But before putting the finishing touches on your list of New Year’s resolutions, let’s take a look back at some of the most-talked-about stories of 2024.

CSUSM Receives Two Gifts Totaling $20 Million, Largest in 35-Year History

In a historic moment, Cal State San Marcos received two philanthropic donations totaling $20 million – the largest gifts in its 35-year history. $10 million from Price Philanthropies Foundation will create a first-of-its-kind, three-year accelerated bachelor's degree and workforce pipeline for behavioral and mental health. The other $10 million came from Daniel J. Epstein – a director of the CSUSM Foundation Board – and his wife, Phyllis. Their contribution will serve as a unique dollar-for-dollar matching gift opportunity for all CSUSM donors to double their impact across campus.

Balancing Act: Master's Grad Perseveres Through Challenges

A master’s of biological sciences student, Jocelyne Dates was selected last spring as the recipient of the 2024 President's Outstanding Graduate Award, the highest honor a graduating student can receive. She also received the Dean’s Award for Graduate Studies, which recognizes the accomplishments of one master’s student. Jocelyne is continuing her education by pursuing her Ph.D. at Vanderbilt.

'I Just Want to Make Him Proud and My Life to Count'

Last spring, at 76 years old, Kathryn Cook walked across the graduation stage as the oldest graduate of Cal State San Marcos' class of 2024. Her path to this accomplishment was not one of a traditional four-year-and-done experience. In fact, it was 50 years in the making, with monumental life transitions and rocky hardships in between. The passing of Cook’s husband in 2019 led her to continue her education at CSUSM and graduate with a sociology degree.

From the Baseball Diamond to 'The Bachelorette'

Austin Ott had never watched an episode of “The Bachelorette” when he received a DM on Instagram from the show encouraging him to apply. While nervous, his communication and media studies degree from Cal State San Marcos gave him a foundation to build on. Ott’s first speech in COMM 100 gave him an idea of what being in the public eye might look like. “My time at Cal State San Marcos was probably the best years of my life,” said Ott, who graduated in 2019. “There’s nothing better than playing the game you love and being around your best friends.”

American Indian Student Follows Passion for Animals, Environment

Aiden Valverde, an American Indian Studies major from the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, has made significant contributions through his engagement with the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center. As an intern for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Valverde was able to connect more with his culture, and his passion for animals and the environment. “Aiden exemplifies everything we strive to achieve in American Indian Studies and at the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center,” said Joely Proudfit, the department chair of American Indian Studies.

Computers a Lifelong Passion for Trustees' Award Winner

In 2009, Minh Tran’s family moved to Escondido from Vietnam, the only home that he, his parents and his two older siblings had ever known. Now, the fourth-year student who’s on track to graduate in May, was honored as CSUSM’s recipient of the 2024 CSU Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement, the California State University’s highest recognition of student accomplishment. Students are selected based on academic achievements, financial need, excellence in community service and personal hardship. Awardees have all demonstrated inspirational resolve along the path to college success, and many are the first in their families to attend college.

Graduate Crafting Career on Helping Children

A child and adolescent development major at Cal State San Marcos, Tania Arceo spent the last year and a half working with Voices for Children, a nonprofit organization where volunteers are trained to become court-appointed special advocates. Volunteers like Arceo represent juvenile dependency cases in San Diego County. Since graduating last spring with her bachelor’s, Arceo has started her Master of Social Work program at CSUSM this fall. 

Alumnus Seeks Better Mental Health Through Better Cuts

John Edwards was only 12 years old when he taught himself how to cut his own hair. By the time Edwards enrolled at Cal State San Marcos as a transfer student returning to higher education in 2021, he was close to completing barber school. Now a licensed barber and a recent CSUSM graduate, he operates a small studio in San Diego, rotating about 25 clients through his single chair. Edwards studied psychology at CSUSM, and it was at the university that he dreamed up the idea of melding his longtime practice of barbering with his fledgling research on mental health treatment. 
 

CSUSM Earns Prestigious Seal for Serving Latinx Students

Cal State San Marcos has earned the prestigious Seal of Excelencia, a national certification for institutions that strive to go beyond enrollment and more intentionally serve Latinx students. CSUSM is one of only 17 colleges and universities to earn the Seal of Excelencia in 2024. In 2018, Excelencia introduced the seal to certify colleges and universities for their efforts to become learning environments where Latinx, and all, students thrive. This year marks the organization’s 20th year of service to accelerate Latinx student success in higher education.

Surfer Makes School History With National Title

Tanner Vodraska, a Cal State San Marcos business student, became the first surfer in university history to win an individual national title. The junior competed in the college men’s division of the 2024 National Scholastic Surfing Association interscholastic national championships at Salt Creek Beach in Dana Point. Vodraska dominated the field. He posted a two-wave score of 17.5 points in the final, far outdistancing his closest competitor. “I feel really proud of myself because I set a goal to win the national title before I graduate, and I accomplished it,” Vodraska said.

Incredible Mulk: Class Project Becomes Thriving Business

Melissa Finestone remembers the assignment in her business marketing class that started it all. Each student was required to develop a business plan based on a product they conceived. Finestone decided to curate a product that combined her passion for cooking with a childhood love of chocolate milk. But Finestone wanted to develop a healthy alternative to other chocolate milks on the market. When Finestone couldn’t find a product on the market that met her requirements, she chose to make her own. Using her Vitamix blender to grind almonds in her kitchen at home, Finestone crafted samples of chocolate- and strawberry-flavored, plant-based almond milk. She served it to each student in the class while presenting her product. The overwhelming support from her peers inspired Finestone to launch The Mulk Co. in June 2018, only one year after she graduated from Cal State San Marcos with a bachelor’s degree in global business management. 

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

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

That was the situation Elijah Schneider found himself in as a freshman at Cal State San Marcos when he attended a Thanksgiving celebration in the fall of 2015. One of the guests that day – Schneider remembers him being a neighbor or a distant family friend – was a business owner who was soliciting opinions about his company’s Instagram channel.  

Though firmly in its core demographic, Schneider was no big afficionado of Instagram – he estimates that he had posted fewer than 20 times in about a decade of having an account. He was (and is), however, very opinionated. So while fellow attendees declined the invitation to weigh in, Schneider didn’t hold back. 

He told the man that his company’s feed looked ugly, that the images resembled generic stock photography and that he should replace whatever marketing agency handled his social media. A few days later, Schneider followed up with a phone call in which he proposed a rather bold suggestion for who should be the replacement. 

As Schneider recalls it: “I was like, ‘Hey, you’re getting ripped off. You told me you’re paying this agency 10 grand month or something. How about you pay me 1,500 bucks a month? I will learn, I will become obsessed with this. Give me three months. If it doesn’t work, get rid of me.’ ” 

To Schneider’s surprise, the man agreed to the gambit. Schneider had promised that he would devote 10 hours a week to the enterprise, but he grew so fixated that he doubled it. After a few months, the company’s Instagram following had swelled by a factor of eight, and the man was so pleased that he wanted more services.  

“Do you know how to do paid ads?” he asked Schneider. 

“No, but I’ll figure it out,” Schneider replied, with a degree of self-assurance that would become his trademark.  

He did indeed, to the tune of quintupling a $1,000 investment in paid ads after taking a few courses on YouTube and LinkedIn. By the end of his freshman year, Schneider was managing tens of thousands of advertising dollars, being connected to a second client and hiring his first employee – all while living in The QUAD housing facility and taking classes toward his major in business administration. 

As a teenager in his dorm room, Schneider founded a digital marketing agency that he first called Mercury Media before changing the name to Modifly in 2017. He continued to build the company during his five years at CSUSM – eventually moving into an office at Union Cowork across the street from campus in North City – before graduating in 2020.  

Today, Modifly occupies a sleek, modern, 8,000-square-foot space in a high rise in downtown San Diego, a short walk from where Schneider lives with his wife, Sarah, an OR nurse at UC San Diego whom he met at CSUSM. Two years ago, Schneider sold a majority stake in his nascent business to a parent company called CourtAvenue, helping his team grow to 30 employees spread across four cities, including Mexico City. Modifly’s current and former clients include such brands as Mercedes-Benz, Nordstrom and UGG boots.   

Asked about his unorthodox path to becoming an entrepreneur, the now 27-year-old Schneider said: “Because I didn’t have the baggage of working for other companies, I hadn’t developed bad habits. I had to develop perspective, which allowed me to – with no experience – test things and see what’s working and what’s not. Not having a traditional background is fantastic in terms of the progression of the business because we do things differently. Every time somebody joins the company from another agency, they’re like, ‘It’s not supposed to work like this.’ And I’m like, ‘I know, it’s great.’ ” 

How does Schneider do things differently? He conducts a performance evaluation called a 360 review in which every employee of the company evaluates everyone else, meaning that the CEO (Schneider) can get critiqued by a lower-level worker who was just hired.  

“It’s not about age or experience,” Schneider said. “Everyone’s perspective is critical.” 

How does he do things differently? Even as the young leader of a young business, he’s not afraid to call established companies out on what he sees as flawed marketing strategies and to propose solutions that constitute much more than tinkering around the edges.  

Take Poo-Pourri, which devises and sells fragrant sprays for toilets. The company approached Modifly after its previous marketing partner didn’t work out. After a deep dive into customer feedback, Schneider proposed a complete overhaul of its approach, mostly notably removing the “Poo” and broadening to other types of sprays. Now rebranded as ~Pourri, the company peddles fragrances that reduce odors from not only the bathroom, but also pets, cars, shoes, baby diapers, even marijuana. 

“Digital media and digital marketing are constantly changing – every hour, it feels like,” Schneider said. “It’s a giant puzzle, and if you have to navigate that as a brand, it can become really confusing. I love this business because it pushes me to think outside the box to solve problems.” 

Schneider’s righthand man almost since the outset of his entrepreneurial journey has been Brandon Biancalani. They met at orientation before their first year at CSUSM – Schneider an incoming freshman from San Diego, Biancalani from San Clemente. They soon learned that they would be living a couple rooms down from each other on the same floor of The QUAD (Schneider’s future wife lived a few rooms down in the other direction).  

Biancalani initially was struck by Schneider’s outspokenness – a sharp contrast to his introversion – but while other residents of the dorm were distracted by partying or other teenage concerns, he and Schneider bonded over long, late-night conversations about life goals. Having entered CSUSM as a kinesiology student, Biancalani quickly realized it wasn’t for him, and when Schneider dangled an opportunity in the summer of 2016 to be Employee No. 2 for Modifly (then Mercury Media), Biancalani jumped at it.  

They moved into an apartment south of campus and lived together for the next 3½ years before graduating in the same class. Biancalani, who’s also married to a fellow CSUSM alumna, is now the head of paid media for Modifly.  

“We had this feeling early on that we could be really successful with this,” Biancalani said. “Even when we didn’t have an office, we’d meet at a coffee shop, just a couple kids figuring stuff out. And then it started turning into something big really fast.” 

Biancalani says their business partnership works so well because he’s a detail-oriented, data-crunching specialist while Schneider is a big-picture visionary.  

“Elijah has done so many personality quizzes that land him in that ‘thought leader’ category,” he said. “If something new pops up, he’s probably three steps ahead and already is best buddies with the person who owns the company. His superpower is that he can predict things and be on the cutting edge and be fearless in voicing that early. And he’s right 99% of the time.” 

After Schneider sold his majority stake in Modifly in 2022, he turned over day-to-day operations to a new president, Nico Coetzee, who’s been in the marketing business since Schneider was an infant. Now that he has built a stable company, Schneider is relentlessly focused on its growth. He travels frequently to meet potential clients, speak at conferences and generally proselytize on behalf of Modifly.  

Given that he stumbled upon his career in the most accidental way imaginable – giving offhand advice to someone at a family gathering – even Schneider is often amazed by the passion he feels for it.  

“I pour myself into this job because I can and because I want to,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like work; it’s my favorite thing. There are definitely days where I’m like, ‘I just want to go home, I’m done.’ But 99 out of 100 days, I love what I do.” 

Elijah Schneider 

Major at CSUSM: Business administration 

Graduation year: 2020 

Company: Modifly 

Website: wemodifly.com 

Founded: 2016 

Number of employees: 30 

Talking Business With Elijah Schneider

What's the best advice you received about starting a business? 

Surround yourself with the right people. You are a product of your environment, and if you have morally good people around you, then every piece of advice you're receiving is typically to your benefit. People over everything – that's the biggest thing.  

What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs? 

If you have an idea for a business, just do it. Don't overthink it. Just put it in the market. Also, make sure you give yourself permission to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. 

What's the greatest challenge in starting your own business? 

For me, it was age and experience. I didn't really have a good mentor system around me. The people I could turn to for advice, I kind of had to build that as we went.  

Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently?  

I would have evaluated myself more. I am good at some things, I am great at others and I am horrendous at others. I wish I had been able to take a step back and evaluate myself in a way where I could place levers of accountability to fill the holes.  

What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur?  

First and foremost is awareness. You have to be aware of yourself, your environment, your strengths and weaknesses. Number two is vision. As an entrepreneur, if you cannot bring people together to accomplish something, whether it's a task or solving a specific problem, you're not going to do well. 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

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

Ortiz still gets nostalgic recalling childhood trips to Rite Aid to grab Thrifty’s ice cream with her parents. Her go-to flavor was chocolate, and it brought her comfort every time she ate it.  

Ortiz cherished the little things. Going for chocolate ice cream with her mom and dad may have seemed ordinary to others. But for her, growing up in a low-income family, it was always a special moment. 

 “Ice cream was always a reward,” Ortiz said. “I had to do something good to get it. Every time I had ice cream, it was always that sense of accomplishing something, even if it was something small.” 

 Now, as a business owner, Ortiz looks for special moments like these through customers at her own ice cream shop. Entrepreneurship was never something on her radar, but that changed at Cal State San Marcos. It was a combination of fond memories of eating ice cream with her family and realizing that ice cream shops have the happiest clientele. 

 “No one goes to an ice cream shop angry, right?” Ortiz said. “Customers are either really happy because they're with family or friends or they've had a really bad day and they want a pick-me-up.”  

 Since graduating from CSUSM in 2018 with a degree in marketing, Ortiz has launched a successful ice cream business, Cali Cream, with her husband, Ken Schulenburg. Ortiz has helped craft 55 different flavors, including her childhood favorite, chocolate. 

 Quality is paramount. Cali Cream ice cream is made with 16% butterfat, compared with an average of 12% for most ice cream companies.  

 “We get it shipped from the farm to us within seven days,” Ortiz said. “It's only seven days from cow to cone.”  

 Since opening steps from Moonlight Beach in Encinitas in 2016, Cali Cream has expanded to include a bakery and a second ice cream location in San Diego’s downtown Gaslamp Quarter. Cali Cream also has been featured at special events like Comic-Con International and concerts at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park.  

 “I don't know if there was ever a moment where the lightbulb went off,” Ortiz said, “but I think there are times where you're in a place in your life where you just say, ‘Hey, I want to do something different.’ ”  

 Ortiz came to CSUSM looking for a change, intending to create a better life for her daughter, Leslie. 

 When she was 16, Ortiz learned that she was pregnant. Telling her parents was difficult, and she didn’t want them to be disappointed in her or think it would keep her from having a successful future.  

 “It was extremely hard,” she said. “You never want to disappoint your parents. And you never want to do anything that they think might hold you back. Sometimes kids make mistakes. I've learned from it, but I think I've turned it around. I also believe that there are certain things that just kind of happen for a reason, and I feel like she's my biggest motivator. We’ve grown up together.” 

 Leslie was born prematurely, weighing just 4 pounds. Ortiz was facing adult responsibilities at a young age, but Leslie was a constant source of inspiration and motivation.  

 “At that time, it was so difficult to try to navigate everything,” Ortiz said. “But I ended up just striving forward again. I'm not going to be a statistic. I'm not going to let something like that hold me back. I needed to give my family – and I needed to give my daughter – a good example.”  

 When Ortiz was introduced to Rebeca Perren, a CSUSM marketing professor and former faculty mentor in the College of Business Administration’s mentorship program, she was clear that going back to school at age 30 was all for Leslie. And Perren was excited by the possibility of helping Latina students because when she was a student, she rarely saw people like her in the classroom. 

 “I wanted to help students who were like me,” Perren said. “And just by chance, Juliana was the student who was assigned to me. I got to know Juliana and her story, not just as a first-generation college student, but as a mother. She had a teenage daughter and she wanted to get her degree before her daughter went off to college. I had children myself, and we connected on so many different levels.” 

 Perren and Ortiz would meet to discuss class assignments and the struggles of being Latina in higher education. Ortiz saw that Perren regularly met with other business students, and she suggested that they all come together and start gathering as a group.  

 Perren invited Josefina Espino and Chris Santos to join, and they all bonded instantly. They met twice a month, usually at the campus Starbucks, and talked about how they pictured their lives after college.  

 The mentor group evolved into CoBA’s Latino Business Student Association, with Perren serving as the faculty adviser for seven years. Espino remembers when Ortiz revealed to the group that she was interested in entrepreneurship and wanted to start an ice cream business. Ortiz and Espino even used her business idea for a research project in a marketing class taught by professor Kristin Stewart.  

 Starting a path to entrepreneurship was exciting, but also nerve-racking for Ortiz. She didn’t know how she would balance being a student and mother while quitting her job as a marketing coordinator at Pacific Records, Inc. in San Diego.  

 “I remember one of the most important conversations I had to have with Juliana was about being generous to herself,” Perren said. “She, of course, had so much to offer, and one of the most difficult decisions she had to make was investing in herself. She is such a generous and loyal person. It felt difficult to let go of some of her commitments and give back to herself.”  

 Now, as an entrepreneur, Ortiz shows her generosity in the creative ways she connects with her customers and employees. When a customer comes into Cali Cream and talks about an ice cream flavor that holds significance for them, Ortiz goes out of her way to make it.  

 “Ice cream is such an emotional product,” Ortiz said. “We've made special request ice cream orders, because maybe it's a birthday present or it’s their parents' favorite. It’s so cool because I get to be the decision-maker. I can say yes or no, but if someone were to ask any other ice cream company, the answer is always going to be no. But my goal is to always make people happy.” 

 One of the most rewarding parts of Ortiz’s job is supporting her employees through college. It’s her way of giving back. A photo wall in the Encinitas location displays the logos of the colleges that her employees are attending. Ortiz even established a rule that if an employee performs well during the summer, they are guaranteed a job when they come home from college.  

 “I remember going to Cali Cream and seeing that the tip jar said ‘college fund’ on it,” Perren said. “It’s really awesome to see how college is built into the company culture. It's great when you see our alumni not only make a difference in their own life, but also how she can inspire and create social mobility in her family and in our community.”  

Juliana Ortiz 

Major at CSUSM: Business marketing  

Graduation year: 2018 

Company: Cali Cream 

Website: calicreamicecream.com 

Founded: 2016 

Number of employees: 35-80 (depending on the season) 

Talking Business With Juliana Ortiz

What’s the best advice you received about starting a business? 

Do what feels right for you and don’t be afraid to take risks. Not every risk is going to be successful, but there's certain risks that are very rewarding. I think if you do your work and research time, then it minimizes the damage.  

What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs? 

I would say go for it. I think you never want to regret not making a decision because of the fear of failure.  

What’s the greatest challenge in starting your own business? 

The greatest challenge for me was trying to understand the process for getting health permits. 

Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently? 

For us, it's a weather-based ice business. I have to look at weather for the next week and for the next couple of days to see how it impacts our business. That’s something that most people don't think about.  

I would also make sure to work with a team and ensure that if there's a new product, we have to educate them. If your team's not good and if they're not educated, it falls back on you. They also don't want to be put in a position where they don't know how to communicate to their guests. 

What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? 

With changes in just about anything, whether it’s regulation or COVID, you have to be able to adapt and you have to be able to transition. 

Media Contact

Bri Phillips, Communications Specialist

bphillips@csusm.edu

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

A few months earlier, Tran had been living at home in Mira Mesa, trying  to find a job after graduating from Cal State San Marcos the previous spring. Now here he was, dressed to the nines and walking a red carpet outside of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in April 2022, with the South Korean boy band BTS in front of him and, whoa, was that Dua Lipa who just walked by?

At the star-studded Grammy Awards, the biggest night in music, Tran might have felt like an imposter. But he belonged, having been hired that February by the Recording Academy, the Los Angeles-based company that stages the Grammys and supports musical artists year-round.

“It was so surreal,” Tran said. “It was a great experience, and being thrown into any environment for the first time is the best way to learn. You have to be quick on your feet and adjust.”

Putting to good use both his CSUSM marketing degree and his stint as president of Associated Students, Inc., during the 2019-20 school year, Tran is partnerships coordinator for the Recording Academy. In that role, he works with businesses that have interest in teaming up with the academy. At the 2022 Grammys, for instance, he sat in a suite with representatives from Hilton and Roblox, the online game platform.

“My team likes to think about true partnerships,” Tran said. “Not just a sponsorship or throwing a logo on, but trying to come up with something meaningful and innovative.”

Tran first got a taste for live music events, and for ASI, during his first two years at CSUSM. As a member of the campus activities board, he was part of the team that inaugurated Festival 78 on campus. That sampling of student government made him want more, and by his senior year he was elected president.

It was already going to be a momentous year with the summer hiring of new university president Ellen Neufeldt. Then, in March 2020, soon after Tran returned from Sacramento for a trip to lobby for financial aid reform, a virus called COVID-19 reared its ugly head.

The nascent virus meant that he couldn’t check off all his goals, but he’s still proud about what he and his fellow ASI executives did accomplish, including advancing student holistic wellness as an institutional priority and helping make the distribution of COVID relief funds more equitable.

“Being in ASI, going from a volunteer to president, really transformed my college experience,” Tran said. “The way I lead now is directly attributable to my experience as a leader at CSUSM.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

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

The Sound is a $17 million facility with a footprint of 9,500 square feet and capacity for 1,900 spectators. Open to all ages, it features a state-of-the-art sound system, multiple bars and a large lobby, among other amenities.

And The Sound owes at least part of its existence to a group of Cal State San Marcos business students who attended the university almost a decade ago.

Back in 2016, two groups of students in the College of Business Administration worked for months on a comprehensive study that proposed the transformation of a struggling off-track betting facility at the Del Mar Fairgrounds into the region’s newest concert venue.

One group was composed of five students who were finishing their MBA program; the other included five undergraduates (and one MBA advisory student) completing an assignment for Senior Experience, a longtime CoBA program matching teams of students with projects submitted by local businesses and organizations. Both groups were supervised by marketing lecturer Don Sciglimpaglia.

After reviewing the students’ analysis and agreeing with its findings, the organization that operates the fairgrounds consented in early 2017 to spending up to $250,000 to investigate potential funding sources for the renovation of the Surfside Race Place and hire an engineering firm to develop more detailed plans.

“The work they did was excellent,” Tim Fennell, CEO of the 22^nd District Agricultural Association, said at the time.

The association considered multiple options to remake the aging Surfside Race Place (built in 1991) – including a restaurant, movie theater and even a microbrewery – but settled on a concert venue based in no small part on the study by the CSUSM students.

The original plan was for the venue to open in 2018, but the COVID-19 pandemic and other obstacles delayed the unveiling by five years. Now The Sound is here, and the students who helped make it happen are thrilled.

Debbie Jo McCool, who led the five students from the Fully Employed Masters of Business Administration (FEMBA) team, said she missed out on getting tickets for the debut concert on Friday, but that she and her classmates hope to attend an upcoming show.

“It’s a dream come true for us,” said McCool, a management analyst for the City of Carlsbad. “Knowing that our team had the privilege of preparing a concert venue marketing analysis and the project came to fruition years later is fantastic. I’m confident that the entire FEMBA team is proud of being associated with this superb project, and we wish them the very best of success.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

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

Glen Brodowsky, professor of marketing; Rebeca Perren, associate professor of marketing; and Camille Schuster, professor emerita of marketing, teamed up to edit “Handbook of Research on Ethnic and Intra-cultural Marketing,” released by Edward Elgar Publishing.

Featuring contributions from a diverse group of marketing scholars, the book investigates “how markets are becoming increasingly similar across countries while simultaneously becoming more diverse and heterogeneous within countries” and examines “how we might better understand and serve new generations of consumers from a variety of generational, ethnic, and religiously diverse market segments.”

Chapter topics include investigating how hip-hop’s move into the mainstream raises questions about authenticity and cultural appropriation, addressing the role played by religion in consumer behavior, and mapping the diverse and complex markets of Latin America and Asia.

Media Contact

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

But it’s safe to say Reese never once imagined that all those hours spent outdoors would lead to what has become his passion.

“I remember there was one farm still in my neighborhood growing up that had cows and little sheep and chickens,” Reese said, “but I never thought I was going to be farming growing up. It just kind of happened after I was 30.”

Today, Reese is a regenerative farmer working to fight injustices in the food system by growing healthy produce for people who otherwise might not have access.

Reese is a co-founder of Encinitas-based nonprofit Sea + Soil, which aims to “reconnect and regenerate ecosystems and community.” Among the programs under the Sea + Soil umbrella is 1000 Tiny Farms, which Reese pioneered to help explore how small patches of land could have a positive social, environmental and economic impact.

“We focus a lot on the nutrient density and nutritional value of the produce,” Reese said. “If we can grow food without a need for heavy chemical inputs, then the soil will be better, therefore the plants are better, therefore the humans are better. It's kind of like a slogan that many people have probably heard before – food as medicine.”

Reese’s interest in healthy food began while he was working at Stone Brewing in Escondido. He ate a salad there that proved life-changing.

“I never felt so good after eating a salad,” he said. “It was noticeably energizing. And they sourced from a local farm in Escondido at the time. It was just so fresh. When I played soccer at Cal State San Marcos, I noticed that when I was eating fresher vegetables, I just felt good and I had more energy. Before that it was mostly meat and carbs. When I started incorporating fresh veggies, it was a game-changer.”

Contributing to the greater good is part of Reese’s DNA, and he spent time working in solar energy and water reclamation before focusing his efforts on farming. He worked with the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, which helps “build a global community conscious of ecological farming and sustainability practices.”

While some may be surprised to learn that Reese earned his degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing, he says his CSUSM education plays a role in his work every day, from manufacturing to distribution to marketing. In fact, Reese hopes to partner with his alma mater on many aspects of farming. He has thriving farms in Cardiff and Valley Center that can always use volunteers to assist with the physical aspects, but he said there also is a need for expertise with the scientific aspects of farming, including soil testing, identifying biological organisms in the soil, plant tissue analysis, and more.

“I think it’s important to know where your food comes from,” Reese said. “Don’t be fooled by labeling. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors, and it helps to know where your food comes from.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

Only Brodowsky wasn’t speaking from San Marcos. He was admiring the sights and sounds of Chicago, where he resides on a part-time basis.

It’s fitting that Brodowsky splits his time between CSUSM – a bastion of multicultural faces, teachings and values – and Chicago, which, in his words, has the feel of a large European city. His new book, “Handbook on Cross-Cultural Marketing,” takes a deep dive at cross-cultural marketing research in a constantly changing global environment.

“My classrooms in San Marcos are looking a lot more like my classrooms in Taiwan and Denmark,” said Brodowsky, who received the first volume of the book in the mail on the morning he discussed its process, merits and future plans. “We’re seeing a lot of international students and students from different ethnic groups and genders all mixed in together. I find with my students in any classroom in the world: you just plop me down there and they seem very similar in their diversity.”

The book is designed to be used by marketing researchers, graduate students and corporations. It addresses challenges of cross-cultural research and identifies successful approaches and applied examples of what works in the evolving field. While it’s a historical overview of all the models that have been used, it also outlines directions for future research.

The book is a compilation of chapters written by 30 contributors who span the gamut of cross-cultural marketing. The chapters were compiled, edited and organized by Brodowsky and Schuster. It’s published by U.K.’s Edward Elgar Publishing, which solicited Brodowsky as it wanted an experienced voice on a timely topic.

Brodowsky has been a global market researcher ever since he was in graduate school. His dissertation was on international marketing research. While he has been teaching at CSUSM for more than two decades, he has also been teaching around the world for the past 13 years in places such as Taiwan, Ecuador and Denmark.

“It seemed like the right time,” Brodowsky said of writing his first book. “I’m in my 25^th year of teaching. It’s time to start summing things up and putting it together. I don’t think editing a volume is something one does in your early years but rather in your later years to say, ‘I have a different perspective, a broader perspective, a different view of things than in my early years.’ It’s a great opportunity.”

Brodowsky and Schuster have worked on a number of projects together, usually with Dr. Beverlee Anderson, also a professor emerita from the CSUSM marketing department.

Schuster points to their respective high standards and openness to each other’s ideas as their secret formula for a successful collaboration while Brodowsky is quick to admit they were able to get some of the biggest leading researchers in the world to contribute because Schuster knew them personally.

Schuster feels their focus on this project is important because there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in marketing across various cultures in an increasingly global world.

“How people operationalize their value differs from one cultural group to another,” said Schuster, who was actually recruited to CSUSM by Brodowsky. “Identifying the differences, understanding them and working through how to accomplish goals together is essential to be able to live together. Globalization may increase or decrease in approval, prominence or operationalization. However, it has never and will never go away. Learning to make it work is essential for survival. This handbook is a major contributor to the conversation as we move toward the future.”

The book originally contained a portion on underserved markets like the African-American, Latino and LGBTQ markets. But it became such a big topic, Brodowsky decided to make it a major focus of his follow-up volume to “Handbook,” which is already in the works.

He just signed a contract to edit a second book that will focus on intra-cultural marketing. It will look at the aforementioned markets as well as social classes, religious groups, etc., and marketing to them. Instead of having leaders in the field who have been doing research for 35 years like in the current book, he’s looking at including younger authors who are doing emerging areas of research.

The follow-up volume will include a familiar face as Brodowsky has brought on Rebeca Perren, an associate professor of marketing at CSUSM and the interim department chair, as a third editor.

The trio has recruited about a dozen young authors to contribute, and the book is scheduled to be released in October or November of 2022.

“I love that we are looking to recruit young scholars to be the main contributors to this handbook,” Perren said. “I think it is particularly essential for this subject matter because we want to spotlight ideas at the vanguard of current issues. It is timely and relevant to examine the various cultural groups of consumers in society that have often been overlooked in marketing literature. We aim to create a resource for scholars seeking to investigate emerging questions at the crossroads of consumption and race, gender and sexual identity, religion, social class, etc. This literature can help marketers understand, respect, and serve these growing, attractive subcultural market segments.”

Growing up in Brooklyn, Brodowsky had a grandmother who talked about having lived in China in the 1920s with her mother. He found her stories fascinating, and it sparked in him an interest in traveling and connecting with people of all cultures.

When he went to college in the 1980s, “everyone was studying Japanese.” He sat in on a Japanese class and a Chinese class, preferring the latter. Some 40 years later, it has been a lifetime adventure.

“You don’t have to go across the border to enter into a global marketplace,” said Brodowsky, who helped design the curriculum and policies for the College of Business Administration when he arrived on campus 25 years ago. “Everything we buy, everything we eat, everything we see is either sourced globally or financed globally. If you want to meet people from different cultures, you don’t have to go out of the country. You just have to go to downtown L.A. or downtown New York or downtown Chicago and you’ll find that countries are not the unit of measurement anymore because people have traveled so much. You have cultures living side-by-side.

“Understanding what motivates customers in those cultures gives you a chance to enjoy what they have to offer and learn from them, but also you understand what they value and how they think and what they want to buy so you can ethically sell to them and trade with them. I think the more you trade with and do business with people who differ from you, the more opportunities you have to learn from them and learn that they’re people just like you.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

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

Lauren Tafla, applied physics

President's Outstanding Graduate

Dean’s Award, College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Tafla has demonstrated excellence academically and through her research experiences, including her selection as a Summer Scholar in 2018. An enthusiastic learner with an impeccable work ethic, Tafla quickly mastered the experiments in CSUSM’s Astrophysics and Isotope Geochemistry Lab.

Tafla also has impressed with her leadership skills and deep commitment to sustainability, diversity and inclusion. As a member and president of the campus’ Sustainability Club, Tafla represented student interests on the smoke- and tobacco-free campus task force. She wrote letters to congressional representatives about needed environmental policy changes related to climate change and organized a “sustainable speaker series” to host documentary screenings and speakers.

Among her many accomplishments, Tafla has served as president of the Society of Physics Students, worked as a program facilitator for the San Diego-based nonprofit Treobytes and helped start a Women in Physics group at CSUSM.

Read more about Tafla here.

Margaret Morumbasi, special education credential

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

In a competitive field of CEHHS candidates that included undergraduate, credential, graduate and doctoral students, Morumbasi stood out for her combination of academic excellence, service and leadership.

Drawing on her personal experiences in Kenya, Morumbasi has participated in numerous regional and national initiatives in support of individuals with disabilities in her country. Her work has contributed to the national discourse on disability awareness in Kenya.

Morumbasi is working full-time as a special educator while simultaneously completing her credential coursework at CSUSM. She has maintained a 3.9 grade-point average and has been invaluable in sharing her knowledge gleaned through her international research on disability awareness.

Nasdira Romero Saravia, child and adolescent development

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

An active researcher and community activist, Romero Saravia overcame numerous challenges to earn her bachelor’s last December. Romero Saravia persisted despite contending with challenges that included domestic violence, homelessness and being the single parent of a child with special needs. She made the dean’s list every semester at CSUSM and obtained a coveted research position in the psychology department.

Having her own child with special needs turned her interest toward a degree in child and adolescent development, and she has performed valuable work as a research assistant in a cultural perinatal mental health study.

The first in her family to graduate from high school and pursue a college education, Romero Saravia is applying to Ph.D. programs in health policy.

Erika Venegas, marketing

Dean’s Award, College of Business Administration

Venegas has achieved an overall grade-point average of 3.75 and has made the dean’s list every semester since arriving at CSUSM in 2016.

As president of the Latino Business Student Association (LBSA), Venegas expanded the organization’s reach beyond the business discipline to bring professional development opportunities to students of all majors throughout the university. Venegas has made it a priority to reach out across campus to collaborate with the Career Center and the Latin@ Center to extend the impact of LBSA beyond CoBA.

Venegas’ achievements also include founding Lean In CSUSM, a women’s empowerment program offered by the Gender Equity Center; volunteering at CoBA’s Senior Experience Trade Show two straight years; and leading CoBA’s student organization retreat.

Jessica Atencio, kinesiology

Dean’s Award, Graduate Studies

Atencio has excelled academically (she will graduate with a 3.95 grade-point average) and in her research endeavors.

As part of her master’s program requirements, Atencio did her thesis based on her research investigating fluid balance during aquatic exercise. Atencio collected data locally and in Costa Rica on more than 300 research subjects, and she has presented her research at multiple regional and national conferences.

Atencio will continue her education this fall at the University of Oregon, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in human physiology.

Read more about Atencio here.

Ashley Persson, political science

Dean of Students Outstanding Leadership Award

Persson has made lasting contributions to student life at CSUSM through her involvement with Fraternity & Sorority Life and Residential Education.

With an unwavering commitment to excellence in leadership, Persson has held roles that include serving as Order of Omega Chi Lambda chapter president, Delta Zeta Pi Psi chapter global ambassador (former chapter president), and a senior resident adviser in Housing and Residential Education.

Persson has excelled in myriad other ways, including through officer roles with Delta Zeta, earning Order of Omega Honor and Leadership Society, Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society and dean’s list recognition for several semesters. A cancer survivor, Persson also volunteers with the National Children’s Cancer Society.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

Which makes Stewart’s studies especially topical as the holiday shopping season bridges into high gear.

“One of the most important factors in how we behave is how we feel,” Stewart said. “If music makes us feel good, and we associate a particular product with a particular piece of music, that can impact how we respond to a product or brand. What’s interesting is that a marketer can take a song, and if they just speed up the tempo a little bit, that can make us feel more pleasure than if it were slower, and it will impact how we evaluate a product as consumers.

“When we hear music that’s faster,” she continued, “we recognize a basic emotion in the song, such as happiness, and that possibly gives us a more jovial feeling.”

Exhibit A: Skippy peanut butter, which in its “Be Smooth Like Skippy” campaign includes the line “smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy” from the Bruno Mars tune “Uptown Funk.” Perhaps not coincidentally, Skippy parent company Hormel Foods reported record net sales for this year’s third quarter of fiscal 2018 and a cash flow that is up 40 percent compared to last year.

“Advertisements often rely on musical and other entertaining elements, while providing little product information,” Stewart wrote in a study, Hooked on a Feeling: The Effect of Music Tempo on Attitudes and the Mediating Role of Consumers Affective Responses, published last year in the Journal of Consumer Behavior. “This type of advertisement is primarily designed to trigger an emotional reaction and/or appeal to hedonic needs.”

Stewart notes, however, that music is a complex marketing resource. Tempo is but one of several other elements marketers need to consider, including genre (probably not a good idea to have a song from a niche genre such as screamo used as background music for shopping at Hallmark cards, for example); the key – major expresses more positive feelings than the minor key; and lyrics, which should fit the context. Stewart, for example, notes it may not be wise to employ the Beach Boys’ “Summertime Blues” in this year’s holiday campaigns.

With holiday retail sales in the United States last year reaching nearly $688 billion, and forecast to exceed $719 billion this year, Stewart’s research is especially relevant. Her expertise has long been in consumer psychology and behavior, music in advertising, and sensory advertising. She earned her Ph.D. in advertising and public relations from Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin and joined the CSUSM faculty in August 2015 as an assistant professor of marketing. Her other research includes investigations into how communication technology can affect the decision-making process.

As for the most successful advertising campaigns that use music, Stewart’s research has found the sweet spot to be in the 120 to 160 beats-per-minute.

“We don’t know why this happens yet, but it does,” she said.

So get ready to hear more songs similar to Uptown Funk and Catch My Breath – perhaps with a slightly faster beat than originally recorded – as the holidays near.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

While some might pick up a bottle of wine on the way to someone’s home, Brodowsky arrives with a basket of homemade breads.

“They say man cannot live by bread alone,” Brodowsky said. “Watch me.”

Brodowsky has been a professor of marketing in Cal State San Marcos’ College of Business Administration for more than 20 years. He teaches every summer at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark and has been a longtime visiting lecturer at National Cheng-chi University in Taiwan. Among his myriad research interests are global marketing strategy, cross-cultural time concepts and their effects on consumer behavior and country-of-origin effects on product choice.

Though you won’t find “skilled baker” listed on his curriculum vitae, it has been among his many talents for nearly a decade.

Brodowsky has long enjoyed cooking, but it wasn’t until about nine years ago that his mother challenged him to try baking. Brodowsky’s first reaction? He wasn’t nearly exact enough to bake. But his mother persisted.

Not only did Brodowsky give it a try, it has become a passion for him.

Brodowsky started by baking challah, a bread typically eaten on the Jewish Sabbath and other Jewish holidays.

“It was really quite good,” he said. “I was shocked, and I realized it’s not really such a mystery after all.”

Brodowsky’s baking repertoire has expanded to include everything from pumpernickel and rye bread to scones and Mandel bread, which is a cookie similar to biscotti.

While Brodowsky eventually wants to add bagels to his baking résumé – “I haven’t gotten up my nerve to do bagels yet,” he says – he has made knishes, a time- and labor-intensive snack that has a dough exterior that covers a filling such as potatoes. Brodowsky describes them as “carbs wrapped around carbs.”

Brodowsky grew up in Brooklyn and fondly recalls Mrs. Stahl’s Knishes, which churned out legendary knishes for 70 years from a small store located under an elevated train in Brighton Beach.

“Anybody of a certain generation who grew up in Brooklyn knew Mrs. Stahl’s,” he said. “It’s no longer there, but she made the best knishes. I found the secret recipe online for her knishes. They’re amazing.”

Brodowsky has become known for his baking prowess. He has hosted the College of Business Administration holiday party and a CSUSM Jewish Faculty Staff Association dinner at his home and he has conducted baking seminars at local synagogues.

He has even baked as incentive for his students to attend class the day before Thanksgiving. One year he made knishes for the students who showed up, another time it was mini white macadamia nut and white-chocolate raspberry scones.

“We’re talking about 30 or 40 students,” he said. “That’s quite a bit of baking. I remember walking into class that morning and saying, ‘And who says I don’t have the scones?’ ”

Even when he’s in Denmark every summer, a country known for excellent breads and baked goods, Brodowsky will bake.

“It’s a social thing I do,” he said. “Breaking bread together, this is what people have done for ages. There’s just something humble about a plain hunk of bread and some butter – or some cream cheese if you come from where I come from – and it’s a nice thing to share with people.”

Brodowsky has learned many lessons to produce the best possible bread and baked goods, and he says beginners shouldn’t be intimidated. He suggests starting by finding a good recipe online. When kneading the dough – Brodowsky uses a stand mixer – the most important thing is to have the dough “clean” the side of the bowl. He says not to be afraid to add small amounts of flour or water, depending on whether it’s too wet or too dry, to help the dough come together.

Brodowsky also has learned not to let the dough rise too long or it will flatten out. The bread will still taste great, it just may not have the desired presentation.

But the biggest challenge in baking, Brodowsky finds, is figuring out what to do with all the bread. He said most recipes make two loaves, so he typically keeps one and gives the other away. He likes to slice the bread before freezing it – “The best thing since sliced bread is sliced bread,” he says – so he can just pull out what he needs rather than an entire loaf.

“This is just something I’ve done and become known for among my friends,” he said. “They know if there’s a party, nobody has to ask what I’m bringing. I’m the bread man.”

“There was not much skydiving going on in Panama,” she said.

While she was jumping out of airplanes and teaching others how to do the same, Perren earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of South Florida, her master’s degree in business administration from Stetson University, and her Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Central Florida. In time, she realized her true passion lay in teaching, and becoming a professor became her new goal. 

Perren, who is just the 31^st Hispanic woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in marketing, began teaching social media marketing and global marketing at CSUSM in the fall of 2015.

“The mission of the University resonated with me and I really valued being part of a Hispanic Serving Institution,” she said. “I feel that my approach to teaching is a good fit with the institution as I value applied hands-on learning experiences.”

Her research interests center on consumer behavior and how people in the gig, or sharing, economy use various platforms to reach their audience.

Why marketing?

“I realized how powerful consumption really is,” said Perren. “It’s not just consumption of products, but consumption of ideas and consumption of information. Everything in society is about consumption in one form or another.”

Although in the last 20 years the number of African-, Hispanic- and Native American business professors has jumped from 294 nationwide to 1,267, thanks to the work of The PhD Project, there is much more work to be done. The PhD Project is a non-profit founded upon the premise that advancements in workplace diversity could be propelled forward by increasing the diversity of business school faculty. It reports that there are currently another 313 minorities enrolled in doctoral programs with the aim of becoming business professors.

Now two new Cal State San Marcos business faculty, Rebecca Perren and Kristen Stewart, are applying what they’ve learned through their involvement with The PhD Project to mentor the next generation of business professionals currently studying in the College of Business Administration.

A White House Inspiration

Perren was not the traditional doctoral student. Before she took the plunge to pursue a Ph.D. she spent ten years plunging out of planes as a professional skydiver. Now she is a driven educator who hopes to develop a love for life-long learning in her students.

“No one ever thought I would be a business professor,” said Perren, who earned her Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida and started on the faculty at CSUSM in August. “But earning a Ph.D. is the biggest test of persistence and commitment. People are always waiting for the right time to start, but the right time is now.”

Perren is co-chair of The PhD Project’s Committee for Hispanic Excellence. Their effort to strengthen and expand workforce diversity and educational opportunities for the Latino community was recognized by the President in early October, along with 150 other public and private sector organizations that answered the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics’ 25^th anniversary call to action.

“Less than thirty percent of Hispanics enrolled in undergraduate programs across the nation complete their degree,” said Perren. “I think this is incredibly concerning.”

According to Perren, that statistic is significantly lower than any other racial group and is what motivated her and her co-chair to do something to make a difference.

“The committee will support the initiative through tool kits for faculty that include ready-made presentations on how to give information to students and parents, as well as suggestions on forming mentorships and getting involved in organizations tailored for Hispanic students within their institutions,” said Perren.

As a Latina, Perren understands firsthand the challenge that today’s minority students face in their journey toward a college degree. That’s why she is so passionate about mentorship.

“We want to deploy this network of Hispanic professors,” said Perren, who is one of only 31 female Hispanic marketing professors in the nation. “If we could mobilize them and proactively reach out and mentor these students, we can close the gap and have a chance to make an impact at the undergraduate level.”

Perren is excited about the possibilities to impact the next generation of minority students and professors and believes that CSUSM positions her perfectly for those opportunities.

“As an institution we have been successful with Latino graduation rates,” said Perren. “I can use this opportunity to showcase what we do well at CSUSM on a national level.”

Shared Values

The College of Business Administration is also the new home to another PhD Project member, Kristin Stewart, an African-American marketing professor who shares the same values with Perren when it comes to access to education and mentorship. She also joined the faculty in August.

“Many people fail to realize their potential because they don't know where or how to start,” said Stewart. “I was 22 when I realized that I would like to be a professor, but I did not imagine I could actually do it. I had professors that I aspired to be like, but I believed that they were something I could never be.”

In 2012 only 15 percent of enrolled undergraduate students in the nation were African-American. That number is expected to increase 26 percent between now and 2022 according to a report published by Excelencia in Education.

Stewart is very passionate about her career and because of that she is motivated to formally and informally mentor students.

“I care about what I do and deliberately invest a great deal of time, energy and thought into anything I am associated with,” said Stewart, who received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. “The students I’ve met here emit purpose and determination and I like that. I want to teach students who want to be taught, and I want to continue to encounter diverse groups.”

The PhD Project was critical to supporting and guiding Stewart through her doctoral program and assisting her with job placement.

“I was encouraged through each milestone of my degree, which can be quite challenging,” said Stewart. “I was also able to collaborate with many others who completed their degree and received feedback and advice on how to be successful.”

The new marketing professor has already hit the ground running, currently conducting research on how consumers associate sound with verticality.

“The research conducts experiments on consumers to test whether the sound logos companies use inspire thoughts of movement upwards and downwards, as these thoughts may cause certain feelings about a brand,” said Stewart. “The results have demonstrated that sound logos are associated with verticality, and companies that use sound logos might inadvertently influence consumer’s attitudes toward their brands.”

According to Stewart, she looks forward to giving back by providing students with the inspiration and guidance they need to achieve their educational goals.

“It’s never too late to start,” she reflected “Don't be afraid to ask questions and voice concerns. It is easy to be intimidated by all the ‘smart people,’ but this is a community and a very welcoming one. Knowledge is power. Not just power to make more money or have more influence, but power to make better decisions and set out plans to optimize the direction of your life.”

For more information about The PhD Project, visit www.phdproject.org.

Now Cal State San Marcos Professor of Marketing Vassilis Dalakas, together with colleague Joanna Melancon from Western Kentucky University and former CSUSM student Tarah Sreboth, has co-authored a study on what the joy Browns’ fans felt when Modell died in 2012 says about sports fans in general.

Modell bought the Browns in 1961 for $4 million and was the team’s owner when it won the NFL Championship in 1964 (this was three years before Super Bowl I). It was the last time Cleveland earned a championship in any of the major professional sports. The franchise, renamed the Ravens after moving to Baltimore in 1996, would go on to win two Super Bowls in its new home while the Cleveland expansion team, the Browns, continued in its struggle to reach such heights.

The study, `A Qualitative Inquiry on Schadenfreude by Sport Fans’, was based on a sampling of reader comments posted on an ESPN website story about Modell’s death of natural causes at the age of 87. Some of the comments were downright brutal in expressing fans’ hatred toward the NFL owner.

“These are normal people, I assume, who are making these comments,” Dalakas said. “Some of these people may be lawyers or bankers or teachers, and yet they are allowing themselves to diminish their own humanity and celebrate a person’s death.”

A total of 233 posted comments were analyzed for the study.

“The comments were unfiltered actual responses by fans, thereby providing rich data that captured the people’s true emotions and reactions in real time shortly after the event occurred,” states the study, which is forthcoming in the Journal of Sport Behavior.

Comments were categorized to fit into various modes of Schadenfreude, a German word used to describe the feelings of pleasure and joy that one person experiences at the misfortune of others.

More than 10 percent of the comments explicitly celebrated the death.

“Enjoy your ride to HELL...!” wrote one reader. “There is a special place for you! Burn baby Burn!”

Thirty percent of all comments justified the hatred Browns’ fans felt toward Modell that motivated their Schadenfreude.

“This bloodbath in here right now is his own fault,” stated another reader. “He tarnished his own legacy. He soiled his own reputation and he deserves these unbecoming epitaphs that come as a direct result of the decision he made alone.”

Just 6.4 percent of comments fell under the category of forgiveness. Twenty-seven percent of comments fell under the category of denouncing Schadenfreude and defending the victim of Schadenfreude. Not surprisingly, many were from Ravens’ fans.

Wrote one reader: “ESPN, please close the comment section, this is beyond ridiculous. No man deserves this.”

Can comments such as these portend any danger?

“That’s an excellent question,” Dalakas said. “And one that probably could use some additional research. Given the Alabama fan who poisoned Auburn’s landmark trees, you have to wonder if some die-hard fans would take matter into their own hands to inflict pain to their rival.”

Dalakas notes the study was limited in its scope.

“This was an exploratory study to capture Schadenfreude in a controversial context, and the comments provided interesting insight on the psychology of sports fans, especially because they represented fans’ true feelings in a real-world setting,” the authors wrote. “However, the richness of the comments came at the expense of internal validity; there was no ability to measure respondents’ identification level with the Cleveland Browns or to include other measures.”