Kikiwabaman

so if you were from the Fond du lac Band of lake Superior Chippewa Indians you would know what that means...but for those of you who aren't fluent in Chippewa... it is the equivalent of Shalom.

O.k. so I didn't know what it meant either until our most recent Dinner for 12 Strangers. Where one of our guest students Jared Dunlap greeted me with kikiwabaman (spelling does not count) and brought me a bag of wild rice that is grown on his reservation.

If you are looking at Jared and thinking I know him but his name is not Jared... then you are correct and you probably know his twin brother (who is also at UCLA) who's name I did not catch. But just the fact that he is an identical twin gave him and Barry plenty to talk about.

I was very impressed with Jared and expect to hear great things about him in the future he is a wonderful representative of his tribe.

Do you know what D12 is?

o.k. so neither did I until last night.... pretty good since I had been hosting them for the last 9 years...so what is D12 you ask? Why it is UCLA's dinner for 12 strangers. I know by the time they got to our house they were already friendly. But before they got to our house these 10 kids and one professor (she left before the picture) did not know each other and this was an opportunity for them to meet other students and some alumni to see what the adult world had waiting for them .

We had 10 kids ranging from freshman to seniors and all different kinds of majors and one professor. Usually we try to invite a kid or two that we know who are in the college application process however this year all the kids we invited were sick... so it was just the bruins and that was o.k. because as you can see Shomer had a really great time

The program has been going on for 40 years and I can tell you of all the things we do with UCLA and the Alumni Association this has got to be my favorite.