I'm Rob Irion, a 1981 VUHS grad in Santa Cruz, CA. Recently, another VUHS grad, Jon Reidel (class of 1986, I believe), asked me to speak to his national college prep organization about my career in science journalism and education. I spent a fair amount of time at the beginning of the talk and during the Q&A to describe the impact VUHS teachers had on my college trajectory to MIT and I went on to become a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and to direct a national science journalism program here.