Name: Jonathan Mitchell
Major: Biological systems engineering
Position: ASUCD senator
Year: Fourth
1: What would you want to do for your dream date?
I’ve actually thought about this. Here’s my dream date: a tandem bike ride to the Arboretum where we sit on a beach towel and have a picnic in the middle of the day. That’s my dream date. So, beach towel, Arboretum, picnic, dream date and tandem bike ride. One, because I’ve never been on a tandem bike ride and think it would be pretty romantic. It’s a little cliché, but I think it would be really fun. I could have said skydiving, but realistically, I’m never going to go skydiving on a first date.
2: If you could live anywhere, where would you move to best serve your career interests?
Seoul, Korea because I’m interested in semiconductors, or Silicon Valley, California. I would prefer to live in Silicon Valley because it’s still close enough to home. And it’s also a booming tech industry and it’s California, which is the most beautiful place in the world.
Seoul, Korea is one of the leading tech industries in the world. They are exponentially increasing their semiconductor devices and things like that.
If not Korea, then Israel. Tel Aviv, which is actually where I’m going this summer. Because they have one of the best startup industries in the world, America actually funds part of their startup industries.
Israel, Silicon Valley California or Seoul Korea. Those are my top three. They’re pretty diverse. I’m in my 20s and I want to get out there and experience what the world has to offer.
3: Do you have any pet peeves?
Often, a lot of people speak to hear the sound of their own voice. A lot of people reiterate facts that others have already stated. To improve efficiency, I think that people should consider what has been said before, before they speak. Speak more directly. I think that’s one of my pet peeves. Some people that speak go in circles, repeating the same point over and over again. It loosens the effect of their point. So, someone who is very direct with their point, has a way more effective manner than someone who alludes to it over and over again.
4: Is there a book or other piece of literature that you think every college student should read?
The Power of Now. It’s all about living your life in the present, rather than being haunted by the past and being scared of the future. We’ve all gone through hard times in our past. I’m sure every college student has. And if we think about it constantly, it will haunt us and make our lives in the now miserable. That book is really remarkable, and what it stands for. It stems from the teachings of Buddha and a lot of other prominent religious figures. And it’s all summed up into one spiritual book.
It was recommended to me by a friend. I was going through a really hard time, and I would just read a chapter before going to sleep every night. It made me feel empowered before I went to sleep, waking up in the morning with a fresh slate.
5: What trait do you find most impressive in an individual?
Perseverance. I think perseverance is one of the most impressive traits you can have. How you rally when life puts you down, really matters. People who persevere and push through those boundaries who try and help themselves, that really goes a long way. Those who try and push themselves to their true potential, that really goes a long way. When I ran for senate, I really pushed myself 100 percent. I was not willing to lose by a couple votes. I wasn’t willing to accept the fact that I didn’t try hard enough, so in doing that, I gave 100 percent into every single thing that I did. I worked my butt off, and it paid off. It goes to show that if you put 100 percent into something, then you will come out the victor. So perseverance is a great trait to have. That’s the most powerful trait that I look for in a person.
6: What is your favorite movie and why it is your favorite?
My favorite movie is Gladiator. It’s my favorite movie because it shows heart. It has a lot of heart. It shows what this guy went through, and seeing the very end how all the people side with him in the end. Not to mention Hans Zimmerman did the soundtrack. Gladiator because it’s Russell Crowe and Marcus Aurelius has heart. There’s also action, combat and love. It touches on every feature that most movies have and makes them great. The way that the story is told is amazing. How the flashbacks to the Spanish fields and how they get him in jail, there is always the same song. I still hear that song sometimes, when I’m wandering in the grass.
7: How was your transition from high school to college? Did you face any challenges?
In my first year I definitely struggled. I wasn’t even an engineer in my first year, I was nothing, and I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was afraid to take a chance and pick a harder major. Eventually I started to go toward the bio department in my sophomore year of college. Sophomore year, I started going in the pre-med route. Then in junior, I realized that I was curious about how our phones work, how machines work, how devices work, why they work and how they work. I wanted to know more. I doubted that I could do it, but I took the chance and started taking the [Mathematics] 21 series my junior year of college. I’ve been playing catch-up ever since.
8: If you got to invite three people (dead or alive) over for dinner, whom would you choose?
Nikola Tesla, my number one, because I would ask him what the unified field theory is. He claimed to have solved it. Obviously he’s dead.
Number two, I would have to say Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX technologies, because he has done so much entrepreneurial work and he really know how to run a business. There are questions that I want to ask and I want to learn. Kind of funny, Elon Musk started the company Tesla. There’s a little correlation.
Steve Wozniak. This guy literally started Apple. He built the Apple I, I think in the ’70s, in his garage. I think he was 16 years old. Steve Jobs came to him with an assignment from Atari and he ended up building Apple I. He started building Steve Jobs’ assignments, for Steve Jobs, and eventually he put together Apple I. He built it using the mosfet, which is one of the most basic conductors around.
Name: Naftali Moed
Major: Environmental policy, analysis and planning
Position: Environmental Policy and Planning commission chair
Year: Second
1. What’s your most embarrassing fashion mistake?
Oh, I feel like every day is an embarrassing fashion mistake. Normally, I just don’t care enough, which is probably a good thing. I did have a pair of plaid shorts and I wore like a plaid flannel shirt and then Crocs. That was a bad day. That was just all bad on a lot of levels. [They’re] industrial outdoor Crocs so they wear down slightly less frequently. They’re actually pretty comfy. They’re not fashionable — I won’t be the first to admit, they’re atrocious, but they’re definitely comfy.
2. Which online dating service would you use?
I hate the internet. I don’t know enough of any of them to even make a judgment, all I know is they exist and I think it’s silly.
3. What’s your favorite memory on the UC Davis campus?
I think my favorite memory was [when] I was in the tractor class ABT [Applied Biological Systems Technology] 49, and I was driving a mid-sized tracker, but it had this really huge implement they use to level the ground that was maybe about 30 feet long, and I was driving it across the field and I was like, “I guess I can go faster” and so I slowly increased the speed and then I was going like about 25 to 30 miles per hour with this huge — and then the teacher of the tractor class is like *waving arms* “STOP! STOP! STOP!” That was super fun.
4. What skills will your major give you, and how do you plan to apply those skills?
I think it will give me a lot of skills as far as navigating the extremely complicated and bureaucratic regulations that the country and the state of California in particular have placed on human interactions with the environment. I’m not sure exactly where I want to take myself as far as a career path, but I definitely feel like my major gives me a lot of really good — sort of a good foundation to understand economic modeling associated with the environment, understand relevant and applicable federal and state laws just so I know the legal framework of any environmental work, and also just give me a foray into the scientific issues associated with the environment, which is why I chose it. I thought it would be a really broad perspective that I could use and apply to something more refined once I figure out what that is.
5. Where do you ideally see yourself in 20 years?
I feel like on top of Mt. Everest would be nice, but that’s a good question. As long as I’m happy really, I don’t really care. Happy and outside, preferably, would be a good thing, or in a career that lets me spend a fair amount of time outside.
6. What was the scariest moment of your life?
Once I was working on a roofing project for a shed I was building at work, and I was standing on top of a ladder on the part where it tells you not to stand on that, you know the little top step that says “DO NOT STAND HERE.” I was standing on the step above trying to use a drill, and then the drill twerked and my arm moved in a weird way, and I grabbed on the rafter of the roof, and the ladder just totally fell off, and it was like a 12-foot ladder, so I was just hanging there. Eventually, I was able to realize it was only like… I don’t know, I think my legs were only 10 feet off the ground so I was able to sort of just let go and go down, but it was definitely, there was a good four or five seconds where I thought I’m going to die right now and then wait, I’m 10 feet off the ground. I was super lucky, it would have been bad otherwise. The drill was not so fortunate though, it did not survive that incident, it fell and… my boss was not thrilled.
7. What is your ideal cup of coffee?
I hate coffee so much, with a burning passion, and I think people waste lots of money on it, and if it’s not shade grown, you’re killing the world. Drink tea. Shade grown. That’s the thing, most people don’t realize that as far as the environment’s concerned, people are just like “oh, its organic, so it’s better,” but even if it’s organic, if it’s not shade grown — which means it’s grown in a current rainforest — then it means it was probably grown on a plantation, which means the rainforest was clear cut. Shade grown coffee: if you’re gonna drink it, but don’t. Tea is better.
8. What does YOLO mean to you, personally?
It means the county that Davis is mostly located in, although it’s funny a lot of people don’t realize that part of our campus would jurisdictionally fall within Solano County depending where you are on campus. But Yolo is the county we live in and nothing to do with Dre or whoever. County was here first.
9. What are your favorite social media channels?
I use Facebook. That’s pretty much it. I don’t know, I’m not technologically inept. I used to build servers and all that, so I understand the internet, I just don’t think that it really works with my life so well. I prefer talking to folks in person. I used to be really into online stuff, and then I realized a lot of my friendships were drifting in that direction, and I don’t think it is — I don’t know, I just prefer in-person better.
10. Historically speaking, which era of history is most appealing to you?
By far, the sort of Wild West era, with the exception of the atrocities the US committed on Native Americans and a lot of the folks living south of what’s currently the US-Mexico border. I definitely wish I could have been alive then. I feel like it would have been a much better fit with my hatred of the internet and the desire to just spend time outside, wandering around.
11. Which Hogwarts house would you be sorted into?
I don’t know maybe Slytherin just to be contrary. But Gryffindor would be fine though, I don’t care in all honesty, I’ve never understood why we as a society are collectively obsessed — I feel like every time there’s some sort of new technological advancement as far as different types of things you can do programmatically online, there’s like some new improved way to sort yourself into Hogwarts. I don’t get it. I feel like it’s sort of slowly evolving, like at one point it was in magazines you’d take questionnaires, and then it moved online onto Facebook polls and I’m sure within a few weeks it’ll be like, “Take a picture of yourself and send it to the website, we’ll figure out which house you go in.” I don’t know, I wish those people developing all these things would apply themselves to do something that I think benefits society and the world more, but that’s just my perspective.
