Friends of Mandarin Scholars (FMS) is hosting our 3rd Annual Lunar New Year Gala on Saturday, February 21st, 2015 at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Foster City, CA from 6-11pm.

If you were among the 270  attendees last year (see our video below!), you know what a great time it was.  Well, we’re building on that success and expect that this year’s Gala will be bigger and better than before, allowing us to surpass the $32k raised last year! 

We’re excited to announce our guests this year:

Janelle Wang

janelleheadJanelle will be our Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening.  We’re excited to have her!

Janelle Wang is the 5pm anchor at NBC Bay Area News.  She also covers international news at 6pm.  Janelle’s award winning-journalism career has taken her up and down the West Coast.

Prior to joining NBC Bay Area, Janelle spent more than 8 years at KGO-TV ABC7 in San Francisco.  While there, she reported on stories ranging from the deadly San Bruno gas fire to the steroid scandal in professional sports.  She also covered the Scott Peterson murder trial where people as far away as South America and Europe read her daily trial notes from inside the courtroom.  During Janelle’s time at KGO-TV, she also hosted the afternoon talk show “The View from the Bay” for its entire 4 year run. Guests included Presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey.  Janelle’s popularity and viewer appeal on that show landed her a guest co-hosting spot with Regis Philbin on “Live with Regis and Kelly.” In her spare time, you can find Janelle watching the San Francisco Giants and 49ers.  She also spends her time promoting cancer awareness and encouraging people to join the National Marrow Donor Registry.

 

Martin Yan

image010-150x190The celebrated host of over 3,500 cooking shows, broadcast worldwide, Martin Yan enjoys distinction as a certified Master Chef, a highly respected food consultant, a cooking instructor and a prolific author.  Chef Yan brings  Chinese culinary tradition and culture to light via an authentic, modern dining experience with his new restaurants, M.Y. China and M.Y. Noodles, in the San Francisco bay area.

Chef Yan will treat us to a demonstration of his talents, showcasing why he’s remained a popular TV host and restaurateur for years!

Crystal Lee

image003-150x190

Crystal Lee attended Stanford University and was also Miss California 2013, placing 1st Runner-Up in the 2014 Miss America Pageant.  Bilingual in Mandarin, Crystal has since joined the workforce and is now at Google on the Google for Work market development team.

 

Elizabeth Weise

image007-150x190Elizabeth Weise [it rhymes with “geese”] is the author of “A Parent’s Guide to Mandarin Immersion”.  A mother of two daughters who attend Mandarin immersion schools in San Francisco, she is a founding member of the Mandarin Immersion Parents Council and helped create the non-profit it became, the Jinshan Mandarin Education Council (金山中文教育协会).  In her day job, she covers technology and Silicon Valley for USA TODAY, based at the paper’s San Francisco bureau.

 

We look forward to seeing you there!  Tickets can be purchased online or if you prefer, we will be on campus Wednesday morning, Jan. 21st, in the lunch court where tickets can be purchased in person.

Regards,

Vita M. Blake

FMS Community Relations, Event Co-Chair

Friends of Mandarin Scholars Lunar New Year Gala

Comments are closed.