Cal Poly Update - January 2009
Alumni News
Alumni in the News:
From the Wall Street Journal
to the SF Museum of Modern Art
Ag alumnus Grant Lundberg, CEO of Lundberg Family Farms, made the Wall Street Journal's list of 'Top Small Employers.' College of Liberal Arts alum Brian Singer's "1,000 Journals" project is on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Engineering alum Charles Garcia made the St. Paul Pioneer Press list of 'Movers' for his business development work at Minnetronix. And Engineering grad Ric Turner's Disney-worthy holiday light show is burning through the Web from YouTube. There was a bumper crop of alumni in the news over the past month -- read on to find out if you know any of them.
Alumni in the News
Travel to China or Tuscany in '09 with Cal Poly Alumni
The Cal Poly Alumni Association and Cal Poly Continuing Education are touring China and cruising the Yangtze River April 29-May 11, then heading to Tuscany Sept. 16-24. Tour Beijing's Imperial Palaces and the Great Wall, see Xi'an's Terra Cotta Warriors, visit Shanghai, cruise the Yangtze River, and more. Tuscany's Cortona is where CPAA first began its travel program in 2004. The inspiration for Frances Mayes' book, "Under the Tuscan Sun," Cortona captures the charm of Italian country living. You don't have to be alumni to travel with CPAA - all Cal Poly friends are welcome.
More on the 2009 CPAA Travel adventures
PolyLink Photo of the Month: Soccer Head
January's PolyLink Photo of the Month winner is Joe Tarica (B.S., Journalism, English, '93) for this photo if his son, Josh, at a soccer game in Atascadero when he was 4 years old. Tarica is the presentation editor at the San Luis Obispo Tribune, where he oversees the production side of the newsroom, including photographers, designers and copy editors. He and his wife Stephanie (B.S., Biology, '93) live in Atascadero; Stephanie Tarica is a practicing veterinarian. Also part of the Taricas' set of little Mustangs is Lauren, 8. Tarica has a PolyLink personal photo album full of more great shots taken across the U.S. -- camping and hiking are high on the Tarica family pastime list.
PolyLink members: sign in and see more of Tarica's Photos on his Personal Page
Everyone else can see more PolyLink Photo of the Month winners any time in the University Photos Gallery - no sign-in needed.
Just for Alumni: The PolyLink Job Boards
Searching for a job? Does your company have a job opening? Head to the PolyLink Job Boards to check out the job postings from alumni across California and the U.S. There are seven mid-career job openings posted on the job boards right now -- including top positions in engineering and risk management. As of January, there are 10,655 alumni in PolyLink - and thousands of them check in to the free, private online network for Mustang alumni every month after getting Update.
PolyLink Alumni: Click here to go to the PolyLink job boards (login required)
Alumni: click here to request your PolyLink first-time login code
University News
Tim Walsh Hired to Lead Cal Poly Mustang Football
Tim Walsh was a quarterback on UC Riverside’s last football team in 1975. He coached against the Mustangs while at Sonoma State in the early 1990s and at Portland State in the mid-1990s. Today, Walsh finds himself on the other side of the field. Walsh, 54, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the United States Military Academy the last two seasons, was named Cal Poly’s 16th head football coach at a press conference held Jan. 9 in Mott Gym’s Mustang Hall. “Tim Walsh brings all of the qualities we were looking for in a head coach for our football team,” Cal Poly Director of Athletics Alison Cone said. “He has been a successful head coach at two universities in California."
Read the full story on GoPoly.com - includes video link
Rose Float Wins First-Ever Tournament of Roses Viewers’ Choice Award
The Cal Poly universities’ 2009 Rose Float, “Seaside Amusement,” won the first-ever Viewers’ Choice Award for the Tournament of Roses Parade. The Cal Poly Float received 3,219 votes out of a total of 10,618 cast online New Year's Day. More than 1,500 PolyLink alumni cast ballots online after receiving a 'Vote for the Cal Poly Rose Float' e-mail Dec. 30 -- helping the 2009 Rose Float team snag the new 'Viewers' Choice' award. The team was carrying on a tradition dating back to 1949; the float was built by students at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and California State Polytechnic University in Pomona.
More on the Cal Poly Rose Float award
Slideshow: 2009 Rose Float - You will need Adobe Flash Player to view the slideshows
download Flash player free
Annual Cal Poly Wine Festival Set for April 25
The Cal Poly Vines to Wines club will host its seventh annual Cal Poly Wine Festival on Saturday, April 25 at the Santa Margarita Ranch. The event will feature wineries from all over California as well as many local restaurants and caterers. Last year the event drew more than 1,000 wine enthusiasts, Cal Poly students and alumni. More than 100 wineries attended the event from the Napa/Sonoma, Lodi, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara regions. Proceeds benefit the Wine and Viticulture degree program at Cal Poly.
More on the 2009 Cal Poly Wine Festival
Update E-Newsletter, PolyLink Online Community Take Gold Medals
Cal Poly's University Advancement Division and its Public Affairs office have received two gold medals for excellence in communications from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Western Region. The successful launch and membership drive of PolyLink, the new online community for Cal Poly alumni, won the top award for Best Social Media Campaign. Cal Poly Update, the university's monthly e-newsletter, took first place in the e-mail newsletter category. PolyLink and Cal Poly Update were judged against entries from public and private universities, colleges and schools in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii and Guam.
More on the awards for Cal Poly Update and PolyLink
Read Winter Cal Poly Magazine Online Now
Want to know more about Chuck Liddell, the toughest accounting major you'll ever meet? Or F-18 Hornet Pilot Victor Glover? Or what it's like to try to make a documentary film on horseback in outer Mongolia? Or what happened in the first few seconds after the universe was formed? Those are just a few of the things Cal Poly alumni, faculty and students are working on, and just a few of the stories in the latest Cal Poly Magazine.
Read Cal Poly Magazine online
Cal Poly to Welcome Chinese Students
in New Dual Master's Program
Cal Poly's College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences is preparing to welcome its first two students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China to study dairy science in San Luis Obispo as part of the campuses' new dual master's degree program. The first two Jiao Tong students are scheduled to arrive at Cal Poly in Fall 2009 for the second half of a two-and-a-half year master's degree program. They will take mostly classroom courses in the first half at Jiao Tong, followed by 12 to 14 months at Cal Poly focused largely on research.
More On the Dual Master's Degree Program
This Library is NOT a Boring Place
Cal Poly's Kennedy Library is entering a new era, with digital archives, electronic meeting rooms, expanded collections, computer labs, 24-hour study, a patisserie and cafe. And yes, they do still have books and a quiet zone. Find out what's new and exciting -- yes, exciting -- at Cal Poly's Kennedy Library by reading their Fall Newsletter
Click here for the Kennedy Library Fall Newsletter Online
Faculty & Staff
Philosophy Prof Edits Works on
Ethics of Human Enhancement
Assistant Philosophy Professor Patrick Lin has co-edited a new collection of papers focused on the ethics of human enhancement technologies. The symposium of papers focuses on ethical and societal problems arising from human enhancement applications of emerging technologies, especially nanotechnology. The symposium appears in the December 2008 issue of NanoEthics journal published by Springer, one of the world’s largest publishers in science, technology, and medicine. Visit http://www.nanoethics.org/paper_enhance.html to read the symposium.
In the Navy:
J-Prof Spends A Week on Aircraft Carrier While Son Serves
Cal Poly Journalism Professor Doug Swanson wrote a column about his recent experience aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, where his son is serving in the Navy. Swanson spent a week aboard the USS Ronald Reagan as it returned from a six-month deployment to Asia and the Persian Gulf. While there, he studied the Reagan’s Graphics Media Unit, which is staffed by 35 people responsible for a twice-weekly onboard news magazine, two Web sites, four channels of in-house produced television programming,
Click here to read it in the San Luis Obispo Tribune
Architecture Professor Receives National Teaching Award
Cal Poly architecture professor Stephen J. Phillips was awarded the New Faculty Teaching Award by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). The award recognizes demonstrated excellence in teaching performance during the formative years of an architectural teaching career. The 2008-09 ACSA awards were announced Dec. 5 in Washington, D.C. Phillips was one of three professors to receive the honor.
More on Phillips
Current Students
Students Gather More Than 400 Gifts for the Needy
Cal Poly students collected more than 400 gifts, valued at a total of more than $4,500, to give to local low-income children and teens for Christmas. The drive was organized by the Student Community Services program in Cal Poly's Student Life and Leadership office. Students gave them to several Central Coast agencies, including: Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Luis Obispo County, Pacheco Elementary School in San Luis Obispo, the Housing Authority of the City of San Luis Obispo, the county Department of Social Services, and the Economic Opportunity Commission, just before Christmas.
More on the gift drive
Landscape Architecture Student Awarded National Scholarship
Cal Poly Landscape Architecture student Yessenia Alvarez-Lopez was awarded a scholarship by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Council of Fellows. Rodney Swink, chairman of the Council of Fellows, noted that the 2008 pool of applicants was particularly outstanding. Alvarez-Lopez was “quickly singled out for her strong academic record, her many community initiatives and efforts beyond the college setting, and her unique financial challenges.”
More on the scholarship
Cal Poly Horse Judging Team Fares Well at Competition in Oklahoma City
Cal Poly's Horse Judging Team placed third this month at the Collegiate Judging Contest at the National Reining Horse Association's 2008 Futurity in Oklahoma City. Team member Virginia Vouri also placed fifth in the competition's individual standings.
More on the Horse Judging Team's Accomplishments
Student Nets Wine and Food Institute Scholarship,
Launches Local Group Chapter
Cal Poly graduate student Jeffery Landolt has netted his second scholarship from the San Diego Chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food. Meanwhile, the Crop Science student recently launched a San Luis Obispo County chapter of the national institute, hoping to facilitate communication between academia and the local farm and wine industries and educate local residents about food and wine.
More on Landolt's scholarship and AIWF chapter
Coming Up
'Designer’s Designer’ Exhibit in University Art Gallery Jan. 9 - Feb. 20
Renowned illustrator and designer Marian Bantjes will showcase her unique work in the next University Art Gallery exhibit, to run at Cal Poly from Jan. 9 through Feb. 20. As part of the exhibition, Bantjes will present a lecture Jan. 16, and a reception will follow in the University Art Gallery. Bantjes has been referred to as a “designer’s designer” who is equally at home with a pen, a computer, or just a piece of cake and some powdered sugar. The exhibition will reflect the diversity of her creative production to present a complete picture of her work.
More about the Bantjes exhibition
Annie' Comes to the PAC January 19, 20
Leapin’ lizards! Annie is coming back in SLO! The timeless tale of Little Orphan Annie will give a whole new generation the chance to experience this classic musical about never giving up hope. Boasting one of Broadway’s most memorable scores, including “It’s a Hard-Knock Life,” “Easy Street,” and the ever-optimistic, “Tomorrow,” Annie is a delightful theatrical experience. Don’t miss this all-new national touring production that Variety calls “a winner!”
More on 'Annie'
See the Inaguration Live in UU 220 January 20
Associated Students, Inc., University Housing, and the MultiCultural Center will to host a live viewing party for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration on January 20, and students, faculty, staff and the community are invited to the free event. It starts at 7:30 a.m. in University Union 220. The live television presentation will be projected onto a large screen inside the room, alongside free food, coffee, and juice. The room will transformed for a festive celebration of the American democratic process.
Details on the inaguration event
San Francisco Symphony Plays
in Harman Hall January 23
The San Francisco Symphony has developed a distinguished history and since 1995, its outstanding musicianship under Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas has been lauded worldwide and become known for innovative programming and symphonic brilliance. Stopping in San Luis Obispo on one of their rare touring events, the evening will include Our Town by Copland, Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra, Opus 6, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Opus 64.
More on the SF Symphony
Early Music Ensemble Plays Music of the Missions January 24
Cal Poly’s Early Music Ensemble will present works of the California missions at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, in the Pavilion of the Performing Arts Center’s Christopher Cohan Center at Cal Poly.
The concert, titled “Masters of the Mission,” will feature works that were reconstructed from the original sources in the missions by Cal Poly Music Professor and noted California mission music scholar Craig Russell. The Early Music Ensemble will be joined by a small instrumental group, including Russell on baroque guitar. Cal Poly Music Professor Thomas Davies will conduct the performance.
More on the Music of the Missions concert
Cal Poly Orchesis Dance Troupe Presents
'Impact' January 30 - Feb. 1, Feb. 5-6
The annual Orchesis Dance concert will present dynamic choreography in a wide range of styles, including ballet, jazz, modern, tap, hip-hop and cultural dance in this year's performance: "Impact." Students will perform original works by professional choreographers, faculty, local artists and selected students. Performances run Jan. 30-Feb. 1, and Feb. 5-6 in the Performing Arts Center.
More on the Orchesis concert
Annual 'Night at the Mission' Concert Benefits
Cal Poly Music Department February 7
The Cal Poly Music Department will present it's annual "A Night at the Mission" benefit concert on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. in Mission San Luis Obispo. An evening of beautiful music performed by talented chamber ensembles. Performing at this event will be the Aurora Borealis Wind Quintet, Celestial Winds Quintet, Saxophone Quartets, Horn Choir, Clarinet Ensemble, Brass Quintets, Trombone Choir and Brass Choir.
More on A Night at the Mission
Russian Ballet Dances 'Cinderella' February 10
With a nod to the classic fairy tale, The State Ballet of Russia's international production of "Cinderella" is a delightful parody of enormous egos versus simple dreams. Choreographer Vladimir Vasiliev’s staging imagination and the technical prowess of the 54-member company, backed by Sergei Prokofiev’s luscious score, creates a wondrous evening to remind us all that impossible dreams can indeed come true. The Palm Beach Daily News calls the production “Resplendent beauty – manifest not only in choreography and dancing, but in a beautifully unified costume, set, and lighting design."
More on 'Cinderella'
More Campus Events & Entertainment