Criminology and justice studies student Ariadna Hernandez knows this well as she balances two vastly different interests: immigration law and theater.  

Hernandez discovered her passion for theater during the pandemic. Film became a form of escapism during a time of uncertainty, and when she had the opportunity to take acting classes at Mesa College, she excitedly enrolled.  

Hernandez enjoyed her brief experience with theater, but she had to put it on the backburner to focus on her classes for criminology. It wasn’t until she transferred to Cal State San Marcos and learned of the Learning Aligned Employment Program (LAEP), that Hernandez found herself faced with another opportunity to explore her love for theater while earning her bachelor’s degree.  

LAEP offers students the opportunity to earn money that goes toward their educational costs while gaining education-aligned employment. Hernandez was offered the role of production assistant for a theatrical production of “Pásale Pásale,” which is playing through June 30 in National City. While working on this play, Hernandez is responsible for handling paperwork, keeping track of schedules and ensuring that actors have everything needed for the performance.  

By handling important tasks for the show, Hernandez is gaining leadership skills and collaboration experience, while also working toward paying off her degree.  

“It’s been so amazing being part of this production,” Hernandez said. “Getting to know everyone in this play and just being part of the community has been such a great experience. Not to mention, being surrounded by the beautiful storyline and music is just so inspiring.”  

Hernandez felt drawn to the storyline’s themes centering around the importance of working together to overcome adversity in the Latinx community. She was inspired to pursue immigration law after seeing family members' poor experiences with lawyers during the naturalization process after moving to California from Tijuana. Such disheartening experiences with the system instilled in Hernandez strong values of family, community and social justice.  

“That process really made me realize that we need more lawyers who are able to help directly and get more involved,” said Hernandez. “There’s a lot of issues with lawyers who do not personally know the struggle that people go through, and I want to be the kind that acknowledges the hardships and regularly checks in with clients.”  

The play’s parallels to Hernandez’s real-life experiences make it the perfect medium to represent her two passions. As she continues learning more about the world of theater and the field of criminology separately, Hernandez is hoping to carry both forward with her after her time with LAEP and jointly incorporate them into her plans for the future.  

“Exploring your interests helps you know which ones are worth keeping in your life,” said Hernandez. “You may think, ‘Oh, this has nothing to do with my major, so what’s the point?’ But through this experience, I was able to start building an idea of the future that I want, which I now know involves law school and volunteering for theater on the side. I am very grateful that I got the chance to be part of LAEP, and I will always remember my time working on this production.”  

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Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

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

Although this seems simple, her story is not. Neither is her naturally altruistic outlook on life.

Escobar devotes most of her free time to a nonprofit mobile dental clinic hosted by USC. The clinic mainly serves children but also migrant workers, unhoused people and the underprivileged in need of dental care. 

Escobar said many people served by the clinic have never received dental care. 

“I was talking to these two mothers who came to the clinic, and they said they had just come from Guatemala two months ago,” Escobar said. “They explained to me that their two children have never received dental work. I’m glad we were able to help these kids with something that is so important yet taken for granted by some.” 

Escobar was shocked that the family had just moved to America, and she already was able to help them. 

A career in criminology and justice studies is quite different from being a dentist. But Escobar has found that the major helps her better understand situations at the clinic. 

Recently, two boys ages 16 and 17 were brought to the clinic from juvenile detention. One of them was hesitant to receive dental work because of his past. Because she is familiar with this topic from her coursework, Escobar incorporated prior knowledge to assess the situation in a different light than most people.

She approached the boy's care with a greater understanding of his needs.

“I totally understand,” she said. “I took a class on juvenile delinquency, and I thought, it’s not them, it's the system that breaks their trust. We had to reassure him that the clinic is trying to help him, not hurt him.”

Escobar had to overcome a lot to be where she is today. For starters, she had to learn how to get through college without her parents understanding her struggles. 

While her parents had to focus on working and making a home in a strange country, she had to navigate her academic journey largely by herself. 

“My college journey has been hard being a first-generation student and my parents coming from El Salvador,” Escobar said. 

She entered CSUSM on a good note, passing all of her classes in her first year. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, however, Escobar’s mental health took a turn for the worse. 

Receiving below a 2.0 GPA in her second year of college, she knew something had to be wrong beyond just the struggles of the pandemic. She had no motivation. She fell into a dark place, feeling like her parents didn’t understand the hard work required to receiving an education. She felt isolated.

Battling feelings of depression and suicidal thoughts, Escobar realized she needed help. She reached out to a doctor on campus to express her concerns. The medical team drove her to a local hospital for critical support.

She was diagnosed with depression and ADHD, which she said made her feel understood. 

“Society has such high expectations of women that women feel they have to mask their true identity from the people around them,” Escobar said.

Escobar felt like she had to disguise herself for the purpose of fitting into society, which caused her depression to skyrocket. 

The diagnosis of ADHD and depression was a huge relief. It reminded her that she's capable of success and that it wasn’t her fault she was being held back from it.

Escobar began working at the mobile dental clinic, started to gain a support system and became inspired. 

“The people I worked with at the clinic were the ones checking up on me because my parents don’t know anything about the application cycle with dental school,” she said. “The faculty at the clinic would ask me about certain classes I was taking or provide recommendations to different study materials or applications."

This support motivated Escobar to work toward a goal of becoming a dentist. She made the dean’s list last fall and will graduate this week. 

She plans to use the next year to study for the Dental Admission Test (DAT) as part of the application process. USC is her dream dental school.

Perhaps the only thing clearer than her goal is her motivation – to have a positive effect on her community.

“Every single time I go to the USC mobile clinic and I come back, I feel that confirmation that this is what I want to do, and I need to get certain things done so I can get to that point,” she said.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

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

Nutt was allowed to return to school as a junior, but she dropped out in the middle of her senior year. And, once again, she spent her time away from school doing the things that landed her in trouble.

None of the adults in Nutt’s life ever asked why she was acting out. Not her parents, not her teachers, not the administrators who were doling out punishment.

“I couldn't handle it,” Nutt said. “I was bullied a lot. There were a lot of things that happened, and I just checked out. I just didn't care, and the people at the school, it seemed like they didn't care what was happening.”

Nutt had been sexually assaulted at a party during her freshman year of high school, and she turned to drugs and alcohol as an escape.

But Nutt’s behavior changed in an instant when she learned that she was pregnant at 19. She quit everything – the drinking, the drugs, the partying. Nutt was focused completely on her daughter, Chanel, and ensuring that Chanel didn’t endure similar struggles.

For Nutt, part of setting an example meant getting an education, and she is completing the first part of that journey this month when she graduates from Cal State San Marcos with a bachelor’s in criminology and justice studies.

“As soon as I got pregnant, something clicked,” Nutt said. “It's crazy. A lot of the people that I grew up with, they're either dead, in prison or still strung out. And for some reason I got out of it.”

Escaping that life meant creating a better situation for herself and Chanel.

Nutt started taking early childhood education classes at Palomar College, figuring it might help her get a job at a day-care center, which would also allow her to have Chanel with her at work. But as Chanel got older, Nutt wanted to pursue other passions. Though she had dozens of credits in early childhood education, she changed her major at Palomar to sociology, which was in closer alignment with her desire to help children going through issues similar to her own.

When it came time for Nutt to decide whether to pursue a bachelor’s degree, Chanel’s biological father, a drug addict who was abusive to Nutt, was an unlikely inspiration.

Although Nutt had the parental rights of Chanel’s birth father terminated because of his drug use, she allowed him to speak to Chanel on the phone and have supervised visits. But Nutt could tell that years of drug abuse were catching up to him, and his death two years ago from a heroin overdose didn’t come as a surprise.

“I knew that Chanel's birth dad was dying,” Nutt said. “I just felt it because the last time I had seen him when he came for a visit, he looked horrible. I said, ‘The next time I see you, it's going to be at your funeral.’ And then a couple of months later, he was dead.

“It felt the same way as when I first found out I was pregnant. I knew I needed to do something, to show my kids that you can't let things deter you from going forward in your life.”

Nutt applied for the bachelor’s program in criminology and justice studies through CSUSM at Temecula shortly after that last visit from Chanel’s biological father, and she learned of her acceptance three days after his death.

While Chanel’s biological father was sporadically present in her life, her father is Ryan Nutt, who adopted her after Nutt had the parental rights of Chanel’s birth father terminated. Nutt and Ryan, a Los Angeles County firefighter, have been married almost seven years and also have a 6-year-old daughter, Kinsley.

Nutt said she tries to be open and honest in age-appropriate ways with her daughters when it comes to the struggles she endured. She is also working hard to set an expectation of attending college by earning her degree.

Nutt has thrived at CSUSM, benefiting from the mentorship of professors like Christopher Bickel, Martín Leyva and Xuan Santos.

“Nicole is a fiery student with a passion for learning as well as for her work,” said Leyva, the university’s Project Rebound coordinator. “She is caring and empathetic and proactive in the lives of others. I admire her and her drive to be of service. Fire like hers is difficult to put out; it only ignites change.

“I admire her as a student. She really looks out for others, and it’s contagious.”

It’s a trait that has carried over into other aspects of Nutt’s life. She was a residential counselor for foster youth at Casa de Amparo, a nonprofit that offers treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect in San Diego County, and she has been working as an intern at the Riverside Area Rape Crisis Center, which has offered her a full-time job after graduation.

But Nutt’s long-term goal is law school – she has been studying for the LSAT and plans to take it next year – and helping children who are tried as adults.

“Adults didn't have my back growing up,” she said, “so I want to be that person for someone.

“I want people to believe in themselves when others don't believe in them. I just want people to know that no matter what, if you somewhat believe in yourself or just push forward, little by little, you can literally do it. If I can do it, they can do it.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

“I love studying about humanity,” said Young about the CSUSM program. “Learning about the potential of people and the power in people is fascinating. There is an endless wealth of knowledge, and you can never run out of things to learn about humans.”

The BA in criminology and justice studies at CSUSM at Temecula draws on the study of sociology and criminology to build an understanding of the social processes surrounding both crime and social justice in order to pursue solutions for positive social change.

“The curriculum is so diverse,” Young said. “The first semester, we had a theater class that tied a lot of things together for us. We also had a class about families dealing with economic issues or family violence and the root causes. Every semester, we had a class that focused on one ethnic population, something that was very important to me.”

After completing his bachelor’s degree in the fall of 2019, Young looked into the university’s Master of Social Work (MSW) program and applied. In addition, he applied to the Title IV-E Child Welfare Stipend program at CSUSM, which provides an annual stipend for up to two years and specialized training for students committed to working in public child welfare.

Young was admitted to both programs and started MSW studies in the fall of 2020. As part of the Title IV-E program, he is committed to working at a county child welfare agency for two years after graduation.

In addition, he is interning at a county child welfare agency for the MSW’s field instruction component each semester. The combination of studies and field internships has clear benefits, he said.

“It makes everything we are learning practical,” Young explains. “When you study something, you can imagine how it would work. But if you go out there and you do it, everything clicks. I think that’s why they have such a high success rate in this program.”

During his first year in the MSW program, Young interned in emergency response services with a child welfare agency in North County San Diego. This front-end work involves initial responses to and evaluation of cases of abuse or neglect. For his final two semesters, Young will intern in back-end social work, or the continuing services after a child is placed in the care of the courts.

Along with learning the technical skills needed in social work — from interviewing children and families to working in the CWS/CMS (Child Welfare Services/Case Management System) — Young is developing practical skills such as flexibility.

“In social work, you can have a thousand things planned out for the day, but those things might end up not happening,” he said.

For now, Young is interested in front-end emergency response work, but he still has another year to go and more to experience. Regardless, he is looking forward to the career he sees developing.

“These degrees give me an opportunity for a career that I can grow with and that I can use to make a difference in the community,” Young said. “Eventually, I would like to be in a leadership position.”

For more information on the BA in Criminology and Justice Studies, visit csusm.edu/el/crim, and on the Master of Social Work, visit csusm.edu/socialwork.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

“For the most part, my students like it,” said Atherton of the role comic books play in the curriculum of his criminology courses. “It’s a way for them to get more engaged in the subject matter. But I suppose some people may see it as kind of weird.”

Perhaps so, but the lessons are real—and often profound. During a discussion on police culture, for example, students were asked to read a Gotham Central story detailing the consequences surrounding a policewoman who is a lesbian and outed by someone on the force. That was followed by assigned academic papers about the challenges facing gay law enforcement officers.

“Everything the academic papers dealt with was touched on in the comic,” Atherton said.

“We’re not doing this as an alternative to learning. It’s a part of the learning.”

One of his more popular lessons, titled, “Who Could Prevent More Crime—Batman or Bruce Wayne?” offers another example. At first blush, some may wonder: Really? This is a criminology course? In fact, the lesson involves an abundance of academic investigation.

“Research shows that all of the punishment and deterrence we invest in doesn’t really have an impact on crime,” Atherton said, equating such punishment and deterrence to the Batman approach. “Criminals really don’t think about those things when they’re robbing a liquor store. Things like education and economic opportunity—the type of things a billionaire like Bruce Wayne might invest in—are clearly more effective.”

Integrating comics into his work was probably just a matter of time. It grew from his practice of using movies to help illustrate concepts of criminal justice, a practice that led to a Crime, Films & Society course (Sociology 490) and included such films as Copland, Minority Report, and V for Vendetta.

“Films and comics reach a wider, broader audience,” Atherton said. “They can affect discussion more than any academic article you could write in a journal.”

He added: “I’ve probably been collecting comics since I was seven or eight years old. It’s been a lifelong interest.”

Atherton, who attends Comic-Con each year, added he’d like to someday take part in an academic panel at the annual San Diego event.

An Escondido native who graduated from San Pasqual High School, Atherton has been collecting and reading comics since he was a young child. He’s also a first-generation college student who attended Palomar College in San Marcos before earning his Bachelor of Arts in sociology from UC San Diego, his Master of Arts in sociological practice from CSUSM, and his Ph.D. in crime, law and justice from The Pennsylvania State University. His dissertation investigated Hispanic outcomes in federal courts, a study that found Hispanic defendants receive significantly more punitive sentences than do white defendants, and that black Hispanics experience different levels of disparity in sentencing outcomes.

Atherton taught at Central Connecticut State University for two years as an assistant professor before moving back home to Cal State San Marcos. He currently is a Faculty Fellow for Teaching & Learning for the 21st Century, and he is not beyond thinking outside the proverbial box. He received media attention a few years ago for his practice of incorporating Twitter into his lesson plans.

Wrote Atherton at the time: “Given the complex nature of criminological theories, it may seem like reductionism to simplify it down to 140 characters. However, the exercise is not about presenting theories in the most simplistic manner, rather it is an exercise in being able to synthesize the numerous aspects of the theory into a succinct statement.”

Students would earn points for being able to conceptualize concepts and articulate their thoughts in a single tweet.

“I really like it,” student Mark Hirata told San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Deborah Sullivan Brennan in 2012. “He’s basically using it so we can study and understand it better. It is pretty challenging to condense an entire book of hundreds of pages down to one sentence of 140 characters. It’s a good way to help you understand the theories better.”