Cañada College Student Invited to Debut Short Film at Cannes

A chance meeting and a simple sneeze led a Cañada College multimedia student to produce a five-minute film that will be featured at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Sir Wade Neistadt was notified by email last week that his short film, KERFLOOEY, is one of 26 student-produced films that will be featured in the Short Film Corner, one of three main sections of the famous French film festival. In addition, Neistadt’s film will be featured at Universal Studios in Hollywood in June as part of a three-day red carpet event where industry professionals host workshops and network with student filmmakers from around the country.

The idea for KERFLOOEY came from Neistadt and Cañada College classmate Melissa Loi, an aspiring writer. They met in a psychology course section. “When I met Wade he was trying to add the psychology class I was already registered for. He came into class and sneezed, I said ‘bless you,’ and we ended up doing ice breaker work in class. We paired up and became friends,” Loi said.

Neistadt, who grew up in Apple Valley and attended Granite Hills High School, transferred to Cañada from CSU San Marcos because he wanted to be in Silicon Valley to pursue his dream of making films. “I researched community colleges in the area and Cañada was the only school with both a good computer science program and multimedia program. When I visited the school last spring, I met Paul Naas, program coordinator for the Multimedia Art & Technology Program, and he convinced me Cañada was the right place for me.”

Neistadt began refining his video editing and special effects skills under the tutelage of Cañada faculty, many who have worked at major studios such as Disney, Pixar and Wildbrain. “The storytelling the faculty has done over the years for those studios is experience that a motivated student can draw from,” Naas said. “It’s pretty unique among community college animation and multimedia programs. Wade’s the kind of student who digs deeper into a subject – asking questions, incorporating feedback, and leveraging the knowledge and experience of faculty to make his projects better.”

What Neistadt couldn’t foresee was the simple sneeze that led him to meet Loi would be the catalyst for the creation of Manly Man, the protagonist in KERFLOOEY.

When Neistadt learned last November that Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest student film festival and a premier outlet for the next generation of filmmakers, would be at Cañada to host a competition, he was determined to enter. He ran into Loi, a graduate of Carlmont High School, at the Cañada College Learning Center and they talked about the competition and began reviewing five-minute films on YouTube created by their favorite stars. That’s when Loi had an idea.

“I thought it would be cool to make a movie about a superhero, since everyone seems obsessed with comic book characters…but maybe a superhero that can’t quite save the world at the moment.”

Manly Man, Sub City’s local superhero, was born but, unlike most superheroes, he wasn’t invincible. He was fighting a cold at the same time he was saving Sub City from the fearsome Madame Mayhem. As the story unfolds, every Manly Man sneeze brings Madame Mayhem closer to defeat while giving Neistadt an opportunity to display the special effects skills he refined in his Cañada classes. “I remembered that sneeze from our first meeting,” Loi said. “I began thinking about how people love comic books and they love to laugh. Comedy is a popular genre because it makes people happy and sometimes making people happy means purposefully falling on top of a garbage can several times.”

“Melissa wrote the story and it was brilliant,” Neistadt said. “I couldn’t have made this movie without her.”

They entered their film in the Campus MovieFest competition at Cañada and received a Silver Tripod Award for “Best Special Effects,” a Best Actor Award for Neistadt’s portrayal of Manly Man, and, to their amazement, the Best Picture Award.

“At the campus awards ceremony, we were told that Campus MovieFest has the opportunity to send about 30 student films to the Cannes Film Festival,” Neistadt said. “I was shocked to find out our film was chosen.”

Naas said having a film at Cannes is a major accomplishment for any filmmaker. “For a student filmmaker to achieve this is spectacular. I’m thrilled Wade’s hard work is being acknowledged. He has a very cinematic eye and several of the shots in the film are quite innovative.”

Loi said the movie’s success has surprised her. “I honestly didn’t expect this much attention to come out of our little movie, but I guess because I’m one of the film’s creators, all I see are the little things that went wrong.”

Manly Man’s sneezes will lead Neistadt to the Villa Maupassant Hotel in the south of France May 12-26 where KERFLOOEY will be featured at the film festival.

“While I’m there, I will be walking the red carpet with actors, directors, producers, and all sorts of celebrities,” he said. “I’ll be watching the world premiers of the Cannes Official Selection, going to workshops and Q&A sessions and making connections with a bunch of amazing and talented people. I still can’t believe this is happening.”

KERFLOOEY can be viewed at http://youtu.be/M2Osdbg1Vt0

Rally for Sustainability Celebrates Opening of EV Charging Stations

The San Mateo County Community College District will celebrate the installation of plug-in Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure at all three Colleges and the District Office. The Grand Opening begins on October 28th at 11:30a.m. at the Skyline College Auto Department where students, faculty, staff, and members of the community will participate in the ribbon cutting ceremony. The ceremony will acknowledge industry partners, as well as the Auto Technology program’s new curriculum focused on Electric Vehicles. 

At 12:30p.m., the EV Rally will begin. EV owners past, present and future are encouraged to join the Rally by driving to College of San Mateo for a ribbon cutting of the charging station in DaVinci Lot (Lot 3) at 1:00 p.m. The EV Rally will reach the finish line in Parking Lot 4 at Cañada College at approximately 1:30 p.m. where the third and final ribbon cutting will take place and a number of EV’s will be on display. Come for all or some of the event to see the future of the sustainable transportation in San Mateo County. In 2012, the College District collaborated with Schneider Electric in a public/private partnership to install eleven Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations at each of its campuses Chancellor’s Office.

The District received funding from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to develop and deploy alternative and renewable fuels and advanced transportation technologies to help attain the state’s climate change policies. Furthermore, the District matched the funds of the CEC to achieve its goals for sustainability: improve the campus-wide system of alternative fuel infrastructure, support the use of electric vehicles, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, establish workforce training programs and offer opportunities for student learning.

Cañada Professor Earns Best Paper Award at Engineering Conference

The presentation outlined a successful summer research internship at the school

In 2011, Professor Enriquez (fourth from left) was honored by President Obama for his mentoring activities.

Cañada College Professor Amelito Enriquez was honored last month at the American Society for Engineering Education Conference for his presentation detailing a partnership between the college, San Francisco State University, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center that provides internship opportunities for Cañada students

The paper, titled “Promoting Academic Excellence Among Underrepresented Community College Engineering Students through a Summer Research Internship Program,” received the Best Paper Award from the ASEE Two-Year College Division. The annual conference was held June 23-26 in Atlanta, Georgia.

The partnership between the two schools and NASA was developed through a three-year grant funded by the NASA Curriculum Improvements Partnership Award for the Integration of Research (CIPAIR) program. The 10-week summer internship provides opportunities for freshmen and sophomore students at Cañada to participate in engineering research under the supervision of SFSU faculty and a graduate student mentor. 

Research topics include performance-based earthquake engineering, circuit design for biomedical applications, embedded system design, and transistor reliability issues in nano-scale circuits. 

Enriquez said the program was developed to help improve student retention. “A recent report prepared by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, indicates that the United States needs to produce one million additional STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) professionals in the next decade to retain its historical preeminence in science and technology,” Enriquez said. “The report indicated that retaining students in the first two years of college is the most promising and cost-effective strategy to address this need.”

John Paulino, a former Aragon High School graduate, spent two summers in the internship program while studying at Cañada. He is now studying mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley and has been named a NASA Student Ambassador mentoring other engineering students.

“Being a NASA Student Ambassador connects me with a network of great professionals," he said. In addition, Paulino credits the ambassador program with connecting him to peers, preparing him to enter the STEM workforce, and allowing him to represent NASA toinsprie and engage future scientists and engineers. Paulino said it was all made possible through the 10-week internship program at Cañada.

Jesus Garcia spent his summer internship at SFSU learning how to conduct research and work with groups of researchers. "These are two very important skills for engineers," he said. "The internship also helped me become a better analyst, critical thinker, and problem solver. It's a perfect opportunity for students who have no previous experience to gain real-world knowledge in the field of engineering."

Garcia studied under SFSU Professor Cheng Chen, investigating a phenomenon called Soft Oxide Breakdown in the performance of integrated circuits. He later presented his findings at a regional ASEE conference. 

“In the first two years, the program has generated high quality research from participating students,” Enriquez said. He said post-program surveys indicate participating students strengthen their identity as engineers, increase their interest in research, and become more motivated to transfer to a four-year university, complete their bachelor's degree in engineering, a pursue a graduate degree.

Simple Advice For Your First Day at Cañada

So, you are preparing for your first day of the new semester and you want it to go as smooth as possible. We're here to help. If you take a few simple steps, and do a little planning, you'll have no problems. Let's get started.

· Arrive Early - If you pull onto campus 10 minutes before class starts you're off to a bad start. Parking on a college campus is never easy. Give yourself at least 20 minutes. Remember, you're not going to have Rock Star parking next to your class. Be sure to review the parking map and have a contingency plan if the lot you want to park in is full. Student Lots are Lot 1, 7, 8, 10 and 6. Do not park in staff lots without the appropriate permit or you are sure to get a ticket. You'll need to buy a parking permit but campus security will not issue tickets in student lots until Monday, Jan. 28.

· Know Where You Are Going - Because you have a plan, you'll have a great parking spot. But how do you get to your classes? Luckily, the Cañada campus is not that big. Review the campus map and your schedule of classes. Buildings at Cañada are numbered and each room in the building has its own number. On your schedule the class location will look like this - 3-113. The first number (3) is the building number and the second number (113) is the classroom within the building. If you can't find a class, ask one of the Campus Ambassadors. You can find them in the Information Booths on the quad or at the entrance to the Library off Parking Lot 1. You can also find help at the Welcome Center on the first floor of Building 9.

· Get to Know Building 9 - All essential student services are located in this three-story building. On the first floor you'll find Admissions/Records, Counseling, Financial Aid, Student Activities, Public Safety/Parking, EOPS/CARE/CalWorks, and more. The Learning Center is on the second floor. Here you can use the computers, work with academic tutors, and study in groups. The Library is located on the top floor. Make a point to visit this building on your first day of class.

· The Bookstore - It's college, so you're going to need books. Because you are a college student, you'll also need a soda, bag of chips and candy bar. You can get them all at the bookstore. It's located across from the Main Theater and Gymnasium. The first couple of weeks, the lines are long because everyone is buying books. If you can go in the mid-afternoon, the lines are shorter.

· The Pony Espresso - Ok, it's not essential to know where the coffee shop is located, but you never know when you'll need a cup. The coffee kiosk is located in the Upper Quad near the entrance of Building 13. It's a favorite hangout for students and if you stand around long enough you'll probably find somebody you know.

· The Grove – This is the new Student Center at Cañada. It’s a great place to meet friends, study, and grab a bite to eat. The new Career Center is located in the Grove and the friendly staff can help you write a resume, prepare for a job interview, and search for jobs. There is also a spot in the Grove to just chill and play video games.

· Smoke-Free Campus - If you want to smoke you'll have to do it in designated parking lots because Cañada is a smoke-free campus. Feel free to light up in Lots 1, 7, 6, 8, 10 & 5. But, as a courtesy to staff, faculty, and students who don't smoke, please refrain from smoking on the rest of campus.

· Go to Class - This seems like a no-brainer, right? Well, every semester, there are students that don't show up for class. Because classes are crowded, if you don't show up, you could be dropped from the class. If you are on a wait list to get into a full class, it's even more important to show up on the first day to talk to the professor and see if you can add the class.

Hopefully this guide can help you survive your first day of the new semester. Remember, if you have any questions ask somebody. You'll be surprised at how helpful the staff, faculty and your fellow students can be.

Danielle Pelletier Leads Statewide Effort to Teach English in the Workplace

Danielle Pelletier, ESL instructor, has been named coordinator for the Teaching English in the Workplace for the California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (CATESOL). Pelletier has been serving in her new role since last spring.

"The primary initiatives of the CATESOL Teaching English in the Workplace Interest Group is to make sure that there is representation for those California ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers who teach English in the workplace," Pelletier said. "This group is comprised of teachers who teach workers at all levels. This could mean teaching basic English to hotel employees or teaching presentation skills to an executive at a bio-pharmaceutical company."

As the coordinator, Pelletier's primary responsibilities are to recruit, maintain, and develop membership so the group has proper representation. She also works with the members to organize professional workshops in all parts of California. "The workshops are designed to help our members continue with professional development between CATESOL conferences."

Whereas most schools are cutting back on ESL teachers, companies throughout California are realizing the value of having their employees feel confident about speaking English and understanding the U.S. culture of business, Pelletier said. "The TEW (Teaching English in the Workforce) group is fortunate to be in a field that is continually growing and I feel fortunate to be coordinating this group," she said.

Pelletier has also been named President of English League, a Translations and Workforce Language Training company. The company started in 1995 in Boston and moved to the Bay Area in 2002. Pelletier has been with English League since 2000 as a Senior ESL Instructor and Program Director, teaching in companies such as Bose in Boston and Genentech in the Bay Area. "I'm happy to be at the helm- a new adventure for me - and will continue to provide our customized English classes to international professionals all over Silicon Valley and the Bay Area," she said. “It’s also exciting to be working with organizations in this global economy, providing translations services.  It’s a great new world!”