Please note that all Sierra College locations will observe summer hours from May 26 to August 8, and will be closed on Fridays now through Friday, Aug. 8, 2025.
Jason Davidson, Grateful for Firefighting Training He Received at Sierra College
Jason Davidson, Sierra College alum
Jason Davison is Captain of the Nevada County Consolidated Fire Department, and a Sierra College 2006 alum.
“In my line of work, giving back to the community is part of the job,” he said. “It’s also part of who I am.”
He added, “Being a Colfax High School graduate, I, like thousands of other high school graduates in our region, have benefited from a Sierra College education.”
Grateful for the Fire Technology training he received at Sierra College, he is giving back through SCF Gives, which is Sierra College Foundation’s initiative to address the greatest needs on campus.
Former Student Pays It Forward Through Annual Scholarship
Rick R. Nelson
As Rick Nelson tells the story, he “won the lottery” when he received several scholarships that helped him attend Sierra College after graduating from Roseville High School in 1973.
At the age of 10, Rick’s father passed away. As the eldest of three children, Rick worked numerous jobs before and after school to help his mother and sisters. No one in his family had ever gone to college, but when he was finishing high school, several local service clubs offered him scholarships, and he jumped at the chance.
After earning an Associate’s degree from Sierra College, he went on to BYU where he earned a degree in Business, and eventually had a very successful, 30-year career with Morgan Stanley.
Rick recognized the incredible value of his original scholarships.
“Two of my scholarships were for $500, which was a lot of money to me back then. But really, it was worth so much more than that,” he recalled. “What they gave me, what came out of my education – it saved me. And I wanted to help other students the same way someone once helped me.”
In 1999, Rick and his wife, Sandi, began awarding the Raymond S. Nelson Memorial Scholarship (named after his father) to Sierra College students. He personally reads every application and is always looking for ways to make a positive impact on each student.
Looking back over the years, the Nelsons’ estimate they have awarded nearly 100 scholarships to deserving and financially disadvantaged students. Many of these students continue to write thank you letters expressing a strong desire to do the same to help future students when they are financially in a position to do so.
We applaud Rick’s selfless dedication to helping others. He knows the true meaning of “paying it forward.” He is not only a notable alum but continues to empower many other students to benefit from Sierra College.
Jason Loscalzo, Proud Alumnus is now Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Chicago Bears
Jason Loscalzo, former Sierra College student
When Jason Loscalzo graduated from Golden Sierra High School in the ‘90s and began gearing up for the next stage in his life, he said that while he couldn’t afford a 4-year college, his parents encouraged him to enroll at Sierra College.
“My brother went there, and I wanted to play football,” he said. “It just made sense.”
Jason played fullback for Sierra College for a few years, then he went on to Humboldt State where he earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology in 1999. In 2001, he earned a master’s in athletic administration from Nevada.
From there, he went on to a successful 21-year collegiate career as a strength and conditioning coach with Washington State (2012-17), Boston College (2007-11), Auburn University (2003-06), Marshall (2001-03), University of Nevada, Reno (1999-01) and Arkansas (1999).
Today, Jason is beginning his second year as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Chicago Bears, but looks back fondly on his days at Sierra.
“I’m still in touch with some of my Sierra teammates,” he said. “We played under Rex Chappell.”
Sierra College was a great first step for Jason and prepared him for a four-year school.
“I had the same education at Sierra that I received at Humboldt State, and the best part is that I graduated without taking out a loan.” He added, “School is what you make of it. The important part is having your name on a diploma.”
We applaud Jason on his impressive accomplishments. His success is an inspiration to the thousands of students preparing to begin their college career at Sierra.
Jason and his wife, Nicci, have two sons, JP and Luke, and one daughter, Gianna.
Meet Maria Brannan, a proud veteran who is also a Sierra College alum. She works in Sierra College’s Veteran Success Center to assist other veterans who are furthering their education at Sierra College. Watch Maria’s story.
I graduated from Folsom High School in 1972. I always wanted to go to College. Sierra College was the College I wanted to attend, however I had different circumstances and just did not have the courage to apply and go. I ended up moving to the Bay Area-Oakland in particular because I had to work and help to support my Mother.
I was recruited to learn to be an Escrow Officer at a major Title Insurance Company – Transamerica. I always wanted to return to live in Sacramento and go to Sierra College. My parents separated and my Dad who retired at Mather Air Force Base, left my Mother and four children. She was forced to go on Welfare and I had to finish my 12th year of High School. I did leave and move and continued for many years to come back to Sacramento to see and help my Mother.
It was not until thirty years later that I decided to move back with my three kids and go to Sierra College. I lived in the foothills near my sister – Nevada City/Grass Valley and started in Spring of 2003. I took an Art class because I thought it would be fun. Then I realized that I was afraid of learning due to a disability of processing and reading. It took me going to Sierra College until 2010 before I went into the Disabled Student Services to be tested for learning disabilities. I was tested and given services. The primary problem I have is having enough time to read and being an auditory learner. This meant that I received books on tapes for my classes and extra time with exams in order to read at the slow difficult pace I had. The good news is my reading did improve, but the disability will be something I will always have to work extra to overcome.
At the beginning I had three children as young as 5th grade and oldest in 9th grade, so it was difficult going to school and working full time. It was not until I got really serious and took more than one class that I knew I would attain an Associate of Art degree in 2015. I also was admitted to UC Davis for the fall of 2016 as well, however my husband was transferred to Tucson Arizona. I am now going to school to finish a Bachelor of Studio Art – BFA in the Spring of 2017. I will continue on – God willing and work to get a Masters level as well…
Sierra College is such a great Community College and through the years I have met so many great teachers. I did end up at the Rocklin campus finishing the last of my transfer units. I was so excited to graduate at the age of 62 in May of 2016.
Thank you so much Sierra College and the staff that helped me through those years of doubt and lack of confidence! I shall always be forever grateful for all that you have done for me.
Diane at the NCC Commencement in May, 2016 – PHOTO SUBMITTED BY DIANE WITTMAN-PUNTERI
I started college when I was 25 years old at the ‘old’ Sierra College campus in Auburn, California.
I graduated three years late from the ‘new’ campus in Rocklin in 1963, when it was lovingly called ‘Sahara College’ because of the lack of landscaping and paved parking. The parking lots became quagmires in the winter. The administration offices were located in the Winstead Building, which was then the library, and the book store was housed in the Campus Center.
Leland from the yearbook in 1963 on the left, and Leland in 2016 on the right.
I remember, as a student, being called out of Dr. Berutti’s class to help move his cattle off the campus and back across Sierra College Blvd to a field he rented for pasturing his animals. His cattle would often, somehow, manage to escape several times a month to graze on the new lawns of the campus.
When the Weaver Building was being constructed, I remember some students roping themselves to the oak trees to prevent the building site from being developed. It was a short-lived protest.
I started teaching full time at Sierra College in 1971, and my last experience was teaching part-time as an emeritus faculty at the Nevada County Campus. For over 48 years, Sierra was a large part of my life, and continues to be so today.
Among my ‘star’ students who returned to Sierra in other capacities were:
Lew Fellows had an insatiable passion for skiing. It probably helped that he was really, really good. In fact, he was Olympic good.
Fellows earned the right to be an alternate for the US Olympic ski team. If somebody got hurt, Fellows was the next man up. But Fellows made a commitment to himself if he didn’t get the opportunity to ski at the Olympics, he would go back to school. Fellows, a Truckee native, ended up at Sierra College after the Olympics. But his passion for skiing never waned, and he made sure to join the five-member Sierra College ski club, led by instructor Paul Chesney.
I didn’t do it alone. We won as a Sierra College family.
Lew Fellows, former dean of athletics
Lew Fellows and the ski team in 1955 – SIERRA COLLEGE ARCHIVE
Fast forward a few years. With a master’s degree in hand, Fellows was teaching high school students before an old friend tracked him down – Paul Chesney, Fellows’ former ski instructor, wanted him to come back to Sierra College to coach skiing. Fellows accepted and an Olympic tradition in Sierra athletics was born.
Fellows led the Sierra College Ski Team to a top two national ranking, and had Sports Illustrated declaring the Sierra College Ski Team as the top college team in the nation, competing against teams from Stanford, Berkeley, Nevada and Boston College. Fellows built a legacy of championships for the ski team, propelling him to become the Dean of Athletics for Sierra College, and overseeing various championship teams in baseball, football, basketball, softball, and swimming.
Asked about his success at Sierra College, Fellows replies, “I didn’t do it alone. We won as a Sierra College family.”
Ted Kitada (second from the left) and the maintenance crew, 1965 – SIERRA COLLEGE ARCHIVE
My time was very precious in landscaping including getting things organized in the morning. I had this one student who was hired to assist me and he did that for a good year. His name was David Mayes, a retired CHP man. He would help me by going to the post office and taking trash to the dump. There was no trash service at the time so someone had to go to the quarry to dump the trash.
One day David Mayes had gone to the dump. At the dump they had these granite railroad ties laid across the edge of the quarry. The ties were there so people would not accidentally roll back into the quarry. Sometimes when a dump truck would come, the dump truck bed would not reach over to the edge far enough to dump it clean. Unfortunately that day, the ties were all blocked by trash. Since the other spots were full of trash and he couldn’t back up, he selected the end that didn’t have a block.
Apparently he backed up and had it hoisted up. The truck started rolling back and it was just too dangerous for him to jump back in and pull the brakes. The dump truck being heavy, it just got swallowed up in the trash.
When he saw me, the comment he made was, “It’s gone! It’s gone!” I said, “What’s gone?” He said, “The truck.”
I said, “You’re still here. Don’t worry about that.”
Turns out the loss of the truck was a good thing. They contracted to get the trash taken to the dump after that.
County garbage dump, 1967 yearbook – SIERRA COLLEGE ARCHIVE
In the Sierra College archives, I am John O’Brien. My parents named me this, but always called me Barton, or “Bart,” my middle name. This sometimes makes things confusing, especially if someone wants to check and see that I really did go to Sierra College from 1969-1971.
I have many Sierra stories. Most stem from the great teachers I was lucky enough to meet during my time there. Despite later earning degrees from Berkeley and Davis, it was at Sierra that I really earned an education. George Sessions helped me learn to think and to rock climb. We shared Yosemite and Sierra adventures for many years, and I looked forward to bumping into him in Tuolumne Meadows every summer. Fritz Blodgett fired my appreciation for art history. Thanks to two of his wonderful classes, I have visited many of the world’s great art museums. Harold Chastain fueled my passion for California History, and various English teachers instilled both an appreciation for writing and for reading good books. These have added much richness to my life.
Professor George Sessions – SIERRA COLLEGE ARCHIVE
The big take away from Sierra, however, occurred in the present of Mr. Larry Wight. We were walking out of the C Building after one of his many, memorable class periods. He was friendly and interested despite my awkwardness and obvious naiveté in matters of contemporary political science. When I commented that I guess my knowledge and understanding would eventually “come,” he responded, “no, you will have to go get it.” That simple, insightful, and understanding response changed my life. At that point, I became more in charge of my own learning and life direction. I will never forget it or the impact of Sierra College.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Sierra. I worked on costumes for our Charlie Brown play which was put on by our drama club. I helped with the program and worked on the rodeo that our Aggie Club put on. I was Associated Student Body (ASB) Secretary, helped with student orientation, and helped get sponsors for our ASB Coupon book. I also enjoyed playing cards in the cafeteria with others. What Sierra did for me was show me anything is possible if you put yourself out there and try new things. Along with all of these things, I was still able to make it on the Dean’s List and receive my AA in two years. I attended from 1972 to 1974 and met many amazing teachers and students.
