When Leah Yadon saw a flier for the Sacramento Natural Food Co-Op Community Kitchen sessions at Wellspring Women’s Center in Sacramento, she signed up immediately. Food has always played a big part in her life, Yadon says, but no one ever taught her the basic building blocks of a healthy lifestyle. 

In March of last year, we highlighted 12 rising leaders in our inaugural  young professionals feature  (“Command and Deliver,” by Russell Nichols, March 2014). Here’s what a few of them have done since: 

The Sacramento region’s higher education opportunities may get an incredible boost in the next few years should the University of Warwick, England, be successful in building a campus in Placer County. 

The challenge of finding sales talent keeps some companies from growing or even surviving. That’s why sales training boosters say it’s time for university business schools to turn out graduates who can take sales jobs and quickly hit their numbers without months — or even years — of on-the-job training.

For all its importance to business survival, companies tend to fail miserably at hiring sales staff. A 2011 survey of more than 400 firms by DePaul University researchers found that hiring one seller costs $29,000. But a lot of that money flutters out into the ether; a third of recruits don’t make it through their first year.

Your next visit to the public library might not be to check out a book. Libraries are becoming critical agents in a sprouting local food movement, so you might instead bite into an actual meal, join a cooking class or even check out garden seeds.

Entrepreneurs, small business workers and students will have the chance to learn about startups and contribute to Placer County’s economy this spring when Sierra College and Hacker Lab open their new co-working and making space.

Momentum is shifting in the Capital Region, and young professionals are leading the charge. General skepticism is being replaced with emerging optimism and a renewed energy that’s providing the catalyst for growth and innovation across our cities.  Here are the top ten young leaders we think you should be watching. They are driving the Capital Region’s evolution, and we anticipate you’ll see them at the forefront in 2015 and decades to come.

Today there are two generations of Americans who don’t know how to cook. Processed food diets are a leading cause of rampant childhood obesity. There is a clear need for increased cooking and nutrition education, or food literacy, in schools.

Universities are having a hard time getting recent grads to loosen their purse strings. Here’s what current donation trends look like: