The first cohort is set to start in fall 2026 with 25-30 students, said Aleksandria Perez Grabow, an assistant professor of psychological science.

The clinical counseling psychology program becomes the sixth master’s degree offered by the College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences, though it will be housed in Extended Learning.

The program was approved by the Chancellor’s Office and CSUSM’s Academic Senate this summer based on curriculum developed by a steering committee composed of Grabow and fellow assistant psychology professors Allison Jobin and Lisa Graves. The initial work toward establishing the program began more than a decade ago under the guidance of psychology professor Gerardo Gonzalez.

The clinical counseling degree is designed to address a significant shortage of qualified and diverse workers in the behavioral and mental health fields in San Diego and the surrounding regions. According to the San Diego Behavioral Health Workforce Report, the region needs almost 20,000 more professionals in the field over the next five years.

“This program will address critical needs in several areas, including for our students interested in becoming therapists and counselors, for our campus in offering a program that directly leads to a specific career, and for our community in supporting the shortage of mental health practitioners and training therapists in areas specific to our unique population here in San Diego and bordering counties.” Grabow said. “CSUSM has a wonderful social work program, and I think our students will welcome the option of attending another local, affordable graduate program and working in an applied field related to psychology.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist
bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

There was a time when Cal State San Marcos sociology professor Xuan Santos didn’t believe – or even know – that earning a Ph.D. was possible. As a first-generation, system-impacted, undocumented student, Santos was already defying the odds by pursuing a bachelor’s degree. One day, he saw an A-frame near the Cal State Los Angeles administration building promoting the California Pre-Doctoral Program, which changed everything. 

“It gave me wings so I could one day envision being a CSU faculty member,” Santos said of the program. “I was able to immerse myself in that academic culture.” 

The program gives historically underrepresented CSU students the tools to succeed in doctoral studies and supports a pipeline for diverse future CSU faculty. Students selected for the program are named Sally Casanova scholars. They receive faculty mentoring and a $5,000 scholarship to help fund university visits, research experiences, graduate school applications and more. 

The program connected Santos with valuable faculty mentors who believed in him. He has since mentored seven program scholars and has made it his mission to pay it forward to the next generation. Santos has watched formerly incarcerated students, foster care students and undocumented students all rise above their circumstances and succeed in the program.  

“It’s gratifying for a student to finally meet their advocate,” he said. “For someone who grew up in a humble space, in a place where people are planning their funerals and not their futures, it’s beautiful to see that we have roses that grew up.” 

Earlier this year, Santos was named faculty director for the California Pre-Doctoral Program after the previous director’s retirement. He was emotional about the full-circle opportunity to serve in the role and sees an even greater opportunity to broaden the scope of applicants and open more doors for students.  

“It’s a dream come true,” Santos said of becoming the program’s faculty director. “The CSU is about creating social mobility, and that’s the mantra of our institution (at CSUSM). I am a product of the CSU.” 

The 2024-25 program application is open, and Santos hopes to see more CSUSM students step forward and take advantage of the program.  

Santos said there is no pressure to get into a Ph.D. program right away, but scholars gain access and insight into doctoral studies to prepare them. Interested program applicants are encouraged to identify a faculty mentor who can support them for the next year. Application requirements include preparing a budget proposal for the scholarship funds and submitting essay answers to a few core questions.  

“Whatever dreams they have, we’re here to assist them,” Santos said of the scholars. “The framework I use as a scholar is that all of us need to become OGs. Not original gangsters, but opportunity givers. It’s about promoting empowerment, social change and mobilization of resources.”

Media Contact

Giselle Luevanos, Senior Director of Communications and Marketing

gluevanos@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-4010

Course topics feature such disciplines as art, media and design; biology; computer science; history; literature and writing studies; philosophy; political science; and sociology.

During Winter Intersession, students from other universities, qualified high school seniors and community members can register for courses without being formally admitted to the university. Credits from CSUSM courses may be fully transferable to other institutions. In addition, up to 24 undergraduate and nine graduate units taken as a nonmatriculated student may be counted toward a CSUSM degree.

By taking advantage of accelerated courses during Winter Intersession, students can speed time to graduation, lighten the course load required during fall and spring terms, or get a head start on education goals.

The class schedule is available beginning Oct. 11. Enrollment for CSUSM students begins on Oct. 18 and for the public on Oct. 25. For more information on Winter Intersession, please visit csusm.edu/winter.

About Extended Learning at CSUSM

As the academic outreach arm of Cal State San Marcos, Extended Learning is a leading provider of professional and continuing education in North San Diego and Southwest Riverside counties. Offering degree programs, professional certificates and personal enrichment courses, Extended Learning helps individuals and organizations achieve their education and training goals. Please visit CSUSM Extended Learning to learn more.

CSUSM is one of eight campuses participating in a California State University initiative called CSUCCESS (California State University Connectivity Contributing to Equity and Student Success) that aims to enhance student achievement and create more equitable opportunities for the CSU community by providing industry-leading technology.  

Under the program, all CSUSM first-year and transfer students can register to receive a new iPad bundle, which includes a 64-gigabyte iPad Air, an Apple Smart Keyboard Folio and an Apple Pencil, as well as technology support from Instructional and Information Technology Services (IITS).  

Students will not own the devices but will be allowed to use them for the duration of their undergraduate education at CSUSM. The iPads will be managed by CSUSM, which will preload them with certain campus applications, but the university will not be monitoring students’ day-to-day activities on them.  

The devices will be distributed via a drive-up process at Craven Circle on Aug. 24-25. Students will be contacted to schedule a pick-up time. About 1,700 students have registered for an iPad bundle so far. 

CSUCCESS represents the latest response by the CSU to the challenges of the pandemic, during which students have pointed to a lack of access to a computer or mobile device as an obstacle in the way of their achievement. Over the last year, for example, CSUSM has loaned 669 laptops, 191 mobile hotspots and 176 other pieces of equipment to students. 

“The shift to virtual learning really highlighted the vast inequalities in home technology and connectivity,” said Kevin Morningstar, dean of IITS and CSUSM’s chief information officer. “While CSUSM continues to loan out equipment to any student who doesn’t have a device, the CSUCCESS program really builds beyond that, by ensuring that every incoming student has the opportunity to receive a high-quality and reliable personal computing device to support their academic achievement.” 

All new first-year and transfer students entering CSUSM this fall are eligible for the iPad bundle, but students must submit a request form. They also must be enrolled in at least 12 units. There are no income-based eligibility requirements.  

The program is focused on new students, who need more support as they begin their college careers, particularly in light of the ongoing COVID-19 challenges. Future phases of CSUCCESS, however, could include returning students.​ 

Dawn Formo, dean of the Office of Undergraduate Studies, said she has convened a group that will study the value of the CSUCCESS initiative as it pertains to new students’ academic progress. She said the group will support faculty of first-year students with pedagogical support for including iPads in their course design, which will include providing participating faculty with iPads as well.  

“We are committed to finding meaningful ways to use the iPads to close equity gaps by helping students understand iPad tools that can help them thrive and deepen their learning experience,” Formo said.  

Funding for CSUCCESS, which could serve up to 35,000 students across California, comes from federal Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund resources. 

The other seven CSU campuses participating in the initiative are Bakersfield, Channel Islands, Fresno, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Maritime Academy and Northridge.  

“I am convinced that true and consistent student success depends on having a modern and, more importantly, reliable computing device in our students’ possession beginning on day one and continuing throughout their college experience," CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro said. “We aspire to have additional phases of the initiative that will expand access in the future to more new and current students at other CSU campuses.” 

For more information or to register for an iPad bundle, go to CSUSM’s CSUCCESS webpage.  

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

“We are committed to supporting the success of our students as well as others in the community who are pursuing educational goals,” said Godfrey Gibbison, dean of Extended Learning and Global Programs. “Our faculty and staff have worked hard throughout the COVID-19 health emergency to offer solutions that anticipate and address students’ needs. With its wide range of courses, Summer Session 2021 sets students up to stay on track — or even get ahead — in their education plan.”

The Summer 2021 schedule includes courses from mathematics to computer science and from sociology to digital and media arts. The classes are offered on a compressed timeline with students earning units in as little as five weeks. All courses are taught by CSUSM faculty and are online as the university continues remote instruction in response to COVID-19.

During summer session, students from other universities, qualified high school seniors and community members can register for courses without being formally admitted to the university. Credits from CSUSM courses are fully transferable to other institutions. In addition, up to 24 undergraduate and nine graduate units taken as a nonmatriculated student may be counted toward a CSUSM degree.

The class schedule is available beginning March 9. Registration for CSUSM students opens on March 29 and for the public on April 5.

The first block of classes will be held June 7-July 10 and the second block of classes is scheduled for July 12-Aug. 14. A small selection of classes runs the full 10-week summer session, June 7-Aug. 14.

For more information on summer session or on the installment payment plan, please visit csusm.edu/summer.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

The paper – titled “Changes in VO2max and cardiac output in response to short-term high-intensity interval training in Caucasian and Hispanic young women: A pilot study” – compares responses to exercise training between Hispanic and Caucasian women. Additional authors on the paper include fellow CSUSM student Rasmus D. Clausen and kinesiology professor Todd Astorino.

Astorino noted the importance and relevance of the project because of CSUSM’s status as “a Hispanic-Serving Institution, the large prevalence of Hispanics in the San Diego region, and the marked health disparities which exist in this population.”

Astorino also had a paper published as a featured article in the January edition of Spinal Cord, an international journal that has published spinal cord-related papers since 1963. Astorino said the paper, titled “Viability of high intensity interval training in persons with spinal cord injury—a perspective review,” will be widely read by scientists who study the effects of physical activity on health status in those with spinal cord injuries who face enhanced risk of morbidity and mortality.

MPact names Spieldenner executive director

Communication professor Andrew Spieldenner has been named executive director of MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights, which “works at the intersection of sexual health and human rights and is linked to more than 120 community-based organizations in 62 countries who are leading innovative solutions to the challenges faced by LGBTI communities around the world.”

Veterans Center building net-zero

Solar panels at the Epstein Family Veterans Center are operational and the facility is now net-zero energy, meaning solar produces all the power needed to operate the building. The project was designed and constructed by Facilities, Development and Management.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

The students who contributed to the work included Kara Luong, Maya Saulino, Morgan Simmons and Carly Smith.

Sports Engineering noted that the strong field of finalists required a tiebreaker vote by Jonathan Shepherd, the president of the International Sports Engineering Association. The CSUSM team’s paper was only the second surfing manuscript ever published in Sports Engineering.

Social work professor named research fellow

Professor Jimmy Young is among 26 social work experts from across the U.S. and Canada selected as research fellows for the Social Work Health Futures Lab, which is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and hosted at Portland State University.

Young will work on several projects and receive training to become a certified futurist during the 18-month fellowship.

Nursing program among best in West

The nursing program has been ranked 21^st in California and 44^th in the West by Nursing Schools Almanac, which recently released its 2020 rankings of the best U.S. nursing schools.

Nursing Schools Almanac collected data on more than 3,000 institutions, and only 20% made its list of the best nursing schools in each geographic region.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

When the associate professor of educational technology and learning sciences came to Cal State San Marcos in 2014, she set out to change the way her students approached technology as well as teaching science and math to their future primary and secondary students.

When she took over the Education 422 course (Technology Tools for Teaching and Learning), she changed the curriculum and developed a service-learning component where students are actually learning technological tools and creative techniques for teaching STEM topics to children.

And when that learning component – a maker-based STEM afterschool program that relies on hands-on collaborative learning experiences as a method for solving real problems – was in danger because the local school districts it serves began the fall semester with distance learning, she simply created a way to execute the program remotely.

Every change is a challenge.

“Oceanside and Escondido (school districts) wanted to continue the program, so we were able to run a virtual maker-based STEM afterschool program across 25 schools serving grades fourth through eighth,” said Siyahhan, who is also associate director of the Center for Research and Engagement in STEM Education and co-director of the CSUSM-UCSD joint doctoral program in Educational Leadership.

 “We have Zoom meetings, Education 422 students work in groups of three to five people, and then they’re assigned to a school site where they work with kids during an assigned date and time.”

The iTeach STEM program started four years ago with six schools in Oceanside and has grown to more than two dozen across the aforementioned school districts that coincidentally serve both ends of Highway 78.

The CSUSM undergrads learn the STEM activities in class with an instructor. The following week, they teach these activities to kids, usually in 60- to 90-minute sessions. The six-week program is a sprint, Siyahhan says, and the most recent session was wrapping up the second week of November.

The program has significant benefits from both ends. It introduces STEM activities to students at ages when interest in science, technology and math usually plunges. At the same time, it gives much-needed experience working with children to candidates for the teacher credential program as well as STEM majors who may someday become single-subject teachers.

“Most of them have never worked in a classroom,” Siyahhan said. “Most of them want to be K-8 teachers and they may not have confidence teaching STEM. So the purpose is for them to build up confidence teaching STEM, gain confidence in teaching and also to learn these technological tools where they’re actually using it in the real world.”

Not only is the focus on actual applications in the classroom, or in this case after school, that real-world approach is evident in the curriculum as well.

The nucleus of the material is on solving real-world problems. One focal point this session was on the United Nations and how that organization pushes important subjects like zero hunger, taking care of the environment and promoting clean oceans.

“We created these activities we call design challenges where students actually create an artifact that solves a real-world problem using technology,” said Siyahhan, who directed one of the first activities this fall to be raising awareness around mask wearing. “What we do is take the UN themes and then turn them into problems to be solved by undergraduate students and kids participating in the afterschool program.

“The kids are learning something not because someone is telling them it’s a good thing to learn, but actually learning because they’re trying to solve a problem they care about. It makes what they’re learning, whether it is the content or the technology tool, meaningful and connected to their world.”

Juan Vazquez is in his final semester at CSUSM as an undergrad in mathematics. Upon graduation, he plans on staying on campus and entering the credential program beginning in fall 2021.

He wants to become a math teacher, perhaps at the local middle school he attended. Amazing is the adjective he chose to describe his experience in the iTeach STEM program.

“Being able to still continue our field experience from home while working with the students has been great,” Vazquez said. “I've learned a lot about what it takes to facilitate a group involving students, how to adapt to on-the-spot changes and benefit from being able to make a student's day when working with the programs online.”

Christian Cozine is also in her final undergrad semester at CSUSM. The kinesiology major is currently studying for the CBEST and CSETs with plans to stay on campus after applying for a spot in the teaching credential program.

She hopes to teach a STEAM subject at the high school or college level.

“I can definitely say that one of the highlights of my experience is making connections with these kids during these unprecedented times,” Cozine said. “I think this program is amazing because I am learning alongside these children about the technology tools that we are trying to use to help evolve their STEM skills such as problem-solving.”

When she was growing up in Istanbul, Turkey, all Siyahhan wanted to do was write novels. Her bachelor’s degree is in comparative literature. Despite being the child of a medical physicist (mom) and oncology doctor (dad), she had no interest in pursuing science as a career.

She published short stories as an undergrad, and then started teaching English as a second language in a low-income neighborhood on the side. That experience changed her perspective so she earned a teaching credential in Turkey before moving to the United States to get a master’s degree and teach.

She quickly realized she didn’t want to be in the classroom but instead wanted to be involved in systemic change.

There’s that word again. If the same old thinking produces the same old results, change is not only desired, it’s mandatory.

“My vision is to transform classroom teaching,” said Siyahhan, who in addition to education majors also recruits STEM majors called learning assistants to work together with teacher education students. “These ideas are not just applicable to afterschool contexts. One of the things I care about personally is to inspire future teachers to re-envision education. If you have 90 minutes (for a class period), you have a choice how you want to frame that 90 minutes. You can definitely do a lecture and worksheets or whatever traditional practices you have. But you can also use that 90 minutes in a different way. Think about how every content is connected to the real world.

“So why not engage kids in those terms? Why not transform your curriculum or present the content to be learned in terms of real-world problems from the get-go so kids are actually more engaged? It’s all about inspiring people. That’s what education is.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Gonzalez, who earned her bachelor’s and master’s at CSUSM before attending Harvard for her Ph.D. in biology, is now the assistant director of diversity and minority affairs for the Division of Medical Sciences and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.

Cell Mentor, which compiled the list in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, selected recipients based on scholarly achievements, mentoring excellence, and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Cell Mentor is an educational resource that aims to make it easier for biology students and researchers to navigate their careers, get published and strengthen their laboratory skills.

HEED Award

CSUSM received the 2020 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education, for the seventh straight year.

Rankings

• CSUSM made U.S. News and World Report’s list of top Western universities for Top Performers on Social Mobility (tied 13^th), Best Undergraduate Teaching Programs (tied 22nd) and Best Regional Universities West Rankings (tied 60^th).
• The nursing program has been ranked eighth in the state by Nursing Process, a website that simplifies access to nursing education and career information.
• The university was ranked ninth on a list of 2020 Most Affordable Online Colleges for Fire Science Degrees by the website EduRef.net, which provides college planning resources and reviews publicly available data to produce independent ranking assessments of various educational programs.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and in alignment with the California State University’s decision for all 23 campuses to have a unified approach, more than 90% of courses are occurring virtually this fall. Select labs and courses that use specialized equipment or have certain accreditation/licensure requirements will have in-person instruction.

Earlier this month, the university launched its “CSUSM as One” website, which provides information and resources for students, faculty and staff to navigate the fall semester.

While the semester may look different, President Ellen Neufeldt expressed excitement and optimism during her annual Convocation address on Thursday morning.

“Even though this will be unlike any other fall semester in history, I can’t but help feeling excitement for what’s before us,” she said in an address streamed virtually. “So much is in flux, but the fundamental parts of our university are unchanged. Our dedication to our students, our region and each other will move us through and past this moment and on to the next 30 years.”

Computer lab available for students

The University Student Union and IITS have partnered to establish a computer lab in the USU Ballroom and Meeting Rooms for students who need access to computers, printing services, power and/or Wi-Fi.

Beginning Aug. 31, the USU computer lab will be open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday on a first-come, first-served basis.

Students will use the campus app to check into the lab and receive an assigned station. The process is as easy as opening up the app and scanning their digital ID when they arrive. The app also has an “On Campus” button that will show available on-campus services, including the number of computers available in the USU so that students will know if there are open stations before arriving.

Visit this link for more information.

New appointments

• Carl Kemnitz began his tenure as the university’s new provost and vice president of Academic Affairs on July 1.
• Professor of chemistry and biochemistry Jackie Trischman began a one-year appointment as CSTEM’s interim dean on July 1, succeeding the college’s founding dean, Katherine Kantardjieff, who left for a position as provost at Cal State Monterey Bay.
• Biology professor Deborah Kristan began a one-year appointment as interim dean of the College of Education, Health and Human Services on July 1, succeeding Emiliano Ayala, who decided to take on a faculty position in the college as a special education professor.
• The California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center named Eric S. Trevan as a visiting scholar of innovation, business and economic policy for tribal nations.

COVID-19 testing site

CSUSM is hosting a San Diego County-operated, walk-up coronavirus testing site, expanding critical testing services to North County residents.

The testing center, which is free and open to the public seven days a week, operates independently of the university within the Viasat Engineering Pavilion on campus.

Weeks of Welcome

The annual Weeks of Welcome started Aug. 29 and runs through Oct. 10. It includes dozens of virtual events to meet new people and kick off the new academic year.

Visit the Weeks of Welcome calendar for a complete schedule.

Arts & Lectures for fall

The university’s longstanding Arts & Lectures series is presenting a virtual fall lineup, with all of the events taking place via Zoom. This season boasts a diverse selection of six events.

Attendees can reserve tickets online via the Arts & Lectures website.

Summer snippets

• Psychology professor Sharon Hamill was among 25 faculty and staff members recognized by the California State University system with Faculty Innovation and Leadership Awards for their commitment to student success, particularly in courses or areas with traditionally low success rates or persistent equity gaps.
• Robert Iafe, an associate professor of chemistry, and Paul Jasien, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, received a grant of almost $1 million from the National Science Foundation that will support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students in chemistry and biochemistry.
• CSUSM received a best practice award for social equity and justice at the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference for the second straight year.
• TRIO Student Support Services will receive a federal grant of more than $1.7 million over five years, the U.S. Department of Education announced this month.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

When he became Cal State San Marcos’ provost and vice president of Academic Affairs on July 1, Kemnitz officially joined one of the youngest universities in the CSU. But that doesn’t mean Kemnitz isn’t familiar with relatively young, mid-sized universities.

“CSU Bakersfield was rapidly growing when I arrived there in 1998 as a young assistant professor,” Kemnitz said. “I still remember what it was like at that time as a growing mid-sized campus.”

More than 20 years later, Kemnitz finds himself at a university that is about the same age as Cal State Bakersfield was when he started there. And he brings to CSUSM the same dedication he has always had to ensure that every student has an opportunity to thrive.

“I was so pleased when I learned that Dr. Kemnitz accepted our offer to come to Cal State San Marcos,” said CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt. “He is an accomplished academic leader with an unwavering commitment to student success and inclusive excellence – I’m thrilled to welcome such a dedicated advocate for our students, faculty and staff.”

Kemnitz earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his bachelor’s in chemistry from Occidental College. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Washington before accepting a position as an assistant professor of chemistry at Cal State Bakersfield.

Kemnitz spent nearly two decades at Cal State Bakersfield, where he also served as associate vice president for Academic Programs, dean of Undergraduate Studies and dean of Graduate Studies before becoming the deputy provost at San Jose State in 2015. His position was elevated to senior vice provost for Academic Affairs at San Jose State almost two years before he accepted the position at CSUSM.

The COVID-19 pandemic certainly made for unexpected challenges during the interview process – the interviews were conducted via Zoom and Kemnitz didn’t have an opportunity to visit campus in person – but the people who comprise the campus community made an immediate impression during the hiring process.

“I really got a sense of how special and talented CSUSM’s faculty and staff are, and that was a key motivator for me to come here,” said Kemnitz, who moved to San Marcos in mid-June with his wife and two sons and finally got to see campus in person for the first time. “It was just icing on the cake to find that it’s such a beautiful campus as well.”

Kemnitz said he is looking forward to supporting students, faculty and staff, and ensuring that the university continues its success, especially as it relates to students.

“I want to make sure that we’re talking about not just driving up retention and graduation rates, but also making sure that our students are successful when they leave with a degree,” he said. “We want to help them be successful in their lives as a whole – as citizens and in their professions.

“I think of myself as wanting to instill a broad and holistic definition of student success that involves engagement of the whole student, including engagement in the classroom. And that's more challenging now than it ever has been because of the virtual environment.”

Kemnitz knows those challenges also will include budget and economic uncertainty, and he noted the importance of transparency around decision-making and budget allocations. It also will be critical, he said, to continue thinking strategically about how CSUSM grows during this time so that it can continue to meet the needs of the region.

“We're well poised to do all of that,” he said. “We would miss out on a great opportunity if we fail to take on that strategic approach and just go with the tactical, ‘How do I get through this year and next year.’ It's important that we keep our eyes focused on the horizon and our next 30 years.

“Our student-centered philosophy, dedication to inclusive excellence and passion for serving our region are all reasons to be excited for what’s to come. CSUSM is the future of higher education, and I am so pleased to be part of sharing that mission.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Know someone who deserves special recognition for their efforts? Email details to publicity@csusm.edu and we’ll include them in an upcoming edition of this ongoing series.

Damon Adamo, media services engineer, IITS

Students, faculty and staff have come to rely heavily on Zoom for real-time communications while studying and working remotely, and Adamo has been integral to making it a smooth process.

“Damon has worked tirelessly to get people trained on the various aspects of Zoom and has been a great contributor to the success of many campus virtual initiatives,” the nominator wrote.

Priscilla Arciniega, intake academic advisor, Office of Academic Advising

Arciniega took the lead in creating communication platforms and tracking platforms for students and advisers from a variety of campus units to meet virtually.

“She went outside her role in advising to really help out many other units on campus with a key process affecting thousands of students in a positive way to create and support a virtual community, while fulfilling the duties of her position,” the nominator wrote.

Bonnie Campbell, CARE manager, Dean of Students Office

In her role as CARE manager, Campbell has been coordinating prevention, intervention and support efforts to assist students during this challenging time.

“She is getting in touch with students who are overwhelmed and checked out, and generally helping to keep the university running in a student-centered way,” the nominator wrote.

Patty Diaz, SOAR coordinator, Dean of Students Office

Student Outreach and Referral (SOAR) is a centralized service for all members of the campus community seeking to assist students, and the nomination noted how Diaz’s work has been integral throughout the COVID-19 crisis

“The university would be a much bleaker place without her,” the nominator said.

Kim Quinney, assistant professor, history

The student nominator lauded Quinney for her efforts in transitioning to virtual instruction and providing the resources her students have needed to continue to thrive.

“She has made this period of transition a little less stressful,” the nominator wrote, “and I am truly appreciative of all her efforts.”

Perla Rivas, counselor, TRIO Student Support Services

Rivas developed “TRIO SSS happy hour,” a weekly event that gives students an opportunity to express concerns, ask questions and share helpful tips.

“A clear sign that the students have enjoyed it is by the fact that more and more are joining and asking when the next one will take place,” the nominator wrote. “It is clear that they look forward to seeing each other and taking an hour out of their uncertain lives to just relax and de-stress with one another.”

Peer Advisors, Office of Academic Advising

The team of eight student peer advisors has been working hard to continue serving their fellow students during this difficult time. The team created a virtual advising site, including a virtual front desk that allows students to quickly and easily connect to services.

“Every one of our peer advisors has been exceptional at operating our new virtual front desk,” the nominator wrote. “They know what it is to be students during a very confusing and anxious time. Their own experience with ‘the new normal’ helps them connect to their fellow students who are also trying to figure out both the here and now as well as the future.

“I can’t begin to tell you just how much impact they are having by putting students at ease, answering countless questions and making our students feel comfortable in this new virtual environment we find ourselves in.”

The team includes James Bertel, Varanee Chinnapong, Gladys Guzman Guizar, Berenice Hernandez, Susanne Nordstrom, Alissa-Nicole Penaranda, Lizbeth Urquiza Resendiz and Zohra Sahial.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Kantardjieff could see the visible shock on the faces of faculty as she told them that she had accepted a position as provost at Cal State Monterey Bay beginning July 1.

Once the initial surprise wore off, Stephen Tsui realized there was something fitting about the timing given that Kantardjieff is the founding dean of CSUSM’s College of Science and Mathematics and her announcement came shortly after the college was officially renamed the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or CSTEM.

“It’s poetic that Katherine will be remembered as the founding and only dean of the College of Science and Mathematics,” said Tsui, chair of the physics department. “Her work and her community-building efforts really contributed significantly to establishing our identity in North County.”

It wasn’t an easy decision, but Kantardjieff is looking forward to the opportunity at Monterey Bay.

“When doors open – and they may open only once – you’ve got to go through,” she said. “I really wanted to take all that I've learned and put to good use as a dean and put it to good use on a broader scale for all of Academic Affairs at a university. And I'm ready to do that at this point in my career.”

Kantardjieff has been part of the California State University system for more than three decades. She arrived at CSUSM in 2011 to lead the development of the newly established College of Science and Mathematics, which was created from departments housed in the former College of Arts and Sciences after a restructuring of Academic Affairs in 2010.

The lengthy list of accomplishments during Kantardjieff’s tenure as dean includes helping to grow both tenure-track faculty and the number of majors, and working with campus leadership to increase external funding.

“When I was presented with the opportunity to take the helm of a newly formed college, that’s something that only happens once for the organization,” Kantardjieff said. “And it really only happens once for the person who's selected to lead that effort. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me at San Marcos.

“It's been an incredible ride for nine years. I was fortunate to take the helm of a college that was staffed with incredibly talented and passionate people.”

Kantardjieff worked to build community within the college as well as build its brand and identity throughout the region.

Tsui also noted Kantardjieff’s tireless commitment to students, from sponsoring an annual meet-and-greet ice cream social for new students to pizza with the dean events to frequent classroom visits.

Kantardjieff’s early initiatives also included the formation of an advisory council composed of leaders from local industry who continue to offer guidance to help the college best serve the region and the state. The advisory council provided vital feedback as Kantardjieff guided the college to one of its crowning achievements – the establishment of an engineering program, which went from concept to launch in just four years.

“The college has grown significantly under her watch, and it goes without saying that much of it is thanks to the fantastic job she does of establishing strong connections with the community and local industry,” Tsui said. “Industry partnerships really helped make possible several research labs and, of course, the launch of the software and electrical engineering programs.”

Kantardjieff is grateful for the opportunity she had at CSUSM to take the helm of a newly formed college and help it grow into a leader for preparing students for the STEM workforce.

As Kantardjieff prepares for the next chapter of her life and reflects on nearly a decade at CSUSM, it’s the people she will miss most.

“San Marcos is just a very unique collection of people in the CSU,” she said. “I've been in the CSU for 31 years. I've worked on three campuses and I have visited every campus, in some cases several times, and you don't find this kind of intersection, this kind of spirit, anywhere else.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

“Dr. Kemnitz strongly believes in the teacher-scholar model, is a strong faculty advocate and is driven by the success of students,” CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt said. “He joins me as a champion for shared governance, innovation, diversity and inclusive excellence. He will be a true advocate for our students, our faculty and our staff, not only internally but externally with our community partners, leaders and donors.”

As provost, Kemnitz will be responsible for ensuring the integrity and excellence of Academic Affairs while overseeing the deans of the university as well as the division’s academic associate vice presidents and the vice provost.

Kemnitz comes to CSUSM from San José State, where he has served as senior vice provost for Academic Affairs since 2015. In his role at San José State, Kemnitz is responsible for an academic budget of $300 million and for the recruitment, retention and development of faculty, department chairs and staff. Among Kemnitz’s accomplishments was helping to establish a plan called Four Pillars of Student Success, which resulted in a 15-point increase in graduation rates at the university.

“I am thrilled and grateful to be joining such an extraordinary campus community where everyone is so passionate and committed to student success,” Kemnitz said. “I can’t wait to begin working with the entire campus community and help CSUSM emerge from these challenging times stronger than ever.”

Before joining San José State, Kemnitz served in a variety of faculty and administrative roles at Cal State Bakersfield, including associate vice president for Academic Programs, dean of Undergraduate Studies, dean of Graduate Studies, associate dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, chair of the Department of Chemistry, and director for several successful STEM diversity programs.

Kemnitz has a bachelor’s in chemistry from Occidental College and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Washington.

In his teaching career, Perez has never been content with simply assigning readings, distributing exams and grading papers.

The first-year Cal State San Marcos assistant professor subscribes to the idea that hands-on learning sticks with students longer. The world is the best classroom in Perez’s philosophy.

Hence was born the Ethnic Studies Pop-Up Gallery, an interactive campus-wide project put on by Perez’s Ethnic Studies & Society 301 course this spring. The interactive space is located on the first floor of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Building and has been showcasing events and projects since Jan. 21. It runs through May 8.

“Our class focuses in part on the practical application of Ethnic Studies theories and methods within a community context,” said Perez, who holds a dual Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies and communication from UC San Diego. “Being new to CSUSM, I figured as a class we could build community and amplify our conversations in Ethnic Studies locally on campus. When I was tasked with designing the display case to showcase the Ethnic Studies program, I thought it would be a great opportunity to turn this project over to the students.”

The interactive transmedia space aims to generate community dialogue about the histories, literatures and contemporary concerns of Ethnic Studies. Throughout the spring, this space will display research artifacts and projects created by students enrolled in ETST 301 and books relevant to, inspired by and produced for Ethnic Studies.

Flash lectures, writing workshops, impromptu performances and other activities will highlight the semester-long project. All of the events are free and open to the public.

Perez has been impressed with the work his students have created.

“The students have produced some very thoughtful blackout, erasure and cento poems based on Third World studies and Third World feminism,” said Perez, who was an assistant professor of English at Cal State San Bernardino before coming to CSUSM. “I think these sort of experiments are surprising because they provide new angles to encounter the histories of Ethnic Studies.”

Perez had his Cal State San Bernardino students produce a similar project but on a smaller scale. Pop-up art galleries, which have become so significant and inspirational the past couple of decades, helped form the basis for taking it to a grander scale.

He was also inspired by the recent pop-up library at Yale, staged by the Coalition for Ethnic Studies, that was created to address the lack of support for its Ethnic Studies faculty.

“The pop-up gallery and library has become such an empowering mode of community engagement,” said Perez, who is the author of two hybrid collections of prose and poetry, “Phenomenology of Superhero” and “This is for the mostless.”

“The pop-up format as a performance, as a public intervention, can really push the conversation further. Our efforts here are linked to a broader commitment to Ethnic Studies, its histories, it present and its futures.”

The project will also showcase a visiting lecture series featuring professors from San Diego colleges – including CSUSM assistant professor of communication Antonio Tomas De La Garza on April 28 – as well as a couple from Perez’s former school. Some of the topics include the struggle for Ethnic Studies, racial justice, women of color feminism, popular culture and educational justice.

In selecting the lecturers, Perez reached out to colleagues he has worked with or is currently working with.

“I’m part of the San Diego County Ethnic Studies Consortium, which is a collaboration among Ethnic Studies programs and departments across San Diego,” Perez said. “When I put the call out, and when schedules aligned, colleagues were more than willing to donate some time and energy and come build with our students.”

Budget cuts for almost five decades have threatened the future and stability of Ethnic Studies, according to Perez. However, that could be changing. AB 1460, if it passes, would make Ethnic Studies a graduation requirement for all CSU students.

“Ethnic Studies is about the students and their local communities,” Perez said. “Even as students are beginning to engage the questions and principles of Ethnic Studies, I think it’s important to always make sure those conversations happen and are understood in the broader context of social justice, decolonization and liberation.”

Flash Lecture Program

All flash lectures and programs will take place at 4:30 p.m. in an area near the gallery. 

• March 10: Dr. Angelica Yanez, Chicano Studies, Palomar College
• March 24: Dr. Thao L. Ha, Sociology, MiraCosta College
• April 21: Dr. Josen Masangkay Diaz, Ethnic Studies, University of San Diego
• April 28: Dr. Antonio Tomas De La Garza, Communication, CSUSM
• May 5: Dr. Jasmine Lee, English, Cal State San Bernardino 

For more information about the Ethnic Studies Pop-Up Gallery, follow Perez's Ethnic Studies & Society 301 students on social media:

Twitter: @csusmetstpopup

Instagram: @csusm.ethnicstudies 

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

“I always had health coverage,” said McKenna, who began volunteering with DWW in 2015 as a scribe in the pop-up clinics. “I never had to worry about it. Living in Santa Barbara, I saw the large population of homeless people who don’t have the support they need.”

McKenna's introduction to street medicine – delivering health care to the homeless where they take shelter – confirmed her desire to work in medicine. But she had one hurdle.

“When I was about to graduate, my GPA wasn’t as good as I wanted to it be to apply to medical school,” she said.

In fact, she was encouraged to pick another path.

Then she discovered the Pre-Health Professions Certificate at Cal State San Marcos, a post-baccalaureate program designed to provide or bolster the science education needed to apply to health professions programs: medical school, veterinary school, physician assistant programs and more.

Career-changer

“This is a career-changer program,” says Daun Everforest, director of CSUSM’s Pre-Health Professions Certificate.

The intensive five-semester/two-year program comprises 13 biology, chemistry, math and physics courses, including eight labs. It serves two groups: those who have nonscience bachelor’s degrees and those who have science degrees but want to boost their skills.

“The average person thinks, ‘I have to have been a scientist and I have to have a perfect GPA,’ ” said Everforest, adding that successful medical school applicants have included students with degrees in music, journalism, philosophy and other diverse academic backgrounds.

Dean Bull was well into a career using his degree in television, film and new media when he reassessed his goals.

“I had the opportunity to travel broadly in my previous career in marketing and I found myself becoming more and more aware of how health issues faced by individuals in rural areas domestically and abroad could derail someone’s life. At a certain point, it became clear that I wanted to help people navigate those waters,” said Bull, now a medical student at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. “I have a romantic image of myself as a small-town doctor who splits his time between a clinic in remote America and a province in the Philippines.”

David Karjala, a first-year osteopathic medical student at the Western University of Health Sciences, had a similar awakening after earning a bachelor’s degree in the classics and a master’s degree in Semitic philology.

“I saw a gap between my potential and the overall good I could do during the rest of my working life,” he said. “I addressed that gap by asking myself what I find the most interesting, inspiring and ‘real,’ and medicine was the answer.”

First-rate results

A program of second chances, the Pre-Health Professions Certificate produces first-rate results. More than 90 percent of students who complete the program and apply to professional health schools are accepted, Everforest says. Students come from across the country to study at CSUSM and have in turn been accepted into medical programs at the University of California in San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside and Davis as well as Baylor University, St. George’s University, Yale (Physician Assistant Program), Case Western Reserve University and more.

“It is all-consuming for two years,” Everforest said. “The program needs to be rigorous because the students need to show the admissions committee that they can handle the rigor of a medical school program. We have them practice being in an environment where they have to give it their all.

“Every successful applicant to medical school will tell you that it’s absolutely worth it. I’m proud of the fact that we have been so successful in helping these students reach their dreams.”

For Carina Bell – now a medical student at UC Riverside – the course load was a trial she sought.

“I was worried that it would be too hard for me,” said Bell, who has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a California single-subject teaching credential. “I worked really hard to learn the material and get good grades, to prove to myself that I could really do this. The challenge itself, and learning that I could meet that challenge, was critical to knowing and believing that I can do this.”

Lance Tippit was inspired to switch careers after seeing the care his dad received during a long month in the intensive care unit. His experience in CSUSM’s Pre-Health Professions program served as a model for his medical school search.

“My positive experience in the post-bacc program helped redefine my understanding of what success in pursuit of a medical degree looked like and landed me in an incredibly tight-knit, collaborative, team-centered institution,” said Tippit, a medical student at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Moving closer to the dream

After completing her BA in physical and biological anthropology at UC Santa Barbara, McKenna took a year off to work as the coordinator of the homeless women’s clinic for DWW in Santa Barbara. It was valuable time spent learning not only about the clinical care needed by the homeless population but also the social services they need and the difficulties they face in accessing both.

Now at CSUSM, Amanda is deep into the studies that are moving her closer to her dream of being a doctor. In addition, she works as the lead scribe/ophthalmic technician for a retina surgeon and she is a member of the student coalition leadership team for the Street Medicine Institute, a global organization based in Pennsylvania that supports the development of street medicine programs in 15 countries.

“I’m passionate about underserved communities and street medicine outreach,” McKenna said. “It’s something I’ve been connected to for five years. I also love emergency medicine, which often goes hand-in-hand with underserved communities coming into emergency departments for care. And I enjoy my work as an ophthalmic technician.”

No matter which path she pursues, Amanda is elated to have so many options.

“This is my second chance to excel,” she said. “I graduated from college thinking I have to have a plan B. Being able to have a second chance to prove myself to a medical school is amazing. It means a lot to be able to show that I am worthy of a spot in medical school and that I’m worthy of pursuing whatever dream I want to in the future.”

More information available online.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Last week, Neufeldt shared some of the themes that have emerged out of these past 200 days of her Listening and Learning tour to faculty at the Academic Assembly, which kicked off the spring semester.

“First and foremost, I continue to hear from you that people matter,” Neufeldt told faculty gathered in Arts 111. “You value your colleagues, our sense of community and family. Perhaps most importantly, you value our students and their success, with an understanding of their great diversity, including who they are and where they come from.”

Neufeldt’s official Listening and Learning Tour has been both broad and focused. Throughout the fall semester, she hosted five open forums, visited each of the university’s colleges and the library, explored CSUSM at Temecula, toured spaces and facilities, held informal gatherings and formal meetings, and met with regional leaders, community partners and donors – each time welcoming candid conversations about the past, present and future of CSUSM.

While her tour will continue into the spring semester, at the Academic Assembly, Neufeldt highlighted numerous programs and initiatives, shared observations and discussed some of her next steps in leading the university forward.

She praised CSUSM’s teacher-scholar model and ongoing commitment to community-engaged learning.

“You are bettering our community by supporting regional needs and solving regional problems, and you do it by bringing our students along every step of the way,” she said. “You are teaching students to apply what they learn to better themselves not only as lifelong learners but to better their communities as well.”

Neufeldt shared that she has heard from faculty countless examples of student success at CSUSM, including through career and mentoring programs, volunteer and internship opportunities, undergraduate research and immersive learning experiences. She said the university will continue to focus on developing a student life cycle model that stretches from first point of contact to post-graduation success.

“This is a campus that takes its mission to serve students very seriously,” she said.

Neufeldt also emphasized the importance of building infrastructure, following CSUSM’s remarkable three decades of growth, to ensure that the university continues to thrive in its mission and forward-thinking innovation.

“As we look to the next 30 years, I want to make sure that I support you in ensuring we have the foundation, freedom and stability to not only innovate but sustain your good work,” she said.

Part of that stability, she noted, includes retaining employees and continuing momentum during periods of economic uncertainty. She acknowledged that many faculty have expressed frustration with “bureaucratic red tape,” citing redundancies in processes that prevented or slowed the faculty’s ability to act or move forward.

To help address and resolve those issues, Neufeldt tasked Finance and Administrative Services, in consultation with Academic Affairs and Student Affairs, to develop a streamlined travel authorization process, which will be rolling out within the next few weeks. Neufeldt said the university also is taking a closer look at processes to identify duplication and decrease bureaucracies while maintaining fiscal accountability – a top priority for the president.

“When it comes to travel, we are adding additional guardrails so that we are making the right decisions with the resources entrusted to us,” she said. “It’s critical that we remove the barriers so that we can create the foundation you need to innovate and thrive. But it’s also important in these moments that we balance our needs with creativity, compliance and care.”

Neufeldt also shared progress updates regarding inclusive excellence initiatives. Three workgroups have been charged with examining staffing and resources for the Office of Inclusive Excellence; reviewing and updating the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan; and following up on Academic Senate’s “Resolution on University Police Department’s Use of Force & CSUSM’s Critical Incident Response.” Neufeldt anticipates those reports will be ready from the workgroups later this spring, and then shared with the campus community. In addition, a plan is in place for faculty fellows to join the Office of Inclusive Excellence to provide additional support on projects and initiatives.

“We know that a diverse faculty is critical to student success and creating and maintaining a culture of inclusion on our campus,” she said. “You have my commitment that we will be looking at how we can improve the recruitment, onboarding and retaining of faculty that reflect the students and community we serve.”

Innovation is already a hallmark of Neufeldt’s presidency, and she has already charged a committee to help CSUSM capture an institutional identity around innovation and entrepreneurship as part of her commitment to helping students have capacity to reinvent throughout their lives.

That cross-disciplinary faculty committee, led by Hamill and physics professor Chuck De Leone recently submitted a report to Neufeldt that highlights the multitude of ways that faculty engage in innovation and entrepreneurial activities. The committee also looked at how CSUSM might create an innovation and entrepreneurship hub that brings resources, education and support together in one central location, serving as another important gateway for the campus and community.

“This includes a focus on social innovation and how we approach educating our students to become more socially conscious leaders,” Neufeldt said. “I know our students are going to be the change we so need in our world.

“It’s exciting to talk about this because it’s reflective of who we are as a campus and the qualities that have been exhibited since our founding.”

While CSUSM isn’t the first to establish an innovation hub, it is among the first to consider how it might be launched at the intersection of inclusion, diversity and student success.

“This is exciting work, paving our way for our next 30 years,” Neufeldt said.

Neufeldt also highlighted several new and ongoing initiatives that are taking shape at CSUSM, including:

• Creation of a workgroup, which is being led by professors Fredi Avalos and Laurie Stowell, to move forward on an innovative proposal called Faculty, Advocacy, Care, Engagement and Support, or FACES, which will aim to create spaces for faculty care, support, training and engagement. Plans call for a similar resource hub for staff.
• As part of an ongoing commitment to safety, the University Police Department will provide emergency resource briefings at orientations, Academic Senate meetings, and college and department meetings to ensure that the campus community knows about the varied safety services available.
• Beginning this spring, UPD will offer monthly active-shooter trainings for any faculty, staff and students who would like to participate.
• Continuing to build a culture of care that values how the campus community cares for one another and students while also caring about the university mission.

As she concluded her remarks, Neufeldt emphasized the importance of ensuring that CSUSM has a “common road map in place” in looking to the next three decades. This spring, she plans to formally launch a university-wide strategic planning process.

“As we start the first semester of the decade, it’s time to think about what our campus looks like 30 years from now,” Neufeldt said. “Our work, our students, our programs, our challenges – we must lay the foundation now for what tomorrow will be.”

President Neufeldt will be scheduling a similar Listening and Learning Tour report for all CSUSM staff this spring. More information will be shared once a date and location is confirmed.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Rare is the faculty member who’s such an expert in his field that he has something named after him. 

And rarest of all is the person who combines both into one extraordinary career, with a generous dose of kindness and collegiality added to the mix for good measure. 

Several dozen friends and colleagues packed into the Faculty Center at Kellogg Library on Thursday to celebrate the life and work of Robert Sheath, a retired Cal State San Marcos provost and biology professor who died late last year after a brief illness. Also in attendance were Sheath’s widow, Mary, her sister and a close friend and former student who flew in from Connecticut.  

At the declaration of President Ellen Neufeldt, the CSUSM flag in Craven Circle flew at half-staff on Thursday in Sheath's memory. 

“I want to offer my sincerest condolences on behalf of the university not only to his family but to all of us as we celebrate him today and the legacy that he leaves here,” Neufeldt said during the ceremony. “One of the things I’ve heard over and over again is what special people have been a part of this university and the building blocks that we stand on. And he was one of those giants.” 

Sheath worked at CSUSM for 18 years, arriving at the university as a provost in 2001 and retiring as a biology professor after the spring 2018 semester. During his five-year tenure as provost, he played a significant role in shaping the vision for Academic Affairs. He oversaw the addition of three majors – biochemistry, criminology and justice studies, and kinesiology – and laid the groundwork for four additional majors that were added shortly after he stepped down as provost, as well as the founding of what has become the College of Education, Health and Human Services.  

“His main mandate when he was hired was to build academic programs and do academic master planning, and he did a masterful job of it,” said Bud Morris, a retired communication professor who was chair of the Academic Senate when Sheath was hired. “He spearheaded all sorts of initiatives that were devoted to figuring out what we should grow, when we should grow it and in what order we should grow things.  

“I’m going to miss Bob, but every time I look around campus, I see the work that he did, and it’s really reassuring.” 

More than his work as an administrator, Sheath built his professional reputation as an internationally renowned phycologist, the name for a scientist who specializes in the study of algae. He co-authored four textbooks, and 153 of his manuscripts were published in peer-reviewed journals, proceedings and books. 

One speaker at the ceremony observed that Sheath could have continued to climb the academic ladder and become a university president after his stint as provost ended in 2006. Instead, he returned to his true passion as a scientist and a teacher of future scientists.  

“There’s no guarantee that a retreating administrator is going to contribute something new and needed in a department,” said Bill Kristan, chair of the biology department. “We were very lucky that when Bob retreated to biology, he brought with him an expertise in biogeography and aquatic ecology that we didn’t already have.”

Kristan said Sheath received research grants totaling almost $8 million during his career, and one of the most notable established the California Primary Algae Laboratory, the only lab in the state to collect and catalog freshwater algae samples. Sheath and his colleague, Rosalina Hristova, a senior lab scientist, pioneered the use of algae as bioindicators of water quality in California.

In 2014, the Sheathia, a newly identified genus of algae, was named after him, recognizing his extensive research of many of the species in the genus and other freshwater red algae.

“Bob knew so much about these inconspicuous, easily overlooked organisms, he was able to find new species in places that people have occupied for centuries or millennia,” said Kristan, adding that the algae lab has found and described at least seven new species of algae in the most populous state in America.

Biology professor Betsy Read told a story about being a postdoctoral fellow in microbiology at Ohio State University in the early 1990s and a book called “Biology of the Red Algae” being her bible. The book was co-edited by Robert G. Sheath. It wasn’t until many years later, Read said, while sitting in Sheath’s lab, that she realized her dear CSUSM colleague was the same person who had helped produce that influential tome.

“Bob knew thousands of freshwater algae, and he knew them intimately from the inside out,” Read said. “His burning curiosity, his enthusiasm, and uncompromising desire to describe algae as a part of the natural world serve as a constant reminder of what originally drew so many of us to the field of science. I’ve known a lot of scientists, but few who took as much pleasure in their work as Bob.”

During the ceremony, a large TV screen displayed a slideshow of photos of Sheath from his life and career. On a table in front of the TV was arranged a collection of memorabilia and archival material, including his lab coat, plaques, textbooks, journals, hockey paraphernalia (a native of Canada, he received his bachelor’s degree and doctorate from the University of Toronto) and a flyer from his 2002 Arts & Lectures discussion “The Scum of the Earth: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Algae.” A Canadian flag was draped over the lectern from which people spoke.

Speakers emphasized that Sheath was much more than the sum of his work. Read wondered whether he was more proud of his algae database or the 90,000 pieces of music he collected on a hard drive. Math professor David Barsky recalled frequent games of “name that tune” in Sheath’s car en route to their lunch meetings at Restaurant Row in San Marcos. Sheath was also a diehard fan of the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien and the popular movies based on them; referring to the Tolkien wizard, Read called Sheath “Gandalf-like” in his wise mentoring of his CSUSM colleagues.

“Bob ended every email with ‘cheers,’ ” Barsky said. “And the related words ‘cheer’ and ‘cheery’ are perhaps the best words to describe the atmosphere that Bob created for us. He was an optimist who cheered us on and helped us to build more than we ever thought possible.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

The family moves to America in search of a better life, but college is never discussed; it’s not even in their frame of reference. The girl is expected to attend high school, get married, and raise children.  

That’s exactly what she does, fulfilling her parents’ wishes. Yet she yearns for more. She finds a job at a new university in North San Diego County and discovers that not only does she enjoy work outside of the home, but she’s good at it, too.  

As she’s entrusted with more and more responsibility, she aspires to climb the ladder, except she can’t because she lacks a college degree. So she decides to earn a bachelor’s degree. Then a master’s degree, followed by a second one. She finds the learning process ever more exhilarating, so she gets really bold and goes for a Ph.D. 

Along the way, she moves higher and higher within academia until she becomes a vice president.  

That, in broad outlines, is the personal story of Lorena Checa, vice president of Student Affairs at Cal State San Marcos. It’s the one she told to an audience of several hundred people at the Report to the Community event on campus last February. It’s the one she has shared with many student groups at CSUSM. It’s the one she really never tires of telling, because she’s acutely aware of its power to move, to inspire, to motivate – particularly at a university where so many students come from underrepresented backgrounds, where more than half of the most recent graduating class were the first in their families to achieve a four-year college degree.  

“I will never forget where I came from,” Checa said. “In telling my story, I feel like I can contribute to the success of all the students that we serve in terms of, ‘If I can do it, you can do it, too.’ ” 

Checa, of course, contributes to student success with much more than her words. For the last seven years, she has served as the leader of one of the largest divisions at CSUSM. Student Affairs encompasses 32 departments organized into six different units by mission and service type, including Student Academic Support Services, Student Life and – as of last year – Athletics. In that role, Checa has furthered the work that has been her guiding light throughout her career in higher education – acting as a fierce advocate for students of all backgrounds, with a particular soft spot for underrepresented students and the programs and services that most benefit them. 

The students, in other words, who are like she once was. 

“It’s empowering to see someone who has a story that can resonate with the majority of our campus serve in the role she does,” said Kenny Tran, the president of Associated Students, Inc., an organization that operates under Checa’s leadership. “It inspires many students to say that if she can, they can, too.” 

Now, Checa has received recognition nationally for the work she has been doing at CSUSM for years. Early last month, she was honored as the 2019 recipient of the Scott Goodnight Award for outstanding performance as a dean/vice president from Region VI of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). The award is named for the founding chair of the NASPA board of directors and a former dean of men at the University of Wisconsin.  

It is presented to a dean or vice president who has demonstrated sustained professional achievement in student affairs work, an innovative response in meeting students’ varied and emerging needs, and effectiveness in developing staff and leadership in campus and community affairs. 

“Her effectiveness is grounded in her personal journey and her desire to help others succeed,” said Alan Brian, the director of planning, assessment and professional development in Student Affairs, who has worked with Checa for almost eight years and who wrote the letter nominating her for the Scott Goodnight Award.  

“During her professional career, she has consistently been mentored by others who recognized her potential and provided her with the tools and opportunities to grow. She recognizes the way that the support she has received has allowed her to succeed, and strives to provide the same support and opportunities to others.” 

The significance wasn’t lost on Checa when she received the award in person on Nov. 15 from CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt, who surprised Checa along with a group of her closest colleagues. Neufeldt herself won the Scott Goodnight Award in 2015 when she was vice president of student engagement and enrollment services at Old Dominion University. 

“I feel blessed that we have a president who is a former VP in the same field because there are some common understandings when it comes to doing the work of student affairs,” Checa said. “I don’t have to sell her on anything. She gets it.” 

That Checa occupies a position in which she can receive such a prestigious accolade is a testament to the power of the immigrant story and the transformative effect of CSUSM’s institutional mission. Checa was only 8 years old when her parents left Uruapan, about 250 miles west of Mexico City, and brought her and her five sisters to California (her two brothers were born in America). While her father and mother worked in an embroidering factory, Checa attended school in Ontario, where she learned English quickly and made friends easily. When she got married at age 16, she was set for good, at least in her parents’ eyes.

“I had no idea that higher education would change my life and the life of my family and my community,” Checa said. “It’s been a true gift.”

In the mid-1980s, Checa and her now ex-husband moved to Vista, where he got a job in construction and she as a receptionist (and then a buyer) for a manufacturing company. One day, a friend told her that a new university had just opened in San Marcos. Checa liked the prospect of good benefits for her two young children, so she applied for a temporary appointment of only 60 days, with the hope that it would lead to something more.

“I was hired to register the first 500 transfer students back in the Jerome’s days,” she said, referring to the furniture store that neighbored CSUSM when it opened in a strip mall. “Cougar Central was a counter with somebody from financial aid, somebody from admissions and just a general individual who would answer questions. One of the tasks was to ensure that when you communicated with people, you didn’t say we’re San Diego State North County. We were a new university.”

Checa parlayed the short-term gig into a more stable one as an administrative assistant. She did her prescribed duties but also many beyond them, because as a fledgling school, CSUSM had a dire need for jacks of all trades. As a result, Checa felt confident when she pursued a position as student services professional, acting as liaison to the local community colleges. But the gaping hole in her résumé doomed her chances.

“Because I didn’t have a college degree, I didn’t get that position,” Checa said. “I was devastated. That was the turning point. I said, ‘That’s never going to happen to me again.’ ”

Almost overnight, higher education became Checa’s raison d’etre. After two years at Palomar College, she transferred to CSUSM and got a degree in literature and writing studies in 1998 – all while continuing to work at the university and raising her kids. But that was just the start of a long, rewarding journey of self-betterment that saw her achieve an MBA from CSUSM, a second master’s in educational counseling from San Diego State and a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of San Diego.

In the process, Checa left CSUSM to branch out career-wise, working for three years as the assistant dean of USD’s College of Education and helping to build student services programs from the ground up. She couldn’t stay away for long, however, and soon after former President Karen Haynes arrived in 2004, Checa returned home as the director of CSUSM’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and TRIO Student Support Services.

“I missed my family,” she said. “Because I grew up here professionally, I know that the high collaborative spirit is unique. We have a unique culture and we stand for the same values.”

As vice president, and in her previous roles at CSUSM, Checa has strived to develop programs that serve students from all walks of life. Under her leadership, the university has established ACE Scholars Services for former foster youth, the Latin@ Center, the Black Student Center, the current Veterans Center and the DREAMer Resource Office.

As a sign of her impact on students, since 2016 the EOP has given the Lorena Checa Award to the student whose academic road mirrors Checa’s in terms of perseverance, academic excellence and inspiration.

Checa now has three granddaughters – ages 11, 9 and 7 – and sometimes they visit her in her office overlooking Craven Circle, running around and being blissfully unaware that their grandmother’s success may fundamentally alter the trajectory of their lives.

“As a first-generation college student, I think about breaking the cycle and what that means for me and my family and my grandkids and my community,” Checa said. “The sharing of that experience is very meaningful to me. I feel proud, honored, humbled that there has been that level of support on campus to allow for individuals like me to continue to grow and develop and be given opportunities.

“That’s what we do here, and that’s why I love it.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Every person Neufeldt passed didn’t just receive a cordial salutation. Neufeldt took time to learn a little bit about each of them. It didn’t matter if it was a staff member she might see the following week or a parent she likely wouldn’t see again for four years until they return to watch their child graduate. Neufeldt was equally adept at allaying nervous parents and making staff feel like they had known her for years rather than the six weeks she had been on campus as CSUSM’s president.

“Ellen is genuine in all aspects of her life,” said John Broderick, the president of Old Dominion University, where Neufeldt worked for nearly a decade. “She is truly one of the most caring and committed people in higher education I have been around in my 30-plus years doing this. She has a remarkable way of connecting with people.”

Neufeldt’s uncanny ability to make everyone she comes in contact with feel at ease makes it that much more surprising to learn just how shy she was as a child in Cookeville, Tenn. It wasn’t until she was a first-year college student herself that she met people who helped her break out of that shell.

“The fact that people took time to make me feel comfortable and find my place in the world is something I want to do for everybody,” Neufeldt said.

Neufeldt is clearly doing just that at CSUSM. Her appointment as the university’s fourth president began July 1, just two months before the university marked the 30^th anniversary of its founding. Less than six months into her tenure, she is already enlisting students, faculty, staff, alumni and community friends in developing a vision for the next three decades. That vision includes building on CSUSM’s mission of social mobility and student success; fostering a collaborative approach that positions the university as a national model for helping individuals throughout the student life cycle; continuing to build innovative academic programs that benefit all members of the campus community; promote innovation and see issues through a diverse lens; and a firm commitment to community-engaged learning by providing students with high-impact educational opportunities that prepare them with the knowledge, skills and values they need to thrive.

The energy and enthusiasm Neufeldt brings to her new job – and her drive to make that vision a reality – should come as no surprise. Higher education and a dedication to helping students fulfill their dreams is part of her DNA.

Growing up in higher ed

Neufeldt’s parents moved to the United States from Canada before she was born so her father could pursue a Ph.D. in history at Michigan State University. Neufeldt was born in Michigan, but grew up in Cookeville, about 75 miles east of Nashville. Her father was a faculty member at Tennessee Technological University, and her mother was an administrative assistant in the university’s College of Engineering.

Neufeldt’s parents had a profound influence on her passion for higher education – even if she didn’t always realize it while growing up. It wasn’t until she was an adult that Neufeldt fully appreciated the obstacles her parents overcame, from her father navigating the challenges of being a first-generation college student to her mother supporting the family at a time when women working outside the home wasn’t widely supported.

“I think becoming president at Cal State San Marcos really was another step in helping me to look back and understand that what they gave and what they did in their lives had such a great impact on mine,” she said. “I grew up in higher education, and very few had that privilege. I’m so grateful for the choices that they’ve made.”

Neufeldt received her bachelor’s from Tennessee Tech in business administration, marketing. Her first job out of college was as a management trainee for a department store chain. She quickly worked her way up to manager, which was an education in itself. Neufeldt had to master everything from the art of unloading trucks to fixing toilets. In the process, she learned important lessons about leadership and self-reliance.

It was while working for the department store chain that Neufeldt realized how much she missed higher education. She had attended nursery school on Tennessee Tech’s campus. She was around the university throughout elementary school. She used its libraries during high school. It was part of her identity. But now, after a lifetime spent around a university, she was living in communities where there were no colleges.

“I really began to understand what I had and what I had been given,” she said. “There was always knowledge flowing, whether we’re talking about cultural events or just new ideas. There’s something about being around a college campus that I had taken for granted after growing up as a part of it.”

The decision to pursue a career in higher education was solidified while she was managing a department store in Nashville. One of her former advisers from Tennessee Tech approached her about attending graduate school and working as a graduate assistant.

It was all the encouragement Neufeldt needed. She earned a master’s in educational psychology and counselor education from Tennessee Tech, but her plans to get a job in academia were derailed by a lean job market. Instead, she took a job as a crisis counselor.

Neufeldt may not have known it at the time, but the experience she gained managing people at the department store and working as a counselor helped shape her future in higher education.

A perfect fit

A university presidency wasn’t on Neufeldt’s radar when she was hired as the assistant dean of students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the mid-1990s. It was more than a decade later, when Neufeldt was the vice president for Student Affairs at Salisbury University in Maryland, that it was first mentioned. Salisbury’s president at the time, Janet Dudley-Eshbach, encouraged Neufeldt to consider the possibility.

Those conversations continued with Broderick at Old Dominion during Neufeldt’s eight-year stint at the Norfolk, Va., university. Neufeldt said Broderick was instrumental in her growth as a leader, and his guidance and mentorship continue to have a profound influence on her career.

Neufeldt served as the vice president for Student Engagement and Enrollment Services at Old Dominion, overseeing a budget of $70 million and a staff of nearly 400. The division was a major initiative for Broderick, who entrusted Neufeldt to direct its creation, development and coordination, and it gave Neufeldt the opportunity to pursue her passion for helping students succeed.

“Ellen wants to be engaged with students – with students across all aspects of campus,” Broderick said. “I don’t think anyone could ever say that they attempted to talk with her and she didn’t spend the necessary time to hold up her end of a two-way conversation.”

While Neufeldt’s myriad responsibilities prepared her well for a presidency, there were other aspects of Old Dominion that made her the right person to lead CSUSM into the next decade.

Old Dominion is a comprehensive public university that offers innovative academic programs. It is firmly committed to diversity and inclusiveness. It supports the social mobility of its students. It prioritizes community-engaged learning and has a far-reaching impact on its local economy.

Sound familiar?

“When Ellen realized she was going to have these opportunities to be considered for a presidency, she wanted to go to a school that resembled what we’re doing here in terms of serving first-generation students, not being afraid to work and help students, and embracing all learners,” Broderick said. “And I think she found a perfect fit. Plus, she found some pretty delightful weather, too.”

Weather aside, Old Dominion’s considerable similarities to CSUSM, coupled with Neufeldt’s experience and abilities, made her an ideal fit for the university’s presidential vacancy.

Neufeldt was even familiar with CSUSM from working with its first president, Bill Stacy, while he was the chancellor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Stacy told Neufeldt about the university’s history as a chicken ranch, which made it all the more astonishing for her to see what the campus has become when she visited for the first time in March.

CSUSM’s presidential search, like all California State University presidential searches, was confidential, and the finalists flew to Los Angeles in March to meet with the search committee. Neufeldt saw firsthand the passion committee members had for CSUSM’s mission and their pride over what had been built in less than three decades. After her interview, Neufeldt rented a car and drove 100 miles south to see for herself.

Neufeldt’s incognito visit occurred on the weekend, so campus was relatively quiet. Still, she avoided interacting with anyone to ensure that the search would remain confidential. But it wasn’t long before she would have an opportunity to connect with the campus community.

‘It’s about us’

On March 20, the CSU Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Neufeldt as CSUSM’s fourth president. Not long after, Old Dominion held an event where Neufeldt announced the news that she would be departing for Southern California.

“There were a lot of cheers,” Broderick said, “but there were also a lot of tears. To me, that kind of epitomizes Ellen’s stay here. Everybody was happy for her to get an opportunity to go lead a great institution. But, at the same time, everybody was a little sad that we were losing a good friend and colleague.”

Neufeldt has wasted no time in acclimating to her new home. She wasn’t even on campus two hours on her first day when she made a beeline for Science Hall 1 to meet students participating in CSUSM’s signature Summer Scholars research program. She hasn’t slowed down in her ongoing effort to learn about the campus and the people who make it unique. It isn’t uncommon to see Neufeldt walking across campus engaging with students or for her to pop into an office spontaneously to chat with a staff member.

Retired Marine Major General Anthony Jackson, CSUSM’s interim director of Veterans Services, learned that firsthand in September when Neufeldt made an unexpected visit to talk with members of his team.

The Veterans Services staff had been relocated three times during the summer while finishing touches were put on the newly expanded and renovated Epstein Family Veterans Center. The constant disruptions proved challenging, and Neufeldt wanted to acknowledge the difficulties they endured. The next day, when Jackson asked staff how it felt to have the president of the university stop by, they shared with him how much it meant that she understood what they had experienced.

Jackson was part of the presidential search committee that reviewed candidate applications and interviewed finalists. He was impressed throughout the hiring process, and the first months of Neufeldt’s tenure confirmed his belief that she was the right choice for CSUSM.

“She has those people skills that allow a leader to get out and be comfortable with any audience and be very honest with them,” Jackson said. “She is someone who can engage you with a smile, but you know when it comes time to make hard decisions that she is extremely capable of doing it in a very calm, cool, collected way.”

Among Neufeldt’s initial priorities has been a comprehensive Listening and Learning Tour to gain a better understanding of the people, roles and priorities of CSUSM, and to hear directly from campus and community constituents about the university’s strengths and challenges.

It’s all part of fulfilling her mission to ensure that every person has a voice.

“It's not about me,” Neufeldt said. “It’s about us and how we move this campus forward together.”

The winners will be announced at the Celebración de Excelencia in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 24.

Excelencia in Education received 166 program nominations, and one program will be chosen from each of four categories – Associate, Baccalaureate, Graduate and Community-Based Organizations. The final four will be chosen “based on evidence of their effectiveness to serve Latino academic achievement at their institutions and community organizations.”

Launched in 2004, Excelencia in Education’s mission is to “accelerate Latino student success in higher education by promoting Latino student achievement, conducting analysis to inform educational policies, and advancing institutional practices while collaborating with those committed and ready to meet the mission.”

PASO was launched through a Department of Education grant to expand educational opportunities and improve the academic attainment of Latino students.

Sigma Delta Pi receives honor

CSUSM’s Psi Epsilon Chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, was named an “Honor Chapter” for its outstanding activities in 2018-19. It was one of 15 chapters among 625 in the nation to earn this status.

Rankings

• CSUSM is 44^th in Washington Monthly’s list of “2019 Best Bang for the Buck Rankings: West,” which includes more than 200 colleges and universities. It also was 66^th on the list of “2019 Master’s University Rankings,” which included more than 600 schools.
• The university was 243^rd in Money’s list of “The Best Colleges in America, Ranked by Value,” which included nearly 750 schools. CSUSM was also 34^th on its list of top 50 “Most Transformative Colleges.”
• CSUSM was ranked 45^th in ASecureLife.com’s list of “100 Most Secure Campuses in the U.S.”
• The university was 176^th in LendEDU’s list of top 250 schools with the lowest debt for students. CSUSM was also 106^th among public universities.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

However, as she began to grow into a career as a librarian, she accepted that her plan was not going to come to fruition. In fact, her career was moving in the opposite direction as a future in Florida seemed likely.

That’s when Cal State San Marcos stepped in and changed her life forever.

A librarian at Clayton State University in Georgia at the time, a job posting for the head of user services/user experience librarian at CSUSM caught her eye. Never having stepped foot in the state of California, she headed west for an interview and immediately fell in love.

“My first impression of the campus was that it was refreshing, clean and modern,” Hampton said. “I had an opportunity to see that the campus is growing both in size and in spirit as I observed throughout the day how being a part of a growing institution has created a community with a sense of pride and responsibility, knowing that they have the privilege of contributing to that growth.”

It ended up being a perfect match – Hampton’s California Dreamin’ desire and CSUSM’s need for a qualified, creative and dynamic new member of the library.

Hampton has only been in the job for a few months, but she’s already amazed by the level of care on campus.

“I have been in awe of the way students’ needs – all of their needs – have been addressed here at CSUSM,” said Hampton, who has a Master of Library and Information Science from Valdosta State University. “From offering students opportunities to connect with events such as the Weeks of Welcome, encouraging students to participate in leadership opportunities such as ASI, coordinating and facilitating activities outside of the classroom through Campus Recreation’s Outdoor Adventures, and ensuring students have access to the resources they need to succeed through offices, programs, and services like the Kellogg Library, Cougar Care Network and Counseling Services. CSUSM has managed to do all of this while still maintaining the high quality and standard of education that students look for.”

The CSUSM Library has become a hub of energy and intellectual curiosity on campus. Hampton’s role is to continue to access and address users’ experiences with the library. While in the past, a library typically existed as a resource for published material, the CSUSM library staff recognizes that their roles are always changing and growing.

Hampton’s job is to adapt to the changing needs of the library’s users, from students to faculty to the community as a whole.

“There are a lot of areas of library and information science that have been studied,” said Hampton, who received a bachelor’s in English with a concentration in writing and is an accomplished editor. “But thanks to the constantly changing nature of the field and the opportunities for innovation available to us today as technology improves and social norms and views shift, there are also areas that are opening up as potential areas of research. I also hope to share my unique perspective as a minority in the field in order to fight for change that will encourage more minorities to enter the library science field.”

It has been a few months, but life in California for Hampton and her son has already been a dream come true.

“There is so much potential in user services for change that will positively affect library users in this day and age,” she said. “I cannot wait to tackle those opportunities and challenges and contribute to the culture of providing a holistic experience here at CSUSM.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

CSUSM’s founding ushered in an era of higher education in the United States, as no other comprehensive university had been founded in over two decades.

Signed by Senator William Craven of Carlsbad, Governor Deukmejian, CSU Chancellor Ann Reynolds and founding president Bill Stacy, Senate Bill 365 reconstituted the former San Diego State University satellite campus into the 20^th university in the CSU system.

With a one-year timeline and an administrative budget of just $3.9 million, President Stacy began to lay the groundwork for the new university with 12 founding faculty.

In February 1990, construction of the new campus broke ground on the site of the former Prohoroff Poultry Farm – a chicken ranch. The property had been purchased two years earlier by the CSU Board of Trustees for $10.6 million.

In the fall of 1990, CSUSM welcomed its first class of 448 students at its temporary location in rented office space adjacent to Jerome’s Furniture in San Marcos, as construction of the permanent campus continued.

Media Contact

Christine Vaughan, Director of Communications
cvaughan@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-4409

With every college at CSUSM represented in the building and programs serving individuals from first-year undergraduates to lifelong learners, the ELB is a comprehensive education center designed to bridge disciplines and inspire innovation. The facility includes 19 new classroom and lab spaces equipped with technology-rich features such as 4K projectors and mobile instructor stations with touch-screen displays and digital pens for annotation. Open floor plans with flexible configurations not only encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration but enable the programs in the building to meet the educational needs of an expanding campus and community for many years.

“This multifunction space creates opportunities for the campus to grow programs,” said Bella Newberg, executive director of CSUSM Corporation. “This is a great space for interdisciplinary activity. We are always going to have specialized buildings, but having flexible space is an asset to the campus as a whole. This model really is the future.”

Located in the North City development in San Marcos, the project — which includes a 709-space parking structure — expands the campus footprint by two acres and serves as a gateway between university and community. A new pedestrian bridge, scheduled to open in October, provides a quick pathway to the ELB and creates a direct connection between the education, athletics and cultural offerings at CSUSM and the residential, commercial and entertainment amenities in North City.

An entrepreneurial venture from the start, the ELB is the first academic building in California established through a unique public-private partnership, which required no state funds for its design, planning or construction.

“This public-private partnership reimagines how we can expand campuses and integrate education within our communities,” said Mike Schroder, dean of Extended Learning. “The EL building has been meticulously designed to serve every student on our campus as well as the community — both today and well into the future.”

One of the key benefits of the Extended Learning building is the opportunity to reconnect academic areas that have operated in separate locations due to limited space availability on campus. Level 2 of the ELB is now home to the Centers for Learning and Academic Success Services (CLASS), including the Academic Success Center, STEM Success Center and Writing Center. Complementary centers on the same floor include the Center for Research and Engagement in STEM Education and CAMP/PASO, initiatives serving students from migrant and seasonal farmworker backgrounds (CAMP) and dedicated to increasing Latin@ retention and graduation rates (PASO).

The proximity of these support areas means that students can move effortlessly from one center to the next to get the assistance they need. Located across the street from The Quad, a block from University Village Apartments, and just down the hill from the University Student Union, this one-stop shop offers first-year and continuing students an easy route to academic success support.

“We are a relatively young office, turning five this year,” said Dr. Dawn Formo, dean of Undergraduate Studies. “This (move) is going to generate some meaningful changes.”

During the 2018-19 academic year, students made more than 54,000 visits to the academic learning centers, and the staff has been exploring how to best accommodate student needs and continue increasing attendance in this new location.

As a start, the Writing Center is piloting live, online video conferencing for three courses. Also, the Office of Undergraduate Studies launched CougarBot, a chatbot for first-year and new transfer students that provides a friendly connection to campus and helpful information and reminders via text message.

“One of the things we’ve been working on this year is developing in a very intentional way a virtual footprint of all of our academic learning centers,” Formo said. “My ultimate goal is that students can come to the brick-and-mortar centers or meet by online appointment. We want to meet students where they are and support them on their pathways to academic success.”

Like the academic support centers, Extended Learning has combined its collective units into one space for the first time in the new building. As the academic outreach branch of CSUSM, Extended Learning serves nearly 4,000 students annually with undergraduate and graduate degrees in collaboration with CSUSM’s colleges as well as professional certificates, online education, customized training for businesses and education for older adults through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. In addition, Extended Learning serves nearly 1,000 students annually through the Office of Global Education, study abroad and the American Language and Culture Institute (ALCI).

“The flexible and innovative space in the Extended Learning building will allow us to expand our existing programs and create new programs integrating progressive methods of teaching and research so we can anticipate the long-term needs of our students and of local industry,” Schroder said. “We are here to support our students throughout their education and careers.”

Many students in the new building are working toward their next career move by completing short-term, professional certificate programs through Extended Learning. With a wide range of disciplines and education pathways represented in one building, the ELB provides a unique peek into education opportunities for the beginning student and the returning student alike.

“What I hear a lot of our students saying is that they haven’t been to school in years or they’ve never been on a college campus,” said Cathy Scavone, senior director, Professional and Workforce Programs. “But going through our programs often gives them self-confidence and exposes them to new opportunities. When they finish their program, they may look at another of our certificate programs or degree programs that can help them advance in their career.”

The Office of Global Education and ALCI, another segment of Extended Learning, enriches the campus culture through internationalization and inclusive excellence by working to increase the number of international students at CSUSM and by encouraging CSUSM students to study abroad.

In the ELB, a third of the global suite space is designed as an open lounge for international and domestic students to connect and it is fully equipped with couches, computer workstations and moveable tables and chairs. In addition, global education and ALCI staff, until recently located in three separate buildings, are now just steps from each other, making it easier to collaborate on new directions for their programs.

“I think people have a tendency to be innovative when they have an opportunity to get out in front of their cubicle or their office and engage with individuals who might have a different perspective or a new idea,” said Robert Carolin, executive director of the Office of Global Education, who also anticipates that the shared suite will encourage joint programming to emerge between global education and ALCI staff as the year progresses.

Another important focus for CSUSM — research, lab and clinical training — gets a boost in the ELB with lab spaces designed for 21^st century learning and technology geared for flexibility, sustainability and long-term compatibility. Students across many academic disciplines will benefit from a new nursing skills lab, a computer and cybersecurity lab, two biology labs and two kinesiology labs.

The kinesiology lab on Level 1, for example, is designed for biomechanics research with an 18-foot ceiling and an industrial roll-up door that opens to a wide, paved pathway.

“In kinesiology, we haven’t had a lab that’s been big enough to study some of the things we want to look at,” said Jeff Nessler, professor of motor control/biomechanics. “You need a lot of space to be able to study movements like running and jumping. Now, we can have people start outside the lab and run in so we can acquire data. The lab also allows us to bring in large pieces of equipment like a skate ramp. There is very little research on skateboarding; this opens up new opportunities.”

Kinesiology is a research-intense discipline, Nessler adds, and the needs of the grad students, faculty and undergraduate lab sections have overwhelmed the available lab space. Last year, a temporary lab in The Quad helped alleviate some scheduling issues. This year, the two new kinesiology labs in the ELB increase the hours available for student and faculty research, and Nessler says the location in North City with an adjacent parking structure makes the program highly compatible with community-based research.

Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) also works closely with the community in both its research and its programming. During 2018-19, SLP graduate students provided more than 4,800 hours of free consultation in speech-language, communication, cognitive or swallowing services to more than 170 individuals in the community, despite having offices and classrooms spread across campus and a speech-language consultation center located 3 miles off campus. To run simulation exercises, SLP staff accessed the simulation theater and medical manikins from the nursing program when available.

In the ELB this year, the SLP program has a centralized suite comprising offices, classrooms and the speech-language center. The area also includes a dedicated simulation space with SLP manikins, a simulation kitchen and the flexibility to add virtual-reality learning soon.

“We are almost doubling the number of simulations we are doing with the students because of the dedicated space,” said Lori Heisler, chair of the Speech-Language Pathology Department. “Having better access to equipment and materials to practice skills definitely enhances learning for our students.”

With faculty and students in the EL building representing the health sciences, language and culture, science and technology, the public sector and more, this pioneering learning center is a microcosm of the CSUSM campus, creating the potential not only for cross-disciplinary collaboration, but for new pathways in education.

The CSUSM Corp Innovation Hub — in the developmental phase — is one such pathway, encouraging entrepreneurship by providing a working space for students, faculty, staff and members of industry to purposefully take ideas developed in the classroom to a real-world conclusion, whether it’s a product, a creative pursuit, a business concept or a solution for an issue in the community.

“There are a lot of creative ideas across campus, and we have industry interacting with campus, faculty with research and students with internships,” Newberg said. “We want to take all of these perspectives and bring them into a space that creates synergy for learning.”

Tentatively expected to launch in the fall of 2020, the Innovation Hub represents the best of entrepreneurship and community engagement, and — like the departments and centers throughout the Extended Learning building — demonstrates what is possible when individuals with different strengths work toward a common goal.

“The Extended Learning building is truly an innovative and entrepreneurial space that welcomes diverse voices and nurtures bold ideas,” Schroder said. “We are just getting started, and I am excited to see what our students and faculty will create for the future of our campus and the region.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

But when Oberem steps down as CSUSM’s provost at the end of June, it will mark the end of a 6½-year tenure, more than double the California State University average of three years for the position.

“Dr. Oberem has been an exceptional leader and advocate for Academic Affairs,” said President Karen Haynes, who also will be retiring at the end of June. “I appreciate his thoughtfulness in consideration of university challenges and opportunities, his creation of a strong Academic Affairs leadership team and his seniority and credibility among the CSU provosts.”

A native of South Africa, Oberem arrived at CSUSM in 1996 as the university’s first physics hire. CSUSM didn’t have a physics department at the time – and Oberem was told there wouldn’t be one – so it was suggested that he become faculty in either chemistry or computer science while he taught physics courses. Instead, he convinced his dean to allow him to be an independent unit, providing the opportunity to manage his own budget while he set up the new physics labs.

Before his first semester on campus ended, Oberem wrote to the dean laying out exactly why the university needed a physics department. Most university physics departments at the time focused on preparing students for graduate school, but Oberem advocated for an applied physics program.

“Part of the reason I came here was because of the students we serve,” Oberem said. “I believed strongly that if we had a degree that emphasized applied physics, these students would be highly marketable in the regional job market with a bachelor’s degree. That really did prove to be true, even from the outset.”

The physics program celebrated its 10^th anniversary in 2017, and the department was recognized earlier this year by the American Physical Society for being ranked sixth in the nation based on the number of undergraduate physics degrees awarded to underrepresented minorities.

Oberem’s career took an unexpected turn in 2006 when he agreed to serve a four-year term as an associate dean for the erstwhile College of Arts and Sciences. The split of the colleges was announced at the end of his term, and then-Provost Emily Cutrer asked if he would stay on two more years and move to the new College of Science and Mathematics.

Near the end of the year, Cutrer announced that she was hiring an associate vice president for planning and academic resources, the position now known as vice provost. Intrigued by the job description, Oberem applied and, following a national search, was appointed to the position on May 1, 2012.

By the end of the year, Cutrer had left for a presidential opening in Texas. Haynes asked Oberem to serve as the interim provost while a national search was conducted for a permanent replacement. For the second time in less than a year, Oberem was an applicant in a national search and, for the second time, he got the job.

As Oberem’s time as an administrator nears its end, he is looking forward to spending more time with his family and pursuing his other interests – he is an accomplished musician and enjoys photography. He also is considering participating in the Faculty Early Retirement Program, which allows eligible tenured faculty to continue teaching part-time.

Oberem is grateful for more than two decades at CSUSM. Founding the physics department was just one of many notable achievements. As provost, he led the creation of the Office of Undergraduate Studies and he was also part of the effort to launch the university’s engineering program. But more than anything, he will miss the people.

“The people here are incredible,” he said. “What’s unique about this campus is the level of collaboration and genuine caring for one another. That’s one of the reasons that I came here.

“It’s just been really amazing.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Clark-Ibáñez was a coach for the program designed to introduce e-learning to faculty members. Ouyang, eager to try something new, was the only science professor in a cohort filled with colleagues from the sociology department. 

Despite their vastly different academic fields – Ouyang in computer science, Clark-Ibáñez in sociology – the two hit it off immediately. It was the start of a close friendship, and a wonderful professional partnership that stands to benefit CSUSM students for years to come. 

In 2017, Ouyang and Clark-Ibáñez teamed up to secure a five-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund scholarships, workshops, mentors and networking opportunities for computer science majors from low-income families. 

Now, with that program thriving, the two professors are back for more, this time targeting computer science students as they first enter the university.  

Ouyang and Clark-Ibáñez were the faculty behind a proposal that resulted in CSUSM last month being named one of only six project teams in the state to receive full funding in the first set of awards from the California Education Learning Lab, a new program that seeks to close equity and achievement gaps in STEM and other disciplines.  

CSUSM was selected to receive a Learning Lab award of more than $1 million over three years. Ouyang and Clark-Ibáñez submitted the proposal along with Nery Chapetón-Lamas, a computer science professor from MiraCosta College, and the team was one of just six in California granted a full award out of 42 turned in across the state. 

“To me, this grant means opportunity for my students,” said Ouyang, chair of the computer science and information systems department. “That’s what drives a lot of my proposals.” 

One of Ouyang’s grants, nicknamed “CodeQueens,” focuses on helping high school girls learn more about STEM career paths. Another, the 2017 one procured with Clark-Ibáñez, is dubbed “Fab Fridays” and involves upper-class computer science students being mentored by industry partners and working on real-world projects at an on-campus makerspace.  

The most recent grant will service a different population – of the age between prospective CSUSM students and the upper classes – but with a similar hands-on approach. Assisted by Clark-Ibáñez, Ouyang will overhaul the university’s two introductory computer science classes (CS 111 and CS 211) to make them more student-driven and less lecture-based – with the objective of keeping students from giving up on the subject before they ever have a chance to get hooked. Because CSUSM and MiraCosta are minority-serving institutions, they also include elements to the pedagogy and content that are culturally relevant. 

In writing the proposal, Ouyang compared a typical computer science lesson plan at the high school level with that of an introductory college course. She found the difference to be stark. The former was exciting and engaging, the latter dry and off-putting. 

“As a non-computer science person, I could understand the high school problem. I could understand the bigger picture of what it was trying to get at,” said Clark-Ibáñez, chair of the sociology department. “The college version of what she pulled out to do a side-by-side comparison was so involved with solving proofs and the critical thinking went away. It was just computation. 

“Youwen will be working to transform these intro classes that can really turn off students. They told us they were so excited to be in the major and then they get to their first class and they’re like, ‘Oh God, this is so horrible.’ ” 

Ouyang said she hasn’t taught a course for a few years, but she plans to return to the classroom this fall after having redesigned CS 111 during a faculty in residence program at Google headquarters in June. She will come back to teaching with a different perspective born of her experience with Fab Fridays and other projects. 

“When I was in the classroom, my students were pretty quiet and I didn’t see much wrong with it,” Ouyang said. “I was thinking the teacher’s role is to explain things to students. Now I’m seeing things very differently.” 

The CSUSM professors plan to incorporate the Open Learning Initiative offered by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, a collection of evidence-based tools and approaches to learning that are proven to boost student success, and enable instructors to be more effective. While Ouyang teaches the course, Clark-Ibáñez will utilize her expertise in sociology to ensure that the material and the research accounts for the racial, cultural and gender diversity of CSUSM’s students.  

“It’s going to be a very innovative approach,” Clark-Ibáñez said. “The goal is to have students coming in to be hooked right away, to feel like they are honored as a whole person.” 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Dunn’s work resulted in a detailed analysis titled “Building Your American Dream: An Ethnographic Study of the Exploitation of Undocumented Laborers” that earned a 4th Annual CSUSM Library Award for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity in the category of Empirical Research. The 17-page paper resulted from interviewing undocumented immigrants, those who assist them, employers, and intense research into the subject while validating source material.

“It was a process of discovery,” said Dunn, who is 48 and owns his own construction site cleanup business. “I had a vague awareness of what was going on, but I really didn’t know the half of it. I didn’t know about the sexual exploitation. I knew about the wage theft, but there was much I didn’t know concerning the other myriad ways they are exploited and just as importantly how the cumulative trauma of daily living having to deal with constant hostility and microaggressions impacts themselves and their families.”

Dunn’s experience underscores the importance of the University Library’s annual competition.

“Being able to engage in library research lends itself to building critical thinking skills, and especially today it is important for people to have critical thinking skills to be able to make informed decisions,” said Toni Olivas, Engagement and Inclusion Librarian who chaired this year's judging panel and planning committee.

A CSUSM junior who aspires to earn a graduate degree in social work and launch a new career as an LCSW, Dunn was not a neophyte in the subject of undocumented workers before he began his study. What Dunn found, however, was undocumented workers who get no benefits or pensions but suffer through more than their share of exploitation. Like a worker who was driven to a construction site and asked to perform oral sex. Or a day laborer who was confronted by a scantily clad woman urging him to perform work inside her home.

“They want to work, they want to support their families,” he wrote. “They want to get ahead. But what ends up happening they are working to just survive and once the utility of their labor has been exploited and they can no longer continue the hard labor that is construction they are cast aside with little services or even dignity. They are constantly under the spotlight with targets on their backs as they just try to make it to another day. My research specifically documented the ways they are exploited, be it wage theft from homeowners, contractors or just as frequently from employers with shared ethnicity. With few if any rights they have no recourse from law enforcement. Exposed to so many vulnerabilities it is not a surprise that many times the men find themselves falling into, ‘desesparacion,’ loosely translated as a feeling of anxiety, desperation and a sense of disappearing.”

Dunn is hoping his work will spark further discussion at CSUSM and elsewhere. His was one of three projects that were honored. A judging panel of volunteer subject and library faculty selected the winners from several submissions. Following is an overview of the other two entries.

CATEGORY: Empirical Research

SUBMISSION: Comparison of Affective Response to Physical Activity Through Reduced Exertion High Intensity Training Among Active and Inactive Individuals

STUDENTS: Rasmus Clausen

ADVISOR: Todd Astorino

SUMMARY: Regular participation in physical activity is effective in reducing chronic disease and mortality risk. Meanwhile, more than half of the American population is classified as sedentary and are therefore at increased risk. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has been proposed as a time-efficient mode of exercise, but the exhaustive nature of it makes it impractical and intolerable for the sedentary population. Reduced Exertion High Intensity Training (REHIT) is a new, less exerting mode of exercise similar to HIIT that offers comparable health benefits and less negative affective responses, potentially making it suitable for the sedentary person. The aim of the present study was to examine how individuals of different fitness levels tolerate a single bout of REHIT.

CATEGORY: Interpretive Analysis

SUBMISSION: Race, Riot, and Recovery Identifying Motive and Methods of Response to the Violence of the 1863 New York City Draft Riots

STUDENT: Lynda Vernia

ADVISOR: Ann Elwood

SUMMARY: The 1863 New York City drafts riots occurred July 13-16, 1863 as a response to three factors: The Enrollment Act, which drafted men into the Union Army; the economic inequality of the times in which the rich could pay a commutation fee to be exempt from the draft while immigrants lived in abject poverty; and the racial unrest caused by issues relating to the Emancipation Proclamation, citizenship, and perceived threats to immigrant jobs. This paper focuses on the four days of mob violence that comprised the 1863 New York City Draft Riot, identifies groups who responded with assistance to those attacked, and examine the motives and methods of that assistance given during the riot and the recovery period immediately afterward.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

When she returned two decades later, she was a woman on a mission, an accomplished professional and cancer survivor who knew exactly what she wanted from the experience and knew she had no time to waste.  

The divergence in motivation led to drastically different outcomes. The first time around, Alisha dropped out as a freshman to enter the working world. This time, she will leave Cal State San Marcos later this month as the winner of the dean’s award for outstanding graduate from the College of Business Administration, and she’s not even close to done yet, either. 

This fall, Alisha will begin a one-year master’s program in accounting at UC Irvine, which includes a $15,000 faculty fellow scholarship, and in 2020 she plans to pursue a Ph.D., with a goal of ultimately returning to CSUSM as an accounting professor.  

“My motivation definitely comes from the fact that I know what I’m getting out of college, so I’m very focused and determined,” Alisha said. “I have a mission, and I’m going to achieve it. Also, time is precious to me. I’m not 18 to 20 with my whole life in front of me. I’m doing something very specific, and it’s time to get it done.” 

Alisha’s intense drive, at age 41, to make the most of her second stab at college led her to do things like take a combined 59 units in one year at MiraCosta and Palomar colleges before she transferred to CSUSM in the fall of 2017. It led her to log 19 units of upper-division courses last spring and 18 last fall, those semesters sandwiching a summer in which she took four classes at CSUSM and one at Palomar.  

It led her to seek involvement with the university, specifically the accounting department, far beyond her heavy class load. Alisha quickly was elevated to head tutor after volunteering to help out in the accounting lab, she served as a supplemental instructor and teaching assistant in different accounting classes, and she was the vice president of the Accounting Society, responsible for bringing in many outside firms and hosting its biweekly meetings. 

All of those extracurricular pursuits didn’t cause her classroom performance to suffer in the slightest, as she has recorded a grade-point average over 3.8.  

“Alisha deserves all the accolades and awards,” said Syed Zaidi, the chair of CSUSM’s accounting department. “She is doing more than any student of mine, yet she never complains. As a returning student, she realized that she has lost a good chunk of time. She realized that she has no other choice but to excel.” 

She did have a choice, however, about how to apply her degree. When Alisha first decided that accounting would be her second career, she wanted to start her own bookkeeping business for the work flexibility it would provide. Then she thought she might want to get a job at one of the Big Four accounting firms, lured by the glamour of being employed by a prestigious global company like Deloitte or Ernst & Young.  

It was at CSUSM that her aspiration changed. With the encouragement of mentors like Zaidi, who taught her in a cost accounting class last spring, Alisha began to think long and hard about eschewing the pressure-cooker world of financial accounting in favor of becoming a professor herself. As she volunteered for more and more activities to test her newfound inclination, she discovered that she had a knack for explaining complex material and that she appreciated the variety of tasks that the job would entail, from teaching to research to service.

“She lectured in two of my classes,” Zaidi said. “One of the lectures was impromptu. Her confidence, her enthusiasm and her eagerness to help students made me think that she is a great candidate for a Ph.D. I saw my mirror image in her. I have no doubt that she will be a great professor.”

Alisha appreciates the irony in the fact that, when she first set off for college as a teenager, she was determined to become neither an accountant (her father is a CPA) nor a teacher (her mother taught early childhood development). But the Oceanside native didn’t know what career she did hope to pursue, so she matriculated to UC Santa Barbara with the half-hearted idea of being a doctor.

Only 17 when she enrolled, Alisha quickly realized that she didn’t want to be there, and when she picked up a part-time sales job at Nordstrom to help cover school expenses, she discovered that she was good at it. She withdrew after two quarters, soon married a man she had met at UCSB, and began an almost 20-year odyssey in various sales positions, eventually rising to store manager of Paper Source in Santa Barbara.

Her life took an unexpected turn in 2013. Only two months after she and her husband decided to separate – “We were no longer the right person for each other,” Alisha said – she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She underwent surgery that September to remove her thyroid gland and a few lymph nodes, but afterward her endocrinologist struggled to find the correct dosage of replacement thyroid hormone (the thyroid regulates both metabolism and body temperature).

“I got to the point where I had gained a significant amount of weight and I was freezing cold,” Alisha said. “I was so cold that my fingernails were blue. I was always in jackets. It took two years to get it all straightened out. I felt like I was a pin cushion, like ‘Here’s my vein, do your blood work.'"

Frustrated by the lack of improvement in her condition, Alisha switched her medical care to UCLA and had a second surgery to remove additional cancer in February 2015. She’s now cancer-free, though her thyroid levels are still checked every year.

“I literally have to take two pills a day to stay alive,” she said. “It’s an interesting thing to come to terms with.”

Another thing she came to terms with was that she had more to offer than running a store for the rest of her life. After a particularly rough holiday retail season in 2015, Alisha chose to make a clean break and go back to school, enticed by her parents’ offer to let her live with them in Oceanside and pay for her living expenses if she returned to college.

She hasn’t looked back since. The outstanding CoBA graduate has much left to accomplish, and the clock is ticking.

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Honorees were nominated by faculty or staff and endorsed by their college’s dean. Here is a closer look at each award recipient:

Conner Whitten, B.A., Psychology

President’s Outstanding Graduate

Dean’s Award, College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences

Conner is a first-generation college student and American Indian whose academic interest lies within the field of neuroscience. In his time at CSUSM, he has held the role of research assistant four times, and he’s currently conducting an independent research study on the role of neuropeptides on the performance of maternal behavior in mice.

Two of Conner’s research projects – the Pill Take Back Program on opioid abuse and Ready Set Go! on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders – directly affected the American Indian community. He already has been accepted into the Ph.D. program for experimental psychology at the University of Tennessee.

Read more about Conner here.

Alisha Blush, B.S., Accounting

Dean’s Award, College of Business Administration

Alisha transferred from MiraCosta and Palomar colleges after a successful 17-year career in management and after overcoming some challenging life experiences, including two bouts with thyroid cancer.

She not only excels academically, but she also motivates other students to achieve their academic potential. She was appointed by faculty to roles as head tutor of the accounting lab, supplemental instructor for Introduction to Managerial Accounting and teaching assistant for the junior-level cost accounting class. She also is external vice president of the Accounting Society.

Alisha has been accepted to the Master of Professional Accountancy program at UC Irvine and plans to pursue a doctorate.

Diana Lopez, B.A., Human Development

Dean’s Award, College of Education, Health and Human Services

A first-generation college student struggling with her cultural identity, Diana was embarrassed to speak Spanish in front of her friends until her second year at CSUSM. Helped by the university’s and the department’s celebration of diversity, she built her fluency in English and demonstrated a drive and sense of leadership.

Last year, she served as the president of the student-led Human Development Club, and she has volunteered many hours to local community organizations helping culturally diverse youth and their parents, all while working to put herself through college.

Diana plans to continue her education and is applying to master’s programs in social work.

Jesus Perez, B.S. Physics,

Dean’s Award, College of Science and Mathematics

Though he has not yet received his bachelor’s degree, Jesus is already an accomplished physicist. He has been accepted into UCLA’s doctoral physics program and was awarded the Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, which will provide him with a graduate stipend of $100,000 over four years.

Jesus’ undergraduate research began in 2016 with a semester-long internship at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and he since has proven to be an outstanding member of the CSUSM physics research lab. And his involvement in the university chapter of the Society of Physics Students has led to increasing roles of leadership and service to the community.

Read more about Jesus here and here.

Carolyn Matthews, M.S., Biological Sciences

Dean’s Award, Graduate Studies

After Carolyn earned a bachelor’s in biological sciences, she promised herself that one day she would return to school for her graduate degree. She worked as a teacher and then a clinical lab scientist for many years, starting a family and supporting her husband while he served in the U.S. Navy. This spring, she will finally achieve the goal she made for herself.

Carolyn is currently working on a research project studying the roles played by the immune system in the skin during wound repair. Her findings are being compiled and written into a manuscript that will be submitted this summer, with Carolyn as the first author.

In pursuing her master’s degree, she has played the role of mentor for many young scientists, including training seven undergraduate students. She now plans to pursue her dream of obtaining a research position in biotechnology while continuing to teach at the community college level.

Alexa Diaz, B.A., Human Development and Spanish

Dean of Students Outstanding Leadership Award

Alexa is an outstanding scholar whose true passion is helping others. During her first year, she was initiated into the Alpha Lambda Delta honor society, and later elected president of the CSUSM chapter.

During her second year, she joined the Tukwut Leadership Circle, the campus’ leadership certificate program, and her service has been recognized by UNESCO for the last three years. Last year, she because the lead for the TLC Peer Leadership Team; in total, she has served over 3,000 hours in support of TLC students.

Alexa also has begun to explore the world of teaching at the college level. After receiving training covering student development theory and research on first-year student college success, First-Year Programs hired her as an instructional student assistant to serve as a GEL 101 peer educator.

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

As part of the message to her successor, Haynes wrote, “Congratulations on attaining the best presidency in the CSU and beyond.”

Last week, Neufeldt (pronounced NEW-FELT) got her first intimate look at the university she will lead starting in July and began to confirm for herself the veracity of Haynes’ words.

“She couldn’t have been more accurate in her description,” Neufeldt said.

Neufeldt was speaking to a crowd of close to 700 students, faculty and staff in The Sports Center during an open forum Thursday that was an opportunity for her to introduce herself to the campus community and for the campus community to greet her and ask her questions. It was just one event in a packed two-day visit that saw Neufeldt meet with many CSUSM constituencies as the first steps in a listening tour that will continue after she officially begins her tenure this summer.

“Everybody is so committed to this campus,” Neufeldt said Friday afternoon at the conclusion of her two days at CSUSM. “I’ve heard ‘university first’ a lot, and I really interpret that to mean making sure we’re doing our very best for the students here, being committed to the whole community. Everybody really embodied that. It’s one thing to read it. It’s another thing to see it in action, so that was really nice.”

Neufeldt comes to CSUSM from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., where she is vice president of student engagement and enrollment services. She’s taking over for Haynes, who will retire in June after 15½ years, making her the longest-serving president in the CSU system.

Neufeldt told the audience at the open forum that her career has revolved around the issues of student success and social mobility. She established a link between Old Dominion and CSUSM, saying the universities share a commitment to diversity, to inclusivity and to ensuring that every student is given the best chance possible to graduate.

She also talked about her background. Neufeldt isn’t a first-generation college graduate, but her father is; after being raised on a farm in Canada in an immigrant family where English was a second language, he found his way to college, eventually earning a Ph.D. Neufeldt said her father’s efforts to go far in academia changed not only his life, but hers as well. She essentially grew up on his university campus in Tennessee, with the importance of higher education imprinted in her DNA.

“I wake up almost every morning grateful to be in such a purposeful profession, where we get to work together to change lives and to move the needle forward,” she said. “When I had the opportunity to come here, I came to realize very quickly that Cal State San Marcos stands for what the future is about in higher ed, a student-centered university that really aligns with my passions.”

Neufeldt’s message during her campus visit was well-received.

“She’s incredibly lovely,” said Savana Doudar, president of Associated Students, Inc., who served on the presidential search committee. “Definitely a listener, which is what I really appreciate and we were all looking for in a new campus president. Someone who’s willing to learn and understand what this campus needs and what our journey will look like moving forward.”

Said Jackie Trischman, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry: “I have found Dr. Neufeldt to be an engaging academic leader so far. She understands the challenges our students face and the complexity of the CSU system well, even if she has yet to learn most of our acronyms and policies. I look forward to getting to know her better as a president and as a colleague.”

After two full days at CSUSM, Neufeldt was looking forward to touring North County on Saturday, including a possible stop at the beach (hiking and spending time near the ocean are two of her favorite leisure activities). As she prepared to return to Virginia before moving west for good, she reflected on what she had seen and heard at her future home.

“My biggest takeaway is how impressed I was with everybody I met and the spirit of the entire community of faculty, staff and students,” Neufeldt said. “I can’t wait to be here full-time and immerse myself in this place.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

The California State University Board of Trustees announced in March the appointment of Dr. Ellen J. Neufeldt as the new president of CSUSM. Neufeldt, who currently serves as vice president of student engagement and enrollment services for Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., will start at CSUSM in July. 

She’s taking over for Dr. Karen Haynes, who announced last fall that she would be retiring in June. Haynes has led CSUSM since 2004, making her the longest-tenured president in the CSU system.  

“It’s such an honor to have been selected the next president,” Neufeldt said. “There is such a positive trajectory to move forward from together and so much pride in what’s already happened in San Marcos. I’m thrilled to be someone who can lead the university on the next chapter of the journey.” 

Neufeldt will see her new home up close and personal this week when she visits campus for the first time as incoming president. She will be at CSUSM on Thursday and Friday, and her visit will include a forum on Thursday at noon at The Sports Center that's open to the campus community. 

Neufeldt said she was naturally drawn to the opening at CSUSM, mentioning that the “heart of my career” has been about student access and success as well as community engagement. Before her stint at Old Dominion, where she has worked since 2011, Neufeldt was vice president of student affairs at Salisbury University in Maryland and assistant vice chancellor for student development and dean of student life at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. 

Like CSUSM, Old Dominion is a minority-serving institution that features a high population of first-generation and military-affiliated students. Last year, Neufeldt received the Melvene Draheim Hardee Award, which honors contributions to higher education, for leading the creation of a national center for social mobility that focuses on research in assisting low-income students with college access and degree attainment. 

“The students, the goals and the focus of the San Marcos campus align so closely with my passions in my career,” Neufeldt said. “It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.” 

Haynes applauded the selection of Neufeldt as her successor. 

“Dr. Neufeldt is someone who I believe brings the trailblazing, community-engaged and innovative mindset that Cal State San Marcos is known for,” Haynes said. “I know that she admires, respects and supports what CSUSM has accomplished, with a vision for continued growth and opportunities ahead.” 

Neufeldt was born in Michigan, but her family moved to Tennessee when her father accepted a job as a faculty member in the College of Education at Tennessee Tech University in the town of Cookeville, about 80 miles east of Nashville. She said she attended a preschool and elementary school connected to the campus and was greatly influenced by her father, an immigrant from Canada who was the first in his family to earn a college degree. 

“Because of his persistence, I had opportunity,” she said. “I know firsthand the transformative power of a college education and the opportunities afforded to graduates. When I think about our first-generation college students, I know they’re not just changing their lives, but the lives of their family, future generations and entire communities.” 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Each semester’s presentation, which she refers to as the course’s “Research Conference,” is unique for its content as well as its presenters. This fall semester’s event featured several projects on teacher appreciation and inspiring teachers.

What surprised nobody in attendance was that nearly every student pointed to their retiring professor as the true inspiration in their academic and professional careers.

“Her encouraging words were so important because this semester is the last one for most of us,” said senior Jessica Garcia, who was part of the Advocacy for Students with Special Needs group. “She told us to trust the process, which we learned to do. Now we know to trust the process to help you get to your ultimate goal. She’s a great teacher, and I’m sad this is her last semester at Cal State San Marcos. She has impacted so many students. We’re definitely going to miss her.”

Jacqueline Chalico’s “Inclusion” group worked under the YMCA Curriculum category of projects. She left no doubt about the inspiration for the assignment.

“Throughout the entire project she was the head of guiding us toward the right path and making this program even possible,” Chalico said. “She gave us advice on ways to better implement certain activities. She’s just a great teacher.”

Bigham went to graduate school to earn her license in psychology, but fell in love with teaching when she filled in for one of her retiring professor’s statistics courses. Seventeen years later, she has developed an acclaimed senior project that is extremely popular for any student going into a field in which they want to help people.

“Human Development is a major that brings the best, brightest and warmest people together,” Bigham said. “They’re a really special population. They really want to go do something to help out. It’s been really special for me to be able to spend almost 20 years with these types of students. It’s such a gift.”

Students worked in groups in three categories – SOLE Effects, YMCA Curriculum and Voice For Heroes. Each category worked with a community partner from North County to help develop real-world curriculum and they presented their work during the Nov. 26 event at the McMahan House.

Within each category were specialized projects. The SOLE Effects projects centered around creating two 15-minute activities intended to be presented in a ninth-grade health class. The topics covered were stress control, teamwork, developing mind and body, empathy and passion/purpose.

The YMCA Curriculum groups focused on developing staff trainings for professional development. They touched on topics such as the importance of volunteerism, self-development, project management, communication, developing others and inclusion.

“When I was growing up, the YMCA is where I went a lot,” said Erin Nafarrete, whose group project was entitled Inclusion. “The dedication and the inspiration that every staff member or volunteer has is like a pay-it-forward kind of thing. You get inspired by that kind of stuff. You want to help a kid by being a mentor.”

The evening concluded with the presentations in the Voice For Heroes category. Video projects were presented that identified people (and service dogs in one group) who have inspired others to make positive change. Voice For Heroes is a nonprofit organization founded by music recording artist Amy Scruggs.

“They did an incredible job getting to the heart of what it was they were doing,” Scruggs said. “I was so happy to see they found what they wanted their message to be, created it, found the right people to interview and did a great job delivering that empowering message that gave us all awareness for each one of those topics.”

One group, the Heroes for Human Needs, looked to bring attention to campus resources for students who didn’t know they existed, such as mental health resources, food and financial security.

“What we discovered is that the campus has many resources available, but they aren’t being used,” said Victor Pringle, who is also a disabled veteran. “We hope to spread the word that if you know about these resources, you’ll share them with your fellow classmates.”

Cougar Care Network is an on-campus inclusive resource intended to improve student success, retention and persistence. It is located in the Dean of Students Office inside University Student Union.

“We didn’t even know what Cougar Care Network was until we went out and did the research,” Ruby Garcia said. “For me personally, I wanted to see what I could help people with. What is something I know that others don’t know, and what is something others know that I don’t? Lacking basic needs is something people need to know more about.”

Other groups in the project focused on teacher appreciation, inspiring future teachers, advocating for service dogs and advocating for children and high school students with special needs.

The advocacy for students with special needs group traveled to nearby Vista High School and met with the Buddies Club, which introduces the student population to the many benefits of meeting and working with special needs students. Diana Lopez and Shaina Lilly were part of the Buddies Club before coming to CSUSM.

“What we found in our research was that a lot of people said they would be interested in volunteering or socializing with special needs students but were scared of being disrespectful, saying the wrong thing or acting the wrong way,” Lopez said. “But what we found is that you just have to go for it. There’s no right or wrong way. They’re people at the end of the day. Just like we want to interact with others, they do as well.”

One member of the Inspiring Teachers group had a personal experience with a teacher who inspired her in many ways.

“She was the most compassionate person you’ve ever met,” Amy Concha said about her best friend’s late mom, who was a teacher in La Mesa. “She was the most motherly teacher and everyone would always go up to her and give her a hug. She made such an emotional impact on students and fellow teachers. So when I was thinking about an inspiring teacher, she was the first one who came to my mind.”

Bigham’s immediate retirement plans are to help care for her 92-year-old father. Her future is uncertain, but it’s a safe bet she’ll be doing something to make the world a better place.

“It’s with mixed emotions that I say goodbye to this chapter and go spend some years not thinking about the future and just thinking about my dad and my family for a while,” she said. “I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I’m going to allow that to be what it is when it’s time for it to be.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

When Cal State San Marcos received the archival records of The Paul Ecke Ranch, Inc. in 2013, the University was unsure what the future would bring. The University Library’s strategic initiative to begin a special collections program made the Ecke Collection CSUSM’s inaugural special collection. The collection represented an opportunity to greatly influence the future by introducing an entire region to the indelible mark left by the Ecke family on North County and the world in general.

Nearly five years later, the Ecke Collection has done that and much more.

“There are smaller local history centers and organizations across the region that collect individually, but it’s not in a coordinated manner or at the scale possible through the efforts of a library at a university such as ours,” said Aditi Worcester, a Processing Archivist in the Library. “Acquiring the Ecke Collection was the first step. Since that time, faculty, staff and students have been hard at work in establishing systems, workflows and policies to build a program that can sustain the growth of a formal special collections unit within the University Library.”

Most locals are familiar with certain aspects of the Ecke family, particularly of its past as a locally owned family business that grew and sold poinsettias, and successfully marketed it as the holiday flower for Christmas all over the world. Most county residents are also aware of the philanthropic efforts of the Ecke family, which has donated millions to various local entities.

But thanks to the work being done at the University Library in collaboration with faculty and students in the history department, the story of the Ecke family from its origins in the region to its global effect on Christmas and agriculture continues to evolve at CSUSM.

“The story of the last five years has not been the growth of the collection, but rather the progress made in organizing and cataloging it, to make it accessible to researchers,” said history professor Dr. Jeff Charles, a specialist in the history of agriculture who acquired the collection for the campus. “A team of history grad students and I did preliminary sorting early on, but the recent work done by the University Library, again with some history students, has been tremendous. And as the collection has become accessible, it has begun to reveal the impact of the Eckes on the region, on the flower business, and on the way we celebrate Christmas.”

The focus of the Library’s efforts has been on making the collection accessible to a wide audience with the intent of broadening collective knowledge.

“At the most basic level, the collection may be viewed as telling the history of a local, family-owned poinsettia business,” Worcester said. “It tells the story of an immigrant family of entrepreneurs from Germany who moved to the U.S. in 1902. The records document the growth of the business as well as of the North County region from 1923 onward through World War II, the Great Depression and other historic milestones. The collection documents worker-employee relations during the Bracero program, when Mexican farm workers were allowed into the U.S. to address the shortage of manual labor after World War II. The scope of the collection is more dynamic than the history of a single family or business.”

A large part of making the collection readily accessible is making it more discoverable.

The library catalog, website, online exhibits on Omeka, which is a digital publishing platform, and a folder-level finding aid on ArchivesSpace are several ways for people to discover what’s new. Two-thirds of the print records have been processed and more than 500 three-dimensional artifacts have been digitized. In addition, a virtual contact-sheet has been created for thousands of 35mm slides.

“It is one thing to learn about the impact of World War II on daily life within the pages of a history textbook,” Worcester said. “It is quite another to hold ‘mileage rations’ from 1944 in your hand or browse through gasoline credits from 1942 deposited in the Bank of America for the family’s ration account. There is correspondence with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the order from the government to change the ‘crops’ grown during wartime as per government regulations. The Ecke Ranch had to include fruits and vegetables, in addition to poinsettias, to meet wartime regulations. The records include research related to floriculture, horticulture, cultivars and patents for different flowers. They cover tales of intrigue spanning international collaborations and disputes over royalties and patent protections. They offer insight to personal values, styles of leadership and one family’s continued role in the growth and development of the North County region.

“The scope of the collection can be as diverse and varied as the interests of the researcher. The university library is committed to the long-term preservation, description and accessibility of this collection and we’re excited to see what use researchers make of it.”

The collection has also served as a career launching board for the student assistants hired and trained to work exclusively on it. All of the Ecke Fellows receive financial support from the Ecke family. Three of the original fellows who worked on the project are now teaching at community colleges in the area. Another is an archivist for the Black Experience at Northwestern University in Illinois and another just received his Ph.D. from Penn.

One of the current fellows is Melissa Haire, a second-year history graduate student. Her work has been crucial in processing and describing the collection, and digitizing records for online exhibits, which can be found at https://archives.csusm.edu/ecke/.

“I received training in the fundamentals of archival processing and learned how to arrange and describe records intellectually and physically in order to make them discoverable,” Haire said. “For instance, when you search for something online, you type in appropriate keywords. The search engine indexes ‘stuff’ on the internet and then returns results relevant to the keywords. I’m doing something similar. We have 600 boxes of ‘stuff,’ and I help researchers identify records relevant to their interests by indexing three generations worth of records of a family and business that spans over 100 years. I also digitize photographs, 35mm slides and other printed material.”

Most universities do an admirable job of connecting to the local community, and CSUSM is no exception. In fact, in its nearly 30 years of existence, CSUSM has proven to be a shining example of how a university is essential to a region’s connection to the past.

“The University can and should be a repository of knowledge as well as an institution that conveys knowledge to students,” Charles said. “But even beyond that, I feel the university’s job is not just vocational. Of course we want to prepare students for the job market, but we also want to enrich their lives. Understanding how a local poinsettia grower has shaped their Christmas memories might not change what gifts students can afford, but it helps them appreciate the historical sources of holiday traditions and make these traditions more meaningful.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

“Everybody needs to be able to write well,” Stowell said. “No matter what profession you go into, writing is an important skill to have, and it’s a skill that needs to be taught, and taught well, in our schools.”

The San Marcos Writing Project is among more than 200 nationwide and one of 17 that fall under the California Writing Project umbrella. Stowell not only heads the San Marcos Writing Project, she’s also part of a five-member executive team leading the statewide effort.

Like others around the country, the San Marcos Writing Project is a resource for K-12 teachers and school districts in the region that provides a variety of workshops and in-service presentations at local schools. In addition, the San Marcos Writing Project sponsors a New Teacher Institute on Writing, which includes workshops for instructors who just completed their credential program; a series of Preparing College Ready Writers sessions; and a five-week summer institute for teachers that stretches from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

The Writing Project just completed a four-year, Department of Education research grant to determine how to best support the writing of middle and high school students, and it also hosts several Young Writers Camps for two weeks in the summer for students in grades two through 12.

“It is the best professional development option around because it is so relevant,” said Oceanside Unified School District instructor Irene Diggs, who is currently serving as a teacher in residence at CSUSM. “It really inspires teachers to enhance their practices and results in engaging students in different ways.”

Stowell certainly has the chops for the job. A former sixth- and eighth-grade teacher in Dublin, Ohio, Stowell has a bachelor of arts in education, a master of arts in reading and a Ph.D. in language, literature and reading development. She has been a CSUSM professor of literacy since August 1992.

“She’s such a selfless, passionate, inspiring educator,” Diggs said.

As Writing Project director, Stowell’s challenges are many. Public school teachers are working with a diverse student body, large class sizes and an abundance of English learners, not to mention the pressure of preparing their students to do well on standardized tests – tests that don’t emphasize good writing.

Students aren’t doing so well on those standardized tests, either. In fact, just 27 percent of fourth graders, 26 percent of eighth graders and 25 percent of public high school seniors were deemed at or above proficient in writing, according to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress.

As if all that weren’t enough, studies have shown that too few teachers have taken a college class on how children learn to write.

El Camino High School English teacher Carrie Targhetta is among those whose credential program did not include how to teach writing.

“I just had to pick up things through self study, through talking, and through collaborating with other teachers,” Targhetta said.

Targhetta was introduced to the San Marcos Writing Project in 2009 when she took part in the summer institute.

“It revolutionized the way I taught writing,” she said. “I went back into my classroom and threw out about 70 or 80 percent of what I had been doing and started from the beginning.”

Her students now dissect bits of writing that connect with and are meaningful to them, analyze why a particular piece or passage has meaning, then incorporate the tools they’ve learned from their analysis into their writing.

Key concepts for the Writing Project include becoming familiar with the latest in writing pedagogy. And ensuring students are writing. Daily.

“When kids write every day and when they have the skills to write in all kinds of situations, be it college essays, job applications, in their journals, they are going to grow into good writers who can do better on their tests,” Stowell said.

Though the challenge may seem daunting, Stowell remains undeterred.

“I get to teach teachers how to teach reading and writing,” she said. “It’s a dream job.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Before he took over as the dean of Cal State San Marcos’ College of Education, Health and Human Services in July, Ayala worked for 18 years as a professor at Sonoma State, with a one-year stint in the middle as an associate dean at Humboldt State. For most of his time at Sonoma State, the dean he operated under in the School of Education was none other than his older brother, Carlos. Both brothers earned master’s degrees at San Diego State, and Emiliano also got his Ph.D. there.  

Ayala’s older sister, Guadalupe, is a professor of public health at SDSU after earning master’s degrees from CSUSM and SDSU and a doctorate from SDSU. His father, Reynaldo, taught for years at SDSU’s Imperial Valley campus in Calexico. His mother, Marta, was a librarian at the same school.  

And Ayala’s oldest daughter, Nastassia, is a graduate of Chico State. 

“I chose the CSU,” Ayala said. “There were opportunities for me to look at other institutions, but I was like, ‘We are born and bred CSU.’ We are three generations of CSU. The mission is clear. This is what I need to be doing as a leader in higher education.” 

Even within the CSU system, Ayala had plenty of other opportunities to pursue dean’s positions, but he opted for a growing college at a growing university within a growing region. 

“I was really particular about what campus I was going to apply to – first just the portfolio of programs, the idea of health and human services, profession-driven programs and schools is what I deeply believe in,” he said. “That’s what attracted me. And what has been affirming for me in the last few months is that the faculty and staff truly care about the work they do.” 

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Ayala has returned home, in a sense, after almost two decades spent in the Bay Area. He and his wife, Cat, bought a house in Valley Center on a four-acre plot of land with avocado and blood orange trees and a million-dollar view of Palomar Mountain. It’s not far from where they met, 30 years ago at Felicita Elementary School in Escondido, where Emiliano was doing an internship as a school psychologist and Cat was a speech-language pathologist. 

Also, it’s a drive of only a couple of hours from where Ayala grew up, in Calexico, right on the Mexican border – literally.  

“We lived on Second Street, and First Street is the fence,” said Ayala, who has a photo in his office of people climbing over the fence to the U.S. side. “Growing up on the border involved very powerful experiences for me and really shaped how I view the world.” 

Ayala jokes that he could write multiple books about his life and members of his extended family, and it all starts with his father’s wildly improbable story of immigrant success. Reynaldo Ayala was born into a very poor family from Saltillo, Mexico. His mother died when he was 4 and his father left his children behind, so he and his four brothers were sent to live with two elderly aunts. Reynaldo spent his childhood shining shoes and selling tortillas on the streets. 

Fate intervened in the form of Irene Westling, a Minnesota woman who, after the death of her husband, decided to start taking trips to Mexico to study Spanish. On one of her tours, she met a 10-year-old boy who offered to shine her shoes and sell her tortillas. Thus began a lifelong relationship. Westling returned every year, and when Reynaldo turned 16, she asked the governor of Minnesota for permission to adopt him and bring him to America. 

Thanks to the woman Emiliano calls “foster grandmother,” Reynaldo ended up attending the University of Minnesota, where, in Latin club, he soon met Marta Stiefel, an Argentinian who had been sent to the U.S. to be trained to help treat people afflicted by a polio outbreak in her country. 

“The reason I’m here is a series of crazy circumstances,” Ayala said.

After Reynaldo earned his doctorate, the family settled in Calexico, but Emiliano and his siblings hardly had a traditional upbringing. Rather, their parents espoused what he describes as a “disruptive” education. Every few years, the kids would be pulled out of school as the family moved to another state or even country. One time, it was Arizona. Another time, it was Colombia. Multiple times, it was their mother’s native Argentina.

The most exotic – or crazy, depending on your perspective – instance came when Emiliano was a sophomore in high school in 1979. With his father on sabbatical from teaching, the family sold its house in Calexico, sold its cars, bought an RV, and drove to visit Irene Westling in Minnesota. That was the starting point of a six-month odyssey in which the Ayalas drove the length of the Pan-American Highway, from near the Canadian border to the tip of South America – visiting every country in between.

“It was incredible,” Ayala said. “The experiences I had, the places I saw, the people I met, the food I ate, you don’t see that happening anymore as a family, and it brought us closer together. We have so many stories from that trip.”

Ayala may not have lived in Calexico continuously, but he did have many formative experiences there. He remembers walking to the local 7-Eleven to buy a candy bar after earning 50 cents by doing some chore, and having Border Patrol agents – “Migra,” he called them – cut him off and interrogate him because they thought he had just jumped the fence illegally. He recalls going to a school where there were no students with disabilities because they were bused to a different city – beginning his lifelong interest in the field of special education.

“That was another life-defining moment for me to say, ‘What the heck, that’s not right. These are people, too,’ ” he said. “That racial discrimination, that targeting that I experienced, it made me want to look out for people with disabilities. You look in my high school yearbook, and under ‘what do you want to be when you grow up,’ it says, ‘high school special ed teacher.’ ”

Ayala indeed followed that path while exceeding his younger self’s ambition; after earning his Ph.D., he took his first professor job at Sonoma State in 2000, training teachers to work in special education. As his star rose at the university, he started to think about making the transition into administration, which prompted his move to Humboldt State as an associate dean in 2012.

By this time, both of his daughters were out of the house, with Nastassia at Chico State and Giselle starting her freshman year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. But in April 2013, tragedy struck. Giselle died after falling from a cliff near Santa Barbara during an annual spring break party.

“We had friends over at our house in Santa Rosa,” Ayala recalled. “There was a knock at the door; it was a police officer and a clergy standing there. It felt like something out of a movie. Immediately I thought, ‘What did Nastassia do?’ She’s the wild child, the risk-taker of the family. When they said Giselle had passed away, our world flipped. Nothing could ever change how you see the world again.”

Reeling from the loss, Ayala left his job at Humboldt State and returned to the comfort of his faculty position at Sonoma State. He came back a humbler, less self-important man.

“Before Giselle passed away, part of wanting to be an administrator in higher education was ego-driven,” he said. “Now as I look at it, the ego piece is gone. I don’t need to be right all the time. It doesn’t need to be all about me. It’s about our success, and our success is ultimately about how well our students are doing.”

Five years later, Ayala is again in an administrative role, advocating for students above all else. And though he’s on a new campus, he remains CSU through and through.

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

The recipients are:

• David Falconer, who served in the Marines as a computer network administrator. He is pursuing a bachelor’s in computer science and engineering.
• Alexandria Harding, who served in the Navy as an electronics technician. She is pursuing a bachelor’s in biology and aspires to have a career in the medical field.
• Michael Jones, who served in the Navy as a sonar technician. He is pursuing a bachelor’s in computer science.
• Daniel Vandiver, who served in the Marines as an aviation mechanic. He is pursuing a bachelor’s in computer science and aspires to work as a software engineer for flight operations.

Each student will receive $2,500 to help them earn degrees in STEM fields.

“CSUSM is extremely proud of these distinguished veterans for receiving the SDMAC Military Veteran Student of the Year Academic Scholarships,” said Patricia Reily, director of Veterans Services at CSUSM. “We look forward to seeing them graduate and pursue meaningful careers in the STEM fields.”

CSUSM in national rankings

• CSUSM has been ranked among the top universities in the nation for creating opportunities for students to improve their lives and the lives of their families. CSUSM was listed 52^nd out of nearly 1,400 universities in the Social Mobility Index (SMI) developed by PayScale and CollegeNET. The SMI measures the extent to which a college or university educates more economically disadvantaged students at lower tuition.

• CSUSM was ranked 45^th among Western colleges in Washington Monthly’s “Best Bang for the Buck” listing and 90^th for “Master’s Universities.” That’s five places higher on the West list and 54 spots higher on the Master’s list compared to last year. More than 200 universities were ranked on the West list and nearly 700 on the Master’s list.
• CSUSM was ranked 45^th in Hispanic Outlook on Education Magazine’s list of “Top 100 Colleges and Universities for Hispanics 2018” for total bachelor’s degrees granted.

Undergrad research conference

CSUSM was selected to host the 2019 Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research. The event, held in November each year, includes schools from throughout Southern California. The 2019 event will be the first held in San Diego County.

The conference aims to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of the best research, scholarship and creative work of undergraduates in the region.

Kang’s book receives more honors

History professor S. Deborah Kang, who received two prestigious awards in the spring for her book, “The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1917-1954,” has received four additional honors: She won the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize; the Americo Paredes Book Award for Best Nonfiction Book on Chicano/a, Mexican American, and/or Latino/a Studies; the W. Turrentine Jackson Award from the Western History Association; and she was named a finalist for the Weber-Clements Book Prize.

Earlier this year, Kang received the Henry Adams Prize from the Society on History in the Federal Government and the Theodore Saloutos Book Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society.

Extended Learning dean receives Chancellor’s Award

Mike Schroder, dean of Extended Learning and associate vice president of International Programs, was recognized by the California State University system with the 2018-19 Chancellor’s Award for Administrator Excellence and Innovation through the Edward M. McAleer Jr. Excellence and Innovation Awards program, which honors outstanding contributions in support of CSU Continuing and Extended Education.

The chancellor’s award was presented on Oct. 10 at a CSU systemwide conference for Extended Learning.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Now the University has the money to help accomplish that very goal. 

Late last month, CSUSM was awarded a $2.7 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education for the recruitment, support and preparation of Latinx teachers. The grant is titled Project SUPPORT – which stands for Serving Underrepresented Populations Partnering for Opportunities and Rewards in Teaching – and it’s part of the Department of Education’s Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program. 

Hispanic-Serving Institutions are colleges or universities in which at least 25 percent of the undergraduate, full-time enrollment is Latinx, and at least half of the institution’s degree-seeking students are low-income. CSUSM is one of 21 California State University schools that have achieved this designation. 

“I hope what this grant means is that we can change the landscape of education to be more reflective of students,” said Pat Stall, the director of CSUSM’s School of Education and the principal investigator for the grant. “Almost all of our North County school districts have over 50 percent Latinx students, and the range of Latinx teachers is 12 to 19 percent. Of course, that kind of discrepancy is not unusual; it’s the same around the country.” 

The grant will allow CSUSM’s School of Education to provide a comprehensive system of recruitment and support for prospective Latinx teachers. 

Recruitment activities include: 

• High school teacher preparation pipelines such as the Encuentros Leadership Academy and emerging Educators Rising chapters in local districts such as Vista, Oceanside, Escondido and San Marcos; 

• Pursuing bilingual candidates from college programs such as California Mini-Corps and the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) as well as through the Latin@ Center and Office of First-Year Programs; 

• Aligning with recruitment efforts already underway for various STEM grants focused on math and science education; 

• Marketing the new, more flexible four-year Integrated Teacher Education Program (ITEP) to classified employees, frequently working as teacher aides in partner school districts. 

Funding from the grant also will provide academic and relational support through a mentoring component that includes preparation for the state-required entry- and exit-level tests for teacher credentialing. The mentoring approach also involves awareness of financial aid and scholarship packages for teacher preparation. 

“Clear research suggests that when students have at least some teachers from the same backgrounds, they do better in school,” Stall said. “So there’s a high need for more diversity among teachers.” 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

After joining SPS, Jesus started attending conferences and participating in physics events on campus. He even served as the group’s treasurer during the 2017-18 academic year.

Jesus’ work paid off in another way as he was selected to receive the 2018 Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement, the California State University’s highest recognition of student achievement. Jesus was named a Trustee Emeritus Murray L. Galinson Scholar.

The CSU recognizes 23 students every year – one from each CSU campus – with the Trustees’ Award, which accompanies a donor-funded scholarship ranging from $6,000 to $12,000. The awardees will be publicly recognized during the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach on Sept. 11.

Students are selected for their exceptional efforts in the classroom and community. Awardees demonstrate superior academic performance, personal accomplishments, community service and financial need. Many have shown inspirational resolve along the path to college success and are the first in their families to attend college.

“These student scholars embody the leadership, diversity and academic excellence the California State University is known for,” said CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White. “They have traced unique paths to their goal of a higher education and serve as powerful examples to their families, communities and California. The awards will give these high-achieving and deserving students even more opportunities to attain their academic and career goals.”

The Trustees’ Award is just the latest honor for Jesus, who was recognized in June with a Society of Physics Students Leadership Scholarship, awarded to students who have exhibited outstanding academic and personal achievements.

In May, Jesus was part of a four-student team honored with the Library Award for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity, a CSUSM honor recognizing students demonstrating sophistication and originality in their research projects and creative works.

Jesus, who will graduate next spring with a bachelor’s in applied physics, spent the fall 2016 semester as an intern for the Science of Undergraduate Laboratory Internships program at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey. This summer, he was an intern at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Jesus is also an Alliance Ambassador for CSUSM’s Alliance to Accelerate Excellence in Education, which works collaboratively with regional partners to ensure that all K-12 students have access to a college education and are successful in persevering toward a degree.

More than 340 students have been honored with the Trustees’ Award since the scholarship program was established in 1984 by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. In 1999, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation partnered with the CSU Board of Trustees to supplement the endowment with contributions from CSU Trustees, CSU Foundation Board of Governors, and private donors. Each student scholarship bears the name of a donor.

About California State University San Marcos

Building on an innovative 28-year history, California State University San Marcos is a forward-focused institution, dedicated to preparing future leaders, building great communities and solving critical issues. Located on a 304-acre hillside overlooking the City of San Marcos, it is the only public four-year comprehensive university serving North San Diego, Southwest Riverside and South Orange Counties.

The University enrolls 17,000 students. With approximately 2,000 employees, the institution is a Great College to Work For® (The Chronicle of Higher Education). As a recipient of the annual HEED Award since 2014—a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion—CSUSM is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment.

It didn’t take long for her to realize she had nothing to worry about.

“As long as you have the motivation, you can do it,” said Marissa, one of 30 incoming Cal State San Marcos freshmen who participated in the three-week program last month.

CSUSM was one of four California universities to host a CSSI-Extension this summer. The program introduces incoming college freshmen to computer science through interactive, hands-on activities culminating in a presentation of group projects.

“We’re excited about this program and the opportunity to build confidence and community among students who have historically been underrepresented in STEM career fields,” said Ray Sawyer, a Student Development Specialist at Google.

More than 100 incoming freshmen applied to the program at CSUSM.

Youwen Ouyang, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, led the program. The students learned basic programming fundamentals and worked in small teams with one of six teaching assistants to design and develop their own applications. Jeffrey Morales, the Engineering Pathways Advisor, also worked with participants on developing their soft skills.

The program was funded by a Hispanic-Serving Institutions STEM grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

“The CSSI program is the beginning of our efforts to have students traditionally underrepresented in STEM participate in grant-related activities and increase their graduation rates,” said Ricardo Fierro, associate dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and project director of the grant.

Students lauded the program both for the computer science knowledge they gained and the opportunity to collaborate with faculty, staff and other students.

“Not only did we get to learn how to code in all these languages, but we made connections with faculty, the TAs and with each other,” said Anahi Badillo, a program participant.

“This program really encouraged me to get more involved,” added Thao Phung. “In high school, I wasn’t in any clubs. When I saw the email about this program, I wasn’t sure. But I took a risk, and it paid off. I made a lot of friends, and it was really fun.”

On the final day of the program, the teams presented their apps to the entire group and other invited guests. One of the apps was geared toward tourists visiting San Diego; another would enable CSUSM students to determine when and where pick-up games for a variety of sports are being played; and a third aimed at informing users about the latest trends in books, games, movies and music.

It wasn’t just the participants who found the program valuable.

Samuel Mueller, one of the teaching assistants and a veteran, enjoyed tutoring the incoming freshmen in the summer program.

“I’m passionate about getting computer science out there,” said Samuel, a second-year computer science major at CSUSM. “A lot of people don’t know what they’ll be good at until they try it. It’s important that they get the opportunity to explore different elements of it and build their confidence.”

Samuel noted that the program introduced him to industry professionals through field trips to San Marcos-based Hunter Industries and Google in Venice Beach.

“The students arrived wondering if they belonged in computer science,” Fierro said. “The program provided them with the opportunity to meet other majors and learn and enjoy basics of coding and teamwork. The field trips added an extra dimension to the program. Soon they realized they do belong here. They’re identifying now as computer scientists.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

CSUSM is one of just six institutions throughout the nation selected for the 2018 award.

The award includes an $18,500 grant that will allow the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department to bring to campus a leading researcher in the chemical sciences to give two lectures – a popular lecture and a more technical one – and to interact substantially with undergraduate students and faculty during the visit.

More than half of the grant will go to support the summer research of two undergraduate students.

The Jean Dreyfus Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions is sponsored by the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation, which promotes research and lectureships at primarily undergraduate institutions.

National Honor for Sigma Delta Pi

CSUSM’s Psi Epsilon Chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, has been named an “Honor Chapter” for its outstanding activities in 2017-18. It is CSUSM’s second straight year receiving the distinction.

Only 10 of the more than 615 chapters of Sigma Delta Pi received the honor, which is based on the caliber of chapter projects that reflect the society’s mission of honoring excellence in the study of Spanish, contributing to cultural understanding and upholding its goals.

Kendrick an AACN-Wharton Fellow

Lorna Kendrick, director of CSUSM’s School of Nursing, was among 30 academic nursing leaders selected to participate in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing-Wharton program, Aug. 6-9 in Philadelphia. The annual four-day program is taught by Wharton faculty, who present content designed to advance chief academic administrators to a higher level of leadership.

Student Receives NSCS Award

Luna Prieto earned an Induction Recognition Award from The National Society of Collegiate Scholars for $1,000. The award is given to students who exemplify leadership and excellence through their academic achievement.

Alumna Part of ‘Rising 25’

Linsey Bahl, who graduated with a bachelor’s in marketing in 2016, was recognized as a member of the “Front Office Sports Rising 25 Award Class of 2018.” The class includes 25 professionals in the sports business industry. Bahl, a marketing coordinator for Fox Sports San Diego, was selected from among 140 nominees.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

President Karen Haynes, the senior president in the California State University system, opened the 2018-19 academic year with her 15th CSUSM Convocation address on Thursday, Aug. 23.

Speaking to hundreds of CSUSM faculty and staff members, she highlighted recent University achievements and set the tone for the new school year.

“CSUSM is a special place. It’s not just a campus, not just a workplace, not just any university – it’s a home,” Haynes said. “For the majority of us, our work is not just a job but a calling. A calling to higher education, to solve society’s most pressing issues, to promote wellness and prosperity in our communities, and to empower students to embrace the rich and infinite possibilities that lay before them.”

Among CSUSM’s students this fall are nearly 2,500 freshmen and more than 2,000 transfer students. All enrollment figures are considered preliminary, with final totals determined after the end of the fourth week of classes.

New faculty, staff and programs

Emiliano Ayala began his appointment as dean of the College of Education, Health and Human Services in July. Ayala has served in the CSU for more than 17 years as a faculty member and a department chair, as well as in various administrative leadership positions. He came to CSUSM from Sonoma State, where he served as director of assessment and accreditation in the School of Education.

The University’s much-anticipated engineering program launches this fall with software engineering. CSUSM will add electrical engineering in fall 2019, pending final approval from the CSU Chancellor’s Office.

A stackable certificate program in EngiBeering, which explores the science and engineering behind brewing craft beer, also begins this academic year through Extended Learning.

Technology Learning Center

The University has transformed its main open computer lab, Kellogg 2000, into the new Technology Learning Center (TLC). This updated space in Kellogg Library addressed student feedback and concerns gathered from more than 550 voluntary responses that expressed a strong interest in seeing the lab upgraded with new technology and new work spaces.

The TLC project included a full remodel of the room, new furniture and new computers with large monitors. The updated design replaces the prior high-density layout with an open, efficient and flexible space that features individual technology pods, large collaborative work spaces, ergonomic and innovative seating, and curved and height-adjustable tables.

The TLC is available to CSUSM students 24 hours a day, five days a week.

Extended Learning building

Construction continues on CSUSM’s new Extended Learning building. Part of a public-private partnership, the project includes a 135,000-square-foot, six-story building, an accompanying 709-space parking garage and a pedestrian bridge over Barham Drive. The project is expected to be completed in time for the fall 2019 semester.

Weeks of Welcome

The annual Weeks of Welcome starts Aug. 24 and runs through Sept. 9. It includes dozens of free events to welcome students back to campus.

See the Weeks of Welcome calendar for a complete schedule.

20^th anniversary of athletics

A year after completing the transition to NCAA Division II, the CSUSM Department of Athletics has another reason to celebrate as it marks its 20^th anniversary in 2018-19.

Beginning with six sports in 1998 – men’s and women's golf, men's and women's cross country and men's and women's track and field – the program has grown to include 13 teams.

Summer snippets

• More than $190,000 was raised and a record number of gifts were received in support of student scholarships during the University’s annual gala on June 2.
• CSUSM was one of four universities in the country selected to host Iraqi students as part of the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program during the summer.
• The University was among 57 colleges and universities selected for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence Initiative, which provides $1 million in grant support over five years for each institution.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

CSUSM will receive $842,267 from the NSF’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program for a project titled “Cultivating STEM Teaching Identity in Noyce Teacher Scholars.”

Rong-Ji Chen, an associate professor in CSUSM’s School of Education, is the principal investigator on the project. He is joined by co-principal investigators Chuck De Leone, professor of physics; Linda Holt, professor of mathematics; and Paul Jasien, professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Other collaborators include MiraCosta College, Palomar College, Escondido Union High School District, San Marcos Unified School District and Vista Unified School District.

Other CSUs that received Noyce awards are Chico State, San Diego State, San Francisco State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Stanislaus State.

Shapiro Named 2018 Fellow

Adam Shapiro, a professor of sociology, was named a 2018 Fellow in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Section of the Gerontological Society of America, the nation's largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging.

Shapiro was one of 89 exemplary professionals selected as a GSA fellow, the highest class of membership within the GSA. It is an acknowledgment of outstanding and continuing work in gerontology.

The new fellows will be formally recognized during at the GSA’s 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting in November.

Hamill Appointed WSCUC Commissioner

Sharon Hamill, a professor of psychology and faculty director of the CSU Institute for Palliative Care at CSUSM, is one of seven new commissioners appointed to the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). Hamill’s appointment began July 1.

Commissioners serve three-year terms with the possibility of re-election to a second term.

Leadership Award

Neal Hoss, vice president of Finance and Administrative Services, was among nine people honored for their leadership during the North San Diego Business Chamber’s annual Celebration of Business.

The North San Diego Business Chamber Leadership Awards honor individuals who have positively impacted another individual, a business, organization or agency, or their community.

NSCS Gold Star Chapter

CSUSM’s chapter of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) has been recognized as a Gold Star Chapter for the 2017-18 academic year. Fifty-three of the more than 320 NSCS chapters received the designation.

Gold Star Chapters were recognized as leaders in implementing engaging, student-centered events on their campus and in their local community.

Inclusive Excellence Initiative

CSUSM was among 57 colleges and universities selected for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence Initiative, which provides $1 million in grant support over five years for each institution.

The Inclusive Excellence Initiative aims to catalyze schools’ efforts to engage all students in science regardless of background. That includes underrepresented ethnic minorities, first-generation college students and working adults with families.

Commendation for Women’s Volleyball

The women’s volleyball team, which became the University’s first program in the NCAA Division II era to travel abroad when it played three matches in Italy last month, will be given a commendation at the San Marcos City Council meeting on Aug. 14.

Top Honor for Sigma Alpha Epsilon

CSUSM’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon received the John O. Moseley Zeal Award, which recognizes the chapter that best exemplifies a model chapter in the fraternity.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

The City of San Marcos rallied crews from several cities to help Cal State San Marcos students test a drone technology that could improve how wildfires are fought.

“Firefighters spend a lot of time and energy shuttling hoses from the engine to the actual wildfire,” said Nick Blaylock, one of the students involved. “And they’re often doing this up steep slopes and across rough terrain, which is exhausting.”

Drones, however, could possibly help crews conserve some energy by air-dropping those hose packs so firefighters don’t have to haul them. As part of a senior project, Blaylock and four other students spent months exploring that with Skylift Global, a San Marcos-based company that makes drones capable of delivering supplies to first-responders.

Though Sklylift Global has been in business for three years, serving firefighters is new territory it wanted to explore. The company submitted a proposal for the Senior Experience Program, which assigns CSUSM students to real-world projects like these.

The students began by researching what crews face during a wildfire. That led them to San Marcos Fire Battalion Chief James Colston, who oversees the department’s training and safety division.

“We’re fortunate to have Cal State San Marcos right here in our backyard, so we were happy to help,” he said. “We invited them to observe our annual training, which I think opened their eyes.”

It did, in fact, says Blaylock. His team realized that a drone probably couldn’t help much during the early stages of a wildfire because the flames are too unpredictable. But it likely could help during the later stages, when a fire border has been established.

Based on that, the students designed a simulation that included fire hose packs every 100 feet, as if a drone had peppered them out for crews. Now, all they needed were firefighters to run the test.

“Thankfully, Chief Colston got an amazing turnout for us,” Blaylock said. “We were so thankful that so many firefighters were willing to come volunteer their time on a Sunday morning to help us.”

During the May 6 simulation, firefighters from the cities of San Marcos, Carlsbad, Escondido and Rancho Santa Fe — as well as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) — participated. Results showed that if crews did not have to manually haul hose packs, they worked about 18 percent faster — and theoretically, would be less fatigued during a real wildfire.

“While time is a good measurement, fatigue is really the key factor,” said Colston, who added that he can see the potential support drones could provide. “If something like this can increase efficiency while reducing the chance of firefighters getting hurt, then I’m all for it.”

That exact sentiment is what inspired Amir Emadi to start Skylift Global. His father was working as a United States cooperative in Iraq when he was killed by Iraqi forces while protecting a city.

“Since then, I’ve spent my life finding a way to introduce technology to the people who dedicate their lives to protect us,” Emadi said. “I formed Skylift to help our first responders save time, money and lives by delivering their critical supplies with our heavy-lift drones​.​​”

As a next step, Emadi will use the research conducted by the CSUSM students to develop a plan to bring the drones to market. There are still hurdles to navigate, as drones are legally not allowed to be in the air during a wildfire, but Emadi is optimistic he can keep the momentum going.

“It was refreshing to work with such a driven, intelligent and responsible team,” he said, adding that although the CSUSM students have now graduated, some have remained interns and he hopes to hire them. “I am so thankful that San Marcos is home to such bright young talent like this, as well as city leaders who value innovation and are open to collaboration.”

For more information about Skylift Global, visit https://www.skyliftglobal.com/.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

In fact, the San Marcos Senior Activity Center is buzzing with action. It serves about 7,000 senior residents per month, largely thanks to the dozens of volunteers who help run it. They do things like work the front desk, help in the computer lab and lead activities.

“Our volunteers bring a variety of talents that improve our services, and their support allows us to offer them at lower cost. That’s especially helpful to seniors on a fixed income,” said Parks and Recreation Manager Brenda Sylvia, who oversees the Senior Activity Center. “Volunteers are absolutely critical to our mission.”

A collaboration with California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) will help the City attract more of those critical volunteers.

The City and CSUSM recently joined forces to launch Democracy in Action, a program that lets university students tackle city issues. Unlike an internship, students are not given direction—but instead, make research-based recommendations, more like a consultant.

In this case, a group of about 30 students developed strategies to entice more volunteers to the City’s Senior Activity Center. This included designing marketing materials, creating a formal orientation process and finding missed opportunities to recruit volunteers. City staff is now fine-tuning the student-proposed strategies and plans to start rolling it out within the next few months.

“As North County’s education hub, San Marcos is fortunate to have plenty of bright young minds that offer a fresh perspective—something we greatly value here at the City,” Sylvia said. “Well-run cities with engaged residents lead to vibrant, thriving communities. If we want that to continue in San Marcos, we need to connect with our next generation of leaders and Democracy in Action is helping us do that. ”

This gets at the heart of Democracy in Action. The program’s bigger aim is to show students how their classroom knowledge applies to the outside world.

Dr. Eliza Bigham, CSUSM Department of Human Development, oversaw the students who worked on this project and she’s confident they left feeling empowered.

“Working with city staff and meeting with elected officials required my students to try something new and go outside their comfort zone. But I can’t tell you how many of them thanked me for the opportunity to grow through this experience,” she said. “They discovered that their skill set is so completely beneficial to address real, current needs in their own community.”

And Economic Development Manager Tess Sangster, who helps oversee the program, points out that this project benefits the community at-large.

“By boosting volunteer support at the Senior Activity Center, these students are helping residents age in place so that they can continue enjoying a high quality of life in San Marcos,” she said. “That’s a legacy we want to continue offering for generations to come, and projects like these are one of the many ways we’re making sure we can.”

To learn more about the Democracy in Action program, visit https://www.csusm.edu/community/civiclearning/democracyinaction.html.

For more information about the San Marcos Senior Activity Center, including information about volunteer opportunities, visit http://www.san-marcos.net/adults50+.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

“This subject is especially important to me, as I am a professional photographer and I’ve seen firsthand how women are impacted by images that are put forth in the media,” said Freitag, who plans to pursue a master’s degree in communication and rhetoric in the fall of 2019. “These are not accurate depictions, and I wanted to shed light on the lies that are being told about women.”

Hers was not an opinion piece. “Gucci: Flattening Women through Patriarchal Heteronormativity” is based on reams of research, which is what the Award for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity is all about. The competition is presented in three categories: Creative Works, Empirical Research and Interpretive Analysis, with winners receiving $600 each. Entries are judged on four factors: The project itself, such as excellence in writing or the quality of a visual presentation; a supporting letter from a faculty mentor; the quality of a bibliography; and a reflective essay that articulates the research that went into their project.

It is the reflective essay, said STEM Librarian and Awards Committee Chair Talitha Matlin, that sets this award apart from most general research competitions.

“We’re looking for students to show that they thought critically about the kind of information they needed for their project, their strategies for finding that information, and whether they looked at different perspectives,” she said.

Freitag in her reflective essay said she conducted her research through myriad methods, including CSUSM’s library databases, particularly ProQuest.

“Persistence is the name of the game when it comes to research,” she wrote. “Utilizing articles referenced by reputable authors and prior written works, I navigated my way through the jungle gym of scholarship, and in an effort to incorporate particularly relevant citations and quotes from other work, I sought out and found original sources.”

The result: Freitag documents how the Gucci brand, once on the brink of bankruptcy, clawed back from the abyss in large part through the exploitation of women in its advertising, and the impact that exploitation is having on society.

Freitag is no stranger to the subject she writes about. The Cougar Chronicle opinion editor is a San Diego-based wedding, lifestyle and fashion photographer and she worked for more than a year as a wardrobe stylist.

“Inaccurately portraying women’s ideal beauty standards, positioning female models in demeaning poses, and obscuring their faces are ways that Gucci denigrates the image of women,” Freitag said. “Gucci’s portrayal of women gives the illusion that the female half of the population is of little worth, to be subordinated by the dominant male population.”

Freitag’s faculty mentor, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric Antonio Tomas De La Garza, spoke highly of his protégé.

“Sara’s research reflects that of a hard-working student, and I am pleased to see the fruits of her labor,” he wrote in his recommendation letter.

Fifteen works were submitted in this year’s competitions, and the judging committee selected two winners in the Empirical Research category, and two winners in the Interpretive Analysis category. No winners were selected this year under Creative Works.

The other three winners in this year’s competition:

Empirical Research

Submission: The Role of Risks Information, Social Norms Information, and Implementation Intentions on Decreasing Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Intentions and Behavior

Students: Petrona Gregorio, Rosa Hunt and Elizabeth Cruz

Program: Psychology

Adviser: Heike Mahler

Summary: This research project, which involved 224 UC San Diego undergraduates, examined the effects of risks information, social norms information and implementation intentions regarding sugar-sweetened beverage consumption intentions and behaviors.

Empirical Research

Submission: Acute Responses to the 7 Minute Workout

Student: Sebastian Ring

Program: Kinesiology

Adviser: Todd Astorino

Summary: This project looked at the efficacy of a popular smartphone application called the 7 Minute Workout, which claims to be scientifically proven to promote weight loss and improve cardiovascular function. The aim of this study was to compare acute physiological and perceptual responses between a single session of cycling-based high intensity interval exercise and the 7 Minute Workout.

Interpretive Analysis

Submission: Oriental Masquerade: The Cultural Impact of Japanese Kimonos in America

Student: Chase Spear

Program: History

Adviser: Zhiwei Xiao

Summary: This paper offers an explanation as well as a historic overview on how the Japanese kimono became integrated into American culture. But more important, this project illustrates how Americans who wear kimonos are demonstrating the effects of globalization and how relations between Eastern and Western cultures have strengthened as a result of the Japanese kimono.

“We’re trying to emphasize the importance of research being at the forefront of what our undergraduates are studying no matter the discipline, and this year’s undergraduate research awards underscores our success in that area,” Matlin said.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Notably, 54 percent of the graduating students are the first in their families to earn a four-year college degree and 39 percent of graduates identify as underrepresented minorities.

CSUSM will award three honorary degrees during commencement ceremonies:

• Esther and Jan Stearns will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters during the College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences ceremony at 9 a.m. May 18.
• Lydia Villa-Komaroff will receive a Doctor of Science during the College of Science and Mathematics ceremony at 5:30 p.m. May 18.
• Jimmy Wayne will be awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts during the College of Education, Health and Human Services ceremony at 9 a.m. May 19.

Esther and Jan Stearns have been longtime supporters of ACE Scholars Services, a CSUSM program that works to transform the lives of foster youth through higher education, and continue to advocate strongly on behalf of CSUSM for access to higher education and its impact on the quality of life for former foster youth. Villa-Komaroff, a renowned molecular biologist, was a key member of the team that showed for the first time that bacteria could be induced to produce insulin. Wayne is an award-winning country music artist whose songs and story highlight his mission to raise awareness for children in foster care.

More than 25,000 total guests are expected to attend the five ceremonies held on Mangrum Track and Field at CSUSM. Each ceremony will last about two hours.

Social media users can follow CSUSM Commencement posts by students, faculty and staff by searching for #CSUSM2018. All five commencement ceremonies will be broadcast live on the day of the event on CSUSM’s website and through the CSUSM mobile app.

More information on CSUSM’s Commencement Ceremonies is available online.

What: CSUSM hosts its 27th annual commencement

Who: Approximately 3,500 candidates are expected to participate in the ceremonies

When:

Friday, May 18, 2018

9 a.m. – College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences

1 p.m. – College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences

5:30 p.m. – College of Science and Mathematics

Saturday, May 19, 2018

9 a.m. – College of Education, Health and Human Services

1:30 p.m. – College of Business Administration

Where: Mangrum Track and Field, California State University San Marcos, 333 South Twin Oaks Valley Road, San Marcos

Traffic: Traffic congestion and backups can be anticipated in the area and surrounding streets, especially along South Twin Oaks Valley Road, the 78 Freeway, Barham Drive and Craven Road. University Police and the Sheriff’s Department will be directing and controlling traffic flow along South Twin Oaks. Motorists should expect traffic delays; graduates, families and friends are advised to plan accordingly to arrive on time. Broadcast media: Any mention that can be made regarding expected traffic delays during broadcasts on May 18 and 19 would be greatly appreciated.

Media contact: Eric Breier, 760-891-6455

For easy access to the ceremony site, media are asked to park in Lot Z, which is located at South Twin Oaks Valley Road and Campus Marketplace.

About California State University San Marcos

Building on an innovative 28-year history, California State University San Marcos is a forward-focused institution, dedicated to preparing future leaders, building great communities and solving critical issues. Located on a 304-acre hillside overlooking the City of San Marcos, it is the only public four-year comprehensive university serving North San Diego, Southwest Riverside and South Orange Counties.

The University enrolls nearly 17,000 students. With approximately 2,000 employees, the institution is a Great College to Work For® (The Chronicle of Higher Education). As a recipient of the annual HEED Award since 2014—a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion—CSUSM is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment.

Barely one in four Americans has crafted an advanced directive detailing what actions should or should not be taken for their health if they are no longer able to make a decision for themselves. Perhaps even more alarming, less than 11 percent of college students have written an advanced directive.

That’s why this spring’s “What Gives Your Life Meaning? (And Who Needs to Know?)” series of events from April 3-19 – sponsored by the California State University Institute for Palliative Care

in partnership with Cal State San Marcos students and faculty – is focused on discussing the importance of aligning healthcare decisions with an individual’s values before they become incapacitated.

“Advanced directives are one way to share what is important to a person and to share what gives our lives meaning,” said Dr. Sharon Hamill, a CSUSM professor of psychology who also serves as the Institute for Palliative Care’s faculty director at CSUSM. “Advanced directives include designating a healthcare advocate and creating a living will that details what kind of medical interventions a person would want. Our goal is to get the campus community to agree to talk with even one person about what is important to them and to think about who should speak for them in the event they can’t speak for themselves.

“It’s about taking the guesswork out of what we want done.”

Madeline Rayón is convinced. A CSUSM psychology graduate student focusing on psychological studies, Rayón is working with Zakirah Hassan and Kristal Laser, two Master of Public Health interns, on the pledge drive and is also co-leading a group of student volunteers working with Hamill in organizing the events.

“As students, it’s important to remember that we are not immune to having experiences with palliative care,” Rayón said. “But just as important, this is a great opportunity to access resources and information that we can take back to the older adults in our lives, including our parents and our grandparents.”

The series of CSUSM campus-wide events includes:

Tuesday, April 3, noon to 2 p.m.

“Making our Wishes Known: Advance Directives for Faculty and Staff”

This advance directive workshop led by Hamill will help participants understand the importance of creating an advanced directive. RSVP to dheard@csusm.edu

Social & Behavioral Science Building, Room 3219

Thursday, April 12, noon to 1 p.m.

“Think, Talk, Document, Share: Advance Directives for Students”

Who will speak for you if you are unable? Rayón and Hamill will detail the importance of creating an advanced directive for young adults.

University Hall 100

Thursday, April 19, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“WGYLM? Resource Fair and Public Art Project”

A resource fair will include representatives from nearly two dozen agencies presenting information on palliative care and healthcare choices. A public art project will include chalk drawings on the What Gives Your Life Meaning theme.

University Student Union Arcade

Thursday, April 19, 5:30 p.m.

“The Power of Authenticity, Tenacity, and Dreaming Big”

Singer-songwriter, successful author, and cancer survivor Laura Roppé will detail how her experiences underscore the importance of grabbing life with both hands, taking chances, and living your dream.

The McMahan House

Palliative care is aimed at improving the quality of life of and supporting patients with a serious or chronic illness while also assisting families managing the stresses that a potentially deadly illness can bring. The CSU Institute for Palliative Care has had a profound impact not only in the region, but across the nation, since it was launched in 2012 through numerous initiatives that include a series of online courses for healthcare professionals, community seminars, and more.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

“This auspicious recognition is especially appreciated because it comes from our colleagues throughout the state of California,” said Dr. Lorna Kendrick, director of CSUSM’s School of Nursing. “It honors the hard work of our faculty, students and staff.”

CSUSM’s nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) pass rate of the University’s students was 96 percent in 2016-17 and Kendrick notes it is currently 100 percent. The NCLEX is a standardized exam that each state board of nursing uses to determine whether a candidate is prepared for entry-level nursing practice.

“The honor is quite timely since we currently have a 100 percent NCLEX pass rate as well as a rich array of programs from traditional BSN, accelerated BSN, MSN, and we are beginning discussions to start a DNP program,” Kendrick said. “We are so proud and grateful.”

RegisteredNursing.org works to promote excellence in nursing through enabling future nurses with the tools they need to succeed. The website’s methodology for the rankings included NCLEX-RN exam pass rates. More information about the methodology used for the rankings is available online.

About California State University San Marcos

Building on an innovative 28-year history, California State University San Marcos is a forward-focused institution, dedicated to preparing future leaders, building great communities and solving critical issues. Located on a 304-acre hillside overlooking the City of San Marcos, it is the only public four-year comprehensive university serving North San Diego, Southwest Riverside and South Orange Counties.

The University enrolls nearly 17,000 students. With approximately 2,000 employees, the institution is a Great College to Work For® (The Chronicle of Higher Education). As a recipient of the annual HEED Award since 2014—a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion—CSUSM is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment.

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Speaking to hundreds of CSUSM faculty and staff members, she highlighted recent University achievements and set the tone for the new school year.

“Now, on the cusp of a new academic year, with all of the excitement, energy and new possibilities it brings, I’m proud of all that we can do and all that we will do to challenge the status quo, disrupt the traditional models of higher education, and propel our students and our region forward,” Haynes told attendees.

Haynes, CSUSM’s longest-serving president and the most senior president in the 23-campus CSU system, said the University has become a vital cultural and intellectual resource for the region. The myriad milestones Haynes noted at Convocation included:

• CSUSM received over 16,000 first-time freshmen applications for this fall — an almost 8 percent increase from last year and a 21 percent increase from two years ago. It’s the highest increase in the CSU system.
• Between June 2016 and July 2017, CSUSM received 54 awards totaling $17.5 million, a 90 percent year-over-year increase in grant funds awarded to the University and a 120 percent increase in just two years.
• CSUSM’s Office for Training, Research & Education reported that last academic year OTRES scholars gave 87 scientific presentations and were co-authors on six publications in peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, seven OTRES scholars were selected to represent CSUSM at the CSU Statewide Research Competition, with two receiving statewide awards.

Haynes also shared an update on CSUSM’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign, Forward Together, an ambitious effort to raise $50 million in support of students, community engagement initiatives, research and other programs.

Individuals, corporations and foundations have contributed more than $38 million since the campaign was publicly launched in September 2015, putting CSUSM more than 77 percent of the way toward its goal.

Haynes highlighted a number of campaign gifts, including a recent $1 million pledge from the Epstein family to physically expand the University’s Veterans Center.

The fall semester begins Monday with CSUSM preparing to welcome nearly 17,000 students, the highest enrollment in school history.

“Together, we are empowering our students to achieve a better life not just for themselves, but for their families and communities,” Haynes told Convocation attendees. “Upon graduation, they are not just fulfilling a life goal but, for many, a goal that has been many generations in the making. Goals — thanks to your teaching and mentorship — that are building on an important regional legacy. Goals that are only the beginning of imagining the possibilities of ones’ life trajectory!”