Irene Kinoshita

Four years ago, Irene Kinoshita found herself jobless after the Orange County computer company she worked for went bankrupt. She had put together a marketing strategy for the company but never got to put it into practice before the firm went bust. Convinced nevertheless that her strategy was a good one, she decided to start her own company, Alliance Infonet/ValCom, in 1988. In doing so, she entered a relatively uncharted field for female entrepreneurs.

Four years ago, Irene Kinoshita found herself jobless after the Orange County computer company she worked for went bankrupt. She had put together a marketing strategy for the company but never got to put it into practice before the firm went bust. Convinced nevertheless that her strategy was a good one, she decided to start her own company, Alliance Infonet/ValCom, in 1988. In doing so, she entered a relatively uncharted field for female entrepreneurs.

Irvine Valley College's new high-tech library--equipped with the latest online databases, a multimedia studio, and capacity for 80,000 books--will be dedicated Monday. The event will be from 3 to 7 p.m. at the library, located on the IVC campus at Jeffrey Road and Irvine Center Drive. David Mertes, former chancellor of the California Community Colleges, and Irene Kinoshita, president of Ascolta Training Co., are scheduled to speak. The event will also feature a Chinese dance group and music.

Growing up in Ogden, Utah, Irene L. Kinoshita knew about being different. "It was more being non-Mormon than Asian," Kinoshita said. "In public school, the teachers would ask, 'How many of you are Mormon?' Almost everyone else would raise their hand. It happened more than once." It was only later, after starting college at San Francisco State, that she began to understand the world's ethnic diversity.