The 11th Annual Festival of Scholars at California Lutheran University will showcase a range of work by undergraduate and graduate students and faculty from Monday, April 24, through Friday, April 28.

Research, creative work and projects that apply theory to real-life situations will be featured. Many of the about 200 scholarly projects reflect months or even years of focused work with faculty mentors.

Oscar Alvarado, a psychology major from El Monte, examined how gender affects perceptions of a job applicant. Erin Miles, a Camarillo resident earning a master’s degree in education, studied the effects of small cooperative groups on the self-efficacy of life science students. Miranda Hutt, a chemistry major from Santa Clarita, explored siderophores – small molecules that are secreted from bacteria to retrieve iron to help bacteria thrive.

A student panel from the Criminal Justice Department will share results of experiential learning projects. The panelists include Emily Legrand of Simi Valley and Amanda Juan of San Bernardino, who studied the effect of educational interventions and community policing on at-risk children as part of the Project Safe Passage project.

The Latin American Culture Research Presentations session will showcase the works of students in Spanish 405 including Paulina Nunez, an Oxnard resident who examined the environmental significance of deforestation in Latin American countries.

English majors will deliver papers and presentations as part of their year-long senior capstone experience. For example, Ayla Afshar-Tavana of Woodland Hills researched rhetoric used by pharmaceutical companies in the United States to sell vaccines that is increasingly questioned by the public and Isabella Iliff of Pacific Palisades wrote about literary accounts of epilepsy by epileptic authors including Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Charles Dickens and Alfred Tennyson.

Faculty members with the Center for Equality and Justice will present their research on subjects related to social justice issues. Political science professor Jose Marichal is analyzing the social media networks of progressively oriented groups such as Flippable, OurRevolution and Indivisible that came about a result of the presidential election. Assistant professor of religion Rose Aslan studied the impact of Islamophobia on the ritual practice of Muslims in the U.S.

Cal Lutheran’s Office for Experiential Learning, Research and Faculty Development is presenting the free festival. For a complete schedule of events, go to CalLutheran.edu/fos. For more information, call 805-493-3795.

It’s a very exciting time for Fillmore High School as it moves towards becoming a technologically advanced school. The school has 99% wifi coverage and will be going live soon. The carts are set up and the Lenovo devices are almost ready to go. In addition to IT staff, 2 Lenovo reps came out to speak about the features of the Lenovo Yoga devices that come with the carts. An actual COW is a cart with room for up to 36 laptops or tablets and individual charge connections built into it. The COWs would be set up in the room and the students can access the internet from there eliminating lost time from having to walk to a computer lab.

The winners of the 2017 Ventura County Science Fair were announced at an awards ceremony this evening at the VCOE Conference and Educational Services Center in Camarillo. This year’s science fair featured 720 entries from 850 middle and high school students from throughout Ventura County. At tonight’s ceremony, awards were presented in 13 scientific categories including microbiology, engineering and chemistry. In addition, local companies and organizations selected 50 winners in 13 special categories. The winning entries were chosen by approximately 150 local science, engineering and industry professionals who volunteered their time to serve as judges.

• View the complete list of Science Fair winners http://www.vcoe.org/Portals/7/Communications/Documents/News-Releases/201... VC Science Fair Full Results.pdf

• View photos from the 2017 Ventura County Science Fair https://www.facebook.com/pg/VenturaCOE/photos/?tab=album&album_id=732671...

• Learn more about the Ventura County Science Fair http://www.vcoe.org/ScienceFair

About the Ventura County Office of Education
The Ventura County Office of Education provides a broad array of fiscal, training and technology support services to local school districts, helping to maintain and improve lifelong educational opportunities for children, educators and community members. VCOE also operates schools that serve students with severe disabilities and behavioral issues, provides career education courses, and coordinates countywide academic competitions including Mock Trial and the Ventura County Science Fair. Learn more at: www.vcoe.org.

Submitted By Jeremiah MacMahon

On Thursday through Saturday the intrepid engineers of the Fillmore High School Robotics Club ventured forth and competed for the first time in the Ventura Regional Robotics competition. This annual competition is run by FIRST Robotics and features 42 public and private schools of varying sizes. There were even two teams from Hawaii and one team from Chile this year. The team placed 38th and overcame many obstacles on their journey.

The Flashes competed very well for their rookie outing, and have taken to heart lessons learned this year. Having started two weeks late, they only had 4 weeks to design, build, and test their robot. The competition parameters were tough, but the team showed their true character and fielded a durable and functional robot. On Thursday, the practice day, the team discovered their robot was 4 inches too wide. Thanks to some adept metal shop work and some timely assistance from the mechanical lead of the Sparktronics team from Orcutt, the robot was cut down four inches and reassembled under intense time pressure. The team continued into the qualifying matches on Friday and Saturday and consistently scored points both in the programming phase and the human remote operated phase in each match.

The engineering accomplished for this season, the team is already brainstorming ideas for next year’s funding sources as well as drafting designs for new electrical, control and drive systems. Fillmore High School couldn’t be prouder of the accomplishments of these 20 budding club members from 8th to 12th grade, who sacrificed countless hours, overcame their initial lack of experience, melded with team members they might not otherwise socialize with, and rose to the challenge of building a 3ft x 3ft wireless robot from scratch, utilizing their own ingenuity and persistence.

Submitted By Rosalind Mitzenmacher.

The Fillmore High School Arts Show “Roads Less Traveled” will be held on Thursday March 30th from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Memorial Building.

More than two dozen local high schools will field 34 teams in the Ventura County Mock Trial competition, which begins Monday in Ventura. Courtroom drama comes to life as students take on the major roles of a criminal case, including attorneys, witnesses and even bailiffs. The students will present their cases before actual local judges who volunteer for the competition. Local attorneys serve as coaches.

WHAT: 2017 Ventura County Mock Trial

WHEN: The competition runs Monday, February 27 to Thursday, March 2. The Wednesday semi-finals and Thursday finals are open to the public and the media. Competition begins each evening at 5:00 pm and is expected to conclude by 11:00 pm.

• Monday, February 27 – Rounds 1 and 2

• Tuesday, February 28 – Rounds 3 and 4

• Wednesday, March 1 – Semi-finals – OPEN TO PUBLIC AND MEDIA

• Thursday, March 2 – Finals – OPEN TO PUBLIC AND MEDIA

WHERE: Ventura County Superior Court - 800 South Victoria Avenue, Ventura, California 93009

The Mock Trial awards ceremony will be held on Monday, March 6 at 6:00 pm at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center at 800 Hobson Way. The public is invited to attend and media coverage is welcomed.

About the 2017 Ventura County Mock Trial
The competition is coordinated annually by the Ventura County Office of Education. This year’s fictitious case, People v. Awbrey, is the trial of Cameron Awbrey, a restaurant owner, who is being charged with human trafficking and false imprisonment.

High schools participating this year are: Adolfo Camarillo, Agoura, Beacon Hill Classical Academy, Buena, Channel Islands, Fillmore, Grace Brethren, Hueneme, La Reina, Newbury Park, Newbury Park Adventist Academy, Oak Park, Oaks Christian, Oxnard, Pacifica, Rio Mesa, Saint Bonaventure, Santa Paula, Santa Susana, Simi Valley, St. Augustine Academy, Thousand Oaks, Trinity Pacific Christian School, Ventura, Villanova Preparatory School and Westlake.

The winner of the county competition will go on to the state mock trial contest March 24-26 in Riverside. Ventura County has taken first place at the state level in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

This year’s Ventura County Mock Trial logo artwork was created by 17-year-old Crismalid Lopez from Hueneme High School.

Additional information about the 2017 Ventura County Mock Trial is available at vcoe.org/mocktrial.

About the Ventura County Office of Education
The Ventura County Office of Education provides a broad array of fiscal, training and technology support services to local school districts, helping to maintain and improve lifelong educational opportunities for children, educators and community members. VCOE also operates schools that serve students with severe disabilities and behavioral issues, provides career education courses, and coordinates countywide academic competitions including Mock Trial and the Ventura County Science Fair. Learn more at: www.vcoe.org.

On Tuesday February 21st, the Fillmore Lion’s Club spoke with all of San Cayetano’s 3rd grade students. Lion’s Club Members Bill Baumgartner, Jack Stethem and Bill Edmonds spoke to the students about the Lion’s Club and their role in our community. Lions Clubs International is the largest service club organization in the world. 1.4 million members perform valuable service in 210 countries and geographic areas around the globe. Lions are friends, family and neighbors who share a core belief: community is what we make it. The Lion’s Club members gave each 3rd grader a US Flag and an informational pamphlet regarding the Flag of the United States of America. The 3rd grade students and staff of San Cayetano School appreciate the visit and work this wonderful group does for the community of Fillmore.

Pictured above are the 1st place winner Erika Sanchez and 2nd runner up Nadia Palazuelos.
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San Cayetano held its annual spelling Bee led by 5th grade teacher Ms. Kristen Dewey. All students in grades 3-5 are eligible to participate. Each class holds a preliminary spelling bee to choose the top two spellers in the class who then go on to compete with the top two winners from each 3rd-5th grade class at San Cayetano School. Our 1st place winner was 5th grade student Erika Sanchez and 2nd runner up was 4th grade student Nadia Palazuelos. Erika will go on to compete in the Ventura County Spelling Bee at Cal State Channel Islands in March. The staff of San Cayetano are very proud of our top two winner all our great spellers!

Tricia Gradias is Principal at San Cayetano Elementary.

At Tuesday’s Fillmore Unified School District meeting Board members acknowledged the exemplary work of the following employees: Student of the Year, Luke Myers; Classified Staff of the Year: Lisa Cook; Certificated Staff of the Year: Jenny Bortins; Administrator of the Year: John Wilber. Special recognition was given to John Wilber for his 32-years of administration work in all of Fillmore’s schools.

The Fillmore High School Athletic Booster Club organization was also recognized for its strong advocacy and financial support of Fillmore High School athletics. Its community fundraisers have raised more than $200,000 over the years for this cause.

The opening of the Dual Language Immersion Program has been delayed, and a notice will be provided to district families this month.

The Nursing program at CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) has been named as one of the top 25 nursing programs in California.

CSUCI’s Nursing program was ranked No. 11 out of 127 California nursing programs considered. The honors came from RegisteredNursing.Org, an organization that provides information to nurses and nursing students in all 50 states.

“After analyzing nursing programs in California, it became evident that CSUCI not only supports students during their time on campus, but also prepares them for a career beyond CSUCI,” said RegisteredNursing.Org Founder and Managing Editor Brooke Wallace.

CSUCI’s Nursing program was also chosen because of the program’s high student retention rate and the high number of CSUCI nursing graduates who pass the National Council Licensure Examination or NCLEX.

Chair and Professor of Nursing Karen Jensen was thrilled to hear the news. She credits the success of the program to its faculty and the quality of the students, who are carefully selected from a large pool of applicants.

“Out of a pool of 500 applicants we select 44 for the Camarillo campus and out of 150 we select 22 for the Goleta campus,” Jensen said. “We look at their grade point average in all of the pre-requisite courses and their overall GPA. We also look at supplemental criteria, such as if they’ve worked in the healthcare field before or done volunteer hours, or if they’re bilingual.”

Jensen and CSUCI’s Nursing faculty look for a combination of academics and experience because the nursing field has become more challenging in the 21st century.

“The work is so much more complex,” she said. “There’s technology, electronic medical records, medication dispensing systems, and the patients tend to be sicker, You have to be someone secure with technology and you have to be smart enough to realize when there’s a problem and compassionate enough to make the patient feel comfortable.”

The CSUCI Nursing program was awarded an official badge to show their ranking.

For more information visit: http://www.csuci.edu/academics/nursing.htm.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) 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. CSUCI’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. CSUCI 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 CSUCI’s Social Media.

Samuel Torvend

A theologian will discuss state-sponsored persecution of sexual minorities in Nazi Germany at California Lutheran University on Thursday, Feb. 23.

Professor Samuel Torvend from Pacific Lutheran University will discuss “The Passion of Robert Oelbermann: The Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany” at 7 p.m. in Overton Hall on the Thousand Oaks campus.

Cal Lutheran’s Division of Mission and Identity is sponsoring the free event in recognition of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Robert Oelbermann was a gay German Lutheran whose life and suffering exemplify state-sponsored persecution of persons deemed unfit for life under the rule of Adolf Hitler. In 1919, Oelbermann and his brother founded the Nerother Bund youth group, which aimed to bring young people closer to nature through camping and hiking. Like many German youth groups at the time, the Nerother Bund accepted the homosexual relationships that sometimes developed within the organization. After the Nazis took power in 1933, they dissolved all independent youth groups and encouraged members to join the Hitler Youth movement. Oelbermann refused and secretly continued his association with the group.

In 1936, Oelbermann was convicted under the Nazi-revised criminal code that outlawed homosexuality. He and 13 other members of Nerother Bund were imprisoned. Oelbermann was eventually transferred to Dachau concentration camp, where he was required to wear an identifying pink triangle. He died there in 1941 at the age of 44.

In this presentation, Torvend will show how the tentative emancipation of sexual minorities was undone by an ideology rooted in fear of the other, and how persecuted people struggled to lean into life.

Torvend is the Endowed Chair of Lutheran Studies at PLU in Tacoma, Washington. He is working with an international consortium of scholars whose work on economic, political and social questions is being presented during the 500th anniversary of the Reformation this year. He teaches courses and seminars on Martin Luther, the Lutheran heritage, women reformers, Lutheran higher education, Lutheran art and music, and the Reformation. He also teaches the history of Christianity and historical courses on social welfare reform and Christian responses to hunger. He received the 2006 K.T. Tang Award for Excellence in Research.

Overton Hall is located on the south side of Memorial Parkway near Regent Avenue. Livestream and on-demand video recording will be available at CalLutheran.edu/live. For more information, contact Melissa Maxwell-Doherty at 805-493-3589 or revmmmd@callutheran.edu.

Sierra High School Students were able play all roles for the mock trail.
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Written by Kimberly McMullen
On January 24, 2017, Fillmore’s Sierra High School attended a field trip to the Hall of Justice at the Ventura Government Center. The Street Law class, which is an introductory law course, toured several courtrooms. The class witnessed the traffic calendar which included interaction between the Judge, Deputy District Attorney, and the Public Defender. Additionally, the class sat-in on a Felony Criminal Trial and was able to observe testimony from an expert witness on direct and cross-examination before a jury. Further, the class was given the opportunity to conduct their own mock trial in a Superior Court courtroom. The case involved the trial of a defendant who was being prosecuted for burglary. The students played all of the roles in the trial. Class members played the following roles: the judge was Luis Salgado, Sarai Vargas was the district attorney, Brandon Nava was the defense attorney, Aaron Cerda was the defendant, and witnesses were played by Gianfranco Malagon, David Estrella, Shanya Escoto, and Daniel Mynatt. The bailiff was Samuel Cabrera, and Emmanuel Roldan was the judicial assistant. The rest of the class served as jurors. The courtroom served as an interactive classroom as students were able to apply their learned skills in a real setting.

This field trip was made possible by VC Innovates, which is a Ventura County collaborative endeavor that brings educators and community partners together to apply innovative experiences to the education experience and help students prepare for college and careers. Additionally, docents from the Ventura County Bar Association assisted in the success of the field trip by serving as guides to the various courtrooms. Besides providing field trips, VC Innovates, schedules inspirational speakers from law-related careers to give presentations at Sierra.

The Street Law class is part of the Legal Services career pathway of VC Innovates and Sierra High School is one of several schools in the county participating in the Legal Services pathway. The course Street Law is based on a curriculum created by Georgetown University Law Center. Students are studying Criminal Law and Procedure, Torts, Contracts, Constitutional Law, Family Law and Consumer Law. Course instructor William Chavez and school counselor Kimberly McMullen accompanied the class on the field trip.

Daniela Cisneros - Cal State Fullerton
Alicia Olvera - Cal State Channel Islands and Cal
State Sacramento
Bryana Priebe - Cal Lutheran University and Cal
State Channel Islands
Janet Mendez - Cal State Channel Islands.
Derek Flores – Cal State Channel Islands
Alejandra Rodriguez – Cal State Channel Islands
and CSU Humbolt
Fatima Urbina - Cal State Channel Islands
Crystal Pinedo - Cal State Channel Islands
Jessica Cobb - Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State
Fullerton
Virginia Rodriguez - Cal State Channel Islands
Roman Tarango - Cal State Fullerton
Andrea Arredondo – Cal State Channel Islands and
Dominquez Hills
Tristen Riddle – Cal State Channel Islands
Alyssa Ramirez – Northern Arizona & Cal State
Channel Islands
Luke Myers – Westmont
Mireya Cruz – Cal State Channel Islands
Marisol Martinez - Cal State Channel Islands

(l-r) Jordyn Garnica, Spelling Champion and Runner up Isaac Armenta.

Mountain Vista Elementary School’s Spelling Bee went into overtime Thursday, January 19. The auditorium was abuzz with excitement when thirty 3rd, 4th, and 5th grader students competed. After over 20 rounds, Jordyn Garnica emerged victorious when she successfully spelled the champion-round word “FRUSTRATED.” Isaac Armenta is the runner-up. The next phase of competition is the Ventura County Spelling Bee which will be held March 4, 2017 on the Cal State Channel Islands campus. Congratulations Wildcat Spellers!