Socrates Fellows Praise for Socrates Fellow John Yamauchi
Dr. Jeremy Barbendure, Director of the Socrates Fellowship (UCSD)
Dr. Maarten Chrispeels, Director of the Socrates Fellowship (UCSD)
Shelley Glenn, Director of the Socrates Fellowship (UCSD)
Dr. Amro Hamdoun, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UCSD)
Dr. Palmer Taylor, Dean, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical
Sciences (UCSD)
Dear UCSD Educators:
It is with great gratitude that I write you this letter of praise on
behalf of two graduate students at UCSD: Joe Campanale and John
Yamauchi, whom I understand you supervise in their advanced studies
there at UCSD. Both Joe and John spent several days in our regular
Biology 1-2 courses (for 11th graders), during Term 1, as well as in our
Advanced Placement Biology courses for 11th and 12th grade students
during Term 2. Joe’s and John’s time away from UCSD was well worth it
for our many students enrolled in Biology, who participated in a
remarkable sea urchin laboratory activity that, from my perspective, was
absolutely state-of-the-art in terms of standards-based scientific
instruction. (I attended both the Term 1 presentation and the Term 2
presentation, in which the urchin zygote became the focus of study,
along with such major concepts as sexual reproduction, cytology, and
DNA).
I can tell you that the presentations delivered by Joe and John, with
assistance from Lauren Shipp (another UCSD graduate student), were
extremely well-received by our students and their teachers. I observed
firsthand the student interest level rise during the laboratory
activities, as our students remained intensely engaged in learning
biologic concepts from the research perspective. And our two high
school teachers involved with these activities––Dominic Dirksen and
Betty Jensen––have already begun to improve, enrich, and deepen the
biologic concepts taught in our regular and Advanced Placement biology
courses here at Steele.
It is comforting to know that UCSD and your respective departments
retain such knowledgeable individuals as Joe, John, and Lauren––graduate
students who relate so well to contemporary high schools students and
who remain visibly passionate about their research! I believe that one
or more future scientific researchers were “spawned” during the
laboratory presentations in our Biology classes, as I observed several
students become excited about scientific research and biology––students
who had previously remained more passive toward their studies.
Thanks for the linkage. I await word of any favor UCSD might require
from us as a heartfelt token of our appreciation!
With regards,
Craig D. Rocha, Ph.D.
CEO/Principal
Steele Canyon High School
Spring Valley, CA
