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Worst. Christmas presents. Ever.

We asked students about their “worst Christmas present ever” today for Campus Speak, and staff here at The Collegian wanted to get in on the action. I don’t think anyone could top a Christmas where your wife leaves you for her girlfriend and gets you arrested on a false threat of arson, but we’re just not that colorful.

What’s the worst Christmas present you’ve ever received?

Last year, I got a teapot. I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t make tea. I don’t even know how to boil water.
Joanne Lui
Copy Editor

My aunt thought it was appropriate to give a 13-year-old girl a velvet headband with a snowman glued on it. It had a matching neon snowman sweater that was knit.
Megan Reilly
Features Editor

The worst Christmas present I’ve ever received was luggage. I wasn’t going anywhere.
Mike Foster
Advertising Coordinator

It was one of those gift exchanges, and they didn’t define the age range. I was 11 and I got a toy for a 4-year-old. It was like a Bop-It, but for toddlers. You’d pull it, and it would make noise.
Grace Guanlao
National Advertising Manager

My uncle was retired from the Air Force. I hadn’t seen him in 10 years, but he knew I liked sports. He bought me a Stanford hockey jersey. I hate hockey, and I hate Stanford. It’s been sitting in my closet for years.
Jimmy Graben
Co-Sports Editor

One year, my cousin gave me an M&M dispenser, and I hate chocolate. I’m pretty sure she gave me the same thing again. I have a few of them in my closet. I hate chocolate.
Katrina Garcia
Staff Writer

Burger King had this promotional Backstreet Boys CD. My aunt got me and my brother the same CDs. I was probably 15 at the time. I’ve never listened to them.
Matt Gomes
Opinion Editor

Three things: once, I got a pencil sharpener. Someone also gave me a $5 microscope that didn’t even work. And, of course, there’s the usual socks and underwear.
Brent VonCannon
News Editor

It was a sapphire ring with a gold band, but from a guy I had only been with for 3 months. I was 16. I still have it. I tried to give it back when I broke up with him, but he didn’t want it.
Amber Moya
Advertising Sales Representative

Socks and underwear. We called them socks and chonies.
Michael Uribes
Art Director

The worst was probably a toolbox from my father when I was 10. For a 10-year-old girl, a toolbox isn’t that exciting.
Heather Billings
Assistant Webmaster

I did a White Elephant gift exchange once, where you chose a present and other people can choose to steal it from you. I chose a cute little box, but all it had inside it was a lanyard. It was just one of those plastic-y things. It was about six inches long — just a huge lanyard. Nobody stole it from me.
Jessica Szalay
Editor-in-Chief

My dad once thought it would be a good idea to give the family a breadmaker, so he petitioned Santa and the big guy delivered. The big draw was making our own sourdough stock and keeping it in the fridge.
Benjamin Baxter
Columnist, Blogger

The only thing I can think of is probably, like, 10 years ago, my neighbor gave me a wallet that was a used old lady’s wallet. I was 12. At 12, I didn’t have money, so I didn’t use wallets. I still had a piggy bank.
Kim Anderson
Co-Sports Editor

Let me think about it for a bit. I’ll get back to you.
Joseph Hollak
Multimedia Editor and Webmaster

That’s all, folks, at least until classes come back. With any luck, we’ll have daily blogs set up by sometime next semester. Until then, may you have a wonderful Christmas and receive even better gifts.

Basketball players protest verdict

Former Fresno State women’s basketball players Paige Diggs (center) and Kendra Walker-Roche (left) speak on behalf of other former and current players in denouncing the $19.1 million verdict awarded to former women’s basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein handed down last week. The rally was in the Free Speech Area on Monday. “The main point is, we support our administration 100 percent,” Walker-Roche said. “This is all our words. Everything we say is the truth.” The players, some of whom testified in the trial, had previously criticized their former coach for her actions, both on and off the court.

University High School among top in country

Each day, the sound of blaring instruments and the vocals of aspiring Broadway performers seep through the walls of the clusters of portable classrooms nestled behind the Fresno State music building — compliments of the University High School (UHS) students.

Recently ranked 36 out of more than 18,000 public high schools in the country by U.S. News & World Report, UHS has given birth to a new way of learning for its 390 students — and the faculty and students at Fresno State.

Established in 2000, the charter high school is one of the few to be located directly on a college campus and focuses heavily on music — requiring that each applicant have an instrumental or vocal background — while following a rigorous curriculum similar to that of same-sized private schools.

Vida Samiian, Ph.D, dean of College of Arts and Humanities and a UHS board member, said the presence of UHS on campus serves a learning purpose for both schools.

“UHS provides a laboratory environment for some of our [Fresno State] faculty to work and collaborate with the [UHS] teachers,” Samiian said. “It shows how forward-thinking we have been as a university because other universities have been following up … trying to develop schools [on their own campus].”

This collaboration comes in many forms, from UHS serving as an “experimental school” in university research to applying for grants that serve a financial purpose for the university and a learning opportunity for the high school.

For example, the university’s food science and nutrition department is now able to finance an herb garden at the on-campus farm, due in part to a joint effort with UHS in applying for a grant. In return, UHS students will be given the opportunity to attend workshops focused on food science, said James Bushman, Ph.D., head of UHS.

“This is a great opportunity because our school represents a lot of good things that are in keeping with what the university wants and what we want for students,” Bushman said. “We do a lot of interactive activities that augment and enrich everybody’s program. In many cases, for a lot of different majors, our presence helps fulfill what they’re doing. So many people benefit.”

In the past, Fresno State students progressing toward their teaching credentials have been allowed to “pop into class on a regular basis” and observe what goes on in a classroom setting, without ever leaving campus, Bushman said.

Counseling majors have found internship opportunities through UHS. The university’s music department studies the various teaching methods employed by UHS faculty, all of whom are credentialed and make up one of the “most educated staff of any school in the area,” Bushman said.

In return, UHS students receive the advantage of being a part of the college experience during their high school years. They get a sense of what college professors expect from students and therefore feel more prepared for, and are more likely to attend, college, Bushman said.

Also, UHS students gain from a rigorous curriculum developed by Fresno State faculty and regional faculty in an attempt to create a school offering courses to thoroughly prepare its students for college, Samiian said.

UHS students are given opportunities to enroll in courses not found in the typical high school. The result is a set of courses that is not only demanding, but also extensive.

“We’re the only high school in this area that believes that music should be taught as a standard core curriculum course,” Bushman said. “If you go to any other high school in town, you can be in a band class … but nobody actually teaches music as a subject of something worthy of knowing and understanding.”

Despite its main focus of music, UHS students are also pushed to excel in an array of subjects ranging from Latin to the sciences. Two years of Latin and five different science courses are both requirements. In addition to the required courses, students are given the opportunity to enroll in college courses and earn college credit.

Bushman said each student will graduate with 23 units of college credit because some required courses are completed directly through the university’s courses.

Kayla Wyllie, a sophomore at UHS, feels that all of the components of the school, including the small class sizes, attribute to each student’s success.

From speaking with UHS graduates who are now attending college at University of California campuses, Wyllie found they agreed on one thing: “they say that [college is] a breeze compared to UHS.”

Bushman said this sentiment is common among UHS graduates because “students feel they’ve done college.

Being here for four years, they feel very comfortable in a college environment. The rigor they get from us, the socialization … all I think adequately prepare them to go out and do fine,” he said.

By combining these two schools, a setting is created where all students and faculty interact and learn from one another.

“It’s kind of simple…you give them an environment where students and teachers can excel, and they will,” Samiian said.

Ashley Swearengin taking care of business

“I love Fresno; I never want to move.”

So said Ashley Swearengin, the seven-year director of Fresno State’s Office of Community and Economic Development (OCED).

No, she wasn’t kidding. While some students may be planning to move out in search of lucrative careers after graduation, this non-Fresno native stayed put, and is reaping the benefits.

OCED, a public-private partnership that serves as a bridge between the university’s ability to generate ideas and regional economic development initiatives, has become a model for a growing number of such partnerships at both the university and regional level.

Community involvement, and seeing the potential for economic growth wherever it may lie, is a big part of the two main projects Swearengin is responsible for running — the Regional Jobs Initiative (RJI) and the Governor’s Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.

“My basic task was to connect the resources of the university to the region to improve quality of life,” Swearengin said.

From aiding students and other budding entrepreneurs in starting up their businesses at the Lyles Center, to lobbying the government for more economic investment, to sitting down with business leaders and getting them to help their competitors — for the greater regional good, Swearengin is very much invested in both the community and campus sides of the business ledger, and indeed can point to some major successes.

“Water technology is the model,” said Swearengin, referring to the new International Water Technology Center at Fresno State

The International Water Technology Center is a collaborative venture between the university and the San Joaquin Water Technology Cluster, a group of more than two dozen manufacturers of water products. Swearengin has been pushing these collaborative ventures.

Swearengin’s public profile was such that she was appointed to the California Commission for Economic Development, a state economic advisory board, by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last July.

It is Swearengin’s desire for economic innovation and expansion that’s led her to her next major task: running for mayor of Fresno.

Swearengin announced her bid for mayor Nov. 14, joining a crowded field of seven candidates, all the rest of them male. If elected, Swearengin would be just the second woman mayor in Fresno’s history, and the first since Karen Humphrey’s one term ended in 1993.

Not surprisingly, business is a big part of Swearengin’s campaign.

Swearengin envisions Fresno — better known for its robust agriculture and Fresno State athletics — as the future regional hub of a vibrant economy, one of cutting-edge technology, research, innovative entrepreneurship — of ideas.

In the new knowledge-based economy, ideas are tangible, Swearengin said.

“To be successful, it’s all about having the best and brightest people,” Swearengin said.

The four cornerstones of a Swearengin administration, according to her campaign Web site, would be: jobs and education, safe and quality neighborhoods, effective and responsive government, and regional leadership.

The jobs and education component is the “biggie,” Allyson Robison said in an e-mail to The Collegian. Robison served as a communications assistant and project coordinator in the OCED under Swearengin.

“Ashley can inspire people to work together, and when they work together, they solve problems,” Robison said.

Swearengin’s qualifications were similarly touted by Marcia Martin, currently an OCED communications assistant and 2002 Fresno State graduate.

“She knows the ins and outs of how to get funding and support for RJI,” Martin said. “She’s so involved in every aspect of the partnership.”

Born in Texas and raised in Arkansas, Swearengin moved to Fresno with her family in 1987 when she was still in high school.

First attending Clovis West High School before finishing up at Fresno Christian High School, Swearengin received a scholarship that proved to be the defining moment of her career path.

“I received the Rodman Scholarship in order to go to Fresno State,” Swearengin said.

She said her parents offered to pay for her college education, but only as far as community college.

“My parents told me I could go to community college and ‘we’ll pay for it like we did for your sister,’” Swearengin said.

Wishing to start college at a four-year institution, Swearengin skipped out on community college and her parents’ financial support and went directly to Fresno State, which the scholarship helped pay for.

Swearengin was a business major from the get-go, developing on interests she picked up in high school and earlier, but her original emphasis was in marketing.

In fact, she worked her senior year of high school as a marketing director of a health care company.

While working full-time, Swearengin completed her undergraduate degree in December 1994, then took a semester off before getting into graduate school in the fall of 1995.

“At that time, I was working as the marketing director of two different law firms,” Swearengin said.

Graduate school proved to be the pivotal moment in Swearengin’s career. She took an entrepreneurship class from Tim Stearns, director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. But what she got out of the class was much different from what she anticipated.

“I needed to take the class to get credit for marketing,” Swearengin said. “But I learned I had a huge entrepreneurial streak. It was very impactful.

I asked Tim if there was any job in sales. [Seeing my entrepreneurial potential], he recommended Central Valley Business Incubator. I never before considered working in a non-profit environment.”

Central Valley Business Incubator is a non-profit business and technical assistance program for new Fresno businesses.

Swearengin said the goals of Central Valley Business Incubator matched her own.

“I wanted to help the local economy and help businesses grow,” Swearengin said.

“Just like a chicken incubator provides support to make chicks hatch, so a business incubator makes a business plan hatch.”

As the 1990s came to a close, Swearengin said she found herself in a “crosshairs” – she discovered she loved to see a business grow, and she also loved to help the community. “In the middle is economic development,” Swearengin said.

She joined the Futures Institute (now the OCED) as its director in 2000, where she plunged into an academic and commercial world of divergent interests aiming to bring people together and help the local economy.

“This university is light years ahead of other universities in the region,” Swearengin said regarding community outreach.

“Embedded in each business is a community outlet,” Swearengin said.

She said it was a result of President John D. Welty’s long-term vision that “our university should positively impact the region … this has completely permeated the culture at this university.”

Swearengin said her approach to solving problems as mayor wouldn’t be much different to what she is doing now.

“I will make sure this region isn’t left behind,” Swearengin said, referring to the fact the San Joaquin Valley is often overlooked when it comes to federal economic investment. “I want to continue the work of the partnership. [Mayor Alan] Autry has already led in this.

“We in the Valley, in a short time, are further down the path than the rest of the state,” Swearengin said. “We’re doing a lot of things right.”

The always-busy Swearengin acknowledged that “It’s not intuitive for me to rest. The truth is, I just love what I do.” She also has a young family to take care of.

Swearengin said she does have hobbies, but they’re mostly business-related.

“My hobby right now is running a mayoral campaign,” she said. “Loving this city is a hobby.”

As for Fresno area students who have heard their share of Fresno jokes over the years and are thinking of moving away after graduation, Swearengin has this advice: Think again.

“For young people, there’s no better place than Fresno,” Swearengin said.

No insurance? No problem with the new California Rx Card

Between ever-increasing tuition fees, new textbooks for the spring semester, rent and record-high gas prices, paying for prescription drugs can seem impossible for a sick college student with a part-time job. However, there are many cheaper alternatives available for those with no insurance or expensive co-pays.

The California Rx Card program, which launched Oct. 1, provides free discount prescription drug cards to any resident of California. The cards can be downloaded at www.californiarxcard.com, and can be used at many local pharmacies, including Rite Aid, Walgreens, Longs Drugs, Target and Save Mart.

Edward Brown, program director for California Rx Card, said that the card can save users up to 75 percent on certain prescription drugs, with average savings of about 30 percent. The program is funded directly through pharmaceutical companies, which decide what kinds of discounts can be given on what drugs.

Brown said that there are 6.7 million documented people in California who are uninsured.

“[The program] is designed mainly for the uninsured. However, a lot of underinsured residents are using it as well,” Brown said. “If someone does have coverage … [but] doesn’t have prescription drug benefits, they can use a California Rx Card in place of that.”

Brown believes the program can be especially beneficial to college students.

“There are struggling students at every school who don’t have insurance, who are … just getting by,” he said.

The University Health Center also provides an inexpensive solution for Fresno State students. The Health Center pharmacy provides prescription medication to students at cost. All students need to take advantage of all that the pharmacy offers is a Fresno State ID card.

Tom Blagg, the pharmacist-in-charge at the Health Center, said that many prescriptions can be filled at the university pharmacy for $4 to $5, while insurance co-pays may charge upwards of $20 to $40.

Students who have insurance can still bring their outside prescriptions to be filled at the Health Center pharmacy. The pharmacy also carries over-the- counter medicine like Tylenol and Midol. They can even special order prescription medications that they don’t carry in stock.

“We try to take care of the prescription needs if they have a unique situation,” Blagg said.

Consumer Reports also has tips for people in search of cheaper medication. The magazine recommends that consumers switch from brand name drugs to generic drugs when possible, and buy over the counter medications such as Claritin instead of using a prescription allergy medicine like Zyrtec.

When looking to get an expensive prescription filled, students should know their options. A good course of action for students in need of prescription medications would be to compare prices before making a decision of where they will get their prescription filled.

The California Rx Card Web site has a link to a Web site where students can look up the cost of their medication. They can then go to the University Health Center to find out how much the same medication will cost them there.

Shop ’til you drop

It’s that time of year again: traffic at River Park is gridlocked as thousands of shoppers scramble to get the latest cell phones and “Guitar Hero III,” accumulating hundreds in credit card debt in the process. This holiday season, The Collegian has some gift ideas that can help students avoid the crowds and the necessity to have to work overtime for Christmas spending in the New Year.

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