Pixar Producer Helps Raise Scholarship $$$ For San Leandro Students

Katherine Sarafian, a graduate of San Leandro High School and producer of an Academy Award winning movie, will speak to the San Leandro Scholarship Foundation on April 11.

Sarafian produced Brave, the story of a feisty Scottish princess that won Pixar an Academy Award for best animated film.

The San Leandro Scholarship Foundation offers about $120,000 in scholarships each year to college-bound graduates of San Leandro High School and Arroyo High School.

Sarafian will be the keynote speaker at a Foundation dinner from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm on Thursday, April 11 at the San Leandro Main Public Library.

Tickets are $50 and must be ordered by April 5. 

Click here to order online or email slsf@douglas.com for more information.

Katherine Sarafian started at Roosevelt Elementary School and advanced to Bancroft Middle School before graduating San Leandro High's Class of 1987.

She went on to attend UCLA and its noted Film School, which led to a job as assistant to the production manager of "Toy Story."

The 43-year-old producer lives in Oakland with husband Meher Gourjian, a visual effects specialist whose credits include work in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." (Link to recent photo of the couple.)

Katherine is the middle of three children raised by Alice and Richard Sarafian, who moved to San Leandro's Bayovista neighborhood when Katherine was 3.

Eldest child Karen is a teacher in Elk Grove. The youngest, Stephen, is a doctor with Kaiser-Permanente in Oakland.

Richard Sarafian was pastor of the Saint Vartan Armenian Church of Oakland until his sudden death due to a heart attack in 2009.

Alice Sarafian remains active in local civic affairs in addition to providing some grannycare.