Julia Maria Smith

After graduation from PHS, attended and graduated from CZC then transferred to Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX. Let me digress here a minute to give a shout out to my Horne Frogs, winners of 2011 Rose Bowl...Go FROGS! It's been a long time coming; small schools do win the big ones sometimes. It's called perseverance. Back to my story...after graduating from TCU, began my professional career in Houston, TX at St. Luke's Hospital/Texas Heart Institute. After 7 eventful years at SLH, was recruited by Abbott Laboratories and relocated to Chicago, IL to work in their Latin America Division as a Technical Marketing Trainer. This new position afforded me extensive travel throughout Latin America and the Caribbean (being bilingual was definitely a "plus" in this regard). Eight years laters had the opportunity to transfer into domestic sales, so once again I relocated to S.E. Missouri then on to Bloomington, IL, before finally returning to Houston 7 years ago. So I've come full circled, so to speak. The extensive work travel have been fun as well as educational. I must say, the education received at PHS laid the ground work that enabled me take advantage of these opportunities. For that I thank all of our hard-working teachers and principals who created an environment for learning.

When talking about school memories, they are so many and so varied there's not enough space to recount them all. But one memory in particular is very instructive of being a student at PHS. Picture this, Mr. Taylor's geography class! Remember how he would have us do those quick "drills" of finding 3-5 disparate locations worldwide in less than 10-15 seconds, then chastise you should you miss any? At the time many of us thought he was "mean", but looking back I think he was doing us a favor by forcing us to concentrate and study hard and to be quick thinkers. Over the years, these events became fond memories, but not only that, they set the stage for me to utilize some of the skills learned in that classroom while pursuing higher education as well as in my professional career. So to Prof. Alfredo Taylor, thank you. Thank you for those drills, thank you for pushing us hard and setting high goals and expectation for us because unbekownst to us you (as well as our other professors) were creating an incubator to mold and guide us, to prepare us for future challenges and opportunities to take advantage of. These experiences are priceless!