HUMAN! means helping one another

don't even say interracial - it's life and friendship

Every student hopes for a mentor, and Jennie Bailey (B.A., Health and Community Service, '03) found him in Pedro Douglas, director of the California State University, Chico Student Health Center since 2001. She had been "miserable" in her undergraduate major, and although she had been an involved high school student in Martinez, at CSU, Chico she "couldn't find her niche."

Then one day Bailey visited the Health Center and saw ways they could improve their service. Douglas was so impressed with her initiative that he asked her to join the Student Health Advisory Council. She transformed the group, tripling membership and tackling difficult issues concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act and health insurance. Douglas urged Bailey to consider a graduate degree in health administration. The cost seemed beyond her, but he arranged for her to attend a professional conference in Florida, where she met a colleague of Douglas's from Florida International University.

The entree led to a full-ride scholarship to FIU, where Bailey now is working on her master's in disease prevention and health promotion. "Someone helped me when I was starting out," says Douglas. "I saw Jennie's potential and wanted to do what I could."

Bailey says: "If I hadn't gotten encouragement from Pedro, I wouldn't be where I am."

Chico is a total melting pot, dude

Historic Bidwell Mansion ~ adjoins Chico State campus

Chico Observatory ~ three and a half miles east of Chico State

Chico Museum ~ one city block from CSUC campus

The story of John Bidwell ~ founder of Chico, prime benefactor of Chico State

Another site (Bidwell Mansion) ~ 525 The Esplanade, Chico

Orient and Flume Glass Makers ~ 2161 Park (downtown Chico, California)

Sierra Nevada Brewery of Chico ~ some four miles south of CSUC campus

Covered Bridge over Butte Creek (Honey Run) ~ short drive east (on Skyway) toward Paradise

Morriss Taylor Show ~ I can't leave out this gentle musician.

The National YoYo Museum ~ 320 Broadway St, two blocks from Chico State

Take a stand against

      Racism : Not in Our Town (When Hate Happens Here in Northern California)

      Rape and domestic violence : Intervention and Prevention

      Reality check : northern California and the Negro Holocaust

From the CSU Chico Orion

Hola amigos, mi llamo Bo. (Bo Radley)

That's, like, Mexican for "whud up bros, I'm Bo," but you can call me Radley, or Rad or -- if you're hella layback -- just Ra. Without further intro, allow me to discuss the mad-important subject of cultural diversity here in Chico -- or as I prefer to call it: Chill-co, USA.

Chico is a total melting pot, bros.

It blows me away when I hear people all complain-status about how there's no culture here. I'm like, "Check the charts and graphs Benson. We have, like, 50 sweet kung fu dojos, a fat assemblage of choice taco trucks, and a mad buttload of rad foreign people who journeyed from all over the globe just to breathe the air here."

Every day I see at least one different person from a far-off foreign land like Japan, or sometimes Africa, just chillin' all post-status like "You Americans are nuts, but I hella feel your vibe."

Being the Schick social dynamo I am, I usually roll up and welcome them to our fine town.

Recently I met this rad foreign dude, and after showing him my secret handshake (aka The Rad-shake), I was like, "Hola amigo, welcome to Chico. Mi llamo Bo. What's your llamo?"

Homeboy was like, "Uh, my name's Vahkar -- I'm Indian. I've lived here for 17 years."

I was like, "Dude, a Native American. Sweet!"

See in Walnut Creek, Cali, where I was born, the only diversity was, like, one black dude named Damian at my high school. He was hella chill. But here in Chico I've met, like, five black people, plus, like, 12 Asians and a bunch of people who look like they're from some mystery country like Madrid.

To me, Chico is a beautiful rainbow of human skin, where we can all party and play and maneuver our longboards down the bright path to a better tomorrow. Dude, that was totally deep.

It's cool how much these different cultures have made things blend hella cool here, adding their own special flavors like perfectly mixed Jungle Juice. Like, a few months ago I was getting my grub on at Mo Thunder, and when I gave the waitress a tip she was like "gracias." I was a little confused, so I was like "grassy ass to you too."

I found out later "gracias" totally means thank you in Mexican.

I was talking to my boy Julio, who runs one of the taco trucks on Nord, and discovered Mexican is probably the coolest language around. I never knew words like "taco," "tequila" and "tornado" were all foreign lingo. Plus there's tons of other awesome words that I'd never even heard before, like "mucho," which pretty much means "hella," as in "this taco is mucho awesome." Or, "I'm mucho feeling this new 311 song."

There's other mucho cool diverse stuff here in Chico, too. Like, I was at the Thursday Night Market a while back and a bunch of people were gathered around some dudes playing African drums. When I got closer I saw that, like, one of the 15 drummers actually looked African.

When they were done playing, I rolled up to Homie and gave him the Rad-shake and was like, "Dude that was awesome. What's it like expressing your art in a place so far from home?"

He was like, "Dude, it's me Damian -- I went to high school with you."

I was like, "Damian, what's crackin' bro!"

I just think more people should embrace this town's totally awesome abundance of chill cultures. You can go to, like, any party and find so much diversity. Like Corona, for instance, which is the Mexican version of beer, or tiki torches, which are the Hawaiian version of the street lamp.

So, like, whatever culture you're into, I'm sure you'll find something awesome here.

In closing, I would like to share a few words that Julio dude taught me.

"Ustedes los gringos estupidos estan locos."

That's Mexican for, "Diversity hella rocks."

Austin Houlding is only joking and can be reached at:

ahoulding@orion-online.net


www.csuchico.edu