‘Something Wonderful’ for Kids 

How do you get kids interested in science and ecology? According to Matt Ritter, the answer lies somewhere between facts and fun. 

This spring Ritter, a professor of biology, published “Something Wonderful,” a new children’s book that dives into the complex life cycle of a tropical fig tree and the rainforest creatures that help it along the way. The story comes to life through the vibrant illustrations of Nayl Gonzalez, a recent forestry grad who began collaborating with Ritter while she was a student. 

“I’ve always had this idea of trying to interest young people in ecology and the complicated web of interactions between organisms,” said Ritter, who has written several books on plants and ecology aimed at casual readers. “Something Wonderful is targeted at kids between 4 and 10, and I knew it would be important to get them looking closely at the pages.” 

 The collaborative process of creating the book involved more than a year of iterative work to get the details right — and the illustrations are full of details, from the renderings of the plants to the playful animals hidden in the intricate forest backgrounds. 

“The biggest challenge was trying to make it look scientifically accurate, but also easy and fun enough for a child to look at and enjoy,” said Gonzalez, a lifelong artist who discovered a new career trajectory in scientific illustration after taking her first botany classes at Cal Poly. 

“I think that these types of books are more important than technical non-fiction books, in the sense that you have the potential to interest a lot of people in ecology and conservation,” says Ritter. “People are not going to all become biologists — they’re going to become lawyers and doctors and plumbers and everything else — but you want those people, in the background of their minds, to be thinking about how nature is important and worth learning about and protecting.” 

– By Larry Peña

A National Award for NSBE 

A live Q&A with astronaut Victor Glover in space was one of several highlights that helped Cal Poly’s National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) earn recognition as Small National Chapter of the Year, an award that goes to chapters with 25 or fewer members. 

The recognition was relayed by NSBE’s national executive board, which wrote, “This has not been an easy year, but the programming and events held by your chapter demonstrate true resilience in the face of adversity.” 

Cal Poly’s chapter was also recently recognized as the regional chapter of the year for a third consecutive time. The Cal Poly chapter was established in 1974 to support minority STEM students, both academically and professionally. The club offers mentorships, career fairs, guest speakers and social events. 

“We want to ignite the flame in future culturally responsible engineers,” said club president Amman Asfaw, an electrical engineering graduate student who recently accepted a job offer that came through a Cal Poly NSBE alumnus. “Then, once that flame is ignited, we want to make sure they can light other people’s flames and pass on the torch.” 

NSBE provides help with professional development, résumé writing and establishing useful career connections. Perhaps even more importantly, it provides a sense of community for a group of students who can often feel particularly alone, both on campus and in the engineering profession. 

Nationwide, engineering is a field that historically has been homogenous, said College of Engineering Dean Amy S. Fleischer. But the industry is gradually evolving. 

“As engineers, we strive for diversity because the best innovation comes from a range of different perspectives,” she said. “NSBE has done an outstanding job encouraging students from backgrounds that are historically underrepresented in engineering to pursue a field that often has a transformative impact on communities.” 

This past year, Cal Poly NSBE events and presentations have included: Job Hunting in a Global Pandemic; Going Back to the Motherland (Africa) as a STEM Graduate; and Straight Outta College: My First Five Years as an Engineer. Many NSBE guest speakers are past Cal Poly graduates. “Our alumni like to come back and speak,” said club secretary Storm Randolph. “You can always learn a lot from past presidents and past board members, and the more we learn the more we can improve on what their goals were.” 

But according to Afsaw, Glover’s live presentation in January, delivered from aboard the International Space Station, is probably what sealed the deal for the national award. “That must be the highlight of our entire chapter’s history up to now,” Asfaw said. 

– By Pat Pemberton