Catching (or Keeping?) Up With Kristen (Young) Unten

By: Daniel McArdle-Jaimes

If you remember Kristen (Young) Unten the way I do, she was always smiling, modest, reassuring, athletic and well-rounded. She was naturally good at everything—academics, sports and extra circulars—and recently admitted to me that it required a lot of hard work, practice and focus.

I was reminded of all of these Kristen-like personality traits when she admitted that she enjoyed reading my blogs (thank you, Kristen, for the compliment!). But it was when she specifically admitted that she had been studying my blogs and was preparing for our interview that I remembered another personality trait of Kristen’s—she was always prepared and always 10 steps ahead! As we talked more, I couldn’t help but be reminded about how Kristen made parenthood and holding a fulltime career look easy. Kristen—You did a good job fooling me, if that’s NOT the case. J

Kristen and I have not spoken to each other since her graduation party 15 summers ago. This was the same party the Mrs. Reed and Ms. Cook commented on how my overly gelled hair was a fire hazard as I was standing next to a tiki torch in the backyard. Mrs. Reed said something to the effect of “Wow, I’m surprised your hair hasn’t caught on fire yet with all of that hair product.” Ms. Cook then took a sip from her red solo cup and you could tell she was masking her sly smile.

Anyway, back to Kristen…Kristen and I peered at one another over a FaceTime call, and she immediately and cooly said, “Daniellll….What’s up?” I wish I was a better writer to capture the essence of her greeting—it was happy, but at the same it had an undertone of disbelief that we were actually seeing one another over our iPhones. It was certainly a surreal moment, and one that brought a smile to our faces.

Author’s note: I should also note that Kristen opened by saying that she has been horrible about keeping in contact with her classmates. She was apologetic and sincerely feels bad. I told her not to worry, as we were all guilty of it. I told her that she should look at this as an opportunity to reconnect with everyone. J

While Kristen and I are Facebook friends, I guess I was surprised to see that she looked exactly the same over our video call. She even talked the same, and after talking to her more…really just seemed to be the same…just more grown up (and still 20 steps ahead of the rest of us)!

Thankfully, Kristen has a sense of humor. She reviewed this post before distributing it to you all. In fact, it is difficult to make fun of her, because she’s just so irritatingly prepared for everything, including my interview. I will say this…She was unable to answer my question: so what is your job? She told me, “I need to get back to you on that...It’s complicated.” I couldn’t help but smile.

Please enjoy a summary of the conversation I had with Kristen. It’s written by me, and edited by her (especially the career-oriented section):

1)      Catch Us Up. What have you been up to?

After graduating from Mid-Pacific, I went to school at the University of California Irvine (UCI) to pursue a degree in computer science. I decided to major in computer science because I was relatively good at math, and had an interest in technology. What I will say about majoring in computer science, is that it’s not all computer programming or coding. There are many opportunities in technology, especially for women, as it is a male-dominated industry. To give you an idea, at UCI, the female to male ratio was 1:5 in my class.

Immediately after my college graduation, I had a job lined up with EMC², an international and multi-faceted storage/technology company that owns VMWare and RSA and will be acquired by Dell later this year. I work as an IT consultant on projects to help large companies with storage-related and system-related issues. Currently, my client is Kaiser in Pleasanton, Calif., and I have to travel there once a month.

Kristen has been with EMC² for 10 years now, and gets to work from home. In fact, she FaceTime’d me from her home office where she mostly works.

Kristen is now married to a guy she met from UCI’s Hawaii Club when she was a sophomore. His immediate family is from Torrance, Calif., but his extended family is from Oahu and they try to visit often. Her husband, Richard Unten, works across the hall from her in his own home office. He used to own his business but now works for their kids’ Montessori school (Carter, age 5 and Zoe, age 3) managing the school’s marketing efforts. Before getting married eight years ago, they got a dog and bought their first townhouse. They decided to buy a home in Irvine right before Carter was born because it has a good school district.

Do you see what I mean about how it always felt like Kristen was 10 steps ahead? She had a job immediately after college, got married a couple years later, bought a home and then began having children! I am clearly teasing her, but in all seriousness, I am super happy and proud of for her.

By the way, her husband is a photographer, and the photos of their kids are very well done.

2)      Having lived in the Bay Area, I know that the technology industry is male dominated. If you were talking to a young female about why she should consider going into technology, what would you say to her?

My job now, doesn’t require all of the technical things you learn in college. Getting a computer science degree helps better position you for a career in technology. When I graduated in 2005, my company was actively recruiting college graduates with zero experience. It was my first “real job” out of college, and they flew me to Massachusetts for a 10-week “boot camp” training program. I found out about the opportunity from my former college roommate who went through the same program a year before. The tech industry has been good to me, and I really enjoy what I do.

I have to say that it was a super rewarding and memorable experience to go to that training in Massachusetts (EMC² headquarters). It felt similar to reliving college all over again. Everyone was young and starting a new experience together, but this time we were being paid to be there! In addition, my company has been generous in allowing me to work from home and limiting my work travel so that I can spend more time with my family.

3)       What does alumni relations mean to you? Why is it important?

I credit Mid-Pacific in preparing me for college and getting me into a good university on the mainland. Having lived on Molokai as a teenager, I had to make a decision about leaving Molokai. I decided to go with Mid-Pacific because the education system on Molokai wasn’t as advanced.

At the time, Mid-Pacific had a dormitory, and I wasn’t sure where I was going to live, so that helped in my decision. Ultimately, I am glad I picked Mid-Pacific because the school provided so many opportunities for me ranging from academics to sports to afterschool activities. Mid-Pacific gave me the foundation to be successful in college and in life. In high school, I took several AP/IB classes and was lucky enough to skip some classes as a freshman. Ultimately, I was able to graduate a quarter early to focus on finding a job.

4)      It sounds like you are crediting your success to your teachers. Who was your favorite teacher in high school?

Mrs. Kurashige. I took Japanese with her and also worked closely with her when Kim Hee and Dezarae (Ramos) Miyahira were training for the Japan Bowl. We spent a lot of time together. She and Mrs. Tanaka were coaching the three of us on various Japanese trivia questions. We did really well and went to the state championships placing third. We even had an all-expense paid trip to compete in Washington, D.C. on the national stage which was fun. It is a great memory and accomplishment that I’ll never forget.

I would also have to add Mrs. Reed. She was my English teacher. I enjoyed the books we read in her class. She was just really funny and sarcastic, and somehow managed to always brighten my day.

5)      Which classmate do you most admire and why?

I recently found out that (Dr.) Ken Tsubata not only became a podiatrist but now opened his own practice in Kailua about a year ago performing foot surgeries. I am so proud of him. Do you remember when he used to bend his arm backwards? He was so funny in high school, and I admire how successful he is today to help the community.

6)      What classmate(s) would you like to see most at the reunion?

I was in Hawaii last January to see my family. It was a short trip. Richard, the kids and I try to go back as often as we can so that we can spend time with my 97-year-old grandparents. I was supposed to see Stacie Shimabukuro in January, but it was just really hard to separate from my grandmother. When we visit, we try to maximize our family time...So I’ll say Stacie Shimabukuro and Dezarae (Ramos) Miyahara. They were my closest friends and I really want to spend time with them as a whole. We had a lot of great memories together, and it’s been a long time since we got to see each other.