That commitment received a boost recently, as CSUSM was awarded a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a learning community for chemistry and biochemistry majors and award scholarships to qualified students. The program will incorporate a Vertical Mentoring Learning Community (VMLC) for up to 30 chemistry and biochemistry students each year, with eight first-year students receiving a renewable $15,000 scholarship based on financial need.

The program is led by chemistry and biochemistry professor Robert Iafe, the principal investigator, and co-principal investigators Afra Panahi, a chemistry and biochemistry professor, and Aswad Allen, CSUSM’s chief diversity officer.

Together, they plan to create a community of high-achieving, motivated students recruited from introductory chemistry classes. Students who prove proficient and committed to their studies will be invited to join the learning community, and those who qualify financially will be able to apply for the additional scholarship to help with tuition and housing.

“The community aspect of it gives it a supportive place to really go for your goals, but also a safe and secure place to experiment,” Iafe said.

Students selected for the VMLC also will receive priority enrollment for chemistry classes and labs required for their major.

The vertical mentoring learning experience highlights a discipline-specific learning community of students supported by each other, faculty members and professionals. This offers students a comfortable learning environment filled with like-minded individuals guiding them toward their futures in STEM, whether that be graduate school or pursuing a career.

“We make sure they participate in professional development activities so they can build a strong science identity and become more competitive for graduate school and the job market,” Panahi said. “The supportive environment from their peer mentors, academic advisers and professional mentors can really help them build a stronger network.”

The smaller, more intimate setting of the vertical mentoring program provides a comfortable space for students to ask questions freely and create a closer relationship with faculty. This environment creates a rewarding experience for all and promotes a sense of happiness and job satisfaction among the faculty involved.

“There are concrete benchmarks along the way for students to actually see themselves progressing,” Allen said. "Vertical learning allows students to visualize their futures and see themselves where they want to be.

“We're going to create the right atmosphere, the right environment and all the right ingredients for them to thrive.”

Learn more on the Vertical Mentoring Learning Community website.

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Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

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

It meant that he should seek knowledge and the understanding that goes with it.

It’s a phrase that still resonates with Allen. He watched his parents play central roles in the civil rights movement, learning more as an active participant than he ever would have by watching events unfold on TV.

“It's part of my DNA,” Allen said. “From that experience, I looked at the world through a lens of fairness and equity and justice and righteousness. I've always had that as my reference point for what is healthy and what is good engagement.”

Allen has brought that perspective to Cal State San Marcos as the university’s chief diversity officer, a position he assumed in July.

“Dr. Allen has been great to work with,” said Ariel Stevenson, director of programs and initiatives for the Office of Inclusive Excellence. “He recognizes the institution's efforts to this point, and I can see he is committed to evaluating and facilitating institutional and organizational change. I've personally learned so much from him just in the very short time he's been here. I am excited about the work we will all do together as a campus committed to inclusive excellence.”

In addition to overseeing the Office of Inclusive Excellence, Allen serves on the President’s Administrative Team, where he joins others in providing leadership and advising President Ellen Neufeldt on key decisions affecting the campus community.

“I’m enjoying learning about the passion and the commitment that our faculty and staff have around supporting students and getting students across the finish line and into their desired pathways,” Allen said. “I see so many different established and percolating activities that prove that to be true. There’s no question we have challenges in different areas, but with those challenges, I see a willingness for tackling them.”

Allen knows about overcoming challenges. Most of his early years were spent bouncing around the country. He moved from his home state of Colorado to Georgia to North Carolina and back to Georgia before finally returning to Denver for middle school and high school. He switched elementary schools so many times that he’s not even sure how many he attended.

“All of that moving really made my upbringing very dysfunctional,” he said.

Allen attended an all-boys Catholic high school and had to work to help pay for tuition. The dysfunctional upbringing that Allen references came to a head when he was 16 and left home. He spent more than a year couch surfing before eventually landing at his grandparents’ house. He credits his grandparents for being instrumental in his personal growth and sparking his desire to participate in education.

Allen has eight siblings, but he added what he considers a ninth as a teenager when someone he met became like another brother to him. During their sophomore year, the friend said he was going to be a physician.

“I hadn't experienced a Black doctor before, so it was hard for me to imagine,” Allen said. “I wanted to imagine it, but I couldn't. So I thought he was joking. Well, he's a physician today and owns his own practice. He's one of the inspirations that helped me. He got his M.D. and he inspired me to get my Ph.D.

“You’ve got to find people along your path who are walking the same direction. Iron does sharpen iron; it's very real. And that's what we did for each other.”

A low-income, first-generation college student, Allen attended the University of Colorado Boulder where he participated in the Educational Opportunity Program, which provides access, retention support services and lifelong skill development for underrepresented students. Allen earned bachelor’s degrees in sociology and psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder before attending Colorado State for his master's in student affairs in higher education administration and doctorate in educational leadership and human resources.

Allen eventually returned to the University of Colorado system, rising to assistant dean of diversity and inclusion at the University of Colorado Denver before becoming the chief diversity officer at Emporia State University in Kansas in 2019.

“My lived experiences inform my service spirit and desire to help people and community," Allen said. "Everything that I have done has been around service – service to people or service to the community. I try to look at things in a very big-picture way. But I also understand how parts of systems function and how people are really what makes it go. People are the difference in anything that we do. So I look for strategic, sustainable and systemic ways to empower people and to position people to be the best that they can be.

“And that's all we're talking about when we talk about diversity, equity and inclusion. We get really confused around this whole agenda because it's become so politicized. But all we're really talking about is meeting people where they are and giving them the equipment to be the best that they can be with what it is that they're interested in doing. And if you do that well, then you're going to be successful.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

Reyes has multiple family members who worked in Imperial Valley’s agricultural fields, including a grandfather who developed cancer from exposure to pesticides.

But it wasn’t until Reyes enrolled at Cal State San Marcos in 2017 that she really began focusing on environmental justice.

“I didn't realize that there were so many environmental injustices happening in the Imperial Valley until I learned about it when I got to Cal State San Marcos,” said Reyes, who will graduate next month with a bachelor’s in environmental studies. “I feel like that really promoted my passion for environmental justice, because it hit home personally.”

Reyes has been working hard throughout the pandemic to pursue this passion, both as an environmental justice intern through a partnership between the Office of Inclusive Excellence and the Sustainability Department and her role as co-president of the Environmental Stewards Association.

As part of her internship, Reyes was a presenter for the This Way to Sustainability (TWTS) Conference, which was hosted by Chico State in March. Reyes’ presentation was titled “Social Justice Through Sustainability: Acknowledging students of environmentally discriminated areas through sustainable efforts on campus.” The project analyzed how some CSUSM students come from places impacted by environmental injustices such as poor air or water quality and how the university can uplift the voices of those students.

“The environmental justice internship, which is only 2 years old now, has spurred lots of really cool research projects,” said Juliana Goodlaw-Morris, CSUSM’s sustainability manager, who coordinates the program with Ariel Stevenson, assistant director of programs and initiatives for the Office of Inclusive Excellence. “But the project that Melissa worked on, connecting environmental injustices and COVID-19 data with our students, is a very timely and important project. As we seek to better serve our students and ensure they are successful toward graduation, it is opportunities such as this that continue to motivate us to further develop the environmental justice internship program and the inclusive sustainability efforts at CSUSM.”

Reyes also played a vital role in an Earth Month event held on April 6 called “BIPOC and Green: Centering CS‘U’SM in the Environmental Justice Movement,” which focused on intersectionality in the environmental justice movement.

Helping to create meaningful events through the internship has been one of the highlights of Reyes’ time at CSUSM.

“I'm able to bring awareness to an issue that I strongly believe in, and I'm doing it with the help of these two amazing women,” said Reyes, referring to Goodlaw-Morris and Stevenson.

Reyes also credits professor Gabriel Valle and lecturer Christina Simokat from the environmental studies department for their support in her education. Simokat encouraged Reyes to join student organizations, which eventually led to the creation of the Environmental Stewards Association. With multiple environmental studies student organizations on campus, it was difficult for students who are interested in the environment to attend numerous meetings and events related to each group. That led Reyes and a group of friends to create one umbrella organization that is open to all students.

“Melissa is a driven student,” Stevenson said. “As an active member of the Environmental Stewards Association and an environmental justice intern, she continually connects her studies, her passion and her lived experiences to this work.

“In the last year, I watched her navigate the pandemic, lead presentations and present at a conference – all virtually. She is an example of the very best things we love about our students – resiliency, growth and dedication.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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

But seeing how elders in her church shunned a teenager who had been the victim of sexual assault led Benjamin to look for another outlet for her faith.

Now, many years later, Benjamin is sharing how faith impacts her as part of Cal State San Marcos’ new Beyond the Stereotype campaign, which was unveiled during the All Peoples Luncheon on Oct. 29.

“I hope that people have the opportunity to try to explore different backgrounds and different religious faiths and try to understand where another person is coming from,” said Benjamin, a psychology major. “I want people to know that just because you're brought into a faith by your parents, it is OK for you to explore different things. I've explored Buddhism, and now I'm just more a spiritual base. I have no particular religious ties, but I'm always open to getting to understand and learn about other people's religion.”

The Office of Inclusive Excellence sponsors the Beyond the Stereotype campaign to help educate about the impact of microaggressions and stereotypes on marginalized communities. The first campaign, “There is History,” was launched in 2015 and focused on race/ethnicity and cultural appropriation. It was followed in 2017 by “There is Pride,” which focused on sexual orientation and gender diversity. The new campaign, “There is Belief,” challenges stereotypes around religions, faith, spirituality and/or life practices within a social justice framework.

The campaign launched during the All Peoples Luncheon with the unveiling of five posters, each featuring a student, staff or faculty member holding a board with a message combating a stereotype about their respective beliefs.

For Benjamin, that meant holding a board with the message, “My Faith Is Not Evil.”

Benjamin found her way to Southern California from South Carolina through her service in the Army National Guard, which she joined in 2012. She transferred to CSUSM after two years at Palomar College.

“Once I had the opportunity to tour campus and see that it’s very diverse and they try to include everyone, I thought, ‘I want to join in and be a part of this campus community,’ ” she said. “I've been searching for a sense of belonging since I came to California because I have no family here and all my friends are from my military branch, and Cal State has definitely made me feel at home.”

Benjamin has been active in myriad programs at CSUSM, including the Educational Opportunity Program, the Student Veterans Organization and the Tukwut Leadership Circle, in which she serves as a member of the Peer Leadership Team.

Benjamin still remembers the impact that seeing posters from a previous Beyond the Stereotype campaign had on her, and she hopes the new posters have a similar impact on others.

“I'm hoping that people will take an opportunity to look at the posters with an open mind and just be able to be more inclusive in their practices every day,” she said.

Ariel Stevenson, the OIE’s assistant director of programs and initiatives and director of the campaign, stressed that the release of the five posters signifies the beginning of the campaign.

“Each of the five posters represent the many diverse perspective of our CSUSM community,” Stevenson said, “but they do not represent all of our perspectives. The campaign launch showed a representation, but the campaign is open, and we welcome more participants.

“I think some people were hesitant to participate because they could not envision how religion or belief would be displayed on the posters. Now they have an opportunity to see how it’s beautifully represented.”

Stevenson praised the work of Marcus Torres, visual communications specialist in University Communications, for his efforts in designing the posters and Alan Brown, multimedia productions specialist, for his work creating an accompanying campaign video.

“I’m grateful to all of the participants who modeled and shared their beliefs with us,” Stevenson said. “And I really want to encourage others to participate as we continue to challenge and investigate the stereotypes surrounding belief, religion, spirituality, faith and life practices.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

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