Spring 2024 | Issue 21
From the Dean
This is always an invigorating time on campus. Students are energized and fully immersed in classes, research and programs and there is a steady buzz of activity that can be felt throughout campus.
Cover Story
Sprouting Success
Plant Sciences Complex and the Animal Health Center, breaking ground in the spring
The College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences continues to invest in the future of food and agriculture to ensure its graduates are ready to make an immediate impact in industry.
Features
Change continues as the college makes strides at enhancing the student experience.
Students Take a Walk on the Wild Side
Every day, three times a day, students travel to a facility tucked away on Mount Bishop Road at the northern edge of campus to care for 17 sisters. They are 17 leopard tortoises, all from the same clutch of eggs.
Nutrition Fueled Athletics
A symbiotic partnership between Cal Poly’s nutrition and athletics programs is fueling players’ performance while providing hands-on experiences for students who are considering careers in sports nutrition.
Wine Research
On any given day at Cal Poly’s JUSTIN and J. LOHR Center for Wine and Viticulture, students can be found in its labs working alongside professors, researching the chemical and sensory properties of the wines being made there.
Product Development
A collaboration between a food science product development and an agricultural business strategy class forged a promising partnership in the fall – creating a new pistachio product that shoppers may one day soon may find on the shelves of local grocery stores.
Q&A: Jessica Meurer
A senior wildlife care specialist, Jessica Meurer has worked at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance for 12 years. She works in the wildlife ambassador department, caring for 34 animals including parrots, large and small mammals, birds of prey and a snake.
Team Food Forward
Cal Poly students are partnering with a nonprofit focused on distributing surplus fruits and vegetables to those experiencing food insecurity to create a marketing plan, which they will present later this month at the National Agri-Marketing Association’s competition.
GROUNDBREAKING OF THE GEORGE WURZEL PLANT SCIENCES BUILDING
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Nov. 3, 2023, to celebrate the planned construction of the George Wurzel Plant Sciences Building, which is the first phase of a new state-of-the-art Plant Sciences Complex that will help find solutions to feeding the world in sustainable ways.
Preparing Students to Make Headlines
Cultivate is the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences quarterly magazine, sharing student Learn by Doing stories and exploring how our faculty, staff and alumni continue to positively impact the world.