Modestan White to head 480,000-member State Student Association

California State University, Stanislaus, graduate student Maggie White has been elected 2017-18 president of the California State Student Association, representing the 480,000 students of the CSU system.

White is completing her second year as student representative on the State Board of Education. She holds a BA in communication studies and is completing a masters in public administration at the Turlock campus. She will oversee seven full-time staff members and two interns in the association’s Sacramento and Long Beach offices. The job requires meeting with legislators and campus administrators, and as head of the largest university student association in the nation, White will also lobby legislators in Washington, D.C.

White, from Modesto, is a 2013 graduate of Valley Charter High, where she took college classes that also counted for high school credit. She graduated in 2014 from Modesto Junior College with an Associate of Arts degree in communication studies before transferring to Stanislaus State.

State Supreme Court Justice to headline Law Day

California State Supreme Court Justice Leondra R. Kruger will give the keynote address at the Stanislaus County Bar Association’s 59th Law Day event at the Gallo Center for the Arts.

This year’s theme focuses on the 150th anniversary of 14th Amendment, which addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws.

The local Bar will present the Liberty Bell Award to Steve Ashman, executive director of Court Appointed Special Advocates of Stanislaus County. Harmon Gill of Gregori High and Jared Harris of Enochs High will receive Stanislaus County Bar Association scholarships while Joslyn Belieri of Riverbank will receive the Modesto Lions Club’s John Grisez Memorial Scholarship.

For more information, contact Deana Skelton at 209-571-5729 or Deana@StanBar.org.

District art winner’s work headed to D.C.

Skye Ocranaza, a Pitman High School senior, won the 10th Congressional District Art competition for his work titled “Ramephant.” And Angelo Sanchez of Riverbank High earned the Valley Vote contest for “Architecture” during an event at the Mistlin Gallery in downtown Modesto.

Second place in the art competition went to Nairobi Mello of Pitman High while schoolmate Michelle Serena Doo took third.

Ocranaza’s work will be on display in the Cannon Tunnel, which connects the Cannon Building in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., with the United States Capitol. Sanchez’s work, meanwhile, will be displayed in the D.C. office of Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock while the pieces by Mello and Doo will adorn the walls of his Modesto office.

UC Davis honors Foster Farms leader

Ron Foster, a leader at the Foster Farms poultry company, received this year’s Charles J. Soderquist Award from the UC Davis Foundation. It is named for a late Sacramento entrepreneur and philanthropist.

The award has a $5,000 prize that the honoree redirects to a campus program. Foster chose the School of Veterinary Medicine’s poultry program.

Foster served from 2003 to 2016 as president and CEO at Foster Farms and remains on the board. It processes turkey in Turlock and chicken at its Livingston headquarters plant and several others in the West and South.

Foster co-chairs the Dean’s Leadership Council at the vet school and has helped with fundraising for various efforts. They include a scholarship named for grandparents Max and Verda Foster, who founded the company in 1939.

This story was originally published May 13, 2017 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Modestan White to head 480,000-member State Student Association."