Several of this year’s Top Dog honorees spoke about issues close to them at the second annual Top Dog Talks on Oct. 13 at the Maya Cinemas Fresno 16 in Campus Pointe.
The speakers of this year’s first Top Dog Talks were James Brumm, Raj Beasla, Dr. Lois Tarkanian, Anthony Rubino, Valerie A. Vuicich and Dr. Richard Whitten Jr.
Brumm was the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award, and Vuicich received the Arthur Safstrom Service Award.
“The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor given to an alumnus of the university,” said Jacqui Glasener, executive director of the Fresno State Alumni Association. “The Arthur Safstrom Service Award is an award given to any alumnus who has given outstanding service for the alumni association or the university.”
The Top Dogs are alumni who are nominated by any member of the community, then narrowed down to three possible recipients by each of the colleges that are giving out the awards: those three then are reviewed by an alumni award committee and finally decided on, according to the alumni association website.
Beasla, senior director of service planning and design for PG&E, spoke on the No. 1 thing in the corporate world: safety first. He said, “Zero is Achievable” in terms of zero accidents for a large company. He graduated from Lyles College of Engineering with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering in 1989.
Rubino, the range squadron director for the 412th Test Wing located at Edwards Air Force Base, titled his speech, “When we talk about leadership, we talk about developing tomorrow’s leaders today.”
“Leaders are readers” and challenged everyone to read 15 minutes a day. He said you should take five ideas from each book you read; with this, you should be able to “change your family, neighborhood, city, state, community and then the world.” Rubino graduated from Lyles College of Engineering in 1988 with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and with a master’s from the Craig School of Business in 2010.
Whitten Jr. is an active member on numerous boards and advisory committees as well as the medical director for Vision Health International. He spoke on “volunteering with a purpose” and about his own experiences with Vision Health International, an organization that gives free eye care in underdeveloped countries. He began his college experience at Fresno State, then moved to the Bay Area. There he got his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and his medical degree at UC San Francisco.
Tarkanian, the Las Vegas city councilwoman for Ward 1, spoke on her conclusion that “passion and persistence are the most important things necessary to succeed.” Tarkanian told of how Sid Craig of the Craig School of Business was her friend here at Fresno State. She spoke about how Craig introducing her to her husband, Jerry Tarkanian, the former basketball coach at Fresno State.
Brumm is president of Glastonbury Commons Ltd. and the former general counsel of Mitsubishi International Corporation in the U.S. Brumm spoke about his time at Fresno State preparing him and gave him the experience to be able to live the life that he has. He graduated magna cum laude from Fresno State in 1965 with a bachelor’s in political science. He went on to earn his law degree from Columbia University.
Vuicich, the administer of the Career Technical Education/Fresno Regional Occupational Program for the Fresno County Office of Education, spoke about public service and its importance community. Vuicich said, “Service is like planting a tree — you will never be able to sit in its shade.”