She wasn't sure if her project would become a children's book, an animated series or something else entirely.

"I was thrilled to be accepted," Robinson says. “As a writer and illustrator, my business is different than the others. I came in knowing how to tell a story. REP taught me how to run a business, from unit pricing and supply chains to profit margins and trademark protection.”

Andreina Leal-Carrillo had a different reason for joining REP. Her business, The Repair Tech Inc., a heating, air conditioning and appliance services company, had already been running for 12 years. She could see where she wanted to take it. What she needed were the tools to get there and a way to show her business partner that expansion was worth pursuing. 

"I wanted to take it to the next level," Leal-Carrillo says. "I was hoping for affirmation that it was possible and for my business partner to believe in my vision as well.”

Today, both women give back as mentors to fellow REP participants, drawing on their own experiences to help the next cohort of entrepreneurs thrive.

Supporting entrepreneurs through every step 

Offered through CSUSM’s Innovation Hub, REP is a 10-month experience designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs from low-to-moderate income communities as they navigate the realities of starting and growing a small business. 

“At CSUSM, we see entrepreneurship as a pathway to opportunity,” said Paola Ometto REP faculty liaison and a management professor in the College of Business Administration. “REP connects entrepreneurs to the tools, networks and support they need to grow, strengthening both their businesses and the communities they serve.” 

Made possible in part through funding from Wells Fargo, REP begins with six weeks of business training covering the tools, concepts and principles relevant to launching and growing a successful venture. It is followed by a community connection event, where participants meet with community partners offering legal, financial and business support services. 

In later phases, CSUSM business students work alongside participants as part of a senior experience project, lending their skills in branding, marketing and operations. 

For Robinson, the students researched crowdfunding platforms and successful campaigns for other picture books.  

For Leal-Carrillo, a highlight of REP was mindset coaching, which helped her and her business partner align on a shared vision for growth.  

"Whether you're just starting out or your business has been running for a while, this program helps you see where your company is going and how you can take it further," Leal-Carrillo said. “It's so fun to come back to REP events and see other businesses thrive.”

Bringing the community together 

On April 18, REP will host its Community Connect Event at the CSUSM Innovation Hub, where the current cohort of delegates will have the opportunity to meet with local organizations offering services and resources tailored to small business owners.

“I am honored to represent Wells Fargo in sponsoring this impactful initiative,” said Laura MacKinnon Chapman, senior social impact & sustainability specialist for Wells Fargo. “Small businesses are the backbone of the economy. Whether they’re just getting started, looking to expand or need coaching to sustain, our initiatives, funding and grant programs help provide small business owners with the resources they need — because we know that when they thrive, communities thrive, too.”

Operation HOPE will be among those in attendance, bringing its expertise and resources directly to the entrepreneurs in the room. 

“At Operation HOPE, our mission is to expand access to opportunity through financial education and empowerment,” said Monica Carlos, financial wellbeing coach, Operation HOPE Powered by Wells Fargo. “We’re honored to support REP, as their commitment to entrepreneurship aligns with our belief that financial literacy is the foundation for building sustainable businesses and stronger communities.”

The event reflects what REP does throughout the entire program: create moments where the right people and the right resources find each other, so that every entrepreneur has a chance to make their mark.

Every contribution to CSUSM brings the university closer to its Blueprint for the Future campaign goal to raise $200 million in philanthropy and research funding.

About REP 

REP is part of the Urban Poverty and Business Initiative network, a model founded at the University of Notre Dame and now supported by 42 partner organizations across the United States and internationally. 

To learn more about the program or get involved as a guest speaker, community resource or participant, visit the Resilient Entrepreneur Program at the CSUSM Innovation Hub. 

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

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

As the kids had just come from lunch, cases of the wiggles were rampant, but it didn’t take long for the man in the middle (with the microphone) to grab their attention.

“If you look at the big screen up here, it says ‘Project Playground,’ and it’s a really cool project that I love to do with fifth-graders,” Howard Chan said as he weaved between the tables in the cavernous space that is the Hub, located on the ground floor of the Extended Learning Building.

“I’ve done like 40 of these, so I’ve seen a lot of different designs, and I’m looking forward to seeing what you all come up with today.”

Chan, the leader of a CSUSM initiative called the K-12 Collaborative, proceeded to explain that the students from Empresa Elementary School in Oceanside would be employing the five-step innovation process to design and create a prototype for a playground. Over the next 45 minutes, the kids used basic craft materials – chipboards, paper straws, popsicle sticks, string, markers – to make models of such classic equipment as swings, slides, monkey bars and seesaws.

As the students buzzed about eagerly – besides the design project and lunch, the day also included a campus tour with a scavenger hunt – Taresa McSpadden sat in the back of the room with a knowing smile. By the following week, all 49 fifth-grade classes across 14 elementary schools in the Vista Unified School District (of which Empresa is a member) would have participated in the same innovation experience, and McSpadden – an innovation teacher on special assignment – has attended every one of them.

“It has been phenomenal,” McSpadden said. “The students are excited. The teachers are excited. Even the parents who come are blown away by not just the Hub but also the experience for their kids. So many of the students have never been to a college campus before.

“I think the most powerful thing we’ve heard from them when they leave is, ‘I think I want to go to college now.’ ”

Chan probably couldn’t have imagined a scene like this a couple of years ago. It was in early 2024 that he met with Scott Gross, CSUSM’s associate vice president for industry partnerships, who oversees the Hub. The meeting marked a reunion for two men who had first crossed paths a decade earlier on a field trip of local educators to Apple headquarters in Silicon Valley.

By 2024, Chan was a consultant for workforce development organizations in the life sciences and STEM industries, and a mutual friend urged Gross to reconnect with Chan.

“The Hub was very focused on CSUSM students and CSUSM faculty, and all of our programming – and frankly all of my thinking – was in that direction,” Gross said. “But we sat down and started having a conversation, which opened up some great ideas about how we could reach back in the pipeline and help K-12 students get exposed to innovation earlier, so that by the time they got to CSUSM, they might be a little more advanced in their experience with innovation and entrepreneurship.”

From that fortuitous get-together, Chan was hired away from his current job and the K-12 Collaborative was born. The first push that Chan and Gross made was in the space of work-based learning, an educational approach (which California is heavily investing in) that uses the workplace to provide students with the knowledge and skills to help them connect school experiences to real-life work activities and future career opportunities.

Work-based learning at the high school level often includes internships, but companies can be reluctant to take on teenagers because of liability concerns. So the Hub decided to leverage its relationships with industry partners to invite them to CSUSM and conduct sessions that incorporate interactive activities or challenges as well as insight into how they connect to the business and the work it does.

“That three-to-four-hour experience now counts as work-based learning because we involved industry,” Gross said. “So we’re meeting a need that the high schools desperately have, and it’s helping us expose these high school students to what college looks like.”

Starting with the launch around work-based learning, the K-12 Collaborative has since broadened into a multi-pronged effort as the Hub keeps innovating in response to needs expressed by its community partners. It now encompasses elementary innovation experiences (such as the design project involving the fifth-graders from Empresa), industry tours for educators, and summer academies and camps.

And the evolution continues. This week, the Hub is collaborating with the College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences and Mosaic Theatricals in Escondido to welcome about 100 elementary school students from the Escondido Union School District for hands-on learning activities led by CHABSS interns. It’s part of Pathways to Purpose, a career-readiness program that provides structured, paid internships for students in arts education and theater arts.

This summer, the Hub will host its first cybersecurity camp, which Chan developed in partnership with the San Diego County Office of Education. And it will bring back its popular Small Business Academy, which debuted last year with Oceanside High School and has grown to include multiple school districts and cohorts. During the week-long academy, students get to meet entrepreneurs, talk to CSUSM faculty and tour local businesses – while each day they make progress on a business pitch that, by the end of the week, they present to a panel for feedback.

“It’s definitely an inspiring week,” Chan said. “There’s a collective energy I'm seeing in this region, a hunger for these types of experiences, which has opened a lot of great relationships and partnerships for the Innovation Hub across industry, higher ed and K-12. This vision we've always had of those three entities, now we're seeing a lot of different folks coming out of the woodwork, collaborating, wanting to work together to better this region and our students’ experiences.”

It’s not just students’ experiences that the K-12 Collaborative is bettering, either. Carrying over an initiative from his previous work, Chan has been periodically gathering groups of educators – a mix of district leaders and classroom teachers – for tours of area industries. In the past year, stops have included such sites as Callaway Golf in Carlsbad, Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, Dr. Bronner’s in Vista and an Amazon warehouse in Otay Mesa.

This semester, Chan is heading up a new cohort called “Leading in the Age of AI.” It’s a four-part series featuring almost 50 educators from about a dozen school districts, with assistance from CSUSM representatives including several professors and even Jackie Trischman, dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The cohort already has visited the San Diego facility of Apple and done a webinar with Google, and this month it will hit Microsoft.

“We know that AI is top of mind and that nobody really has the answers, so we saw our role as being a convener,” Chan said. “Bring people together, give them some information from the companies, let them wrestle with it. I’m curious to see what will come out of it.”

Both Chan and Gross have been pleased with the support that the K-12 Collaborative has received across campus, from the Office of Recruitment and Outreach (which facilitates campus tours) to the Center for Research and Engagement in STEM Education (which assists with the elementary experiences) to academic departments like computer science and engineering.

Perhaps the biggest problem that the collaborative faces is that it almost has grown too quickly. As much as he has taken on, Chan is one person, and he will need help if the venture is to expand further. Gross has explored the possibility of student assistants (whether they take the form of STEM ambassadors or teacher credential candidates), but any long-term effort to scale likely will necessitate funding to hire additional staff.

“Some people might wonder why the Innovation Hub is engaging in this work,” Gross said. “I would say it's a no-brainer, because this is what we want CSUSM to be known for. We want to be known for being on the leading edge of innovation. We want to be known for being the place where students think about going to college. We want to be known as the anchor institution through which educators can grapple with tough stuff. So why wouldn't we do it?”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

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

The trio of CSUSM faculty-led projects are among 63 from across the system that were chosen for their potential to enable transformative teaching methods, foster groundbreaking research and address key concerns about AI adoption within the academic environment.

The three proposals from CSUSM faculty are:

• “AI-Ready: Preparing First-Year Students for Sustained (& Sustainable) Ethical & Critical GenAI Engagement at CSUSM & Beyond” by Marnie Eldridge, faculty director of first-year and university programs in the Office of Undergraduate Studies.
• “Innovative Teaching with GenAI: Designing Curriculum for the Future” by Rebecca Lush, a literature and writing studies professor and director of the Faculty Center.
• “Critical Futures: Bridging Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation to Transform Teaching and Student Learning with AI in American Indian Studies” by Joely Proudfit, chair of American Indian studies and director of the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center.

Launched in April, the AIEIC invited faculty from all CSU campuses to develop innovative instructional strategies that leverage AI tools. The response was overwhelming, as CSU faculty submitted more than 400 proposals representing over 750 faculty members systemwide. The Chancellor’s Office will award a total of $3 million to fund the winning proposals.

A full list of funded projects is available on the CSU AI Commons website. Projects launched last month and will continue through June 2026.

The AI Educational Innovations Challenge is a key component of the university’s broader AI Strategy, launched in February to establish the CSU as the first AI-empowered university system in the nation.

Media Contact

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

Keehr, who graduated in 2016, now works as a speech-language pathologist in the San Marcos Unified School District (SMUSD). She has remained closely connected to CSUSM, regularly supervising SLP graduate students working as interns in the district. 

In somewhat of a full circle moment for Keehr, she now sends her daughter to the CSUSM SLP clinic where she once trained as a graduate student. 

Keehr’s daughter Lyra was born with Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects how a child grows and develops. It can cause learning difficulties, seizures, delayed speech, and unique physical features like coarse facial features or small hands and feet. 

Though Lyra will turn 3 years old in September, she weighs just 15 pounds and is still learning to walk independently. When Lyra's physical therapist recommended a walking device to improve her mobility, the SLP clinic was there to help. Lyra’s tiny frame meant a standard walking device wouldn’t work, and a custom-made one came with an exorbitant price tag. 

One of Keehr’s SMUSD coworkers suggested she talk to CSUSM about the possibility of developing something. 

Laura Coca, CSUSM’s director of clinical education for the SLP department and one of Keehr’s mentors while she was a student, reached out to engineering professor Reza Kamali, who is the faculty adviser for the university’s chapter of Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), an assistive technology organization that matches students with people living with neglected disabilities.  

“It was such a wonderful opportunity for students to collaborate,” Coca said. “I cannot thank Reza and TOM enough. They were just so fast and so comprehensive.” 

Kamali and the TOM team had several meetings with Keehr and Lyra’s physical therapist. Less than four months later, they had created a lightweight walking device tailored for Lyra. 

“These experiences offered a unique opportunity for students to engage in community-based projects where they could see firsthand how their knowledge and skills could be applied to create meaningful change,” Kamali said. “Watching their product go from an idea to a tangible device used by a child in need was an emotional and inspiring moment for everyone involved.” 

Keehr said the additional support has helped Lyra in many ways, including socially, with play skills that she’s learning from the SLP clinic and in her general mobility. 

“I didn’t know what to expect, and that’s why I was pleasantly surprised,” Keehr said.“Since getting the trainer, she has been able to stand by herself for a few seconds. It’s definitely been helping with her development. 

"I'm just very grateful for both of those programs and what they're doing for the community. Trying to navigate the insurance world and all the paperwork and everything that comes with it, it's programs like the SLP clinic and TOM that make it just a little bit easier for families like ours. They’re people who have good hearts and just want to help their community. So I'm very grateful for making those connections and also being able to promote them to other families that I work with so that they can benefit from these services.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

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

Carrasco has been surrounded by entrepreneurs for multiple years, as her mother and aunt have a business in which they create and sell rim dip, a paste usually created with tamarind and chamoy that are then used to cover the rims of beers and other beverages. Carrasaco’s mom and aunt developed their own recipe for these rim dips in 2020. While Carrasco wasn't involved in the process, she used it as inspiration for her own business, Hot Summer Gummies (@hotsummergummies on Instagram). 

“Where I live, tamarindo gummies are very popular,” said Carrasco, who is from Imperial Valley. “Personally, I don’t really like those ones, but my mom’s recipe was really good, so I pitched ideas.” 

Carrasco’s mom was on board with the new idea. Together they picked up different kinds of candy, developed logos and packaging, and then Carrasco started selling the new gummies at her community college sporting events while attending Imperial Valley College. 

“A lot of people really liked them, and I was selling out every time I went to the games,” Carrasco said. “I pitched the gummies to the owners of the stores that had rim dip in them. They loved the idea and gave me space to put them in their stores.”

Carrasco said her goal going forward is to expand her business into San Diego, or even sell the gummies on campus.

Carrasco is on the right track to help her business progress. Last fall, she was the winner of the Innovation Hub’s Quick Pitch competition, which closely resembles the hit TV show “Shark Tank” in which competitors pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges. Carrasco received $1,000 for her winning pitch. 

“I was in shock,” Carrasco said. “I had a big smile on my face, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, no way.’ ”

Carrasco put the prize money into her savings, with plans to utilize it for her business.  

Not only did winning the Quick Pitch provide funds to help grow the business, but it also equipped her with lifelong lessons. 

“I remember sitting down at the competition and I almost walked out because I was so nervous,” Carrasco said. “But I said, ‘We’re just going to do it.’ 

“It really showed me what I was capable of and helped me step out of my comfort zone – and it made me feel that what I'm doing is good. I got really good feedback. I brought gummies with me and went home empty-handed at the end of the night because I sold them all. It just gave me a lot of confidence.”

Carrasco is using this newfound confidence while working toward her degree at CSUSM. She will graduate in May 2025 with a bachelor's degree in marketing. While she has thoughts of continuing with the business, her dream is to be a social media coordinator for the Los Angeles Lakers. 

“I’m very open-minded,” Carrasco said. “I’ll just see what happens.” 

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

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

The event, hosted by San Diego State, is a pitch competition based on identifying a significant problem related to the impact of water on the region. Competitors then present an innovative solution to the problem.

CSUSM’s winning team included biotechnology master’s student Kanav Aggarwal and undergraduates Ashley Gamez (marketing) and Bella Bowman (digital art).  

Aggarwal is the inventor of ChloroBoost and presented the pitch during the competition. The team won $2,000 for the most innovative solution of the competition and second place overall. 

ChloroBoost focuses on conserving water in agriculture, an industry in which 40% of water usage occurs. ChloroBoost improves water retention in soil. Farmers put biofertilizer in their fields, let it dry and then can grow their crops like usual. Doing this can reduce wastewater by half, ultimately improving soil quality.

The CSUSM team was among nine teams from five Southern California colleges and universities that competed for a total of $40,000 in cash prizes. The team won a total of $9,500 for its presentation. 

The team ended its competition presentation by proposing a two-year plan, including testing and studies, that would end with a regional launch in December 2025. 

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs
ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

But working for Alcheme Bio in Cal State San Marcos’ Infinity Lab has exceeded all of Jha’s expectations. Not only has it provided hands-on learning opportunities, but Jha has been able to work closely with and learn from Vanessa Small, the founder, chief executive officer and chief scientific officer of Alcheme Bio.

“I knew since it was a startup that I would get to do a lot more than if I was at a bigger company, but the experience has been amazing,” said Jha, who will graduate from CSUSM with a master’s in biotechnology in May. “Working with Vanessa has been especially helpful. She is a great mentor.”

CSUSM’s Infinity Lab is a state-of-the-art research facility that launched last spring to offer affordable bench space for bioentrepreneurs. Alcheme Bio is one of four bioscience entrepreneurs that are part of the lab along with Grann Pharmaceuticals, Indaptus Therapeutics and GSD Bio. The Infinity Lab’s convenient location in CSUSM’s Extended Learning building, ready availability of research equipment and instrumentation, and collaborative environment are key elements of the laboratory’s success.

Originally designed as a teaching space, the university pivoted because of the pandemic and reimagined the Infinity Lab as part of its innovation ecosystem under the direction of Dr. Scott Gross, associate vice president of industry partnerships, and Dr. Betsy Read, the founder of the university’s biotechnology program. They’ve received added assistance from Debora Galasso, a 25-year veteran of the biotech industry who is a lecturer in the Master of Biotechnology: A Professional Science Master’s program.

The lab has become the perfect place for students like Jha to gain real-world experience while learning from seasoned professionals like Small.

“Vanessa is very patient,” Jha said. “Even though she's the CEO, she is very much willing to teach me and to answer questions.”

Growing up in India, Jha was always interested in biology and initially considered pursuing a career as a doctor. But her interests shifted more to research and studying how things work and why they work in a particular manner.

Jha earned her bachelor’s in biotechnology from St. Xavier's College, Ranchi in India. She chose CSUSM for her master’s degree both because of its location in a hub for biotechnology and its strong program that combines science and management.

The master’s program requirements include completing a semester-in-residence project, and Jha learned about the Infinity Lab from Read, who recommended reaching out to Alcheme Bio. Jha’s lab work includes protein purification, extracting protein, and trying to grow it and scale it up. She said the experience has been invaluable as she works toward finding a job in industry after graduation in May.

“It has been so great, especially for me being an international student,” Jha said. “This opportunity was perfect for me, and I'm grateful to Alcheme Bio.”

Visit the Infinity Lab website to learn more about joining the lab.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

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

Datta, who will graduate from Cal State San Marcos with their master’s in biological sciences this May, has worked to overcome challenges with imposter syndrome and their own diagnosis of a disability a few years ago. Now they’re working to help others battling disabilities.

Datta has worked in several different places to fuel their experience at CSUSM, including helping with multiple biology courses, serving as graduate mentor for the Summer Scholars program and working as a tutor.

Those efforts have paid off. Last fall, Datta won the CSUSM Social Innovation Challenge and in January they won the Crellin Pauling Student Teaching Award.

“I always liked learning,” said Datta, who uses they/them pronouns. “Every class that I took added a lens in terms of how I see the world. I see a leaf and I see all of its different parts and I see the physics and the chemistry that comes together to make it, and it's a wonderful thing.”

Datta enrolled at CSUSM for graduate school after earning their bachelor’s from UC Davis for multiple reasons, including access to faculty who does research in their field and CSUSM’s proximity to their family.

“I’m a person with disabilities and I’m from San Diego,” they said. “My entire family is here and I needed that support system.”

Datta studies how to make higher education (particularly STEM) classrooms more accessible for students with disabilities. 

Currently a peer mentor in STEM, Datta has been interested in both the fields of STEM and education since they were a young teenager. Since this initial interest, Datta has taken on several roles that gave them experience and made them more well rounded as an educator.

“Exposure to different types of people’s experiences helps you understand how to be more empathetic and kind toward them as a person,” Datta said. “You realize these things that you might never experience and you start to notice those factors and begin to recognize the telltale signs of people struggling or needing help and recognize that better in the future.”

Datta produced an impressive project for CSUSM’s Social Innovation Challenge, an ideation competition in which students compete to solve real-world problems.

“My thesis is on how closed captioning affects the academic experiences of students with disabilities and STEM classrooms,” Datta said. “My business proposal was on how we can integrate that realistically and logically into higher education.”

Datta’s project has been in the works since their senior year of undergrad, stemming from an honors thesis during COVID when they saw how the pandemic affected people with chronic and physical disabilities and neurodivergent challenges. Some of their friends did not adjust well to the new climate while others (like Datta) thrived in an online learning environment.

The project has continued to grow. Datta has conducted extensive research and found ways to help students, including through recorded lectures with captions. Datta then looked for ways to get the project into action.

But Datta knows that change is slow.

“I had sections in my proposal for what we should do if my proposal wouldn't work, because I recognized that it was too ideal,” Datta said. “I want to get these resources universally implemented into as many institutions as possible, and that is a lot of money and a lot of coordination. With the amount of cooperation required, it's hard.” 

Datta had to use a deeper-level thinking process, focusing on whether institutions even had the resources needed to put their plan to action and whether it was equitable to ask instructors to do these tasks. 

As the first-place winner, Datta was awarded $500 and an opportunity to share their project, build their resume and get involved in networking. 

Datta cares deeply about making education accessible. They not only have their winning social innovation project, they also have been a graduate teaching assistant for over a year instructing labs, holding office hours and developing tools for their students to succeed. 

Beyond just the logistical roles of being an educator, Datta really stands out in the impression they leave on their students - being real. 

“I had a student tell me, ‘You’re like the first human professor I’ve had,’ ” Datta said. “I make mistakes and I have difficult days. I joke with my students and share struggles I had when learning the same materials and taking the same classes.” 

When students are learning a difficult subject or in a difficult class, honesty and relatability from their teachers can make a world of difference. Instead of being discouraged, students are more likely to improve, leading them to thrive. Datta also urges their students to find a healthy balance.

“I always encourage my students to prioritize their mental health,” Datta said, “but get the degree, do whatever you have to do, keep your head down. Take your time, but get the degree.” 

Not only have Datta’s students recognized their hard work, but so has their mentor, biology professor Mallory Rice.

“They care deeply about not only improving the experiences of students in their own classroom, but all students that cross their path,” Rice said. “Poorvi’s advocacy has even had a profound impact on my teaching and influenced me to integrate practices into my own classroom to improve students’ experiences.”

In January, Datta won the Crellin Pauling Student Teaching Award, which acknowledges those who show student teaching achievement in the field of biotechnology. The award branches across to students from any CSU, yet only two are selected. Winners received $2,000 and an invitation to attend the CSU Biotechnology Symposium. Datta’s acceptance speech had a strong impact on the audience.

 “I had so many people coming up to me and telling me about it when I had this moment, where I realized words have power,” Datta said, “I spoke for three minutes and impacted people in a way that's really significant and meaningful, and that was eye-opening for me.  

“Receiving this award means a lot. I put in so much work and I care so much about my students. Having your work recognized when you have imposter syndrome, that type of external validation can be very significant.”

As someone who deals with disabilities themselves, Datta understands the challenges that one goes through and incorporates these experiences into their teachings.

“I have a lot of flexibility with my students, and I also ask my students to be flexible with me,” Datta said, “The most important advice I would give to any student with disabilities is to spend less time thinking about how to fix yourself, assuming that you're broken, and spend more time trying to figure out how to be compassionate to yourself and how you can succeed because you deserve it.” 

Datta was recently admitted to the integrated life sciences Ph.D. program at the University of Georgia for the fall and intends to pursue a doctorate in neuroscience. Their ultimate goal is to become a teaching professor of biology. This career would allow Datta to continue their research and develop evidence-based recommendations that would help institutions retain more students with disabilities in STEM.

 After spending years of their life learning how to adapt to and grow through challenges, Datta wants to share their understanding with others.

“Sometimes situations can be unfair and it’s not your fault,” Datta said, “Being kind to yourself and giving yourself the space to be human and asking for things you need from the people you feel safe asking from will always yield you success because you deserve it, and all of us are capable of being successful.” 

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

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

The mural portrays a coastal live oak, a tree that is representative of the San Marcos region. By incorporating industrial features and a striking array of bold color, the art piece emulates the cycle of the seasons. Elements of innovation and nature come together to create an illuminating showpiece that connects all academic disciplines and produces an inclusive environment open to every major. 

“When we compare nature’s cycle with the world of innovation and entrepreneurship, it becomes clear that both of these processes are very iterative and there's a lot of parallels between them,” said Scott Gross, associate vice president of industry partnerships and head of the Innovation Hub.  

“The Innovation Hub is pretty industrial with hard lines, and we wanted something to kind of soften it and bring in more colors, making it gentler. Plus, I just love how the tree branches off into the circuitry and connects nature and technology.”  

Adjacent to the mural is the interactive art installation, where students can place a ball into a winding suction tube and watch as it is transported throughout the five stages of the innovation process: problem defining, ideation, design and prototyping, testing, and implementing. Illustrating the journey of turning an idea into reality can help generate a sense of motivation throughout the dynamic space and spark student imagination.  

Members of the campus community collaborated to bring these works to fruition. Lucy HG Solomon, professor of art, media and design, worked alongside muralist Tim Topalov and Kodie Gerritsen, an alumnus who leads the makerspace in Kellogg Library. Topalov initially was connected to CSUSM through his mother, Rosalina Christova, a longtime university fellow who directed the California Primary Algae Laboratory.  

To further highlight student voices and creativity, the trio invited students onto their team. Aidelen Montoya, Evie Reese, Emma Reheis and Melissa Lugtu contributed to the mural development. Getting involved in a campus project gives students the opportunity to express their artistry, gain hands-on experience and make connections with fellow members of the campus community. It is this type of inventiveness and enthusiasm that can be found throughout the Innovation Hub, as students now have space to ideate their inspirations.   

“If people interact with the vacuum-powered idea pipeline and consider the majesty of the colorful oak tree, hopefully they will think this place is not just for traditional innovations; it’s about stretching the brain and imagination to consider new ways to engage with the world,” HG Solomon said.  

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

The Quick Pitch contest occurs each semester and is formatted similarly to the TV show “Shark Tank.” Quick Pitch judges provide feedback to contestants about their business model and three winners are chosen. 

Psychological sciences student Natalie Greenwood-Mendez placed second and received $500 for her business idea “Open Ear,” which is an employer-sponsored, virtual service to support workers by providing frequent, ongoing sessions with mental health providers. Business student Jakob Hatlestad placed third and also received $500 for his model "VRify,”  a nonprofit focused on integrating virtual reality into school curriculum.

Casarez’s pitch was a transformative subscription-based self-defense training that empowers women to confidently respond to real-life scenarios.   

“I honestly did not anticipate winning this contest,” Casarez said. “Despite the nerves and anxiety, I was so happy and pleased to win. Winning this contest not only helped me prove to myself that I can be a successful businesswoman, but also that the issue of violence against women is important to others.”

Casarez’s winning pitch idea bloomed in her entrepreneurship class while working on an in-class project. She combined her passion for martial arts and business, and developed a model that would help protect women who have suffered violence and sexual assault. “Regain the Power Self Defense” would teach women life-saving self-defense techniques.   

“As a first-degree black belt, I am passionate about sharing my 12 years of experience with others,” Casarez said. “I love teaching younger students, older generations and especially connecting with women on a deeper level about safety tips and tactics. I then saw the opportunity to combine my love for martial arts with this class assignment.” 

Casarez’s training in martial arts consisted of how to react and defend herself in real-life scenarios. She realized how important it is for everyone to have access to similar training, and how women especially would benefit from receiving safety tips and tactics. 

“In today's society, the issue of gender-based violence has not declined, but rather continues to rise,” Casarez said. “There is little recognition of the actual statistics regarding violence against women, especially children, teens and young adults. I firmly believe that there is not enough training on real-life applications as well as ways to help people who have been assaulted.” 

Casarez plans to pursue her dream as a special effects makeup artist after graduating next spring. 

“Although my career path is to head for the film and makeup industry, my heart always goes back to martial arts,” Casarez said. “ I can definitely see myself opening a studio, helping grow an existing studio, becoming a part-time instructor or even volunteering my time to help teach the jujitsu class here on campus.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

Temple toured private facilities in the region that failed to meet his expectations in myriad ways – whether the culprit was age, accumulated dust or debris. And for the privilege of occupying such a space, the going rate was a shocking $10,000 a month, or more.

What a pleasant change it was for Temple, then, when his nascent company’s head of business development told him about a new opportunity to rent room in Cal State San Marcos’ Extended Learning building. The bright and modern lab on the fourth floor marked such a sharp contrast to what he had been seeing that he accepted on the spot.

“It’s been wonderful,” Temple said. “This lab space is incredibly nice.”

Temple is the president and CEO of Grann Pharmaceuticals, a biotech that he formed with several classmates while they were still students at Whittier College. This spring, before they even had graduated, Grann moved into the Infinity Lab, a state-of-the-art research facility in the Extended Learning building. Just last week, Grann was joined in the lab by a second client: Alcheme Bio, a small startup founded by Vanessa Small, a member of the advisory council for CSUSM’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

The Infinity Lab was designed as a teaching space, but partly because of the pandemic, it hasn’t been used for that purpose since the building opened four years ago. In 2020, CSUSM initiated an experiment to reimagine the lab by leasing space to cancer diagnostics company Volition, which stayed for about a year before moving on.

Now, CSUSM is doubling down on the growth of its innovation ecosystem under the direction of Scott Gross, associate vice president of industry partnerships, and Betsy Read, the founder of the university’s biotechnology program, and with the added assistance of Debora Galasso. Galasso is a 25-year veteran of the biotech industry who became a lecturer in the Master of Biotechnology: A Professional Science Master’s program in 2019 and this year was enlisted by Gross and Read to manage the expansion of the Infinity Lab.

Galasso said CSUSM is the only university in San Diego County that is dipping its toe into a venture that is typically the province of for-profit companies.

“Our goal is to demonstrate proof of concept,” Galasso said. “The space was sitting idle, so we wanted to see if we could create an environment that could benefit students. As education is our primary focus, we are not intending to make money, but to cover our costs while we develop an environment where students, faculty and staff can interact directly with entrepreneurs.”

The Infinity Lab is a molecular and cellular biology lab that features four benches (three are available to lease, one is reserved for CSUSM students and faculty), a tissue culture room for culturing cells and an impressive collection of the type of equipment any biotech startup would require. Space can be rented by the linear foot, with Grann taking up a whole bench (34 feet) and Alcheme only 7 feet. The lab can accommodate three to five companies at a time, and renewable leases are for six-month terms, as befits a place that considers itself a biotech incubator.

“The idea would be to not have companies in for over two years,” Galasso said. “By that time, they should have secured angel or venture capital funding, been purchased or their intellectual property been purchased. Within two years, you should be growing enough that you need to go somewhere else.”

Because of its university affiliation, a requirement of the Infinity Lab is that students benefit from any industry partnership. That can take multiple forms, from students being hired as interns, to companies hosting classes in the lab to tell their story, to biotech entrepreneurs speaking on campus in a casual, roundtable style.

Grann, for example, has brought aboard two CSUSM master’s students as interns for the upcoming school year, and the students will learn Grann’s process of re-expressing proteins using mRNA lipid nanoparticle technology.

Temple, a San Diego native who graduated from Cathedral Catholic High School, said the directive that Grann involve students in its operations is nothing but a win-win proposition. His company has added interns who might end up being future employees, while CSUSM students can not only tap into Grann’s collective brainpower, but also borrow expensive scientific instruments that not even the Infinity Lab possesses.

“Cal State San Marcos has been great,” Temple said. “This place couldn’t be any better.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

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

Last fall, a biotech startup came to him with an idea for a product that sounded to Luna like one of great timeliness and potential value: a face mask that, rather than passively protecting the user like the N95s we all have become accustomed to, would more actively guard against COVID-19 by dispensing a drug into the user’s system. Luna had done research on drug delivery vehicles on a microscopic scale, so he was the right person to determine for the company if their bright idea was feasible.  

During the fall 2021 semester, Luna applied for and received a CSUSM fellowship granting him a partial release from his teaching load to delve into the nitty-gritty of how a mask that’s essentially a self-contained nebulizer might operate, or whether it even could. In January, he began a two-year journey in which he is collaborating with student researchers to build prototypes and decipher thorny scientific puzzles. Depending on what he and the team discover, their research could serve as the launch point for a new device that could better protect people from diseases like COVID-19.  

“Some companies are trying to advance face masks through the technology route, like, ‘Let’s put a microphone in it, or a headphone,’ ” Luna said. “Well, we can also advance them through biotechnology. We can add something that protects you at the molecular level. I think getting this idea out there is something that could be great for humanity.” 

Dreaming up and researching innovative concepts is nothing new at CSUSM, of course. Since the arrival of President Ellen Neufeldt in 2019, however, the power and spirit of innovation at CSUSM has been harnessed like never before.  

“There are a lot of innovative things happening on campus, and there have been for a lot of years,” said Sam Clarke, a management professor and the founding faculty director of entrepreneurship, who handed off the role to business faculty colleague Mark Monahan this summer.  

“What the president has done is brought those to the forefront. We’ve seen them start to bubble up to the surface. Now it’s about: How can we leverage all these great things and, as a university, create a lot more value for those we interact with?” 

The clearest physical manifestation of innovation at CSUSM, of course, is the Innovation Hub, a 2,800-square-foot space on the ground floor of the Extended Learning Building that officially opened to the public this spring. Featuring movable tables and chairs, a giant video wall (composed of nine separate flat-screen TVs) and a makerspace with state-of-the-art equipment, the Innovation Hub is designed to host classes and public events and generally be just what its name suggests – the hub of all the innovative ideas springing up across campus.  

The Hub was built out thanks to a grant from The Conrad Prebys Foundation in 2021, and the remainder of the $500,000 gift from the San Diego nonprofit this year is allowing CSUSM to bolster the larger innovation ecosystem surrounding the physical space. The main portion of the more recent donation is funding a program called the faculty innovation fellows. The inaugural cohort, which includes Luna, involves five faculty members (one from each of CSUSM’s four colleges, plus the university library) who were selected to lead an entrepreneurial project while also serving as an innovation ambassador to other faculty.  

Besides Luna’s face mask project, other areas of research for the fellows include mobile health clinics, climate science and social innovation. During their two-year tenure, each fellow is required to incorporate students and a community or industry partner into their work.  

“The idea of the Innovation Hub is that it is the nexus where faculty, students and industry all come together so that they can be creative,” said Scott Gross, CSUSM’s associate vice president of industry partnerships. “We know that each of the five fellows’ projects will help us realize our goal of that nexus of faculty, students and industry.” 

Working in concert with the faculty fellows at building on the culture of innovation at CSUSM are Clarke, the faculty director of entrepreneurship and Elinne Becket, a biology professor who was tapped last year to serve as faculty director of innovation. Both are ideal fits in their roles. Clarke is a management professor who specializes in entrepreneurship and has been involved in the founding of ventures in such fields as software, health benefits and consumer financing. Before joining academia in 2018, Becket was a scientist for an Orange County biotech, and at CSUSM she has helped prepare students for careers in the industry.  

Now, as faculty representatives to the Innovation Hub, both are applying their particular skills in different ways. Becket’s charge is to coax more ideas, technologies and patentable inventions out of classrooms and labs, and to support students and faculty who are interested in developing those things. Clarke’s objective is to take those ideas and provide an outlet through commercialization.   

“I always tell people, when you talk about starting a business, you have to have somebody who builds it and somebody who sells it,” Clarke said. “If you think about our roles, Elinne is looking at how we build stuff and I’m looking at how we sell stuff.” 

Said Becket: “My expertise has always been on the back end, and also in bringing people together. My goal is to interface with students, faculty and industry, to bring them together in innovative activities and get ideas germinating. With Sam, it’s a really complementary relationship with some overlap for sure, especially if it’s a pet project that I’m super excited about.” 

This spring, CSUSM hired Melvin Sen, a graduate student who’s pursuing a master’s degree in sociological practice, to serve as program specialist for the Innovation Hub and supplement the efforts of Clarke and Becket. Together with a student innovation team, the whole Hub group organized the inaugural CSUSM Startup Week in early May. The three-day event featured a seminar on such new technologies as cryptocurrency, blockchain and NFTs, as well as a student quick-pitch competition modeled after the popular reality show “Shark Tank.” The first edition of that contest, held last fall, produced a winner who has since started a company based on her idea.  

Beyond hosting events for the campus and the community (in April, for example, more than 100 entrepreneurs gathered in the Hub for a startup series held by Innovate 78, a partnership among various North County cities), Clarke envisions the Hub being open to students to use the makerspace to test and build on ideas first conjured in the classroom or lab, or even to serve as headquarters for student startups as they continue to get support and mentorship from the university.  

“It’s supposed to be flexible so that we can do as many things as we possibly can in the same space,” Clarke said. “The possibilities are really endless.” 

The current push for more innovation at CSUSM originated in 2018, when Charles De Leone, a longtime physics professor with a well-earned status as an innovative teacher and researcher on campus, was approached about the potential for a space devoted to innovation in the Extended Learning Building being built across Barham Drive.  

When Neufeldt came aboard in July 2019, the movement shifted into overdrive. During the early stages of her listening and learning tour, she met with De Leone and appointed him the original faculty director of innovation (the role he later ceded to Becket). Clarke was recruited as director of entrepreneurship. De Leone and Sharon Hamill, then the chair of the Academic Senate, convened a committee of faculty members that met almost weekly that fall and produced a report that would serve as the guiding document for innovation at CSUSM.  

“What it envisioned was an innovation ecosystem on our campus,” said De Leone, who’s now dean of the Office of Graduate Studies and Research. “This involved all the partners on our campus, and critically our community members, because the Innovation Hub should really act as a gateway by which our ideas can get out into the community and the community’s needs and ideas can get to us.” 

Critical to Neufeldt’s perspective on innovation is that it dovetails with her passion for, and CSUSM’s mission of, diversity and inclusion. Innovation should not be the dominion merely of science students in a lab, and entrepreneurship should not be the province merely of business students. Rather, both should be open to any student with an idea and the willingness to pursue it. And today’s students should be encouraged to try to devise innovative solutions to social dilemmas; for instance, the innovation challenge through the Hub this fall will be focused on housing insecurity. 

“The president brought a vision of how this could fundamentally alter our student’s view of themselves and what they’re capable of,” De Leone said. “She saw that when a student has an idea and they take charge of it and move it forward and make something happen with it, that gives them an incredibly powerful sense of agency that will likely stick with them for the rest of their lives.” 

Here’s a case in point. Close to two decades ago, De Leone had a physics student named Giancarlo Vallejo, a Peru native whose parents moved to the United States to give their children a better life. Like many CSUSM students, Vallejo’s road to a degree was circuitous and rutted with potholes. Between the start of his college career in 2001 and his graduation in 2018, he served six years in the Marines, slowly readjusted to civilian life, and spent some time working in Orange County. 

When Vallejo finally did graduate with a degree in biological sciences, he did so with an innovative spirit. In 2020, he founded a company, Proper Cell Biotechnologies, with a partial goal to research cures and vaccines related to COVID-19. It was his startup, in fact, that came to Luna last fall with the proposal for a mask that would dispense drugs to help ward off the disease.  

As Luna strives to determine whether he can help Vallejo turn his vision into reality, Luna is enlisting the service of several students who, as Luna and Vallejo were, are underrepresented minorities who might not be conditioned to think of themselves as innovative or entrepreneurial. 

“As first-generation students, they might be thinking, ‘What job can I even have?’ ” Luna said. “I want them to feel inspired, to shoot for the stars. I have this biotechnology class, and one of the exercises is to create your own company. I tell my students, ‘You can be the next person to create a startup.’  

“And with this mask, I tell them that this is something you can see. I love biology, but if it’s too molecular, sometimes it’s hard to see your result. With this, you can create something and you can actually hold it. That gets them really excited.” 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

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

NFT Art Gallery and Marketplace

Learn about cryptocurrency, metaverse, blockchain and how to buy and list non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto from industry experts. Check out the art gallery of student-procured NFTs. 

Date: Monday, May 2
Time: 5:30-8 p.m.
Location: Innovation Hub (Extended Learning Building at 288 Campus Way)


San Marcos Farmers Market with CSUSM Student Vendors 

See what CSUSM students have been creating as they show off and sell their goods at the weekly San Marcos Farmers Market. This is the inaugural Innovation Hub booth operated by student businesses, including Amalfi Swiim and Kappa Sigma. 

Date: Tuesday, May 3
Time: 3-7 p.m.
Location: 251 North City Drive (Between The QUAD and Block C)

Quick Pitch Contest

Come listen to the innovative projects that CSUSM students are working on and participate as a voting audience member to determine who the next winner will be. Are you a student or part of a team of students with an innovative idea that you’d like to get up and running? Consider participating in this competition. The winner will be awarded $1,000.

Date: Wednesday, May 4
Time: 6-8 p.m.
Location: Innovation Hub

Visit the Innovation Hub's website to learn how to participate and discover more about these events.

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

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

The gifts build on one of a similar size that CSUSM received last year from The Conrad Prebys Foundation, the largest charitable organization in San Diego County. The 2021 grant, the first ever given to CSUSM from the foundation, was used to build out the university’s Innovation Hub, which is holding its grand opening on April 5.  

“We are so thankful for the continued generosity of The Conrad Prebys Foundation, which is changing the face of San Diego through its commitment to philanthropy,” CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt said. “This additional funding toward our innovation ecosystem and innovative technology will help us build on our efforts to solve critical problems for our region’s future and keep our students on the cutting edge of training and research.” 

The new grants come in two parts. The first one, in the amount of $136,800, is to support CSUSM’s faculty innovation fellows program. The program, launched this January, involves five faculty members (one from each of CSUSM’s four colleges, as well as the university library) who were selected to lead an entrepreneurial project while also serving as an innovation ambassador to other faculty.  

The funding from The Conrad Prebys Foundation will support the first year of inaugural cohort’s fellowship. The fellows each have a two-year appointment.  

“With many thanks to The Conrad Prebys Foundation, we are excited to expand the innovation ecosystem at CSUSM, and the contributions of the faculty innovation fellows will be a vital component of that,” said Scott Gross, associate vice president of industry partnerships. 

The second grant, for $100,000, will be used to pilot interdisciplinary virtual reality courses in CSUSM’s College of Education, Health and Human Services. The college will be purchasing virtual reality equipment and software as well as hiring a virtual reality coordinator to partner with faculty to create VR experiences within their courses during the 2022-23 academic year.  

“Funding from The Conrad Prebys Foundation is critical for the college to capitalize on the ever-growing capacity of virtual reality to offer sophisticated, simulated educational experiences for our students in health care disciplines,” said Jennifer Ostergren, dean of CEHHS. “Out of the pandemic, our college and the industries we serve are looking for ways to use the knowledge we gained from engaging in a virtual world. With this grant, CEHHS will be at the leading edge of developing virtual reality and doing so in an interdisciplinary way so that our students learn how to collaborate across disciplines.” 

CSUSM's Innovation Hub is a 2,800-square-foot space within the Extended Learning building on campus where students learn how to be entrepreneurs, innovators and the next generation of leaders. 

“The Conrad Prebys Foundation is proud to support CSUSM's efforts to build on its environment of innovation and innovative technology,"  said Erin Decker, director of grantmaking for the foundation. “The university is developing the leaders of tomorrow and effecting meaningful change in the region, and we're happy to be part of their story.”

Sewing is something Lombardi and her cousin picked up as a hobby when they had extra time on their hands. She had no intention of starting a business. 

Lombardi wanted to be resourceful because fabric was expensive and she had limited funds. She saved her leftover fabric scraps, not knowing what she would end up doing with it. 

Little did she know, this would change her trajectory of finding her career path.

Those saved fabric scraps became the basis for Lombardi’s sustainably made swimsuits and the creation of her business, Amalfi Swiim.

Lombardi pitched her sustainable business model as part of Cal State San Marcos’ Innovation Hub Quick Pitch contest, winning a $500 microgrant for her work on Amalfi Swiim. The contest closely resembled the TV show “Shark Tank.” 

Lombardi curated her brand name while reminiscing about the time she visited Positano on the Amalfi coast in Italy with her cousin and aunt (the extra “i” in Amalfi Swiim came about because Lombardi’s planned Instagram handle was already taken). 

As Lombardi began sewing in the early stages of the pandemic, she started searching for inspiration and came across a unique technique that she incorporated into her work.

She started to play with the leftover scraps she had saved and molded them together to create her first swimsuit without using any new material.

“I don't think that I would have started my journey if I waited to put everything in place to make sure it was perfect before,” says Lombardi, a business administration student who will graduate in spring 2023. “I think if you have an idea, just go for it, make it and get it manufactured, whatever it is. Get it onto social media, make an account for it and just get it out there. Because the longer you wait, the more time you're going to have to wait for people to find out about your product.”

Lombardi created a TikTok video that showed her process of sewing a bikini. The video went viral with over 11 million views, and seeing the comments made Lombardi realize that her sustainable sewing efforts by utilizing leftover fabric scraps were having an impact.

“And then it clicked for me that I could actually have a bigger goal in mind and have a bigger mission, which is to decrease the world's pollution rate,” Lombardi said. “There's such a big trend in sustainability in the fashion world right now and I don't think it should stay a trend.”

After coming to this realization, Lombardi started to educate herself on other clothing brands' lack of effort toward the sustainability movement. She wanted to be part of positive change, even if it meant working harder to establish her business.

Lombardi decided that her zero-waste swimsuit could be a statement piece in her clothing line because it stands for sustainability awareness. She also creates tote bags with the same innovative sewing technique. 

Lombardi was able to make connections with other small businesses and she now accepts donations of fabric scraps. Lombardi has reached out to over 50 local swimwear brands. One of her main providers is Amy’s Sport Co., a golf clothing brand she interned for when she was a senior in high school in Palm Springs.   

Becoming a business owner in college has become a huge time commitment for Lombardi. She spends up to 20 hours a week marketing, sewing and using social media to promote Amalfi Swiim while being a full-time student and a member of the CSUSM Entrepreneurship Society.

Up until a couple of months ago, Lombardi was juggling everything herself. She placed a Facebook advertisement, which led to hiring a fellow CSUSM student to help her sew. Sewing is the most time-consuming part of the business because everything's made to order, so hiring help allowed Lombardi to focus more on marketing her business.

Lombardi wanted to share the impact of Amalfi Swiim’s business model, but she was not familiar with the process of making a pitch deck. She worked with members of the CSUSM Entrepreneurship Society to develop her pitch for the Innovation Hub Quick Pitch contest.

“I looked at everyone in the group as mentors because they're all older than me and have a lot of experience,” she said. “And it's really built my confidence to be able to speak in a professional environment and just push my boundaries and put myself out there.” 

Lombardi is planning to put her prize funds toward establishing Amalfi Swiim through a legal entity. 

She is currently working on her biggest swimwear collection to date, which will be released this month. It will consist of new styles and textiles along with her signature zero-waste bikini. The swimwear will all be made from recycled and sustainable materials that are biodegradable. 

“I have all my sights set on growing this business after college,” Lombardi said. “It has been quite a ride. I'm not going to lie, it's definitely stressful to have so many obligations. But at the end of the day, I'm choosing this for myself. I really am passionate about starting a business in college so that I can support myself financially by the time I graduate.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

The gift announced Tuesday is the first one that CSUSM has received from The Conrad Prebys Foundation, the largest charitable organization in San Diego County, or its namesake, Conrad Prebys, one of the most prolific philanthropists in the region’s history.  

“We are filled with gratitude by the generosity of this gift from The Conrad Prebys Foundation, an organization that is changing the face of San Diego through its commitment to philanthropy,” CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt said. “Innovation is central to everything we do at CSUSM, and this grant will allow us to build on our efforts to help solve crucial problems for our region’s future.” 

CSUSM is among 121 grant projects that are receiving nearly $78 million in funding during the inaugural grant cycle of The Conrad Prebys Foundation. The recipients include some of the most prominent institutions in San Diego, such as Rady Children’s Hospital, Sharp HealthCare, KPBS, Scripps Research, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and The Old Globe. Also among the grants are 10 to higher education institutions totaling almost $17 million.  

The CSUSM Innovation Hub is a 2,800-square-foot space within the Extended Learning building on campus. Designed to teach students how to be entrepreneurs, innovators and the next generation of leaders, the Hub was set to launch in person by April 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic forced activity to be held in a virtual setting. Despite that limitation, the Hub has enjoyed success, including student innovation competitions that created unique solutions for local K-12 districts. 

The grant from The Conrad Prebys Foundation will allow the Innovation Hub to meet its technology, equipment and critical supply needs to transform the space, enabling projects to move forward from ideas through commercialization. Funds will be used to outfit the Hub with forward-thinking technology such as virtual reality equipment, 3D printers and scanners, 360-degree cameras and makerspace tool kits, among other products. 

“We are very excited and grateful to be part of The Conrad Prebys Foundation recipient list in fulfilling the vision of the CSUSM Innovation Hub,” said Jill Litschewski, director of the Hub. “The grant will allow us to continue the momentum in building CSUSM’s social innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, pursuing solutions to our region’s most pressing needs.” 

The potential of the Innovation Hub was illustrated recently when a team composed mostly of current and former CSUSM students came together through the Hub to win a $15,000 prize in a virtual hackathon organized by an arm of the U.S. Department of Defense.  

“Our relationship with The Conrad Prebys Foundation will allow CSUSM to achieve something transformative for our students, for our community and the whole North County region,” said Charles De Leone, faculty director of innovation and interim dean of the Office of Graduate Studies and Research. “It gives CSUSM a chance to be the innovative engine to drive us to a new and brighter future for all the members of our community.” 

In addition to the nearly $78 million in grants announced Tuesday, The Conrad Prebys Foundation already has received letters of intent for its next grant cycle, which will be announced this summer. 

“Our staff and board are honored to serve as stewards for The Conrad Prebys Foundation, and with our role comes the responsibility to empower the nonprofits creating meaningful change across San Diego,” said Erin Decker, director of grantmaking for the foundation. “The grantees have exhibited an extraordinary level of resilience, innovation and compassion during this very challenging time, and it is these organizations that will heal our community in the months and years to come. The foundation is proud to be a part of their story.”