74, M.A. '77, Diane '77, and Katrina '04, J.D. '08 Photo: Charles Barry

Last spring, a column in this magazine about the first family to have three generations of women attend SCU prompted one alumna to drop us a friendly note: to set the record straight, and to share a story about a mother with five children at home who never finished elementary or high school but, thanks to a scholarship and support from a couple Santa Clara faculty in particular—Jo Ann Vasquez and Kenneth E. Blaker in education—she completed two degrees. Meet Jessie Garibaldi ’74, M.A. ’77.

As an older student, Garibaldi says her studies at SCU were no stroll beneath the palms: “A difficult but exciting time” is how she puts it. She was involved with the Chicano movement and served as a community liaison for Project 50, an outreach program for minority students. She also had the distinction of attending Santa Clara at the same time as her daughter Diane Garibaldi, who completed her bachelor’s degree in 1977. (Jessie says she avoided dropping by Diane’s dorm room unannounced. But at commencement, Diane was there in the crowd shouting, “Yeah, Mom!”)

Jessie put her master’s to use in her work at DeAnza College. Diane went on to medical school and now serves as a pediatrician at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. And granddaughter Katrina Garibaldi ’04 just completed her J.D. at SCU this spring. This year she served as a technical editor for the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal.

—JC

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