Fall — 2004

Sara Blecker

SMC Student 1957

“I was there for 2-1/2 years, and it was so much fun! And now, with that beautiful new pool? I’m at SMC every Sunday for my aquatic fitness class.”

There’s a song you doubtless have never heard, even though it made its debut in the late ’50s. It had to do with school spirit, victory, and common goals. It’s the Corsair Fight Song, and Sara Blecker wrote it. “I was a member of the Coronettes—the drill team—and it was just a wonderful atmosphere at SMC during that time. The football games were very exciting, and we really had a lot of people coming to them.” But there wasn’t a fight song. “So what happened was, the College had a contest to come up with one, and I was in bed one night, thinking about it. Then I’d jump up, write down a line, go back to bed, and then jump up and write another.” The result of Sara’s efforts is the first—and possibly last—SMC competitive anthem.

It was because of hardship that Sara found her way to SMC. “When my dad died, my mother told me, ‘Maybe you should go to a city college instead of a university,’ ” she recalls. “I was a little disappointed at first. But after I graduated from SMC, I went to work for Douglas Aircraft.” And a career and a life just took flight from there.

“My boss there told me, ‘You really should get some more schooling so you can advance.’ So I took him up on that,” she recalls. “And this was a time when there weren’t a lot of female managers.” But by dint of determination, innate intelligence, and love for the educational process, Sara was rewarded with promotion atop promotion in management. “And then I volunteered for what was called the Youth Motivation Task Force, where we’d go out to junior high schools and talk to the kids, telling them: ‘Don’t drop out! Stay in school!’ Eventually, I became the chairperson for over 70 companies determined to deliver this message. And they all backed it up with funding.” Sara advises today’s students to take to heart what she learned in the ’50s. “Get involved! Be enthusiastic about school, a swim team, music; it makes your life so much fuller when you’re learning with—and from—other people.”

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