A distinguished group of Banana Slugs is out exploring the wildest parts of the planet, running art museums, addressing global warming, authoring and publishing books, and producing award-winning movies.
During the Alumni Weekend celebration April 23–26, this selected group of Slugs will deliver a series of thought-provoking talks from the frontlines of their careers.
The newly created True Originals notable alumni speaker series will bring to the campus M. Sanjayan (biology Ph.D., '97), executive vice president and senior scientist for Conservation International, who has just returned from a global journey for his new five-part PBS series EARTH A New Wild, which debuted February 4.
He will give the weekend's keynote in a talk entitled, "A New Wild: Saving Nature in a Human-Dominated World," on Friday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. at Performing Arts M110 in the campus's Media Theater. The $10 admission cost includes parking.
EARTH A New Wild explores how humans are inextricably woven into every aspect of the planet's natural systems. With 45 shoots in 29 different countries, the show took Sanjayan from a preserve in India, land of the wild tiger, to the wilds of Montana, where he observed a specially trained group of cowboys who are helping ecosystems recover with their ranching practices.
"The area is being filled with birds, including some that are just on the edge of being put on the endangered species list," Sanjayan said in an interview. "They have wolves, elk, pronghorn—a fairly intact ecosystem.
“There is no doubt that there is massive environmental destruction being wrought upon this planet,” he continued. “But there are also amazing people doing amazing things.”
Until recently, Sanjayan served as the lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy, where he spent 16 years specializing in development and conservation strategies, focusing on Africa, wildlife ecology, and media outreach.
The True Originals series continues at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 25, with two concurrent presentations.
Ron Yerxa (Grad Division '74) will lead a spirited discussion. The presentation, “American Film Comedies,” takes place at the Humanities Lecture Hall.
Yerxa is a film producer whose credits include Election, Little Miss Sunshine, Cold Mountain, and, recently, Nebraska (for which he and his partner were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture). As a producer, it's Yerxa's job to take the raw material of a manuscript, screenplay, or book, and then build it into a finished film. That basically involves hiring a writer, making the project attractive by attaching actors, and securing the financing.
"You have to get all seven or eight balls to fall in the hole at the same time," said Yerxa of the process.
Also at 11 a.m. that Saturday, Paul Hall (Merrill '72) will moderate an interdisciplinary panel of distinguished alumni who will take a close look at the interplay of money and power in political and governing systems; from campaign finance and the effect of money in politics to legal and political responses to global warming and climate change. The presentation, "Money, Politics, Climate Change and the Law: Will We Rise to the Challenge?" takes place at the Stevenson Fireside Lounge at Stevenson College.
Panelists include: Mary Doyle (Porter, '74), former vice president, legal and global chief compliance and ethics officer at Oracle; Judge Kelvin Filer (Stevenson ’77), Los Angeles Superior Court in Compton; Judge Allan J. Goodman (Stevenson ’67), Los Angeles Superior Court; Judge Teri Jackson (Stevenson ’77), San Francisco Superior Court; Art Torres (Stevenson ’68), retired state senator and vice chair of CIRM; and Zach Wasserman (Merrill ’69), public interest lawyer in Oakland.
The True Originals series continues Saturday afternoon with two more concurrent talks.
Alumni arts professionals present how an array of educational experiences at UC Santa Cruz helped inspire five of its graduates to pursue their present careers at five of America’s notable art museums in "From Here to Modernity—Perspectives from Distinguished Museum Professionals," which is 2:30–4 p.m. in DARC Room 230.
A panel hosted and introduced by Shelby Graham, director of the Porter Sesnon Gallery, will be moderated by Jock Reynolds (Stevenson ’69), director of the Yale University Art Gallery, holding forth with alumni colleagues Jeremy Strick (Cowell ’77), director, Nasher Sculpture Center; Philip Brookman (Porter ’75), consulting curator, National Gallery of Art; Karen Moss (Porter ’77), curator and faculty, Otis College of Art and Design and USC Curatorial MA Program; and Erin O’Toole (Kresge ’92), associate curator of photography, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
"The Santa Cruz Stairway—Today's Writing and Publishing Strategies from Fiction to Memoir to Handmade Books" will also be 2:30–4 p.m., and will be at McHenry Library, Room 4286. Alumni authors will share their experiences in pursuing their dream of writing and with the changing landscape of publishing.
The panel includes literary agent and author Laurie Fox (Porter College ‘75—it was College Five then); author Reyna Grande (Kresge ’99); printer and writer Tom Killion (Cowell ‘75); and author and editor Don Wallace (Cowell ’74).
A reading at Bookshop Santa Cruz is planned in town during the weekend.
For more information and to see a full list of events, visit the Alumni Weekend website.
