#SoCaltech: Cara Stemen

"I've met a lot of interesting people through this job. In the late 1980s it must have been, we had Patrick Stewart here for a one-man show in Beckman Auditorium. He did the entire Christmas Carol all by himself, playing all the different characters. He was great, and it was a sold-out show. I mean, everybody loved Captain Picard! After one of his performances, we had a reception in the president's house [Thomas Everhart was president of Caltech at the time] for the Friends of Beckman Auditorium. It turned out Patrick Stewart was actually kind of on the shy side in person, and showing up to a reception made him a little bit nervous. So, he had asked some of his castmates to come, and one of them was LeVar Burton, who played Geordi in Star Trek. As it happens, LeVar went to USC when I was there, and I knew him. So, he came to the reception, and he walked in the door and looked at me and just kept on looking. I said, 'Hi LeVar. We knew each other freshman year at USC.' And he goes, 'Cara!' He was there with a girlfriend, and the two of them stuck to me like glue through the whole reception because I think they were probably nervous, like Patrick Stewart, about having to go around and talk to all these people." 

Cara Stemen is event programming manager in the Office of Strategic Communications at Caltech. She was honored at this year's Staff Service & Impact Awards ceremony for her 40 years of service to the Institute.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.