Cal Poly Update - September 2009
Alumni News
Tickets on Sale Online Now for Homecoming Game, BBQ and Wine Tasting
Cal Poly's annual Homecoming celebration is set for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16 and 17. Tickets went on sale Sept. 1 on the Homecoming Web site for the Tailgate BBQ and 14th Annual Cal Poly Alumni Association Wine Tasting. Football tickets are available through Cal Poly Athletics web site. Be sure to order tickets online now for the barbecue and wine tasting -- both events sell out weeks before Homecoming every year. Get your game tickets now, too, to see Cal Poly take on Southern Utah University Oct. 17 in Alex G. Spanos Stadium. Are you a member of the Class of 1959 or earlier? Come back to campus to enjoy your 50th Reunion during the Grand Reunion. The 2009 Honored Alumni will be recognized at the Honored Alumni Banquet on Oct. 16 -- another Homecoming tradition.
Get details and tickets to the Homecoming Reunion, BBQ and Wine Tasting
Get tickets to the Nov. 17 Homecoming Football Game at www.gopoly.com
Visit the Homecoming Web site at www.homecoming.calpoly.edu
Learn to Network the No-Stress Way with Teleseminars Sponsored by CPAA
The Cal Poly Alumni Association is presenting a series of teleseminars designed to help alumni increase their business networking savvy and success. Discover a natural networking style that's sure to help open doors in a down economy and learn to create and nurture the connections you will need to thrive in these challenging economic times. Presented by Carol Ross & Associates, each session is 75 minutes long and includes a 50-minute presentation and 25 minutes for questions and answers. The teleseminars are Oct. 27, Nov. 3 and Nov. 10 and are offered twice each day. Topics are: Oct. 27, avoiding common traps in networking; Nov. 3, creating meaningful conversations and lasting connections; and Nov. 10, in-person and online networking -- putting it all together. The series is a package including all three events (teleseminars cannot be purchased separately). Cost to participants is $75 for Alumni Association members and $85 for non-members. (Regular Price is $189). Registration opens Sept. 21.
For details and registration, check the PolyLink Alumni Events Calendar
Alumni in the News:
Liftoff Accomplished, Dancing with the Stars and More
Maintaining the Mustangs' presence in outer space is Col. Rick Sturckow. Sturckow is commanding the Space Shuttle Atlantis on its current mission to the International Space Station. The Atlantis blasted off into orbit Aug. 29. This is Sturckow's fourth space mission. Alumni astronaut Gregg Chamitoff, now back down to earth, will be heading to space again in the future. And the toughest accountant to graduate from Cal Poly -- former UFC Champion Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell -- is heading for a new arena: "Dancing with the Stars." These are just a few of the alumni who made headlines this month. Find out about the rest -- and see if you know any of them.
August Alumni in the News
CPAA September Events -
Network in Napa, Taste Sustainable Wine at Martinelli, Tailgate at SJ State
Get together with alumni for networking and fun at three Cal Poly Alumni Association chapters around the San Francisco Bay Area this month. Join The North Bay Alumni Chapter in Napa for a networking breakfast Thursday, Sept. 15, and learn the latest tips on getting your resume noticed from speaker Ed Esclovon, a human resources leader. For a later start time, try the North Bay Chapter's tour and tasting at the historical Martinelli Winery outside Windsor in West Sonoma County wine country. Learn about sustainable farming practices and taste some new releases. September 26, 2009 Join Cal Poly alumni and fans for Cal Poly Football at San Jose State. Purchase tickets for the pre-game tailgate and for the game in Spartan Stadium. Parents and friends are always welcome.
Details for all events are on the PolyLink Alumni Events Calendar
Support The Class of 2010 - Join the E-Mentoring Group
This fall, for the first time since PolyLink launched in 2007, current seniors will be invited to join the free, private, secure Cal Poly social network. That means some 4,000 current Cal Poly students will have access to PolyLink -- and plenty of them will be looking for mentors, advice and career tips. The PolyLink Mentoring Group (login required) will be the quickest and easiest place for seniors and young alumni to browse for mentors (or mentees) for informal online e-mentoring. Haven't thought about mentoring yet but want to? Or are you interested in finding a mentor in your career field? Log in to PolyLink and join the Mentoring Group today at www.calpolylink.com/mentoring
Details on mentoring seniors, new grads through PolyLink
Cal Poly on YouTube: Disney Roller Coaster
Students in Cal Poly's College of Engineering designed a roller coaster maintenance vehicle for Animal Kingdom at Disney 
World. This was a hands-on, team-based project including research, design, testing and implementation of real world applications. Check out the new YouTubeCalPoly video channel any time. You’ll find examples of hands-on student research and projects, campus developments and more on Cal Poly's own YouTube channel. Subscribe to the YouTube Cal Poly channel to see videos as soon as they're uploaded.
See the YouTubeCalPoly video of the Disney Roller Coaster Project
Alumni Photo of the Month: On Top of Mt. Everest for Discovery
Megan Delehanty (B.S., Graphic Communications, 1985) is the September PolyLink Alumni Photo of the Month winner for this shot of herself and her sherpa on the summit of Mt. Everest. Really. It was Delehanty's second trip to the top of the world; she made her first in 2007.
On May 23, 2009, she reached the summit of Mount Everest with Himalayan Experience, a team being filmed for Discovery Channel. The show, "Everest - Beyond the Limit" will air in November or December, and Delehanty is one of the featured climbers. Stay tuned for details on showtimes and dates as they become available.
When she's not on Everest, Delehanty is a corporate international tax consultant for a global software company. (After getting her Cal Poly degree she got an MBA from Santa Clara University and became a CPA). Delehanty is blogging about her mountain climbing, built her own web site and has an extensive gallery of photos there from her travels over the past 24 years. She's just one of the 13,800 cool alumni in PolyLink, Cal Poly's free social network for alumni.
View the 2009 PolyLink Alumni Photo of the Month winners (no login required)
University News
Seventeen Years and Counting as Best in West in U.S. News Rankings
For the 17th year in a row, Cal Poly has been rated the best public master's university in the West by U.S. News & World Report, in its 2010 America 's Best Colleges guidebook. Cal Poly moved up four spots from 10th to sixth in the magazine's overall list of the West's best universities, including both public and private institutions, that provide "a full range of undergraduate and master's-level programs but few, if any, doctoral programs." U.S. News ranks colleges that grant doctoral degrees, such as those in the University of California system, in a separate category.
Read more about the rankings
Cal Poly Expects New Crop of Roughly 4,600 Freshmen, Transfer Students
Fall Quarter starts Sept. 21, and Cal Poly is expecting to see a little more than 3,800 new freshmen and 750 transfer students. In what has become an annual tradition, Cal Poly received an overwhelming number of applicants again last spring. Nearly 37,000 students applied to Cal Poly and competed for this fall's open class seats. The Fall '09 freshmen and transfer students are again the cream of the crop. The roughly 3,886 freshmen enrolled for fall 2009 have an average SAT1 score of 1,238 (Cal Poly uses only SAT1 math and reading scores in admissions) and an average ACT score of 28. Their average GPA is 3.80. The fall 2009 transfer students had an average GPA of 3.32. (The enrollment numbers are preliminary -- the official Cal Poly student headcount is in October.)
Read more about Cal Poly students (pdf)
Swanton Pacific Ranch Serves as Haven for Four-Footed Fire Evacuees
Cal Poly's Swanton Pacific Ranch served as a haven for Santa Cruz animals displaced by the area's Lockheed Fire in August. All Cal Poly animals and operations were evacuated to Swanton Pacific's corrals Aug. 12 as the Lockheed Fire burned close to upper portions of the ranch. Swanton's cattle corrals remained safe outside the evacuation zone and located close to Highway 1 in Davenport, north of Santa Cruz. Swanton opened its corrals to ranch neighbors and took in 11 evacuated horses during the fire. In the days after Cal Fire lifted the evacuation order for the area Aug. 23, faculty, students and staff returned to survey for damage.
Visit the Swanton Pacific Ranch Web site
Today's Students
Engineering Team Wins National HVAC Design Competition
Students from Cal Poly's College of Engineering took first place in a national collegiate competition involving designing heating, air conditioning and ventilation (HVAC) systems. The Mustang student engineers were competing against teams from 32 colleges across the United States. The Cal Poly team took first place in the HVAC System Design category, besting Kansas State University, among others. Winning team members were Craig Allen, Brian Sybesma, Chan Kim, William Raschefsky and Elyse Widin, advised by Professor Jesse Maddren.
Read the story on Thomas Industrial News
Cal Poly Floral Design Team Takes Silver in National Student Competition
Cal Poly’s Floral Design Team took second place in the student competition held at the American Institute of Floral Designers National Symposium in July. The symposium was held in Kansas City, Mo., and featured programs and presentations featuring national and international AIFD designers, in addition to the student competition. Cal Poly’s Floral Design team included Horticulture and Crop Science students Danielle Ruais, Lisa Baray, Beth Hall and Amanda Lemm. The team members, coached by Melinda Lynch, competed against 32 other students from eight schools in the U.S. and Canada.
More on the floral design contest
Faculty & Staff
Management Professor Published in Wall Street Journal
How to climb the corporate ladder was the topic of a Wall Street Journal article co-authored by Management Professor Dawn Chandler. Chandler, a professor in Cal Poly's Orfalea College of Business, and co-authors Douglas T. Hall and Kathy E. Kram wrote "How to Be a Smart Protégé." Chandler was also interviewed by the Wall Street Journal for its video section.
See the full "Smart Protégé " article
View the WSJ video interview with Professor Chandler
Professor Offers Prescription for California's San Joaquin Delta
Professor Charles Burt, director of Cal Poly's Irrigation Training and Research Center, wrote a guest column published in the Sacramento Bee Sunday, Aug. 30. Burt, an international expert on irrigation issues and techniques, outlined problems facing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. "What does it mean to restore health to the Delta?" he asked.
Read Professor Burt's guest column in the Sacramento Bee
Passings: Foods Professor Bob Noyes
Food Science Professor Emeritus Robert Noyes, 68, of San Luis Obispo passed away Aug. 18 after a 19-month battle with brain cancer. Professor Noyes taught in the Food Science Department at Cal Poly from 1974 to 2001. He was also 39-year member of the Institute of Food Technologists and was made a Fellow of the Institute in thanks for his service.
Read the obituary in the SLO Tribune
Coming Up
Hear Omnivore Author Pollan Speak at Cal Poly Sustainable Ag Benefit Oct. 14
Meet nationally recognized author, journalist, teacher and sustainable foods advocate Michael Pollan at the Oct. 14 "Taste of the Future" benefit at the Conway Family Vineyards south of San Luis Obispo. The event is a benefit for the university's Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium, part of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. The evening also features a gourmet dinner with local and sustainably raised ingredients prepared by some of the Central Coast’s finest chefs and vintners. Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” was named one of the 10 best books of the year by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Pollan will also speak on campus Thursday, Oct. 15, at a Sustainability Fair and Showcase at the Performing Arts Center.
More on the dinner and Pollan's appearance | More on the Sustainability Showcase & Fair
Alumni: Win an Autographed Copy of Michael Pollan's Latest Book
Author Michael Pollan’s newest book is “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.” Win an autographed copy. Just log in to PolyLink by Sept. 18 and fill out the 'Defense of Food' entry form.
Click here for the entry form (PolyLink login required)
Click here for info on how to get a PolyLink login code -- alumni only!
See 'D-List' Comedienne Kathy Griffin Sept. 23
Sharp-tongued comedienne Kathy Griffin will perform in the Christopher Cohan Center Sept. 23. Griffin has performed a set of four successful stand-up specials for Bravo network. She's also an Emmy-winner. In August 2005 her reality show, "Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List," debuted on Bravo to rave reviews. It has run for three seasons, the latest during the summer of 2007. The first three seasons of "My Life On The D-List" were each nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program.
More on Griffin coming to the PAC
Country Legend Merle Haggard in Concert Sept. 30
Cal Poly Arts presents country legend Merle Haggard in concert Sept. 30 in the Christopher Cohan Center. In the ever-expanding array of country music stars, hit- makers and idols, Haggard walks in no man’s shadow. A craggy troubadour known as “the father of country music,” there is no one in contemporary country music who has created a more impressive legacy in a wider variety of styles. With special guests, The Malpass Brothers.
Merle Haggard Details
Hear Imani Winds Perform Classics Oct. 2
Cal Poly Arts presents Imani Winds and guest Stefon Harris in concert Oct. 2. Imani Winds has carved a distinct presence in classical music with their dynamic playing, culturally poignant programming and genre-blurring collaborations. Special guest jazz vibraphonist Harris joins the quintet for an extraordinary evening.
More on Imani Winds
Byrds Guitarist Roger McGuinn in Concert Oct. 10
Cal Poly Arts presents '60s folk great Roger McGuinn in concert Oct. 10. McGuinn, an American singer/songwriter and master guitarist, is best known for his success as the leader of The Byrds, seminal founders of the folk/rock movement in the '60s. Now, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer McGuinn brings his unique blend of folk music and musical virtuosity to an intimate solo acoustic show. With special guest, local singer/songwriter Jill Knight.
More on McGuinn concert
Free Opera Workshop with UCLA Music Professor Oct. 13
On Tuesday, Oct. 13, Cal Poly's Music Department presents a vocal master class with Juliana Gondek at 7 p.m. in the Davidson Music Center Room. Gondek is a world-renowned soprano and chairwoman of the UCLA Voice Department. Six of Cal Poly Music Department’s leading voice emphasis music majors will perform.
Details on the Opera Workshop
More campus Events & Entertainment listings