June 28, 2010

Angela Mele, a student in CSUMB's Science Illustration program, is spending a month this summer as an artist-in-residence at Glacier National Park in Montana. She will create illustrations of flora and fauna for use in educational programs and activities related to the park's fire ecology program.

According to the National Park Service, the purpose of the artist-in-residence program is to stimulate and foster the artistic exploration of the park and to share the artist's inspiration with the public through educational programs and exhibits.

The Science Illustration program moved to CSUMB from UC Santa Cruz Extension at the start of the 2009-10 school year. One of the most prestigious programs of its kind in the nation, the program prepares students who are sought after by renowned institutions and publications around the world.

Read about the program at ScienceIllustration.org.

Grad's work gives young offenders a voice

While doing research for his capstone project, CSUMB graduate Sam Peterson learned about "The Beat Within," a weekly publication that features the writing of incarcerated youth. The publication was started by volunteers in San Francisco in 1996; it has expanded to much of California.

The project began in Monterey County's Juvenile Hall in June 2008, and Peterson has been leading writing classes at least twice a month since then. "The stories these young people tell reveal a reality hidden from many," Peterson told the Monterey Herald. "The lifestyle that some of these kids live is not publicized anywhere."

Peterson and other volunteers type up the pieces, write a comment on each one and send them to the project's San Francisco headquarters. A few weeks later, the students see their pieces in a booklet that mirrors a bit of their reality.

Peterson,who majored in social and behavioral sciences, would like to expand the program into Monterey County's Youth Center, a low-security residential treatment facility in Salinas.

Drum class on a roll

CSUMB graduates Javier Tamayo and Omar Murillo are using their love of music to benefit children in the east Salinas community where they both live.

While still students, the two drummers decided to start a percussion group for kids. Murillo applied for a grant from the Community Foundation for Monterey County in early 2009; in August of that year, they received $3,750 - enough to buy several drum sets. With that, the nonprofit Alisal Percussion was established and lessons began.

Murillo and Tamayo lug the drum sets to the Cesar Chavez Library every Wednesday night. More than 50 people attended a recent class and the numbers grow each week.

"Young teenage boys are the group we can't really get into the library, and they were out here, as well as younger kids," librarian Carissa Purnell told the Salinas Californian.

The program has gone so well, it is expanding to a low-income housing development, where classes will be offered two nights a week.

Tamayo is currently employed as a recruiter for the College Assistance Migrant Program at CSUMB. Murillo is a retention adviser at the university.