Blue Devil Notebook: Anderson named manager of the year

His colleagues have spoken, and they have declared Jim Andersen Merced College’s outstanding manager of the year.

Andersen, who oversees an annual budget of $1.5 million and 67 full- and part-time instructors and support staff, was recently honored by members of the college’s Management Association for his professionalism and support of student success, saying he “leads by example.”

School officials described him as a “confident leader” with a “vast amount of knowledge and understanding.”

Andersen believes his main strength is “my ability to build positive relationships with our faculty and staff ... these relationships have been a key to any success I’ve achieved.”

The dean of the college’s Career Technical Education programs for the past seven years, Andersen helped elevate the status of CTE both at Merced College and around the state.

“If I’ve left any mark here, it will have been the way CTE is now valued at Merced College,” he said, adding that he feels vocational education has been undervalued by the larger educational community.

“Career Technical Education is so important to the economy of our local community and to communities across the nation. The whole country is now embracing what I’ve believed for many decades, which is that we need to expand our training of a skilled workforce in these technical trades.”

The education road hasn’t always been easy for Andersen, who was diagnosed with dyslexia while a teenager. Reading text is still a challenge. However, he developed a style of learning and teaching that relies on visual and auditory information.

“I battle with my dyslexia all the time,” he said. “I’ve overcome it by being a really good listener. For example, I prefer phone calls to emails. My learning style became dependent on visual and auditory aids, and in my classes I’ve developed animated PowerPoint presentations that I think help students learn what can be very difficult technical information.”

By spending hundreds of hours developing these classroom presentations, Andersen has been able to, in the words of one of his colleagues, “improve the education of many hundreds of students.”

Andersen, now in his 34th year as an educator, simply describes himself as “a fortunate man who loves his job.”

“I’m a good problem-solver,” he said. “And I want to make sure that all of our students succeed here.”

World Guitar Night

Get ready for the return of renowned guitarists Francesco Buzzurro and Richard Smith to the Merced College Theater.

The first performance in the college’s 2015-2016 Lecture and Performance Series, Buzzurro and Smith will perform the music of Italy, the Mediterranean and America at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 25. The guitarists, who played before a packed Merced audience two years ago, are touring the United States in September, and the Merced appearance may be the only opportunity local music lovers will have to see them.

“People raved about their last show here,” said John Albano, dean of social sciences, humanities and arts. “The audience was simply blown away. This is a world-class event for Merced.”

Tickets are available through the Merced College Theater Box Office, the college bookstore and at Gottschalk Music Center on Main Street in Merced. General admission is $14, while tickets for students, seniors and military are $10.

This story was originally published August 18, 2015 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Blue Devil Notebook: Anderson named manager of the year."