Melissa Neal, Executive Director, will discuss her organization: El Dorado County Ag in the Classroom (AITC) is a local, grassroots, charitable organization that provides quality agriculture-related educational resources, programs, and training opportunities to cultivate through education an understanding and appreciation of how important and all-encompassing agriculture is in our daily lives. 
For the last 20 years, AITC has hosted thousands of our local third graders from Lake Tahoe to El Dorado Hills for a day of hands-on, place-based, agricultural education. Farm Day is a fun, hands-on field trip where students and teachers experience the sights, sounds, smells and feels of agriculture and its role in our everyday lives, our county, and its economy.  Throughout the day, students and their teachers rotate to 6-8 different learning stations taught in the context of local farms, ranches, forests, and watersheds to learn about farms, natural resources, food, nutrition, and animals.  Learning stations are presented by organizations, businesses, and people who are experts in their field.
 

Our great friend and brother, Jim Buckley, passed away at 8:05 pm, December 31, 2022. His last wish is that he be cremated and then have one last "Whine at Jim's". His birthday was December 24th and he would like for us to create a fundraiser for Nicaragua, particularly the youth, between May and September on the 24th of the month chosen, with wine!  Let's all honor all that Jim did and what he meant to this club and Rotary and think about what great event we can create for him and the children of Nicaragua. He is already sorely missed and mourned for now and for a long, long time to come. You can read his obituary here.

Dr. Christopher Morris is the current Dean of Career Education at Folsom Lake College where he provides leadership to eight different career pathways offering over 20 degrees and certificates. Prior to joining Los Rios, Dr. Morris was the K12 Pathways Coordinator for the Peralta Community College District where he supported dual enrollment and early college credit opportunities for all the east-Bay K12 districts and charter schools.  As a proud graduate of the CSUS doctoral program in 2013, Dr. Morris’ study on school choice, was recognized as Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation.

 

Just after high school, instead of enrolling in the Marines, Chris attended a community college -- College of the Canyons in Valencia.  An invitation to participate on the track team proveded some of that incentive, but he eventually earned an MBA and a Ph.D. after starting in a community college.  Since "Some College" is the new gateway into the workforce, Dr. Morris told us about the many certificate programs offered by the Los Rios community colleges.  These included Certificate of Achievement programs such as: