ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Ceramics
From manufacturing to medicine to the mundane, ceramics are all around us

Turning Back the Clock
Jeffrey Wheat helps his older adult students stay young and limber

Plane Speaking
Aviation maintenance instructors build their own planes

Verbal Volleys
Larry Weiss coaches Mesa College debate team to lob the winning argument

Left Brain, Right Brain
Herald Kane is equally adept at analytical and creative pursuits

To Protect and To Serve
Police officer Diana Medero enthusiastically serves her college community

Online Biology
Cooking up experiments at home

Taking to the Streets
Faculty, staff and students march to protest governor's budget cuts to colleges

Chancellor’s Page
Chancellor and trustees wage battle for fair funding

Development News
Concerts fund music scholarships; Miramar College Foundation forms subcommittees

Factoids
Miscellaneous tidbits of information

NewsMakers
Faculty and staff accomplishments

Development News

MUSIC SCHOLARSHIPS. When Mesa College music professor Irvin King established a scholarship fund in 1995, he didn’t name it after himself, but rather honored Gustavo Romero, a native San Diegan who has been acclaimed worldwide as one of the most outstanding young pianists of our time.

The Gustavo Romero Music Scholarship is funded by the presentation of benefit concerts at both on- and off-campus venues, with the help and support of the Mesa Humanities Institute, and by contributions from San Diegans who follow the career of Gustavo Romero and want to support Mesa College music students.

The scholarship is awarded to music students who complete Mesa’s two year music-major-sequence program with distinction and who are ready to transfer to a four-year institution. The money is sent directly to the transfer institution for withdrawal by the recipient for tuition, books or housing.

Since 1995 more than $15,000 has been awarded to Mesa students who have since completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in music at UCSD, UC Irvine, SDSU, and at California State Universities at Chico and Northridge. At this year’s 10th Annual Scholarship Banquet, three students who will transfer to UCSD and SDSU this fall will receive a total of $4,000.

BUILDING A STRONG FUNDRAISING FOUNDATION. The Miramar College Foundation Board of Directors, strengthened by the addition of 13 external business and community leaders, participated in a dynamic Saturday workshop recently to learn more about resource development and their role in that undertaking.

Coreen Petti, senior director of Corporate Relations and Strategic Partnerships at the University of San Diego (USD), presented a clear and concise look at fundraising facts and figures, responsibilities, types of fundraising and stages of fundraising. Following the workshop, the Miramar College Foundation board voted to form new subcommittees to plan and implement ideas of the day.

Subcommittees, led by an external Foundation member and facilitated by a college employee, will focus on planning and implementing the annual campaign and case statement (Linda Davis, Pat Keir); finances (Karen Harrison, Peggy Manges); planning an annual public safety recognition fundraiser (George Yee, Sandi Trevisan); defining the purpose and logistics of the annual scholarship gala (Joan Messenger, Sandi Trevisan); and ongoing review and recommendations of changes to the foundation’s bylaws (Sandi Rosalia, Pat Keir).

Petti, wife of Miramar College biology professor Kevin Petti, oversees USD’s corporate affiliation program, BusinessLink USD, which is made up of more than 180 companies that financially support the institution. Her current focus is the corporate component of the $20 million capital campaign for the Donald P. Shiley Center for Science and Technology.