Dana Hughes ’75

Dana Hughes is from an “old-time Oakland” family and four of her five siblings also attended Tech. Hughes was in student government, principally as Tech’s representative to the All City Council. She remembers meeting Superintendent Marcus Foster with other Tech student leaders shortly before he was assassinated by the SLA.

Of her Tech years, Hughes said, “Mary Smith, my geometry teacher, influenced and continues to influence me. One of her many legacies is the large number of students whom she encouraged to enter engineering and science, particularly students of color. Personally, she gave even me the confidence that I could do geometry! Ms. Evans, one of my gym teachers, was a strong female leader at a time when women were still expected to be seen but not heard– she encouraged all of us girls to find our voice and use it. I have clear memories of the friends I had at Tech and count them among my closest friends today. I think it was Tech’s social and political environment that I participated in through student government that I can more closely trace to my post-high school life.”