Casey Mork & Gabriel Batnij Speaks @ Trojan Affiliates virtually

USC Trojan Affiliates, a philanthropic and social women’s group, of the University of Southern California invites alumni, parents, and friends to attend their upcoming virtual zoom meeting on Thursday, October 1, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. from the comfort of your own homes. The evening will feature San Marino Unified High School District Alumni Casey Mork speaking on ‘Using Mobile Technology to Trade Homegrown Produce” and Gabriel Batnij speaking on “Get Stuff For Free From Your Neighbors”.

Casey Mork, a 1998 graduate of San Marino High School, has since 2012 been growing vegetables, 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 quarantine as people seek to become more self-sufficient, and also connected to their neighborhoods. In response to this general trend that well pre-dates COVID, Casey and three partners started PicdLocal in San Gabriel, CA in 2018. Picdlocal is a simple mobile application that allows backyard and home fruit, vegetable and other produce growers to buy sell or donate home grown produce with the neighborhood. The app also allows farmers markets to post their goods, and for their customers to pre-order their favorite farmer’s produce.

In his professional life, Casey works for a large global supply chain services provider. He has held management positions with global third party logistics providers (3PLs) and management consulting firms over the past seventeen years.

Casey received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business. He is married to 1998 SMHS classmate Marisol Corral Mork and has two sons Hesse and Henry.

Gabriel Batnij attended Carver and Huntington Middle School and is currently attending Loyola High School. He currently is a part of the San Marino Trading Post, a Facebook group for people in the community to share and ask for goods, ideas, and advice while uniting the city during a time when they cannot be together physically. His ideal career would be to become 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 members of Trojan Affiliates. The members meet five times a year in the San Gabriel Valley and are educated by various USC professors and other well versed and interesting speakers. Members also donate their time to raise greatly needed funds for scholarships for worthy USC students. The organization awarded ten scholarships for the 2020-2021 academic school year. Volunteer opportunities have included selling USC products, volunteering at the Pasadena Showcase House, USC Day of Service, and more. Of course, the members also participate in a variety of social and cultural events and interface in numerous capacities with the University.

The formal purpose of this alumnae organization is to foster a spirit of friendship, loyalty, and cooperation with the University of Southern California, to develop and sustain a successful fundraising project in order to provide scholarships for USC students and contribute to the advancement of education.

If you would be interested in being a speaker at an upcoming Trojan Affiliates meeting, please contact Speaker Chairman, Jacqueline Goodman at jtgoodman@aol.com.

For further information regarding USC Trojan Affiliates and/or to obtain the zoom link to view the program on October 1st, please contact Reservations Chairman, Sarah Sismondo by September 25th at (626) 303-7284 or sisarah@verizon.net.