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Get ready for Pulse! 2014 Mom’s Weekend Fashion Show
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Friday, April 11, is the 31st Annual Mom’s Weekend Fashion Show: Pulse. More than 120 original designs by Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles students will come down the runway during this exciting and fast-paced event.
Mini-collections by seniors, as well as sustainable designs made from materials such as yoga mats, balloons and cardboard, are expected to be show favorites. Tickets are available now through the Beasley Coliseum Ticket Office and Ticketswest.com for $12; the price at the door will be $16. Ticket raffles will be held at http://facebook.com/cahnrs.
New center helps students develop a competitive edge
Getting job-ready just got easier for students with the addition of a new WSU center. On Feb. 13, the university Faculty Senate voted unanimously to bestow official WSU center status on the Center for Transformational Learning and Leadership (CTLL).
Developed by a team of CAHNRS faculty and staff, the CTLL is the only center of its kind at WSU. It provides beyond-the-classroom experiences and learning opportunities through internship coordination, customized industry access, international immersion opportunities, mentorship, added-value courses and leadership training. The center is working to give students the extra edge that is needed in today’s competitive job market.
“The Center for Transformational Learning and Leadership will serve as a hub for activities aimed at enriching the student experience at WSU,” said Dan Bernardo, WSU interim provost and executive vice president. “By catalyzing numerous out-of-class activities, the CTLL will have a profound effect on our ability to develop students who are job-ready, day one.” More.
Survey to inform new tree fruit website
Desmond Layne, WSU Endowed Chair of tree fruit Extension, is asking tree fruit growers and affiliated industry people about what types of information they want on a one-stop-shop tree fruit website. Read his most recent column in Capital Press here.
Funding for Extension professional development available
Applications are now being accepted for SARE Professional Development Program (PDP) mini-grants for hosting ($800 max) or attending ($500 max) professional development events. For hosted events, the primary audience must be Extension educators or other agriculture professionals. For more information about the SARE PDP program and application instructions, visit http://csanr.wsu.edu/csanr-grants/sare-pdp. Applications will be screened Apr. 15 and Aug. 15, or until funds are exhausted.
Share your Extension, 4-H or Master Gardeners story
In 2014, WSU and fellow land-grant universities are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the federal Smith-Lever Act, which established the Cooperative Extension Service. As part of the year-long celebration, WSU Extension is asking students, faculty, staff, alumni, volunteers and friends to share their experiences of how Extension programs, services and people have enriched their lives. The goal is to collect 100 stories. To share yours, visit www.cahnrs.wsu.edu/extensionstories.
For more information, visit http://www.extension100years.net. Connect for updates on Extension celebrations at CAHNRS Facebook or Extension 100 Years on Facebook.
Kudos
More than 250 people gathered at the CAHNRS Honors Schweitzer Engineering Center on March 27 to celebrate the achievements of CAHNRS students, faculty, alumni and friends. Recognition included Ken Struckmeyer for the 2014 Faculty of the Year, Charlie Hafenbrack for the 2014 Alumni and Friends Volunteer of the Year, Hal Johnson for the Honor Wall and Tatum Weed for the 2014 Alumni and Friends Staff of the Year. Student awards went to Victoria Barth for Aggie of the Year, Gordon Stumpo for Family Consumer Scientist of the Year, Brandon Nickels for the Outstanding Junior in Agriculture, Anthony Melo for the Outstanding Junior in Human Sciences, Jenica Hagler for the Arnold Knopf Outstanding Freshman of the Year, and the Dairy Club for Superior Club of the Year. An auction raised $2,785, which will be divided equally between the CAHNRS Student Senate and Ambassadors. Thanks to all the students, staff and supporters who made this second annual CAHNRS event such a huge success!
Kim Hixson won the prestigious best graduate student paper competition in the Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Dallas. Her paper was titled “Multi-OMICS Evaluation of Arogenate Dehydratase Knock-Out and Over-Expression Mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana.” The work, now extended to poplars, demonstrates the power of integrated omics capabilities and approaches.
Carol Miles, WSU Professor of Vegetable Horticulture, and Jesse Wimer, WSU graduate student in Horticulture, traveled to Wuhan, China, to contribute to the first ISHS International Symposium on Vegetable Grafting, held from March 17 to March 21. Miles gave a talk titled “Grafting Eggplant and Tomato for Verticillium Wilt Resistance,” and Wimer presented a poster on his work with disease-resistant watermelon rootstocks used in vegetable grafting. Symposium attendees came from 20 different countries where vegetable grafting is an important horticultural topic. Besides the four days of professional sessions on the history, evolution and current status of vegetable grafting internationally, participants toured Huazhong Agricultural University, attended a welcome banquet there, visited Wuhan Weierfu Biological Technology Company (an industrialized seedling nursery), and had dinner aboard a cruise ship on the Yangtze River.
The WSU Viticulture & Enology program has made articulation agreements with Walla Walla Community College and Yakima Valley Community College to better connect with two-year colleges and help students transition smoothly into their education at Washington State University. Kudos to Cristie Crawford, Lindsay Lightner and Thomas Henick-Kling for making these articulation agreements a reality and success.
Timothy Lawrence and Island County Extension are featured in the Valley Farmer spring edition. You can view “Keeping pollinators healthy should be everyone’s BEESness” here.
Events
March 28: SURCA and Celebrating Excellence Recognition Banquet. The Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, from noon to 5 p.m., and Celebrating Excellence, an awards program and banquet honoring faculty and staff, starting at 5:30 p.m., provide opportunities to view original research projects and visit with the scientists and scholars who are discovering new knowledge and making a difference in the world. The Celebrating Excellence Recognition Banquet honors recipients of the University’s highest awards, as well as newly tenured and promoted faculty. See the Schedule of events for more details.
March 29: Food Science Quiz Bowl. Teams of students from six universities will come together at the WSU/UI School of Food Science this Saturday to compete in a food science quiz bowl. The event will coincide with the annual Institute of Food Technologists Student Association Pacific West area meeting. The Food Science College Bowl will be held at the WSU Food Science and Human Nutrition building in room T101 starting at 3 p.m. Two teams at a time will be quizzed on their food science knowledge in a “Jeopardy” style trivia competition. The participating Pacific West region schools are Washington State University, the University of Idaho, Oregon State University, University of California Davis, San Jose State, Fresno State, and the University of British Columbia. The team that takes first place will have the opportunity to compete in the national competition at the 2014 Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting in New Orleans in June.
April 7: Hazard Communication Training on the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of Classifying and Labeling Chemicals, with an Emphasis on Changes to Labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDS). Instructor Tom Ebeling, WSU Industrial Hygienist for the Environmental Health & Safety department, will cover Washington state employer training requirements for new label elements on shipped chemical containers, including new hazard pictograms, signal words, and hazard and precautionary statements. He will also discuss the new SDS format and elements within the context of the new Hazard Communication standard and GHS system as it applies to a laboratory setting. More information is available here.
April 28-30: Northwest Wood-Based Biofuels+Co-Products Conference. WSU Extension and USDA are primary sponsors of this first-of-its-kind event to be held in Seattle. The conference features a packed agenda with first-rate speakers, including Peter Goldmark, Washington State Director of Public Lands. See https://www.nararenewables.org/2014conference for the conference website and http://nararenewables.org/feature/newsletter-13#story2 for background information.
May 18-21: Tidal Leadership: Multi-Day Immersion-Based Training. This program is intended for people who want to hone their leadership skills or expand their responsibility level as a leader. The training will help you get more out of your professional and personal experiences. Join our professional leadership facilitators to take your leadership skills to the next level. Visit the CTLL website for more information and to register by April 30 (see Leadership Events).
June 18-July 16: WSU Full Immersion Spanish Institute. Anyone wanting to learn or sharpen their Spanish skills and better understand Hispanic culture will benefit from the program, offered through Chelan County Extension. More information is available here.
In eNewsletters
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March 11 – WSU’s On Solid Ground – Stink Bug Invasion, Unpalatable Poplars, Ag Forum. This edition features stories about the brown marmorated stink bug, deterring pests among poplars with Jeff Kallestad, and women in agriculture.
Feb. 27 – WSU’s Voice of the Vine- Clean Plants, Taste Washington, Maritime Grapes. This edition features a look at the Clean Plants program with Michelle Moyer and Ken Eastwell, Taste Washington, and growing grapes in western Washington.
Feb. 19 – WSU’s Green Times – Bioasphalt, Fungi, Soil. This edition features stories about paving roads with fryer oil and exploring environmentally-friendly veggie grafting with Carol Miles, and CSANR’s efforts to improve soil quality.
Connect with CSANR on Facebook
Check out the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources page for event announcements, new publications and blog entries from Perspectives on Sustainability.
Also, check out what’s new from CAHNRS on social media:
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