USC Trojan Affiliates, a philanthropic and social women’s group, invites University of Southern California alumni and friends to attend a meeting via Zoom on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. that will feature former San Marino Unified High School District students Casey Mork and Gabriel Batnij.
Mork’s topic will be “Using Mobile Technology to Trade Homegrown Produce,” a pursuit with altruistic applications, and Batnij — who has spearheaded an effort to get local residents to share items with others during the COVID-19 pandemic — will tell viewers how to “Get Stuff for Free From Your Neighbors.”
Mork, a 1998 graduate of San Marino High School, has since 2012 been growing vegetables and herbs and maintaining productive fruit trees at his home and in community gardens. Many Southern California residents grow their own food, and recently this trend has accelerated due to the COVID-19 quarantine as people seek to become more self-sufficient and connected to their neighborhoods.
In response to the general trend, which actually predates COVID, Mork and three partners started PicdLocal in San Gabriel in 2018. PicdLocal is an app that allows backyard and home growers of fruits and vegetables to buy, sell or donate produce. The app also allows farmers markets to post about their goods and enables customers to pre-order their favorite farmers’ produce.
In his professional life, Mork works for a large global supply-chain services provider. He has held management positions with global third-party logistics providers and management consulting firms during the past 17 years. Mork received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in business administration from the USC Marshall School of Business. He is married to 1998 SMHS classmate Marisol Corral Mork and has two sons, Jesse and Henry.
Batnij attended Carver Elementary and Huntington Middle schools and is attending Loyola High School. He is a part of the San Marino Trading Post, a Facebook group for people in the community who seek to share and ask for goods, ideas and advice while uniting the city during a time when residents cannot be together physically. His ideal career would be that of a forensic scientist, helping people solve crimes through the science that he loves. He became interested in science when his chemistry teacher taught him how chemistry was related to forensics, and he combined this with his love of television crime dramas.
He is the son of Joyce Gatsoulis and Adli Batnij.
Robin Phillips, serving in her second term as Trojan Affiliates president, encourages women in the community to attend the October virtual meeting to become acquainted with the organization’s members. They meet five times a year in the San Gabriel Valley and hear from USC professors and other interesting speakers. Members also donate their time to raise funds for scholarships for worthy USC students. The organization awarded 10 scholarships for the 2020-21 academic year. Volunteer opportunities have included selling USC products, volunteering at the Pasadena Showcase House, the USC Day of Service and more. Members also participate in social and cultural events and interface with the university.
The formal purpose of this alumnae organization is to foster a spirit of friendship, loyalty and cooperation with USC, develop and sustain a successful fundraising project to provide scholarships and contribute to the advancement of education.
If you wish to be a speaker at an upcoming Trojan Affiliates meeting, contact Jacqueline Goodman at jtgoodman@aol.com.
For information about the organization or to obtain the Zoom link to view the program on Oct. 1, contact Sarah Sismondo by Friday, Sept. 25, at (626) 303-7284 or sisarah@verizon.net.
