Rachel SantaOlalla and Tanner Shelton make Ventura proud.
Twenty-one Cal Poly students were recognized for their awards and other accomplishments by state lawmakers on the floors of the Assembly and Senate in Sacramento on Monday, Feb. 1.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Monning, D-Carmel, whose district also includes the university, introduced the students to his colleagues. “I am proud to welcome to the state Senate some of Cal Poly’s most talented students,” Sen. Monning said.
Each has distinguished him or herself as an individual or on a team that has received a national industry award or on such high-profile events as the Tournament of Roses Parade, with its TV audience of 100 million, and the team that raised $600,000 for a net zero solar home that was judged third best in the nation.
Venturan Rachel SantaOlalla is a landscape architecture major in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. She is a 2007 graduate of Ventura High School.
Being on this tour is a rare and special opportunity that I’m enthusiastic about,” SantaOlalla said. “I think it’s a progressive move to have New Age thinking start a conversation with lawmakers. Being selected as a representative of Cal Poly landscape architecture means I have a role in advocating for the landscape architecture industry. I see this as a platform for exchanging ideas, including the types of project that I and my peers from this generation would like to accomplish.”
Tanner Shelton is a city and regional planning major in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. He is also a graduate of Ventura High School in 2012.
“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to represent the university and the many accomplishments of our students and faculty,” Shelton said. “I think the success of the people in this delegation and all across our student body is directly attributable to Cal Poly’s focus on Learn by Doing and the university’s student-oriented approach to higher education.”
