Tag Archives: nutrition

Mark Your Calendar: Silicon Valley Innovation Challenge

Silicon Valley Innovation Challenge

Silicon Valley Innovation Challenge

The Silicon Valley Innovation Challenge (SVIC) is taking place all-day on Monday, November 16 in the new Student Union Ballroom. We encourage CASA students to enter the competition. It is a great way to showcase the innovations conceived by our creative, talented students and celebrate at this year’s event.

The new “Best Sport-Tech” award, sponsored by University Advancement, will be made available this year in addition to the Best Overall Innovation, Best Elevator Pitch, and Best Social Innovation award categories. Each winner will receive a cash prize.

SVIC is a fantastic networking and career building opportunity for students. Judges include faculty and industry professionals from leading Silicon Valley companies such as Cisco Systems, Applied Materials, AT&T, LinkedIn, Citrix, Ericsson, WMware, NetApp, and more.

Cisco Systems in particular plans to use SVIC as a talent recruitment platform. Eligible students with a GPA of 3.2 or higher should visit the Career Center to improve resume writing and interviewing skills prior to the event.

KEY DATES

  • October 5: Submission opens for students, alumni, faculty, etc.
  • October 26: Submission closes at midnight
  • October 28: Online judging begins
  • November 9: Finalists Notified
  • November 16: SVIC Finalist Showcase, Student Union Ballroom, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Visit SVIC to learn more.

Silicon Valley Innovation Challenge Poster

CHAMP Senior Wellness Fair draws nearly 800 visitors

On Oct. 23, Leticia Medrano walked through the gymnasium at the Timpany Center, visiting vendor booths at the fourth annual Senior Wellness Fair.

With a bag full of pamphlets about community resources for seniors and free giveaways she had collected throughout the morning, she sat down to have her blood pressure taken by one of the many student volunteers from San José State University’s College of Applied Sciences and Arts Valley Foundation School of Nursing.

Medrano said she was having a great time at the Timpany Center, where she takes water classes and a better bones and balance class.

Nursing student Heather Bishop noted that the blood pressure booth was one of the few with a line.

“The seniors are usually on top of their blood pressure, but they like to check it,” said Jonathan Dinson, who took Medrano’s readings and said his class has been volunteering at the Timpany Center all semester. “She’s one of the regulars.”

The students said they do not diagnosis high blood pressure, but they can write a reading down for visitors that they can share with a doctor who can decide what they need.

College of Applied Sciences and Arts Interim Dean Alice Hines meets with Occupational Therapy Professor Megan Chang along with OT students Julie Rahan and Ashley Dawson at the Senior Wellness Fair.

College of Applied Sciences and Arts Interim Dean Alice Hines, from left, meets with Occupational Therapy Professor Megan Chang along with OT students Julie Rahan and Ashley Dawson at the Senior Wellness Fair.

Veronica Cavillo, a student in the School of Social Work, interviews a senior about his mood at the Seniro Wellness Fair Oct. 23. The event is a collaboration between San Jose State University Center for Healthy Aging in Multicultural Populations (CHAMP,) the Santa Clara County Department of Aging and Adult Services and the Timpany Center.

Veronica Cavillo, a student in the School of Social Work, interviews a senior about his mood at the Senior Wellness Fair Oct. 23. The event is a collaboration between San Jose State University Center for Healthy Aging in Multicultural Populations (CHAMP,) the Santa Clara County Department of Aging and Adult Services and the Timpany Center.

 

Jonathan Dinson, left, takes Leticia Medrano's blood pressure at the Senior Wellness Fair on Oct. 23. Dinson, a student in SJSU's Valley Foundation School of Nursing, was just one of dozens of students to volunteer at the wellness fair from the College of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Jonathan Dinson, left, takes Leticia Medrano’s blood pressure at the Senior Wellness Fair on Oct. 23. Dinson, a student in SJSU’s Valley Foundation School of Nursing, was just one of dozens of students to volunteer at the wellness fair from the College of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Bishop noted that in addition to giving the nursing students a chance to practice a skill, they also learned about resources in the community.

“We are working with seniors a lot this semester so there are a lot of resources we can share with patients,” she said.

The Senior Wellness Fair hosted at the Timpany Center on Oct. 23 brought in more than 789 attendees this year, with many students from SJSU’s College of Applied Sciences and Arts volunteering to interact with the population.

The Senior Wellness Fair is a partnership between SJSU’s Center for Healthy Aging in Multicultural Populations, the Santa Clara County Department of Aging and Adult Services and the Timpany Center, now in its fourth year. CHAMP is an interdisciplinary effort that includes faculty from the College of Applied Sciences and Arts’ School of Social Work, the Valley Foundation School of Nursing, Nutrition and Food Science, Kinesiology, Occupational Therapy as well as the departments of Psychology and Communicative Disorders and Sciences.

Sadhna Diwan, a professor of Social Work and the director of CHAMP, said the goals for students at the event are to practice implementing health promotion education with seniors; engage in interprofessional learning through exposure to the work of other disciplines or professions and learn about vital community resources that can be helpful to older adults and their families.

Martha Ortiz, a recreation therapy major, said she and her fellow students were giving a survey to seniors to find out if they are feeling unfilled in any part of their lives – physical, mental, social, spiritual or cognitive.

“We help them realize which area they should focus on and give them resources,” she said.

Ortiz said they were trying to help seniors understand that they can define their leisure time to help them feel more fulfilled, such as getting outdoors for a hike or a picnic.

Danelle Willey, a Nutrition and Food Science major, said she and the students at her booth were working with seniors to educate them on the sodium in different food products.

They had printed out labels of several condiments and popular food items, such as fish sauce and a frozen meal.

“We want to bring to light the high amount of sodium we can eat without realizing it,” Willey said. “It can put people at risk for high blood pressure, osteoporosis and other chronic diseases. By lower intake now, they can lessen the effects or not have them get them as early in life.”

One of the surprise items with a high level of sodium was the fish sauce, which contains 99 percent of the daily recommended amount of sodium. The students handed out free samples of a salt-free Mrs. Dash seasoning.

“They’ve been very receptive,” Willey said, of the seniors visiting the booth.

Students in the School of Social Work did a short survey with seniors to determine their mood to see if they might be in need of services to deal with a depressed mood.

“It can be a sensitive topic if they have a low mood,” said Lindsay Lytle. “We can tell them where to go for help and how to talk about it.”

The students had a sheet with community resources to share with seniors. Lytle said if anyone had a low mood they recommended the person speaking with a primary doctor to follow up.

Ashley Dawson and Julie Rahan, two Occupational Therapy students, worked with seniors to assess their risk of falls. At their booth, they first surveyed seniors to get their perception of their risk of falling and then did an assessment with the seniors.

“Depending on how they do physically, we make some recommendations,” Rahan said, of how they can prevent falls.

At the event, they offered a Falls Prevention workshop.

“Their perception is usually similar to the assessment,” Dawson said, noting that the seniors they had encountered in the morning were happy to do the assessment.

For more on CHAMP, visit: http://www.sjsu.edu/champ/

Faculty, student honored for enhancing equity and diversity

Dean Charles Bullock and the Committee to Enhance Equity and Diversity will honor two members of the College of Applied Sciences and Arts for their efforts at San José State University as well as in the community to enhance equity and diversity with the 2014 CEED Award.

Ashwini Wagle speaks at a community event on healthy eating habits.

Ashwini Wagle speaks at a community event on healthy eating habits.

Ashwini Wagle, a professor in nutrition and food science, and Debbie Reese, a student in the School of Library and Information Science, will be honored at a reception April 29.

Each year, the committee requests nominations for faculty, student, student organizations and staff members who are committed to outstanding service to enhance equity and diversity in the committee. From the dozens of submissions the top nominees are selected to receive the CEED Award.

Reese is a student in the Master of Library and Information Science degree program and is a School of Library and Information Science Circle of Learning scholar. COL is a grant-funded partnership with the American Indian Library Association, funded by the Institute of Library and Museum Services. In her time as a student, she has been invited as a guest at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s American Healing for Democracy conference in New Orleans, as well as a presenter at the Pacific Northwest Library Association conference and the International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries and Museums in Tulsa, Okla.

According to her nomination form, she was the recipient of the 2013 Virginia Matthews Scholarship Award for her “sustained involvement in the American Indian community and her sustained commitment to American Indian concerns and initiatives.”

Her award-winning blog, American Indians in Children’s Literature (http://www.americanindiansinchildrensliterature.net/), shined the spotlight on the Arizona law that led to the recent shutdown of the Mexican American Studies Program in the Tucson Unified School District. According to the American Indian Library Association, Reese not only works with the Nambe community and “she strives to inform the dominant culture about issues facing Indian people today.” After graduation, Reese plans to return to Nambe Pueblo to establish a library and archive for the community.

Wagle, who has been a faculty member since 2003, has an interest in how culture can affect food habits. She developed the “South Asian Carbohydrate Counting Tool for South Asians” with some of her graduate students and made the tool available at no charge through her faculty website. According to the colleague who nominated Wagle, the tool is being used in hospitals and diabetic clinics throughout the Bay Area to education South Asians. In addition she also created “SEED: Success and Enhancement through Education and Development” on Kiva.org to provide 30 microloans to minority women.

On campus, Wagle has served as a major adviser to more than 30 graduate student projects and mentored several others, especially minority women in their academic careers. Several of the student projects focused on multicultural/multiethnic enhancement ranging from health and dietary practices of pregnant and lactating South Asian women to infants and toddlers as well as the elderly population.

Nutrition Prof receives 2014 CDA award for research

Dr. Kasuen Mauldin, an assistant professor at San José State University in the Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging department, has won the 2014 California Dietetics Association (CDA) Excellence in Research Award. The award is given to a CDA member for professional excellence in dietetic/nutrition research. Award recipients must demonstrate leadership and active participation in nutrition-related professional associations, excel in contributing to the body of knowledge of dietetics/nutrition via research and in teaching others in a specialized field of research, and have a productive history of refereed research publications.

Kasuen Mauldin

Kasuen Mauldin

The College of Applied Sciences and Arts professor’s research training is in human metabolism with a focus on lipoprotein homeostasis. Her work on structure-function analyses of apolipoproteins A-V and contributions to the scientific literature have provided insight into possible mechanisms for targeting prevention and treatment strategies in cardiovascular disease.  In 2012, Mauldin was honored to serve as the Associate Chair of the Gordon Research Seminar on Lipoprotein Metabolism.

In addition to basic science research, Mauldin conducts collaborative clinical studies with aims (1) to better understand the relationship between maternal metabolism during pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes and (2) to identify specific dietary interventions that improve maternal metabolism during pregnancy that translates into a favorable in utero environment for fetal development.

Dr. Mauldin is a passionate educator and is very interested in effectively teaching science curriculum in dietetics education. To this end, she has obtained funding to research and enhance her teaching with the innovative use of simulation technology in interprofessional education. She presented at both the 2012 and 2013 Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo national meetings on topics related to the use of simulation in dietetics education.

She currently serves on the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics: Nutrition & Dietetics Educators & Preceptors (NDEP) Simulation Taskforce. She is an active member of the NDEP practice group and the San Jose Peninsula District dietetics association. She serves on the Steering Committee of the SJSU College of Applied Sciences and Arts Center for Applied Research on Human Subjects (CARHS). She is Chair of the 2014 Center for Healthy Aging in a Multicultural Population (CHAMP) Conference.

The aspect Mauldin enjoys most about research is the creative thinking and problem solving involved. Partaking in scholarly activities keeps her up-to-date in the field of nutrition and helps her stay relevant in her teaching. She said she feels blessed to have such a rewarding career and to be able to work with inspiring research colleagues and nutrition graduate students.  She will be presented the Excellence in Research Award at the 2014 CDA meeting awards luncheon on April 3,2014, in Pomona.

For a list of peer-reviewed publications: http://www.sjsu.edu/people/kasuen.mauldin/publications/

 

 

Nutrition prof wins 2013 Champions of Health Award

San José State University’s Marjorie Freedman, an associate professor in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging department has won a 2013 Champions of Health Award from the California Center for Public Health Advocacy for her work as a healthy food advocate in the local community. Her efforts at San José State, in the city and in Santa Clara county have received local accolades and even garnered the attention of the national Let’s Move campaign.

Associate professor Marjorie Freedman helped bring the Spartan Smart Cart to campus, offering fresh fruit and vegetable options on campus.

The  nonprofit advocacy group honors individuals each year “who have made outstanding contributions to the health of the state.” Freedman received the Guardians of Health Award, along with five other advocates who were recognized for their impact on “the health of children and adults who live in communities without easy access to healthy food or safe places to be physically active,” according to the Public Health Advocacy website.

For the past 10 years, Freedman has passionately advocated for increased access to healthful foods and beverages and policies that support such access. Efforts have taken place in K-12 schools, in SJSU community settings and at faith-based institutions.  Her work began in 2003 at Bret Harte Middle School, in San Jose.  As a parent advocate, she worked tirelessly to remove all foods and beverages that were not state Senate Bill 12 and Senate Bill 19 compliant from the student store and food-service venues. She worked to ensure changes occurred throughout the entire SJ Unified School District and consulted with school districts throughout Northern California.

As a professor at SJSU, Freedman spearheaded the Healthy San Jose State initiative. She created a program that educated students about appropriate portion size of foods available in the all-you-care-to-eat dining commons, advocated for smaller portions of foods and advocated for healthful foods and beverages to be sold on campus. She started a mobile fruit and vegetable cart (the Spartan Smart Cart) which increased access to healthful produce to students, faculty and staff, and conducted research on the effects of point-of-purchase labeling on food choices of college students.

Freedman worked with County Supervisor Ken Yeager while he was a city councilman to implement 100-percent healthy vending in City of San José vending machines. The machines are found throughout the public library system and in all community centers. She also worked with Yeager to implement 50-percent healthy vending options throughout Santa Clara County.  Following policy implementation, SJSU students conducted yearly environmental assessments to determine whether or not the city/county was in compliance, and she addressed compliance issues with appropriate personnel.

Recently, Freedman worked with a multi-ethnic, low-income population in East San Jose at Most Holy Trinity (MHT) Church to increase CalFresh enrollment, and to develop, pass and implement a healthful food and beverage policy. The work of the MHT Food Justice Ministry has resulted in major changes to what is served at church events, including weekly breakfasts after Mass. Work at MHT was highlighted in a video that received honorable mention in Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Faith and Communities Video Challenge (http://letsmovecommunities.challengepost.com/submissions/6908-sjsu-mht-food-justice-communities-on-the-move-video-challenge) and resulted in a Toolkit that other faith-based institutions can use to learn how to change their own environments.

Finally, Freedman has worked with the regional Cooking Matters staff for the past 4 years on programs that teach nutrition education and cooking skills to low-income families throughout the Bay Area. She has created a Train-the-Trainer Curriculum for Promotores, and has supervised students who have taught Cooking Matters classes to Promotores, teens, adults and families throughout the Bay Area.

For more on the Champions of Health Award and a list of all the winners, visit http://www.publichealthadvocacy.org/events/2013awards/center_awards2013.html