Three Women and Their Shared Legacy of Service in Campus Event Productions

Patricia Alley, Mary Ellen Kaneshiro, and Rhonda Siefke first met through the elementary school that their children attended, and their friendship has spanned three decades. However, their working relationship did not begin until Kaneshiro first took an interest in getting a part-time job after spending many years raising her children and then her granddaughter.

"When my granddaughter entered the fifth grade, I wanted to get a part-time job and saw this ad in a newspaper looking for people to help at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium," Kaneshiro says. "I thought to myself I'd take a chance, and they hired me. I was working there for quite a while when they started looking for more ushers, so I told my friends to go and apply."

With Kaneshiro's encouragement, Alley, Siefke, and Virginia Pacheco—another occasional usher at Caltech who is now retired—applied and started ushering soon after. Later, Pacheco's daughter, who had a Caltech security job, told the women that Caltech had open roles with similar responsibilities, so the women applied, were hired, and started working in what is now Caltech Event Productions.

Alley, Kaneshiro, and Siefke found it easy to adapt to the new workplace given their experience from staffing events at the Pasadena Civic. Alley likens their ability to work events as going "on autopilot" and remembers how there was always a sense of relief among the organizers at Caltech's Event Productions when they knew the Pasadena Civic cohort were staffing an event.

Over the years, Alley, Kaneshiro, and Siefke say they have staffed many memorable events and witnessed many amazing moments at Beckman Auditorium. One of Alley and Kaneshiro's most memorable events was the end of mission celebration for NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2017.

"We had to go to work at 1 in the morning because the main event was at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning," Kaneshiro says of that day. "The auditorium was packed upstairs and downstairs even though it was so early. It was just amazing to see all that."

Stephen Hawking also made a guest appearance in both Alley and Siefke's Beckman Auditorium anecdotes. "I got to hear Stephen Hawking give a talk several times, and it was very interesting," Siefke says. "You hear about him, but to actually see him in person––it was cool. He's not someone you would see every day."

As they reflected on more than 15 years of being a part of the Caltech campus, the three women noted the ways they've seen the Institute change over time. For Siefke, the most apparent change was physical. "When I first started there, the campus looked a whole lot different," Siefke says. She noted that buildings that were standing in one place disappeared and were replaced by a completely new building in what seemed like a short period of time.

For Alley, the changes she has witnessed were among the community members with whom she interacted through the job. "There were students who worked with us who we watched graduate and move on, and some of them would come back to events with a kid of their own," Alley reflects.

When asked about what has kept them coming back to Caltech over the past 15 years, all three women gave an answer that was a variation of "the people."

"You make connection with your staff," Alley shares. "You become more like family than employee and employer."

On August 22, Event Productions celebrated Alley, Kaneshiro, and Siefke, and their dedicated years of service with a recognition dinner. The event, they say, has provided them an opportunity to reflect on the change and growth they've witnessed in themselves.

"I enjoy connecting with people, but I'm very quiet and shy," Alley says. "Being an usher has brought me out of that. I speak up more."

"I've learned to be more patient," Kaneshiro shares with great laughter, "and I smile more now. In my job, you greet everybody and welcome them as they come in, so it sticks with you."

"I was always very nervous about trying something new," Siefke reflects. "But I didn't want to be left out when I first learned about the ushering job, even though it seemed challenging. If Patty and Mary Ellen are going to do it, I didn't want to hear about it. Just hire me. I'll go over there. It turns out it's not rocket science."