Science is Cool!

I've been sitting in on a 5th grade class at Allen Elementary to observe how science it currently taught. It's been very educational and will greatly help in crafting my master's degree final project.

I'm excited at working to solve a problem in California schools; the lack of science education they get per week. According to a report earlier in the year, students are lucky to get 1 hour of science education a week. 1 hour!?!


The United States of America needs more engineers, chemists, biologists, mathematicians and many many other types of science/math people. It keeps us economically competative. It also benefits society by increasing the number of individuals who can successfully listen to, analyze and draw conclusions from the enormous amount of media we're bombarded with daily.

I believe that most Americans need these skills in order to:

• protect themselves from being taken advantage of (i.e. consumer debt)
• challenge their governing bodies/institutions (i.e. civil rights infringment sanctioned by legislation such as the Patriot Act) and


• help advance humanity in a positive direction through better decision making (i.e. choosing to use mass transit instead of driving, paying more for "green" products instead of products that use destructive chemicals and manufacturing processes).

While my project focuses on a specific aspect of science education, increasing it, I hope that it has far reaching effects upon society and people.

Life After the Last Semester of Coursework in Grad School

WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOO!
*happy dance*

Not so happy dance to the fact that my 1st on my creative work project (Asst. Prof. Paul Catanese) - who I'd be working most closely with - has decided to leave the university. Super bummer for me, but good for him. He's joining the graduate division of Columbia College in Chicago, which sounds like a great fit and I'm sure he'll kick butt there!


On the flip side, my 2nd, Associate Prof. Jane Veeder, who's got tons of experience has agreed to step into the role of 1st. I'm excited and relieved that she's willing to do this, and I know that my CW will be great with her in that role!

So now, I get to go work on my human subjects protocol, approach another professor to see if they'd like to become my new 2nd, and finish planning my wedding!

Yay to summer!!

Printing in the Bay Area (Oak-town)

I've been working with a new printer (new to me) to produce 1,000 full color brochures for iDo (Industrial Design Outreach). PSPrint seems to be a good organization. I've done two proofs, rejected both because of designer error (NOT printer error) and they've been OK with this - they said they give you 3 proofs before cutting you off. Everything is done through the website - upload of files, digital proofs, pricing, etc. - nice and easy.

Hopefully on Monday, all will be correct and we'll go to print.

iDo - Industrial Design Outreach: Award Ceremony for the Community Bench Project

Hello All!

If you get a chance, please come to iDo's award ceremony for Community Bench created by a small and fortunate bunch of students at Thurgood Marshall Academic High School.



When: April 3, 2008 8:50 ~ 9:50 AM
Where: Thurgood Marshall,
45 Conkling St, San Francisco,
CA 94124 Second Floor in the iDO studio (Please sign in at the front desk)

Running My First Professional Print Job

I'm using BPS in San Francisco. I'm really impressed with the quality of the printing and the professional attitude of the staff; they're proactive in calling me about the job, and when I call they know the precise status of it.

Here's a digital file of what the brochure looks like:

The Pursuit of Higher Education

I'm working on my masters degree in graphic design/visual communication at San Francisco State University.