Jeanne Stalker Puts a Friendly Face on the Welcome Center

Jeanne’s work coordinating the Welcome Center helps the student experience.

 

Jeanne Stalker with son Anthony (middle) at a Giants game.

Jeanne Stalker embodies the friendly attitude that defines Cañada College. Her efforts coordinating and transforming the college’s Welcome Center and new student orientation and assessment program provide a positive first impression for students.

That’s why Kim Lopez, Dean of Counseling and Enrollment Services, nominated Jeanne as this year’s Classified Employee of the Year from Cañada. All three colleges in the San Mateo County Community College District - Cañada, College of San Mateo, and Skyline - will forward a Classified Employee of the Year nominee to the Board of Trustees. One will be chosen to be forwarded to the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office to represent the district in the state's Community College Classified Employee of the Year Awards Program.

“Jeanne has developed a new model for orientation, making it more streamlined and consistent and easier for students,” Lopez said. “She has established a new schedule for assessment that makes it more flexible for students and their busy schedules.”

Jeanne says she enjoys working with and assisting students as they enter or return to college but says making them feel welcome on campus is a team effort.

“Our Welcome Center staff and student assistants are amazing to work with,” she said. “They really care about our students.”

Jeanne began working with the district in 1988 as a receptionist then became staff assistant in PE/Athletics. She is still connected with athletics as a member of the Cañada College Athletics Hall of Fame Committee. “I really enjoyed working in athletics with athletic eligibility. “Watching the hard work, dedication, development, and competitive spirit of the student athletes under the leadership of our superb coaches didn’t seem like work at all. I truly enjoyed being part of a great athletics era at Cañada when we hosted numerous regional and state playoff events. That’s why we decided to initiate an Athletic Hall of Fame.

In addition to volunteering with the Hall of Fame, Jeanne volunteers at her son’s school and she’s a team mom for his little league team, organizing group events to the San Francisco Giants games.

“The best job I have, and ever will have, is being a mom to my seven-year-old son, Anthony,” she said. “I have a much greater appreciation for what my mom did in raising five children, alone. It has opened my eyes to the world and how precious children are, that they must be cared for, loved and given a solid foundation.”

Jeanne said being a mom also makes her more aware of those children who are not as fortunate so she always participates in the One Warm Coat drive and Toys for Tots program during the winter and the Junior Giants glove drive and community fund events in the spring.

Jeanne said she enjoys working at Cañada because it is smaller and provides a more personal experience for students. “We tend to know the students and sometimes their families as they embark on their educational journey,” she said. “Overall, we are fortunate to work in a district with strong leadership as we head into the future.”

Sequoia Healthcare District Grants SFSU-Cañada Nursing Program $1.69 Million in New Funds

Nursing students working in the Cañada lab.

Earlier this month, the directors of the Sequoia Healthcare District granted a three-year funding extension totaling $1.69 million to continue support for the San Francisco State University nursing program offered at Cañada College.

This new support supplements the original grant of $1 million a year for 10 years and extends the bachelor degree program through 2017.

The request for additional funding was prepared and submitted by a partnership of administrators and faculty from San Francisco State University, Cañada College, Sequoia Hospital, and the Sequoia Hospital Foundation. Lucy Salcido Carter, director of the Center for International and University Studies, represented Cañada College in the partnership. The partners met regularly for six months to discuss program outcomes, review nursing workforce trends, develop a revised budget, and draft the proposal.

In October, the partnership initially presented its intent to submit a new request for funding. At that meeting, Ron Galatolo, chancellor of the San Mateo County Community College District, and Tom Mohr, retired president at Cañada College, stressed the importance of the program and the opportunities it brings SMCCCD graduates and the Cañada community. The board discussion in that meeting centered on the declining need for nurses and the increasing demands for funding from other healthcare organizations in the Sequoia Healthcare District. In subsequent partnership meetings, the partners revised the proposal to respond to these concerns.

The goal of the original $10 million grant was to address a shortage of nurses in the Sequoia Healthcare District by providing a local opportunity for District residents to receive a bachelor degree in nursing.

The program has been extremely successful in fulfilling its goal. Ninety-five percent of students complete the program, with 93 percent of these graduates passing the National Council Licensure Examination. More than half of program graduates serve Sequoia Healthcare District residents at a variety of facilities including Sequoia Hospital, San Mateo Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Stanford Hospital, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, public schools, and nursing care centers.

The new agreement pays 56 percent of student tuition for 32 students for three years and covers program costs including Cañada College facilities use, as well as infrastructural and administrative support.

Cañada College to Offer Free Training Program Aimed at Veterans and Dislocated Workers

The program begins Feb. 25 and will train students in customer relations with an emphasis in the retail and hospitality industries.

The Cañada College Menlo Park Center is teaming up with PeninsulaWorks – Menlo Park to offer a free training program designed to help veterans and dislocated workers learn the customer relations skills necessary to obtain a job in the retail or hospitality industries.

The program begins Monday, Feb. 25 and runs 16 weeks. Classes will be held Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a lab on Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Students must be a high school graduate or equivalent, have the right to work in the United States, be comfortable with the English language, and a resident of California for at least the last year-and-a-half.

All classes will be held at Job Train at the Menlo Park Center, 1200 O'Brien Drive, in East Menlo Park.

“The Cañada College Customer Relations Certificate program is intended for individuals looking to refresh or build general customer relation skills,” said Jan Roecks, interim dean of Business, Workforce, and Athletics at the college. “This is an exciting opportunity for veterans or those who have been out of the job market.”

The program is funded through the Workforce Investment Act and is administered by San Mateo County.

Courses include:

 

• Beginning Computer Keyboarding or Computer Skill Building
• Computer Applications
• Human Relations in Business
• Business Writing and Presentation Methods
• Getting Started in Business the Green Sustainable Way

For more information about this training program, contact Diana Mitchell at Job Train at dmitchell@jobtrainworks.org or 650-330-6431.

Cañada Students to Present Research on Nano Electronics at National Conference

Three engineering students studied the performance degradation of integrated circuits due to aging transistors

Three Cañada College engineering students will present original research on nano-scale circuits at the Interdisciplinary Engineering Design Education Conference to be held March 4-5 in Santa Clara.


From left: Jesus Garcia, Hector Prado-Guerrero, and former students John Paulino and Joshua Lohse

Their paper is titled, “Engaging Undergraduate Students in Nano-Scale Circuit Research Using Summer Internship.” Students Jesus Garcia, Hector Prado-Guerrero and Joshua Lohse, who has subsequently transferred to UC Santa Cruz, all participated in a 10-week summer research internship through the NASA Curriculum Improvement and PartnershipAwards (CIPAIR) Program. They were joined by former Cañada College student John Paulino, who is now studying engineering at UC Berkeley. The paper describes the results of their work on the analysis of performance degradation of integrated circuits due to transistor aging effects in nano-scale.

Nanoelectronics are commonly used computers, mobile phones, sensors, and electric cars. In nanoelectronics, miniaturized electronic circuits are integrated on semiconductor chips where the basic element is the transistor.

Prado-Guerrero, who attended Sequoia High School in Redwood City before transferring to the Cañada Middle College to simultaneously earn his high school degree while taking college courses, said the internship taught him that most transistors can last 8 to 10 years before failing, long past the time consumers routinely upgrade their devices.

“The internship helped me gain real-world experience in the field of engineering research,” he said.

The three students studied under San Francisco State University Professor Hamid Mahmoodi. In Mahmoodi’s lab, they studied the phenomenon called Soft Oxide Breakdown (SBD) in the performance of integrated circuits.

“During our research, we investigated if the SBD could be prevented which means that integrated circuits would last longer,” said Garcia. “In other words, any device that contains integrated circuits could last for a longer period saving the consumer money.”

Lohse, who attended Carlmont High School before transferring to the Cañada Middle College program, said they used a probe station to test real chips through high or low temperatures to simulate years of use within a matter of hours. “We don’t want to wait five years for our results,” said Lohse, who is now studying at the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz.

If the research is to continue, Lohse said, the practical application would be the creation of a “silicon odometer.” He said it would be similar to a car’s odometer, measuring the wear on the chip and alerting users before the chip fails.

Garcia said the research experience was invaluable. “I learned how to conduct research, developed work-group skills, and learned how important these two skills are to successful engineers.”

Prado-Guerrero said he learned not only how engineering research is conducted, but how it is presented. “It is almost always more important to be able to present your findings, rather than just performing studies and research.”

While Lohse has already transferred to continue his studies, Garcia and Prado-Guerrero will soon be doing the same. Garcia said he would like to study at UC Berkeley or Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and major in mechanical engineering. Prado-Guerrero wants to study computer engineering at UC Davis or Cal Poly.

“I feel coming to Cañada was one of the best choices I’ve ever made,” Prado-Guerrero said. “Working with (Professor of Mathematics and Engineering) Dr. Amelito Enriquez and Cathy Lipe (Director of the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics Center), the opportunities here are endless.”

Garcia agreed. “Coming to Cañada has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Cañada has an excellent engineering program and faculty.”

Cañada College Introduces African Wasp to Help Control the Olive Fruit Fly

The campus is the only location in the state where the wasp has returned two consecutive years.

 

 

A small African wasp that is the natural enemy of the olive fruit fly appears to be gaining a toehold in the olive trees on the campus of Cañada College in Redwood City.  This could bring good news to California’s olive growers who produce more than 95 percent of the olives grown in the U.S.

Olive Fruit Fly

Diego Nieto, an adjunct biology professor at the college, and students in his Biology 110 class, are part of a statewide effort to find a way to control the olive fruit fly, a serious pest of the olive crop.  Larvae from the fly feed on the fruit of olive trees.

The olive fruit fly was first discovered in California in 1998 and was later found in San Mateo County in 2001. So far, California and Central America are the only areas in the Western Hemisphere where the olive fruit fly has been found.

“The olive fruit fly is one member of a biological family called Tephrididae, which is home to several serious agriculture pests, including the Mediterranean fruit fly, Mexican fruit fly, and oriental fruit fly,” said Nieto. “These flies are capable of laying eggs in ripening fruit, which makes them especially damaging to fruit production. These pests are different than the fruit flies we more commonly encounter, which are in the family Drosophilidae and are only capable of laying eggs in overripe fruit.”

Diego Nieto checks for wasps

The widespread and rapid establishment of the olive fruit fly in California, along with the finding that natural native predators are largely ineffective in controlling the spread of this particular pest, led to a worldwide search for another possible solution.  In particular scientists looked for a parasitoid - an insect (often a wasp) that completes its development within the body of the fruit fly, eventually killing it.  The exploration took researchers to South Africa, Namibia, India, China and other countries. Scientists shipped a number of parasitoids to California and studied them in quarantine before identifying two – Psyttalia lounsburyi and Psyttalia humilis – that have been released throughout the state’s olive growing region. Both species were released at Cañada in 2010-11.

The college is located on 131 acres in the western part of Redwood City in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. More than 350 olive trees grow on the campus and the school’s symbol is an olive tree. Cañada also hosts the annual Arts & Olive Festival fundraiser for student scholarships every October.

 “These wasps are specialists,” Nieto said. “They have co-evolved with the olive fruit fly and are well-suited to utilize the fruit fly larvae for reproduction.”

P. humilis on an olive

The wasps are very small and look like little ants with wings. They are incapable of stinging people. And while they pose no threat to people or animals, they pose a major threat to olive fruit flies.

Female wasps deposit eggs into a fruit fly maggot inside of an olive. The egg hatches into a smaller larva that feeds internally on the maggot. After this maggot pupates, instead of a fly emerging, a wasp emerges to seek out additional maggots.

Since being released on campus, Nieto and his students have been monitoring the progress of the little African wasp.

“Cañada College is the only site in the state where Psyttalia lounsburyi has been recovered two consecutive years,” Nieto said. “This is encouraging, but several challenges exist and could still derail this project.”

Nieto said the wasp population is dependent on the density of the fruit fly population so, as the fruit fly population shrinks, so do the densities of the wasps.

“The wasps will not completely eliminate the pest,” he said. “Instead, our project strives to reduce the olive fruit fly population in regions outside of commercial production. That includes olive trees that are used for landscaping, located in preserved open space or in residential areas that are not managed and thereby act as a pest reservoir, capable of re-infesting commercial olive groves annually.”

Cañada has partnered with UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the United States Department of Agriculture, who had initiated this project. A scientific paper describing the work will soon be submitted to the journal Environmental Entomology.

The college also received funding from the San Mateo County Community College District Trustee’s Fund to help integrate the research into the Biology 110 curriculum at Cañada.

“Students collectively generate hypotheses, design experimental protocols, collect olives, rear out insects, graph results, and write a paper describing the project,” Nieto said. “Having hundreds of these trees on campus provides instructors and students wonderful learning opportunities that are literally steps away from the classroom. While I’m still in the process of refining this curriculum, I think it’s a wonderful example of how undergraduate students can participate meaningfully in active research.”

 

 

 

Workshop Aims to Help Small Business Owners Create Financial Wisdom

The Center for Entrepreneurial Opportunities at Cañada College will host a a special workshop titled Creating Financial Wisdom aimed at helping small business owners and entrepreneurs. The workshop will be held Thursday, Feb. 28 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the University Center Conference Room, Building 6, Room 102, on the Cañada campus.

Leila Perreras, business development manager at Provident Credit Union and Tara Fowler, financial adivsor at Merrill Lynch will be the guest speakers. An expert from the Wells Fargo Bank loan department will also be on hand to answer questions and offer advice.

Fowler will lead a discussion on financial literacy and financial planning as key drivers to empower small business owners and entrepreneurs in creating their own financial health, financial independence and ultimate wealth. Participants will learn valuable tips and discover new ways to:

• Budget and save their hard earned money
• Invest and plan for their future
• Gain access to capital for small business
• Qualify for loans to start and operate their business

The workshop is free and open to the public. For more information, email fraserc@smccd.edu.

Tristan Sheldon Blossomed at Cañada – Personally and Academically

The Carlmont High School graduate is now studying at the Haas School of Business.

Tristan Sheldon arrived at Cañada College in 2009 as a very shy Carlmont High School graduate. When he earned his Cañada diploma in May of 2012 with a degree in business administration he had grown into a confident leader, ready to face his newest challenge – studying at Cal’s prestigious Hass School of Business.

 

“Cañada changed my life,” Sheldon said. “It was the best choice I have made so far in my life. Cañada’s motto ‘From Here You Can Go Anywhere’ is such a true statement. I have had friends and classmates at Cañada that have received letters of acceptance from so many top universities, not just in California, but from around the country.”

 

While Cañada provided Sheldon with support, the journey wasn’t easy. When he graduated from Carlmont in 2008 he had a 2.6 high school GPA, no extracurricular activities, and a mediocre SAT score. He decided to take some time off from academics and worked full time at Electronic Arts in Redwood Shores as a game tester.

 

“After about four months in that job I realized that if I didn’t get a college degree this is the job that I would be working in the rest of my life,” he said. “I started looking at community colleges around the area. My mom actually graduated from CañadaCañada so I enrolled.”

 

Sheldon walked onto campus an incredibly shy person who avoided interaction with fellow students and professors as much as possible. “I used to cringe or pretend that I was going to the bathroom when the professor initiated an icebreaker at the beginning of the semester.”

 

But then Sheldon found the Associated Students of Cañada College and Phi Theta Kappa, the school’s honor society. He met people and began to develop leadership skills. “I am now a much more open person and enjoy meeting new people. This skill has proven invaluable at Cal, especially at Haas, because business is a lot about effective communication.”

 

He fondly remembers working with friends in student government to organize a Spirit Thursday event at Cañada where snow was dumped in the main quad. “The massive snowball fight that soon ensued was so enjoyable, especially when I saw some faculty participating. It also marks the only day at Cañada that I was actually late to class.”

 

Sheldon said traveling to Nashville, Tennessee for the annual PTK International Convention forced him to face his fear of being in front of crowds. “Our chapter won the fourth most distinguished chapter out of 1,300 chapters so we had to accept our award in front of the entire convention. Walking up to collect the award with my co-president Karina Gonzalez De Graaf was one of the most nerve-raking moments of my entire life. Karina wanted to start skipping and taking the long way around the auditorium and I just wanted to get up to the stage and back to my seat as quickly as possible.”

 

Sheldon earned the Student Leadership Award at Cañada’s Commencement Ceremony for his contributions to ASCC and PTK.

 

Sheldon also rose to the academic challenges he faced at Cañada. “Economics 100, 102 and 230 helped prepare me for the similar level of work I have been receiving here at Haas.”

 

He also developed strong relationships with two faculty mentors, Paul Roscelli, Professor of Economics, and Leonor Cabrera, Professor of Accounting. Both agreed that, initially, given Sheldon’s approach to academics, it would be difficult for him to achieve his goal of studying at Haas.

 

“He was not used to looking for answers in a scholarly manner,” Roscelli said. “I have to admit that my first reaction, one shared by Professor Cabrera, was that his chances of being accepted to Haas, given the way he did his work, were slim and none. To my surprise, he evolved over time into a very astute scholar, especially as it relates to numbers and finance.”

 

Roscelli said Sheldon emerged as a campus leader, willing to give up his time for the college community and his honor society. “He became extremely involved on our campus and his impact continues to echo throughout Cañada.”

 

Sheldon said Cañada has an assortment of many outstanding professors but that Roscelli and Cabrera were his two favorites. “Their courses in economics and accounting have helped tremendously at Cal. They provided an exceptional foundation for which I was able to grow academically. Professor Roscelli was instrumental in guiding our Phi Theta Kappa chapter and Professor Cabrera helped me solidify my choice to purse a business administration degree at Cal.”

 

Sheldon said he’s grateful for the education he received at Cañada because his experience at Cal has been overwhelming. “It’s like trying to sightsee while traveling 500 mph down a freeway in a rocket car,” he said. While I would like to look around at the scenery, I have to stay focused on what’s in front of me so that I don’t crash. At Cal, everything around me has been moving so fast; deadlines for assignments, internship season, and in general, Cal life.”

 

Sheldon said studying at Cal wouldn’t be possible without the second chance he received at Cañada. “It was a chance for me to discover who I really was as a person and experience a different perspective on life. When I graduated in 2012 I was both happy but also sad. I was happy that I was moving on to a top business school but I was sad that I was leaving behind some many treasured connections that I developed with faculty and peers.”

Financial Aid Workshops Can Help You Pay for School

Several financial aid workshops are scheduled during the month of February to helps students pay for college. The workshops will focus on helping students complete the 2013-14 Cañada College Scholarship Application and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Application for AB 540 eligible students. 

2013-14 Cañada Scholarship Workshops

Get help completing the online STARS Scholarship application at https://starsonline.smccd.edu/Stars. The application deadline is February 15, 2013. Cañada offers scholarships for incoming, continuing, and transfer students. See additional information on our website at http://www.canadacollege.edu/financialaid/scholarship.php. 

·         Thursday, February 7:  1pm-3pm in Building 9-106

·         Monday, February 11:  11am-1pm in Building 13-210

Dream Act Application Workshops

Designed for AB540 students unable to complete a FAFSA. Get help completing the online California Dream Application to determine eligibility for the Board of Governors Fee Waiver and Cal Grants in 2013-14. Students should bring 2012 income for themselves and if a dependent student, parental income information, too.  Hands on assistance provided. Additional information available at  https://dream.csac.ca.gov/.   

·         February 27 2013 at 10am-1pm

·         February 27 2013 3pm-5pm both held in building 13-210

Financial Aid Transfer Workshops

Designed for students planning to transfer in the Fall 2013. Receive assistance completing your financial aid application (either the 2013-14 FAFSA or California Dream Application) before the March 2nd deadline to see if you qualify for the Cal Grant Transfer Entitlement. See eligibility for the Cal Grant Community College Transfer Entitlement Award at http://www.csac.ca.gov/doc.asp?id=106.

·         Wednesday, February 13:  5pm-7pm in Building 9-106

·         Wednesday, February 20:  1pm-3pm in Building 9-106

FAFSA Tuesdays  

Every Tuesday year-round between 2pm-5pm students receive assistance completing the FAFSA (www.fafsa.ed.gov). Stop by the CañadaCollege Financial Aid Office for assistance.

Hanzimanolis Appointed to Chair Executive Committee for Part-Time Faculty

Dr. Margaret Hanzimanolis has been appointed the Chair of the Executive Committee for Part-time Faculty Discussion group, in the Modern Language Association, an association of almost 30,000 language and literature professors from the U.S. and Canada. 

The MLA is the largest disciplinary organization in the world, and it is in the midst of a major pivot toward community college professors and  adjunct faculty. Margaret serves with Maria Maisto, the President of the New Faculty Majority, an advocacy group for adjunct faculty. A motion calling for the Integrated Post-secondary Data System (IPEDS) to require institutions to report  pay for Part-time faculty came out of the committee's work in January of this  year.

Dr. Margaret Hanzimanolis participated in the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education, in Sacramento, during Jan 20-22 this year.

The "think tank" discussed three new proposals for financing higher education, including Bob Samuels' "Free Higher Education" proposal, which consists  of a plan for reallocating and rearranging existing funding streams.