Drew Rathjen

Drew Rathjen, a senior at Los Altos High School, recently visited Bendigo, Australia, for a two-week student exchange, Los Altos Sister Cities has announced.

Drew, son of Tom and Christy Rathjen, stayed with Wendy and Peter Millar. The Millar’s son, Ben, introduced Drew to Bendigo Senior Secondary School. Coincidently, Peter Millar is a teacher as is Drew’s mother Cristy Dawson, who is vice principal at Los Altos High.

The Millars showed Drew some of the Bendigo area during their one week of vacation time. Drew was pleased to be chosen. He said he always wanted to visit Australia.

Drew is active in sports and student government. Drew’s visit to Bendigo is a program of the Los Altos Sister Cities program that facilitates a 2-3 week exchange between the sister cities.

Los Altos Sister Cities is looking for one or two students to go to Rustington, England in early fall.

The exchanges are planned so the students can have one week of school and one week of vacation to see the area.

Students from Rustington visited Los Altos a year ago and a student from Bendigo was here last year.

Anyone interested in this program can call Lee Lynch at 961-0394.

Robert N. Anderson has been awarded the engineering sciences section’s “Founder’s Award” by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences at its 57th annual scientific meeting held in February in New Orleans, La.

Anderson is president of RNA Consulting, Inc., located in Los Altos Hills, where he also resides.

The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation recently announced that Sujata Ganpule has been awarded a teaching fellowship. The fellowship begins June 1.

The daughter of Dilip and Lekha Ganpule of Los Altos, Ganpule graduated from Homestead High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Cornell University in 2003 and is pursuing her master’s in education at the University of California, Berkeley.