Art Institute sponsoring Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Contest

The city of San Bernardino has honored civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. for many years with a larger-than-life statue at City Hall. In 2009, The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire will do so with its “I Have A Creative Dream” scholarship competition. High school seniors and graduates interested in a career in creative arts should write a 500-word essay about their creative dream and submit it to The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire for the opportunity to win a scholarship.

(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) High school seniors and high school graduates have a chance to win a scholarship to The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire by participating in an essay contest honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“This is an exciting way to win money for college,” said Melissa Medina-Cosio, who handles marketing for The Art Institute. The title for the 500-word essay is “I Have A Creative Dream,” which ties the creative and design focus of the local college with Martin Luther King Jr.

The tuition scholarships are for $3,000, $2,000 and a student supply kit. Awards are limited to one winner in each category.

The contest is part of Open House activities at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire planned for Monday, January 19, Martin Luther King Day.

Medina-Cosio said the deadline for essays to be submitted is Monday, January 12. Winning students must be present at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire on Martin Luther King Day, January 19 day to accept their scholarship.

Essays should be submitted to melmedina@aii.edu. For more information, call (909)915-2109.

The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Game Art & Design, Graphic Design, Web Design & Interactive Media, Interior Design, Fashion & Retail Management, and Media Arts & Animation. It offers an Associate degree in Graphic Design, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Fashion Design. The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire offers an Associate degree in Culinary Arts and a Bachelor of Science degree in Culinary Management. Each program is offered on a year-round basis, allowing students to work uninterrupted toward their degrees.

It’s not too late to start the new year at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire. Courses begin Jan. 12 and classes are offered in the day, evening and on weekends for new and reentry students.

For more information or a free tour of The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire call (909) 915-2100 or go on line to artinstitutes.edu/inlandempire.

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Rikke Van Johnson President of Boys & Girls Club of San Bernardino

Rikke Van Johnson, president of the Boys & Girls Club of San Bernardino, looks at a mural created by teenagers who attended a program sponsored by The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire. The Boys & Girls Club recently installed this mural on a wall in one of its meeting rooms.

(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) - Rikke Van Johnson is the new president of the Boys & Girls Club of San Bernardino Board of Directors.

Johnson, a 44-year-resident of San Bernardino, has served on the Boys & Girls Club Board of Directors since 2000. He is also a San Bernardino City Council member, representing the Sixth Ward.

Long before then, as a teen growing up in San Bernardino, he was a member of the Boys & Girls’ Club of San Bernardino, where he swam and received guidance from the adult role models there.

“I had great supervisors when I attended the Boys & Girls Club of San Bernardino as a teenager,” he said. This is my way of giving back for all the good this club has provided for me.”

Johnson said he learned leadership skills in the Boys & Girls Club that helped him during his 27-year career with the United States Postal Service, in his current job as the manager of Greenwood Bail Bonds and as he leads both the Boys & Girls Club and the city.

As the new board president, Johnson will guide the board through its top priority for 2009, which is to raise $100,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of San Bernardino. This will help the program provide more services to the area’s children through its programs such as Torch Club, a leadership program for preteens and Triple Play, a program that emphasizes health and fitness for children.

It will also assist the Boys & Girls Club in renovating its kitchen, which is more than 40 years old and hasn’t been used for several years. After the renovation, the Boys & Girls Club will serve meals, teach children to cook and promote healthy eating as advocated in the Triple Play program.

To assist in its fund-raising venture, the Board of Directors hopes to expand its own membership. The board now has 11 members, but it’s open to community leaders with the passion and tenacity to serve.

“We want people who will be able to bring in resources to meet the needs of the boys and girls who are our members,” Van Johnson said. “Many of them are at-risk children, and we want the Boys & Girls Club to be everything it can to help them become successful young adults.”

Van Johnson said he also hopes to recruit people to a new advisory board for a Boys & Girls Club. These are people such as elected officials and company executives, who would not have time to volunteer as a governing board member, but who are well-connected to other people in the community and could assist the governing board in that way.

Rikke Van Johnson is the elected City Council representative to the Sixth Ward of San Bernardino where he has lived for most of his life. He is the manager of Greenwood Bail Bonds, and volunteers with several groups including the Boys & Girls Club of San Bernardino and Westside Action Group. He is married to Sharon, and has three children and one grandchild.

The Boys & Girls’ Club of San Bernardino operates clubs in the Westside and Delmann Heights neighborhoods of San Bernardino and in Rialto. It has more than 1,500 members, children and teens who are building character, developing leadership skills, building strong, healthy bodies and preparing for a successful future through the programs the Boys & Girls Club offers.

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Chef George Tucker Celebrates 51 Years In Industry

Chef George Tucker, culinary arts instructor at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire, 51-year veteran in the culinary industry, and owner of Extraordinary Sculptures, with a swan he carved from butter. Photo by Carl Dameron

Chef George Tucker, who has worked in the culinary industry for 51 years, with some of the food his Gard Manager students prepared for a Grand Buffet held Tuesday, Dec. 16 at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire. Photo by Carl Dameron


(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) Chef George Tucker of Highland has worked as a professional chef since December, 1957 when he became an apprentice chef at La Paloma Mexican Restaurant, which was on University Avenue in downtown Riverside.

Since then, Tucker has worked throughout the Inland Empire at some of its finest restaurants, hotels, country clubs, casinos, a hospital and most recently, as a culinary instructor at the International Culinary School at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire.

For much of the last 25 years he has worked as an executive chef, holding this position at Sobaba Casino in San Jacinto, Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, Castaway Restaurant and the Radisson Hotel, both in San Bernardino, T.B Scott’s Seafood Landing in Corona, Branihan’s Restaurant in Pomona and Crushed Grape Restaurant in West Covina. He also owns the company “Extraordinary Sculpturing,” which creates sculptures from ice, vegetables and other foods.

Today, a chef needs much more education than he or she can receive on-the-job says Chef Tucker.

“I started out as a dishwasher, and worked my way up,” Chef Tucker said. “Six months after I started my job I signed on as an apprentice chef, and when the head chef at La Paloma left a year later, I got the job.”

“There is a lot more that culinary students need to know today,” he said. “For one thing, everything is computerized. If you need to know something, you look it up on the computer and it’s right there.”

Computer skills aren’t the only thing chefs need to know before coming to their first job says Chef Tucker. They also need to know how to find and prepare the many more types of food that are available, now that technology allows a chef to order food from anywhere in the world.

“In the past, some foods were only available seasonally and some not at all in the United States,” he said. “Now, it may cost more, but you can get anything that’s available anywhere, and at any time.”

For most of 2008, Chef Tucker has done his part to pass on the vast knowledge a modern chef needs before starting a career by working as an instructor at the International Culinary School at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire. There he teaches Product Identification, American Regional Cooking, Latin Cooking and Gard Manager.

The Gard Manager course, which is French for “Cold Kitchen,” is an advanced course that focuses on food served cold. Sometimes these foods are cooked first, but then must be chilled before serving.

Chef Tucker hosted a Grand Buffet on December 16, which offered appetizers from different regions of the world.

The students were given an opportunity to display for the public what they have learned. Both the students and Chef Tucker were excited with the response. Two classes will be offered in the Gard Manager course next quarter.

Chef Eyad Joseph, academic director of culinary programs at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire, was happy with the Grand Buffet event. “I think it did much better then we expected,” he said.

“We always encourage students to see the final picture” said Joseph. “The students were amazed that everything came together and was completed successfully.”

Chef Tucker has been a member of the American Culinary Federation since 1971, and this organization named him a certified executive chef in 1990. He is also a member of Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs, which is the world’s largest and oldest culinary association.

He is a former Chef of the Year for the Southern California Inland Empire Chefs & Cooks Association, which is a chapter of the American Culinary Federation, and has won numerous regional and national awards for culinary arts and ice carving.

He is the past Chairman and Culinary Director of the Cooks Apprenticeship program for the Southern California Inland Empire Chefs & Cooks Association. His own training has been with chefs throughout the world, including France, Poland, Hungary, Spain and the Netherlands.


The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Game Art & Design, Graphic Design, Culinary Management, Web Design & Interactive Media, Fashion & Retail Management, Interior Design, Media Arts & Animation; A Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Fashion Design and Associate of Science degrees in Graphic Design and Culinary Arts.

It’s not too late to start the new year at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire. Courses begin Jan. 12 and classes are offered in the day, evening and on weekends for new and reentry students.

For more information, or to arrange a tour, call The Art Institute at (909) 915-2100.

The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire is one of the Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu/InlandEmpire), a system of more than 40 locations throughout North America, providing an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals. For more information, call (909) 915-2100 or go on line to www.artinstitutes.edu/InlandEmpire.

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