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High School Seniors Compete for President’s Scholarships

Two hundred and fifty high school seniors, some from as far away as Illinois and Texas, will visit campus on Saturday, March 1, to compete for $132,000 in scholarships. This is the eighth year of the competition initiated by President Manuel Esteban. High school seniors who have been accepted to the university and have a 3.7 or higher grade point average are eligible.

For the past several years, the average GPA of incoming freshmen at CSU, Chico has increased, and Esteban believes that, to a large extent, this is due to the success of the President’s Scholars Program. “We have found over the years that students who visit the university—who actually see our beautiful campus, talk to knowledgeable and helpful staff, and meet with faculty—enroll at Chico at a much higher rate than those who do not,” said Esteban.

Ag Leaders to Discuss e-Commerce at Roundtable

California agriculture and business leaders have been invited to a roundtable discussion on March 7, from 10 am to 2 pm, Glenn 104, about the application of a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce portal to the agricultural industry.

The B2B e-commerce portal was developed by an interdisciplinary team headed by agricultural professor Lal Singh to help farmers and small agri-businesses increase their knowledge of the power of e-business technology.

“The size and diversity of California’s agricultural products market make it an ideal candidate for further development of B2B electronic commerce,” said President Manuel Esteban, who invited the leaders to Chico. “Experts predict that by 2004, the B2B revenues will total more than $3 trillion.”

According to Singh, director of the project, this growth will impact the way companies buy and sell products, including those of agriculture, and it has implications for domestic as well as international sales. B2B e-commerce may soon become the standard method of doing business.

The portal is a Web site that is available at CalAgMarket.org. It is a research, teaching, and training site, rather than a commercial site. Users can tutor themselves in buying and selling agricultural products.