Local News Articles

Sierra College seeks to ensure future vital role

By Jenifer Gee, Auburn Journal Staff Writer

… At a July 8 Placer County Board of Supervisors meeting, Sierra College trustee Bill Martin addressed the college’s current and future issues. He said the college expects its student population to grow to 40,000 by 2035.

However, it only receives about $3,000 per student. That amount is small in comparison to the $75,000 per student after about $500 million is invested in Drexel University. Drexel is a four-year private university based in Philadelphia in talks to build a campus in Placer County.

Martin also pointed out that “there are no viable plans to finance the renovation of the 50-year-old Rocklin facility and certainly none to expand to meet future enrollment needs.”

Placer County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jim Holmes said he agrees “whole-heartedly” with Martin that Sierra College lacks the funding it needs. … Read the article.

Rocklin’s Miller to play hoops for Chico State

By Russ Edmondson, The Placer Herald

Former Rocklin High and Sierra College women’s basketball star Annelise Miller has accepted a scholarship offer to continue her career at Chico State University.

Miller, 5-foot-10, played power forward for the Wolverines last season and can also play small forward.

She was voted Sierra’s Defensive Player of the Year by her teammates in both of the seasons in which she played for the Wolverines. … Read the article.

From Sierra to the Olympics?

Two-time state champ Nye to vie for an Olympic berth next week

By Scott Johnston Special to the Journal

As far back as he can remember recent Sierra College graduate Eric Nye has had one thing on his mind — stepping onto the mat to wrestle for the red-white and blue.

And while his Olympic aspiration mirrors that of thousands of other athletes around the world, Nye has a legitimate chance to represent the United States this August in China.

Currently ranked fourth among the nation’s Roman Greco heavyweights, Nye needs only to crack the top three at this month’s Olympic Trials (June 14-15 in Las Vegas) to punch his Olympic ticket. … Read the article.

Sierra's career education project gets $600,000 boost

By Lakiesha McGhee, Sacramento Bee

The California Community College Chancellor's Office has awarded $600,000 to Sierra College to help boost career technical education in the region.

The money will be used to strengthen connections between the Placer County-based college and area high schools through programs focused on science, technology and related subjects, a news release says.

The college's Workforce Development and Continuing Education Division will lead a collaborative effort to create new career technical education models, strengthen existing programs and interest more middle and high school students in science, engineering, technology and math. … Read the article.

Sierra ace got simple pitch from his coach

By Joe Davidson, Sacramento Bee

Rob Willson told his ace, Cameron Ray, on Monday afternoon not to think big picture. Go simple, the Sierra College coach implored his All-America hurler from Roseville High School.

Pitch by pitch, in other words.

Ray heeded the advice of his coach/psychologist. He ignored fatigue and any measure of pressure and tossed the game of his young career, leading the Wolverines to the state community college baseball championship with a 6-2 victory over Southwestern College of Chula Vista and being named the tournament MVP along the way. … Read the article.

More Sierra

Sierra no longer is the cozy little school tucked away in Placer County. It's a power in several sports with a host of home-grown talent.

The football team, under coach Jeff Tisdel, was nationally ranked again last fall. The women's basketball team under Brandie Murrish reached the state championship game in 2007. The wrestling team under coach Ken Wharry won the state title last fall. Heavyweight Erik Nye just won the University World Team Trials, and he is making a bid for the Olympic Trials. Nikka Campora this month won the state diving championship. … Read the article.

Kings of the diamond

Sierra College captures its first state baseball crown

By Auburn Journal Sports Staff

The strong right arms of sophomore pitchers Cameron Ray and Josh Crockett carried the Sierra College baseball team to its first-ever state championship Monday.

Ray (12-3), coming off of just two days’ rest, allowed just one unearned run on two hits in 5 1/3 innings as the Wolverines topped Southwestern College of Chula Vista 6-2 at Fresno City College’s John Euless Ballpark. … Read the article.

Sierra College claims state baseball title

By Joe Davidson, Sacramento Bee

Normally, the four-hour drive from Fresno to Rocklin is arduous.

But Sierra College baseball players aren't so sure the tires of the bus ever hit the ground in cruising home somewhere near cloud nine Monday evening, basking in a championship glow and belting out the Queen classic "We Are the Champions."

The Wolverines won the State Community College Championship by downing Southwestern College of Chula Vista 6-2 at Fresno City College to cap a record season. … Read the article.

Campora springs back at Sierra

After backing out of TCU scholarship, Placer grad wins state title for Wolverines

By Ray Hacke, Auburn Journal Sports Writer

Nikka Campora was ready to take a break from diving when she enrolled at Sierra College earlier this spring. …
…Campora won the California Community College Athletic Association’s 3-meter springboard title last Saturday at the state championships in Mission Viejo. Campora also placed third in the 1-meter springboard at the state meet.
More importantly, Campora’s passion for her sport has been re-ignited. She has her diving coach at Sierra, Rowland King, CCCAA’s Diving Coach of the Year, to thank for that. … Read the article.

For Sierra, triple-word tagline scores big

from the Auburn Journal

A trio of well-chosen verbs spelled quite an accomplishment for two members of the Sierra College campus community. … Rink, a Sierra College piano instructor, and Myers, a design student, submitted the inspiration for the tagline – “Dream. Learn. Do.” – independently. The new saying, which will appear on billboards and marketing materials, “embodies a journey every student at Sierra College goes through,” Michaels said. The new saying, which will appear on billboards and marketing materials, “embodies a journey every student at Sierra College goes through,” Michaels said. … Read the article.

Exercise simulates shooter at Sierra College

Rocklin Police Department heads up mulit-agency operation

By Michael Althouse, Placer Herald

At 9:25 a.m. Wednesday, a messenger with an ominous directive arrived at the door of room 101 in Sewell Hall at Sierra College’s Rocklin Campus.

Lockdown.

Although the lockdown was only part of a drill, the Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) scenario played out on campus had the look and feel of the real thing. … Read the article.

Sierra College seeing funding squeeze as facilities age, needed repair work mounts

Students, faculty make the best of the situation as waiting list grows

By Jenifer Gee, Auburn Journal Staff Writer

When Dave Kenyon took a trip in sixth grade to the Sierra College planetarium, he had no idea that 20 years later he would be the man behind the projector.

It’s been more than two decades since the college’s astronomy professor’s first visit to the planetarium and nothing’s changed. … Read the article. Some photos.

Sierra College grant to boost solar-based economy

By Nathan Donato-Weinstein, Roseville Press Tribune

Hoping to secure a position at the center of the growing “green economy,” Sierra College officials announced Wednesday a new program to train workers in the field of solar panels.

The photovoltaics technician program will use a $470,000 grant from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to get off the ground over two years, officials said. The program, a partnership among private industry, the city of Roseville and Sierra College, will provide instruction in solar panel installation and maintenance. Officials envision up to 150 students enrolled in the program within several years. … Read the article.

Saukko swinging a hot bat for Sierra baseball

By Scott Johnston Special to the Journal

…“ I really wanted to see what the competition was like at this level,” said Saukko, who credits his parents, Colleen, a former track star at Hiram Johnson High, and Andy, who played football at Sacramento State, for his athletic prowess. “After Sierra I really want to go a Pac-10 school and get a degree and then hopefully play professionally after that.” …“ Read the article.

Teens exposed to technical careers at Auburn academy

By Darrell Smith, Sacramento Bee

… Auburn's Alder Grove Academy and Sierra College are exposing teenagers to careers in designing, fabricating and repairing the technical systems that run such modern-day electronic necessities as automated teller machines, gas pumps and hybrid cars. …

… "These are bright students, many of whom excel when they can learn by doing and see how the academic theory is applied," she said. "The CACT Tech-Explorer catapult project is perfect for our students because they'll … be introduced to careers that they may not have considered." Sierra is looking for industry sponsors to replicate the program. Want more information? Call Sandra Scott at (916) 781-6245. … Read the article.

Familiar faces spark Sierra baseball

Moneypenny coaching former prep rival Miller as Wolverines quickly return to winning ways

By Todd Mordhorst, Journal Sports Editor

The coach-player relationship has taken some getting used to for Loren Moneypenny and Seth Miller this spring at Sierra College.

The two were high school rivals when Moneypenny was a star pitcher at Placer and Miller a hard-throwing right-hander at Bear River in 2002. Then they carpooled to Sacramento City College together when both were redshirt freshmen in 2003. … The Sierra baseball team is off to a 7-2 start. The Wolverines looking to add to their growing tradition, which includes a trip to the state’s final four in 2006 and a return to the final eight last spring. … Read the article.

Sierra player in Sports Illustrated

Women's basketball player, Tamar Gruwell has been published in the 12/31-1/7 issue of Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd. You can read about this Sierra College athlete at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/scorecard/faces/2007/12/31/.

New Answers for E-Learning

By Kim Clark, U.S. News & World Report

… Matt Kerr signed up for an online art history course last year just to satisfy a general education requirement at Sierra College, a community college outside Sacramento, Calif. He was so inspired by teacher Michelle Pacansky-Brock's audio lectures, "VoiceThread" demonstrations, and assignments that opened his eyes to the art around him that he ended up creating an extensive art blog and did "a lot more work than if I was just sitting in a classroom, listening to her," he says. "I really liked it." …
… Sierra College's Pacansky-Brock, who was named 2007's best online professor by the Sloan Consortium, posts her lecture notes, provides audio podcasts, and uses VoiceThread—a new program that allows students to hear her talk and see her draw on and annotate slides of artwork—to get her lessons across. … Read the article.

College jump-start

$500K from Gates foundation funds program that leads some high school students to earlier college degrees

Some Truckee and North Tahoe High School students are advancing their academic career by taking college courses at nearby Sierra College. …
… Dean Rick Rantz of Sierra College said the only problem with the dual-enrollment program is its popularity.
“[That’s] because we’ve got so many students wanting to come to take our courses that it has funneled a lot of the brightest students to Sierra College,” Rantz said. If the program admits students from district schools, Rantz said that would only be an advantage to the high school.
“It provides an opportunity to those teachers to bring the skill level up of the remaining students,” Rantz said. … Read the article.

The Long Road Home

Written by Bill Martin for the Auburn Sentinel

… Sierra is gaining a reputation among veterans as a good place to start a college career, because it is one of the few colleges which employs a full-time veteran’s counselor. Sierra’s veteran’s counselor is Catherine Morris, who is herself both a community college graduate (Sacramento City College) and a former Marine. … Some actually tell Catherine that coming back to try to succeed in college is more frightening than going into combat. Others, including Kyle, find it easier. He says that “any other job than being a soldier is a better paying, easier job.” … Read the article.

Sierra College: Greenest building in Truckee?

As new Sierra College structure meets green building standards, McIver Hill campus eyed as an 'Institute for Sustainability'

By Andrew Cristancho, Sierra Sun

If the designers of the new Sierra College have their way, the campus will feature the greenest building in Truckee.

“I do think this building will be the highest level [of LEED certification] in the town,” said Senior Associate Wesley Ploof of Beaudin Ganze Consulting Engineers. …Read the article.

Sierra College analysis makes a case for funds

By Bill Lindelof - Sacramento Bee Staff Writer

Not since Sierra College was built 46 years ago in the tranquil Sierra foothills have residents of Placer County voted in favor of a bond to maintain or expand it. …
… In a 40-page document that he calls "Sierra College: Community Impact and Funding Shortfall," Sierra board member Bill Martin spells out just how much money he figures the college district could have gotten over the years and just how tattered the campus has become without it. …
… By Martin's analysis, Sierra College generates $5 in tax revenue for every $1 spent on its operation. He estimates that with an annual total cost of $100 million to run Sierra, $520 million returns to the public as tax payments. … Read the article.

The war at home

Returning vets talk of struggles fitting back in to society

By Kel Munger, Sacramento News & Review

… Shad Meshad, a Vietnam veteran and the president of the National Veterans Foundation, and Patrick Campbell, the legislative director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, had come to town to speak at a Sierra College Veterans-sponsored forum, “The Road Home: From Combat to College and Beyond.”

They were joined by two people from Sierra College who have made that journey. Student Kyle Williams did two tours as a Marine in Iraq before a wound sent him back to civilian life. Catherine J. Morris, a Sierra College veterans counselor, served in three branches of the military. … Read the article.

Veterans face tough transition to college

By Bobby Caina Calvan - Sacramento Bee Staff Writer

Cody Conway, a combat Marine in Iraq, envisioned a lifelong career in the military. If not, perhaps a return to civilian life as a mechanic. … "I want to move on with my life," Conway said Thursday between classes at Sierra College in Rocklin. "But I'm disabled, and I can't work. I've been a mechanic all my life. When I got back, I couldn't do that anymore." …
…Sierra College counts more than 200 Iraq war veterans attending classes, and school officials say more are on the way. … Read the article.

Sierra College report: An economic eye-opener

Written by Joe Carroll, Auburn Sentinal / AuburnBuzz

Sierra College has a huge positive economic impact on the district it serves — especially in Placer County — and generates at least $5 for every $1 spent on its operation.
Why, then, has Sierra been forced to operate its main campus in Rocklin with at least $300 million less than statewide averages for community colleges? …
Read the article.

Wolverines all the way!

Written by Bill Martin, column in Auburn Sentinal

Quick! Name a college that recently had a 37 game winning streak in football; was judged the nation’s strongest athletic program in its division; sent 16 of its teams to post-season play last year; and won two recent overall championships in basketball and tennis, all while maintaining an excellent record of advancing its student athletes. Surely these are achievements worthy of the Universities of Texas or Tennessee or Michigan. But in fact, they have all been achieved by Sierra College. … Read the article.

Age of discovery

90-year-old student at CSUS has lived much of the history she studies

By Cynthia Hubert - Sacramento Bee Staff Writer

… And so, after earning an associate's degree last spring at Sierra College's Grass Valley campus, she enrolled this fall at Sacramento State through the university's Sixty Plus program, which allows senior citizens to take classes virtually for free. … Read the article.