Job skills, high school diplomas, personal responsibility and building low income housing-they're all wrapped up together in YouthBuild Santa Rosa.

 

YouthBuild has been active in Sonoma County for the past 13 years, but the overall program has a much longer history.

 

A new cohort of YouthBuild students is forming now, with required interviews on Dec. 15. Casey McChesney outlines the application process.

 

 

  The 2001 YouthBuild class were joined by then Santa Rosa Mayor Mike Martini (front, second from left), Congresswoman Lynne Woolsey, and County Supervisor Mike Reilly at the grand opening of their new office seven years ago. The program is now preparing to move into new, larger quarters in early 2009.

 

 

 

 The oldest and perhaps only wireless telegraph station on the west coast is still beaming Morse code out to the world from its original outpost overlooking Tomales Bay.

 

By continuing to use the restored antique electronics at the Marconi station, Richard Dillman (the operator in the photo above) says they are practicing a form of living history.

 

The Maritime Radio Historical Society applied for and received a new commercial telegraph operators license for the Marshall station, which they now use to keep the signal actively operating on the weekends.

 

 

 

The Marconi Conference Center will host an open house displaying historical pieces of radio once used for both military and merchant ships coming into the bay. Located in Tomales Bay, the center will display the relics and provide stories of what it was like on the coast during the radio era.

 

The Radio Maritime Radio Historical Society is the driving force for the event, to visit their website click here .

 

 

Two brothers with a shared vision are bringing a new international student exchange to Sebastopol.

 

In setting up the Global Student Embassy program at Analy High School (left), Jasper Oshun says they departed from the models of other existing student exchange programs.

 

Lucas Oshun says they selected the two participating South American towns, rural Zurite, Peru and and bustling Santa Fe, Argentina (below) in part because of the contrasts between them.

Created by two brothers from Sebastopol, Lucas and Jasper Oshun, the Global Student Embassy is "building leaders by connecting the world's youth to practice social responsibility and community service." The program is intended to educate and increase community responsibility amongst teens from all three participating towns.

On November 14^th, the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center will host the Global Student Embassy's Fundraising Dinner. For tickets and information, click here.

 

 

 

Budget cuts and increased enrollment are driving Sonoma State University to impose a limit on how many courses students can take next semester.

 

For many on the SSU campus, the first word of the new cap on academic units for the Spring Semester came in the form of a front page article on the Star, the weekly campus newspaper, on Tuesday. That angered many faculty members, who saw it as another instance of the university administration imposing its will and decisions, without appropriate consultation or notice, as Professor Andy Merrifield explains.

However,  the University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Eduaro Ochoa (right), says this was an emergency action, and there simply wasn't time to include those collaborative steps.

 

 

Some seniors are especially vulnerable to financial abuse from people close to them, but the Elder Financial Protection Network is working to reduce those risks.

There's a 24-hour, toll-free hotline for reporting suspected elder abuse at 1-888-436-3600. Additional resources are available through every California county.

 

  EFPN is holding a online wine auction to help support the local non-profit. Bidding is active from Oct. 31 through Nov. 9.

An online  guide to resources available to residents anywhere in the United States is the Elder Care Locator. If you're not sure exactly what elder financial abuse is, there are answers here.