Nora Trueblood, director of Marketing and Communications for the Allen Lund Company, has been selected as a recipient of the Catholic Charities San Gabriel Region’s 2026 Spirit of Caring Award for her work with Navidad en el Barrio and the Acts of Kindness program at ALC. The Spirit of Caring Award honors individuals and organizations that directly impact people and their communities.

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La Cañada Flintridge native Atziri Fernandez, a graduate of La Cañada High School, received the 2026 Hosokawa Student Journalism Award from Whitman College on Feb. 24.

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This past fall, John Balog of Glendale graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Balog earned a Master of Science in nursing. 

  Balog was one of 453 students to graduate from Marquette last semester. 

  Marquette University is a Catholic, Jesuit university that draws over 8,000 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate and professional students from nearly all states and more than 60 countries. In addition to its nationally recognized academic programs, Marquette is known for its service learning programs and internships as students are challenged to use what they learn to make a difference in the world. Find out more about Marquette at marquette.edu. 

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 Donovan Esquivel of Glendale was named to the Dean’s List for the fall 2025 semester at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Esquivel is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in real estate. 

  To make the Dean’s List, students must have earned at least 12 credits for the fall 2025 semester and have no disqualifying grades. The GPA threshold varies by college – for the College of Education and the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, undergraduate students must have at least a 3.7 to be named to the Dean’s List.  

  The undergraduate GPA requirement is 3.5 for the following colleges: the Diederich College of Communication, the College of Business Administration, the College of Health Sciences, the Opus College of Engineering and the College of Nursing. All other programs have a 3.75 GPA minimum. 

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Lauren Lee of La Cañada Flintridge was recently elected to membership into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society, at University of Southern California.

Lee is among approximately 20,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year. Membership is by invitation only and requires nomination and approval by a chapter. Only the top 10% of seniors and 7.5% of juniors are eligible for membership. Graduate students in the top 10% of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.

Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 under the leadership of undergraduate student Marcus L. Urann who had a desire to create a different kind of honor society: one that recognized excellence in all academic disciplines. Today, the Society has chapters on more than 300 campuses in the United States and its territories. Its mission is to “cultivate a community that celebrates and advances the love of learning.”

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Aniee Sarkissian of Tujunga, who attends the University of North Texas, and Joseph Yoon of Glendale who attends California State University, Los Angeles were recently elected to membership into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines.

They are among approximately 20,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year. Membership is by invitation only and requires nomination and approval by a chapter. Only the top 10% of seniors and 7.5% of juniors are eligible for membership. Graduate students in the top 10% of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.