Scene Spotlight

By Compiled by Jane Muhlstein

Adrian Perez

? Class of '04

? Economics

The idea for Pad Holsters began as a joke between friends. When juniors Adrian Perez and Barrett Anderson were talking about buying the new Nintendo Gameboy Advance, they both mentioned their wish that there be a leather case on the market for the gaming devices.

"We were kind of joking about the idea, and then we said, 'Wait, we could really do this,'" said Perez. The two have since started an online company, Pad Holsters, which markets leather holders for gaming devices.

For Perez, this is the first of many business ventures he plans to initiate. "I like making things that go on shelves, anything you can get your hands on," he said. "I want to start my own businesses."

The attraction for Perez is having control over his own operation. "I like working on it all the aspects of production. If we didn't have control over that, there are a lot of things that could go wrong," he said. With Pad Holsters, Perez and Anderson call all the shots.

They also do all the work. After they designed the Pad Holsters, Perez and Anderson found a company in Campbell that was able to produce them. The two students have been solely responsible for design, marketing, sales and shipping. "We usually get together twice or three times a week to work on it, and sometimes our weekends are pretty much devoted to it," said Perez of the company.

The holsters are sold on a Web site designed by Perez and Anderson, padholsters.com, and have had several sales so far. These sales will hopefully lead to major marketing opportunities. Perez and Anderson are in the process of setting up sales of their products on large Web sites like Amazon and Ebay. They also hope to eventually be able to sell the products on shelves at electronics stores like Fry's.

"We saw that there was a gap and we saw that we could fill it," he said.

Quinn Shean

? Class of '03

? History/Political Science

Quinn Shean will not take credit for her successes in recent history competitions. Involved in Phi Alpha Theta, the history department's honor society, the senior placed first in Santa Clara's history essay competition on April 7 and went on to earn second place in the regional competition at San Jose State University on April 12.

Shean wrote her paper about an Irish boxer who lived during the nineteenth century. John L. Sullivan was the first American sports celebrity. The paper, titled "The Fighting Irishman - Hero or Who Again?: Irish-American Response to John L. Sullivan 1882 to1892," addresses public opinion about Sullivan.

"Some people thought he was just this drunken Irishman while other people saw him as this great inspiration," said Shean.

She got the idea for the paper while taking historical writing, a required class for history majors. Shean spent the entire quarter researching the topic, writing the paper, and revising it. "Papers that come out of that class usually do well in competitions like these," said Shean. "You come out with this unique work that is not on anything that's been written about before."

Shean began the project with the broad topic of Irish sports figures. She eventually narrowed it down to boxers and began researching Sullivan. "Suprisingly, there hasn't been much written on him," she said. The paper required hours with a microfiche machine finding newspaper clips of what was written more than a century ago.

For the competitions, contestants had to read their work for a panel of judges. Shean credits the history department as well as the year she spent studying at Oxford with perfecting her writing skills and preparing her for this experience.