- Author: Julienne Cancio
Saoimanu "Saoi" Sope, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources digital communications specialist, was born on Aunu'u, an island in American Samoa, but raised in Southern California. She attended UC Santa Cruz for her undergraduate degree in film and digital media. While in the program, she felt lost compared to her peers.
“I didn't know what type of stories I wanted to tell through film, especially compared to my other classmates,” Sope said. “For a lot of them, it seemed like they had been planning on being filmmakers their entire life. This major was my backup plan.”
To gain more perspective, she took on a second major in community studies, a unique and interdisciplinary field that prepares students to apply the lessons they learn in the classroom to the real world, through a six-month field study.
Sope completed her field study at the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond, teaching Black and Brown youth how film can be used as a tool to navigate their trauma. Through this experience, Sope learned about public health, which she pursued in her master's program at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
In 2018, Sope learned about UC ANR as an employee of Driscoll's. Her boss at the time coordinated a field trip to the UC ANR office in Davis to learn more about successful agriculture communications. Four years later, in June 2022, Sope joined the Strategic Communications team. 
“It was a full-circle moment,” she said. “When UC ANR posted the job description for the role I have now, I saw it and applied like anyone else. Luckily, I got an interview and now I'm here.”
When talking about her interactions with Southern California researchers and staff as a digital communications specialist, Sope attributes much of her success to her culture and upbringing. “I think one of my superpowers is that I can work with people in a way that makes them feel valued and seen and heard,” she explained.
She talked about her Samoan background, one that emphasizes the importance of hospitality. Known as the “happy people of the Pacific,” Samoans are very big on caring for and hosting others, Sope said. “How we treat others reflects our value of community,” she explained.
Sope brings this into the room with the people she is interviewing and to the impactful stories she is writing. She makes it known to her interviewees that their time is valuable and their story is worth reading.
As she grows older, Sope said, she realizes how much of her culture has influenced her work ethic. She appreciates that May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, an opportunity to celebrate and bring recognition to the beautiful and diverse cultures of marginalized communities in the U.S.
Although AAPI communities are clumped into one phrase, it is important to remember that there are many diverse groups of people within this term that are often overlooked, such as Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
When speaking about her Polynesian culture, the saying “it takes a village to raise a child” really speaks to Sope. In Samoan culture, it is common for parents to give legal guardianship of their child to other family members. In the U.S., this is formally known as adoption. This is the case for Sope; she was “gifted” to her adoptive mom by her birth mom.
“But one thing that's really beautiful about the Samoan culture is that we always know where we come from,” she said. “We know who our birth parents are…it's not a secret, and it's not shameful.”
Overall, Sope is most proud of coming from a culture that places such a high value on community. This can be seen through her influential writing, bringing awareness and attention to UC ANR staff and researchers who make great contributions to the academic world and the greater SoCal communities.
In conveying their stories, Sope said she hopes they realize and reflect on their potential and the importance of their own work.
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Max Fairbee spent his high school years moving around Southern California to cities like Covina, La Verne, Pomona and Apple Valley, hoping that his mother would find stability in the next place they'd call “home.” After attending five different high schools, Fairbee decided to take the California High School Proficiency Exam and earned his diploma that way.
Eventually, he accepted a job at Tower Records in West Covina, working there for six years. “Until my current job, Tower Records was the longest position at a single company I ever held,” said Fairbee. “That's where I began to discover myself and understand diversity and acceptance.”
Fairbee loved the arts and wanted to find a career where he could utilize creativity and share his appreciation of the arts. Attending Orange Coast College and Platt College, he spent time learning typography, photography, fine art and graphic art.
Unsure of what he wanted to do next and struggling to secure employment as a graphic artist, Fairbee took a job at the North Coast Co-Op, a natural foods grocery store in Eureka, after moving to Humboldt County in 2009. Fairbee worked at the co-op for over three years and while he worked in various positions, his most valuable role was conducting food demonstrations.
“My inclination for community service started in that food co-op,” said Fairbee. “I learned about where food comes from, what goes into your food, food sustainability, and all of the lights in my head went off.”
Fairbee began working as a mental health technician, teaching life skills to adults with different levels of learning abilities. “I was teaching them how to do things, like, managing medication and doing laundry,” Fairbee said. “At the same time, I was developing their appreciation for art and music by hosting workshops.”
Teaching becomes a path forward
Channeling his appreciation for healthy living and love for teaching, Fairbee now works in Alameda County, developing and delivering nutrition education classes for older adults, almost half from the Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Oakland and the surrounding area. He teaches them ways to achieve and sustain healthy lifestyles through the Eat Healthy Be Active Community Workshops.
The lessons are centered on understanding what is healthy and why. One of the skills Fairbee teaches his students is how to read a nutrition facts label. At some sites, he also incorporates gardening education using edible plants.
“I told myself that I would never take a job where I didn't go home and like to talk about my work,” Fairbee said.
Naturally, Fairbee went on to describe how proud he feels about his work with older adults in the Bay Area. In mid-April, Fairbee celebrated his recent class of graduates who are all over the age of 60. Students were highly engaged in the lessons about healthy living and Fairbee had 23 students complete the course.
“There's a lot of language barriers, so, I rely on interpreters a lot,” Fairbee explained. “You would think that after six weeks, and with a language barrier you'd have fewer students complete a course like this. But no, not my students.”
Remaining physically active is a recurring topic and activity throughout the six-week course, according to Fairbee, who noticed an association between physical activity and happiness.
“I had a 98-year-old student who invited me to her birthday party at the Oakland Zoo one time,” Fairbee recalled. “Apparently she did that every year and she invited all her friends.”
Community service is ‘paying it forward'
Fairbee said that the friendships he has cultivated over the years have played a significant role in his desire to give back. Born in Indiana, Fairbee said that growing up, he always knew he needed to come to California.
“I watched a lot of Brady Brunch growing up. For some reason, they had this perfect life and I wanted that,” he said. Eventually, Fairbee's parents divorced, and his mother moved to Southern California and took him with her when he was 13.
“When my mom brought me to California, she saved my life,” said Fairbee.
He didn't know why, but he knew that he couldn't stay in that Indiana community. Perhaps it was the blatant racism or xenophobia that he observed within his own family or others. Either way, Fairbee was adamant about moving westward.
“I'm very different from my family,” said Fairbee. “For one, I'm gay. But also, we just have different beliefs in how to treat people,” he explained.
Fairbee said that the people who made his life in California full of “magical moments” were friends and their families. He remembered celebrating Thanksgiving with a friend, and how much more fun and special it was compared to the holiday spent with his own family.
“Over the years, I noticed that since I moved to California in the '80s, important holidays and celebrations were made special because of my friends,” he said.
The opportunity to spread love and kindness is what keeps Fairbee motivated. “Community service comes from the kindness of others. That's what my friends did for me and the work I do now is my way of paying it forward,” he said.
Fairbee says that he cannot describe the feeling of community service, but that when you have done it once or twice, there's no greater reward.
“There's like a million thank you's and at the end of the day, you feel full. And not from food, but of love,” he said. “Honestly, I'll be doing this work until I retire. I can't see myself going anywhere else now.”
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Growing up in Ethiopia, Etaferahu Takele was faced with a dilemma: School or marriage? Those were the choices Takele's father gave her when she was 13 years old. Takele, UC Cooperative Extension farm management and agricultural economics advisor for Southern California, said her ultimate choice changed the trajectory of her life.
Takele has made a career of researching how farm products and farming practices translate into profitability for farmers. She works closely with UCCE farm advisors, helping them understand the factors that affect the economics of crop production, and enabling them to better support growers in the area.
Throughout her career, she has published many cost studies for growers that focus on crops like vegetables, citrus and avocados. In her role, she also analyzes new crop economics and potential profitability, and compares profitability and cost to alternative production practices.
In Ethiopia, it is common and expected for young women to marry before high school, sacrificing the opportunity to continue their education. Takele's father let his oldest daughter decide what her next steps would be. “I want to go to school,” Takele told him.
Takele was the only female student in her elementary school classes. Similarly, she was the only female graduate student when she began her studies at North Dakota State University.
“It was funny,” Takele said. “I remember in graduate school, the department chair wanted to introduce me to the rest of the students, and he took me upstairs. The students were surprised to see me. They were waiting for a man, and probably a white one.”
Takele was born in Dessie, about 250 miles north of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, but was raised in the country in a village called Kutaber. In addition to her father's business as a farmer, a visit to an agricultural school stimulated her interest in agriculture.
“I saw the milking of the cows and all the technology, and it was really fascinating,” said Takele, who also helped her father with accounting for his farm, which sparked her interest in the business side of agriculture.
In 1981, immediately following graduation from North Dakota State University with her master's degree in agricultural economics, Takele joined UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. “I'm one of the old timers,” she said.
“Extension was organized differently at the time that I started. Cooperative Extension was a separate unit with its own academics organized by discipline,” said Takele. “There weren't any women in the agricultural economics unit of Cooperative Extension at that time. I was the only one, until another woman, Karen Klonsky, joined six months later.”
Aside from her love for numbers, Takele says she truly enjoys the extension part of her job. “I like the applied aspect because I get to see my research and analysis help growers make profitable farm management decisions,” she explained.
Thirteen years into her career with UC ANR, Takele earned a master's degree in economics from UC Riverside. In 2008, Takele graduated from the prestigious California Agricultural Leadership Program, and served as UCCE director for Riverside County from 2007 to 2020.
With many years of UC ANR service, and counting, Takele said that being a role model to her siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews, is her driving force.
“In my culture, there is an obligation to help those that come after you,” she said. Aligned with this value is her desire to open opportunities, just like her father did for her. “I have always been focused,” Takele said. “And it all started with that choice he gave me.”
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
A celebration of culture and diversity in honor of Black History Month
Agriculture makes up over 85% of Ethiopia's workforce and the journey into the field is not for the faint of heart, according to Oli Bachie, UC Cooperative Extension director for San Diego and Imperial counties. In addition to managing the research and program teams in these regions, Bachie provides research-based technical and educational assistance to producers, growers, farm operators and pest control advisors in agronomy and weed management
Bachie was born to two farmers of the Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia. As the oldest of 12, his training to become a farmer was the most comprehensive and rigorous since he would set an example for his siblings to follow. At the age of six, Bachie was given his first test of responsibility: raising chickens in the backyard.
“Chickens is what everyone starts off with as a child,” Bachie said. “We then grow into specialization as we age, but it starts with raising chickens.”
Eventually, Bachie's parents sold the chickens on his behalf and used the money to purchase goats. When he mastered goat herding, Bachie worked his way up to managing oxen and farming.
“If you have a lot of oxen, you can do more for longer periods of time during the day,” he said. “You can start early in the morning with a few, then switch them out so they can break. That way you don't tire all your oxen out and the work will still go on.”
While Bachie's exposure to agriculture was inevitable, it required sacrifice.
In Ethiopia, if you are serious about a career in agriculture, high school is where you first make it evident. Because high schools were scarce and far away, academic performance was used as an indication of whether you were worth investing more time and resources into.
For Bachie, the nearest high school was a long way from home. “It was maybe as far as San Diego to Los Angeles,” he said.
Among thousands of high school students, Bachie was one of very few to be admitted to Addis Ababa University, the only university in Ethiopia at the time, where he earned a bachelor's degree in plant sciences.
When reminiscing about his childhood, Bachie couldn't help but acknowledge how special his homeland is to him. He described its rugged terrain but lush vegetation. He acknowledged the lack of transportation including paved roads in his area, and how traveling by foot prepared him for the experiences he has endured over the years.
“You ever see those skinny Ethiopians winning the Olympics as runners?” he asked. “Do you know why they win? Because they are prepared. You know why? Because they run for a living!”
In Ethiopia, most schools are located far away from residential communities, forcing students to run to and from school if they want to get there on time. “When I was younger, the nearest elementary school was a two-hour walk away,” said Bachie. “Running is connected to survival, and everyone runs.”
Oromo communities truly embody the saying, “it takes a village to raise a child” – another aspect of Bachie's culture and upbringing that makes him proud. “Children belong to the community,” he said. “There is no hurting of children. Anyone who passes or sees a child will take care of them, will take them back to their house, or they will feed them.”
The values he grew up with like education, independence and discipline, have made it possible for Bachie to work in additional fields like computer network administrations and forestry, and in places like the Philippines and Canada. Eventually, he made his way to the United States and earned a doctorate degree in biological sciences from UC Riverside.
When asked about his experience as an African man working in agriculture in California compared to Ethiopia, Bachie acknowledged the everyday struggles that come with being Black in America, like navigating unwelcoming or unpleasant assumptions and biases of who he is based on his skin color.
“I remember when I was a professor, a student asked me if I was qualified to teach the class,” said Bachie. “I responded to the student and asked, ‘Are you qualified to be my student?'”
Since it was the first class of the year, Bachie said that he did not understand what prompted the student to ask such a question. If it was his physical appearance, he wanted the student to know that skin color does not correlate with qualification.
“It's frustrating,” he said. “But what they think about me has more to do with them than it does me.”
Today, Bachie continues to help growers improve crop productivity and yield with minimal impact to the environment. He is also focused on opportunities for innovation in Southern California. Last October, the City of Escondido proclaimed October 21 as “Dr. Oli G. Bachie Day” in recognition of his vision to explore the future of agriculture and technology.
Bachie wholeheartedly believes that growing up in Oromia, Ethiopia prepared him for the leadership role he now has, and he hopes that his story is an example of how strength will take you farther than you can ever imagine.
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Solis considers himself a “water accountant” given his expertise in water availability, both naturally and man-made, and water use. When he's not working as a water accountant, Solis is teaching an undergraduate course called Water Science and Management, and a graduate level course called Water Resources Planning and Management.
Solis earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a master's degree in hydraulics and a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City, Mexico.
When asked to reflect on the 11 years he has spent with UC ANR, here's what Solis had to say:
What do you enjoy most about your role?
Making a difference in people's life. I like that I can talk with people and help them out whether it's designing a water supply system for a homeowner who lost their home in a fire or advising decision makers in Sacramento on how much water is needed to sustain healthy rivers throughout the state of California.
How has your culture influenced your work ethic?
I'm a people's person! My culture helped me connect with people at the personal level in addition to the professional level.
What legacy or impact do you want to have on black and brown communities who see someone like you in this career?
There are about 800,000 people in California without access to clean, safe and affordable water and I'd really like to reduce this number. Some communities are drinking water with fertilizer, pesticides, and/or arsenic in it, and I feel bad because many of the people affected are Hispanic migrant workers that often cannot demand their human right to water—a California bill that was passed in 2012.
We are the only state in the United States with this duty and must still deliver it. It's heart breaking because the people that do not have access to water look like me, like my mom and dad, like my nieces. It's a very difficult situation as a person, but as a scientist, I am putting all my energy into shedding light onto this problem.
Which achievement are you most proud of and why?
Well, many. The first would be a water conservation program that I estimated and was passed in 2012 in Pajaro Valley. I also led a research group that estimated environmental flows or how much water river's need to maintain good conditions for every river in the state of California. I have helped irrigation districts optimize their water use too.
Currently, I am working a program that trains people to provide professional services focused on helping every farmer in the state improve their irrigation and nitrogen practices, reduce contamination and save water.
How has UC ANR contributed to your personal or professional growth?
The Cooperative Extension system is awesome! It has strengthened my ability to solve problems. I believe this collaborative system and the passion from all my colleagues is what keeps the Cooperative Extension system moving for the last 100 years.
