UCANR/ UCCE Fresno Small & Speciality Crops Healthy Soils Project Manager

 Since January I have been working as a Project Manager for the Healthy Soils grant recipients. It has been so challenging, I have learned so much in these past months. I enjoy helping out these small Hmong farmers as I feel my hard work is worth it. It has been a crash course in Project Management for me, we have so many things going on at once, it is so easy to feel like your head is spinning, and things get forgotten, postponed or redone, too many times for comfort, but the amount we accomplish in the short amount of time, on top of it being during COVID and working from home is incredible. I have a great boss who is passionate about her work and helping out these small growers. That really keeps me motivated and going. I realize how important it is to have a boss to toss ideas off, and explain problems you have encountered. She is incredible smart, some of it is experience.  She can take what I say, and summarize it with a solution or idea without being condescending."What if we try this"? She will say and it is remarkably a great idea. This is one of her best traits and lacks a lot in academia. I think it is because she is from near Fresno County. Fresno County I just read has an average household, household income, of $33,000. 23% of the population lives BELOW the poverty line. That is almost 1 out of 4 people. The inequality is astoundingly noticeable. The homeless population is everywhere. But that is a subject for another blog. I am from California from the Bay Area and we never looked fondly on the Central Valley. Now, living here I seen this condescension so clearly. It plays out in our politics, in environmental justice, and humanity for those that live here.

My position is grant funded entirely which is very scary. I know I can be here until January, I hope longer because I feel attached to my work now. And I am improving juggling my multiple projects, keeping organized and making sure things are being accomplished on time. It is very hard. I have never learned so much at a job in my life. 

Opportunity Gap

Despite my privilege, I have my own experiences with inequality. 

I was a female educator in all-male work environments during my jobs in various locations:

a small farming community in Paraguay for Peace Corps;

 in Chiapas, Mexico, for INIFAP; and in the fields for the California Strawberry Commission.

 During these experiences, I heard and felt how the opportunity gap of 

my participants and friends affected their lives every day.

 Hence, I learned that my training’s objectives should be not only about teaching

best practices, but also increasing participant’s pride and confidence. 

I saw this confidence grow each year 

among participants, through increased participation in classes.

Some found upward mobility in their jobs and 

this carried into their personal lives.

I am passionate about giving motivation and support to those

 who lack my same opportunities.

 Peace Corps gave me an awareness of my own culture and history 

stimulating a great deal of self-reflection.

 I have been on my own in communities where no one else was like me. 

I had to confront my biases and be curious about

 and learn from my communities to effectively respond

 to their challenges. 

My ability to be adaptable and flexible comes from this 

experience as well as my love for outreach.

My time at the California Strawberry Commission

I feel so proud of my accomplishments with the Sprayer Equipment Calibration Training Program that I help initiate with Mark Edsall and Daniel Olivier at CSC. I miss working on this successful and super fun project.

See:

http://www.calstrawberry.com/en-us/Pest-Management/Sprayer-Calibration

And for our manual:
http://www.calstrawberry.com/Portals/2/Documents/Un%20Gu%C3%ADa%20de%20Calibrar%20su%20Esprayador.pdf?ver=2018-01-23-194919-087


I had to leave the commission to grow in my career, but I will never forgot how much I enjoyed our trainings:

They still have a photo of me in the front row :)

http://www.calstrawberry.com/en-us/Workforce-Development

It is so wonderful to learn about how a project continues to grow after you leave. I am happy I got to reconnected with my past coworkers, and hear how things are continuing. They are making videos! These are super helpful for workers who cannot read. Plus, don't we all rather see a training video then read a manual?

See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIrIT7OWWvQ&feature=share

I also got recognized and thanked for my help with a trial with UC Davis! Thank you

https://www.farms.com/news/evaluating-pesticide-spray-coverage-patterns-for-improved-pest-control-efficacy-136650.aspx

Core values and beliefs

Through all the jobs I have had, I realized that the reasons why I loved the ones I did was because of they allowed me to promote confidence in marginalized populations, whether in Paraguay, Mexico or California. I loved providing support and inspiring people to have their own self determination to thrive in a world economy in a sustainable way. Peace Corps taught me how to break down to my vulnerable self to be able to find what makes us all human. Giving human dignity in those who thought because of my whiteness or education or money or privilege or county that I was for some reason better, and allowing them to see we are all similar. We all have families, and love and want to feel good about the jobs we are doing, and meaning. Whether it be to want a better future for our children or for the world in general. Most of the small farmers I worked with, were eco friendly in their traditional way of life, much so than us in the USA, or corporations. By allowing them to continue living and sustaining their way of living by giving them access to the global markets was so key to finding my inspiration and motivation in a position.

In the Strawberry Commission I found such joy and pride in our Sprayer Calibration Program. Developing and implementing it was tiresome and so stressful at times, but I found my motivation when I realized why I cared so much. It was not about the rigs themselves but about the operators and supervisors and their desire to learn and do their jobs better. It was their own motivation to feel pride in their jobs, and feel respected. It was also to teach them how to be safe, informed and to take proactive measures to protect themselves. They would use less pesticide and less water if they sprayed correctly. It also motivated my environmental beliefs.

Too often are populations such as field workers are overlooked. Some believing because of their lack of education money or english that they are less able to understand our training. I saw the exact opposite. Every spray operator and supervisor was interested in what I taught, in how our researchers made their rig better. They knew their rig better than anyone and wanted to learn. They had that self determination to be proactive in doing their jobs better.  As immigrants I felt many were so motivated to give a better life for their children. They wanted to connect with me because I saw what was relevant to them and developed materials appropriate to their audience.

My motivation comes from a desire to serve immigrant communities in the US.

Dr. Kelly Ivors showing us the strawberry root being infected with a type of fungus

Kelly Ivors showing us the strawberry root being infected with a type of fungus

Working on improvements to the bug vacuum

New plate! Trials to prove that this new addition to the vacuum increases its suction. 

IPM: Flowers used on borders to attract Lygus, and keep them on the flowers instead of on the strawberries.

Field Days

Summer Field: Smaller rows are used when hoops are used

Spray evaluations, improving our sprayers