Ron Berglas is the new host of "A Conversation With..." on KVCR, local PBS Station.
(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) - Actor and educator Ron Berglas is the new host of “A Conversation With . . .” on PBS television station KVCR.
He made his debut March 4 by interviewing Chris Botti, who hosts “Chris Botti in Boston” a show running on all PBS Stations. His next guest will be Fiona Kennedy of Highland Heartbeat, who has produced her own show that will soon run on all PBS stations.
Berglas worked as a professional actor in Great Britain for 25 years before moving back to the United States nine years ago. The Highland resident also has a full-time job teaching in the Fontana Unified School District and works as an adjunct theater professor at a local community college.
Although Berglas worked as an actor primarily in Great Britain, he may be familiar in the United States for his appearances in numerous films. These include Highlander, Ishtar (which starred Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman), Death Train (starring Pierce Brosnan) and Eye of the Storm with Rob Lowe.
Although his focus is usually on the academic world these days, he jumped at the opportunity to audition for the role of “A Conversation With…” host.
“I love public television and public radio,” he said.
Berglas doesn’t expect to be in the limelight as he hosts “A Conversation With…” Rather, he sees himself as one who will craft creative, thought-provoking questions to help his guests tell their stories.
Berglas is a native of New York City and got his start in theater before moving to London in 1975. He has appeared extensively in BBC radio productions, more than 20 commercials, American and British television shows and many, many plays including his one-man show The Double Bass with which he won the International Edinburgh Festival Critics Award for Best Play.
He is available for speaking engagements by calling Ellen Porter at (909) 888-0017.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Ron Berglas Named New Host of KVCR TV Show
Communicating with Legislators for Educators
Carl Dameron, center, has forged relationships with his local Assembly Member Wilmer Amina Carter, with Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and with many other elected officials. He will tell educators why these relationships are important and how to develop them when he speaks to members of the Home Economics Teachers Association of California, Region 10 on Saturday, March 7 in Temecula.
(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif) – Public relations professional Carl Dameron, founder and creative director of Dameron Communications, will discuss “The Importance of Communication With Legislators” at a meeting of Home Economics Teachers Association of California, Region 10 on Saturday, March 7.
This presentation and lunch meeting takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Carol’s Restaurant at the Bailey Vineyard & Winery in Temecula. It is open to members of Home Economics Teachers Association of California and their guests.
Dameron Communications is the public relations agency for the California Home Economics Education Foundation, which supports Home Economics Careers and Technology, a statewide educational elective program focusing on preparing students for home economics and technology related careers. The Association members participating in this Region 10 meeting teach this program in middle and high schools in Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Imperial counties.
“I want to help these educators communicate to their elected officials how important Home Economics Careers and Technology training programs are to California high school students,” Dameron said. “These programs build teens’ skills so effectively they could begin working in a good paying field immediately after graduation, or they could be admitted to a college or university that will further prepare them for some of the most lucrative, interesting and high-demand careers anyone could have.”
After it began working with California Home Economics Education Foundation in 2008, one of Dameron Communication’s first projects was to build state legislative support for filling an already funded advisor position, allowing the program to hire an adviser to work from Los Angeles, primarily with schools in southern California. This effort also increased state and local legislators’ awareness of the program.
California Home Economics Education Foundation is a privately funded organization, which supports Home Economics Careers and Technology. This program offers training in Food Service & Hospitality; Hospitality, Tourism & Recreation; Food Science, Dietetics & Nutrition; Fashion Design, Manufacture & Merchandising; Interior Design, Furnishings & Maintenance; Child Development & Education; Consumer Services and Consumer & Family Education.
For more information about the California Home Economics Educational Foundation, call Carl Morrison at (760) 724-9580.
For more information about Home Economics Teachers Association of California, Region 10, call Louise Zaki at (951) 845-4575.
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10 High School Seniors vying for Best Teen Chef of the Inland Empire Honors
Who will receive the next gold medal and inherit the title of Best Teen Chef of the Inland Empire from Kevin Agra? One of 10 current high school students will be so honored when The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire holds its Best Teen Chef 2009 competition. This year’s winner receives an all expense-paid trip to Charlotte, NC for the national competition, and a chance for a full scholarship. Local first, second and third place winners receive scholarships of up to $3,000.
(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) – Ten local high school seniors will show off their culinary expertise Saturday, April 12 as they vie for the honor of Best Teen Chef at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of California-Inland Empire.
Students entering the 2009 contest, and their high schools are Anton Pishchanellsky of Adelanto (Silverado High School, Victorville), Christopher Crawford of Hesperia (Sultana High School, Hesperia), Alex Shaffer of Yucaipa (Yucaipa High School), Ashlee Keane of Highland (Redlands East Valley High School), Brittain Madrid of Fontana (A.B Miller High School, Fontana), Jasmine Cervantes of Moreno Valley (Canyon Springs High School, Moreno Valley), Theresa Marquez of Fontana (Fontana High School), Angelo Cordova of Victorville (Sultana High School, Hesperia), Melissa Meza of Rialto (Eisenhower High School, Rialto) and Briannah Clark of Claremont (Options for Youth, Ontario)
This year, those participating in the Best Teen Chef competition are only half of those who entered. As part of their entry, contestants submitted their own original recipes and a high school transcript. Chef Eyad Joseph, academic director of The International Culinary School, considered the grade-point averages and the quality of these submitted recipes to narrow the field from 20 contestants to 10.
This is the third year The International Culinary School has held the competition, and it has grown each year, to the point this year that The International Culinary School selected 10 finalists from the total of 20 entries.
“This is in part fueled by The International Culinary School’s Passport to a Tasty Future program for high school students, but also reflects the growing popularity of Culinary Arts as a career choice,” said Chef Joseph.
The winner of this annual competition earns a trip to Charlotte, NC on May 9 to compete in a national Best Teen Chef competition sponsored by The Art Institutes. That winner will receive a full-tuition scholarship to the International Culinary School of his or her choice.
“The top prize is worth more than $75,000, which would make a promising culinarian’s dream come true, to one day become a professional chef,” said Chef Joseph. “The process is hard and long but promising for an up and coming culinary student.”
Each student will cook from the same menu, Chef Joseph said. They will demonstrate how well they can use certain basic cooking techniques to make shrimp cocktail, sautéed chicken breast, rice pilaf and broccoli.
The competition is an all-day event, lasting from 8 a.m. to about 4 p.m., Chef Joseph said.
The Art Institutes have sponsored a Best Teen Chef Competition for nine years. The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire first participated in 2007, a few months after opening its culinary program.
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 a new term at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire. Courses begin April 6 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 of California – Inland Empire at (909) 915-2100 or go on line to www.artinstitutes.edu/InlandEmpire
The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire is one of the Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu
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Who will receive the next gold medal and inherit the title of Best Teen Chef of the Inland Empire from Kevin Agra? One of 10 current high school students will be so honored when The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire holds its Best Teen Chef 2009 competition. This year’s winner receives an all expense-paid trip to Charlotte, NC for the national competition, and a chance for a full scholarship. Local first, second and third place winners receive scholarships of up to $3,000.
Riverside County Still Building Assets
(RIVERSIDE, Calif.) - Even in these tough economic times, Riverside County continues to spend less than its revenue, thus putting more money into its coffers to help residents.
County of Riverside Financial Highlights for Fiscal Year 2007-2008, a 28-page, full-color report recently released by the Riverside County Auditor Controller’s Office, shows this financial picture. It’s available on the Web at http://www.auditorcontroller.org.
The report reveals that Riverside County took in more than $3.5 billion in revenue from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 but spent just under $3.2 billion. Thus, it added $322 million to its net assets at the end of the fiscal year, bringing the total of net assets to $3,351,697,000.
“In Fiscal Year 2007-2008, our county continued to grow, thus easing the financial strain locally,” Riverside County Auditor-Controller Robert Byrd said. “Furthermore, Riverside County has been prudent in its fiscal management over the past years. While we are not experiencing double-digit property-tax revenue growth as in the past, revenue has not decreased as much as in many other California counties.”
However, Byrd cautions that next year’s financial report likely won’t be as glowing as this one.
“Our county, state, country and world are experiencing a financial crisis,” he said. “Issues involving mortgages, foreclosures and the collapse of banking institutions, as well as corruption and unethical behavior, abound. Riverside County is not an island unto itself; it has been impacted by these global problems. Now, more than ever, it is essential we do everything possible to ensure county operations are efficient and that safeguards are in place to identify and stop wasteful spending.”
This year’s Financial Highlights shows how Riverside County will spend some of its assets.
Not all of it is money in the bank, Byrd explained. About $872 million was the value on June 30 of capital assets the county owns such as land, buildings and furnishings.
Another portion of these net assets is restricted to certain purposes, as the county received this money through loans, grants or donations for specific uses, such as community development, paying off old debts, public protection and others. Some money is also restricted because of certain laws.
This leaves more than $1.6 billion in unrestricted funds available to the county for any purpose its leaders deem to be in the public interest.
Financial Highlights also lists some of the major construction projects Riverside County embarked on during Fiscal 2007-08. These include:
• $24.6 million for improvements to roads and traffic signals
• $5 million to build fire stations in Cabazon, Lake Riverside and Mead Valley
• $9.6 million for Mission Boulevard streetscaping
• $6.3 million for street improvements and a storm drain at Armstrong Road and Sierra Avenue in Sunnyslope
• $14.1 million for additional storm drains throughout the county
• $1.6 million for the Siemens Hospital Information System
• $15.2 million for the Rubidoux Fleet Operations Center
• $56 million to build the Riverside Centre
• $5.1 million for the Cabazon Fleet Facility
There are many colorful graphics in this report, including a “dollar bill" chart showing that for every dollar of property tax collected, 48 cents is spent on schools, 25 cents on community redevelopment, 12 cents on Riverside County itself, eight cents on the county’s special districts and seven cents on the cities within Riverside County.
Additional color pie charts and bar graphs further break down how money is spent and received by Riverside County. And for those who want even more detailed information, the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report provides 206 pages of information about the state of Riverside County’s finances. . This report is also available on the Web at http://www.auditorcontroller.org.
In 2002, Robert Byrd became the county’s elected Auditor-Controller with more votes cast than in the entire history of the office. In so doing, he was California’s first African American elected to that office. He was subsequently re-elected to a second four-year term in June of 2006.
Byrd virtually revolutionized the office of the county’s Auditor-Controller by restructuring it to provide optimum customer service while improving the quality and flow of information to the county’s management. He adds, “We refocused Riverside County’s audit function to not only serve its regulatory mandates, but also to incorporate flexibility to audit proactively,” thus bringing fresh standards to the county’s processes and functionality.
He sees his professional contributions as going beyond what’s expected of his office, however. He has been chair of the Riverside County Employee Campaign and the Legislative Chair for the State Association of County Auditors. Additionally, Byrd has been a commissioner on the California Uniform Construction Cost Accounting Commission, and members of the Society of Municipal Finance Officers, the Government Finance Officer’s Association and the State Association of County Auditors.
Committed to his community, he’s a member of Riverside Rotary, board member of the Next of Kin Registry, is on the International Relations Council for Riverside and performs as Finance Chairperson for La Sierra Academy’s Board of Trustees.
For details on the Riverside County Auditor-Controller's office call (951) 955-3800.
The Office of the Auditor-Controller is headed by Robert E. Byrd, CGFM, who is elected by the voters of Riverside County. The Auditor-Controller staff and management teams are dedicated to providing sound financial accounting, auditing and reporting in order to serve the citizens of Riverside County. More information is available on the Web at http://www.auditorcontroller.org.
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Art Institute Instructor Winning Biggest Battle
(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) – His advertising art, layout and design for the Beverly Hills boutique Kitson have appeared on billboards across the country, on E! Entertainment News and The Simple Life with Paris Hilton and Nichole Richie, and in such high-profile publications as Vogue, In Style, People and Vanity Fair. Clearly Robert A. Delgadillo, recognized best as “RAD,” knows what he’s doing.
Aside from his talented success in the ad industry, Delgadillo has had a long career with celebrity portraiture, including pieces for Paris Hilton, Demi Moore, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Seacrest, Ashton Kutcher and Nicole Richie. “I use my art to pay homage to the very people who inspire me,” he says. “My work is a fusion of Hollywood, fashion and contemporary design.”
His work of art, “Temptation,” for instance, depicts Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as Adam and Eve, garnering Delgadillo international coverage in Hello! Magazine, National Ledger and In Touch Weekly. “I strive to capture the essence of the celebrities I chose to draw. My work is an embodiment of what’s hot, but it’s not purely about aesthetics.” “Temptation” was auctioned off at Kitson in 2005, raising “tens of thousands of dollars” from an anonymous collector, the funds benefiting cancer research.
“Years from now,” he continues, “my art will serve as a time capsule that chronicles all that was popular in mainstream culture.”
The 37-year-old artist/instructor will bring his years of detailed experience and hard-won knowledge back to the Graphic Arts Department of The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire when he rejoins the faculty in January. Rejoins, after intensive chemotherapy.
Last September Delgadillo was diagnosed with testicular cancer. A tumor was removed, but by then the disease had spread to his stomach and was poised to move throughout his body. “It was serious, and spreading fast,” he says. There are four chemotherapy
cycles for him spread out over twelve weeks; his current final cycle is what he calls the toughest.
“Chemotherapy kills all the body’s cells, good as well as bad,” Delgadillo explains. “We’re in the home stretch now, and I’m feeling pretty well. My doctor says the cancer cells are almost undetectable, and that’s a welcome relief. There’ll be follow-up exams and treatment for years to come, though.”
In mid January, at the first quarter of the new year at The Art Institute’s Inland Empire campus, RAD steps into a teaching load with three classes instead of his usual five or six, as a way to tip-toe back into the school’s workforce, though as a member of the Graphic Design faculty he could be facing around 30 students. “Three courses is a great way to return to teaching, but by spring of 2009 I expect to be back to my former course level,” the Los Angeles native feels.
His parents, of Mexican and Chilean descent, have supported Delgadillo’s art/illustration interest since he was a child. “He was drawing before he could walk,” they say.
Delgadillo began his career in art as a Production Assistant with Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank where he aided the layout, story and editorial departments on the feature film, “Treasure Planet.”
He then spent several years with a high end fine art printing company where he supervised and trained artists, headed department meetings and oversaw the art firm’s quality control department.
In 2005 in Beverly Hills Delgadillo had his first solo exhibition, including works based on such contemporary pop idols as Gwen Stefani and film legends including Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. This was the same year he launched a nation-wide ad illustration campaign for the well-known boutique Kitson. His fashion illustrations for the store, especially a large mural, have been displayed at Glendale’s popular Americana outdoor shopping center. As Kitson’s Fraser Ross says, “Robert is this generation’s Andy Warhol.”
In 2006 RAD accepted the complex assignment of developing branding for the popular Los Angeles-based talent agency Sutton, Barth and Vennari (SBV Talent), including redesigning the company’s corporate image. His work for SBV was also featured in the printed programs that year for the Hollywood Reporter’s Key Art Awards for the best in motion picture marketing efforts and the Golden Trailer Awards event for top movie previews.
The following year saw the summer issue of Warning Magazine’s cover featuring Delgadillo’s portrait interpretation of the recording artist and fashion designer Gwen Stefani. At the same time, in addition to media coverage throughout Europe and Japan, the Mexican newspaper La Reforma chose him for the cover of their Famous People section, including a lengthy interview, with photos of him and his celebrity-based artwork.
This past June, the artist debuted a new direction in his work. A collection of prints titled “The Pussy Collection” featured portraits of actress Julie Newmar, the original Catwoman from the mid-‘60s “Batman” television series that starred Adam West and Burt Ward. A highly successful autographing party with Newmar and Delgadillo was held at A Different Light bookstore in West Hollywood.
In 2009, the art world will see Delgadillo’s celebrity portraits from 2004 to the present collected in a lavish coffee-table book. “This is something,” he says, “that has been requested by my collectors for years. I’m very excited about this new project. I’ve been involved with it all year.”
It’s been non-stop ever since; ever since, that is, until September of 2008.
But RAD is ready now; ready to jump back into the classroom. As The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire President, Emam El-Hout says, “We are grateful to have (Robert) working with our students. His talent and experience will show students many hands-on, practical ways to have a career in graphic design.”
Delgadillo explains, “One of the great things about this school is its focus on not just learning for the sake of learning, but its goal of guiding students toward being employable in a career they can love.”
And who better to lead graphic design students in that direction than a man with Disney studio experience, with award-winning ad agency work on his resume, with international recognition for his art, with illustrations appearing in many of America’s biggest magazines and on major TV shows. A man who is winning one of the toughest battles anyone could face.
The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Game Art & Design, Culinary Management, Graphic Design, Web Design & Interactive Media, Interior Design, Fashion Design and Retail Management, and Media Arts & Animation. There are also Associate of Science degrees in Graphic Design and Culinary Arts. 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 April 6 and classes are offered in the day, evening and on weekends for new and reentry students.
For more information or a tour, call The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire at (909) 915-2100.
The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire is one of The Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu), with more than 40 educational institutions located throughout North America, providing an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals.
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