2014 Volunteer of the Year David Nishioka with ENC Executive Director Bo Glover
This year’s volunteer of the year has been volunteering twice a week at the ENC since February 2011 – over 400 hours each year, over 1500 hours so far. Can you imagine working 1500 hours for FREE!?
As a Museum Docent he is the first face people see when they enter the ENC’s Nature Museum. He greets visitors and answers their questions. His role is not glamorous, but vital none-the less!
The thing is, our Volunteer of the Year actually has done some pretty glamorous things (see below)!
The “behind the scenes” people rarely receive the recognition they deserve; but I want to take this opportunity to thank the 768 volunteers who gave 10,913 hours of their time last year to help the ENC provide quality education through hands-on experience with Nature, especially our 2014 Volunteer of the Year, David Nishioka!
More about David:
David was born in Los Angeles in 1945. He served in the United States Army, and he was educated locally at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa and at California State University, Fullerton before moving up to Berkeley to earn his Ph.D. in Zoology. He was a biology professor at a number of prestigious universities, including the University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University, and Lusofona University in Portugal. Prior to retiring he was the Project Director for the Gateways Math-Science Project, funded by a Title V Grant, at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is published in 62 scientific papers! One of the most exciting projects (to the ENC staff) that he participated in was as a Visiting Investigator at the John F. Kennedy Space Center, where he prepared experiments to determine the effects of microgravity on sea urchins aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour!