• Jumpstart for a Day!
• U-56 Participants Attend Oncology Conference.
• CAD Holds Sneak Previews at College of Marin, Cañada College
• Selnow Graduation Commencement Speech
• CAD Program Quick Facts

Jumpstart for a Day!

Every year in April, Jumpstart San Francisco hosts "Jumpstart for a Day" here at San Francisco State. This year, on April 20th, it was at the Seven Hills Conference Center, where we were able to educate, entertain, and amuse over 600 preschoolers with fun and literacy rich activities.

Each year we ask ourselves, "How can we top ourselves this year?" Somehow, the superstar Corps Members at San Francisco State did it again, going well above and beyond all expectations. Team leader Jen Zamora built incredible letter toss carnival booths, a favorite among children and parents alike.

Members of Jumpstart’s Leadership Corps, a group of Corps Members that work an extra 150 hours throughout the year, spent hours designing and cutting out intricate fish for Alphabet fishing. Venus Garcia, student program assistant, even had her theatre group come and perform their version of the children’s classic book, Where the Wild Things Are.

"It was great to see all the children from all the different centers around San Francisco being engaged and having a great time in all the different areas," Zamora recounts.

Jumpstart for a Day went from 10am until 12pm, but most Corps Members arrived early to set up the many stations that were available to the children. In total there were twelve learning stations, including Alphabet Fishing, a Jumpstart office station, complete with envelopes and stamps, a puppet making table, and even a drum circle. There was also a stage set up, where three storytellers, two performances, one zoo presentation, and three preschools all got a chance to entertain the crowds which included many parents of Jumpstart children.

"This event helped me see what Jumpstart’s all about." said Antoine Baxter, father of a Jumpstart child at Grace Child Development Center in Hunters Point. Baxter was one of many parents that joined their child’s class on the fieldtrip to SF State. Family involvement is an integral part of the Jumpstart program, as we encourage families, mentors and teachers to work together on a child’s progress.

As the day came to an end, children from fifteen preschools left SF State very happy and tired. Possibly even more tired and happy were the Corps Members, who felt the day was well worth the effort.

As Corps Member Roxanne Swaminathan explained, "Just seeing the kids enjoy themselves so much made all the hard work worth it!"

U-56 Participants Attend Oncology Conference.

Angela Smith-Johnson and Chiedu Ozoh, the first two SFSU students to enter the U-56 sponsored Nursing Research Training Program, recently attended the annual congress of the Oncology Nursing Society. The meeting, held in Anaheim, California, attracted more than five thousand oncology nurses from the United States and beyond.

Among the highlights cited by the students was a lecture entitled "Sex - And When It's Not Good Any More." The lecturer described changes that many cancer patients experience during and after chemotherapy, changes that affect intimate relationships between patients and their spouses. Since Angela and Chiedu are exploring one aspect of this in their culminating experience for the MSN program at SFSU, the topic was both interesting and useful for them. In their project, Angela and Chiedu are surveying patients who have had radical prostatectomies to learn how the surgical procedure has affected their relationships, and in turn, their quality of life. Through studies such as this, they hope to find better ways to help patients and their spouses adjust to the changes imposed by many current therapies for cancer, and ultimately improve the quality of life for cancer survivors and for their families.

Angela and Chiedu reported positively on the conference, and were impressed by the size of the audience it drew. They found the conference both educational and enjoyable. The U-56 grant includes funding to support student attendance at professional conferences so the students can meet professionals in the field, hear current research presentations, and explore nursing research through first-hand contact with leaders in the field.

CAD Holds Sneak Previews at College of Marin, Cañada College

In late April and early May, the Child and Adolescent Development program participated in Sneak Preview events at both College of Marin and Cañada College. Turn-out was excellent for both events which provided information on SFSU off-campus programs available at those campuses, financial aid, and admissions. Of the combined total of approximately 100 individuals who attended these events, around 65 were interested specifically in CAD and its partnership with the Early Childhood Education programs at both community colleges.

The College of Marin program included a welcome reception, plenary session, information tables, and separate break-out sessions featuring guest speaker Dr. Marcy Whitebook on Universal Preschool, and David Crow, a nationally reknown speaker on Holistic Healing. The Canada College format featured break-outs on BA completion and credential programs currently offered or beginning in Fall 2004: CAD, Business Administration, and the Teaching Credential Program. The SFSU School of Nursing will begin a program at Cañada in the fall as well.

College of Marin’s Early Childhood Education program and SFSU’s CAD program recently teamed up to begin providing upper division courses at the Indian Valley Campus in Novato. The first course, CAD 300: “Professional Careers and Roles in Child and Adolescent Development,” will be held in Fall 2004. Interest is running high and is expected to result in a full fall class. Two more courses are planned for Spring 2005.

CAD is currently offering a BA completion program through the University Center at Cañada College and has 23 students in the current cohort. The cohort is nearing completion of the core program and will begin the School Age concentration (determined by student vote) in Spring 2005. At that time, the core courses will begin another cycle.

For more information about CAD’s off-campus programs, please contact Janet Egiziano at 415/405-3560.

Selnow Graduation Commencement Speech

At Commencement 2004, our very own Gary Selnow was the proud recipient of the President’s Medal for his work with WiRED International. In acceptance of the medal, Dr. Selnow gave the following Speech:

DR. SELNOW:

Thank you, President Corrigan, for this honor, which I accept in the names of the gifted, generous, and caring people who work with me at WiRED. Volunteers are the heart and soul of WiRED. They assist nurses and doctors in the battle against the ravages of diseases like AIDS. They supply computers to students in the world's poorest regions to help them pull alongside their brothers and sisters in more affluent countries.

From Africa to the Balkans, Nicaragua to the Middle East, these tireless volunteers provide people who are often forgotten with encouragement, information, and hope.

To illustrate, in Iraq alone, more than 5,000 doctors and medical students update their scientific knowledge at our electronic libraries. All of this is good in itself, but it also has a practical payoff. Like casting bread upon the waters, it comes back to us by restoring America's image abroad. Sadly, today, our national image is not good.

Professor Joseph Nye at Harvard says that among our nation's greatest strengths are our compassion, drive, and generosity for people abroad. American volunteers and their humanitarian work develop friendships and cultivate trust. And these build goodwill, which lies at the core of sound foreign relations.

Last year, I was reminded of how much volunteer power means to America while flying back from my first trip to Baghdad. I had hitched a ride on a military plane, and there, across from me, was the flag-draped body of a young American soldier killed in action. He was probably about the age of many graduates here today, surely no older than many of our volunteers. Seeing that soldier brought to mind two fronts in the war we are fighting today: One fought with a clenched fist, and the other with an outstretched hand. The first is military; the second, humanitarian.

The military battle began on September 11th, 2001, surely one of the darkest moments in American history. That was a terror strike on the innocent, and Americans reacted as we inevitably had to. We drew our swords, clenched our fists, and attacked an enemy that vowed to destroy us. That war took us to Afghanistan.

Then came Iraq. Iraq was not the cauldron of terrorism that it appears to be today. Indeed, our fight there seems not so much to have reduced terror as to have engendered it.

Today, we fight terrorism now almost entirely with the fist. Meanwhile, our friends have stepped back from us while our enemies gather in a thousand shadows. Nourished by fear and resentment, they grow in strength and in number.

We called out the soldiers on September 11th. If only we had called on all Americans. We could have summoned the humanitarian forces of teachers and scientists and entrepreneurs, students and builders, shopkeepers and writers. Their talents applied through the Peace Corps, Habitat for Humanity, the Fulbright program, and a multitude of small humanitarian organizations like WiRED would show the world that in helping, there is strength; in compassion, generosity; and sharing, there is power.

Humanitarian responses sometimes chided as soft-headed can be among America's greatest strategies against terrorism. In truth, nothing would do more to temper terrorism than sharing the wealth, the knowledge, the resources that flood the shadows with light and strike hard against the terror seeds of ignorance, disease, and poverty.

Being a professor, I have a compulsion to give advice. Now, Lord knows, you have had too many years of professorial advice. But I'd like to ask you just to bear a little more of it.

To the graduates sitting here today, let me say that, more than ever, this great country needs you. In the global war on terror, you might not take up the sword, but you can offer up your human talents, your professional skills, your youthful energies and enthusiasm in this new word. The battlefields are the clinics and shops, the classrooms and the operating rooms, the stadiums, and the union halls. Writer Roger Ingersoll said, "If the naked are clothed, if the hungry are fed, if justice is done, if the defenseless are protected, all must be the work of people. The grand victories of the future must be won by humanity and by humanity alone."

If some of this remarkable class of 2004 were to join that human army, what a jubilant piece of news this would be for a hurt and broken world.

Thank you very much.

CAD Program Quick Facts

• Enrolled 461 students in Spring, 2004, making it the fastest growing major in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.
• 56% are transfer students primarily from local community colleges, 100% of our these community college transfer students had a G.P.A. above 2.0 on entering SFSU.

Post Graduation profile

• 68% are working in an area related to their CAD concentration;
• 32% are working fulltime using their degree;
• 36% are working part time using their degree;
• 57% are working with disadvantaged children or families.
For more detail, please email Kathryn Johnson at kathyjoh@sfsu.edu.

Edelman Calendar

• CAD Advising Day
  Tuesday, August 24th, 2004, call (415)405.3564 for more information.
• Welcome Linda Leong
  Please welcome Linda Leong to the Edelman Institute. Linda will work as an Administrative Assistant for the Partners in Quality Childcare project.
• Rene Dahl, Ph.D on sabbatical for upcoming semester
  Dr. Rene Dahl will be on sabbatical for the Fall 2004 semester. While on sabbatical, Assistant Professor Carol Stevenson will be acting CAD Director. For appointments to see Carol Stevenson, please call the office at (415)405.3564.