From the Director...

Welcome back to all our students, faculty, and staff. We hope that your summer was restful, productive, and healthy.

Summer here at the Institute was anything but slow and it was a time of transition for many of the individuals with whom we have enjoyed working over the years.

Joy Morimoto, former Director of Development for SFSU, is now working at Stanford Medical Center; Chris Treadway, formerly with Governmental Relations, is working close to her home at UC Berkeley, and Janet Wade in Public Relations is retiring. These talented individuals have been a great support to our projects and have facilitated the successes we have enjoyed. We thank them and wish them success in their transitions.

We welcome Cynthia Butler, Interim Director in Development, and Sam Rodriguez, Governmental Relations. Over the summer we have had the pleasure of working with both Cynthia and Sam and look forward to more involvement in the future.

I would like to extend a special welcome to our new Dean of the College of Business, Nancy Hayes, who started August 1, and our new Vice President of Advancement Lee Blitch, who will begin September 1.

As usual, we have lots of exciting things to look forward to this semester.

Head Start is busy planning for the 40th anniversary celebration of the national Head Start Program, so stay tuned for more news about the coming events in November. Rene Dahl, Director of the Child and Adolescent Development Program, was informed by Dean Kassiola that we have been approved for a new faculty search this fall, and it couldn't be more appropriate as our student numbers continue to grow. I am pleased to announce that Janet Egiziano, our Director of Special Projects, has been promoted to Associate Director, a new title with expanded responsibilities within the Institute. Janet will continue to divide her time between the CAD program and Institute projects. Congratulations, Janet!

We are looking forward to an exciting semester and to working with our new colleagues and meeting new students.

Charlotte--


CAD Connections

By Rene Dahl
Director of the Child and Adolescent Development Program

Welcome back for the fall semester. We have 410 CAD students enrolled this semester and continue as one of the fastest growing majors on campus. Over 60 interns will be starting their internships at sites throughout the Bay Area in elementary schools, high schools, preschools and day care centers, health care sites, community centers, and community-based organizations. We are fortunate to have such excellent community partners who provide our students with valuable learning opportunities. If you are interested in becoming a CAD internship site and having a CAD student work with you for 120 hours, please contact our Internship Coordinator, Jade van Hasselt, at vhasselt@sfsu.edu.

We are planning another trip to Italy in Spring 2006, in conjunction with Canada College's Early Childhood Education program students. On our "to do" list are visits to Montessori and Reggio schools in the Tuscany region, plus opportunities to sightsee. If you are in the Young Child and Family concentration and think you would like to take this trip, contact me (rdahl@sfsu.edu) regarding how you can apply this 3 unit course - CAD 680 - to your degree. We will have more details available to you soon!

Paff Scholarship Fund
We are honored to announce that Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Paff have generously endowed the CAD Program with a scholarship fund in memory of their daughter, Shereen. Shereen Paff was earned a master's degree in Early Childhood Education in 1971 from San Francisco State University and spent 25 years working and teaching in the field of Special Education. She specialized in visually impaired children and special education children in elementary schools and dedicated her life to helping children. The scholarship criteria are: demonstrated ability to establish empathy and maintain quality relationships with children, evidence of outside community involvement, and the potential to be an outstanding educator through traits of inspirational leadership and academic achievement. One student will be selected each year to receive this honor.

Faculty Updates
Carol Stevenson made a presentation titled, Advocacy: Making a Difference, Finding Your Voice, at the World Forum on Early Care and Education in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in May. The international audience included government officials, early childhood educators, advocates, and teacher trainers. In the Bay Area, she presented to the Bay Area Early Childhood Funders group on Preparing the Early Childhood Workforce: Issues in Higher Education where the audience was foundation program officers in the San Francisco Bay Area; and at the local level, she co-led a workshop on Professional Development: Institutions of Higher Learning at the Annual Citywide Preschool Summit: Partnership for Quality Child Care: Building Professional Relationships on June 4. The audience was primarily early childhood educators who are interested in pursuing BA degrees.

CAD Graduation Ceremony
Over 450 people joined us for a joyous celebration on May 28 with 128 CAD graduates from last summer, fall and this spring. Please check our website (http://cad.sfsu.edu) for photos. Several students received special awards including Sam Gleason who received the Dr. Shannon Perry Achievement Award, which is named in honor of one of CAD's first coordinators whose vision and commitment to an excellent program provided the foundation for the current program. The student who receives this award exemplifies these characteristics, so congratulations, Sam. The Dr. Marjorie Seashore Achievement and Service Award was presented to Jen Zamora whose academic excellence, service and commitment to the Jumpstart Program personified the work of Marjorie Seashore, also one of the CAD Program's original founders and coordinators. In addition, Irene Phoon was recognized as the CAD Program's Honoree who received special acknowledgement at the university's undergraduate honors convocation. We congratulate all of the CAD graduates and wish you good luck in your future endeavors.



CAD Off Campus

CAD at Caņada College:
With over 15 CAD majors expecting to graduate in Spring 2006, and a total of almost 30 students participating in our program on the Caņada College campus, a full array of core and concentration courses are scheduled for Fall 2005: CAD 300, CFS 322, EED 610, BLS 525, KIN 401, and SPCH 353. This program, offered by SFSU through the University Center at Caņada College, enables "place-bound" San Mateo County residents to obtain a BA from SFSU in Child and Adolescent Development without leaving home. Students in the Caņada program are not precluded, however, from taking any classes on the SFSU campus, should they so choose, and students who take the bulk of their classes at SFSU may also take CAD classes on the Caņada campus. Courses from all areas of the CAD core plus two concentrations, as well as Segment III and English 414 (coming in spring 2006) are offered. JEPET is held once each fall and spring. During the fall semester, advising by appointment only is scheduled on the Caņada campus each Wednesday from 3-5 PM.

Rather than functioning as a true cohort, students may enter into the Caņada program at any time. In addition, community college students who are eligible to transfer but have not yet been accepted to SFSU may sample up to 2 CAD classes at a reduced fee before committing, via the Pathways program.

To learn more about the SFSU/University Center Partnership and the Pathways Program, please visit the Pathways website at http://www.sfsu.edu/~apd/ canada.htm. To view eligibility requirements and download a Pathways registration form, please visit http://www.cel.sfsu.edu/pathways/ register.cfm.

CAD at City College of San Francisco:
Currently, approximately 60% of CAD transfer students come to us though City College of San Francisco. Part of this success is due to the Pathways Program whereby we offer eligible CCSF students the opportunity to sample up to 2 CAD courses at reduced fees before transferring. Pathways builds confidence in students' ability to handle upper division coursework, and they arrive as SFSU juniors with 6 units in the major already under their belts. SFSU students who take the bulk of their classes at SFSU may also take CAD classes on the CCSF campus, paying regular SFSU fees. CAD courses scheduled for fall on the CCSF campus are CAD 300, REC 380, and EED 613. To check your eligibility and register as a CCSF student via Pathways, please download a registration form at http://www.cel.sfsu.edu/pathways/ register.cfm.

CAD at College of Marin/Indian Valley
Fall 2005 begins CAD's third semester of courses on the College of Marin's Indian Valley campus in Novato. Two courses are offered: EED 668 and EED 305. This program, offered through the partnership of College of Marin (COM) and SFSU, is designed to serve "place-bound" Marin County students. The program enables these students to move through the CAD core on a part-time basis while the demand for and our ability to deliver a BA completion program in that locale is determined. During the fall, COM and SFSU will embark on a needs assessment whose outcome will be used in decision-making regarding academic and non-academic program planning.

Through a program similar to Pathways, eligible Marin County students are afforded the opportunity to sample up to 2 CAD courses at reduced fees before transferring. SFSU students who take the bulk of their classes at SFSU may also take CAD classes on the Indian Valley campus, paying regular SFSU fees. For more information on the COM/SFSU Partnership and events, and to download a non-SFSU student registration form, please visit http://www.sfsu.edu/~apd/ marin.htm.

Edelman Institute Welcomes New Office Staff

The Edelman Institute is happy to welcome two new, talented SFSU students to our 'family': Juanita Hernandez, who is majoring in Clinical Psychology, and Eric Miller, who is majoring in Mathematics. Juanita transferred to SFSU over the winter break from Gavilan Community College in Gilroy, and Eric begins SFSU classes this fall as a transfer from San Jose State University.

Juanita has moved forward with confidence in the Edelman front office and is handling almost every issue with finesse. For fun, she has been riding her bike to explore San Francisco. You also might find her jogging around the SFSU track, which helps her get up and down to our 3rd floor office with ease. Juanita spends most of her free time either studying (she made the Dean's list last semester) or visiting with her family back in Gilroy.

Eric has been developing his own on-line community for networking, is an excellent graphic designer, and will be working with the Institute's program directors to create or improve their websites. Unfortunately, he claims the lack of sunshine living close to campus is detrimental to his natural suntan so he's moving to Oakland. Eric also has recently discovered a love for making pottery and has been practicing Capoeira, a spectacular Brazilian art-form that combines martial arts with acrobatics, music and dance, since he was 13 years old.

If you have not met our newest staff members yet, please stop by the Edelman Institute office at SCI 394 to get acquainted.


SHINEing and SAILing into a New Year for Immigrants, Elders and Families

"Now I look at my grandmother through new eyes..."

Maria Velaszquez had no idea what she was in for when she agreed to become a "coach" for SHINE, Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders. As a project option for her Ethnic Studies class, she signed up to go to the Mission once a week to help older learners in a citizenship class prepare for their INS exam. Working with these elders made her reflect on her own grandmother's experience with being uprooted and managing a transition to a new setting.

Project SHINE now places approximately 200 students each semester in language, literacy and citizenship classes throughout the Bay Area. Students from La Raza Studies, English as a Second Language, Political Science, Spanish and Chinese have all reported that their experiences have brought their studies to life while they learn about wonderful people and neighborhoods in their own backyards.

This year Project SHINE will expand more fully into "SAIL: Students Assisting with Immigrant Literacies". Many immigrants need the English language not only to become naturalized, but to better support their children in school and to care for their own and their family's health among other concerns. For this reason, we are exploring collaborations to train SHINE and SAIL coaches for family literacy and health education settings.

A component of this initiative is to develop materials through "Learners' Lives as Curriculum", a model which uses immigrant learner stories to develop highly relevant language and literacy lessons. SHINE's Director, Gail Weinstein, has presented this model at family literacy and adult literacy conferences throughout the country over the last year. This summer, for the first time, she presented the model in Spain, where it was enthusiastically received.

The next training for SHINE and SAIL coaches for fall 2005 will be held September 22 at CCSF, and September 23 at SFSU from 1-4 p.m. For information about the training or about how faculty can incorporate a SHINE/SAIL project option into an existing class, contact Gail Weinstein (gailw@sfsu.edu).


Jumpstart Launches Neighborhood School Success for All

With the start of the new school year, Jumpstart San Francisco will launch the Neighborhood School Success for All initiative. The new initiative will address the need to enhance preschool, programs in two of the City's most struggling neighborhoods: Bay View and Visitacion Valley, home to half of all children under 5 living in poverty in San Francisco. Because of this area's large number of disadvantaged young children as well as its schools' low academic performance index scores, Bay View and Visitacion Valley have been identified by First 5 San Francisco as two crucial areas in which to launch the City's Preschool for All efforts. Jumpstart's involvement in these communities will combine with San Francisco's efforts to ensure that children in Bay View and Visitacion Valley receive high-quality preschool experiences focused on building literacy, social, and emotional skills.

The goal of the Neighborhood School Success for All initiative is to bring the Jumpstart program to every eligible preschool in Bay View and Visitacion Valley over the next three years. This initiative will build upon Jumpstart's proven program model by developing a unique neighborhood focus that will engage unprecedented numbers of college students and will involve families as well as community members to affect fundamental changes in the lives of these children.

Family involvement is a key element of Jumpstart's program model. The Neighborhood School Success for All initiative will expand Jumpstart's traditional family involvement component in the Bay View and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods in order to create lasting community change. Jumpstart will also reach out to the wider community by partnering with Bay View and Visitacion Valley libraries and community centers to host literacy nights focusing on fostering both adult literacy and family support of their children's education.

To support the Neighborhood School Success for All initiative, Jumpstart has hired former Corps Member and Team Leader Jennifer Albright as its full-time Associate Site Manager. Jennifer is already busy gearing up for the new year in which Jumpstart will place 150 college students in preschools throughout the City. Jennifer is a familiar face at the Edelman Institute where as she is a proud graduate of Child and Adolescent Development Program and served as an intern at Valencia Health last year.

Wired Returns to Iraq: Journey With Gary Selnow

WiRED has successfully installed 19 Medical Information Centers (MICs) in Iraq to date, and during the summer of 2005 we will bring another 25 facilities to this country in crisis. For the first time in many years, Iraqi doctors and medical students are accessing the latest Western medical information through the Centers. WiRED director Gary Selnow provides this report from his June trip to Iraq.

Few Americans realize the high skill level of Iraqi physicians. Television coverage of the war's horrors rarely shows the remarkable abilities of Iraq's medical professionals. The stories of these well trained doctors, who are literally on the front lines doing so much with so little, are simply not told. It's important for Americans to know that Iraqi doctors have the skill and the will-they only lack the tools. As a result, WiRED's objectives in Iraq are very clear: To distribute as much information to as many medical professionals and students as possible, and to provide educational opportunities through connections to medical communities abroad. WiRED knows that Iraq's doctors can work miracles with additional resources, and we believe they deserve our help.

The primary purpose of my June trip was to lay the groundwork for new projects WiRED will tackle in Iraq later this summer. These include adding 25 new centers country wide and installing satellite connections in all facilities lacking Web access. The equipment and technicians are lined up while we continue to search for funding.

During my visit to Baghdad and several northern Iraqi cities, I heard remarkable stories from Iraqi physicians about the value of information obtained at WiRED's MICs. Textbooks in Iraq are often years out of date, meaning that many doctors are not trained in current diagnostic and treatment techniques. Specialists and medical students told me that they are now using the MIC's databases and Internet resources in place of textbooks. One cardiologist told me that he and his colleagues recently learned about a new methodology at a WiRED MIC that has enabled them to diagnose and treat heart patients more successfully.

Due to limited electricity and telecom capacities, the Internet is not available at all Iraq MICs. WiRED's computer technician, Alex Keller, and Siobhan Geary, our technical content coordinator, collaborated to develop WiRED's recently launched Med-Portal database. Stored on portable hard-drives, Med-Portal is updated and downloaded to servers at Centers that have no Internet connectivity every six months. Where Internet connections exist, MICs make the World Health Organization's HINARI database and a wealth of other resources available to users.

WiRED is developing a number of other Iraq projects:

  • In August 2005, we hope to install four high-speed teleconferencing facilities to Iraq. These will allow local doctors and students to conduct collaborative "telemedicine" sessions and participate in lectures and workshops held around the world. This project is funded by the U.S. State Department.

  • In close collaboration with the Edelman Institute at San Francisco State University, WiRED is exploring a training program for Iraqi nurses. The Institute's director, Dr. Charlotte Ferretti, will coordinate the curriculum and arrange instructors for workshops. The program's "train-the-trainer" model will bring doctor/nurse teams from each of Iraq's governates to workshops in the northern Kurdish region; these teams will return to their communities and train local nurses using computer-based curricula installed at local WiRED MICs. At the moment, we're developing the content and arranging logistics so everything is ready to launch as soon is funding is settled.

WiRED has a number of other programs in the pipeline that we'll describe in the months ahead as we seek ways to improve educational opportunities and information availability for the Iraqi medical community.

WiRED's MIC project in Iraq is supported by the U.S. Department of State, The Medtronic Foundation, Pfizer Inc, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, Affinity Inc. and the generosity of many private funders.