Now in its 17th year as a flourishing community event, the Tastes of the Valley annual fundraiser resulted in a $25,000 donation benefitting students in the Stan State Agriculture Program.

Started by the Agriculture Program in 2003, Tastes of the Valley enjoys a strong partnership with the Stanislaus Friends of the Fair Foundation, which supports agriculture education. Funds raised by the event are shared by the Stan State Agriculture Program and Stanislaus Friends of the Fair Foundation.

Creative teams representing two offices at Stan State earned 13 honors in the MarCom Awards 2019 competition, which released its annual list of honorees last week.

Twenty-eight Stanislaus State students — 12 graduate assistants and 16 undergraduate assistants — have been awarded grants ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 from the University’s Student Engagement in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (SERSCA) Program.

The grants allow the students to work alongside faculty and engage in meaningful activities, such as research, creative projects and professional development. Projects the students are working on cover a wide range, from financial analyses to psychological studies to genetic research on ground squirrels.

The Trustees Special Committee to Consider the Selection of the Chancellor will meet in closed and open sessions on Thursday, December 5, at California State University, Fresno.

Mia Alvarez’s turn on stage during the Stan State music department’s fall performances came on Oct. 25, when Daniel Afonso led the mixed, chamber and jazz choirs in Snider Recital Hall.

That doesn’t mean the junior from Fresno, a choral music education major, wasn’t present for the other department shows.

“You always see music students at these concerts,” Alvarez said. “Every time I come off stage, there’s a music major in the hallway saying, ‘great job.’”

Sometimes, she’s the one offering the congratulations.

For a sixth consecutive year, Stan State’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the lives of its students has been recognized by CollegeNET, which has ranked the University No. 8 in the nation on its Social Mobility Index (SMI).

“It’s not just about recycling,” said Wendy Olmstead, former commercial operations manager at Stanislaus State. “All life is interconnected, which requires us to conduct ourselves through the lens of economic, environmental and social sustainability.”

In a nutshell, that’s Olmstead’s mission as part of her new role as the University’s sustainability coordinator.

“Sustainability is really a concept, so what I’m doing is bringing that concept to life,” she said.