Frank Cruz, 50, Vice President and Operations Manager of Guam Fast Foods Inc., has spent the last 30 years of his life dedicating his services for our island’s community. Cruz has been involved with many non profit-organizations such as Kamalen Karidat and the American Red Cross.

In addition to his affiliations with various organizations, he manages and operates the KFC Guam franchise. He was also part of a public-private sponsorship that came together to build the Guam Basketball Training Center in Tiyan, a facility that will help train current and future athletes alike. The sponsorship was in part of a collaborative effort between the Guam Parks and Recreations and the Guam Basketball Confederation. Other community partners including KFC, Triple J Auto Group, and Pay-less Markets Inc., also helped with the issuance of these tax credits that were approved by the 32^nd Guam Legislature.

Cruz also coaches and manages a youth basketball club called the Central Mavericks on the weekends.

“We have about 250 kids ages six all the way up to 18,” Cruz said. “I kind of give back to the sport that helped me stay out of trouble when I was younger.”

Aside from coaching and training youths in the summer, Cruz also manages and officiates local referees, which is part of an association called the Guam Basketball Confederation.

In the weekends, Cruz enjoys playing golf with friends either at Starts Golf Resort in Yigo, or Windward Hills Country Club in Talofofo.

When being asked how he is able to balance all of the pressure on a day-to-day basis, Cruz added, “Prayer, basketball, golf and family is what you need,” Cruz said. “You definitely need to have some mix in there in order to keep stress down.”

Cruz was born in Pensacola, Florida but he has spent most of his adolescent life growing up in different parts of Japan and the United States. His father was in the Navy.

Towards the end of his father’s retirement, Guam became their final home, where Cruz began to further his career.

At the age of 18, he became an assistant store manager at one of the village locations. A little over a year later, he became a restaurant branch manager or RGM.

Frank Cruz also purchased a portion of stock in the company during the middle stages of his career, which eventually helped promote him to operations manager. Cruz is from the village of Chalan Pago.

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Senior Business Advisor Denise M. Mendiola stated, “Our workshop will be very beneficial for business entrepreneurs and any person(s) in the supervisory or management positions.” Mendiola hopes for a good turnout in order to raise awareness for small businesses and companies. She will be conducting the event.

“This seminar will be the University’s first small-business workshop that may help any participant effectively engage their businesses with the proper tools for success,” according to the University’s Network Program Assistant Nicole Tesiro.

The workshop will focus on the eight key aspects of managing a business. The areas of emphasis include: self-management, risk management, finance management, punctuality, staff, customers, networks and sales, and problem solving.

The workshop will run from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in room 148. For additional questions or concerns about the event, you may contact Nicole Tesiro at (671) 734-2590.

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Roughly 30 people attended the luncheon.

UOG Director of Development & Alumni Affairs Norman Analista explained that, “the main focus to have these monthly assemblies is to not only be more informative, but to also reconnect with former UOG graduates.”

The guest speaker for the event was Maureen N. Maratita, publisher of Glimpses Publications. Maratita is UOG alum who was of the recipients of the UOG Distinguished Alumni Award.

Maratita prepared a presentation titled, “Public Relations Crisis Management and Press Relations,” where she described how the media could have a proactive relationship with the community.

Maratita explained that a phone call, a news article, a commercial advertisement, or even a TV or radio broadcast, could engage the public for open interpretation.

“The community wants to hear about what goes on and the best way to prepare for a crisis is to effectively report accurate information, ” Maratita said.

“Seek Truth and Report it.”

As publisher at Glimpses, Maratita said she has to be ready to handle situations dealing with public relations.

Annette Santos, Ph.D., dean of the School of Business and Publication Administration, also attended the event.

“It’s always wonderful news to see how well everyone is doing and the progression the University has made for the students,” Santos said. She herself is a UOG alum, having graduating in 1985.

The next that luncheon that will take place will be sometime during the end of April, at the Chalotte Ballroom at Lotte Hotel.

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UOG Associate Professor and Director, Michelle Blas, directed the play. Blas emphasized that this particular play recreated and fictionalized the actual Salem witchcraft trials that happened in Massachusetts in 1692 & 63.

“My direction and inspiration for putting together ‘The Crucible’ came from reading Miller’s work,” explained Blas. “My students do such a wonderful job of working as a team to make this production come to life.”

Stage Manager and Theatre major Roki Calvo also added “Student talents make a play that much more enjoyable to watch. It’s their drive as theatre majors that help pave the way for each successful show.”

Trevor Boykin, who was one of the students in the Audience said, “I’ve been watching the plays since last semester and so I was very excited to watch and attend once ‘The Crucible’ was announced.”

“It was truly an amazing experience,” Boykin added.

“Each semester I attempt to produce at least two plays,” added Blas. “It takes hard work, late nights, and a whole lot of dedication; which, is what many of the theatre students already have.”

Arthur Miller was inspired to write “The Crucible” because of his experiences during the McCarthy era – which was a moment in American history when tens of thousands of citizens were wrongly accused of being communists.

Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator at the time, carried out special investigations of suspected Communists, many of whom were accused without proper evidence.

During the 1950’s, people who were believed to have Communists ties were immediately questions and thoroughly investigated by the government and special agencies in order to verify any idealism to overthrow the government, or treason in shorter terms.

Although the budget cut for “The Crucible” was slim to none, the students were able to make the set, props, and costumes with the materials that were used from previous plays.

The next play that the UOG’s theatre program will be exhibiting will be the “Laramie Project” that will take place sometime this month.

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And if you are receiving payments from customers in the UK then you must be PCI-DSS certified so make sure you look into that as well.

  Rommel Hidalgo, the University’s Chief Information Officer and Junior Information Analyst, Eugene Adanzo, have worked in collaboration in order to enhance the UOG online experience.

According to Adanzo, cyber security refers to the “Information Technology Security that focuses on the protection of networks, data, computers, and programs from unauthorized access, or change.”

  Although Hidalgo and Adanzo have been with the University for no more than two years, there have been significant changes to how students access their personal information (account specifics, loan amounts, award notifications, contact numbers, and even grades).

  Fortunately, the University uses some of the best software there is, such as the Ellucian Colleague software. This software is encrypted with the Secure Socket Layer (SSL), which is a type of certificate of authenticity of encryption.

  The padlock icon on the upper left hand corner of the webpage will signify that your information on that page is encrypted.

  Essentially, this SSL certificate is the backbone that protects and privatizes of all students’ accounts and information. Since our campus’s network is SSL certified, you can assure that your student web account is protected.

  However, there are many risks when using your personal credit/debit card, social security, or even your phone number if you ever decide to browse elsewhere.

“There are more than a million attacks every minute that happens in cyberspace,” says Hidalgo.

  Students need to “have the personal responsibility when giving out your personal and valuable information over the web.”

  Adanzo, who has also had some Cisco Systems training, says to “watch for some of the websites that you visit. There are numerous webpage hackers that use a jpeg image of the SSL encryption certificate to fake their authentication.”

  Hidalgo and Adanzo are formulating methods and strategies in order to help raise student awareness, also to help students conveniently access their online web accounts.

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Johnson was featured in 20th Century Fox’s “Hidden Figures,” a film that portrayed the space race that took place in the 1950’s and 60’s.

   Johnson, who was an African American woman, worked with other African American colleagues to derive the essential mathematical computations behind the trajectories of the Friendship 7 Mission and John Glenn’s first orbit around the earth.

Boykin held an early screening of the featured film, donating the proceeds to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) division of the UOG Endowment Foundation as a scholarship for eligible students who maybe interested.

Students who have any type of financial obligation are eligible to receive the award, in addition to the required qualifications. Although the award for the scholarship is awaiting its approval, be on the lookout for an opportunity to apply. The main intention for this scholarship is to assist those students who wish pursue a degree in any field of STEM.

Trevor, who was a young boy at the time, lived a difficult life in Las Vegas with his mother before relocating to Guam in 2001. His father was in the Air Force, who had orders to be stationed at the Anderson Air Force Base in Yigo. Since then, he has been living on island for the most part of his life.

“Guam will always be my home” Trevor explained.

He described his great-grandmother as a “natural born genius.” “It meant a lot having a relative who took part in such history.”  He reiterated that it is a “pure blessing. It makes me want to work and take part in more.”

   “That’s why I want to work out here in the Pacific. The diversity of life is so rich. I wouldn’t want to miss my chance.”

   The Virginia native is now on his second year as biology major at the University of Guam and is hoping to purse his Ph.D. in marine zoology.

   “It will be a dream to do just as much as my great-grandmother did,” explained Boykin. “She was my idol.”

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