Dear Advisory Board Members and Instructors
At the end of 2008, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to all your hard work, as active advisory board members and, for many of you, also as instructors for our graduate students in the MS Biotechnology and Bioinformatics program and the MS Biotechnology/MBA dual degree program! I want to thank you for your service to our programs by providing top quality instruction to our students and most valuable advice to our program faculty. I particularly appreciate your honest feedback on specific issues and concerns regarding the programs. With your effort, our professional science master's programs have grown rapidly. According to the latest enrollment numbers I have obtained from Extended Education Office, we have enrolled 177 students in these programs since 2005 and out of these students, we have graduated 36 of them! Almost all of them are gainfully employed.
As you know, biotechnology industry is one of the major industries in the State of California that employs over 260,000 professionals in the State. It has generated more than $70 billion revenues during 2007 for our State. We should be very proud that through our educational programs, we are doing our part by making significant contributions to our local economy, our community and the State of California and beyond. Our students deeply appreciate the high quality education they have received from our programs. This has been reflected from the overwhelming positive feedback they provided to a survey during several focus group studies conducted recently by an independent consulting firm. As you know already, our MS Biotechnology and MBA dual degree program was recently recognized with an "Outstanding Academic Program Award" by the University Continuing Education Association. Amgen's Medical Education Office has made a donation of $30,000 scholarship fund to our MS students based on the merits of our programs as well. None of these could have been achieved without your tireless support and service!
Thank you very much for what you have done for our programs and our students!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to you all!
Sincerely,
Ching
Ching-Hua Wang, MD., PhD.
Director of MS Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Program
805-437-8870 (office)
805-437-8895 (fax)