MJC Legacy

By Anna Genasci

On the eve of its centennial, to be celebrated in 2022, the Modesto Junior College (MJC) Agriculture & Environmental Sciences Program was looking for a story that outlined the transformation of their teaching facilities to demonstrate the growth of the program over the last 100 years.

However, in combing through old articles, pictures and speaking to retired instructors, what I found was this: the MJC faculty and its leaders created a program that has not only impacted the terrain of its school farm, affectionately referred to as just, “West Campus,” but also the lives of its students.

Let’s take a look back.

Fredrick Knorr 1923 – 1935, The First Instructor

The first agricultural instructor, a man known to all who have spent many years in the Modesto area, was Frederick “Pop” Knorr. To him we owe a considerable debt not only for his long teaching career, which began at MJC in 1923, but for a variety of unusual trees with which he landscaped the campus. With some occasional help from Willet Murray and Paul Kurtz, “Pop” Knorr carried the program until 1934 when he transferred to fulltime teaching in the Science Department. Reuben Sylva 1936 – 1944

From 1934 to 1935 Reuben Sylva and Warren Hilliard of Modesto High School conducted project courses on a part-time basis for the college, and in 1936, Reuben Sylva was given responsibility for developing a fulltime agriculture program. An energetic and enthusiastic man, he organized a combination terminal and transfer program and an Aggie Club for agriculture majors, which was one of the most active on campus. Agriculture classes were held in the basement of North Hall. In 1939, Ken Frost, a long-time instructor at University of California, Davis, took over the agriculture engineering and farm shop program and during the years 1940-1943 two instructors, Timothy Alcorn and Arthur Eggers, assisted in the Horticulture areas.

Enrollment in agriculture in 1936 began with 19 majors and by 1941, this had increased to a peak of 78. With the advent of World War II enrollment dropped to a low of 22 and Reuben Sylva was again the sole staff member.

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Jeff Romero is a digital marketing strategist and SEO (search engine optimization) expert with years of experience growing online traffic and revenue. As the co-founder of Octiv Digital, he and his team help companies develop and execute digital marketing strategy, leveraging web design, conversion optimization, SEO and data analytics.

As president of Bay Valley Tech, Phillip Lan oversees the organization’s fast-growing free code academy and tech hub, which supports entrepreneurs with inexpensive office space, digital marketing services and software talent. Bay Valley Tech’s current campaign to train 1,000 new computer programmers has resulted in many of its free code academy alumni and students from the Turlock/ Modesto area successfully launching new tech careers. Prior to Bay Valley Tech, Lan led the digital marketing team at E&J Gallo and held marketing, business development and leadership roles in Silicon Valley companies IBM and Ask Jeeves. He holds a bachelor’s degree in managerial economics from U.C. Davis; and an MBA in computer information systems from California State University-East Bay.

Here, Lan interviews Romero in a Q&A focusing on digital marketing.

Q: Jeff, can you tell our readers a little about your professional background and how you’ve seen proper digital marketing campaigns deliver strong results, especially in this time when COVID is hampering many traditional brick-and-mortar businesses?

A: I got my start in the industry by obtaining degrees in Marketing and Information Systems, then used my training to help local businesses with SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. I then took my knowledge and experience to e-commerce brands that catered to national audiences. This past year saw many businesses turn to online strategies, and those who quickly made the change are now prospering. SEO and digital marketing tend to be a zero-sum game where a few competitors get a majority of the customers.

Q: Why is it so important for companies to have a wellplanned digital marketing campaign? How does a welldesigned website, paid search, SEO and social media fit together relative to the marketing funnel of awareness, engagement, conversion and advocacy?

A: Business owners tend to think that one digital marketing strategy operates in a silo without considering how all things work together to achieve results. When we break down the digital marketing process, we’re really just trying to answer a person’s questions and help them solve a problem with a product or service. Some digital channels will play a bigger role than others in driving engagements or conversions, but it’s important to understand how each channel works and develop an integrated plan. Q: What are the key steps to creating highly effective digital marketing campaigns and can you share some of your “secrets” for success?

A: The secret to a successful digital marketing campaign is threefold: understand your product, identify your target audience and deliver on an execution plan. There are many useful tools to help business owners understand their audience. Google provides its services (Google Analytics, Google Search Console) for free. These are a great way to identify who your customers are, where they are from, how they are finding your brand, and a variety of other data points to help when making marketing decisions. For more in-depth analysis, most marketing agencies subscribe to other paid tools that can help dissect this data even further to help make better informed choices.

Q: What are the advantages of working with a digital marketing agency like Octiv Digital, and how should a business or marketing team determine when to use an agency or do the work internally?

A: Without extensive marketing experience in today’s digital world, business owners frequently end up spending a lot of time and money on things that don’t drive any results. This is the exact reason why I hire an electrician. I’m no expert and it would take me quite a bit of time to learn how to rewire my house without getting electrocuted, not to mention all the tools I would have to buy and use only once. The same is true for digital marketing–hire an expert and spend time doing what you do best for your business. By working with an agency, you get access to expertise, expensive sophisticated tools and valuable time back to focus on and improve strategy and profitability.

Q: Thank you so much for your time, Jeff. Do you have any other advice for companies looking to improve digital traffic and revenue growth?

A: If you are a business owner without a digital marketing strategy, get started today. There are very few businesses that can survive without a good website and digital presence, and the space is only getting more competitive. If you are struggling with growing your traffic and revenue, it may be worthwhile to contact a marketing agency for a consultation. In most cases, they can help identify pain points, recommend fixes for long-term results and significantly improve your internal team’s digital marketing expertise.

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When I joined the Chamber as a Staff Accountant back in June of 2018, one of the exciting aspects of the job was the opportunity to interact with our Members by attending Ribbon Cuttings and the various events that the Chamber hosts each year.

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