Ford Chosen 2009 Cherry Blossom Queen in Japantown, San Francisco
Fords do end up in unusual places, with resumes unlike those of anyone else. Eri Tagaya ‘06 was a Swat linguistics major, a successful pre-med here, and as admired a student by her peers as I have known.
She is truly gifted in languages, speaking five languages like a native– English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Tagalog (the latter two representing her parents’ countries of origin). And if that’s not enough, at Duane Kight’s suggestion, she took on the extremely difficult task of getting my own dismaying attempts at speaking French into passable shape.
Since graduation, with medical school still a possibility, she has done some business things in SF and, I believe, was asked to teach at the prestigious American School in Switzerland next year.
So this is SuperWoman, but even she didn’t expect this to happen.
When I saw her in SF in January, she said she had entered this competition on a lark, and mainly to please some older friends to whom it meant a lot. She knew she had no chance of winning. The competition is quite a big deal in SF.
Well, for the only time I am aware of, Eri was wrong. See below.
Eri Tagaya Crowned 2009 Queen; Sarah Kasuga Named First Princess
-Greg Kannerstein ‘63
