Web Services in the MoCo Weekly

"My advice to graduates is to do anything except what you are trained for. Take that training to a place where it is out of place and stimulate ideas, shake up establishments, and don't take no for an answer." - Nicholas Negroponte (1996)

Our Kevin Miller made the front page of the Monterey County Weekly.

Reporter Sara Rubin interviewed Kevin regarding Quail, his accessibility testing software he's worked on for several years that's finally getting worldwide attention.

Kevin's a pretty interesting guy when you get to know him, but as Sara reported his motivation to create the software was never a CSUMB-driven thing.

Nevertheless we certainly provided him a nurturing environment.

Created Classes

To that we should be clear on one point that Sara referenced: Very few of us have degrees in our field.

When we started in our field those degrees didn't exist, but again CSUMB has been wonderful place to pioneer, experiment and succeed.

Our [one team member] Liz MacDonald can attest to that, having pioneered the first User Experience position in the Cal State system after getting her MFA in Writing from San Jose State.

And so can I. In 1995 I was hired as a lecturer to create specific parts of the curriculum in CST 101 Technology Tools. I took my current staff job in 1996, but continued to teach until 2000. Along the way I created three classes still taught to this day: CST 251, 351 and 451.

Circle Complete

Dr. Chip Lenno, who was mentioned in Sara's article, currently co-teaches 351 and 451 with Professor Kevin Cahill. And both Cahill and Kevin Miller co-taught 251 last year.

We just hired our second developer in Web Services, Brianna Wagner, who is a CSUMB alumna and has taken many of those courses.

And thus the circle is now complete: We have an employee with a degree in our field who took classes taught and developed by pioneers in their field.