For Andrew Anagnost, president and CEO of ubiquitous design and engineering software firm Autodesk, the path to success was lit by a notable failure on his California State University, Northridge senior design project.

At the time, Anagnost ’87 (Mechanical Engineering) was a co-op student working with composite materials at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems Company development center. As his CSUN team worked on their Human Powered Vehicle project, Anagnost suggested they make the vehicle’s fairing — an outer shell — out of composite materials, which would be lightweight and aerodynamic.

A great idea, but there was a problem: when they poured their carbon fiber material into the Styrofoam mold and placed the fairing in a giant oven to set, they had not removed all the moisture, and the composites expanded and cracked in the heat.

“The composite fairing was a total failure, but an amazing learning experience about balancing innovation with what you need to know to execute,” Anagnost said. “Your own personal journey of discovery and amazing things starts right here at CSUN. That was absolutely true for me.”

That project, Anagnost told an audience of approximately 100 CSUN students, professors and alumni on April 26 in Kurland Lecture Hall, contained all the lessons Anagnost needed to succeed in roles as an engineer, a marketer and a CEO. Throughout his talk, titled A Journey to the Future of Making Things, Anagnost, who minored in computer science at CSUN, frequently returned to the lessons of that project to reinforce his message.

It was a funny, informative and inspirational presentation that included photos of Anagnost’s 1980s fashions, CSUN’s role in propelling him into a successful career, the role of automation in the future of design and engineering fields, and tips on how students can prepare themselves for the new careers that will be necessary in an age of automation.

“The real discussion of automation is not about scarce jobs, but having the right skills to thrive and grow,” said Anagnost.

In 2017, Anagnost’s 20-year rise through Autodesk culminated in his selection as president and CEO. Anagnost held numerous positions at the company — leading teams of software developers, helping to transition software and services into the cloud, shifting the business-model to be subscription-based. The common denominator of these positions was change.

Autodesk software has been used to design bridges, roads and buildings such as One World Trade Center in New York City, for special effects in movies such as ​Avatar and the ​​Harry Potter series, and for designing popular video game series such as Call of Duty and Halo.

Autodesk’s popular programs include Fusion 360 for manufacturers, Maya for computer animators and Revit for architects and structural engineers.

“It’s basically used in all engineering majors,” said Rifaat Kouaider, a computer engineering senior who attended the presentation. “If you’re going to design any kind of technologies like devices, machines, microprocessors, you’re going to need to use their software and present it to your professors and managers in the future.”

CSUN professors helped launch Anagnost’s career by helping him get his co-op job at Lockheed, where he was a small part of the team that wrote algorithms for a supercomputer that was an early version of the cloud.

His professors also wrote recommendation letters to help him get into Stanford University, where he earned a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics, and earned a National Research Council fellowship at NASA Ames Research Center. There, he worked on the Mars Pathfinder rover, developing a simulation of air flow around the craft as it went into the Martian atmosphere. The Pathfinder was largely overshadowed by NASA’s Curiosity rover, Anagnost said, at least until the movie The Martian was released.

“I can honestly say that I worked on the rover that saved Matt Damon,” he said.

CSUN also helped him formulate his leadership philosophy of courage, scholarship and empathy, which could largely be illustrated with his Human Powered Vehicle senior project.

“First is the courage to do things that might not work, like try to do carbon fiber for the fairing,” Anagnost said. “Then there’s this important piece of scholarship; make sure you know what it takes to get it done, but understand what could happen if you get it wrong, like paying attention to the fact that plaster cracks at 140 degrees when it has too much moisture in it. It expands, it cracks, it pops.”

He also elaborated on empathy.

“You have to understand the impact of the decisions you make on people,” he said. “You don’t stop doing what you’re doing because someone might have a bad day. But if you understand the impact, you can get them more engaged in the outcome. For instance, helping people understand we’re going to try to do a carbon fiber fairing, and if we don’t get there we’ll just do it out of Styrofoam. You know that somebody is going to be staying up really late at night cutting the Styrofoam to turn it into fairing two days before we’re actually competing in Reno for the Human Powered Vehicle Competition.”

The human impact is also why Anagnost said his company has a moral obligation to help people whose lives will be disrupted by increased use of automation. Although some jobs will be displaced, others will take their place. For example, the rise of online banking apps is reducing the number of bank teller jobs. But software developers were needed to create those apps.

Engineers, manufacturers and software developers who can efficiently make things will be in demand in the coming decades, as the world’s population approaches 10 billion people. With that growth comes the pressure to improve processes, and to dramatically reduce waste and the need for raw materials.

Autodesk is currently automating several time-consuming processes, including the creation of geometry in engineering designs. The company is also working on tools to help its customers build buildings the same way airplanes are created — in a series of pre-manufactured components that are assembled at the construction site, which would dramatically reduce materials waste.

“We’ve really bought in to this idea of building more, better, with less negative impact,” Anagnost said. “The world can’t handle more, but more is inevitable. That’s why I think automation can actually save us.”

Hamid Johari, interim dean of CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, called Anagnost a great role model for CSUN students. “It’s very important for engineering students to see that one of their own has made it this far in the world, and how the lessons they learn at CSUN can help them in their future careers,” he said.

The automated world of the future will need computer scientists, mechanical engineers and people with well-rounded backgrounds who can see the big picture. Speech classes are important, as is the ability to tell stories, he said.

He urged students to work in the real world to find out what they love and what they are good at. Above all, Anagnost asked his audience to remain flexible and look for ways to use their skills to make an impact. He said he didn’t start his career planning to work at Autodesk, or to be a CEO, but always pursued the opportunities that enabled him to make a difference.

“Don’t try to plan your course by imagining taking a path that leads to some grand outcome,” Anagnost said. “I encourage you to choose the path that you feel like you can make a difference on, something that ignites your passion and really, really consumes your abilities. And I think great things will happen to you.”

Thousands will be cheering later this month as more than 11,500 graduating students walk across the stage in front of California State University, Northridge’s iconic Delmar T. Oviatt Library as CSUN celebrates its 2018 commencement.

An estimated 11,538 — including bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree candidates — are eligible to take part in the exercises scheduled to begin the evening of Saturday, May 12, with the university’s Honors Convocation and concluding the evening of Monday, May 21, with the last of CSUN’s seven commencement ceremonies. All eight ceremonies will take place on the lawn in front of the Oviatt Library, located in the heart of the CSUN campus at 18111 Nordhoff St.

“Commencement is the pinnacle of our academic year,” said CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison. “Graduating students and their families and friends gather with the campus community in what is a momentous and joyous occasion.

“Throughout the year, I have enjoyed interacting with ourtremendous students and learning about their outstanding work in the classroom and in the community,” Harrison said. “Honors Convocation and the commencement ceremonies give CSUN the formal setting to celebrate our students’ accomplishments before they take the next steps toward their future and join the more than 350,000 alumni who are elevating our region and beyond.”

CSUN’s 2018 commencement ceremonies can be watched live online on YouTube at www.youtube.com/CalStateNorthridge or on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/calstatenorthridge/.

CSUN’s commencement celebrations begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 12, with Honors Convocation. This year’s speaker will be alumnus Heather Briggs, vice president and controller for NBC Universal’s domestic home entertainment business.

Briggs earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting from CSUN in 1998 and took a job at the respected professional services firm Ernst & Young upon graduation. She spent 13 years at Ernst & Young, working her way up to senior manager. Her duties at the firm included counting the ballots for the Golden Globes. She left Ernst & Young in 2012 to become controller for DreamWorks Animation, where she worked for four years. In 2016, she was named vice president and controller for Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Briggs has served as an adjunct professor in CSUN’s Department of Accounting, teaching a course on accounting in the entertainment industry. She also serves as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for CSUN’s David Nazarian College of Business and Economics.

CSUN’s first commencement ceremony — for the graduates of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communications — will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 18. An honorary Doctor of Fine Arts will be presented to muralist, educator and CSUN alumna Judy Baca during the ceremony.

Baca, who graduated from what was then San Fernando Valley State College in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in art and a master’s in art from what is now CSUN in 1980, is a world-renowned muralist who took her passion for color, Los Angeles and its youth and turned her paints into a movement.

She is the artistic director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) Cesar Chavez Digital Mural Lab at UCLA. One of her best-known works is “The Great Wall of Los Angeles,” which lines a flood-control channel in the East San Fernando Valley. Baca supervised the creation of the mural, the world’s longest at 2,274 feet, by more than 400 at-risk youth and their families. Two years ago, the California Endowment awarded SPARC a grant to preserve and restore the mural, originally painted in 1976.

At 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 19, graduates of the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics will take part in CSUN’s second commencement ceremony. At this ceremony, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters will be presented to philanthropist, industrialist, businessman Younes Nazarian, a leader in the Iranian Jewish community.

Nazarian serves as chairman of Nazarian Enterprises, which maintains diverse interests in aerospace, manufacturing and logistics, technology, hospitality and alternative energy.

CSUN’s performing arts center, the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, was named for Nazarian and his wife, internationally recognized sculptor Soraya Sarah Nazarian, after the pair made a transformative gift to support the center.

The Nazarians moved to the United States in 1979 with their four children, fleeing the religiously targeted violence and demonstrations that led up to the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

Drawing on the entrepreneurial acumen he had in Iran — where he helped establish one of the largest import/export companies of construction machinery and equipment in the region, Nazarian, soon after his arrival in the U.S., became co-owner of Stadco, a precision products manufacturer of specialty parts in the aerospace industry. He was an early investor and served on the board of directors of Qualcomm.

CSUN’s third commencement ceremony — for the graduates of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Science and Mathematics — will take place at 6 p.m. on May 19.

At 8 a.m. on Sunday, May 20, the graduates of the Departments of Africana Studies, Criminology and Justice Studies, History, Political Science, Public Administration, Social Work, Sociology, and Urban Studies and Planning in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences will take part in CSUN’s fourth ceremony.

CSUN’s fifth ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. on May 20 for the graduates of the Michael D. Eisner College of Education and the Departments of Anthropology, Geography and Psychology in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

At 8 a.m. on Monday, May 21, the graduates of the College of Humanities and the Departments of Child and Adolescent Development; Communication Disorders and Sciences; Environmental and Occupational Health; and Family and Consumer Sciences in the College of Health and Human Development will take part in CSUN’s sixth commencement ceremony.

CSUN’s seventh and final commencement ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. on May 21 for the graduates of the Departments of Health Sciences, Kinesiology, Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Recreation and Tourism Management in the College of Health and Human Development.

For more information about CSUN’s 2018 Commencement, visit the website http://www.csun.edu/commencement.

Ryan Gosling is playing the teacher and Halle Berry is the principal.

The opening scene of the movie is Gosling, with hurried and excited voice, telling Berry: “We have to do something for the school!”

Beyond that, the story, the casting and pretty much everything else for the movie is up for discussion.

This is how CSUN alumnus Bradley Upshaw ’88 (Credential) envisions the movie about his life.

Is it far-fetched to believe he’d be the subject of a feature film?

Not entirely.

After all, the last teacher like Upshaw was Jaime Escalante and the 1988 film Stand and Deliver was about him.

In March, Upshaw, a third-grade teacher with 33 years of service at Vanalden Avenue Elementary School in Tarzana, was surprised at a school assembly where it was announced that he had been selected for the National Teachers Hall of Fame. Bradley is one of two teachers from the Los Angeles Unified School District to be chosen for induction — the other being Escalante, a legendary math teacher who taught at Garfield High School.

The National Teachers Hall of Fame is located in Emporia, Kansas, and was founded in 1989 by Emporia State University and other university and city groups as a tribute to what the Hall calls “our nation’s most important profession.”

Teachers are nominated through the Hall of Fame’s website. Only five teachers nationwide are chosen for induction annually and are selected by a national selection committee.

Vanalden Principal Yoshim Yang nominated Upshaw for the honor.

“There is a different level of commitment with him,” Yang said. “You have to see him in action. He’s very present, and he’s more than just about academics. He really cares about students’ well-being.”

On the nomination form, Yang wrote about how Upshaw visited with the family of a student who had bone cancer. Due to the illness, the family wanted to withdraw him from Vanalden Avenue Elementary and home-school him. Upshaw convinced the family that their child would not only receive passionate education from him, but that he would also receive comfort. The family ultimately decided to keep their son at Vanalden.

“He has this natural ability to connect with people,” Yang said. “They trust him very quickly.”

Originally from Anaheim, Upshaw often moved around as a youth. It was his intent to become an actor that led to his return to Southern California at San Diego State for undergraduate studies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts, and continued his pursuit of acting as a career into his mid-20s. He made his way north to Los Angeles to break into showbiz, but couldn’t catch the break. A friend of his told him of a company that serviced children with special needs. Upshaw took a job with the company and realized the work he was doing was gratifying. It was suggested to him that since he already had a bachelor’s degree, he could get hired as a substitute teacher in LAUSD and still go on auditions.

Teaching spoke to him more and more, though. In teaching, he could satisfy his inner passions. His mother Doris instilled compassion in him, he said. His father, Douglas, instilled a work ethic in him. Upshaw loved to perform. By teaching, he could be compassionate, work hard and perform every day.

He enrolled at CSUN to pursue a teaching credential.

“CSUN gave me all this pedagogy and I had to learn,” Upshaw said. “I was interested in the way the professors were teaching and presenting in the class. I’d be in a class sometimes thinking, ‘This is a pretty good course.’ Then there were times I’d be thinking, ‘This is a pretty good teacher.’”

After earning his credential, Upshaw took root at Vanalden. And from the very beginning, his teaching style was effervescent. And it was also tender-hearted.

Upshaw said he had terrible problems with math and reading as a child. He recalled one school year where his issues in and out of the classroom caused him to miss 60 days. Because of his own experiences, he has much empathy for students and their everyday challenges.

He sees his role not only as a teacher, but also as a friend.

He tries to have his students sit around in a circle once a week and share their concerns, feelings and successes. He has found it as a way for him to get to know his students, but also for the kids to identify with and find empathy for their fellow classmates. For nearly three decades, he has had a class mascot — a plush-toy mouse named Gretchen — that he has used as a communication tool for children.

“I introduce her during the first week of school and tell the kids, ‘I have a very good friend of mine. She’s going to arrive.’ I keep looking out the door for her to arrive,” Upshaw said.

When he finally introduces Gretchen, some of the kids are disappointed because it’s not a human. But he goes back to his theater days and asks the children to suspend their disbelief. Upshaw said most of his students warm up to Gretchen and treat her like a human.

He has a program called Gretchen’s Notebook where students can leave a note about whatever’s on their mind to the mascot. Upshaw reads the notes privately and responds in a note as Gretchen, usually leaving the response in their desk.

“These little notes are profound,” Upshaw said. “Even though they are little 8- and 9-year-old brains, their ability to reflect and explain how they’re feeling is amazing to me.”

The notes can be happy, sometimes tragic. They always give Upshaw a better perspective of the individual. In turn, he puts more passion and compassion in his teaching.

Yang said as much as the students affect Upshaw, the new Hall of Famer is affecting his fellow teachers and staff.

“The best thing for our school is he inspires other teachers and the entire staff,” Yang said. “Teachers to elevate their own instructional message and care for students and staff to be more conscious of how they respond to kids at our school.”

The National Teacher’s Hall of Fame ceremony will be June 22. Upshaw will have his own exhibit at Emporia State University for a year.

It’s also the site where Upshaw envisions the last scene of his movie would be. He’d be in the audience watching as one of his former students is inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The working title for this film, as of now, is Dragonfly Days.

“That is my description of living a whole life in one day,” Upshaw said of the title. “Some dragonflies only live 24 hours. Some days in elementary are filled from beginning to end with amazing activities and lessons. They are exhausting days, but so filled with purpose and joy.”

The 52nd annual CSUN Staff Service and Recognition of Excellence Awards ceremony connected the success of California State University, Northridge students to the work of dedicated university employees. It also was a chance for CSUN leaders to recognize their teams and the collective impact of CSUN staff.

“Today is a celebration of you and your service — and shows that CSUN values you, our Matadors, for your hard work and dedication to our students, each other and CSUN as a vibrant university community,” said CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison. “Thanks to your contributions, we are able to continually raise the bar of service and support we provide to our students to help them achieve academic success. It is because of what you do, and what you are capable of doing in the future, that CSUN will continue to prosper and rise to new heights.”

This year’s event, which took place May 2 at the University Student Union Northridge Center, honored 322 staff, managers and auxiliary employees for service in five-year increments, from five years up to 45 years. The 45-year honorees were Judith Friedman of the Department of Psychology and William Krohmer of the Department of Biology.

The event also included seven awards for outstanding contributions by staff and administrators:

President’s Award

Harrison presented the prestigious President’s Award to Susan Dickman ’04 (Marketing), the program and marketing manager of The University Corporation (TUC). The President’s Award goes to a staff member who sustains consistent, outstanding performance and demonstrates the values of the university.

Dickman was honored for helping to grow TUC’s program and marketing department, and helping to create greater synergies between CSUN Athletics, Associated Students, Housing and TUC. She earned recognition for a long list of projects, including the CSUN Campus Store remodel; the Matador Shirt initiative, where all incoming students receive a T-shirt to connect them to CSUN; coordinating efforts for CSUN-branded Pepsi trucks in Los Angeles County; and serving on multiple cross-divisional committees that coordinate campuswide events such as the CSUN Summer and Winter Celebrations, 2017 CSUN Founders’ Day and Homecoming event, and Athletics Fan Fairs.

“Susan is an excellent project manager and team leader with an extremely positive and upbeat attitude that lends itself to her role in executing initiatives,” Harrison said. “She has the insight on how to personalize a marketing campaign so it will speak to the intended audience. Susan continually operates at the highest level of performance, and has earned our admiration and respect.”

Dickman, who was born and raised in Northridge, was visibly emotional as she accepted the award. Her mother, Marsha Collier, who attended the ceremony, pointed out that Dickman had been voted CSUN Homecoming Queen in 2002 and even attended CSUN football games as a child.

“As a Matador and graduate and someone who loves the university, I’m humbled, and it still doesn’t feel real,” Dickman said. “I couldn’t be happier to come to work every day.”

Leadership Award

Deborah Wallace, associate vice president for Financial Services, received the Leadership Award, which is awarded to an administrator who consistently exhibits CSUN’s leadership principles and demonstrates a commitment to connecting work with the campus’ planning priorities. Wallace was honored for her commitment to using team members’ individual strengths and helping them achieve their goals. She also collaborated on a recent outreach program to assist graduating seniors who would have been disenrolled for financial reasons, removing barriers to their success.

Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion Award

The Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion Award was awarded to Nancy Alonzo, senior community director of Student Housing and Conference Services. Alonzo was honored for planning and facilitating CSUN’s annual Oppression Reduction Training, which includes sessions for student leaders on racism, microaggressions and classism. She also created the Latinas Rising support group and works with the DREAM Center and University Student Union’s Cross Cultural Committee.

Merit Awards

The CSUN Merit Awards are presented to employees who exemplify exceptional performance and demonstrate integrity and service to the university community.

Recipients included:

• Sarah Johnson, coordinator of the CSUN Institute for Sustainability, who has led awareness events to solve composting issues and other activities that help save time and waste hauling fees, and help meet university greenhouse gas emission goals.
• Claire Davis, associate director of administrative services for Student Housing and Conference Services, who currently serves as co-interim administrator in charge of Student Housing and Conference Services. Among other successes, Davis was praised for the smooth annual student check-in process and for helping to transition Student Housing to paperless records, starting with a fully online application.
• Betsy Corrigan, director of Food Services, who has worked to provide a robust menu and to provide all students with access to nutritious options, as well as implementing the use of compostable and recyclable single-use containers.
• Noe Aguirre and Vanessa Ochoa, coordinators of the Veterans Affairs unit of Administration and Records, who were honored for their efforts to support the 511 veterans, reservists, National Guard members and active-duty soldiers on campus. This included creation of an online certification process.

Alumni Relations Award

The Alumni Relations Award, which goes to a person whose efforts bring alumni closer to CSUN, was awarded to Lawrence Becker, a political science professor and director of the CSUN in D.C. Internship Program. Becker has built relationships with various influential individuals and institutions in Washington, D.C., including members of Congress, the State Department, Department of Veterans Affairs and many others. He also has assisted in engaging alumni on a variety of policy initiatives, providing alumni and university friends with an in-depth look at the CSUN in D.C. program and the profound impact it has on students.

Student Assistant of the Year

For the first time, the event also implemented a Student Assistant of the Year award, given to a student employee who demonstrates exceptional contributions to their department by their outstanding skill set, professionalism, and quality of work and service to the university community.

The inaugural award went to Jodie Rink of University Marketing and Communications, who coordinates all estimates and invoices related to more than a dozen external advertisement vendors and ensures that the creative work is submitted on time. Her work assists the university’s external advertising campaign. These contracts, invoices and estimates require laser precision in terms of follow through and scheduling.

Jolene Koester Team Award

Jill Mejia, assistant director of Undergraduate Degree Services for Admissions and Records, and Julia Riddle, associate director of Systems and Operations for Admissions and Records, accepted the Jolene Koester Team Award on behalf of the Online Graduation Application Team comprised of employees from Admissions & Records, Information Technology and Cash Services. The Jolene Koester Team Award is presented annually to a team of university employees who collaborate on a project, process or other significant initiative that brings about radical, positive change that improves performance or productivity — and/or reduces costs or enhances the image of the university. Riddle’s Online Graduation Application team reduced hours of manual input, improved workflow and reduced the amount of paper needed for graduation applications.

CSUN Shine from Within

The 14 individuals who participated in the annual CSUN Shine from Within Program were also recognized. The cross-divisional development cohort program helps selected staff develop core competencies, develop a sense of connection and community with other units across campus, and broaden understanding and knowledge about the university and other divisions, investing participants more deeply in the mission of the university and its planning priorities.

A complete listing of employees honored for their years of services may be viewed on the Human Resources website at: https://www.csun.edu/enrichment/staff-service-awards.

Shawntel Barreiro has known since she was in ninth grade that she wanted to be a linguist, and she has worked hard to fulfill that dream since. She will be graduating later this month from California State University, Northridge with bachelor’s degrees in linguistics and Chicana and Chicano studies, and full funding to complete her doctorate in linguistics at The Ohio State University.

But before all that Barreiro is one of nearly 2,500 graduates invited to take part in CSUN’s Honors Convocation at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 12. The ceremony recognizes the graduating students for their academic and personal achievements.

Shawntel Barreiro, 2018 Woflson Scholar

Barreiro has been named this year’s Wolfson Scholar, the top honor given to a graduating senior. It is presented each year in memory of CSUN’s first vice president, Leo Wolfson. Not only must the student have an exceptional academic record, but he or she must also have made significant contributions to CSUN or to the community through co-curricular and extracurricular activities.

Barreiro, 22, a first-generation college student and the daughter of immigrants from El Salvador, said she was flattered to receive the honor and grateful for the opportunities CSUN has provided her, including setting her firmly on her career path.

“I was in my first introductory course in linguistics, and we started off with looking at the basics of linguistics and it was fun,” she said. “But then we started talking about sociolinguistics — the relationship between social issues and language, how language can affect society — and I was like ‘This is what I want to do. This is what I want to study.’”

Barreiro discovered the field of linguists while a freshman in high school while struggling in a French class.

“Then I realized that there were similarities between French and Spanish,” she said, adding that as a native Spanish speaker she was interested in exploring the relationship between the two languages. That curiosity led her to the field of linguistics, the science of language, and “I knew what I wanted to do with my life,” she said.

With an eye on getting a doctorate in sociolinguistics, Barreiro, who commuted to Northridge from her home in South Central Los Angeles, devoted the past five years at CSUN to studying and taking advantage of research opportunities. As a student in CSUN’s BUILD PODER program, a research training program supported by a $22-million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, she helped child and adolescent development professor Emily Russell examine how language background affects child language acquisition.

After a year with BUILD PODER, she became part of the inaugural cohort of CSUN’s HSI Pathways to the Professoriate — which, in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania and supported by a $5.1 million grant from the Andrew W, Mellon Foundation — aims to prepare undergraduates in the humanities and related fields for admission to a Ph.D. program. Under the guidance of linguistics professor David Medeiros, a mentor in the HSI Pathways Program​, Barreiro conducted her own research about the use of Salvadoran-Spanish in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Research she credits with helping her get into the doctoral program at Ohio State University.

She spent the summer of 2016 working on a linguistics research project at Yale University as part of a summer undergraduate research fellowship program.

Barreiro, who is graduating summa cum laude with a 3.97 GPA, is looking forward to studying at Ohio State, and a version of winter she has never experienced.

“I am looking forward to a real winter, with snow, blizzards or rain,” she said. “Whatever it is, I am ready for it.”

Barreiro would like to eventually teach at a university and serve as a role model and mentor to her students “in the way people here at CSUN did for me.”

“I don’t want to be defined by my degree,” she said. “I know that it is truly an honor to be able to get a Ph.D. What I hope to do is inspire people who come from my community, whether is South Central Los Angeles or the Salvadoran community. I don’t want to be a researcher who sits in an office who views the community from afar. I want to be able to work first-hand with communities so that their own narratives and sense of agency directly inform my research.”

Other students getting special recognition at the Honors Convocation include:

Jasmine Awad, 2018 Nathan O. Freedman Memorial Award for Outstanding Graduate Student

Jasmine Awad, 2018 Nathan O. Freedman Memorial Award for Outstanding Graduate Student

Jasmine Awad’s master’s thesis offers new research on a condition called synesthesia — the phenomenon of a person perceiving multiple reactions from their senses from a single stimulus. People with synesthesia may perceive colors when they hear a song on the radio. Or feel that chicken tastes square. Or experience navy blue when they read the number seven.

Awad has found new clues about how and why people with synesthesia see the world the way they do as part of her research in CSUN’s Visual Information Sciences at Northridge (VISN).

With a 3.9 GPA, frequent appearances on dean’s lists, numerous scholarships and multiple research accomplishments, Awad received the Nathan O. Freedman Award, given annually to the top graduate student during CSUN’s Honors Convocation.

Her next stop is the University of Washington’s Ph.D. psychology program, where she will join its Vision and Cognition group. Eventually, she would like to be a college professor, she said.

Awad was born to a mother who immigrated to America from El Salvador at age 11, and a father who moved from Lebanon in his 20s. Determined to see her children succeed, Awad’s mother vigorously searched for resources — interpreters, tests that would identify her daughters as gifted — to ensure their education would take them as far as they wanted to go.

She graduated from CSUN with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2014. Financial and medical emergencies in her family delayed plans to immediately get her master’s degree. To save money and help support her family, she worked full time at the nature-made vitamins company Pharmavite. She was tasked with ensuring the company followed the legal requirements of various countries.

“My parents just instilled a strong sense of just moving along,” Awad said. “The world keeps spinning and you can either spin with it, or sit and wait for it to move you. If you want to get anywhere, you have to move forward. And even if it takes longer, if you have to take a break, eventually you’re going to have to keep moving.”

Assisting her on her journey to her master’s degree were multiple scholarships and awards, including the Robert Dear Quantitative Research Award, Creative Endeavors Scholarship, Sally Cassanova Pre-Doctorate Scholarship and Academic Competitiveness Grants. Her classmates helped her study. As she waited to begin her master’s program, psychology professor Stefanie Drew invited her to continue her work as a lab manager in the VISN to make sure she stayed involved in research.

“All of my success has always been a product of the help and kindness of others,” Awad said, referring to her lab members, family and friends in her cohort. “I wouldn’t feel right taking anything without thanking my support system. They’ve been great.”

David Angeles, Karen, Leon and Rita Goldstein-Saulter Memorial Award

David Angeles, Karen, Leon and Rita Goldstein-Saulter Memorial Award

David Angeles, 23, knew that mathematics was his major from the moment he set foot on campus as a CSUN freshman. In high school, his grades were inconsistent and he earned a relatively low GPA, but math was different.

“I was pretty decent in math,” Angeles said. “I got straight Bs, which wasn’t bad compared to my other classes.”

Six years later, Angeles is graduating with a 3.81 GPA, a Harvard University summer biostatistics research program under his belt, another summer mathematics research program at UCLA about to begin and a spot waiting for him in the biostatistics doctorate program at The Ohio State University. On top of these accomplishments, Angeles also will receive the Karen, Leon and Rita Goldstein-Saulter Memorial Award at Honors Convocation.

Angeles credits CSUN’s Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP) and PUMP (Preparing Undergraduates through Mentoring toward Ph.D.) for providing the community and support he needed to be successful at CSUN and continue on to a doctoral program.

“EOP, PUMP and my mentors are my biggest highlights [from CSUN],” Angeles said. “I want programs like [PUMP and EOP] to keep growing because they gave me the opportunity [to succeed], and I think it is only fair for other students to get the same opportunity.”

After working with his mother at a fast food restaurant as a teenager, Angeles developed a new respect for the work she took on to support him and his brother. She worked two jobs, sometimes back-to-back without sleep, and he “didn’t want that for her,” Angeles said. He decided to pursue a career as a math teacher, since he saw it as the quickest way to make money right out of college. Though he saw his education as a way to build a career that could allow him to help his family, Angeles also worked two jobs, one at a restaurant and another tutoring in mathematics, so he could help pay the family’s bills while he attended CSUN.

The PUMP program was a game-changer for Angeles, sending him to a conference where he learned about biostatistics and pushing him outside of his comfort zone. Last year, Angeles applied to some of the most competitive summer research programs in the country, originally intending to show his PUMP mentor, CSUN mathematics professor Maria Helena Noronha, that he wouldn’t be accepted. Angeles was still planning on teaching and didn’t plan to go to grad school, so he didn’t feel like he needed to do a summer program. However, he was accepted and spent the summer of 2017 attending a mathematics research program at Harvard. Ultimately, the research program helped solidify his desire to get his Ph.D.

“It wasn’t that long ago that I was rejected from CSU Fullerton and Cal Poly Pomona for my undergraduate degree,” said Angeles. “Now, six years later, I will have done research at two of the top universities in the U.S. — all because CSUN gave me an opportunity and believed in me.”

Kenya Lopez, 2018 Outstanding Graduating Senior

Kenya Lopez, Outstanding Graduating Senior

Few people can say they got more out of their college experience at CSUN than Kenya Lopez. After her first year, she earned the President Dianne F. Harrison Leadership Award, given annually to a freshman who excels in the classroom and shows leadership qualities.

Her list of accomplishments and roles continued to grow: Camp Matador counselor, University Ambassador, New Student Orientation TAKE XXVIII cast member, board member for several campus organizations, Special Olympics volunteer, member of Delta Zeta sorority, mentor for high school and college students, summer intern for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., and Associated Students (AS) vice president. And she is graduating with a 3.6 GPA to earn her degree in criminology and justice studies.

“Coming into CSUN, I knew I wanted to be involved and give back to our university. After all, it gave me one of the greatest gifts someone can receive, an education,” Lopez said. “After attending my Freshman Convocation, I left inspired to make the most out of my time at CSUN.”

As AS Vice President, Lopez, 22, worked with other students and staff members to advocate for the DREAM Center, giving undocumented students a safe space to congregate. Her advocacy also helped create the CSUN Student Legal Support Clinic and increased donations for the CSUN Food Pantry. She also made 10 trips to Washington, D.C. and Sacramento to advocate for students, a fully funded CSU, DACA and year-round Pell Grants. An undocumented student herself, Lopez has been open about her status to help others like herself.

“The reason why I have always been open about my status is to show other DACA recipients that our legal status does not define our potential,” Lopez said. “Too many times, I have talked to fellow DACA students who live in fear, and I want to show them that we shouldn’t hold back. I want to bring awareness to such a political issue that desperately needs to be addressed. The country needs to realize all the positive contributions that DACA recipients bring to this country. We are as much contributing members of society as U.S. citizens.”

After graduation, Lopez will attend USC’s Marshall School of Business, where she will work to attain her Master of Science in social entrepreneurship. Her goal is to help social enterprises and nonprofit organizations without financially sustainable business models become more solvent and attract more people into the business of social change.

“If we can do that, it will increase the number of people who are working toward these social causes to make the big changes in society, especially at a time like this,” Lopez said.

She has fond memories of her time at CSUN, and is looking forward to making one more with her graduation.

“It’s a great way to say thank you to my mom for her extreme hard work as a single mother,” Lopez said. “I’m definitely excited that she’ll be able to come to commencement and show her that her sacrifices to move here were worth it, and that I’m living the American Dream that she brought me here for.”

Amber Partida, 2018 Outstanding Graduating Senior

Amber Partida, Outstanding Graduating Senior

As her family and personal life were rocked by tragedy during her final years at CSUN, education became Amber Partida’s port in the storm.

Partida lost her father to brain cancer before her junior year at CSUN, not long after her parents divorced. Her family was evicted from their home, and she had to work to support herself and her family. Then, during her senior year, Partida’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. Her mother passed away just one month later, leaving Amber, her sister and her two younger brothers as orphans.

Her siblings were her primary inspiration to stay in school, she said.

“I’m a first-generation college student, so completing all my years here was really important — to keep going, to prove that I could do it,” said Partida, 23. “The one place I felt I had control in my life was the power of my education.”

She persevered, graduating cum laude with her Bachelor of Arts in journalism and a minor in Spanish-language journalism in December 2017.  This month, she’ll be honored with one of the Class of 2018’s Outstanding Graduating Senior Awards.

Raised in South Pasadena, Partida caught the journalism “bug” early, participating in yearbook in middle school and on-air sports commentary at South Pasadena High School. She chose CSUN for its stellar Department of Journalism, dreaming of a career in sports broadcasting.

“Sports has given me confidence and role models, and guidance in my life when I didn’t have a lot of people older than me to give me advice,” said Partida, a lifelong basketball player who co-founded CSUN’s club women’s basketball team.

Partida said she’s particularly proud that she took advantage of the journalism department’s myriad resources, especially mentor relationships with professors and her extensive involvement in producing the department’s “On Point “talk show and “Matador News” and serving as lead anchor for its “Valley View News” TV program. She landed the inaugural Gwen Ifill Journalism Fellowship, a prestigious position with “PBS NewsHour” in Washington, D.C., in summer 2017. At her mother’s insistence, Partida finished the fellowship even as her mother’s health failed.

“Amber never lacked self-confidence, though I often thought she would fold up her tent and leave college at any moment,” journalism professor Benjamin Davis wrote in his recommendation for Partida’s award. “The death of her mother coming just two years after her father’s passing was a seemingly visible weight Amber lugged around. … With all of this, Amber persisted. Amber possesses the determination and optimism we want all of our students to display.”

After commencement, Partida said, she hopes to land her first full-time broadcast job back in D.C. or at a local TV station as a news assistant, reporter or producer.

Tyler Pugeda, Outstanding Graduating Senior

Tyler Pugeda, Outstanding Graduating Senior

Tyler Pugeda has certainly been busy during his time at California State University, Northridge: He’ll be graduating magna cum laude as a double major in mathematics and philosophy, been an active member of CSUN’s Deaf and hard-of-hearing community and participated in several CSUN clubs and organizations, including the Deaf CSUNians, the College Bowl and the philosophy club. He received the prestigious President’s Scholarship, and is due to walk in this year’s Honors Convocation as one of the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award recipients.

Even so, Pugeda isn’t sure what to feel as he prepares to leave CSUN. “It’s not what I expected,” he said. “The emotions haven’t hit me yet.”

One thing he does know is that his undergraduate education here helped him develop a strong sense of social responsibility and of self, preparing him to move to the next chapter of his life.

Pugeda, who received his bachelor’s degree in fall 2017, currently attends Johns Hopkins University’s Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program. There, he applies the critical thinking skills he acquired in math and philosophy with the goal of earning an MD-Ph.D. degree and launching a medical career.

“I’m thinking clinical neuroscience,” he said. “I’m curious about how we could alleviate human suffering caused by neurological diseases.”

Pugeda initially believed that entering medicine would be a challenge due to discrimination against Deaf people needing access.

“Before attending CSUN, I was still trying to develop my Deaf identity; I wasn’t strong,” he said. “But when I first visited NCOD (CSUN’s National Center on Deafness), it was really empowering. They were warm, supportive and gave advice that helped me develop my own Deaf identity.  It’s helped me learn how to ask for the access I need at Johns Hopkins and the medical field.”

Although Pugeda misses his professors and friends at CSUN — as well as the warm sunshine of California — he believes the lessons he’s learned here will serve him well.

“In retrospect, I certainly matured at CSUN,” he said. “I’m empowered to overcome the future challenges of medical school. Challenges are there to make us excellent, and I’m eternally grateful to CSUN for providing me a well-rounded education.”

Many are the first in their families to get a college education. Others have used their experiences in the foster-care system as inspiration to aim for the highest bar. Still others came to California State University, Northridge determined to get the tools they need to make a positive impact on the world.

The cheers may be deafening this week when more than 11,500 students are expected to take part in CSUN’s 2018 commencement ceremonies. Each student has a personal story of hard work, perseverance and success. Below are just some of these unique stories:

Justin, left, and Jordan Brooks

Justin Brooks, B.A. in Criminology and Justice Studies, and Jordan Brooks, B.A.s in History and Religious Studies

When Justin Brooks came to CSUN as a freshman four years ago, he flirted with the idea of being an English major. His twin brother, Jordan, who started CSUN the same year, was thinking about becoming a special education teacher.

As they explored the university and all it had to offer, they discovered how to turn their passions — for Jordan, history, and for Justin, trying to make the world a safer place — into careers.

“If I got an offer from Harvard right now, I’d turn it down,” said 22-year-old Justin. “There’s no other place I’d rather be than CSUN. The faculty here, they changed my life.”

Jordan, who has autism, agreed. He said support from the university’s faculty and staff stoked a fire in him to succeed — leading to a near-perfect GPA during his four years at CSUN, despite a double major and a part-time job — and a desire to teach history someday, perhaps at the college level.

He is taking a year off after graduation to study for the graduate admissions exam, and then has his eyes on the University of California, Santa Barbara doctoral program in history. He is particularly interested in the period between World War I and World War II and “how human beings manifest ideology for their own ends,” Jordan said.

Growing up in a relatively rough neighborhood in Van Nuys, Justin was frustrated by friends’ and neighbors’ fear for their safety and the lack of resources for crime victims or those struggling with homelessness.

“I felt helpless and decided to explore criminology to try to understand why things happened the way they did,” he said.

Justin, who also has maintained a near-perfect GPA while at CSUN, despite holding down two jobs for a while, is part of the first cohort to graduate from the university’s year-old Department of Criminology and Justice Studies. He has begun preparing for the rigorous tests he must pass before he’s considered as a candidate for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

“People have a stereotype of what a police officer does,” he said. “It’s not just about rescuing people. There’s also a lot of outreach. I’d like to be part of something like Operation Progress (a program that pairs students in Watts with LAPD mentors and encourages them to pursue higher education). I want to be part of something that makes a positive impact in the community.”

That sense of inclusion and respect for the rich diversity that makes up the community was a factor in the brothers’ decision to attend CSUN.

“We grew up in an incredibly diverse neighborhood, and continuing to learn in a diverse, accepting community was important to us,” Justin said.

“I can’t imagine any other place than CSUN where that would happen,” Jordan added.

Both young men will take part in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences commencement ceremony at 8 a.m. on Sunday, May 20, where Justin will receive his bachelor’s degree in criminology and justice studies and Jordan will receive his bachelor’s degree in history. Jordan also is eligible to take part in the College of Humanities commencement ceremony at 8 a.m. on May 21, where he will receive his bachelor’s degree in religious studies.

Gardenia Centanaro

Gardenia Centanaro, B.S. in Political Science

            Gardenia Centanaro, 23, of Northridge, is just 6 inches, a little less than the span of a hand, away from clearing one of her goals. She will be spending the next two years in pursuit of those 6 inches. If all goes right, she’ll be representing Mexico in women’s pole vault at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Her path to the Olympics will not be easy, with Centanaro dividing her time between the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center, coaching pole vault at Pitzer College in Claremont and working on her master’s in nonprofit-sector management through an online program at CSUN.

“It’s going to be a couple of busy years, but I’m up to it,” she said.

Centanaro, a first-generation college student, grew up in foster care. Her mother, an addict, was unable to care for her nine children. She died when Centanaro was 8 years old, and Centanaro and her siblings permanently became part of the foster care system.

Determined that she not become “another statistic,” her foster father, who was once a pole vaulter, volunteered to coach pole vault at Centanaro’s Corona high school so she could experience the joys and learn the work ethic associated with the sport.

“Pole vaulting is a demanding sport that demands a positive attitude,” she said. “It’s a sport where you have to clear a bar, and they keep raising it until you can’t make it any more. You always end on a miss, thinking about how you can get it next time. And that’s life, you’re always going to have a limit and you are going to have to figure out how to get past it.”

She attracted the attention of CSUN Athletics, which invited her for a visit in 2014.

“It had a totally different atmosphere than any other school I had visited,” Centanaro said. “It was so diverse and so warm. I felt I belonged here.”

Centanaro made the most of her time at CSUN. In 2016, she won the Big West Conference pole vault title with a school-record performance of 4.06 meters, or 13 feet 3.75 inches. In 2017, she placed second at the Big West Championships in the pole vault with a clearance of 3.92 meters, or 12 feet 10.25 inches, and had a career-best clearance of 4.12 meters, or 13 feet 6.25 inches, which earned her second place at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships.

Despite the demands of training and competing, Centanaro held down at least two jobs while maintaining a high GPA, a fete that earned her regular membership in Varsity N, a group of high academic-achieving student-athletes. She even served as the lead student on a research project with political science professor Kristy Michaud that examined water conservation among Los Angeles renters.

Centanaro said her fondest CSUN memories include the time she spent with her fellow student-athletes, not on the fields, but studying together. “We spend so much time together that they have become family,” she said.

“Most people have this misconception that student-athletes don’t work hard when it comes to academics when, really, we have this work ethic instilled in us from athletics that makes us want to excel in academics,” she added. “The whole definition of work is to physically and mentally push yourself to accomplish a result, and that’s what athletes do. When it comes to the classroom, we still have that idea of work.”

Centanaro was born in the United States, but her biological parents were from Mexico, thus giving her dual citizenship and an opportunity to compete at the 2020 Olympics representing Mexico — a goal she intends to work toward for the next two years. Once the Olympics are over, Centanaro plans to turn her focus to her ultimate goal — establishing a nonprofit that encourages foster children to get an education and to take advantage of educational opportunities.

She is expected to take part in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences commencement ceremony at 8 a.m. on Sunday, May 20.

Fedrick De La Paz

Fedrick De La Paz, B.A. in Religious Studies

Fedrick De La Paz, 31, of Los Angeles, credits his wife, Dulce, with inspiring him to get his degree. For years, he would take one or two classes at local community colleges, while Dulce completed her bachelor’s degree at University of Nevada, Las Vegas before getting a master’s degree in architecture a little more than two years ago.

“That’s when I got the kick in the butt, and I thought I really needed to get on,” said De La Paz, who worked as a bartender while his wife concentrated on her studies. “I was in that work mode, working full time and being that figure, that head of household, while she was in school. Now the roles have changed. She has been amazing, supporting me all the way while I am in school.”

De La Paz took community college classes in a variety of subjects, including business, philosophy, architecture and interior design. It wasn’t until he took a class in world religions that he found his passion.

“Religious studies gives you a foundation of exposure to different perspectives,” he said. “When you think of researchers or scientists, they are very observant but disconnected from the people or things they are researching. With religious studies, you can research, but there is a certain amount of compassion that is instilled in you so that you are connected with the people you are researching.”

In the two years since he transferred to CSUN from East Los Angeles College, De La Paz has added minors in American Indian studies and civic and community engagement to his class load. He served as vice president of the American Indian Student Association, was a member of the College of Humanities Dean’s Student Council and worked at the campus’ Sustainability Garden, where he harvested produce for the CSUN Food Pantry. He also collaborated with the Departments of American Indian Studies, Central American Studies and Chicana and Chicano Studies to organize the Indigenous Community Garden Initiative, a space for students to apply sustainable practices in growing food.

De La Paz is the first in his family, besides his wife, to get a college degree. He has applied to graduate school, and he plans to study religion, spirituality and culture, and how dominant culture changes and/or affects them.

“Achieving a doctoral degree will allow me have that foundation of academia that no one can ever take away from me,” he said. “I can also serve as an example for others — that they can achieve their aspirations even if they have a different skin tone, ethnicity, religion, background or whatever it may be.”

More importantly, he wants to be a role model for what is possible. He tells the story of a friend who almost missed applying for graduate school because he was $15 shy of the application fee. When De La Paz heard the story, he reached into his pocket and pulled out $15, all the money he had that day, and told his friend to apply.

“He couldn’t pay me back for two months, but I didn’t care,” De La Paz said. “That $15 made all the difference. He got accepted and now he’s going to get a master’s degree. He is the first in his family to do anything in higher education. Fifteen dollars shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your dream.”

In 15 years, De La Paz said, he may consider running for mayor of Los Angeles.

“That’s one of my goals — to seek some sort of understanding of politics and bureaucracy and help people,” he said. “I want to be able to demonstrate that people should be more open to differences, and realize that those differences make us all the same because we are all different.”

He will take part in the College of Humanities commencement ceremony at 8 a.m. on May 21.

Stacey Leal

Stacey Leal, B.A. in Communication Studies

            Stacey Leal, 30, of Santa Clarita, was fully immersed in campus life in the fall of 2017. She had transferred to CSUN from the College of the Canyons only a year before and loved her classes, as well as her job at the university’s Pride Center, helping coordinate events and facilitating the center’s Queer and Trans People of Color Conversations. Then, Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico.

Leal — who was born in Miami, Fla., but spent much of her childhood in Puerto Rico — was worried about her father, who lives on the island.

“The hardest thing was the complete radio silence for four days,” she said. “I did not know if something had happened or if he was fine.”

It was a relief when he finally called, though the connection was spotty given the power outage that blanketed the U.S. territory. He was unharmed and his home was spared the worst of the damage, thanks to its higher elevation. Leal said the support she received from her colleagues at the Pride Center helped her get through the hard time.

It was that sense of community, Leal said, that drew her to CSUN.

“I was surprised by how many communities there were here,” she said about a CSUN campus she made while at community college. “What really stuck out to me was the LGBTQ community on campus and the Latinx community on campus. I felt that this was somewhere where I could be comfortable with my identity.”

Her parents divorced when Leal was in high school, and she moved to Santa Clarita with her mom. She attended community college a couple times — with a three-year break in New Mexico — before completing an associate degree in communication studies from College of the Canyons and transferring to CSUN.

“I have never felt more comfortable on a campus than I have at CSUN,” Leal said.

She recalled the adjustments she had to make moving from the heavily Latino neighborhoods of her childhood in Miami and Puerto Rico to largely white Santa Clarita. Though the area has a sizable Latino community, it is mostly Mexican-American, and Leal, whose mother is Nicaraguan, spoke Nicaraguan and Puerto Rican Spanish.

She laughed recalling her attempts to order a “torta” in a Mexican restaurant. In Mexican Spanish, a “torta” is a type of sandwich. In Nicaraguan, a “torta” is a cake, while in Puerto Rican Spanish it is often a fried pastry.

Her ability to adjust and help others become comfortable in their own skin drew the attention of Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez, who honored Leal for her work advocating for the LGBTQ community.

Leal said her time at CSUN has given her insight into what she would like to do with her life. She has applied the university’s master’s program in communication studies, and whether she eventually owns her own business or works for somebody else, she said she is determined to find ways to give back to the community.

Leal will take part in the commencement ceremony for the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 18.

Paulina Silva

Paulina Silva, B.S. in Business Law

Paulina Silva, 22, a first-generation college student, has known since she was about 8 years old that she was interested in being a lawyer. Now, 14 years later and about to graduate from CSUN, she has applied to law school and hopes to someday have a corner office at a corporate law firm.

The path to that corner office has been filled with obstacles. Those experiences, she said, have only made her stronger and more determined to succeed.

“When a door closes, which has happened so many times for me, you see the other door and you realize you can get through,” Silva said. “I’ve learned how to be a problem solver and have developed new skills. I now see what I have been through as an asset.”

Silva said the minute she walked onto CSUN’s campus as a freshman four years ago, she knew it was where she belonged. “With the rich diversity on campus, instead of feeling isolated, I found a place where there were people like me,” she said.

Faculty and administrators such as Robert Sheridan, Hilary Goldberg, Melanie Williams, then-Interim Dean Deborah Cours, Kenneth Premo and many more “did everything they could to help me,” she said.

Silva threw herself into her classes and became active in a number of student organizations in the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. She is the business college’s academic student senator; president of the pre-law student association; president of the student leadership council, Leaders in Alliance for the business college; and worked alongside Interim Dean Cours to promote student engagement and the university’s student success initiative, Matadors Rising.

As the political climate came more volatile for undocumented immigrants, including people with DACA status, Silva decided to advocate for students.

Silva said her final year at CSUN has been “crazy.” She had to juggle classwork demands, her student leadership obligations and studying for the law school entrance exam.

During the worst of it, she said, her mentor, business law professor Hilary Goldberg, took her aside to give her some advice.

“She said to look at it as if I were training for a marathon — make sure your body is rested and well fed,” Silva said. “She also gave me her lucky pencils, which commingled with the pencils she took the bar exam with.”

While she waits to hear the results of her law school applications, Silva envisions a career in corporate law in which she can also positively affect public policy. She is considering entering politics someday, or perhaps working on international business relations for the United Nations.

Silva will take part in the commencement ceremony for the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics at 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 19.

Records continued to fall during California State University, Northridge’s commencement proceedings, as an all-time high of more than 11,500 graduates reached this life-changing moment. Starting with Honors Convocation on May 12 and continuing May 18 to 21 with seven commencement ceremonies, CSUN celebrated the close to another successful academic year, with the true stars being the graduates themselves.

World-renowned artist Judy Baca ’69, M.A. ’80 (Art) received an honorary doctorate on May 18, during the commencement proceedings for the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication. A day later, entrepreneur and philanthropist Younes Nazarian was honored with an honorary doctorate of his own during the commencement for the college named after his son, the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics.

The energy was high during each of the celebrations, with students at the apex following years of hard work and study before taking the first steps toward their future. Here is a collection of photos from all the ceremonies.

In emergency rooms across the United States, nurses, doctors and hospital staff know never to say the “Q” word. The dreaded word isn’t “question,” “quarrel” or “quick” — it’s “quiet.”

It’s a rare time for an emergency room when the phones aren’t ringing and patients aren’t arriving, but that can all change in minutes, according to an ER superstition. As soon as someone remarks, “It’s going to be a quiet night, isn’t it?,” everything changes: Ambulances flood the ER with patients until it’s bursting.

As a doctor of emergency medicine and Co-Medical Director of Burbank Emergency Medical Group at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, it’s a situation that Celina Barba-Simic ’92 (Cell and Molecular Biology) knows all too well.

Barba-Simic’s only access to medical care as a child was the busy county emergency department, which “normalized” long waits, chaos and language barriers for the alumna. When she decided to pursue a career in medicine, emergency medicine was the only specialty she considered.

“Attending to people at times of crisis represents the greatest privilege of medicine,” Barba-Simic said. “I am most grateful to be able to alleviate anxiety and have an impact on patients’ acute medical needs…”

Barba-Simic always knew she wanted to work in medicine, but she never imagined that learning not to say the “Q” word would be such a valuable lesson — nor did she know that she would be drawn to the fast-paced world of emergency medicine.

Her path became clearer when she took a human embryology course with — and later joined the Center for Cancer and Developmental Biology of — esteemed biology professor Steven Oppenheimer at California State University, Northridge.

His influence on her was so profound that Barba-Simic recently made a gift to the CSUN College of Science and Mathematics to create the Dr. Celina Barba-Simic Biology Scholarship in Honor of Dr. Steven Oppenheimer.

The annual scholarship will provide one award for an undergraduate student with demonstrated financial need who is also conducting laboratory research in the College of Science and Mathematics’ Department of Biology.

She decided to make the gift, she said, after her daughters asked her a tough question: “Mom, how did you become a doctor?”

“One day they just asked me how I did it,” Barba-Simic said. “And I really tried to unravel all of those layers of skills and education.”

In unraveling 20 years’ worth of layers, Barba-Simic remembered her inspiring professor of human embryology.

“Dr. Oppenheimer at CSUN gave me the comfortable, accessible starting point where I could really start building those skills and seeing that there are possibilities,” she said. “He was absolutely essential.”

Her Time at CSUN
Oppenheimer, who has mentored thousands of students during his 40-year tenure as a CSUN professor, said that Barba-Simic stood out when she was an undergraduate.

“Celina had sparkle, spark and enthusiasm seldom seen in students,” Oppenheimer said. “The combination of her enthusiasm and my enthusiasm made for great success. Celina’s spark was inspirational.”

After getting to know the professor — now emeritus — Barba-Simic joined the famed Oppenheimer lab. “Being in Dr. O’s lab was awesome. He made it approachable and hands-on,” she said. “Everything was accessible. He encouraged every person that walked in there to do everything they wanted to do and helped them find ways to do it.”

In the lab, Barba-Simic helped research cell surface carbohydrates in adhesion and migration, to explore how cells’ surface sugar-containing receptor sites change during development. The study aimed to determine the function of those carbohydrates in order to find causes of cancer-cell spread.

Barba-Simic said the professor’s encouragement made a profound impact on her life.

“You walk in and he’s saying, ‘You’re wonderful and you’re the best!’ It was life-changing, his teaching and his classes,” she said. “It prepared me for medical school. I knew I had the study skills, the research skills and the knowledge base [to succeed].”

Although she learned many things from him, the most important idea the professor instilled in Barba-Simic was this: You can be a doctor if you want to be.

“I reflected on the impact my time in Dr. Oppenheimer’s lab had on my career,” Barba-Simic said. “He gave me the confidence to apply to [medical school]. Dr. Oppenheimer changed the trajectory of my life.”

Overcoming Barriers
A first-generation college student born in Mexico and raised in Pacoima, Barba-Simic and her parents came to the U.S. when she was three months old. She started working at the age of 15 and had two jobs by the time she was 16. She used her wages to pay for essentials.

“When I was graduating high school, I brought the UC application to my mom and was like, ‘How many of these boxes can I check off?’ I think the applications were around $50 each,” Barba-Simic said. “And she said, ‘Oh, honey, we can’t afford that and you can’t move away from home.’”

Financial and cultural constraints led Barba-Simic to CSUN, where she initially enrolled as a physical therapy major. Once at CSUN, she encountered cultural barriers to her education from well-meaning family and friends.

“I knew I wanted to be a physician, but everybody told me, ‘Oh, don’t be a doctor. It takes too long and you’re going to get married anyway,’” Barba-Simic said.

Despite the financial and cultural barriers, Barba-Simic paved her way to medical school by volunteering at the Veterans Affairs Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center, just a few miles east of campus, doing research and participating in on-campus organizations such as Chicanos for Community Medicine.

At the end of her undergraduate time at CSUN, Barba-Simic received multiple awards including Graduating Student of the Year Award from the Department of Biology and the Minority Achievers in Science Student of the Year Award. She also received multiple scholarships, fostering her appreciation of the financial needs of low-income students and later inspiring her to make a gift to aid those in need.

Barba-Simic made the gift to her alma mater in hopes of supporting “CSUN students that share similar challenges and career goals.”

As an involved undergraduate, Barba-Simic applied for — and later received — the National Institutes of Health Minorities Access to Energy Related Careers grant, with Oppenheimer’s encouragement, she said.

“The grant paid for two years [of undergrad], so I was able to stop working,” she said. “In the summer, the grant allowed me to conduct research in a Department of Energy lab and use the skills that Dr. O taught me.

“I was lucky to be at Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory working under Dr. Levy … where my job was to irradiate mice brain cell cultures, subjecting them to different levels of radiation and testing Bragg peaks using the linear accelerator. This was but a small part of the research that Dr. Levy used to perfect proton therapy for high-precision treatment of brain tumors and vascular malformations,” she added.

Perseverance
After graduating from Stanford Medical School, Barba-Simic completed a three-year emergency medicine residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where she started work as early as 4 a.m. and ended as late as 7 p.m. — the following day. This meant Barba-Simic often worked 38-hour shifts and 120-hour weeks.

On top of extremely long hours, in the first three months of her residency, Barba-Simic became pregnant with her first child. She went to her fellow residents and asked to switch schedules around so that her vacation was at the end of her first year.

“Once I switched it all, I went to my residency director and said, ‘I have a plan.’ I did not miss a day,” Barba-Simic said. “I actually went into labor my last day. I guess you’re so used to, as a minority, working harder and trying to prove yourself that it’s just part of you.”

At the start of her residency, she was one of two women in a class of 12, but she didn’t let that disparity discourage her from accomplishing her goals and realizing her full potential.

“You make it happen,” she said. “I’m kind of tough — I think that’s the Pacoima in me.”

The influence that Oppenheimer had on her was invaluable, as was the education and training he provided. “Dr. Oppenheimer changed my life by believing in me and providing the opportunity,” she said.

To her fellow Matadors considering making a gift, Barba-Simic said: “Please take a moment to remember those individuals that have made a difference in your life while at CSUN. Reflect on your ability to share the fruits of your education with the next generation, your community and those in need.”

Thomas Johnson III knows he’s been lucky to have great mentors — adult role models who taught him how to succeed. After graduating from California State University, Northridge and preparing to embark on a career in education, he’s eager to serve as a mentor for the next generations of students.

In May, Johnson ’13 (Music), ’18 (Teaching Credential) completed the Accelerated Collaborative Teacher (ACT) Preparation Program in CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education. This fall he will start teaching sixth-grade core math and science at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s first all-boys academy, the new Boys Academic Learning Academy of Los Angeles, on the campus of Washington Preparatory High School. An African-American male, Johnson said he’s excited to serve as a role model for a student body he estimates will be 75 percent African-American and 25 percent Latino.

“I think it’s a good fit because not only will I be able to teach the students, but the students will be able to look up to someone who’s made it through college,” Johnson said. “They’ll see that, yes, in the real world you may not be surrounded by people who look like you, but you can still do it. It’s a significant thing to accomplish and just say, ‘Hey, I did it.’”

Associate Professor Nancy O’Rode, who taught Johnson in the mathematics curriculum and methods ACT course, said he will be a great role model for his students, as he is smart, kind, considerate and funny. He already has experience in creating math problems that require problem-solving skills, using ideas based not on formulas but on challenges relative to his students’ neighborhoods and lives. She said he will be served well in the classroom with a booming baritone voice and a habit of getting everyone involved by asking “What do you think?”

“He’s just an exemplary human being,” O’Rode said. “He will be able to just naturally be a model for what it means to be a man in today’s society.”

Teaching wasn’t always Johnson’s goal, but he always appreciated the mentorship he received, he said.

He grew up in Culver City. His father works as a urologist in private practice and his mother is an educator — now the principal of Carthay School of Environmental Studies Magnet in Los Angeles. He also benefited from the guidance of other teachers and professors throughout his life, including Carey Christensen, a professor of music industry studies at CSUN.

After earning his bachelor’s degree, Johnson worked as a recording engineer at various studios, including part-time and freelance work. At his mother’s suggestion, he tried substitute teaching to earn a steadier income. It was his most challenging classroom in those days that inspired Johnson.

As a long-term sub, he inherited a class of fourth graders whose teacher had left a couple of months into the school year. The class included foster children, recent immigrants from El Salvador (including two who didn’t speak English), and other students whose personal lives provided barriers to learning.

Johnson worked to get to know each student as an individual and connect with them personally.

“That’s when I realized I can make a difference in another person’s life,” he said. “To enjoy school, students have to trust who’s teaching it. When we had a teacher we didn’t like, we didn’t buy in to what we were being taught.”

So Johnson returned to CSUN for his teaching credential in CSUN’s ACT program, a very selective, two-semester, full-time program designed for post-baccalaureate credential candidates interested in pursuing a Multiple Subject, Single Subject or Education Specialist Credential. Candidates progress through the program as a cohort, completing fieldwork during the day and coursework in the late afternoon and evenings. During the program, Johnson served as a student teacher in the Larchmont Charter School and Community Magnet Charter School in Los Angeles. He is considering returning to CSUN to complete a master’s in mathematics education.

Johnson will return to CSUN this summer for a summer bridge program funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which awarded the university a three-year grant for a teacher-preparation project aimed at increasing the number of men — particularly African-Americans, Asians and Latinos — who want to work in elementary education. In the summer program, Johnson will serve as a mentor for incoming minority, male high school juniors and seniors who are interested in teaching.

“I still see the need to help guide young males — doesn’t matter what background they come from — but males in general, just to help them make it through life, just be somebody they go to talk to,” Johnson said. “If they need help with school, need help with life in general, just have that older person to help guide them in the right way.”

Recently, 10 California State University, Northridge student researchers displayed their yearlong projects at the 2018 Presidential Scholars Exhibit in the Grand Lobby of The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts. It was the culmination of creativity, commitment and hard work for these scholars.

The annual event featured presentations from the 2017-18 Presidential Scholarship recipients, a competitive scholarship awarded each year that gives undergraduate students the opportunity to work with faculty mentors to develop, complete and present an outlined research project.

“I always look forward to this event,” CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison said. “It is our opportunity to hear about the exciting work that our scholars have done over the past year. I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of their work. We know that this is a high-impact project and that with the financial support provided by the scholarship, our students are able to expand their knowledge and their discipline with a hands-on approach, benefiting them in their continued academic growth.

“Because of this program, our students enter doctoral programs, professional schools and career fields much better prepared,” she continued. “These scholars will enhance the visibility and the reputation of CSUN — we’re very proud of that.”

CSUN Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students William Watkins greeted the outstanding students and their matching mentors.

“One of the really wonderful things that begins our academic year is our gathering at the University House, and today, we have the chance to be treated with some really great presentations by our students,” Watkins said.

This year’s scholars included Gissel Rochin (child and adolescent behavior), Daniel Del Cid (psychology) and Billy Brooks (music).

When Rochin received the scholarship, she said she “couldn’t believe it, because it’s such a prestigious award.” At the event, Rochin presented her project called The Relationships Between Children’s Birth Order, Gender, and Word-Learning Strategies. Rochin based her project on research that found that in comparison to later-born children, first-born children tend to exhibit greater word comprehension and word production. Other scholarly research has also shown that in comparison to male children, female children tend to exhibit greater word comprehension and word production.

To test this theory, Rochin used the idea of shape-bias, or the tendency of infants and children (as well as adults) to generalize information about an object by its shape, rather than its color, material or texture when learning nouns. Her participants were eight female children and nine male children.

“I’ve always had an interest in birth order, because, growing up, I always heard that it’s always the first-born children who do so well in school, or they’re more responsible — it interested me,” Rochin said. “The whole purpose of my project was to see if there was a relationship between first-born children and female children. 

“I couldn’t have done this without the help of my mentor, Dr. Emily Russell, [associate professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Development],” she added.

Del Cid studied undocumented college students to try and understand more about their mental state in his project Contextual Stressors and Adjustment of Undocumented University Students.

“The purpose of my study was to examine how risk factors such as discrimination, depression, inability to manage stress and family financial stress impact the lives of undocumented college students,” he said.

To test this, he surveyed males, who made up 25.9 percent of his participants, and females, who made up 74.1 percent, between the ages 18 to 29 years old.

“My study showed that the inability to manage stress can be an indicator of poor coping strategies, emotion regulation issues, and/or societal issues outside the control of the person,” he continued. “When individuals feel unable to manage stress, it can undermine their self-efficacy, increase stress and harm mental health. Dream Centers like the one on the CSUN campus can bring in mental health practitioners to help undocumented students learn coping strategies to manage stress and discrimination.”

To Del Cid, being chosen to be a Presidential Scholar has been “a dream come true.”

“It has enabled me to work closely with my faculty mentor, Dr. Scott W. Plunkett, on a yearlong project that I am deeply passionate about,” he said. “Being able to work with my mentor has prepared me to apply to Ph.D. programs this fall, and for that I am truly thankful.”

In Brooks’ project, Leveraging Experience to Address Arts Accessibility, he wanted to observe the lack of arts accessibility, specifically in the area of voice lessons. Voice lessons can range from $40 to $100 an hour or more depending on the prestige or experience of the teacher, which is a major barrier to learning how to sing.

“The inspiration for the project came from the impact voice lessons have in young people’s lives, such as self-confidence and willingness to put themselves out there,” Brooks said. “The project involved the CSUN Vocal Pedagogy class teaching voice lessons to 30 high school participants who had never taken voice lessons. Each high school student received six 30-minute lessons, which covered the basics of classical vocal technique. As part of the project, I also taught a lecture covering basic information and reinforcing concepts. At the end of the semester, the high school students had the opportunity to sing at a recital.”

Results showed that pedagogy students benefited from the experience through the students’ willingness and confidence to participate in a non-mandatory recital. Specifically, 30 students participated in the performance. Additionally, survey data showed that 100 percent of the high school students said they would recommend Brooks’ project to a friend, and 81 percent would participate again.

“I’m thrilled to have been chosen and thankful for the tremendous opportunity this scholarship has given me,” said Brooks. “I have gotten to work on a project that I am passionate about, which has allowed me to work with fantastic mentors — Dr. Deanna Murray and Dr. Anthony Cantrell — and provided me a space to talk about arts education and accessibility. I am continually humbled to be recognized as one of the Presidential Scholars.”

2017-18 Presidential Scholarship Recipients (project names are in italics):

William Brooks with Deanna Murray and Anthony Cantrell, Leveraging Experience to Address Arts Accessibility

Allea Cauilan with Cristian Ruiz Rueda, Cellular Metabolism and the AcrAB-TolC Multidrug Efflux Pump in Escherichia coli 

Daniel Del Cid with Scott Plunkett, Contextual Stressors and Adjustments of Undocumented Students 

Frida Endinjok with Scott Plunkett, Garden Enhanced Nutrition Education: An Evaluatio​n 

Jonathan Lengkong with Mads Peter Andersen, Kinetics and Mechanisms of the Reactions of CI Atoms and OH Radicals with Hexa- and Penta-Fluoro Benzene 

Yanelliz Melchor Martinez with Abraham M. Rutchick, The Effect of Presentation Format on Perceptions of Personality Tests 

Abigail Pajulas with Luciana Lagana, A Pilot Study: Observations on Attitudes and Perceptions Influenced by a Living Old Documentary

Natalie Rankin with Luciana Lagana, An Attempt to Modify Attitudes Toward the Homeless 

Gissel Rochin with Emily Russell, The Relationships Between Children’s Birth Order, Gender, and Word-Learning Strategies

Jasmine Ruffin with William Garrow, Confidence and Anxiety in the Field of Deaf Studies: The Impact of Impostor Syndrome on Students

The Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics (MMC) and the Jennifer Diamond Cancer Foundation have begun a journey together in efforts to serve the San Fernando Valley’s cancer patients. This operation helps those in cancer recovery, providing food and nutritional support workshops.

Officials of the Jennifer Diamond Cancer Foundation, which offers free cancer support services and programs, said they were looking forward to having a new place to work with after losing their facility over a year and a half ago to circumstances out of their control. CSUN and the foundation will be working together on future workshops and support services that the foundation was providing previously. Matthew Diamond, the foundation’s Vice President, said he was happy to be working with the community again.

“Right now we are just looking forward to working with California State University, Northridge to provide whatever we can to these people,” Diamond said. “I was just on the phone with a number of the participants and to hear their voices and how happy they were… we are trying to provide the same services to the community and our expectation is to be working with a number of students and interns from CSUN.”

Diamond noted that the number of people with cancer in the communities surrounding Northridge and Chatsworth is quite large. According to a 2010 study by Thompson-Reuters that he cited, an estimated 52,893 people are suffering from cancer in the San Fernando Valley alone.

The Cooking for Health segment opened the workshop on May 31, where the two organizations teamed up at the MMC at CSUN. The community received a warm welcome by keynote speaker, author, physician and educator Dr. Jerry Kornfeld, and a chance to see cooking demonstrations by CSUN alum and associate of the cancer foundation, Sandi Lampert and graduate student and dietetic intern Shely Salemnia. MMC staff assisted with preparation and workshop.

Patients and friends and family of the patients who attended the workshop got to watch a cooking demonstration and sample foods, they got to learn about new recipes to take home and take a tour of the Magaram Center’s Wellness Garden.

This workshop gave cancer patients the chance to learn about several nutritional habits and cooking recipes. According to Annette Besnilian, professor and executive director of the Maragam Center, the goal of this event is to provide comprehensive support services for the cancer patients in the local area. The foundation notified the patients to come to the workshop.

“The Jennifer Diamond Cancer Foundation is providing resources to families in the San Fernando Valley that need the support,” Besnilian said. “And we have so many resources on campus and with the Marilyn Magaram Center, cooking and eating healthy is important. This is a great opportunity for us to be able to provide our expertise when it comes to nutrition.”

Lampert and Salemnia gave an in-depth cooking demonstration with each meal they prepared for the workshop. Salemnia introduced the demonstration with an antioxidant berry protein shake. The two switched off between meals they prepared for the class. Lampert made flaxseed hemp balls with chocolate chips.

A lot of the ingredients the two demonstrators used were organic and healthy products. Everyone who attended the workshop was able to taste and sample the foods prepared for them. Anyone who was in the room could hear the pots and pans from the kitchen. The participants could smell the fresh ingredients.

Besnilian stressed the importance of nutrition and diet to help prevent cancer. ​The collaboration can give patients and survivors the resources they need during treatment.

“It is so important for cancer patients to eat healthy and obtain all the nutrients necessary,” Besnilian said.

Each participant was given a pamphlet written by Salemnia​ about hands-on recipes and tips that were tailored to cancer patients and survivors. She is a dietetic intern at CSUN and must complete 1,200 hours in order to become a registered dietitian. As a part of the internship program she prepares and host events and workshops. She has a strong background in cancer nutrition.

“A lot of the recipes I created just from my own cooking or ideas that I had. Some recipes were from another handbook that was passed around from the American Cancer Society and some of the recipes I just took from online,” Salemnia said. “I had that as my base and I was able to adjust it and break it down for this workshop. I put the information into a computer program called Food Processor and we were able to put down the exact protein and calorie information.”

During the workshop attendees were able to sample several different healthy food options prepared and cooked by Lampert and Salemnia. They had an opportunity to participate in a question and answer from the panelists, Dr. Kornfeld, Lampert and Salemnia. The event closed out with a tour of the MMC Wellness Garden outside of the building in the Sequoia Courtyard. The center allowed the participants to harvest their own crops from the garden and taken seedlings to plant. The patients were joyful to take home mint, tomatoes and strawberries.

The participants enjoyed the event and hope to come back. Participant Houri Aintablien stated she liked the Wellness Garden.

“I did not know about the garden at first and especially the new technology such as drip irrigation and harvesting they are using there​,” Aintablien said. “I was so impressed. I loved it. I would love to go again.”

For more information regarding the Magaram Center please visit this website here. And to learn more about the Jennifer Diamond Cancer Foundation, please visit this website here. The Marilyn Magaram Center is housed in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences in the CSUN College of Health and Human Development.

After finishing in the top five of Forbes’ 2017 #MyTopCollege challenge, California State University, Northridge is aiming for the top spot in 2018. 

Today, Forbes magazine is launching its 2018 #MyTopCollege social media competition, challenging colleges to show how they’ve made an impact. Students, faculty, staff, alumni and fans of the university are encouraged to share their love of CSUN on social media with the hashtag #MyTopCollege and the university handle. 

How has CSUN made a difference in your life or community? Tell us on Instagram or Twitter! Make sure to use the hashtag #MyTopCollege and our handles on Twitter, @csunorthridge, or Instagram, @csun_edu, in your post.

#MyTopCollege winners will be announced Aug. 10 on Forbes’ website. 

Amidst dire reports about the health of the world’s coral reefs, California State University, Northridge marine biologist Peter Edmunds and a team of researchers have found coral reef “oases” that provide hope that all is not lost for these beautiful ecosystems.

Edmunds and his colleagues have developed a framework for identifying specific coral reefs, “oases,” in the world’s oceans where corals appear to be thriving. They hope their findings — published todayin the Journal of Applied Ecology — will encourage further study into why these small communities of corals are surviving while so many more are not, and inspire efforts to identify similar oases in other ecosystems.

CSUN marine biologist Peter Edmunds heading out to his field site in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, to begin the field sampling that provided the kind of data at the core of the paper. Photo by Chelsey Wegener.

“The reason why these oases are important is because the state of coral reefs over the last 20 years has been increasingly poor,” Edmunds said. “Over the last 12 to 24 months, bad news about coral reefs has appeared at an alarming rate, notably because of the severe coral bleaching that occurred on the Great Barrier Reef due to the 2016 El Niño. The overall message is ‘Oh my goodness, coral reefs all over the world are dying, and many have already gone.’ We felt there was a fragment missing from that story.

“There are still elements of hope in the form of coral reef oases,” he said. “This does not contradict reports of coral reefs suffering huge losses across the world and that the overall situation is very bad. However, there are kernels of hope in places where corals are doing better, or where they are doing less badly than elsewhere. These places provide a focus of attention that might be used to enhance coral conservation efforts.”

Jill Baron is founder and co-director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, which funded the Working Group that led to the publication of “A framework for identifying and characterizing coral-reef ‘oases’ against a backdrop of degradation.”

She called the publication of the paper, “momentous and encouraging. The state of the biosphere is declining in many places, but increasing understanding of why oases like these persist will help us protect and even restore coral reefs.”

Dan Thornhill, program director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences, which fundeda substantial portion of the ecological investigations upon which this synthetic study is based, underscored the importance of the findings in the journal article.

Giant Elkhorn corals (Acropora palmata), such as this colony from about three meters depth in St. John, are some of the most beautiful and important corals that have become lost as many reefs reefs in the Caribbean have degraded. This colony was photographed in 2015 and it was killed by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. Photo by Peter Edmunds.

“Coral reefs are in rapid, global decline,” Thornhill said. “This timely and much-needed paper identifies coral reefs that are doing better than most, places that may provide a refuge against the worst effects of climate change.”

The National Science Foundation supported the research described in this study that was completed in Moorea, through the Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research site, and in St. John, through its Long Term Research in Environmental Biology program.

Edmunds’ co-authors were James R. Guest, Newcastle University; Ruth D. Gates, University of Hawaii; Ilsa Kuffner, USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center; Andreas Andersson, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego; Brian Barnes, University of South Florida; Iliana Chollett, Smithsonian Marine Station; Travis Courtney, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Robin Elahi, Stanford University; Kevin Gross, North Carolina State University; Beth Lenz, University of Hawaii; Satoshi Mitarai, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University; Peter Mumby, University of Queensland; Hannah Nelson, CSUN; Britt Parker, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Hollie Putnam, the University of Rhode Island; Caroline Rogers, USGS’ Wetland and Aquatic Research Center; and Lauren Toth, USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.

The 18 researchers have extensive knowledge about the conditions of coral reefs in two key regions of the world’s oceans, the Pacific and the Caribbean. With support from the USGS John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesisthey spent a year and a half meeting in person and online to synthesize results. They have developed a framework for identifying oases within four coral reef regions that have been studied for decades, in many cases by many of their own team members. Their framework considers the health of coral communities, how often they had been disturbed, and how long they had remained in a healthy (or unhealthy) state.

“We were able to bring information together from a large array of places, something not possible just 10 or 20 years ago,” Edmunds said. “We were able to step out from our own field sites where we conduct our research and ask grander questions. We were able to take what we know from each location, combine it with a breadth of information from other locations, and reach grander conclusions about what is going on.”

A shallow cora reef (about 10 meters in depth) on the north shore of Moorea, French Polynesia, in April 2018. This reef has rebounded from catastrophic damage in 2010 and, as this picture shows, part of the sea floor are almost fully covered by live coral. Photo by Peter Edmunds.

Working together, the researchers were able to identify 38 oases that they categorized as either “escape,” “resist,” or “rebound” oases.

Escape oases are coral communities that have been able to avoid disasters such as bleaching, invasions from coral-eating sea stars or the wrath of hurricanes. Resist oases are coral communities that appear hardy and resistant to environmental challenges. Rebound oases are coral communities that have suffered damage like many other reefs, but have “rebounded” to a coral-dominated state.

Edmunds, who studies coral reefs in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands (in the Caribbean), and in Moorea, French Polynesia (in the Pacific), said he has been “blown away” by the capacity of the reefs in Moorea to rebound following devastation.

“We started working there in 2005, and almost immediately encountered hordes of coral-eating sea stars that quickly consumed the tissue of the corals,” he said. “By 2010, there was as close to zero coral on the outer reefs as I have seen in my entire career. And yet, within eight years, that coral has regrown. In places, about 80 percent of the sea floor is now covered by live coral. It is a remarkable example of an oasis.”

Given the 38 oases the researchers have identified, Edmunds said it is logical to assume that there are more coral oases in the rest of the world’s oceans.

“Now an oasis, to some extent, is in the eye of the beholder,” Edmunds said. “These are not necessarily large areas of reefs. Some of them are very small, only a few hundred meters in size. There are tens of them in the places we investigated, but we did not set out to look at the entire world.”

By definition, Edmunds pointed out, an oasis is a rare occurrence in a dire landscape.

“There are a small number of examples of healthy reefs amidst an otherwise dark landscape of dying corals in the world’s ocean,” he said. “This project was an effort to see where these sites could exist, and whether coral within them could withstand present-day stressors. We spent a lot of time working on this, and we are optimistic that our coral reef oases are signs of good things in the future, rather than the last gasp of a dying ecosystem.

A shallow coral reef, about eight meters deep, on the north shore of Moorea, French Polynesia, in April 2018. This reef has rebounded from catastrophic damage in 2010 and in places now has about 70 percent of the sea floor covered in live coral. Photo by Peter Edmunds.

“Coral reefs have been called the charismatic poster child of environmental degradation,” he continued. “They are like polar bears in the Arctic. Coral reefs, which are stunningly beautiful, are things that people can relate to and understand. This present era has been called the Anthropocene, because human influences finally are affecting virtually every aspect of the biological world, usually in negative ways. Coral reefs can play a very important role in conveying this important message: They have the power to inform and excite people in positive ways that can promote action leading to protection of the environment.”

Edmunds said he hopes the journal article will provide conservationists and policy makers with a tool that can be used to identify areas that warrant stronger protection.

“Our method for detecting oases provides a way to demonstrate that select areas are environmental gems deserving of greater protection,” he said. “Countries all over the world have marine protected areas and parks, and they all face the dilemma of where to locate them and how best to allocate limited resources to protect them. The identification of ecological oases promotes a healthy consideration of the effectiveness of protecting a single species versus areas of ecosystem in which they live; if oases are persistent they might offer the best chance for many species of animals and plants to survive.

“I don’t think the solution to our current environmental challenges is building a Noah’s Ark, and wrestling with which species to protect and which to leave to extinction,” he said. “Identifying and protecting ecological oases, such as the ones on coral reefs we describe in our new paper, offers a more realistic opportunity to protect swaths of intact ecosystems that might be able to catalyze broader ecosystem recovery.

“It’s a fascinating time to be a biologist,” Edmunds added. “I find myself repeatedly trying to balance paying respect to how much of the natural world we have lost with the notion that ecological oases can still be found. The existence of such oases doesn’t make our environmental problems go away, but they do suggest there is still hope for a better future. How best to turn that hope into a reality remains an unknown challenge.”

Nutrient pollution runoff from the land — whether from sewage, farm fertilizer or the aftermath of a rainstorm — may be accelerating the negative impact global ocean acidification is having on coral reefs.

This is according to a new study by a team of researchers, including California State University, Northridge assistant professor of biology Nyssa Silbiger, recently published in the “Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Science.”

Coral reefs play a critical role in the economy and human welfare, including food security and shoreline protection to coastal communities. However, for coral reefs to thrive, the coral must be able to grow and reproduce at a faster rate than they are being destroyed.

As coral reefs struggle to survive the effects of ocean acidification, Silbiger said, the addition of nutrient pollution “inhibits the coral’s ability to utilize the natural building blocks of coral reefs.”

CSUN biology professor Nyssa Silbiger, right, and her colleague Megan Donahue of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology are collecting water samples during the experiment. Photo credit Henry Shiu.

Silbiger, lead author on the study, noted that there is “a long history of examining the impacts of nutrient pollution and ocean acidification on coral reefs. However, little is known about how these two stressors interact and influence coral reef ecosystem functioning.”

Prior research showed that stressors associated with human-derived carbon dioxide emissions, such as ocean acidification, are shifting coral reefs toward net loss. The new study, “Nutrient pollution disrupts key ecosystem functions on coral reefs,” showed that nutrient pollution — the addition of nitrate and phosphate — could make coral reefs more vulnerable to ocean acidification and accelerate the predicted shift from net growth to overall loss. The pollution can come from leaking septic tanks, errant sewage, runoff from agribusiness and farms, fertilizers used by gardeners or runoff from a heavy rain.

As part of the study, the researchers, who included students and faculty at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Rhode Island and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, continuously added nitrate and phosphate to aquariums housing different components of the coral reef community, including corals, seaweeds, dead reef rubble or sand. They compared this with an experiment mimicking natural systems containing all the same components of the reef community. Then they measured critical “ecosystem functions” of coral reef communities — calcification, dissolution, photosynthesis and respiration.

“We showed that nutrient pollution decreases overall reef growth and disrupts the natural chemical dynamics on coral reefs,” Silbiger said. “In nutrient-polluted seawater, calcifiers were less able to capitalize on the dissolved compounds that make up the building blocks of coral reefs. Nutrient pollution reduced calcification rates — a measure of how quickly reef builders are creating the skeletal framework — nearly tenfold in waters that would otherwise promote reef growth, and enhanced both skeletal dissolution and the growth of seaweed competitors.”

Silbiger said the study raises questions for coastal communities around the world as they consider the impact of what they do on land on the vital coral reefs — which help protect their shoreline and often support a tourism industry — that sit just offshore.

“Hopefully, the study will help government agencies and local stakeholders make more informed decisions,” Silbiger said.

It has been one of Broadway’s most incredible and inspirational stories of recent time.

California State University, Northridge alumna Lauren Ridloff ’00 (English – Creative Writing), a deaf former elementary school teacher with no prior professional stage experience, took on the iconic role of Sarah Norman in the Broadway production of Children of a Lesser God, and earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play.

To perform on a Broadway stage already shows a level of confidence. To do what Ridloff has done is beyond that — it’s courageous.

She cultivated one of these qualities while earning her degree at CSUN.

“CSUN is where I became very close friends with one of my teachers,” Ridloff said. “I became her assistant for one of her public speaking classes, and that teacher, Barbara Boyd, encouraged me to try out for the Miss Deaf America pageant. I was crowned Miss Deaf America in 2000, and I feel that experience gave me the confidence I needed to begin my acting career.”

Ridloff said that experience triggered a series of events that led her to Broadway and the Tony nomination.

Originally from Chicago, Ridloff attended Model Secondary School for the Deaf in Washington, D.C., before coming to CSUN. She traveled cross-country for higher education because of the support services CSUN offered and Los Angeles’ reputation for creativity.

When she first arrived at CSUN, the university was still recovering from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and many of her classes were held in trailers. The intimate setting, Ridloff said, eased her into a sense of comfort at CSUN. Dorm life gave her further sense of belonging.

“CSUN gave me a strong sense of independence and a fresh start,” she said. “I had attended a residential school before going to CSUN, so the notion of living away from home was not new. So for the first time, I was literally on my own — but never alone or lonely. The dorm I lived in was called ‘Talking Hands,’ and it welcomed all people who signed or were interested in signing. I made friends who continue to be a big part of my life today.”

Shortly after graduating, Ridloff was crowned Miss Deaf America for 2000-02. She succeeded fellow CSUN alumna Amy Wong, who held the title from 1998-2000. After she moved to New York she pursued a teaching career. Later, she stopped teaching to care for her two sons at home.

About this time, Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon was working on bringing Children of a Lesser God (which also stars CSUN alumna Treshelle Edmond) back to Broadway, where it originally had a successful run in 1980 and won a Tony for Best Play. Marlee Matlin took home an Academy Award in 1986 for her portrayal of Sarah Norman in the film version.

“[Leon] realized he did not know much about the world of the Deaf, so he wanted to meet someone from whom he could learn some sign language, learn a bit of culture and so forth,” Ridloff said. “He reached out to an acquaintance who is an interpreter. That interpreter happened to see me at the Miss Deaf America pageant years ago and knew I was living in NYC, so he recommended me.”

Ridloff and Leon met weekly for nearly a year. The director kept telling her he wanted to increase her involvement with the show, possibly as a consultant.

“Things came to a stop when Kenny started working on a few other projects, but then he circled back to me after a year and asked if I could do a reading as Sarah because they hadn’t found an actress yet,” Ridloff said. “After the first reading, Kenny pulled me to the side and asked me if I was willing to go all the way if this went all the way.”

Ridloff was offered the role of Sarah Norman. She was surprised, but accepted it. When the show opened, audiences — and critics — responded.

The New York Times called her performance “a knockout professional debut” and “blistering.” Variety called her a “stunning performer.” New York Magazine said she performed with “instinctive brilliance.”

The biggest challenge of the role, Ridloff said, was using her voice — something she hadn’t done in 26 years — as part of her performance.

“The idea of using my voice initially terrified me. I actually cried at the first reading because I was afraid of what would come out,” she said. “But by the end of the run, I felt as if I reclaimed my voice and therefore myself in its entirety.”

In preparation for the role, she said, she watched old clips of Soul Train to learn how people moved in the 1970s and ’80s and how they interacted physically. She took inspiration for her monologue from watching clips of Malcolm X.

“His strong, unapologetic stance was something I imagined Sarah doing,” she said.

Ridloff is proud of what she has accomplished in her portrayal of Sarah. Ridloff’s mother is African-American and her father is Mexican-American. The role of Sarah traditionally has been played by white women.

“I approached Sarah the same way I approach a character when writing creatively,” she said. “I slowly unpacked her strengths and her flaws and embraced them all. I am proud of how I portrayed Sarah as a woman of color, as a woman who was capable of loving and respecting herself. I feel that it is such an important representation for young women of color today. We need to be unapologetic about the way we are naturally.”

And there’s a little bit of CSUN in her performance.

“I majored in creative writing at CSUN, and it helped me with finding small truths in Sarah,” she said. “It also helped me find the fire behind her anger and passion.”

On what was a long morning for Ridloff on May 1 — her son woke her up at 3 a.m. wanting a bath — her husband gave her the news that she had been nominated for a Tony Award.

The award eventually went to Glenda Jackson for her performance in Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, but Ridloff said she already received her reward long before the Tony nomination.

“If I could draw a picture of this journey, I would draw a straight line at 90 degrees,”  she said. “This trajectory has been astronomical — it has been a thrilling ride. But what makes it extraordinary is how Broadway has given me a megaphone to speak through, to talk about the importance of including people that have been typically marginalized and only seen peripherally.

“I have seen how this journey has affected my colleagues,” she continued. “[My co-star] Joshua [Jackson] now knows sign language. Kenny is now very aware of the community of the Deaf and has changed his thoughts on inclusion — not just in terms of color, but also in terms of abilities. That’s extraordinary to me.”

Children of a Lesser God’s run on Broadway may have ended May 27, but Ridloff is already starting on another project — one that’s under wraps for the moment.

“As for what’s next? I have a very exciting project coming up, and I can’t wait to share it with the world soon,” she said.

Beatriz Cortez, installation view, Made in L.A. 2018, June 3 – Sept. 2. 2018, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy of the Hammer Museum.

California State University, Northridge Central American studies professor Beatriz Cortez explores the immigrant experience through her art. Her latest pieces, “Tzolk’in” and “Piercing Garden,” are being showcased in the Hammer Museum’s “Made in L.A.” biennial exhibition.

The Hammer is known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs in the Los Angeles area.

“It is one of the most important things that has happened in my career,” Cortez said. “There has never been a Salvadoran artist featured in the ‘Made in L.A.’ biennial. This is not only important to me, but it gives a lot of visibility to the experience of Central American migration. Also, through my work I try to celebrate the ability that immigrants have to be in two places at once.”

Two sculptures sit in the Hammer Museum in Westwood, and a second version of “Tzolk’in” is situated at a former rail yard in Glassell Park along the Los Angeles River — at opposite ends of the city. The sculptures are a collaboration between the museum and Clockshop, a multidisciplinary arts organization in LA that creates new conversations about art, politics and urban space.

“Piercing Garden,” part of the “Made in L.A.” biennial, also is on view at the Hammer with her piece “Tzolk’in.”

Beatriz Cortez, Tzolk’in. The Bowtie Project, Los Angeles, Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber, courtesy of Clockshop

The “Tzolk’in” sculptures face each other across the miles, offering audiences the opportunity to reflect on the different realities that exist in these unrelated parts of the city and the ways the locations may be connected, according to Cortez.

“I wanted to do two separate pieces, to talk about living in different parts of the city of LA and because it shows segregation, different opportunities and conditions,” Cortez said. “I also was interested in speaking about divided families and the broken communications through the distance.”

According to L.A. Weekly, the biennial is an important exhibition because all of the artists are selectively chosen from Los Angeles.

“UCLA Hammer Museum curators Anne Ellegood and Erin Christovale visited roughly 200 studios last year on their way to choosing artists for the fourth edition of the museum’s biennial, ‘Made in L.A. 2018,’ a celebration of established and emerging LA-based artists,” the weekly stated.

Cortez’s work was created at the LA welding shop Molten Metal Works. She and her team of artists spent several months fabricating the steel sculptures. Her team had to learn how to weld, and they took classes through Molten Metal Works to perfect the craft, she said.

When the pieces were nearly finished, Cortez said, she needed the gears to have precise teeth to function and spin correctly. She asked several professors of mechanical engineering if they knew someone who could help design the last part of her piece. Guillermo A. Herrera, a CSUN mechanical engineering professor who also happened to be from El Salvador, assisted her with the final creation.

“His help was invaluable,” Cortez said.

Cortez said her work “Tzolk’in” was inspired by the Mayan agricultural calendar and is shaped in a “hypocycloid” motion to mark time through movement that is both linear and cyclical.

Cortez spent a lot of time researching similar motions to that of the Mayan calendar, and she found that a Persian scientist from the 1200s discovered planets in orbit following a similar pattern. Others designed steam engines in England and France during the 1800s with similar hypocycloid motion.

“I thought there was something so powerful about this motion that the Maya had used to design their calendar,” she said. “It was cosmic and biological, and a part of the industrial revolution and something spiritual.”

The “Piercing Garden” sculpture at the Hammer has a shaft that transforms circular into linear motion. Every 20 minutes, a motor in the piece sends a row of steel cups of spouts up and down on welded rods, all at different speeds.

Cortez said that the sculpture at the river moves for whoever is there to view it. The artwork performs for wildlife, passersby and the river itself. The piece is on a timer, and the motions are activated every 30 minutes for part of the day. The site is equipped with a camera to record the surrounding areas and the people who come to view the piece. The videos are recorded and sent to the Hammer, where they can be seen by visitors to the “Tzolk’in” installation.

“One could say that the two machines are communicating with each other,” Cortez said.

The project is a collaboration between the Hammer Museum and The Bowtie Project — a partnership between Clockshop and California State Parks to activate ​an 18-acre post-industrial lot along the LA River.

The current “Made in L.A.” exhibition runs through Sept. 2.

Crustose coralline algae build a shallow ridge (algal ridge) on a coral reef in Moorea, French Polynesia. CSUN marine biologist Robert Carpenter and a former student, Maggie Johnson, found that increasing the amount of nitrogen helps the algae fight off the negative effects of ocean acidification. Photo by Maggie Johnson.

A new study by California State University, Northridge marine biologist Robert Carpenter and a former student, Maggie Johnson, now with the Smithsonian Institution, found that increasing the amount of nitrogen helps crustose coralline algae – which often serves as a cementing element for coral reefs around the world — fight off the negative effects of ocean acidification.

Carpenter and Johnson called their study one more piece in the larger puzzle that scientists are trying to assemble as they look for ways to preserve the world’s coral reefs. They cautioned that their findings do not offer a simple solution to the damage being done to reefs by ocean acidification.

Robert Carpenter injects nutrients into laboratory aquaria to test the combined effects of nutrient enrichment and ocean acidification on a crustose coralline alga. Photo by Maggie Johnson.

“When we do single-species experiments,” Carpenter said, “we are hoping to establish a baseline so we don’t have to do the same experiment for every single species in a coral reef, of which there are millions. We take species that are important for the coral reef — in this case, crustose coralline algae, which help bind the reef together, help calcify the reef and serve as food for other organisms — and hope that what we learn can contribute a base of knowledge for further research.”

Their paper, “Nitrogen enrichment offsets direct negative effects of ocean acidification on a reef-building crustose coralline alga,” was published this week in the scientific journal Biology Letters. Nitrogen, along with other chemicals, is used in fertilizers. The chemicals used in fertilizers are found in nutrient pollution runoff from the land, which has been cited as accelerating the negative impact of ocean acidification on the world’s coral reefs.

Carpenter and Johnson chose to examine how nitrogen alone might impact one key component of coral reefs — crustose coralline algae.

“What this experiment did was document the effect of adding nitrogen to a single organism,” said Johnson, who started working on the project while a master’s candidate in marine biology at CSUN from 2008-11. “But what happens in the real world is hard to say because the nitrogen will be fertilizing the growth of other types of algae, other types of organisms and sea life. While it may help one aspect of a coral reef, it may also have a detrimental impact on another aspect. Also, in the real world, nitrogen is not introduced to corals through runoff by itself.

Maggie Johnson collects crustose coralline algae from a shallow coral reef using an underwater drill and scuba tank. Photo by Stella Hein, courtesy of Maggie Johnson.

“There are a lot of complicating factors that need to be taken into consideration when we consider ocean acidification and temperature warming when it comes to coral reefs,” said Johnson, who is now conducting post-doctoral research at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Florida. “The answers aren’t as simple as we would like. Scientists need to be thinking about the local environment. What’s happening locally can impact how these ecosystems respond to global pressures.”

Johnson and Carpenter conducted their experiment in a set of same-sized tanks — each stocked with crustose coralline algae — to assess how the alga responded to nitrogen enrichment in a variety of conditions designed to mimic various levels of ocean acidification.

“Half those tanks had an ambient pH (acidity)that represents the ocean right now, and in the other half, we decrease the pH to simulate what the pH would be at the end of the century if ocean acidification continues,” Carpenter said. “We introduced nitrogen enrichment on a daily basis over the course of three weeks. Half received nitrogen enrichment, half did not.”

Carpenter said algae receiving nitrogen enrichment were able to partially mitigate the effects of ocean acidification than those that did not receive nitrogen.

“This is not a simple solution to saving the world’s coral reefs from the effects of ocean acidification,” Carpenter said. “But it is something that we need to think about as we move forward.”

Johnson said she wishes there were simple answers to the questions around how to save the world’s coral reefs.

“But there aren’t,” she said. “Hopefully, the work that we did can contribute to the dialogue and help move the research forward. I don’t think the outlook is completely bleak when it comes to the world’s coral reefs, but where we end up may be quite different than what we are used to predicting.”

If you are a member of the U.S. House of Representatives with a private prison in your district, you are also more likely than your peers to co-sponsor punitive immigration legislation, according to a groundbreaking study by California State University, Northridge political science professor Jason Morin.

Private prison stock soared following President Donald Trump’s election in 2016.            Given Trump’s harsh immigration rhetoric throughout his campaign, many investors saw his words as a signal that the U.S. detainee pool would substantially increase during his administration, and the need for facilities to house those detained would grow.

Jason Morin

“Just prior to the 2016 election, President Obama issued a directive to phase out the federal government’s use of private prisons, and private prison stocks fell sharply,” Morin said. “Trump’s election changed all that, though, as he sent clear signals to investors that his administration would be more supportive of the private prison industry than the prior administration. The financial stake for the private prison industry was incredibly high in the last presidential election.”

Given the private prison industry’s growing role in the detention of undocumented immigrants, Morin and his colleagues at the University of California, Riverside — political science professor Loren Collingwood and political science doctoral student Stephen Omar El-Khatib — decided to explore whether the industry’s influence on immigration policy was growing as well. The results of their research were published this month in the journal Race and Social Problems in the article “Expanding Carceral Markets: Detention Facilities, ICE Contracts, and the Financial Interests of Punitive Immigration Policy.”

“We argue that private prison companies systematically influence House representatives politically when private prisons are located in their congressional district,” Morin said.

After decades of “tough on crime” sentencing that forced governmental bodies to contract with private prison operators to ease the overflow of incarcerated individuals, those same companies are now facing a drop in crime rates and changes to criminal justice policy, particularly at the state level. According to the study, the private prison industry in the United States is controlled by “an oligarchy” of corporations, including CivicCore (CCA), The GEO Group, Management & Training Corporation, Emerald Correctional Management and LaSalle Corrections. They generate billions in revenue each year.

“The two largest companies, CCA and The GEO Group, combined made $3 billion in one year, 2016, alone,” Morin said. “With overall crime rates decreasing, private prison companies naturally look for new ‘markets.’”

The researchers noted that “with a population of 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, immigrant detention is a natural growth area for companies interested in profiting off of human capture and containment.”

Using data collected from several sources — including VoteView and The Congressional Bills Project, as well as through Freedom of Information Act requests — Morin and his colleagues assessed support for proposed punitive immigration legislation among members of the 113^thand 114^thCongresses, which spanned from 2013-15 and 2015-17, respectively. They focused specifically on bills that, if implemented as law, had a high probability of increasing immigration enforcement and detention of undocumented people.

Morin and his colleagues then mapped the 206 detention centers that contracted with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prior to the start of the 113^thCongress in 2013. By pinpointing the districts represented by the congressional co-sponsors of each of the bills, the researchers found clear support for what they termed the “carceral representation hypothesis,” across party lines.

Their research found that “legislators representing districts where private prison companies contract with ICE to manage or own detention facilities disproportionately co-sponsor punitive immigration legislation designed to increase immigration detention via tough enforcement laws.”

Morin noted that despite evidence to the contrary, prison development is often considered an economic boon by politicians and rural communities, who are looking for replacements for more traditional industries, such as manufacturing or agriculture, that have moved out of their areas.

“By facilitating a perception of economic dependence within legislative districts, private prison companies systematically influence other types of legislation to increase the supply of detainees,” the researchers wrote in their report.

“What we are suggesting,” Morin said, “is that members of Congress are representing the financial interests of private prison companies, which poses a serious ethical problem since companies like The GEO Group and CoreCivic profit from the incarceration of immigrants.”

​For decades, California State University, Northridge has been developing a robust reputation for research. At colleges and universities, research is crucial — a key factor in separating institutions from the pack. In the past few years, CSUN has done just that. In fall 2016, the ​Nature ​journal ​lauded CSUN as one of North America’s top 25 rising stars in science.

One of the key players in advancing research funding at CSUN is Sheree Schrager, managing director of Research and Sponsored Programs. Since joining CSUN in 2017, she has overseen the department, ensuring that grant writing, research and reporting meet the complex requirements of each project sponsor. 

“The research process is long and extensive,” said Schrager. “There are a lot of little details to keep track of, both in carrying out the project and in managing the funding.”

In her first year, CSUN had received funding for more than 370 sponsored projects in a variety of disciplines. Outside grants and contracts employed 501 undergraduate and graduate students at CSUN, totaling $1.98 million paid to students. An additional $2.98 million was allocated as scholarships and financial assistance stipends to 560 students.

In an effort to increase this impact, the university has made an effort to hire new research-focused faculty and attract greater funding for new research opportunities.

“One of CSUN’s top priorities is research. Through our faculty and students, we address many major issues in the world today,” says Crist Khachikian, CSUN’s associate vice president for Research and Graduate Studies. “We have amazing world-class researchers at CSUN.”

Schrager is well-versed in the realm of research — she’s conducted research and published extensively on issues such as LGBT mental health and opioid abuse among young teens. With experience on the inside and outside of the research process, Schrager has been working tirelessly to secure funding for research at the university.

“I want to contribute to the architecture of knowledge,” Schrager said. “When working as an adviser, I am able to help scientists make profound steps in their research.”

For colleges and universities, research also builds prestige.

“Research, for a college, creates more recognition [in] the world,” said Schrager. “It allows people to see the way their campus is benefiting society.”

When a college receives funding for a research project, the ripple effect is almost immediate. Professors are granted time off from teaching to pursue research, and often, students have the opportunity to work as research assistants to help with the logistics of the process. CSUN has distinguished itself from other universities by offering hands-on research opportunities to both undergraduates and graduate students, who gain valuable experience in labs and in the field. CSUN believes that students’ participation in research with faculty deeply enriches the quality of their educational experience.

CSUN has been at the forefront of many recent major research projects. For example, ​the Tom and Ethel Bradley Center received a grant for $315,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to create a digital database of the Richard Cross 1950-1980 Photographic Collection. Another project, led by professor Yohannes Shiferaw in physics, focuses on studying atrial fibrillating, an irregular and often rapid heart rate that can increase the risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications, with funding from the National Institutes of Health. 

As a methodologist, Schrager acts as an adviser to CSUN’s researchers throughout the grant and research process. Her mission, she said, is to help CSUN faculty and students continue producing valuable research that benefits not only the university, but the world.

“Research is extremely important,” said Schrager. “It saves lives.”