What Matters to You?

At the UC Davis College of Letters and Science, we sought to discover what matters to the people who make this college what it is today. We interviewed alumni, students, and faculty and asked simply, "what matters to you?" Here are their stories.

	What Matters to Annabeth Rosen? Teaching that art is interdisciplinary by nature.
	What Matters to Carlos Francisco Jackson? Celebrating the fluid line.
	What Matters to Michael Siminovitch? Lighting the way to energy efficiency.
	What Matters to Carolyn de la Peña? In my research and when I’m working as director of the UC Davis Humanities Institute, I love finding the ways that things are interrelated. What matters to me is bringing ideas together to see a pattern that would otherwise remain invisible or to build a whole that is stronger than any of its individual parts.
	What Matters to Colin Milburn? We live in an increasingly high-tech world. Understanding the complex relations between science, technology, and society is one of the most crucial tasks facing us today.
	What Matters to David Grenke? Children in public schools are on their feet, playing and dancing. They are creating works by William Shakespeare, and enjoying every minute of it, thanks to a program created by UC Davis Theatre and Dance Professor David Grenke.
	What Matters to Frances Dolan? Reading is one of my greatest sources of pleasure. It is also at the heart of my work as a teacher and a scholar.
	What Matters to James Sarmento? I am Shasta, one of over 50 distinct Native American nations that live in the borders of the state of California. For a long time, I didn’t know much about my language other than a few words. Then, while taking an anthropology course at a community college, I had the opportunity to research the Shasta language.
	What Matters to Jesikah Maria Ross? I think media matters. It’s where most of us get our news, views, and culture. It’s how we are introduced to people and places outside of our experience and it shapes how we feel about ourselves and our communities. That’s why it’s critical that ordinary folks have opportunities to create and share it.
	What Matters to Jesse Drew? People today are often overwhelmed and bewildered by the accelerating pace of technological change in communications and media. I believe that understanding the history and context of new technologies and the political, economic and social forces that lie behind them help create a more informed public.
	What Matters to Julie Sze? What I love about what I do is that my research and teaching is a clear expression of the things I care about. I look at cities, environments, and the powers at play in those places. As an associate professor in American Studies, I study American identity through the lens of being an immigrant’s child. What is the connection of the American dream to the American reality?
	What Matters to Patricia Turner? I was in graduate school earning my Ph.D. in rhetoric when I attended a lecture on the ways in which a culture's most popular proverbs are a reflection of that culture's worldview.
	What Matters to Praba Pilar? UC Davis doctoral student Praba Pilar has worked to end human trafficking over the internet for the last decade, presenting her informational performance "Computers Are A Girl's Best Friend" around the world, and speaking at universities nationwide.
	What Matters to Religious Studies? Religion has a unique place in the world. It is a mixture of faith, tradition, legend, mythology, literature, and history.
	What Matters to Seeta Chaganti? Teaching that art is interdisciplinary by nature.

The University of California, Davis, touches everything that matters to us as human beings. From our health to the economy, to what we eat and drink, to how we experience and interpret life, UC Davis has impact through teaching, research and public service. For more than a century, we have prepared and inspired students and discovered solutions to some of society's most pressing problems. As we look to the future, we address those things that matter most to California in order to transform the world.