Nicole Pfiester's Update

I won’t be able to make the reunion, but thought I would add my update. Well, 20 years later I am still in a Catholic high school, but it is in the “other” valley. I didn’t start out to be a teacher, but here I am.

I graduated from CSUN in 1991 with a degree in Radio/TV and Film. The senior short film I produced did rather well in film festivals and that afforded me the opportunity to travel Europe when I graduated. We even sold our little film into distribution. For a while there I got steady royalty checks for $5.00 (yep the decimal is in the right place). Then I worked for a low low budget film company as an apprentice editor. Yes if you look closely in the end credits of that critically acclaimed martial arts masterpiece Bloodfist II you will even see my name in the credits. And yes I did meet the film’s star Don “the Dragon” Wilson…who’s name is mentioned in the 80’s classic Say Anything…which means there are two degrees of separation between me and John Cusack.

So what, you ask, lead me to give up the glamorous life of showbiz? Well, it could have been that I would wake up in the middle of the night terrified with memories of the night Anthony Butler broke my skillfully crafted collapsing prop chair in a production of You Can’t Take It with You. (if memory serves it was Bill Horbury who told me that would happen). Or perhaps it could have been that I couldn’t find steady work in the film industry.

At any rate, a M.A. degree in Religious Studies later and I am now the Campus Minister at Bishop Amat High School. I teach Leadership, Media and Morality (aha still put the B.A. to work) and a class on Death and Dying…which isn’t as morbid as it sounds. In summer I teach English. The main part of my job involves directing our retreat program, which I based on Chaminade’s program.

It has been a real boost to see some of you here mention the retreat programs…it gives me hope that I am investing in the future. Of course reading this blog has also scared me into wondering what my students will remember of me in 20 years. I hope at least some of them are fond memories.

I hope everyone has a great time at the reunion.

Nicole Pfiester (nmp1968@aol.com)