Sharon Forrest Black

Coming from a low income background, when I moved to Santa Maria, I always felt accepted. In high school, one thing that I liked was that everyone went to the same high school. Guadalupe, Orcutt, Las Animas, Sisquoc, Betteravia. Since leaving SMHS, I lived in France, Germany, and Turkey, but love the US.

Mr. LaRue was a teacher that I loved because he alway expected each student to do the best they could in his class. He never made anyone feel like math was impossible. The national merit student had to work for the grade, but he made it so other students--if they worked to their potential--could get a good grade.
Mr. Johnson's Senior English class helped me get though college even though I got a "D" in his class. He had high expectations for his students.
Mr. DeGeus (SP) taught Chemistry and Physics. Bob Domingues and I stole some chemicals from the lab to try and make soap. (We were success ful). But Mr. D was not happy. He was proud that we were so interestsed and didn't report us.