California International Business Report » Education and Training

Stanford to open center in China

editor — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:13:28 +0000

As reported in the San Jose Business Journal, Sanford University plans an early 2012 opening for a center in Beijing that will serve as a headquarters for faculty and students conducting research in China and as an impetus for more collaboration between Asian and American scholars. The $5 million project will be paid for entirely from gifts made to the Stanford.

The Stanford Center at Peking University will be an architectural combination of east and west, according to university officials. A presentation on the new facility by Coit Blacker, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford, is scheduled Thursday for members of the university’s Faculty Senate.
Seven university departments — including the School of Medicine’s Asian Liver Center, the Bing Overseas Studies Program and the Center for Sustainable Development and Global Competitiveness — have committed to establishing a presence at the new center.

“China’s position as a global economic leader means that the university should be at the forefront of helping our students and faculty better understand the country’s policies, culture and views while at the same time forging intellectual ties with its brightest and most important thinkers,” Stanford President John Hennessy said in a statement.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke Takes Export Tour to Los Angeles

editor — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:44:00 +0000

From the U.S. Department of Commerce blog:

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke traveled to Los Angeles, Calif., today for the second stop of the New Markets, New Jobs small business outreach tour. Joined by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and USC Marshall School of Business Dean James G. Ellis, Locke discussed the importance of exports to America’s economic recovery and job creation, and the resources that the government is providing to connect local small- and medium-sized businesses with foreign buyers, especially those from the Asia-Pacific markets, in order to help them sell more overseas and hire more at home.

Announced on the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s National Export Initiative, New Markets, New Jobs is a year-long, interagency, multi-city outreach campaign designed to proactively bring government services to businesses across the country that are interested in exporting. The tour was launched in Minneapolis in February, and will continue on to New Orleans, Louisiana in April and Wilmington, Delaware in May.

NASA and Google will form Singularity University at Moffett Field

editor — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:02:18 +0000

A technology-focused school called Singularity University will open on the Moffett Field campus of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration this summer, the San Jose Business Journal has reported.
The Mountain View school will focus on coordinating the latest advances in a number of fields to help solve problems such as global warning and energy needs along with famine and disease. The school’s chancellor is Ray Kurzweil who wrote “The Singularity Is Near” in 2005. The first session will be limited to 30 students but will then expand to 120 in the following year, the school said. In addition Singularity University plans to offer three-day and 10-day programs. Peter Diamandis, CEO of the X Prize Foundation — which gives $10 million awards for scientific breakthroughs — will be vice chancellor and trustee. Executive director will be former Yahoo Inc. executive Salim Ismail.

Stanford announces $100 million energy institute

editor — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:35:12 +0000

Stanford University has received $100 million to create a new energy institute where scholars can study everything from solar cells to energy markets and economics, according to a report in Mercury News:

The institute will expand Stanford’s role in energy research and national energy policy. It will consolidate Stanford’s existing energy-focused efforts onto one site — and allow the hiring of new faculty, support additional graduate students and offer seed money for major research projects
The donations came from three alumni who said they were motivated by the desire to protect the environment from greenhouse gases, improve energy efficiency and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. Oil and gas executive Jay Precourt donated $50 million to create what will be called the Precourt Institute for Energy. Farallon Capital Management partner Thomas Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, gave $40 million to create a new research center within that institute, the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy. The final $10 million came from other donors.

“These generous gifts will help us overcome the enormous challenges that we are facing in energy research,” Stanford President John Hennessy said at a Monday news conference. “It will create an independent institute for researchers on campus and around the world.” The new institute will be directed Lynn Orr, professor of energy resources engineering and director of Stanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project. He plans to pull together 136 faculty members in 21 departments to create interdisciplinary projects. Other recent gifts from alumni include a $75 million pledge in 2007 by Jerry Yang, co-founder and a director of the Internet search engine Yahoo and his wife, Akiko Yamazaki. Of that, $50 million was used to build the Environment and Energy Building, which will house the new Precourt Institute for Energy. In 2006, Stanford University trustee Ward Woods and his wife, Priscilla, committed $30 million for what is now named the Woods Institute for the Environment. The energy institute will work in tandem with Woods’ environmental researchers; the two are in the same building.

UCSF wins grant to address health worker shortage in Tanzania

editor — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:27:31 +0000

The University of California, San Francisco has won a $7.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help address the shortage of health-care workers in Tanzania, in East Africa. As reported in San Francisco Business Times, The two-year grant will support a collaboration between UCSF Global Health Sciences and Tanzania’s Muhimbili University of Health Allied Sciences, that nation’s only public university of health sciences, to develop and implement strategies for Dar es Salaam-based Muhimbili and other African institutions to meet their countries’ health workforce needs.

Solving sub-Saharan Africa’s health-care worker shortage has long been a priority for governments, universities and international organizations, according to the two universities, who say Tanzania’s leaders recognize the need to educate and train more health-care workers. The partnership aims to develop an “institutional partnership model” that can be replicated in other low-resource settings.

In early December, UCSF announced a $4 million grant from the Gates Foundation to support planning for a potential systemwide UC School of Global Health. The proposed school, which the university envisions as training new leaders to help tackle global health issues, would be UC’s first multicampus, systemwide school, the university said.

Governor proposes program to train more engineers

editor — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:07:19 +0000

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed an education initiative that is intended to boost the number of California-trained engineers during the next decade by building new partnerships with schools, the military and businesses. The goal of the Engineer Initiative is to bring 20,000 to 24,000 new engineers into the state’s workforce. There are currently too few graduates to meet the demand for civil, electronics, mechanical, aerospace and industrial industries, according to the state’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The proposal would establish a program with the California State University and University of California systems that would speed certification of veterans with engineering backgrounds, sending them more quickly into open jobs. It also would send $1 million in federal funds into an apprenticeship program for community college students, expand K-12 charter school high-tech engineering preparation programs and launch the Engineering Education Council, which is designed to attract private funds to help guide math and science students into engineering programs at colleges and universities.

AT&T gives $500,000 to Mexican-American Opportunity Foundation

editor — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:59:38 +0000

Press Release:

AT&T today announced a $500,000 contribution to be paid over the next two years to the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF), a community-based organization providing a wide range of family services to low-income residents throughout California. The contribution will fund a pilot program called “BeSchoolReady”, an Internet-based educational tool that introduces young children to computer technology through Internet-delivered learning modules designed to develop learning, language and cognitive skills. The purpose of the program is to prepare preschool students to begin their formal education and increase their chances of kindergarten success.

AT&T’s contribution will provide over 1,300 preschool students from low-income families within the next two years with the opportunity to use the BeSchoolReady program. For many children, and their parents, it will be a first-time experience with computers, so the project also helps to encourage technology literacy in the Latino community. MAOF preschool children are already using the BeSchoolReady web program at several Los Angeles County MAOF Centers.

“We are thrilled to partner with AT&T to help encourage technology literacy in the Latino community,” explained Martin Castro, MAOF President & CEO. “The launch of the BeSchoolReady program will help ensure our preschoolers are comfortable with computers and can be better prepared to succeed in the public school system when they enter kindergarten.”

Sonoma State unveils Wine MBA program

editor — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:31:39 +0000

San Francisco Business Times reports that:

Sonoma State University, in the heart of the North Bay’s Wine Country, is offering what officials are calling the nation’s first Wine MBA program. The school said Wednesday that the MBA program is meant to fill a growing need for winery executives and managers who understand both management techniques and the wine business’ unique needs. The program is “100 percent industry funded,” James Robinson, dean of Sonoma State’s school of business and economics, said in a statement. The university’s nine-year-old wine business program, the result of a public-private partnership between Sonoma State and the wine industry, now offers both a B.S. in business administration with a concentration in wine business strategies and the new MBA degree, with a concentration in wine business… Sonoma State’s wine business program is aided by an advisory board that includes industry executives from Diageo Chateau & Estates Wines, F. Korbel & Bros., Gallo Family Vineyards, Girard Winery, J. Lohr Winery, Wells Fargo, the Wine Institute and the Woodward-Graff Wine Foundation.

Palo Alto public schools to start Mandarin immersion program

editor — Wed, 16 May 2007 07:17:00 +0000

“An optional Mandarin-language immersion program could begin in Palo Alto public schools in 2008 after receiving support from school board members, reports the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily. The school board voted against the Mandarin immersion program in January, citing unfairness to other language programs. Board members said at the time that they did not want a separate, charter program for Mandarin. But board members have voiced their support for the new plan which would integrate the optional Mandarin immersion program into local public schools. The school board will vote later this month on whether Ohlone elementary school will begin the program. The school district’s decision is being closely watched in this Silicon Valley city where many Chinese and non-Chinese families want their children to learn the language.”

Bill Would Trade Student Fees for Civic Service

editor — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:52:00 +0000

“In an attempt to quell the swelling cost of attending a four-year university, a new bill in the state Legislature aims to pay student tuition and fees in exchange for two years of civil service upon graduation. The legislation is an attempt to make service to the greater community a more popular line of work, as well as enable students to take such jobs without having to worry too much about making enough to pay loans and living costs after graduation. Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) proposed the bill, AB 1267, to make it financially easier for students to obtain a degree while increasing the number of quality employees in the field of civic service. The bill would finance university tuition and fees for either a one- or two-year commitment to service, depending on what type of occupation the student chooses. Four years of fees would be paid if a student from a University of California or California State University campus works two years as a firefighter, peace officer, medical technician or another similar occupation where recruitment is currently lacking.”