Sept. 19, 2019 — Bees, robots, moon jellies, dancers and an electric pickle will be part of the student/faculty projects on display Saturday, Oct. 5 at the 19th Annual President’s Dinner to benefit CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI).
Hosted by the CSU Channel Islands Foundation and Mechanics Bank, this year’s event will celebrate the area’s natural agricultural bounty with a custom three-course farm-to-table dinner under the stars on the CSUCI campus. The 7 p.m. dinner will follow a cocktail hour at 5:30 p.m.
A highlight of the evening will be the presentation of the 2019 Robert J. Lagomarsino award to a valued friend to the University, Santa Barbara radio host and former Wall Street executive Neil Kreisel.
“With his energy and passion for education, Neil has been such an asset to CSUCI and its mission,” said President Erika D. Beck. “It will be my distinct honor to thank Neil with the University’s highest honor.”
Kreisel and his wife of almost 50 years, Beryl, have been residents of Santa Barbara for 21 years after coming through the area on vacation from their native New York. Kreisel had just retired after a successful career on Wall Street and in real estate. The Kreisels loved Santa Barbara so much, they put in an offer on a house and stayed. Neil went on to teach finance at Santa Barbara City College and currently hosts two radio shows on KZSB AM 1290 in Santa Barbara.
Kreisel is a big supporter of CSUCI’s peer mentorship program, which was named as one of 20 “Examples of Excelencia Programs to Watch” nationwide by Washington D.C.-based Excelencia in Education, which recognizes outstanding Hispanic-serving educational institutions.
“I support peer mentorship because nobody succeeds on their own,” Kreisel said. “I look back on whatever success I had, and I know I had help. I had tutors, I had mentors. You can’t take a first generation student with no sense of educational requirements and just throw them into the mix and expect them to make it. I had a whole team helping me. That’s why I’ve been so impressed with CSUCI, because they help these first generation students navigate their environment. They keep supporting them through the process.”
Central to the University’s biggest annual fundraiser will be the inaugural “Stand Up for Students” event in which guests will have an opportunity to literally stand up and pledge their support to the continuing success of CSUCI’s Peer Education and Equity Programs (PEEP).
“We take special pride in the number of first generation college students we graduate each year with help from our nationally-recognized peer mentorship program,” said President Erika D. Beck. “It can be overwhelming for first generation students to anticipate and meet the practical and academic expectations of campus life. A peer mentor with a similar background can help that student navigate what we call the ‘hidden curriculum.’ Each peer mentor we support can reach as many as 50 more, who may turn around and become peer mentors themselves. Seeing these first generation students through to graduation creates a ripple effect of success that will ultimately strengthen our regional economy.”
Beck said she is delighted to thank supporters with an evening of good food, entertainment and a look at what sorts of research and innovative projects are going on inside our classrooms and indoor and outdoor laboratories.
The evening will begin at 5:30 p.m. with cocktail hour in the Bliss Courtyard where guests can meet students and faculty members as they demonstrate some of the research and projects underway in different disciplines.
Among the displays will be Biology and Chemistry students who researched climate change in the Arctic this summer; an electrifying pickle conductivity show from the annual Science Carnival; and dancers from the Performing Arts department demonstrating a “points in space” exercise.
Guests can peek into some of the hive activity that earned CSUCI a “Bee Campus U.S.A.” designation and watch undulating moon jellies in seawater and learn how they figured into an Environmental Science & Resource Management research project into microplastics in our oceans and sea life.
Dinner will be from local producers and paired with local wines. After cocktails and hors d’oeuvres of fruit, cheese and tray-passed spot prawn ceviche in mini-taco shells with blood orange ceviche, guests will be ushered into the grassy South Quad for dinner, which will be prepared by CSUCI’s award-winning chefs.
The first course will be bread, butter and a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) salad of local vegetables alongside mason jars of lemon vinaigrette. Second course is a duet of local line-caught rockfish and citrus-brined Pittman Family Farms Organic Airline Chicken Breast on a bed of warm arugula, blood orange and fennel with a side of tri-colored heirloom potato salad. (Vegetarian meals are available with notice.)
Chair of the President’s Dinner Linda Dullam, a longtime member of the local agricultural community, said the farm-to-table concept has been a fun and relaxed alternative to the more formal fare, especially considering the wealth of locally-grown produce all around us.
“The President was always so intrigued with the range of products raised here in Ventura County and she thought it would be a great experience for our guests,” Dullam said.
Dullam has been involved with CSUCI since its inception, and believes in young people and education. “It’s been wonderful to be involved in what amounted to a small startup,” she said. “I really believe in young people and I’ve been so involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs and have seen these kids go onto college, and it totally changed their lives.”
To RSVP for the President’s Dinner, please visit: go.csuci.edu/pd19.