Food as Art: A Cross-College Collaboration

By: Liza Madrid and Winnie Liao

The Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging Department had an amazing opportunity to showcase their skills sets with the Art Department late this year. This event was held in the Art Department within the Community Table Art Exhibition at San José State University on November 4, 2021. In the NuFS 22, Catering and Beverage Management course, students were displaying their knowledge of basic catering through extravagant foods. Professor Jamie Kubota and Chef Todd Engstrom were the stars of the menu creation which featured: Smoked turkey bacon cranberry pinwheels, cauliflower ceviche, crostini with carrot top pesto and whipped goat cheese, pumpkin whoopie pies, and dark chocolate truffles. Each of these appetizers was carefully crafted by the nutrition students in Chef Todd’s NuFS 22 class. This event was a great opportunity for the NuFS 22 students to showcase their culinary skills to the art department and the community. Not only was the art department able to get a deeper sense of the skills, teachings, and techniques that can be learned in the nutrition department, but the nutrition students were also able to get more of an understanding of the projects and artwork that the art students work on throughout the semester. Essentially, both departments were able to get a new perspective on each other’s work. This is extremely significant as it may inspire students to get involved in other departments, community events, and volunteer with other organizations.

Nutrition students, Winne Liao and Liza Madrid, both stated that the Community Table Art Exhibition was the perfect event to get hands-on experience in the culinary field. Liza Madrid stated that “…the best part of the event was that it allowed us to see what Chef Todd Engstrom used to do as a full-time caterer and how hard he has worked to become extremely knowledgeable in his field. His passion for the culinary field is truly inspiring.”Winnie Liao was quoted saying, “I really enjoyed this event. I was able to apply my previous experiences and skills of baking to this event, which made it even more fun! I hope for more events like this in the future.”

Overall, the Community Table Art Exhibition was a tremendous success among the students, faculty, and visitors. Each and every student from both departments should be proud of the hard work put in to make this community event possible!

SJSU Ranked 2nd Among Best Packaging Programs

Great news for the College of Applied Sciences and Arts as the Department of Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging (NUFS) ranked 2nd in the top 20 best value packaging programs of 2017 in the United States, according to Value Colleges.

Ashwini Wagle, Department Chair of NUFS, was excited to hear the news and is eager to become the best packaging program in the country. “We will strive for the number one spot,” said Wagle.

Value Colleges offers researched, straightforward, and practical answers about value and affordability for college bound students making college decisions. The website features articles about college costs and benefits, as well as numerical rankings of institutions and degree programs.

Click here to read Value Colleges’ article on the top 20 best value packaging programs of 2017.

Professor Fritz Yambrach Receives the 2017 DuPont Diamond Award

Professor Fritz Yambrach, Department of Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging, developed the Fritz™ Water Vest that enables people in disaster areas, or areas where water is not easily available, to transport water. The vest allows people to carry up to 20 pounds of water easily and safely.

DuPont announced the 2017 winners of the DuPont International Innovative Package Design Competition, honoring companies that have demonstrated major advancements in packaging technology to address the diverse and particular needs of consumers in markets around the world. The Fritz™ Water Vest received the highest honor, the Diamond Award.

Click here to read DuPont’s official announcement.

Congratulations to Professor Yambrach on receiving this prestigious award!

Committee to Enhance Equity and Diversity Awards

The 2015-16 CEED Award winners were recognized on April 26, 2016, for their excellence in promoting and fostering a deeper understanding of equity and diversity.

The 2015-16 CEED Award winners were recognized on April 26, 2016, for their excellence in promoting and fostering a deeper understanding of equity and diversity.

The College of Applied Sciences and Arts’ Committee to Enhance Equity and Diversity (CEED) reception was held on Tuesday, April 26, honoring six recipients whose combined effort and activities have made an important contribution to enhance equity and diversity at San José State University (SJSU) and/or in the community. CEED Award categories consist of an Undergraduate Student Award, Graduate Student Award, Faculty Award, Staff Award, and Student Organization Award.

The purpose of the CEED Awards is to recognize those individuals and groups that have demonstrated excellence in promoting and fostering a deeper understanding of equity and diversity as they relate to issues of age, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion and/or sexual orientation.

The recipients for the CEED Distinguished Service Award are:

Undergraduate Student Award – Navpreet Kaur, the Valley Foundation School of Nursing

Navpreet has led or been involved in several projects that promote equity and diversity on campus. In 2015, she led the Peace Pole Monument project that helped to place an official monument on campus. The Peace Pole is a hand-crafted wooden monument that has the message “May Peace Prevail On Earth” in the 12 most frequently used languages in Santa Clara County.

Navpreet also serves on the President’s Commission on Diversity which provides “input, recommendations, and advice to the President on effective ways to create a campus environment that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.” She initiated this project in an effort to counteract negative publicity related to diversity issues that were occurring on campus.

Graduate Student Award – Essraa Nawar, School of Information

Essraa Nawar is pursuing her passion to be a librarian focusing on programming and outreach in bringing diverse programming to the life of the libraries and the academic institutions she serves. One of Essraa’s strengths is her ability to create an atmosphere of awareness regarding ethnicity, gender, and religious diversity across campus.

She serves on the Chancellor’s Diversity Advisory Committee and developed a program on empowering Muslim women. Essraa coordinated the support of the Sikh American Community through Vaisakhi programming, an exhibition on demystifying the turban. She also spoke at a TED Talk in Munich, Germany, to further her diversity message to change the narrative of how people see Muslim women specifically and Muslim people in general.

Graduate Student Award – Cotton Stevenson, School of Journalism and Mass Communications

Cotton conceived the slogan “Diversity University” as part of a class project to make a difference at SJSU. He didn’t stop there. Cotton decided to make issues surrounding diversity and acceptance on the SJSU campus the focus of his second master’s degree. Because of him, we now have an annual Diversity Day at SJSU.

As a graphic artist, Stevenson created the logo for the event as well. He is now in the final stages of a documentary about the history and importance of diversity on this campus. He’s already completed several impressive interviews for this project which include Jeanne Wakatsuki, the author of Farewell to Manzanar, Erik Grotz, the student who suggested the Tommie Smith-John Carlos sculptures as well as with the artist who created it.

He was also awarded a proclamation by Rep. Zoe Lofgren for his commitment to “Diversity University.”

Faculty Award – Dr. William Armaline, Justice Studies

Dr. Armaline established and serves as coordinator of the Human Rights Program at SJSU. As a part of that initiative, he implemented the  popular Human Rights Minor, a program through which students gain an understanding of various human rights problems that affect their community, including racism, discrimination, and inequality. He is committed to raising awareness on campus to issues of equity and diversity.  As a part of this effort, he founded and continues to coordinate the annual human rights event.

He chairs the Human Rights Working Group, which serves as a platform for faculty to engage in issues of equity and diversity. Throughout his work, Dr. Armaline single handedly serves as a hub for students who are interested in increasing equity on campus.  He informally advises students on activism both on and off campus.

Dr. Armaline is also involved in numerous activities in the community.  He authored reports on social justice issues, served as a National Board Member in Save the Kids, a grass-roots organization dedicated to alternatives to end of the incarceration of youth, is a Council Member in the Santa Clara County Child Abuse Council. He most recently initiated a partnership with DeBug, a San José media, community organizing, and entrepreneurial collective that leads successful social justice campaigns to advance the rights of youth, workers, immigrants and those impacted by the criminal justice system.

Staff Award – Silvia La Rosa, School of Journalism and Mass Communications

In addition to providing extensive administrative support for more than 500 School of Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC) students and 22 faculty, Silvia is a committed advocate for SJSU diversity students.

Silvia offers extraordinary time and effort to advising and mentoring all students. She connects on a powerful level with JMC School Spanish speaking students. Her translation skills combined with her knowledge of university procedures and her deep passion for helping students find their voice and express their creativity has resulted in numerous success stories that are greatly admired and appreciated in our program.

In Fall 2015, she was a leading advocate for fundraising of the College of Applied Sciences and Arts international learning initiative. She played a significant role in helping persuade a special JMC guest, CNN Correspondent Sara Sidner from Los Angeles, to donate her William Randolph Hearst honorarium to start a newly created fund and campaign to raise scholarship money to help SJSU students from poor and under-represented communities to participate. She plays an instrumental role in helping the school director create Spanish community messages and promotions that invite Bay Area business and schools to partner with JMC.

Silvia always finds the time to encourage students and faculty.

Student Organization Award – Alpha Phi Sigma Iota Chapter, Justice Studies

A team of Iota Chapter members and alumni volunteered at the Center with the Prison Education Project (PEP), teaching the 7 week Academic Orientation Course.  They met every Friday with a group of formerly incarcerated individuals currently on parole.  They created presentations about college as well as give mini-lectures based on topics in Justice Studies majors (e.g. consequences of mass incarceration and juvenile justice).  A big component of this program is engaging the program participants in discussions about the topics presented as well as their interests and needs.  In addition, Iota chapter collected and donated 100 backpacks with everyday necessities and held a clothing drive on campus for the Santa Clara County Resource Reentry Center to give to their clients.

Congratulations to all 2015-16 CEED Award winners!

CEED Logo

CASA Faculty Recognized for Years of Service

San José State University held its 17th Annual Faculty Service Recognition and Awards Luncheon on March 15, 2016, to celebrate faculty who have reached a significant milestone year. Honorees were given a special gift with the years of service engraved.

The College of Applied Sciences and Arts (CASA) is very grateful for its wonderful faculty and is proud to acknowledge our faculty who were recognized for 15, 20, 25, 30 and 40 years of service.

15 Years of Service

  • Antoinette Bloom, Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging
  • Richard Craig, Journalism and Mass Communications
  • Ziming Liu, School of Information
  • Jennifer Schachner, Kinesiology

20 Years of Service

  • Lisa Arieta Hayes, Social Work
  • Christine Di Salvo, Journalism and Mass Communications
  • Alice Hines, Social Work
  • Clarie Hollenbeck, Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging
  • Geoffrey Liu, School of Information
  • Lee Pate, Kinesiology
  • Diane Stuenkel, Nursing
  • Gilbert Villagran, Social Work

25 Years of Service

  • Yoko Baba, Justice Studies
  • Elizabeth Cara, Occupational Therapy
  • Gong Chen, Kinesiology
  • Buddy Gerstman, Health Science and Recreation
  • Nancy Megginson, Kinesiology
  • Fred Prochaska, Social Work
  • Bob Rucker, Journalism and Mass Communications

30 Years of Service

  • Kathy Abriam-Yago, Nursing
  • Christine Hooper, Nursing
  • Linda Main, School of Information
  • Jacquelyn McClure, Justice Studies
  • Judi Morrill, Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging
  • Kathleen Roe, Health Science and Recreation

40 Years of Service

  • William Tillinghast, Journalism and Mass Communications

Congratulations to all on reaching this service milestone with SJSU and thank you for your hard work and much dedication to the success of our students. We look forward to your ongoing contributions and a successful future!