Camarillo, Calif., April 14, 2016 — CSU Channel Islands (CI) will award scholarships to five outstanding students and present awards to area business and technology partners at the 12th Annual Business & Technology Partnership (B&TP) Leadership Dinner on Thursday, April 21 at the Crowne Plaza Ventura Beach hotel.
The reception will begin at 6 p.m. followed by dinner at 7 p.m. in the Top of the Harbor ballroom.
Housed in CI’s Martin V. Smith School of Business & Economics, the B&TP is a fundraising arm of the CI Foundation. Its membership includes community leaders, business executives and other professionals who collaborate with CI’s students, faculty and staff to promote technological excellence in the region.
Among the five students receiving scholarships during the presentation will be CI Biology major Jasmine Delijani, 22, who hopes to become a physician.
Delijani arrived at her passion for medicine by working with exotic animals at Moorpark College, and later training and caring for marine animals such as sea turtles, sharks and crocodiles at the Theater of the Sea in Islamorada, Florida.
“My favorite was one of the crocodiles,” she said. “There was one whose name was Igor and he was so smart. I was able to train him to do voluntary blood draws.”
Drawing blood and caring for the health of the animals made Delijani realize how much she loved medicine and wanted to practice human medicine. So she returned home to Moorpark a year ago and enrolled in CI’s Biology program with plans to later attend medical school.
Delijani is a first generation college student whose parents fled from Iran during the revolution in the 1970s. She said her parents have been supportive and proud, and were as thrilled as she was to learn she had won a B&TP scholarship.
“I felt so incredibly blessed. I started by jumping up and down and tearing up. It’s that extra boost that I needed,” she said.
Also receiving scholarships will be: Biology major Jeremy Snoberger, a transfer student from Ventura College who plans to enter the field of biotechnology; Computer Science major Antonella Cammarota, a transfer student from Oxnard College who is also minoring in Environmental Science & Resource Management while raising a four-year-old daughter; Business major Jason Shefferd, a transfer student from Ventura College who plans to “pay it forward” when he receives his degree in 2018; and Health Science major Pamela Jackson, who is attracted to the growing field of health informatics.
This year’s Business Leader of the Year award goes to Yardi, a Santa Barbara company, which develops, supports, markets and sells software for the real estate industry. President and Founder Anant Yardi founded the company in 1982 and now has 4,800 employees with regional offices around the world.
The Technology Leaders of the Year award goes to Pamela and Karl Lopker. Pamela is President and Chair and CEO of Santa Barbara-based QAD, Inc., which provide software to manufacturing companies around the world.
Karl co-founded Deckers Outdoor Corporation in 1973, a multi-billion dollar company that today includes Ugg and Teva footwear brands. In 1981, Karl joined Pam at QAD, where he is responsible for the company’s operations and expansion.
The 2016 B&TP Faculty Leader of the Year award goes to the Chair and Professor of CI’s Computer Science program, Michael Soltys, Ph.D. A native of Poland, Soltys grew up in Spain and Canada and is fluent in four languages.
Soltys joined CI’s faculty in 2014 after serving as professor and chair of the Department of Computing and Software at McMaster University in Canada. Since arriving, he’s engaged students in researching cyber-security and algorithms, and taking a team approach to tackling difficult problems.
“In a fast-advancing field such as Computer Science, I like to bring my research experience to the classroom, and involve the students in the latest advances,” Soltys said. “As technology changes quickly, I stress problem-solving skills and independent thinking, as both are critical to career success.”
Soltys said it is a great honor to win this award, especially considering the caliber of faculty who have won the award in previous years.
For additional information call 805-437-8916.
Sponsors of the event are: Union Bank; Airborne Technologies; Ferguson Case Orr Paterson LLC; Montecito Bank & Trust; CI’s Martin V Smith School of Business & Economics; Ventura County Credit Union; Ventura Investment Co.; Barbara and Wayne Davey; Bill and Elise Kearney; Nancy and Carl Wesely; 805 Treats; Pacific Coast Business Times; Ruby Oertle; The Tower Club; and the Ventura County Star.
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About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands(CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CI's Social Media.