CAMPUS NEWS

Superior Court Judge Marta Diaz to Speak at Commencement

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Marta S. Diaz has agreed to be this year's speaker at the college's annual commencement ceremony. Commencement will be held Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Main Theater.

Diaz has been the county's presiding Juvenile Court judge since 2000. She was appointed to the San Mateo County Superior Court in February, 1997 by Gov. Pete Wilson. Prior to her appointment to the Superior Court, Diaz had been a sole practitioner in Burlingame since 1994. Previously, Diaz served the County of San Mateo as deputy district attorney from 1981 to 1994.

Diaz is a member of the San Mateo County Bar Association and the California Public Defender's Association. She earned her bachelor's degree from San Francisco State University in 1978 and a juris doctorate degree from the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law in 1981.

Chat With the President: Tom Mohr to Meet Weekly With Students

Interim President Tom Mohr is encouraging students to discuss with him issues and ideas which are important to them and he's now setting aside an hour each week for those discussions.

Mohr will be available to students in his office from noon to 1 p.m., on Wednesdays beginning May 3. Students are encouraged to drop by the office, Building 8, Room 312, and appointments aren't necessary.

"I'm hoping we can begin to generate some good ideas by engaging the student body in conversation," Mohr said. "Even if you just want to come by and say 'hi', I welcome the opportunity to talk with students."

Mohr regularly talks with student leaders but said expanding the conversation to the general student body should result in a wider range of ideas on different topics.

"Our students are busy with jobs, family and studies and not everyone can actively participate in student government," he said. "By holding conversations each week at the same time I'm hoping to hear from a wider range of students."

Cañada to Reinstate Men's Golf, Add Women's Team

Rick Velasquez will coach both teams which will begin competition next fall

Cañada will reinstate its men's golf program and add a women's team with Notre Dame High School Varsity Golf Coach Rick Velasquez set to coach both teams.

The women's team will begin competition in August while the men's team begins in February, 2007. The college fielded a men's team for 24 seasons - winning two state titles - until it was placed on hiatus in 2002. Both programs were recently approved by the College Council.

"It's great to bring men's golf back to Cañada and establish a new women's program," said Athletic Director Mike Garcia. "Our plan is to recruit 10 to 15 local high school athletes to build both programs. Student-athletes have a graduation or transfer rate of about 80 percent which is significantly higher than average so this will benefit the college academically."

Velasquez has coached varsity golf at Notre Dame High School in Belmont for the past five years. His teams have won league titles three of those years and have advanced to the Central Coast Section and Northern California playoffs nearly every year. Velasquez has been the golf instructor at Cañada College for the past five years.

The men will compete in the Coast Conference League with San Jose City , Foothill, Cabrillo, Chabot, and Monterey Community College . The women will compete in the Central Valley Conference. Cañada will be the only community college in San Mateo County to feature golf teams.

Garcia said the teams will practice at Crystal Springs Golf Course in San Bruno and will host matches at Menlo Country Club in Woodside. Garcia said Menlo Country Club will allow the teams to host matches at no cost to the college.

Interim President Tom Mohr said the annual combined cost for both programs will be approximately $43,000 but said a significant portion of that will be offset by fundraising and the enrollment reimbursement from the state for the new student-athletes.

"Athletics plays an important role in recruiting students to the college," Mohr said. "These two programs will add students who probably would not attend our college otherwise and we know from our other sports that these athletes will bring friends. Athletic programs add stature to the college and nurture the physical, emotional and academic development of those who participate."

Humanities Division Promotes Courses Via Web "Bugs"

Dean Katie Townsend-Merino hopes to generate enrollment in classes

Katie Townsend-Merino, dean of the Humanities & Social Sciences Division, is hoping a new form of web advertising will help boost enrollment in targeted classes.

"In an effort to give students the opportunity to learn more about the wide-ranging and dynamic curriculum in our division, we are collaborating with College Communications to use the home page as a venue for advertising individual courses," she said.

Townsend-Merino said catalog course descriptions often use formal language for the articulation process and this language can have the effect of making an otherwise fascinating class appear boring. To give classes more appeal, division faculty are generating a short course description written directly for students and combining this with an interesting graphic and possibly a student testimonial. These pieces are then turned into a rotating button - or web bug - that is placed in the lower right corner of the home page screen. When students "click" on the ad they will find all of the information they need to register for the class in addition to exciting aspects of the class they won't find in the schedule or course catalog.

"We know, that in many cases, the first contact a student has with our college is through the home page," Townsend-Merino said. "It's a good place for us to advertise courses and we're not restricted to the formal language required in the catalog."

While the Humanities Division has embarked on a larger effort to promote courses on the home page, other divisions have also been involved. The new 3-D Animation and Video Game Art program has generated an advertisement that has been used to promote the program since it was announced in early March.

New Colts in the Stable

 

Arturo Hernandez, academic counselor, is the proud father of twin daughters, Anais Adelita Hernandez and Ixchel Isabella Hernandez, born April 4. Anais is 3 pounds, 10 ounces and Ixchel is 6 pounds, 4 ounces.

Christine Huynh, EOPS office assistant, gave birth to son Andy on March 28. Andy weighed in at 6 pounds and 1.5 ounces. Big brother also seems proud!

Welcome the newest Colts to the Cañada College stable.

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FACES OF CAÑADA

Retirement Party Set for Retiring Professors

A retirement party will be held Thursday, May 18 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the cafeteria to honor six retiring professors.

Romy Thiele, Rich Anderson, Sally McGill, Linda Hoy, Dianne Eyer and Dick Claire have all announced their retirements. This month The Olive Press honors the retiring faculty members with a short retrospective.

Romelia Thiele

Computers have had a tremendous impact on society over the last 20 years and Professor Romelia "Romy" Thiele has seen first-hand how this changed the office technology classes she teaches.

"Today, students have access to computers," she said. "In the past, many of our students had to use computers in the skills center or learning center but now they have computers at home."

Romy began teaching at Cañada in the fall of 1992. She had taught high school for 15 years before finishing her master's degree in instructional technology at San Jose State University and subsequently joining Cañada.

She had taught part-time at West Valley, Foothill and De Anza colleges but said Cañada is different because of its small size. "It's easier to meet people here and people are friendlier," she said.

Romy will continue to teach one class per semester in post-retirement but plans to spend more time with her husband at their second home in Palm Springs and playing golf.

Rich Anderson

Rich Anderson, professor of Mathematics, has been teaching at Cañada College since 1970. Now that he's retiring, the former San Jose State University tennis star is planning to travel with his wife Darcy, ride his bike, explore cooking, learn to speak Spanish and, of course, play more tennis.

Rich coached the Cañada College tennis team from 1970 to 1983, winning several state championships along the way. He was also inducted into the California Community College Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

While he was proud of his accomplishments on the tennis court, Rich said his involvement in establishing the college's Learning Center and working with a team to pioneer computer-aided instruction and self-paced learning in mathematics was equally rewarding.

"I think the Learning Center has been a tremendous addition to the college and I'm proud of my involvement in that," he said. "It was also very rewarding to work with the team that helped bring computer-aided instruction to our classrooms. Cañada was at the forefront of that movement."

Rich said Cañada has been a special place to work because of the colleagues.

Sally McGill

Professor Sally McGill is retiring after 35 years of teaching at Cañada College . She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Oklahoma and Master of Public Health from UC Berkeley. She is a Registered Dietitian, a Personal Trainer certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, and a Master Fitness Specialist from the Cooper Institute, Dallas. Cañada hired Sally in 1971 after she had worked in outpatient diet counseling and served as the Public Health Nutritionist for San Mateo County.

Sally developed and taught courses in nutrition, health science, cooking for health, physical fitness, women's health issues, personal training, and exercising on the stability ball. She was coordinator of the health assessment component for the Fitness for Life Program. In retirement, she plans to continue practicing what she has been teaching by doing more hiking, cycling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and backpacking. Her most recent learning adventure is in multimedia projects.

In addition to teaching Sally was active in campus shared governance by serving on the College Council, treasurer of Academic Senate; Chairman/member of the professional development committee and Co-chair of accreditation standards committee.

Sally's greatest reward from teaching is having students report back about how they have applied what they learned in her classes ---how they improved their lifestyle.

Linda Hoy

After five years of teaching drama at Cañada College and directing critically acclaimed student performances, Linda Hoy has decided to hit the road - literally.

Linda is retiring to join her husband traveling the country in a recreational vehicle. Linda certainly won't turn her back on 35 years in theater but she'll pick and choose her projects. That includes directing a spring show at the college on a post-retirement contract.

"I'm really going to miss the students," Linda said. "They are great people. It can be difficult to direct performances at a community college because students have to juggle jobs, families and school so you have to work around a lot of schedules in order to rehearse. But when it all comes together on the stage and you see their excitement it's really a fantastic feeling."

Linda directed 10 different performances at Cañada. While she had taught at San Jose State University when she was a graduate student, this was her first professional teaching experience.

"I've loved every minute of it," she said. "But now it's time to move on and share some time with my husband. I'm looking forward to a new chapter in my life."

Dianne Eyer

Dianne Eyer began teaching early childhood education at Cañada College in 1970 - before the college even had an ECE program. Today, Dianne is seen as an innovator in the field and has had a tremendous impact on the lives of thousands of students.

"The field has changed immensely," said Dianne. "The developmental base is appreciated so much more. It's not just blocks and crayons. It is best practices to foster early care and education. The field is now recognized by society at large. We see that with our ability to obtain grants to help us train the next generation of early childhood education experts."

Dianne said the respect the field has earned translates to a new appreciation by current students about the professional options they have. "It's no longer a part-time job while your kids are in school," she said. "It's a career. Students are now aware that what they are doing has a huge impact on society. It's the future we all share."

Dianne said she plans to travel with husband Lyle during retirement, including hiking in Arizona and Utah and Vancouver, B.C. "We already have a trip scheduled for April and October, times of the year I've never been able to travel."

Dick Claire

Dick Claire has routinely put in 100 hour work weeks teaching accounting and computer information systems, serving as dean of the Business Division and, during his "off" hours, managing Redwood City as mayor, vice-mayor, city councilor and planning commission member. So what does Dick plan to do in retirement? Work, of course.

"I plan to spend time with my seven grandchildren and probably coach baseball," he said. "But my wife has a long list of projects she's compiled for me and I'll continue to be involved in projects with the city in some capacity."

Dick began working part-time at the college in 1973 and became a full-time faculty member in 1976. He was active in shared governance and served as academic senate president. "It's an extremely demanding position," he said.

Dick said the biggest change in the classroom results from accounting going from 13 regulations called statement of financial accounting standards to 147 and the complexity of the rules for how to record financial transactions. He said the students have also changed, from primarily middle-class Caucasian to a mix of races and income levels. "It's like dealing with the League of Nations and that's really exciting," he said. "The diversity adds immensely to the learning environment."

 

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

Redwood City Mother, Daughter Realize College Dreams Thanks to Federal Program That Faces Budget Elimination

TRIO Program helps low-income, first-generation and disabled students

Wendy Cazares is close to achieving her dream of earning an associate's degree and transferring to Cal State East Bay and - even more rewarding - she is watching her 14-year-old daughter plan for college thanks to the federal government's TRIO Programs.

But those dreams could come crashing down if President George W. Bush's proposed budget is approved. It eliminates funding for the programs that reach out to low-income, first-generation, and disabled students to help them get into college and succeed once they are there.

"It's difficult to think about," said Cazares, who was forced to drop out of Menlo-Atherton High School to help her mother care for her two brothers. "Without the support of the EOPS program and now the TRIO Program I wouldn't be able to attend college."

Cazares said she participates in the Student Support Services Program at Cañada College which is part of the federal TRIO Program. Cazares said she didn't start out with college level work but the additional academic counseling and tutoring provided by the program has helped her reach a level that has her believing she can eventually earn a bachelor's degree in social work.

Her daughter, Wendy Reynaga, is a freshman at Summit Preparatory High School in Redwood City and participates in the Upward Bound Program at Sequoia High School. Upward Bound, another program funded by TRIO, helps high school students successfully complete school, enter colleges and universities, and eventually graduate with a college degree. It is a rigorous academic program where students receive intensive tutoring, Saturday College instruction, and a six-week summer academic curriculum.

"It's helped her a lot and given her confidence," said Cazares. "They monitor her grades and homework assignments and it's motivated her to do better in school. I've really seen her mature since she started the program. I wish the program had been available when I was in high school."

The Cañada College Upward Bound Program began in 2004 with 50 students from Redwood City and East Palo Alto . Rosalina Mira, program director for Cañada College Upward Bound, said the college has a close relationship with Sequoia High School , which is where the program is headquartered. Wendy Reynaga's success in school is indicative of the success the program has had with at-risk students, Mira said.

"The success rate nationally for Upward Bound students is 62 percent but we're seeing close to 85 percent of our students enter college and all of the younger students who have stayed in the program are progressing to the next grade level," she said. "Without this program many of these students would be at-risk for dropping out of high school let alone consider attending college."

Jeanne Gross, dean of the University Center and academic support services, said the Student Support Services Program is serving approximately 120 students and will eventually serve 165. The college receives $220,000 per year as part of five-year grant to pay for additional academic counseling, master tutors with bachelor's degrees, and field trips to four-year schools. Gross said Cazares is part of the first cohort in the program.

"Our mission is to prepare these students for college-level academics and keep them on track to graduate or transfer within three years," she said. "When you consider that the average college student - those who have benefited from college-level math and English classes in high school - takes five years to earn a bachelor's degree you can understand how difficult this mission is."

Tom Mohr, interim president, said the two TRIO programs are a prime example of how the college carries out its mission of ensuring that students from diverse backgrounds achieve their educational goals.

"It's my understanding that these programs are targeted for elimination in the federal budget every year," Mohr said. "We've contacted our representatives in Washington, D.C. to explain how these programs are helping at-risk students. The budget discussion is underway and I'm optimistic that funding will continue. I would hate to tell students enrolled in these programs that funding is gone and the programs have to be eliminated."

Patricia Flores: Fashion Design Student Dreams of Singing

Redwood City 's Patricia Flores spends her days studying fashion design and has even designed some dresses and hip-hop casual wear but her dream is to sing for a living. The 18-year-old Redwood City resident has produced her own CD and is currently writing songs with a local producer and presenting them to major record labels. Her work can be found at www.gochachi.com.

"I've been singing all my life," said Flores. "I want to sing - that's what I really want to do."

Flores realizes that a singing career is a long-shot so she's studying fashion design in order to have solid career options. Still, on weekends, holidays and during the summer you can find the young singer performing under the stage name "Chachi" at children's fairs and community events.

"I like performing for kids because they get real excited," she said. Flores can sing standards such as those by Doris Day, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder or new music by the likes of Ashley Simpson or Kelly Clarkson.

Flores is taking dance classes and voice lessons and is working for her first big break. Until then, she's continuing to take classes.

"School is fun," she said. "I'm taking mostly general education classes and I like my English and writing classes."

Theatre Student Martin Rojas-Dietrich Earns Scholarship

Cañada College student Martin Rojas-Dietrich, who will be transfer to Notre Dame de Namur University to pursue a B.A. in Musical Theatre this fall, has received the $9,500 Emerging Artist Scholarship.

The scholarship is awarded to students who show exceptional promise in the field of musical theatre. Rojas-Dietrich has served as Linda Hoy's assistant director for the past three productions including this spring's critically acclaimed production of The Physicists.  He made his professional stage debut in TheatreWorks' award-winning revival of Into The Woods and in the summer will perform with San Jose Stage Company in its production of Urinetown: The Musical.

Beta Zeta Nu Earns Awards

Beta Zeta Nu, the Cañada College chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, has been recognized both regionally and internationally.

Regionally, Beta Zeta Nu received three chapter awards for its efforts in: Make a Difference Day (cancer related activities); Operation Bear Hug (stuffed bears for children at the Shriner's hospital); and Five Star. Individual awards went to Charmaine Soekoe and Loretta Farris for outstanding president and officer, respectively.

Internationally, Beta Zeta Nu was recognized as a Top 100 chapter, placing it in the 90% percentile of all 1,400 chapters. Individually, Cañada's Loretta Farris was recognized as one of the top 25 officers in all of Phi Theta Kappa and Professor Paul Roscelli was honored as one of this year's Faculty Scholars. Lastly, Cañada's Lindsay Moore stepped down as Division IV's International Vice President.

Celebrate Dance 2006

Linda Breen's dance class will hold its annual spring performance, "Celebrate Dance 2006". Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m., May 11-12, in the Main Theater. Admission is free but donations are gladly accepted.

Political Awareness Club to Host Discussion on Gay Marriage

It's one of the hottest political topics in the country and now the Cañada College Political Awareness Club is hosting a discussion on gay marriage.

Titled "Gay Marriage: Ethics vs. Legalization," the discussion will be held Wednesday, May 3 at 1 p.m. in the Main Theater.

"Our goal is to promote critical thinking and the exchange of information," said Elysse Kray, president of the club. "We want a balanced discussion of the issues. We want to present the audience with accurate information, not just opinion."

The discussion is free and open to the public.

Cañada Student Wins Poster Contest

Ruth Strong, a current student in Jean Mecorney's Digital Illustration class, won the AFT Local 1493 Poster Contest.  Ten posters were submitted to the first ever AFT Local Poster "creation". Strong is in her third semester of the Multimedia Program. She will receive a $100 honorarium from Local #1493 in appreciation of her work.

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 inside Cañada 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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