16 BEST OF MONTEREY COUNTY® 2024 montereycountynow.com/bestof Best School CSU Monterey Bay 100 Campus Center, Seaside (831) 582-3000, csumb.edu “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.” Calvin Candie said that in Django Unchained. It’s unlikey he earned a degree in business at CSUMB, otherwise Candie would know that any business relies on more than one individual. The university is about cultivating ideas, skills training and the future. Students learn about practical fields like barbed wire and horseshoes—just kidding; it’s robotics and agribusiness. “We’re really working very hard to ensure that we produce a workforce that is needed,” CSUMB President Vanya Quiñones says. “We’re providing infrastructure to support the businesses that are needed around us.” Best K-12 Teacher Natalie Kroft Monterey Bay Charter School 1004 David Ave., Pacific Grove (831) 655-4638, mbayschool.org Coming up with a curriculum for students ages kindergarten through high school in a one-room school house was not easy, and Mrs. Kroft...wait a dang minute. Mrs? Teachers were single women of good virtue. OK, so Monterey Bay Charter School is not a one-room facility. And Natalie Kroft can focus on bringing the best book learning (and online learning, and field trip learning, for that matter) to fifth grade students—for now. The students are in Waldorf School, meaning she keeps the students for several years, until they reach high school. During class, students are part of the lecture; Croft and the students work together to make learning fun and entertaining. She also takes them on field trips so they can be in touch with nature and learn about the environment they live in. “The field trip is a working classroom environment,” Croft says, and learning opportunities are endless. Best College Team CSUMB Women’s Soccer (831) 582-3000, otterathletics.com The Mudville Nine drew solid crowds, even when their play caused no joy. The leather helmet had yet to be invented for football. The next biggest pastime was target shooting. But nowadays, it’s all about women’s soccer. “My biggest goal as a coach is to help grow strong women on and off the field,” says head coach Laura VanWart. The Otters play in NCAA II division. “I think our players do such a good job of showing the day in the life of a student-athlete.” Best Professor Richard Chapman Hartnell College, 1752 E. Alisal St., Salinas (831) 759-6088, hartnell.edu The first university established in Louisiana Purchase territory (what would become much of the Old West) was the University of Missouri. The impact of higher education on the West was slow to develop. But in Richard Chapman, an agricultural engineering instructor at Hartnell College, we see how significant it has become. Chapman spends his time preparing the new generation of ag tech leaders to fulfill the needs of the region. “The needs of our valley are booming when it comes to ag tech,” he says. “This program is a great investment in our community for our students to learn new skills.” Students can expect to learn about ag mechatronics, setting the stage for leaders in this fast-developing industry. Best Place to Work Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula 23625 Highway 68, Monterey (831) 624-5311, montagehealth.org There were no hospitals in the Old West, at least not out in the wide-open spaces away from cities. If you were lucky there’d be a Dr. Quinn, working on her own. Thankfully, medicine has evolved. Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula is a modern hospital bustling with trained and certified professionals who care about patients. Year after year they help elevate CHOMP as the best place to work in the Weekly’s readers’ poll, and this year is no different. Why? It’s a supportive team, for one. But there are also the little things, like a cantina (cafe, in their parlance) serving up good chow—and the best milkshake in town, too; see Specialty Food. Best Local Politician U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta 1200 Aguajito Road, Suite 3, Monterey (831) 424-2229, panetta.house.gov When U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, was elected to represent Monterey County and beyond on Capitol Hill in 2016, he quickly came to feel that being a congressman was a job he was meant to do. A natural people person, Panetta set about making friends on both sides of the aisle, embracing the bipartisanship ethos that existed in Congress when his father, Leon, was a member, before the discourse got poisoned by conspiracy theories, culture war nonsense and ad hominem attacks. Panetta rejects that style of politics—he leads with a smile, a handshake and by listening to the people he represents. Best Local Blog montereycountynow.com 668 Williams Ave., Seaside (831) 394-5656, montereycountynow.com We did not stuff the ballot box. This was a good old fashioned town hall vote. We’ll just say that trading in and Best Place to Bike / Mountain Bike | Fort Ord National Monument
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