California State University Channel Island (“CSUCI”) and Wishtoyo Foundation’s Ventura Coastkeeper (“VCK”) Collaborate
Partnership will provide students with professional and educational experiences, research opportunities, and internship positions, while providing VCK’s Watershed Monitoring Program with an on-campus laboratory and an increased capacity to monitor Ventu
Mati Waiya, Wishtoyo's VCK 805-794-1248
Jason Weiner, Wishtoyo’s VCK 805-823-3301
07/07/2010
California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA – A partnership to enhance student educational and profession opportunities, scientific research, and the ecological integrity and water quality of Ventura County’s water bodies has been formed between California State University Channel Island’s (“CSUCI’s”) Environmental Science and Resource Management (“ESRM”) Program and Wishtoyo Foundation’s Ventura Coastkeeper Program (“VCK”).
Dr. Donald Rodriguez, Chair and Associate Professor of CSUCI’s ESRM Program, expresses that, “The relationship we are forging is good for students, good for CSU Channel Islands, Wishtoyo, the community, and our environment. I believe this will be a partnership for the 21st century and that it will set the bar for the next level of community involvement at CSUCI. Sharing resources like this more than doubles the capacity of both our organizations’ ability to serve Ventura County. This will serve to spawn unique opportunities for educational and monitoring funding, while increasing our respective networks exponentially.”
The partnership will provide CSUCI’s students with:
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Enhanced Watershed Science, Management, and Policy Educational Opportunities
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Transferable and Professional Environmental Skill Sets
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Additional Water Quality Related Project and Research Opportunities
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Laboratory and Field Experience
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Watershed Monitoring, Community Mobilizing, and Advocacy Internship Positions.
“Wishtoyo’s VCK Program is thrilled to help provide CSUCI’s future graduates – our future leaders and community members – with enhanced educational experiences and professional skill sets, and an increased environmental and cultural awareness,” says Mati Waiya, Executive Director of Wishtoyo’s VCK Program and Chumash Ceremonial Elder.
“Not only are we ecstatic about the educational and professional opportunities that the partnership will provide for CSUCI students, but the enhancement in VCK’s efforts to monitor, protect, and restore the water quality and the ecological integrity of Ventura County’s inland and coastal waterbodies will be tremendous… Our efforts will be furthered greatly from increased student involvement, greater access to the CSUCI community for outreach and mobilization, better coordination with CSUCI’s researchers and scientists, and the housing of our Watershed Monitoring Program in CSUCI’s new first class ESRM laboratory.” says Jason Weiner, VCK’s Associate Director and Staff Attorney (M.E.M.). “The partnership is an enormous social and scientific asset to the Ventura County community.”
CSUCI’s ESRM Program has been investigating water quality issues in Ventura County for several years, but their limited capacity to date has kept these efforts moderate. With newly opened campus wet lab space and this partnership with VCK, the stage is set for a greatly expanded sentinel monitoring effort. “We have great collaborations with local and regional academic partners and laboratories,” said the ESRM Program’s Dr. Sean Anderson. “Recently we have been sending some of our students to colleagues’ labs at other universities as we simply didn’t have the in-house capacity to get their samples processed here at CSUCI. Now we can send students to our collaborators when they have a need to learn a particular technique or piece of novel equipment and make the reciprocal offer to them.”
About The Wishtoyo Foundation and its Ventura Coastkeeper Program:
Founded in 1997, Wishtoyo is a 501(c)(3) non profit grassroots organization with over 700 members consisting of Ventura County’s diverse residents and Chumash Native Americans. Wishtoyo’s mission is to preserve and protect Chumash culture, the culture of all of Ventura County’s diverse communities, and the environment that our current and future generations depend upon. Wishtoyo shares traditional Chumash Native American beliefs, cultural practices, songs, dances, stories, and values with the public in its Chumash Discovery Village and through educational programs in schools to promote environmental awareness and natural resources stewardship. In 2000, Wishtoyo founded its Ventura Coastkeeper Program (“VCK”). VCK’s mission is to protect, preserve, and restore the ecological integrity and water quality of Ventura County's inland and coastal waterbodies for all beings in the County’s diverse community through outreach and education, restoration projects, scientific analysis, advocacy, litigation, and community organizing and empowerment.
To volunteer with Ventura Coastkeeper’s Watershed Monitoring Program email:
jweiner.venturacoastkeeper@wishtoyo.org and visit http://www.wishtoyo.org/ventura-coastkeeper.html for monthly monitoring opportunities.
