Recent News
Founding Dean of Cal Poly School of Communicative Arts and Humanities Jon Ericson Dies at 92
Feb 10, 2021
Jon Ericson
Former Cal Poly dean Jon Ericson passed away in his home in Pacific Grove, California on Tuesday, January 19 after a lifelong career in education.
In addition to teaching at Stanford University and Central Washington State University in Ellensburg, Ericson founded Cal Poly’s School of Communicative Arts and Humanities (now the College of Liberal Arts) and became its founding dean in 1970.
According to a press release, Ericson is remembered for bringing new inter-disciplinary approaches to a campus focused on agriculture, engineering and other highly technical fields.
“As the founding Dean of a new school, the most important work that could be done was to build a solid foundation to accomplish the work appropriate to a Liberal Arts school in a polytechnic university,” Ericson is quoted in the release.
Ericson is also known for pioneering study abroad programs at Cal Poly, according to the release. Ericson allegedly emphasized low cost and inclusivity for the programs, which at the time were only offered to a select few who could afford it.
In addition to helping make the London Study Program available to Cal Poly students, Ericson also launched English language programs for Japanese university students and organized various cultural events on campus including a symposium devoted to Leonardo Davinci and various musical performances.
Ericson taught speech at Cal Poly during his last two years before retiring in 1996. Ericson is survived by his spouse Amy Ericson, his two daughters, Beth and Ingrid Ericson and his son Joel Ericson. His first son Jon Robert Ericson died in 1992.
Dr. Ericson and his wife established the Jon M. Ericson Founders Endowment for the London Study Program in 2000 to provide scholarships for qualified students with financial need to attend the program.
Please join us in commemorating Dean Ericson’s legacy by contributing to the Jon M. Ericson Founders Endowment for the Cal Poly in London Program. Donations can be provided through this link: https://securelb.imodules.com/s/699/bp19/interior.aspx?sid=699&gid=1&pgid=961&cid=2272&bledit=1&dids=654.
Spanish classes participate in virtual exchange with Argentine students
Jan 28, 2021
By Sophia Lincoln
Universidad Nacional de San Martin
Though she typically spends summers leading a Cal Poly abroad program in Spain, this year world languages and cultures professor Silvia Marijuan decided to give her Spanish language students an entirely different experience with students from her own country of origin: Argentina.
“I think it is very important for students to have a broad international perspective that includes not only a European perspective, but also the perspective of a student from Latin America,” Marijuan said.
According to Marijuan, these two perspectives are quite different especially considering the dictatorships and economic crises that Argentina faced just a few decades ago.
“Argentina is a very interesting country because people there have gone through a lot,” Marijuan said.
Originally from Buenos Aires, Marijuan used to teach at the Universidad Nacional de San Martin (UNSAM). After collaborating with her previous colleagues there, Marijuan was able to put together a virtual global engagement program for her Introduction to Spanish Linguistics class.
According to Marijuan, the program went on for six weeks during Fall Quarter 2020 and required her students to interact with an assigned partner from UNSAM for one hour per week.
Diana Beas is one of Marijuan’s students who was able to participate in the exchange. Beas said that the virtual experience enhanced her learning of the class’ subjects and allowed her to make international connections that she wouldn’t have made otherwise.
“It was a lot of fun meeting someone from a different country,” Beas said. “You get to learn a lot about their culture, their lifestyle, the slang words they use and so much more all while learning about topics related to your class.”
Marijuan said that these friendships her students were able to make with the students at UNSAM is one of the unique benefits of a virtual exchange.
“Sometimes what happens is students go abroad and make really good friends within their groups but not necessarily with the locals there,” Marijuan said.
Marijuan also said that she assigned partners based on similar interests, including majors of study.
“I think the experience was really enriching not only for [Cal Poly] students, but also for the students in Argentina because they were able to discover a lot of things that they never really thought about,” Marijuan said.
Marijuan also plans to write a research paper about the virtual exchange experience to share her and her students’ experiences with other second language educators. She also hopes that these types of virtual programs will become more widespread.
“I think it is very important to offer these opportunities to all students because not every student can afford to go abroad,” Marijuan said. “It’s important to have these kinds of experiences embedded in different classes to offer students internationalization experiences.”
Marijuan said she has received positive feedback from many of her students.
“I was so happy,” Marijaun said. “To see all of the connections was really important to me to build this community.”
Funding for this virtual exchange was provided by the College of Liberal Art's Global Engagement Grant.
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Jazz Ensemble Releases Album
Jan 21, 2021
Cal Poly Jazz Album
Spring quarter's virtual jazz rehearsals culminated in the soon-to-be released album titled "Another time, another place."
The album was organized by Director of Jazz Studies Arthur White, who released his first solo album during the summer.
"Cal Poly’s philosophy is also its pedagogical model: Learn by Doing. Little did we in the jazz program know that we would be doing that in an extreme and unprecedented fashion,” White said.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the double album ended up being recorded by students in their own homes, according to White.
Computer science junior Ethan Zimbelman was one of these students.
“This album really came together once the pandemic started picking up and we were left without a place to rehearse or perform,” Zimbelman wrote in an email. “Dr. White realized that if we weren't able to perform a concert together, we could record an album from our homes!”
According to Zimbelman, students recorded their individual parts and solos on their own and White was then in charge of putting it all together.
“It was up to us as individuals to practice our parts and get our recordings in to Dr. White and make corrections as needed,” Zimbelman said.
The band also met once weekly over Zoom to rehearse.
According to White, guest artists like Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Randy Brecker and saxophonist Ada Rovatti were also featured on the album.
The album will be available through digital platforms including iTunes, Spotify and Amazon. All proceeds from the sale of the album will assist the Cal Poly Jazz Studies Program with recruiting, guest clinicians and artists, recordings and tours in the future.
There will also be a virtual release party on February 19 at 7:30p.m., according to Zimbelman.
“The students performed beautifully,” White said. “They did all of this work while transitioning to complete virtual learning, moving away from campus, and enduring.”
According to Zimbelman, the Jazz Ensemble will continue to make music virtually, “but everybody’s really looking forward to being able to play as an ensemble again.”
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Cal Poly history students collaborate with American University at Kuwait students for history classes
Jan 21, 2021
By Sophia Lincoln
American University of Kuwait
As virtual learning started to become the new reality fall quarter, history professor Farah Al-Nakib saw an opportunity for her History 313 The Modern Middle East students.
Having previously worked at the American University of Kuwait (AUK), Al-Nakib had the idea to connect her class with an American government class at AUK so that students from both universities could learn from each other and gain a better understanding of how modern issues affect both America and Kuwait.
“[The professor at AUK and Al-Nakib] came up with this idea of doing a joint activity during election week here,” Al-Nakib said. “Instead of having actual class that week, we did a virtual exchange module where we had students from my class and [the AUK class] do the same readings... and then in their discussion groups we gave them certain activities to do together to work together to discuss.”
Al-Nakib also hopes to design a quarter-long virtual exchange course with a partner institution so that students from both schools can develop international relations and learn through global engagement.
“The feedback I have gotten so far from students is that they actually really, really love engaging with students from across the world,” Al-Nakib said. “Students are able to learn about difference, but also better appreciate the similarities and commonalities that we all share across the world.”
Victoria Duehring, Samuel Smith and Kyle Kerr are some of the students who were able to participate in the virtual module during election week.
Duehring, Smith and Kerr all said that they had very positive experiences engaging with the students from AUK and said they would recommend the virtual exchange to other students interested in the class.
“We live in a globalized world, and we should take advantage of that,” Duehring said. “Our professors come from all over the country and globe with ties to universities all over and I think we should use that.”
Similarly, Kerr said that the virtual exchange added depth to the topics they discussed.
“I loved the experience,” Kerr said. “When I had the opportunity to talk with some students over at the American University of Kuwait, it brought to life what we were learning about in the class.”
Al-Nakib also hopes that her students’ interaction with students from the Middle East will help to debunk certain misconceptions and stereotypes about them.
“I think it’s great that Cal Poly and CLA in particular is taking a really strong lead in these kinds of initiatives – both internationalization itself, but now also specifically looking at virtual exchange,” Al-Nakib said. “It's the right time because we’re definitely all becoming more comfortable and knowledgeable in virtual platforms and programs and we can really start to think about how we can use them better.”
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English Student Helps Organize Virtual Cal Poly Rose Float Parade
Jan 11, 2021
Cal Poly universities Rose Float teams got back to the business of designing a parade float despite the worldwide COVID pandemic that forced the cancellation of the 2021 Rose Parade®. English major Avi McManus is the Communications Manager for the Cal Poly Team and helped organized this year's competition.
Avi McManus
Cal Poly Universities’ Home-Brew Rose Float Competition was a virtual contest that involved planning, design and decoration ideas but no physical construction. The competition brought together teams of students from Cal Poly and California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. These universities have worked together since fall of 1948 navigating the 240 miles between campuses to produce memorable and eye-catching floats. Since then, the two schools’ Rose Float entries have earned 57 awards at the Pasadena classic and become one of the highest profile student events for both universities.
“We really were looking for ways to bring joy back to our Rose Float team and a way to interest potential new members in the team,” said Ralph Agbayani, the design chair for the 2020 Pomona Rose Float team who organized the event with Avi McManus, the communications manager for the Cal Poly team in San Luis Obispo.
“Anyone who had a team in mind, or wanted to work solo was free to do so,” said McManus a senior from Oakland, California, who is studying English. “For those who wanted a team but were not able to find one, Ralph and I matched up these participants with the others who had expressed interest in the same departments either construction, design or decoration.”
About 45 students participated, starting in October, with a dozen teams presenting during the final Dec. 12 showcase. On average, seven out of 10 students on the final teams were first-time Rose Float participants, they said.
“Ralph and I tried to simulate a real float year, so we set a ‘theme’ for the parades,” McManus said. “The theme was ‘Holidays.’ However, much like a regular parade, this was open to interpretation.”
Students from both campuses attended four online workshops to learn about the different aspects of creating a Rose Parade® float and then let loose to create their own designs with a holiday theme.
Entries included dinosaurs, a surfing Santa, a giant beer stein, Pi Day, World Book Day and the Hindu holiday of Holi, which commemorates the start of spring after a long winter, symbolic of triumph of good over evil.
“Strength in Numbers,” which celebrated March 14 Pi Day, received the Sweepstakes Award for best overall team entry. On the float, a colony of ants and other insects have taken over a picnic. A queen ant draped in a picnic blanket cape and monarch butterflies stand poised at the front of the float, while a classic raspberry pie rises above the float at the back.
The “Strength in Numbers” team was made up of Cal Poly’s D’Angelo Reyes, a senior from San Francisco majoring in computer engineering; Paige Brunson of UCLA; Jessica Goldberg of Purdue University; and Cal Poly Pomona’s Mike Sturman.
“I enjoy themed entertainment, so being able to design a parade float fits nicely into my career goal of designing theme parks,” said Sturman, a sophomore majoring in construction engineering and management.
Now a design lead for the Pomona Rose Float team, Sturman started as a volunteer last year, welding and shaping elements for “Aquatic Aspirations,” which received the Director Award for the most outstanding artistic design and use of floral and non-floral materials at the 2020 Rose Parade®. He also worked on a mechanism to make fish swim in and out of a sunken ship.
“Cretaceous Catastrophe,” a scene from what might happen if dinosaurs celebrated Thanksgiving, won the contest’s Grand Marshal Award for most outstanding creative concept and design. San Luis Obispo campus’ Miranda Standing, a junior studying graphic communications from Stockton, California, submitted the design.
“Multicolor Mayhem,” based on the Hindu holiday of Holi, with monkeys playing Tabla drums and other happy animals under a rainbow of colors, was another Cal Poly SLO team winner. The entry — by Saira Mapes, a second-year liberal studies major from San Jose, California, and computer engineering senior William Terlinden of Long Beach, California — captured the Crown City Innovator Award for the most outstanding use of imagination.
“The designs exceeded my expectations,” Agbayani added. “I loved the whimsy of ‘Cretaceous Catastrophe’ and the attention to detail in ‘Strength in Numbers,’ which nailed down details in design, construction and decoration.”
McManus, who plans to graduate in June and pursue a career as an elementary school teacher, said the goal for the contest was not just to keep participants excited in a year when there was neither a float nor a parade.
“The main purpose was to allow anyone who was interested to learn more about Rose Float in this weird year,” they said. “The Zoom meetings allowed new people to learn about the program at the same time that it gave current team members a refresher. The group aspect of the contest gave current team and new members a chance to meet and work together.
“I think that any connections that this competition managed to foster during the year of social distancing was a triumph. I also hope that when the new team reforms in person, some new people will already be acquainted with our methods and possibly know some of the current team because of the competition.”
While the Tournament of Roses won’t be hosting the traditional Rose Parade® in 2021 due to COVID-19, it will produce a New Year’s Day celebration to be broadcast in its place — featuring students from both Cal Poly universities.
The two-hour TV special will feature live-to-tape musical and marching band performances, celebrity guest appearances and “heart-warming segments about the Rose Parade.”
Cal Poly Rose Float teams will be highlighted in one segment.
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Cal Poly Journalism Alumnus Publishes a Photobook on World War II
Jan 11, 2021
By Sophia Lincoln
Cal Poly journalism alumnus Thomas Kelsey recently published his latest book 75 Years Later-Warbirds, Airman and Veterans of World War II, a 30-years-long project featuring interviews with veterans, original photographs and a narrative of national unity during a time of crisis.
“What makes the book even more special is it shows how Americans came together as a country during a time of worldwide crisis, just like today,” Kelsey wrote in an email.
According to Kelsey, the book also includes some of his own personal family history and even that of San Luis Obispo.
“The book has its roots traced to when my dad did his basic training for the US Army at Camp San Luis Obispo in 1944 before being shipped to the European theatre of warfare,” Kelsey said.
Kelsey is a practiced photojournalist and has worked for nine different newspapers since graduating Cal Poly, including the Los Angeles Times and Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado.
Kelsey has also received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including Picture of the Year for the National Press Photographers Association, the California Press Photographers Association, the Colorado Press Photographers Association and the Greater Los Angeles Press Photographers Association.
Kelsey has photographed six presidents and covered noteworthy events including the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Earthquake in 1989 and two papal visits of Pope John Paul II. He has also worked in sports photography, photographing four World Series, including the Dodgers and the Padres.
“My career started at Cal Poly and has taken a long and winding road and I wouldn't trade it for anything,” Kelsey wrote in an email.
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World Languages and Cultures classes incorporate virtual global engagement workshops in lieu of a cancelled abroad program
Jan 11, 2021
By Sophia Lincoln
After her study abroad program in Sicily was cancelled due to Covid-19, ethnic studies professor Elvira Pulitano decided to offer students a different kind of virtual abroad experience this year.
MoltiVolti Team
Working with the Siciliy-based non-profit organizations MoltiVolti and Giocherenda, Pulitano arranged culturally-immersive Zoom workshops for students taking her Cultures of Italy class fall quarter.
MoltiVolti functions as both a restaurant and “a laboratory of representation of a new society in which the exchanges among the diversity are on the base of development,” according to their website.
Both the MoltiVolti team and the Giocherenda team consist of young immigrants and refugees coming from countries including Senegal, Zambia, Mali, Gambia and Burkina Faso.
According to Pulitano, the workshops had students interact with MoltiVolti and Giocherenda via Zoom to understand an increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural contemporary Italy.
“We focused a lot on how regional localisms in Italy play a strong role against a national sense of identity and examined the ever-changing nature of Italian identity since the country’s unification.” Pulitano said. “Today, as a result of the recent wave of migrations from Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, the significance of what it means to be Italian is once again shifting."
Fatima Salazar was one of Pulitano’s students fall quarter and was able to participate in the workshops offered through her class.
“These workshops were basically for us to better understand the Italian perspective as an immigrant,” Salazar said. “I didn’t realize Sicily was such a diverse part of Italy in comparison to the northern part.”
Different activities that the students did with the two Sicilian organizations included interactive games like “memory catcher cards,” MoltiVolti’s Heroic Imagination Project, virtual tours of Sicily and group discussion.
Though the online workshops may have been quite different from an in-person abroad experience, Pulitano said that there are benefits of having a virtual program.
“Most Cal Poly students cannot afford [to study abroad] because these programs are very expensive,” Pulitano said. “What I found out through the virtual exchange is that this type of education program can attract a diverse range of students by offering an enriching experience of global collaboration and learning without having to travel long-distances.”
Pulitano also said that she hopes to offer a longer virtual program working with the same two organizations, along with another partner organization based in Rome, for students during summer quarter. She would also like to continue to offer similar virtual programs in her ethnic studies courses once campus has reopened so that students who would like to participate in a more cost-effective cultural immersion experience may do so.
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Cal Poly Public Policy Alumna Co-Founded a Medical Interpreting Organization
Dec 18, 2020
By Sophia Lincoln
Herencia Indigena team
Since graduating with a master's degree in public policy in 2018, Cal Poly alumna Irebid Gilbert has created and co-founded her business Herencia Indigena, an initiative partly inspired by the work she did at Cal Poly.
Herencia Indigena is an organization that trains trilingual individuals to work as health care advocates and interpreters for partner agencies including Dignity Health. They also developed a cultural competency training based on Gilbert’s senior thesis at Cal Poly.
Gilbert said that her business was born out of the great need for on-site Mixteco-speaking interpreters at Marian Regional Medical Center, as well as other hospitals across the state. According to Gilbert, a lack of interpreters in medical facilities can lead to a large number of patients who cannot understand or communicate with health workers, something that Gilbert’s family once faced.
“I am also indigenous. Both of my parents speak Mixteco. Most of my family has worked in the fields. As a child, we worked in the fields, so I really felt that this was a way to give back,” Gilbert said. “I didn’t know what it was going to turn into, but I just knew this was what I wanted to do.”
Herencia Indigena’s mission is to ensure that Mixteco patients can understand their healthcare plans and to communicate with their providers.
“We want to change the way that medical providers sometimes view the Mixteco or indigenous population,” Gilbert said. “Sometimes we have been categorized as people that don’t really want to participate in our health care, but we very much want to be engaged and we very much want to be informed.”
In addition to helping patients, Herencia Indigena also aims to provide trainees with good work opportunities.
“We really had to show that there were interpreters here, and we had to really advocate for full-time [positions], fair wages, things like that,” Gilbert said. “We want this to be taken as a real career and a real skill.”
The training program that Herencia Indigena offers is 10 weeks long and requires trainees to attend lectures, take quizzes, participate in activities, submit homework assignments and ultimately pass a cumulative exam before they are offered a job at a hospital.
“[Dignity Health] will only take interpreters from Herencia Indigena because of the rigorous training that we have,” Gilbert said.
In the past year, Herencia Indigena has trained over 300 healthcare staff members including doctors, nurses, technicians, and social workers, according to Gilbert.
While Gilbert's current work at Herencia Indigena mostly focuses on data analysis, she said that her time at Cal Poly and the support she received there helped allow her to achieve what she did.
“Cal Poly was very supportive,” Gilbert said. “I had amazing counselors [who helped me] to look at it from all different directions, and I think my public policy degree definitely helped with the writing, the data analysis, the policy writing, all of that.”
To date, Herencia Indigena has helped over 900 patients, according to Gilbert.
“This is more than just a passion: it’s a purpose, and I am trying to give back in the only way I know how to those who I feel are often underrepresented,” Gilbert said. “It’s really important not to be afraid and to just put yourself out there and really go after something that really makes you feel passionate and makes you feel like you have a purpose in life.”
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Two Cal Poly Journalism Alumni Wrote a Book Together
Dec 17, 2020
By Sophia Lincoln
The Insider's Guide to Media Training
Cal Poly alumni and Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalists Rick DeBruhl (Journalism, '77) and Kevin Riggs (Journalism, '78) provide insight to interviewing with various media in their new book "The Insider’s Guide to Media Training: 99 Tips to Survive Your Interview in the Digital Age."
DeBruhl and Riggs met each other as undergraduates in the Cal Poly journalism department where they both worked for KCPR, Cal Poly’s radio station.
The two have since made impressive careers in broadcast journalism covering news for companies including ESPN and NBC-affiliate KCRA.
DeBruhl ultimately left his career in broadcast journalism to pursue media consulting. Similarly, Riggs currently works at Randle Communications in media training.
According to DeBruhl, the two worked together in various newsrooms at the start of their careers and remained in touch even after separating to work for different companies. They recently decided to collaborate once more to share with readers what they have learned from their careers in media.
“We thought it would be fun to have a pair of Cal Poly buddies write a book,” DeBruhl wrote in an email.
Kevin Riggs at KCRA News
Their book, which can be found on Amazon, covers topics including how to handle difficult interview questions, understanding how reporters think and creating compelling quotes and soundbites.
DeBruhl had already written and published a similar book on media training, "Communicating at the Right Speed: 52 Ways to Fix Your Professional Communication Troubles," but wanted to work on the new book with Riggs because of his experience in broadcast journalism and at Randle Communications.
“Of all the people I wanted to write a book with, Kevin was at the absolute top,” DeBruhl said.
Rick DeBruhl with ESPN
According to Riggs, while the idea for their book predated the COVID-19 pandemic that began in March, much of the tips and information they wrote about are very relevant to today’s virtual media practices. “During the pandemic, media practices have obviously changed, and the Zoom platform is a great example of that,” Riggs said.
“Part of why I wanted to work on the book was to explain a little bit about how media practices have shifted and to help people to understand that and be a little more effective in doing that.”
The book also distinguishes different media platforms and focuses on how to best prepare for an interview depending on the media platform.
“For most people, getting a media interview may just be a once in a lifetime event or something that will happen very rarely and it can be very intimidating and the goal of the book is quite simply to make it more comfortable,” DeBruhl said.
DeBruhl and Riggs both plan to continue their current work in media training in their respective jobs. In addition to working at Randle Communications, Riggs is also a member of the Alumni Advisory Board at Cal Poly.
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Six Cal Poly Graphic Communication Students Won PIASC Awards
Dec 14, 2020
By Sophia Lincoln
Cal Poly graphic communication students Kristy Leung, Toni Forsythe and Tanya Ravichandran placed in the top three for the Printing Industry Association of Southern California (PIASC) 2020 Poster Competition, with Leung in first place, Forsythe in second and Ravichandran in third.
Also, Cal Poly graphic communication students Erica Taylor, Hannah Lee and Vivian Tran placed in the top three for the PIASC 2020 Packaging Competition, with Taylor in first place, Lee in second and Tran in third.
Kristy Leung won first place for the poster competition
According to Forsythe, the prompt for the poster competition was to create an infographic that showcased careers in the Graphic Communication industry. The poster Forsythe created was also part of an assignment for her GRC 203 class on digital file creation, she said.
Toni Forsythe won second place for the poster competition
“I was excited to have received this award and for my work to be recognized,” Forsythe said. “I am glad to know that my design followed the prompt and was good enough to have received second place, considering there were a lot of other great designs submitted as well.”
Tanya Ravichandran won third place for the poster competition
Forsythe also said that the work she has done in previous graphic communication classes and especially the GRC 203 class helped her achieve second place in the poster competition.
“I gained a lot of design skills that helped me create my infographic in a way that would be well-designed, while also following the prompt,” Forsythe said.
Erica Taylor won first place for the packaging competition
Similarly, Erica Taylor, who won first place in the packaging competition, said that the opportunity was brought to her attention through her GRC 337 class on consumer packaging, wherein many students also submitted their final projects to the competition.
According to Taylor, the prompt for the packaging competition was to supply a perfume or cologne bottle and design a label and corresponding box “with branding that would stand out on a shelf and make consumers choose our design over others,” she said.
Hannah Lee won second place for the packaging competition
Like Forsythe, Taylor said that previous graphic communication classes helped her achieve success in this competition.
“The fact that we got to incorporate spot varnish and foil on our packaging definitely gave Cal Poly students an edge in this competition, because special printing elements like that would stand out to the judges,” Taylor said.
Vivian Tran won third place for the packaging competition
Both Forsythe and Taylor said they are very grateful to the graphic communication program and its resources and teachers who helped allow them to create their products for the competition.
“I was already interested in pursuing a career in designing for the packaging industry, but this win definitely affirms this choice,” Taylor said. “I am thrilled that the judges liked my design enough to have it win first place, especially since our class produced many beautiful perfume packages.”
Both the poster and packaging competition were put on by RAISE Foundation, a non-profit corporation formed by PIASC to foster graphic communication careers in primary, secondary and post-secondary educational institutions.