The Weekly Newspaper of Torrance Herald Publications - Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 4, No. 50 - December 11, 2014 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.....................10 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Finance..................................9 Food.......................................5 Legals....................................9 Police Reports.....................3 Politically Speaking............7 Real Estate.........................12 Sports........................... 2,6,12 TerriAnn in Torrance..........8 Weekend Forecast ExxonMobil Awards Classroom Grants for STEM Projects ExxonMobil STEM Awards recipients from Victor Elementary School (from left) Lucy Doty, Principal William Baker, Paula Paulson and Tara Fink share a moment together during the ExxonMobil Torrance Refinery’s Annual ExxonMobil STEM Awards Program on Dec. 4. The Torrance Refinery and the ExxonMobil Foundation began the awards program in 1997 and in 2010 the program was restructured to put a stronger emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. To date ExxonMobil has awarded more than $1.4 million in classroom grants through this program. See story, below. Photo by Tim Long. Interfaith Holiday Ceremony Hosted in Front of City Hall By Cristian Vasquez City leaders, local residents and spiritual leaders gathered outside of Torrance City Hall on Dec. 9 for an interfaith holiday ceremony. The ceremony, which took place prior to that evening’s city council meeting, focused on the meaning of light in the various faiths that have found a home in the City of Torrance. Present at the event were Dr. Rini Ghosh to discuss light in Hindu tradition, Athia Carrim to share knowledge about light in Islamic tradition and Rev. Patricia Weisman to speak about light in Christian tradition. “Every year the city has number of events recognizing different faith traditions. In the past I have been honored to do a candle lighting for the Jewish Festival of Lights Hanukkah (Chanukah),” Rabbi Gary Spero said. “Generally it has been members of my congregation as well as some employees and local residents that have attended. This year, however, is has been thirteen years that I have been involved in doing the candle-lighting ceremony so I though that it would perhaps be even more meaningful to invite clergy from a number of world-faith traditions to speak about the role of light in their faith.” Present at the ceremony were spiritual leaders Local Teachers Receive $100,000 in Grants during ExxonMobil STEM Awards Program By Cristian Vasquez ExxonMobil celebrated the 18th edition of its STEM award program by presenting 39 teachers with grant money for their submitted grant proposals aimed at promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education. ExxonMobil executives, city leaders and district officials and most of the teachers who were recognized by the local refinery attended the award ceremony, which was hosted on Dec. 4 at the Ken Miller Recreation Center. “ExxonMobil as a company, one of its core values is technology: we are a technology company and the key to our success is technology in finding, producing and refining oil and being more creative about how to do that,” ExxonMobil Torrance Refinery Manager Brian Ablett said. “In order to accomplish that we employ the best technologist and engineers so technology, science and engineering is at the core of our business. It is in our DNA.” The recent push to emphasize STEM education in K-12 schools has prompted companies like ExxonMobil to become more engaged in local schools by working with administrators and teachers in order to enhance the learning experience for students. Teachers from the Torrance Unified School District submitted grant proposals to a 20-person, grant-selection committee comprised of employees and community volunteers select the winning proposals. A total of 44 teachers submitted 38 grant proposals. The selected proposals were awarded a grant by ExxonMobil, which is to be used to fund innovative STEM curriculum in the classroom. Teacher Greg Wheeler from North High submitted one of the winning grant See STEM Awards, page 3 and followers from the Hindu, Catholic, Islamic and Christian faiths. “There is such a beautiful meaning of messages in all of the various faiths that we are quite fortunate here in Torrance that we have such a diverse community of faith,” Rabbi Spero said. “It was nice to hear from scholars in Hinduism, scholars in Islam, in Catholicism and my input on Judaism and to see the similarities and differences in our beliefs.” Rabbi Spero is a Torrance resident and was rabbi of Congregation Beth Torah of Torrance for nine years (2003-2012). While in high school Rabbi Spero won the National Bible Contest and was part of the U.S. team in the International Bible Contest, which is hosted in Israel. “We have had other interfaith events in the city and I am always very pleased to participate in those,” Rabbi Spero said. “Torrance Friday Rain 61˚/50˚ Saturday Sunny 61˚/48˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 63˚/51˚ See City Council, page 10
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