The year 2011 has been a productive and stimulating at Yo San University. Our students, didactic and clinical faculty members, administration and clinic staffs, CE participants, members of our Board of Trustees and our Board of Luminaries, clinic patients and the many other community friends are hereby commended and congratulated for the unique and valued contributions that each has made to achieve the palpable sense of wellness, cohesiveness, community and belongingness that characterizes the Yo San University environment. Each member of our community shares in the 2011 achievements of Yo San University. Among those milestone achievements are the following:
• The University posted a record enrollment of 223 students registered at the start of the fall 2011 trimester.
• At the March 13, 2011 commencement ceremony nineteen students were conferred the MATCM degree with oncologist Kristi Funk, M.D. providing and inspiring address to the graduates and guests.
• Grants to support the work of the University were awarded from private foundations including the Green Foundation, the Fineshriber Foundation, the William H. Hazen Foundation, the David L. Buntzman Foundation and the Alliance of Health Care Professionals Foundation.
• Several student scholarship funds were initiated or enhanced. Among the scholarship funds that were awarded or enhanced during 2011 are the Don Primack Memorial Scholarship, the Ni Family Scholarship, the Alliance of Health Care Professionals Scholarship, The MATCM Bursary Awards and the Alumni Scholarship fund.
• SmartBoard units were installed in every classroom in 2011, and several faculty development sessions were conducted to begin the process of upgrading faculty skills in instructional technology.
• After careful study of the Qi Cultivation program involving faculty, students, administration and an outside consultant, improvements to the program that added flexibility were implemented as of September 2011.
• Faculty members participated in special faculty development sessions in May in San Francisco and in November in Safety Harbor, Florida where they explored the application of the method of “Case Based Learning.”
• The Yo San University Continuing Education (CE) Program was rejuvenated with not less than seven successful offerings in the second half of 2011.
• A highly successful Robert Graham Visionary Award Dinner honoring actress Sela Ward was held in April of 2011.
• Clinic marketing outreach activity was expanded considerably with the implementation of the contract with Health Care Dimensions, Inc., which provides not less than one corporate health fair venue each month at which YSU Community Clinic staff and interns share information about the services of our Clinic.
• In April 2011 the University sponsored a highly successful two week externship at hospital and clinics sites in Chengdu China.
• The DAOM Program hosted a May 2011 accreditation candidacy site visit that resulted in the September 2011 award of candidacy status by ACAOM.
• Twelve members of our DAOM Program Cohort #1 whose specialty area was Reproductive Medicine culminated their studies with the successful public defense of their doctoral dissertations at a series of well attended and academically stimulating mini-conferences.
• Subsequent to the August 2011 retreat meeting of our Board of Trustees, the University community began the implementation of a new strategic plan that has as its centerpiece planning for institutional growth and facilities, a plan that is already having a positive impact. The YSU Bookstore was transformed to include a café environment and menu. In late 2011 we will complete the expansion of the third floor women’s rest room. A further agenda of facilities updates is scheduled for implementation during the April-May 2012 break.
While the above are the memorable and public 2011 institutional milestones, the essence of the Yo San Community is perhaps more poignantly characterized by the thousands of private and often silent interactions of learning, wellness and Qi cultivation that transpire in our classrooms, clinic treatment rooms and in our Qi Studio on a daily basis. It is you, our community members, who are integral and instrumental in those interactions. It is especially those moments of insight, health and Qi clarity that have made Yo San University successful in 2011.