Our on-campus student outreach saw great momentum this winter, as we welcomed a wide range of visitors and collaborators. We hosted junior college counselors and presidents, middle and high school students from the Napa Valley area, and launched a new collaboration with the Lodi Appellation Inclusion Collective. Additionally, our undergraduate advisor Liz and the team did a phenomenal job encouraging admitted students to enroll at Aggie Day and Picnic Day. These visits provided opportunities to showcase our facilities, engage future students, and strengthen relationships with community partners.
We kicked off the quarter with a visit from the Transfer Opportunity Program (TOP) community college advisors. During their time on campus, our team highlighted the benefits of a V&E degree and the prerequisites for transferring to UC Davis. The visit included a detailed tour of the UC Davis Teaching and Research Winery and our campus vineyards, giving advisors a firsthand look at what their students can expect from our program. We replicated this visit for the Discover UC Davis event, where prospective students and counselors visited our facilities to understand more about our major and the career opportunities within the wine industry.
In another exciting collaboration, we partnered with the UC Davis School of Education’s Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research. We welcomed rural-serving California community college deans and presidents during their annual campus meeting. During our presentation, we discussed the state of the California wine and winegrape industry and emphasized the career paths available to students who complete our program. At the end of the presentation, our team hosted a wine tasting event to showcase the research our students are doing on smoke-tainted wine and shared more insight into the science behind the sensory experience. This partnership lays the groundwork for future collaboration with community colleges and supports our goal of building a stronger transfer pipeline into V&E.
Reaching younger audiences was another key component of our outreach. We hosted several half-day visits that featured an introduction to our program, hands-on activities like Brix measuring, a jelly bean sensory experiment, and grape crushing. We talked about how wine is made and the transferable skills our students develop through earning a V&E degree. Our graduate students led winery and vineyard tours to show the students a behind-the-scenes look at what daily life is like for V&E students. These experiences left a strong impression on our guests and gave them a glimpse of the academic and professional opportunities available in the wine industry.
This quarter we formed promising new partnerships with the Lodi Appellation Inclusion Collective, Improve Your Tomorrow, and the San Joaquin A+ Project. These organizations share a mission to empower young men of color by introducing them to the variety of job opportunities in their region — including those in the wine industry. Following a busy morning of activities on our corner of campus, the students also got the opportunity to explore UC Davis through an official campus tour. Our goal is to expand this partnership in the fall to give more students early exposure to viticulture and enology, and to show them how they can gain relevant experience within their own communities that prepares them for a future in the field.
April brought two of the largest UC Davis public-facing events: Aggie Day and Picnic Day. At Aggie Day, Liz was able to connect with newly admitted students and parents and talk to them about our major and the benefits of attending UC Davis. She gave away V&E merch and finished her day with a tour of the winery and vineyard. We are confident Liz’s enthusiasm and outreach will help yield more Aggies into our program.
We celebrated Picnic Day with a booth at the Good Life Garden. V&E distributed 500 Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon wine grapevines, and they were all taken within 40 minutes! Guests were able to guess how many grapes were in our grape press, apply temporary grape tattoos, and take 30-minute facility tours. The Davis Enology and Viticulture Organization (DEVO) and our V&E team did a fabulous job tabling and sharing information about the organization and department.
It has been a busy start to 2025, and we want to keep the momentum going. If you know counselors, students, or non-profits that would benefit from learning about V&E, visiting our facilities, or connecting with us virtually, please reach out to Alejandra, our Communications and Student Outreach Coordinator, at pchhernandez@ucdavis.edu.