Category Archives: Location of Choice

Inaugural ‘Riverside Startup Weekend’ Hailed as a Great Success

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Riverside’s first ‘Startup Weekend’ proved that the community is indeed a ‘Catalyst for Innovation‘, bringing together nearly 100 participants, advisors and judges to develop 10 new businesses in less than three days.

The winning Fetchit team poses with the judges at Startup Weekend. From left, UCR students Daniel Langridge and Chris Manghane, incoming UCR students Darrell and Daniel Peeden, Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey, Inland Empire Tech Coast Angels President Molly Schmid, and Rajan Kasetty, CEO of Terrafore, Inc. (photo by Conley Read; source: UCR Today)

Startup Weekend is a global program that brings 54-hour events to select cities where “developers, coders, designers marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and create startups.”  Typically half of the event attendees have technical backgrounds while the other half have business backgrounds.

Riverside Startup Weekend organizers Benjamin Mueller, Conley Read and Mike Kennedy put the 54-hour event together with the help of several sponsors and supporters, including the City of Riverside, Cal Baptist University and local startup companies Signature.io and StopTheHacker, as well as many volunteers who donated their time to support the participants. The event was held at the Culver Center at the University of California in Riverside’s ARTSblock, further inspiring creativity amongst the participants.

“The whole weekend is spent on defining a problem, creating a set of solutions (assumptions), validating those assumptions with people through online surveys, or face-to-face discussions, pivoting and iterating on the idea, developing a business model that has a monetary return on investment, as well as discussions on how to properly scale and attract/build your user base,” explained Alan Roy, a user interface designer at C&C who served as an adviser during the weekend. “In the end, these individuals from backgrounds in development, design, marketing, business, and law come together to create an ‘minimum viable product’ to present to the judges on Sunday.” (source: UCR Today)

To read the full recap as published by UCR Today, including highlights of the winning teams and projects, click here.

La Sierra University Alumnus To Be Inducted Into Baseball Hall of Fame

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(As reported by Darla Tucker, La Sierra University Newsroom)

This July, sports medicine legend and La Sierra University alumnus Frank Jobe will receive one of the highest honors a civilian can get from the professional sports world – a special recognition from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. during Hall of Fame Weekend 2013.

Sports medicine great Dr. Frank Jobe receives the La Sierra University Alumnus of the Year award from university President Randal Wisbey on April 19 with Jobe’s sons Meredith Jobe (left) and Chris Jobe standing by. (photo source: http://www.lasierra.edu)

But his first stop was La Sierra University where on Friday, April 19 he received an award as Alumnus of the Year during an Alumni weekend banquet held at the university’s Glory of God’s Grace sculpture plaza.

“Tonight we have the privilege of honoring him first,” said La Sierra University President Randal Wisbey in remarks prior to presenting Jobe with the crystal award.

“Our alumnus of the year’s impact on the game of baseball simply cannot be measured. And he never played an inning in the major leagues,” Wisbey said. In fact, Jobe changed baseball forever on Sept. 25, 1974, when he performed the first ever ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery on the left elbow of a Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Tommy John. The procedure, now known as the “Tommy John” surgery, involved grafting a tendon from John’s forearm into his elbow to replace the ligament. John recovered and took his baseball career to new heights. Before Jobe operated on John, the pitcher had won 124 games in the big leagues. After the surgery, he won 164 games, and was able to play until age 46.

Since that groundbreaking achievement, Jobe has performed more than 1,000 Tommy John surgeries on pitchers of varying level and ability, and the procedure has prolonged or saved the careers of 150 professional baseball players. He later developed another revolutionary procedure, a shoulder reconstruction surgery that was first used to save the career of Dodger great Orel Hershiser.

Jobe graduated from La Sierra in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then studied medicine at Loma Linda’s College of Medical Evangelists, now Loma Linda University School of Medicine. In 1965, along with sports medicine physician Robert Kerlan, he founded the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic which currently operates out of locations in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Anaheim, and Santa Monica.

Jobe spoke briefly to the audience of La Sierra alumni, family members, faculty and staff after they gave him a standing ovation. His son Meredith Jobe, daughter-in-law, Melanie Jobe, wife of Chris Jobe, and Jobe’s grandson, Kevin also all graduated from La Sierra. Jobe attributed his success in life to others, and he cited the life lessons he learned from La Sierra’s faculty during his college tenure.

“Those life lessons are probably more important than any book learning,” said Jobe. “They showed me how to live, how to be nice to people, how to take care of people. La Sierra has such a treasure in its faculty. I hope it’s never lost.”

As a ‘Location of Choice’ known for developing world-class athletes, it is a celebration for Riverside and a testament to the quality of education at La Sierra University, to honor an alumnus that has had such an incredible impact on the game of baseball and the field of sports medicine.

To read the full article as published by La Sierra University, click here.

University Neighborhood Recognized for Its Love of ‘Place’

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On April 23, 2013, Riverside Neighborhood Partnership (RNP) member, Gurumantra Khalsa, recognized the University Neighborhood Association (UNA) before the Riverside City Council for “Its deep love of ‘place‘”.

As one of Riverside’s twenty six defined neighborhoods, the University Neighborhood is the University of California, Riverside’s eastern connection with Riverside.  The University Neighborhood witnessed the birth of the UCR and was the neighborhood of choice for many of the pioneering faculty and staff.

The “after” photo of UNA’s Median Makeover (2012; source: UNA Facebook page).

Today, the University Neighborhood is home to a diverse collection of neighbors with a long history of coming together to connect, contribute and collaborate on issues or projects that make their neighborhood and Riverside a better community for all. Recent initiatives that have been led by the UNA include median makeovers, National Night Out events, literacy programs and advocating for neighborhood and sustainability policies.

Khalsa prided the UNA for being proactive leaders and collaborators when they identify ways – simple or complex – that can have a positive impact on the area.

For more information, visit the University Neighborhood Association’s Facebook page. To watch the April 23, 2013 City Council presentation, click here (Item #16).

Riverside Recognized for Prioritizing Play for Children

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With research proving play is critical to the overall well-being of children, Riverside earned recognition from national non-profit KaBOOM! as a 2013 ‘Playful City USA’ community for our efforts to give children the childhood they deserve by providing ample opportunities for play, proving this city to be a ‘Location of Choice‘ for recreation, youth and community wellness. This year, 217 cities and towns were recognized.

Sponsored by the Humana Foundation, Playful City USA is a national program from KaBOOM! that celebrates and promotes local policies that increase play opportunities for children and is a key platform in combating the lack of play among children.

“Active living is the Riverside Way” said Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey.  “This community understands the important role of connecting with others – and that begins with ‘Play’ during childhood.  We are a Fit Fresh & Fun city and we are proud to be recognized by KaBOOM as a Playful City USA.”

For more information on the recognition, KaBOOM, Humana Foundation, or to read the full press release, click here.

Riverside AQuettes Successful at National Team Trials

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Representing Riverside as a world-class location for sports training programs, members of the Riverside AQuettes synchronized swimming team traveled to Walnut Creek for the USA Synchronized Swimming national team trials the weekend of May 4-5, 2013.

Riverside AquettesElizabeth Davidson successfully qualified for the Senior National Team and will compete at the US OPEN in Texas in July.  Catalina Nedulcu was named as the youngest member of the Junior National team and also qualified handily for the 13-15 year old Age Group National team.  At the recommendation of her coaches, Catalina is choosing to compete with the 13-15 team and will be traveling to Puerto Rico in early August for the UANA (Union Americana de Natacion) championships.

Both the Junior and 13-15 National teams will be training in Riverside this summer.

For more information on the Riverside AQuettes program, please contact Sue Nesbitt at 951-750-3744 or visit the Aquettes website at www.raqsynchro.org.

Riverside McDonald’s Sustainability Efforts Receive National Attention

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Demonstrating yet another example of Riverside as a location of choice for sustainability efforts and innovative business best-practices, the Wall Street Journal recently published the announcement that the McDonald’s restaurant located at 2242 University Avenue in Riverside had become the county’s first and only electric vehicle (EV) fast charge station with the installation of its Blink Direct Current (DC) Fast Charger.

McDonald's Riverside-Blink® Direct Current (DC) Fast ChargerThis restaurant is owned and operated by Tom and Candace Spiel and stood as a McDonald’s for 44 years. In 2010, it was completely rebuilt to operate in a more environmentally friendly way. As part of its continued path to greening, the restaurant partnered with ECOtality Inc., a leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies, to provide the latest EV charge technology to customers. The restaurant will also have a standard Blink pedestal charging station available.

“It’s thrilling to be Riverside’s source for the latest in fast charge technology,” said Candace Spiel, McDonald’s owner/operator. “For us, it all comes down to being able to offer the Riverside community a better customer service experience and further demonstrate our commitment to environmental stewardship.”

In addition to the new Blink charging stations, current green features of this McDonald’s location include low flow plumbing fixtures saving approximately 250,000 gallons of water; native drought tolerant plants to reduce water consumption; permeable pavers to help divert about 283,000 gallons of rainfall from storm water systems; and solar panels that save approximately 8,950 kWH per month of utility usage, which is equal to the power usage of 13 average Riverside homes for one month. The restaurant also includes an interactive touch screen display for visitors to learn about the building’s features, environmental sustainability and how individuals can reduce their own carbon footprint.

To read the full article as published on the Wall Street Journal website, click here.

Eleven Riverside Students Receive Dell Scholarship Awards

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Riverside’s commitment to being a center for lifelong learning seems to be paying off. Recently eleven local seniors were notified that they had received a highly sought-after scholarship award from the Dell Scholarship Foundation.

Seven of the eleven Riverside students to receive the award were from Riverside’s Ramona High School – the second highest number of students from any one school in the nation. Each student will receive a $20,000 scholarship for college as well as a new Dell laptop and printer.

Riverside’s Ramona High School had seven Dell Scholars for 2013, the second most for one school in the country. Recipients are (top, from left) Marissa Huston, Tiffany Truong, Fernando Banales-Mejia, (bottom, left) Maria Hernandez, Karen Figueroa, Kathy Chu and Karla Venegas, pictured in their AVID classroom. (Contributed photo published on PE.com)

“Our school should be proud of the fact that we had the most winners in California and had the second most in the nation,” said Ramona counselor Mark Lim, who wrote recommendations for many of the 20 Ramona seniors who applied for the scholarship. “We were close to being No. 1, which speaks volumes about the caliber of our school and students.”

According to Oscar Sweeten-Lopez, the Dell Scholarship Foundation program director, there were 7,561 applicants and only 303 (4 percent) were awarded the Dell Scholarship. Alief Early College High School in Houston — with its first graduating class — had the highest Dell Scholars with eight.

“We are very impressed with Ramona,” said Sweeten-Lopez, who noted that Ramona has had 17 Dell Scholars since the scholarship program started in 2004. “The majority of our Ramona High Dell Scholars are attending top tier in-state and out-of-state private colleges or top UCs. I would venture that over 95 percent of our California Dell Scholars stay in state to attend a UC or CSU.”

“I’ve always felt our AVID program is one of the top ones in the nation, and this is validation of what we know is true,” said Ramona AVID coordinator Scott Lockman. The seven Dell Scholars are all in Ramona’s AVID program, which recently celebrated its 25th year.

A total of eleven recipients are from high schools in the city of Riverside. The seven Ramona seniors to receive the award were Fernando Banales-Mejia, Kathy Chu, Karen Figueroa, Maria Hernandez, Marissa Huston, Tiffany Truong and Karla Venegas. Mercedes Cornelius (La Sierra), Kathy Gutierrez (Norte Vista), Alicia Hernandez (J.W. North), and Vanessa Meteors (Arlington) were also awarded a Dell Scholarship.

To read more on the Riverside award recipients, click here.

For more information on the Dell Scholarship program, visit the official website at www.dellscholars.org.

Riverside Named One of Nation’s Happiest Cities for Young Professionals

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On April 24, 2013 Forbes published ‘The 10 Happiest Cities for Young Professionals” based on research conducted by online career site, CareerBliss.com. Proving once again that Riverside is indeed a ‘Location of Choice‘, the city earned an impressive 6th* place ranking, putting it in the company of San Jose, San Diego, Chicago and Washington D.C.

“The new generation of young professionals not only finds happiness at work important–they demand it,” says CareerBliss chief executive Heidi Golledge. “If a company wants to find and retain the best talent, they need to work on building a culture of happiness within their organization.”

(photo credit: Forbes.com)

To Riversiders, the ranking is probably not much of a surprise. Organizations such as The Pick Group have been working diligently over the past several years to grow and engage young professionals as leaders in the community. Through Seizing Our Destiny, an Education Roundtable was formed that brings leaders of Riverside’s primary and secondary schools and its four colleges and universities together specifically to create new approaches to ensuring that Riverside has extensive opportunities for lifelong learning. Riverside area chambers of commerce, nonprofits, youth organizations, businesses, government, faith-based and neighborhood groups have all made nurturing and supporting our young talent, and making Riverside a place they want to live, a top priority.

Read more here.

(*Note: The Forbes’ article content states Riverside’s rank as No. 7; however, the pictoral slide show of the Top 10 has Riverside tied for No. 6 with Philadelphia at a score of 3.84.)

Community Survey Outreach Promotes Inclusivity

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In a city that prides itself on being diverse and unique, the feedback that will help create the most dynamic, forward-thinking, creative solutions to propel Riverside towards a prosperous future must come from anyone and everyone that considers themselves “Riversiders”.

Since April 1st those who live, work and/or go to school in Riverside have been answering the call to take an on-line survey that asks their opinions about quality of life in this community. As the survey enters its final two weeks, everyone is urged to encourage friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, congregations, classmates and even mere acquaintances to give their feedback.

SOD Survey YOUTH AdAccording to the 2010 Census, 42.3% of Riverside’s population is under 25 years old. While this age group is significant, youth are typically underrepresented in community planning efforts across the nation. In Riverside, extra efforts are being made to gather the opinions of residents, employees and/or students who will be the community’s next generation of decision makers.

“As an inclusive city, we want to be sure this segment has a voice in planning our community’s future,” said Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey. “We intend to make sure Riverside is the place students want to come for college and to live after.”

For those under 18 years, a special version of the survey has been provided online at RiversideSurvey.com. Please note that a parent or guardian must give approval for a minor to participate.

For all adults 18 and over, English and Spanish versions are available online (RiversideSurvey.com). Paper copies of all versions of the survey are also available in all Riverside public libraries, community centers and at City Hall.

The survey period ends April 30, 2013, and the results will be made available to Riversiders this summer.

Fox Theater Foundation Helps Connect Community with Performing Arts

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(Includes excerpts from the April 5, 2013 story written by Jennifer Dean and Jose Marquezthe as published on PE.com)

The Fox Riverside Theater Foundation was established in late 2008 to support the work of the Fox Performing Arts Center, the landmark theater that was reopened in January 2010. The Fox Cultural Arts Fund was then established with The Community Foundation to provide financial backing to the theater foundation.

“The mission of the foundation is to support the Fox Performing Arts Center and enrich the community by inspiring participation in the life of the Fox through community-focused performances, community outreach and fundraising,” said Cynthia Wright, Fox Riverside Theater Foundation executive director.

The foundation’s mission is important to the region because it helps the entire community — even those with limited resources — have access to the theater.

“The Fox produces some shows that are very affordable, such as the Humphrey Bogart film series last summer and the holiday showing of ‘A Christmas Story,’ ” Wright said. “On the foundation side, we increase access through such programs as Students on Broadway, through which we provide tickets to high school students (primarily) to Broadway shows.”

Riverside high school students pose after watching a performance of Fiddler on the Roof in late March (photo source: Fox Foundation’s Students on Broadway Blog)

The theater foundation also partners with the downtown arts organization, First Sundays, through its Family Fun Days, in which free arts activities for families are available.

“My favorite recent example … was the March 14 presentation of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ an American Theater Arts for Youth production for elementary schools,” Wright said. “Schools from around the region sent 1,200 elementary school students to the Fox that day and the foundation covered the cost of 500 of those tickets.

“It was a crazy, wonderful day and the teachers couldn’t say enough about what the experience meant for their students.”

By providing connections and exposure to the performing arts as well as to the Fox Theater, a repurposed historic structure, the Foundation enables the community to experience all that Riverside has to offer as a ‘Location of Choice‘ that provides an abundance of opportunities to be amazed, inspired and entertained.

Click here to read the full article as published on PE.com.

For more information on the Fox Foundation, click here.