- Author: Jodi Azulai
MY UC CAREER
For UC employees who have identified career exploration, growth and development opportunities as critical to their engagement and retention, a gift has arrived from UC Office of the President. A new online, self-directed career development portal, My UC Career, is available to all UC employees seeking to advance their career.
My UC Career consists of the following six, easy-to-use modules:
- Begin Career Discovery: Use personal assessments to help identify values, personality, skills and talents.
- Job Search: Leveraging the existing Systemwide Job Board, in one search, view all UC opportunities by job type, location, or career level. Create multiple alerts for new postings that are most interesting.
- Resume: Build a new resume or revise an existing resume using the step-by-step online resume workshop that uses answers to automatically build an accomplishment-based resume tailored to the identified career path. View resume building guides and resume samples by position or type.
- Tell Your Story: Create a pitch statement, cover letter, and references to tell what the employee has to offer and how they can help the organization succeed. Use the step by step online workshop to automatically build each document. View samples of each type of document.
- Network and Research: Optimize social media presence and use research tools to help leverage employee networks that uncover additional career opportunities.
- Pre- and Post-interview: Practice interview skills by recording video interviews using pre-recorded portal interviewers that ask the employee questions review interview type guides, create a post-interview thank you note, and review the offer negotiation guide and decision-making tools.
You will be seeing a lot of information in the coming months about My UC Career. Jump in now and be an early adopter.
CALL FOR MSAP APPLICANTS
If you or your people managers are ready for a leap in professional development, we encourage applying for the Management Skills Assessment Program (MSAP).
The next program will be April 17-20, 2018, at UCLA's Lake Arrowhead Conference Center
How does this program work?
This program assesses the management skills of high potential, early career supervisors and managers for future leadership opportunities at the University of California. Discuss the program with supervisors and managers who have one to five years of people-management experience and exhibit potential for management development.
When are applications due?
Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018
Who is eligible?
Eligibility requirements include:
- Full-time career status with a current, satisfactory (or better) performance evaluation
- Career Tracks job classification as a supervisor or manager with 1 to 5 years experience
Participants will be selected based on an evaluation of the applicant's (1) career goals in management, (2) level of skills essential for performing management functions, and (3) demonstrated career path and/or strong commitment to management skill development.
Who pays?
ANR Learning & Development pays the $1,350 program cost plus transportation and other related travel costs.
What to expect?
- A demanding program with assessees in activities from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
- No time to check email or attend to work responsibilities.
- Eat with other assessees and share small condos.
Application instructions and further information about the program are at http://msap.ucr.edu/. Choose UC ANR (not UC Davis) in the application.
Supervisors are required to fill in a portion of the application and commit to participate in the required post-program activities.
A UC ANR committee will review all applications and make the final selection.Completed applications must be submitted online at http://msap.ucr.edu/ by Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018.
For more information, contact Jodi Azulai, ANR Learning and Development Coordinator, at jlazulai@ucanr.edu.
DECEMBER LYNDA COURSE FEATURES
Remember that you can download the Lynda app and think strategically
Strategic thinking is a valuable skill for everyone in ANR. It allows each of us to think on a big and small scale, long- and short-term, back into the past, then into the present and finally to the future.
Thinking strategically becomes more critical as you ascend the career ladder. Now there is a Lynda.com course called Strategic Thinking. Topics include:
- Embracing the strategic mindset
- Making time
- Learning from the past
- Strategic thinking with a team
- Measuring success
Take the initiative today and plug into Lynda.com for a tactical career development opportunity.
Data Visualization Best Practices
Have you ever spent hours on an excellent piece of visual content only to discover that a graph of data has been improperly visualized? In the course Data Visualization Best Practices, you'll
- Learn about data visualization mistakes to avoid
- Learn how to properly visualize data
- Learn how to use data to tell a compelling story and drive action
DESIGNATHON SNEAK PEAK
The eXtension staff and more than a dozen extension innovators are training to be facilitators for Designathon One using Adobe Kickbox. To "meet" the team and to get a preview of the Adobe Kickbox Innovation Kit, be sure to follow @eXtension4u and hashtag #eXtIC on Twitter or eXtensionInitiative on Facebook for photos, videos and other updates.
Visit the Designathon One FAQ page to find answers to questions like these:
- Do I need an established project or program to attend?
- How does Designathon One fit into the impact collaborative?
- What will it cost?
Look for the registration link and final list of dates/locations soon. Find out if professional development funds or scholarships can help with the cost of attendance. Designathon One aims to work with 35 or more people at every member institution. This critical mass leads to a core of extension innovators who can support and encourage each other as they work to make a difference.
Nine locations will host Designathon One workshops:
- Northeast Region: Portsmouth NH, February 5-7, 2018 (co-hosted by University of New Hampshire Extension); Pittsburgh, PA, February 26-28 (co-hosted by Penn State University Extension); New York State, City TBD & Date TBD (co-hosted by Cornell University)
- Southern Region: San Antonio, TX, February 12-14, 2018 (co-hosted by Texas AgriLife Extension & Prairie View A&M University Extension) & Atlanta, GA, March 5-7, 2018 (date is tentative; co-hosted by the University of Georgia Extension and Fort Valley State University Extension)
- Western Region: Portland OR, February 5-7, 2018 (co-hosted by Oregon State University Extension) & Denver CO, February 26-28, 2018 (co-hosted by Colorado State University Extension)
- North Central Region: Indianapolis, IN, February 12-14, 2018 (co-hosted by Purdue University Extension). Madison WI, [date TBD] (co-hosted by University of Wisconsin Extension)
Anyone from an eXtension member institution is welcome to attend the Designathon One event that fits their schedule and travel budget.
For more information, contact Jill Heemstra at jillheemstra@extension.org.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Construction of a new parking lot behind the ANR building in Davis is now complete. The new lot adds 92 full-size paved parking spaces and 40 parking spaces on gravel to the existing 96 spaces at 2801 Second St. The extra parking capacity will enable ANR to host more conferences at the building.
The new parking lot also provides a venue for UC ANR to demonstrate science at the site by integrating an ongoing water-quality research project.
“I'm so proud that we incorporated a science project in the parking lot for the urban horticulture and water researchers,” said Jan Corlett, chief of staff to the vice president, who is overseeing the project. “It demonstrates that science is in everything that UC ANR does, even in constructing a parking lot.”
The research project on the recently purchased 10 acres at 3031 Second St. was developed by Missy Gable, director of the Master Gardener Program; Loren Oki, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in environmental horticulture at UC Davis; Igor Lacan, UC Cooperative Extension urban forestry advisor for San Mateo and San Francisco counties; and Marq Truscott, a retired landscape architect, who lectures for the Landscape Architecture Program at UC Davis. The researchers will evaluate the effect of parking surfaces paved with different materials and coupled with rain garden swales on storm water runoff quality and quantity.
The study area of the parking lot features swales and three surfaces – asphalt, gravel and permeable pavers. The researchers will study how these features improve water quality by removing pollutants and reduce runoff by improving soil infiltration. They will be able to collect samples of runoff water from the different paved surfaces. In addition, all trees planted in the parking lot have engineered substrates to demonstrate the long-term effect on tree health and condition.
In the spring, a ribbon cutting ceremony will be held to celebrate the project.
UC Office of the President invites comments on a proposed Presidential Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations. The policy is new and includes the following key issues:
- There is currently no systemwide uniformity or policy for ensuring open access to UC graduate students' theses and dissertations. This policy will provide systemwide consistency for these works.
- Allowance for embargoes that delay the date theses or dissertations are made available in an open access repository.
You can access the proposed policy at http://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/academic-personnel-policy/policies-under-review/pres-policy-openaccess-thesesanddiss.html
Comments should be submitted no later than Feb. 22, 2018, to rgsanchez@ucanr.edu.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
ANR is closing the warehouse in Richmond and moving its publications to Ontario so no new orders are currently being shipped. Publication sales will resume Jan. 8.
For new orders and customer service, please contact:
Masie Comtois
ANR Communication Services
2801 2nd Street
Davis, CA 95618
mvcomtois@ucanr.edu
Phone: 800-994-8849
Fax: 530-756-1079
Our warehouse is relocating to:
Elite Logistics and Fulfillment
Ku-ulei Reyes
305 Sequoia Ave
Ontario, CA 91761
Returns should be sent to the Ontario address. We cannot guarantee credit for product returned to our Richmond address.
Please continue to make checks payable to UC Regents. The catalog website anrcatalog.ucanr.edu and customer service phone number (800) 994-8849 will remain the same.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
After 28 years of service, Steven T. Koike, UC Cooperative Extension plant pathology advisor in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, plans to retire from the University of California at the end of 2017.
Koike, who joined the UCCE Monterey County office in 1989, conducts an extension research and education program on diseases of vegetable, fruit and ornamental crops. He focused on diagnosing plant problems, investigating the epidemiology of diseases, evaluating fungicides and other disease control methods, identifying and characterizing new diseases, and advising clientele on disease management approaches.
Koike created and operated the university's only county-based, fully equipped diagnostic lab for plant diseases, located in Salinas.
Using his diagnostic skills, Koike was instrumental in identifying a new virus that damaged the celery crop on California's central coast from 2007 through 2009. Tracing the virus back to poison hemlock, he and Oleg Daugovish, UCCE advisor in Ventura County, advised growers to remove the weed to protect celery, parsley and cilantro crops.
In 2009, downy mildew began causing spinach leaves to turn bright yellow and then brown in the Salinas Valley. By testing samples of diseased spinach from throughout the state, Koike and his counterparts at the University of Arkansas determined there were four new races of the mildew causing the outbreaks. Revelation of the new fungus strains in 2012 helped the industry develop resistant spinach cultivars.
In response to foodborne illness outbreaks, he collaborated on field studies involving foodborne bacterial pathogens, including E. coli survival in vegetable fields.
During his UCCE career, Koike published 381 peer-reviewed and 711 non-peer-reviewed publications, including his 450-page book Vegetable Diseases: A Color Handbook.
Koike has received many awards, including the UC ANR Assembly Council Fellowship for Advanced Studies in 1997; a 1999 Resolution from the Monterey County Board of Supervisors for excellence in service and research; 2000 Award for Outstanding Achievement from the California Friends of Agricultural Extension; 2005 Joseph M. Ogawa Research & Teaching Endowment Award; the Milton D. and Mary M. Miller Plant Science Awards in 1993, 1998 and 2006, from the UC Davis Department of Plant Science; 2011 Oscar Lorenz Award, Dept. Plant Sciences, UC Davis; UC ANR Distinguished Service Awards for Outstanding Research in 2002 and 2011; and the American Phytopathological Society's National Award for Excellence in Extension Plant Pathology in 2013.
In announcing his retirement, Koike thanked the many people who assisted and encouraged him in his extension career: growers, pest control advisers and other agricultural professionals; fellow UCCE academics from throughout the state; research technicians and support staff from his Salinas office and other university and USDA researchers.
In January 2018, Koike will become the lab director for TriCal Diagnostics, which is building a new laboratory, in Hollister. His new position with TriCal Diagnostics will involve operating a commercial diagnostic lab for plant diseases, supporting research on soil-borne plant pathogens, and providing plant pathology information to clientele who grow or work with various agricultural commodities.