FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 06/03/97
Contact: Carol Selkin,
Director, Public Information
(323) 343-3050
"Lost Alumna Finds Cal State L.A."
Los Angeles, CA -- June 3, 1997 -- At the same time Cal State L.A.'s Alumni and Public Affairs Offices were searching for "original" alumni, Maria Montoya Cook was coming to the realization that it must be close to the 50th anniversary of her graduating class--the class of '48.
Even the best Web search engines can't help if someone's name has changed. So the "sleuths" at Cal State L.A. were despairing of finding the only woman from the first graduating class when Maria--who hasn't been Maria Montoya since 1951, when she married Robert W. Cook--decided to call Cal State L.A., to the staff members' great surprise and delight.
An extraordinarily young high school graduate, Maria began her path to higher education at Mount Saint Mary's College in Los Angeles at the age of 16. She was pursuing a triple major of Music, English and Social Studies in 1946, when an illness forced her to put her education on hold for part of a year. Later that summer, she says, "I was excited to see an article in the old L.A. Herald that this new school--L.A. State--was being organized and was offering education classes. I thought--this is my chance to go back to school!"
The L.A. City College campus, on which the new four-year college was starting, was conveniently close to home. Maria went to the campus to investigate, and met Marie Martin, registrar of the new college and the woman who was to be a mentor and friend throughout her time as an L.A. State student.
"They were interested in enrolling eligible students, and I was definitely eligible, since I was transferring with over 90 units.
"There were only about 100 students enrolled then," Maria recollects, "and most of us were education majors," says Maria. At the end of the year, and proud of its accomplishments, L.A. State wanted to show the world it was "official." It sought out its students who had completed the required units for graduation--"I had about 190 units. At any rate, I knew I had completed 120 units, which was all that was necessary for graduation then [on the semester system]. But I hadn't declared a major. Mrs. Martin spent hours researching what other colleges in the area offered, then discovered I was eligible as a Liberal Studies major, with concentrations in English, Music and Philosophy. I also had a Social Studies minor."
Maria stayed on at L.A. State, taking the requirements for teacher certification. She did her student teaching during Los Angeles Unified School District's summer session, and was teaching by the fall of 1949 at Glen Martin School in the Enterprise School District.
Maria began teaching bilingual kindergarten and first grade "before there were any bilingual programs offered," she laughs. After taking some time out to raise two sons and a daughter during the '70s, Maria went back to school at Cal State Fullerton for further certification in bilingual teaching. It was as a "bilingual, bicultural specialist" that she retired last year from the Santa Ana school district after a lifetime of teaching. She now resides in the city of Fountain Valley.
At Cal State L.A.'s 50th Commencement exercises on June 14, Maria and classmate Raynolds "Ray" Johnson, '48, will have their "class reunion" as they march in academic regalia in the official procession to the stately Pomp and Circumstance. They are as spirited, outstanding and singular now as they were fifty years ago, when they represented the first graduating class of what has now become California State University, Los Angeles.