PRESIDENT'S PEN

If there is one thing that has impressed me in the short time that I've been here it is the willingness of the people at Cañada College to help others. Given the recent tragedy in the Gulf States , this is an appropriate time for us to manifest directly our system of beliefs and our basic mission of human service, and help those who need it most.

I'm asking you to please join me from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. , on Thursday, Sept. 15 for a hurricane relief rally on the Frisbee lawn. The event is being organized by the Associated Students of Cañada College. They are raising money through the sale of raffle tickets that can be purchased in the Student Activities Office. The money will be donated to the American Association of Community Colleges for distribution to community college students in Louisiana and Mississippi that have been victimized by this natural disaster.

The students of Phi Theta Kappa will also be raising money to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. For faculty members, donation boxes are available in the division offices. PTK members will also be available in the cafeteria to collect donations. Again, all proceeds will go to help community college students in the Gulf States region.

If we work together - faculty, staff, and students - we can make a difference to those in need.

In other college news, I'm hoping you will join me in giving Kuni Hay our best wishes for her new position as Interim Vice President of Instruction at Evergreen Valley College . I have met with the faculty and staff in the Humanities Division to discuss the hiring process, the personal qualities and skills desired in the Dean, and the process for finding a permanent replacement for Kuni.

I also want to welcome Victoria Nunes as our new College Business Officer and congratulate the indispensable Terry Watson who has been promoted to Financial Analyst. Victoria joins us from the District Office. Her hiring and the promotion of Terry will help strengthen and provide stability for the Business Office.

October will be a busy month at Cañada. The annual Arts & Olive Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. , Sunday, Oct. 2. Admission is free and all proceeds will benefit the student scholarship fund. The college will also host the annual Bay Area Early Childhood Conference from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. , Saturday, Oct. 8. Hundreds of early childhood education advocates will be on campus to attend workshops and listen to speakers. On Saturday, Oct. 22, the 14 th annual Artistry in Fashion designer sale will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event provides scholarships for fashion design students in addition to providing practical experience.

Enjoy this edition of The Olive Press and I look forward to seeing you at the Hurricane Relief Rally on Thursday.

Interim President

Cañada College

Tom Mohr

 

CAMPUS NEWS

8th Annual Arts & Olive Festival Set for Oct. 2

The eighth annual Arts & Olive Festival will be held Sunday, Oct. 2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission and parking are free and proceeds will benefit the Cañada College Student Scholarship Fund.

The festival, located on the college campus which features hundreds of olive trees, brings together Bay Area residents to enjoy great food from local restaurants, wine and beer, gifts, crafts, and live entertainment on two stages. Members of the California olive industry will display numerous kinds of olives, flavored olive oils, vinegars and more for tasting. A list of participating olive vendors and artists is available at www.olivefest.org .

This year's festival will include an olive curing demonstration and production presentation from a local olive grower. The Kid's Corner will feature a storyteller from the Redwood City Public Library, clowns and the National Puppet Theater.

The college used to be known as the "Olive Orchard" many years ago, when cattle roamed across Sand Hill Road and the roundup cowboys brought them to this hilltop to chew grasses under the trees. When construction for the college began more than 35 years ago, the olive trees were carefully removed for protection, and planted temporarily off of the main site in a long trench. The trees were replanted in 1968, just in time for the college's official opening, and have been thriving ever since. Some 350 olive trees can be counted today throughout the campus grounds.

Cañada College to Host Bay Area Early Childhood Conference

October 8 Conference Features Workshops Focusing on School Readiness for Young Children 

Cañada College will host the 2005 Bay Area Early Childhood Conference from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8. The theme of the conference is "School Readiness - Respecting and Nurturing the Whole Child: Teachers, Parents and Communities."

The conference is open to the public. Registration is $40 for members of the San Mateo Association for the Education of Young Children and students or $50 for non-members and includes a boxed lunch. On-site registration is available for $60 but lunch will not be provided. For an additional $11, a half unit of college credit is available to all conference attendees.

The conference keynote speaker is Kate Williams Browne, a college professor and program coordinator for the California Mentor Teacher Program. She is the author of Guiding Young Children in a Diverse Society and Beginnings and Beyond: Foundations in Early Childhood Education. The topic of Browne's talk is "School Readiness: Getting us Ready."

"With passion and mastery, good teachers can do just about anything," Browne said. "Add the appropriate resources and we can get schools ready for children. 'Preschool for All' means excellent schools for everyone - preschoolers, families, and teachers together."

Patty Dilko, associate professor of early childhood education and child development at Cañada College, said having the conference at the college will benefit the early childhood education students in San Mateo County .

"The San Mateo County Community College District has been educating child care professionals for 30 years," Dilko said. "Currently, there are more than 1,000 students enrolled in early childhood education classes in our district. The Early Childhood Education/Child Development Department is one of the largest departments in the district and has programs at both Skyline and Cañada."

This year's conference is sponsored by Cañada College , KQED, and the San Mateo Association for the Education of Young Children.

For more information about the conference, call Dilko at (650) 306-3115.

Nunes, Watson Fill Positions in Business Office

Victoria Nunes has been hired as the College Business Officer and Terry Watson as the Financial Analyst, moves that Interim President Tom Mohr said will significantly strengthen the College Business Office.

Nunes has been at the District Office since 1990. She currently works as administrative assistant in Information Technology Services and has worked for Frank Vaskelis for the past six years. She has also worked at the College of San Mateo in the Vice President of Instruction Office, Public Relations, and Corporate and Community Education.

 

Watson has worked in the District for more than 30 years, much of that time at Cañada. As Payroll Clerk, Terry has provided the college administration and District staff with technical information regarding financial records, audits and policies and procedures.

"The addition of Victoria and Terry in these leadership positions will significantly strengthen our College Business Office," said Mohr.

 

Kuni Hay Hired at Evergreen Valley College

Kuni Hay, Dean of the Humanities Division, has accepted a position as Interim Vice President of Instruction at Evergreen Valley College. In response, Interim President Tom Mohr has met with employees in the division and is moving forward to hire a permanent replacement.

"My goal is to move forward in a timely manner with a selection process in accordance with the district guidelines and significant input and participation by faculty and staff," Mohr said.

Mohr congratulated Hay on her significant advancement and thanked her for her outstanding leadership and professional guidance.

Watson, Rivera Receive Lucas-Berry Awards

Terry Watson and Rafael Rivera were honored at the first all-college meeting of the year with the second annual Lucas-Berry Awards. Watson received the award for classified employees while Rivera received the faculty award.

The awards were established last year by Vice President of Student Services Phyllis Lucas-Woods. The awards honor outstanding work by classified and faculty employees at the college.

Watson was an accounting student at Cañada who graduated in 1974. In 1975, she began working as a clerk-typist for the college and has continued to work in the district in one area of operations or another for the past 30 years.

For the past year, Watson has been the "go-to" person for the entire college on financial matters as Cañada has dealt with transitions in the Business Office. She has prepared budgets for grants and year-end fiscal reports, provided insight into budget policies and procedures and union contracts.

"In short, Terry has been there doing whatever the college has needed and has worked tirelessly days, nights, and weekends and she has done so reliably, conscientiously, and patiently without fail," said Lucas-Woods.

Rivera is the director of the Radiologic Technology Program. The program has grown steadily under his direction and today is at capacity. There are four or five times as many applicants to the program as there are spaces available, and Rivera has carefully designed an application process that admits students who have the most potential to succeed in the program. One hundred percent of his students pass the state licensing exams and in the last three years every student who wanted a job in the Bay Area had one before graduation, and many had multiple job offers.

"This is a result of the countless hours - day, evening, summer and vacation - that Rafael spends working with the students, recruiting excellent instructors, and maintaining positive relationships with local hospitals," Lucas-Woods said.

 

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FACES OF CAÑADA

Robert Lee Joins Faculty as Sociology Instructor

Lee began teaching in the fall of 2002 at Foothill College as an adjunct sociology instructor. Since then, and before arriving at Cañada, Lee taught at San Francisco State University , Holy Names College , and Ohlone College . He has taught Introduction to Sociology, Race and Ethnic Relations, Sociology of the Family, Social Problems, and the Asian American Experience.

"I love the fact that as community college teachers we get to partake in transforming student lives and careers," Lee said. "If it is true, as historians have noted, that the quintessential American experience is the ability of individuals to re-make their lives, I think Cañada College is a microcosm of American society. It is an exciting place to be."

Lee, an Oakland resident, said he is impressed with the level of intimacy at Cañada.

"My background is working in large public institutions like UCLA and SFSU," he said. "But I love the fact that most of the faculty members already know my name and that many of my classes are relatively small. As others have already mentioned, there is a family atmosphere here at Cañada."

Lee graduated with a bachelor's degree in sociology from U.C. Berkeley and with a master's in sociology from UCLA.

Arturo Hernandez Hired as Counselor

Arturo Hernandez, a former associate professor of Ethnic Studies at UC-Davis and counselor at the College of Alameda and Santa Barbara City College , has joined Cañada as a counselor.

To truly understand Hernandez, you have to dig deeper than his resume.

He began working with gang members in his early teens when he joined a detention ministry so he could visit friends in juvenile hall. Since then, he has worked as a public school teacher, a school guidance counselor, a family therapist, and a consultant on juvenile delinquency and youth gang intervention, and has founded two experimental schools for gang-involved youth.

"If you look at my resume, I have had a lot of jobs but they all have a similar focus," he said. "I've worked with gang-involved youth and at-risk students."

Hernandez has lived and worked in East and South Central Los Angeles, Compton , and Watts, and among the rural gangs of the Salinas Valley . He has written a book, "Peace in the Streets: Breaking the Cycle of Gang Violence" and is currently working on a second titled "Teaching in Tough Places: A Guide for Inner-City Teachers." While Cañada has its share of at-risk students, it is balanced by high achieving students, a fact that is not lost on Hernandez.

"There is a sense of balance here," he said. "I've worked at places where you only have contact with distressed communities and you have few resources to help them and that is difficult. At Cañada, the mission is well defined and the resources are available to help students succeed."

Hernandez lives in Oakland and is finishing his PhD at UC Santa Barbara. His wife is finishing her PhD at UC Berekely.

Editor's Note: If you have ideas for the Faces of Cañada section of the online newsletter, please contact Robert Hood at ext. 3340 or by e-mail at hoodr@smccd.edu.

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SPOTLIGHT ON STUDENTS

Student Overcomes Long Odds to Succeed at Cañada College

Veronica Espinoza had 64 unexcused absences her senior year in high school but has committed herself to academics and is now student body president and a Campus Ambassador

Veronica Espinoza chuckles when she thinks about how far she has come as a college student the last two years. The 22-year-old Redwood City resident was elected student body president at Cañada College last spring and now tours local high schools explaining to less fortunate students that a college education can be a reality.

That's a far cry from her senior year at Menlo-Atherton High School in 2000 where she had 64 unexcused absences and nearly failed to graduate.

"In my senior year I didn't take school seriously," she said. "I was hanging out with friends who were not interested in school. I had lost interest in getting up early in the morning to go to school. I really didn't think I was going to graduate."

She did graduate but because she struggled academically she didn't consider college an option. She liked music so she went to work at a music store and eventually became assistant manager.

"I liked music a lot but I didn't want to work in a music store the rest of my life," she said. Deep down, she knew she had to go to college to improve her life. Still, Espinoza had to pay the rent and bills as well as take care of her younger sister and she wasn't sure she could work and attend school at the same. She didn't know much about college as none of her friends or family had ever enrolled. "I didn't know who to ask about college," she said. "My mom didn't like the idea of me going to college. She thought I should work. I didn't know what I wanted to do but I knew I had to go to school."

Espinoza began taking classes at Cañada College but, like high school, she didn't take her academics very seriously. "It took me a year to figure out what I wanted to do," she said. She made up her mind to study nursing and at the same time she found a network of support at the college. Espinoza met friends who considered academics important and found teachers and staff who provided support. She was introduced to Carmina Chavez, the college recruiter, and volunteered to help recruit high school students to the college.

"She has been extraordinary," Chavez said. "Veronica has gained the confidence and trust from many students at the Sequoia Union High School District working as a Campus Ambassador. She is an excellent role model especially for students who are struggling socially, academically and emotionally in high school. Her story has inspired many students to attend college."

Last year, Chavez hired Espinoza as a Campus Ambassador to recruit high school students to the college. She also told Espinoza about Cañada's Smart Cookie Scholarship Program sponsored by Menlo Park's FullBloom Baking Company. She earned a scholarship and now receives monthly financial aid to cover housing and transportation.

"The Smart Cookie scholarship has been really important because it allows me to focus on academics and my outreach efforts instead of trying to earn money to pay for rent and gas," she said. Espinoza enjoys talking to local high school students because she understands their experience. "Most of the students are like me - they don't have anyone in their family or any friends who know about college. They don't know how to read their high school transcripts any more than their parents. They don't know how to register for class or know that they are eligible for financial aid. At the beginning, I started to share my own story with other high school students not knowing that I was going to make a difference in their lives. As I continued to assist them I noticed they were actually changing their thoughts and views about continuing their education and exploring their potential. It is an honor for me to help others because by helping others I am helping myself."

On top of her recruiting efforts, Espinoza has added the responsibility of student body president. She welcomes the position and takes this opportunity to bring informative forums and cultural events to Cañada students.

"I would like to organize workshops for students who are single parents," she said. "There are a lot of students who have kids and I would like to connect them to the campus community."

"She understands the importance of participating in campus activities, attending committee meetings, and interacting with students," said Aja Butler, student activities coordinator at the college. "She is a great student leader."

And despite her busy schedule, Espinoza had a straight B average last semester and is planning to transfer to San Francisco State University to earn her bachelor's degree in nursing.

"Overall my life has improved since I started college," she said. "Cañada College is my second home."

Editor's Note: If you have an idea for a student feature, contact Robert Hood at ext. 3340.

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Please see the EVENTS CALENDAR on insideCañada for the latest event listings.

Editor's Note: If you would like to submit an event to the Cañada Calendar of Events please contact Debbie Joy at ext. 3318, or use the link at the bottom of the Calendar.

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