CSUN is launching a new, two-year, inclusive program this fall, CSUN Explorers, that offers people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to take classes at the university. Photo by Lee Choo.

Hoping to break down stereotypes and misconceptions, California State University, Northridge is launching a program this fall to increase the employability and independence of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

CSUN Explorers is an inclusive, two-year, postsecondary program offered through the university’s Tseng College. It is designed to increase the independence, and work and life skills of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities by offering them an opportunity to experience university life in an age-appropriate setting.

“People have a lot of misconceptions about what people with intellectual disabilities can or cannot do,” said special education professor Beth Lasky, who created the CSUN Explorers program. “This gives people with intellectual or developmental disabilities an opportunity to break down stereotypes about what they are capable of and get a taste of university life, while also getting skills that will expand their employment opportunities.”

Lasky noted that CSUN Explorers will not be earning a CSUN degree.

“To do that, they must meet the CSU admissions requirements, apply and be accepted to CSUN,” she said. “Instead, they will receive a certificate of completion that signifies that the individual has increased their level of independence through significant progress in academic exploration, competitive employability, social competency and self-advocacy.

“Once they’ve completed the program, the certificate indicates not that they just have completed a program, but that they are more independent and have skills that make them employable, and that’s the real goal,” Lasky said.

CSUN is the second CSU campus to offer such a program. Fresno State launched a similar program, Wayfinders, in 2011.

To be eligible for the CSUN Explorers program, individuals must have a diagnosed intellectual or developmental disability, be between the ages of 18 and 28andhave a certificate of completion or equivalent from a high school program.

Explorers will take at least two classes each semester with CSUN undergraduate students, and will have a peer mentor in each class. They also are invited to join student clubs and take part in other activities on campus. Their second year in the program will include internships on campus or in the community. They also will have access to resources in CSUN’s Career Center, including resume writing, to help them find internships and jobs.

Lasky said she expected the program’s first cohort to consist of no more than five students.

“They will be part of a pilot program,” she said. “Their feedback will be important as we shape how the program grows in the future.”

Lasky said she was pleasantly surprised earlier this year when she sent out an email to department chairs across the campus, asking for the names of professors who would be willing to have CSUN Explorers in their classes.

“Basically, what I said is that I was starting this new program, that it would involve students with intellectual disabilities who would be taking two classes each semester, and that I wanted to have a variety of lower-division undergraduate courses that they could choose from,” she said.

Lasky, who teaches a course in disabilities studies, volunteered to meet with faculty who may have concerns about how they would meet the educational needs of a student with an intellectual or developmental disability.

“About 40 faculty responded from across campus,” she said. “It was more than I expected. Some of they said they weren’t sure an Explorer would want to take their class, but if they wanted to, then they were more than welcome.”

Lasky said the creation of the Explorers program seemed “natural” for CSUN, which has long championed inclusive education.

CSUN has one of the largest populations of Deaf and hard-of-hearing students at a mainstream university in the nation. Each year, it has hosted the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference — the world’s largest event dedicated to presenting and exploring new ways technology can assist people with disabilities. The CHIME Institute — a national leader in developing and implementing model educational programs and dynamic research and training environments to disseminate best practices in inclusive education, and which operates an inclusive K-8 public charter school — started at CSUN, and the institute’s research and training center is housed in the university’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education.

“Having a program like the CSUN Explorers is a perfect fit for the university, and the CSU as a whole,” Lasky said.

For more information about the CSUN Explorers program, visit its website.

CSUN professor and alumna Michele Mega ’01 (M.A., Communication Studies), communications director on the Africa Mercy hospital ship, where she volunteers with nonprofit Mercy Ships. Photo by Timmy Bakersville, courtesy of Mercy Ships.

Imagine packing up the life you knew to travel to the other side of the globe and serve people in some of the world’s poorest countries. Your new home is a ship, and your ports of call are African cities. Your mission is to help residents who lack basic access to safe, timely and affordable health care. For Michele Mega ’01 (M.A., Communication Studies), this is her everyday life.

Mega, a professor and communications professional, is volunteering her time to help connect those in need to life-saving surgeries onboard the hospital ship Africa Mercy. She has taken a leave of absence from her teaching career of 16 years at California State University, Northridge to serve as a volunteer with the nonprofit organization Mercy Ships.

“It’s an honor to meet the patients and their families,” Mega said. “I’m always humbled at how they entrust their lives to us. Some have never seen a doctor before, or been on a ship … that they will journey for days to find us and then trust us with their well-being in such a vulnerable state really astounds me.

“Their hospitality is also incredible, given how little they have,” she said. “My team often visits them in their homes to get before-and-after footage of their conditions, and the poverty is overwhelming. But they always provide gracious hospitality, offering us food and making us feel like honored guests. It’s very humbling.”

CSUN communication studies professor and alumna Michele Mega ’01 (M.A., Communication Studies) speaks with Valerie, a Mercy Ships patient. Photo by Justine Forrest, courtesy of Mercy Ships.

In July, Mega traveled back to the Africa Mercy, which will set sail this month to its next port of service in Conakry, the capital city of Guinea, West Africa. The ship will spend 10 months docked in Guinea providing surgical services, dental care and medical training to thousands of people.

Mercy Ships is an international, faith-based organization that provides free health care services to people in third-world countries. The services they provide are life-saving operations: cleft lip and palate repair, cataract removal, orthopedic procedures, facial reconstruction and obstetric fistula repairs. The organization uses ships that function as floating hospitals, docking in various ports for several months at a time, to transform lives.

According to the organization, its flagship, Africa Mercy, is the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship and is dedicated to serving the continent of Africa. An average of 1,000 volunteer crew members from up to 40 nations serve onboard the Africa Mercy each year. The ship is equipped with five state-of-the-art operating rooms, where the operations are provided free of charge to all patients.

Around 2007, Mega was attending a church service when she heard a presentation by guest speaker Dr. Gary Parker, Mercy Ships’ chief medical officer and a maxillofacial surgeon. The before-and-after pictures he showed of patients in Africa moved her deeply, Mega said. She wrote to Parker directly and started supporting him.

Africa Mercy patient Valerie, before (left) and after she received surgery. Photo courtesy of Mercy Ships.

In 2015, after about eight years as a donor and receiving the organization’s mailers, Mega decided it was time to volunteer. She took a leap of faith and decided to devote most of her summer to volunteer with the organization, serving food in the Africa Mercy’s dining room. She loved that first experience so much that she returned to the ship in January 2016 to serve for a longer stint in the Communications Department. She was inspired to follow the example of Jesus Christ, she said.

“My faith is very important to me, and I wanted to do something that was about putting that into action and giving back,” Mega said. “I am 46 years old, and most people at this age don’t make this kind of change in their life because it’s not practical or even possible. But doing this has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I would encourage anybody to do what they can to be of service to others, in whatever way they can, wherever they can.”

At CSUN, Mega has taught nine different courses in the Department of Communication Studies, including Advanced Public Speaking, Intercultural Communication and Small Group Communication.

“I am fortunate the university offers a leave of absence option and has agreed to extend it annually,” she said. “My department chair continues to support the work that I do, which I’m extremely grateful for. We are giving life-saving services to the poorest in Africa as well as medical training, and that aligns with the values within the major and the university.”

Mega serves as the communications director and on the senior leadership team on the vessel. As a volunteer, she must pay her own way to live on the ship. She has a support system back home that helps provide her financial assistance so she can be gone for long periods of time. Mega’s family and friends donate money to help offset her room, board and travel costs, she said.

Her background as a communication studies professor gave her a fitting skill set for the volunteer work onboard, she said.

“The role I have is a management and leadership position,” Mega said. “As a communication studies professor, I’ve been teaching classes like Small Group Communication, Communication Theory and Interpersonal Communication. Now I’m put these theories into practice every day by managing the communications team, as well as helping to train other managers onboard, teaching workshops on communication, conflict and culture. ”

The entire volunteer crew aboard the Africa Mercy must pay full expenses in order to give their services to those in need.

“Mercy Ships has to raise money every year — free surgery is not free,” Mega said. “Someone has to pay, and we have 16 international offices [whose] job is to raise the amount of volunteers who are willing to serve, as well as donate, so we can keep the surgeries going.”

Mega volunteered for several organizations before joining Mercy Ships, including Meals on Wheels, which provides food to those who are unable to go grocery shopping; Chrysalis, an organization that provides employment services for those in economically disadvantaged areas; and helping with building projects in Mexico and South America.

“I am a big advocate for volunteer work,” she said. “I am very grateful to be in a position where I can put my two hands to use and do what can be done.”

Mega has had the blessing of professor Kathryn Sorrells, former chair of CSUN’s Department of Communication Studies, who has supported and approved her leave of absence from teaching. The department will continue to support Mega, and her colleagues consider her an inspiration, Sorrells said.

“We need to applaud Michele for her commitment and awareness of helping others. It benefits her, but it also benefits the cause that is much bigger than her,” Sorrells said.

Communication studies professor Randi Picarelli said that Mega’s volunteer position as Africa Mercy communications director seemed meant for her.

“It’s such a wonderful fit for her, and when she was offered the position as communications director, it was like all the elements of Michele were coming together,” Picarelli said.

Though working with Mercy Ships has been an amazing and life-changing experience for her, Mega said she misses her job as a professor and especially being with CSUN students — and she hopes to come back to teach in fall 2019 or 2020.

For more information about Mercy Ships, visit https://www.mercyships.org.

Residents in Vic Chouchanian’s Northridge townhouse complex were curious. What was going on in there?

They’d walk by his garage and notice him fiddling with formulas like he was some sort of chemist.

“Beer,” he’d tell them.

He was creating beer in his garage.

The next question would usually be, “Is that legal?” And he assured them, home brewing is.

What started so innocently — a hobby for the CSUN alumnus — has grown into the multi-beer festival award-winning San Fernando Brewing Co. Chouchanian is co-founder and co-owner of a business that now has its own brewery, a warehouse in San Fernando, complete with giant, silver tanks and machinery, a tasting room and 14 employees dedicated to making the company the next big thing in an exciting, growing craft beer market.

Many parts of the company — including the flavor of the beers, and opening and operating of the business — were inspired by Chouchanian’s time at CSUN.

“I wrote an 85-page business plan,” said Chouchanian ’12 (Mathematics), ’12 (Credential). “In that plan there were tons of projections and charts and graphs — you name it. And the math had to be spot on. It was gathering data, putting it together, presenting it in a proper form. So not just my math degree (played a significant part in building this business), but my overall education. My English and writing skills were a big factor.

“Beer is all numbers and science and a little bit of prayer. It’s getting the percentage of grain to hops right and the amount of yeast to pitch because you want to think about the specific number of cells, so it’s a certain number of cells per milliliter. … It’s a lot of math, not just the brewing aspect but the business aspect – being able to project what you’re spending vs. what you can sell a beer for.”

Chouchanian loves math. It’s his passion — that and brewing. But math was there first. He initially thought he wanted to become an educator. To do that, he enrolled at CSUN, where he shone.

“Vic was a fantastic student,” said Kellie Evans, a professor in the Department of Mathematics. “He was a great presenter. He gave the best, visual proof of the Pythagorean [theorem] that I had seen at the time. It was Euclid’s proof and Vic broke it down very dramatically. I recall [his presentation] ending to applause.”

It was around the time that Chouchanian enrolled at CSUN as a transfer student that he developed an interest is brewing. To him, it wasn’t so much about a love of the drink, but an interest in creating.

An acquaintance suggested that he try and brew beer himself and Chouchanian thought, why not? He began with 5 gallons in the kitchen, then 15 in the garage. He started giving it away to the neighbors in the townhouse complex. Then the suggestions started to come.

“You should sell this!”

Then the suggestions multiplied and amplified.

In the period between 2011 and 2012, a lot was happening for Chouchanian. While nearing the finish line for his degree, he and his wife Nora were looking to purchase a house. But no bank would approve a loan for the couple.

The frustration bubbled up, forcing the husband-and-wife team to make a decision.

“We either had to stick with what we’re doing, grind it out and hope that house prices came down and we could get a loan, or jump out of the norm and take a risk,” said Chouchanian. “We took a risk.”

In 2012, Chouchanian and his brother, Joe, decided to try their hands at opening a brewery. The same year Chouchanian completed his degree at CSUN and earned his teaching credential.

It took the duo a year to find a building for the brewery, and two years to build the business. While this was happening, Chouchanian built a following for the beer by taking it to the competition circuit.

He also managed to accomplish another goal — he became a teacher of middle school math. He also taught summer school math at Granada Hills Charter High School and was offered a full-time position.

But the brewery was beginning to take off.

In July 2015, the ribbon was cut at San Fernando Brewing Co. while area politicians looked on and people line the street to the product, Chouchanian recalled.

Without his education at CSUN, Chouchanian said everything about the business would be more challenging.

“I know a lot of people opening up breweries right now, and they’re still struggling,” he said. “Not just my math degree helped me, but the people I met, the support I had and the support I still have all played a role. I still talk to some of my professors from CSUN.”

He credits a few of his CSUN professors for helping him get to where he is today, including Ivan Cheng and Evans.

Chouchanian said Cheng’s story of rising from humble beginnings as a bus driver to become a highly respected educator inspires him. Evans, he said, was always uplifting.

Cheng recalled learning about his former student’s hobby during classes. He could hear Chouchanian speak about his latest batch to classmates. Cheng eventually became a supporter.

“It was with great excitement that I went to his brewery to check out his beers,” Cheng said. “I have been there multiple times. I have even promoted his brewery on my trips by taking photos of his logo with famous landmarks in the background. This is something that his loyal fans do when they travel.”

Evans has her own recollection of hearing about Chouchanian’s brewing.

“When Vic completed his math major and single-subject math teaching credential at CSUN, he began teaching middle school in a K-8 school in Altadena, where my own children were students,” she said. “He was going to be my kids’ middle school math teacher! It was a fantastic time for me — work meets personal life. And I was looking forward to Vic’s impact on my kids. Little did I know Vic was as good at brewing beer as teaching math. ​

“It has been bittersweet, seeing Vic’s amazing San Fernando Brewing Company grow into a successful business,” Evans continued. “Vic is so talented at everything, of course, I am thrilled for him. However, I still dream he’ll find a way to continue to be a successful businessman and teach math. He has been teaching others to brew beer. What lucky brewers they are.”

Additional validation has come in the form of a loyal customer base, and awards. San Fernando Brewing Co. has received awards in San Diego, Los Angeles and California competitions. Three Costco retailers in the San Fernando Valley recently began selling one of San Fernando Brewing Co.’s beers — Grapefruits of Wrath. The company’s beer is also being poured at CSUN’s 60th Anniversary Grand Reunion.

“I cannot say that his education at CSUN made Vic successful because he already had the qualities that allowed him to be where he is at today,” Cheng said. “What I believe is that CSUN helped move Vic forward on his journey. Our focus on putting students first is what I see Vic doing with his customers. Perhaps we had a part in helping him internalize those values. So, I don’t think CSUN can take credit for Vic’s success. But we are delighted that we were a part of his journey to success.”

There is talk of expanding the brewery’s space. Chouchanian’s other passion isn’t lost, though. And Evans might get her wish.

“I still want to teach,” Chouchanian said. “I would love to teach at CSUN one day. I would love to go back and teach math. Teaching is my passion. Beer is also my passion, but teaching is different.”

Randy Reynaldo’s Inkpot Award for Contributions to Comic Art at San Diego Comic-Con. Photo courtesy of Randy Reynaldo.

Randy Reynaldo wasn’t sure anyone at the San Diego Comic-Con would even be interested in a panel discussion about his career as a cartoonist and independent comics self-publisher.

Two hundred people showed up.

And before his packed July 19 presentation at the world-famous weeklong convention for comics, film, television, gaming, and other popular arts, a Comic-Con official surprised Reynaldo with the prestigious Inkpot Award for Contributions to Comic Art — putting him in the rarefied company of previous Inkpot winners Steven Spielberg, Stan Lee, George Lucas and many other giants of science fiction, comics and entertainment.

Other recipients this year included Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in the Star Trek TV and movies series, and filmmaker Kevin Smith. On Twitter, Smith called the award one of the best moments of his “career AND life.”

Reynaldo, the director of Administrative Operations in California State University, Northridge’s Office of the President, has a semi-secret identity as a writer, artist, creator and comics publisher, quietly toiling away on his independent series Rob Hanes Adventures, a lighthearted, family-friendly action-adventure series about a private investigator/spy-for-hire. Reynaldo was so surprised by the Comic-Con honor that when he re-joined his family and a few friends in the audience, he told his wife, Sadina, he wasn’t sure he’d mustered any words at all.

“My wife said, ‘Yeah, you did say something,’” recounted Reynaldo. “In the moment, it was just a big blur to me. But she said, ‘You said something really nice about being honored by it.’”

The Inkpot Award has been presented at San Diego Comic-Con since 1974 to recognize individuals for contributions to the worlds of comics, science fiction/fantasy, film, TV, animation and the catch-all category “service to fandom.” The list of past winners [link to: https://www.comic-con.org/awards/inkpot] is chock full of familiar names, including including cartoonists, writers, actors, directors and animators.

Reynaldo said he believes he received the award as recognition for his longevity and dedication — he’s been publishing about one issue of Rob Hanes Adventures per year since the early 1990s, making him an outlier in an industry where he estimates many small press publishers usually produce just a few issues of any given title.

“It’s a recognition for stubbornness,” Reynaldo jokes.

The cover of Rob Hanes Adventures No. 19, the latest issue of Randy Reynaldo’s long-running adventure series. Photo courtesy of Randy Reynaldo.

Rob Hanes Adventures is published under Reynaldo’s own WCG Comics imprint. Rob Hanes is  “a globetrotting troubleshooter” who works for Justice International, a contractor providing security, intelligence and private investigation services to multinational corporations, governments and private citizens in a series that features ripped-from-the-headlines adventures. The series echoes classic adventure comic strips Reynaldo admires such as Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates and Roy Crane’s Buz Sawyer; the lighthearted humor of Will Eisner’s Spirit is also an influence. Recent popular franchises like Indiana Jones and Jonny Quest, Reynaldo notes, come from the same tradition.

Each issue is self-contained. The annual publishing schedule makes cliffhanger stories impractical, Reynaldo said, but the format enables him to experiment with other styles and genres — one issue featured a drawing-room murder mystery (think ​Clue​), another a romance/superhero mashup, and there’s even a baseball story.

He considers the publishing a separate life from his day job at CSUN, where he has worked in the president’s office for 25 years — serving five presidents (including interim presidents) — starting as a communications assistant under Blenda Wilson before moving into his current position during Jolene Koester’s tenure.

Reynaldo crafts his comics on nights and weekends, scripting each issue, and then drawing and inking the pages by hand — and, finally, using a computer for lettering and black-and-white shading.

At this year’s convention, Reynaldo debuted a trade paperback collection of ​Rob Hanes Adventures​ issues 5-8. He also unveiled issue 19, with a storyline inspired by current events: Rob and Justice International are deputized as a new national police force by the recently elected president, Chester M. Humbert, who distrusts the existing agencies of the government. Rob soon lands in the middle of political intrigue as terrorists attempt to detonate a dirty bomb in Europe.

This year marked Reynaldo’s 21st Comic-Con appearance as a creator since 1993. Before that, he attended as a fan beginning in the mid-1980s. He was invited to attend this year’s convention as a special guest — a big deal in itself that came with perks such as VIP seating for the convention’s Eisner Awards, considered the Oscars of the comics industry.

His panel discussion took place on the first day of the event. Reynaldo’s selected moderator, Barry Gregory, CEO of Ka-Blam Digital Printing, received a last-minute heads up that a Comic-Con representative would hand Reynaldo the award.

The trophy itself is a handsome, heavy thing — an old-fashioned inkpot, shiny black with gold accents, somewhat anthropomorphized with arms to hold a quill pen, and a cap shaped like a sorcerer’s hat. It even came with a cloth to keep it buffed. Initially, Reynaldo has mostly kept the award in his office to show colleagues, though he hasn’t yet made up his mind on its final display location.

Now that he’s had some time to let the honor sink in, he’s better able to articulate what the Inkpot means to him.

“I’m just a niche artist — I’m not huge in the marketplace,” Reynaldo said. “I’ve always been happy to quietly produce my comic book in my little corner of the comics market as a labor of love. But to be recognized by my peers and Comic-Con is a huge honor and means a great deal to me. It’s something I never expected.”

Students, faculty and staff across California State University, Northridge are conducting groundbreaking research and participating in innovative efforts to tackle one of the biggest challenges of the last several decades: water conservation.

Cities around the globe, including Los Angeles, have implemented conservation campaigns to avoid running out of water, a resource that is increasingly scarce as urban populations boom and global temperatures rise. Earlier this year, Cape Town, South Africa, in the midst of a three-year drought, came within weeks of shutting off its taps and forcing residents to ration water — until conservation efforts delayed that dire scenario for at least another year. Similar situations could eventually play out in India, Iraq, Morocco and Spain, according to the Washington, D.C.-based global research organization the World Resources Institute.

Located in Los Angeles — where conservation efforts continue even after California Gov. Jerry Brown declared the end of a three-year drought emergency — CSUN is in a prime position to be a global leader on water conservation.

Dozens of CSUN faculty members and administrators have developed expertise in water issues across a wide range of disciplines. Civil engineering professors brainstorm water-saving designs, psychology professors consider ways to influence consumer water-use decisions and political scientists consider how research can be used to entice communities to invest in environmentally friendly projects. Water research touches nearly every academic department on campus, including geological sciences, geography and environmental studies, physics, chemistry, education, and environmental and occupational health.

In 2017, CSUN demonstrated its commitment to the issue of water conservation with its inaugural cluster hire dedicated to water science. This new interdisciplinary focus on water science research started with two full-time tenure-track faculty positions — Erin Bray, a professor of geography and environmental studies, and Priya Ganguli, a professor of geological sciences, as well as a soon-to-be-added new engineering position — devoted to conducting water-related research and engaging with stakeholders across California and the western United States. The ultimate goal: using water science to inform conservation policy.

CSUN’s cross-disciplinary experts, including the new Water Science faculty members, meet about once a semester to discuss ongoing projects and water-related news. The group is facilitated by administrators in Tseng College, including Joyce Feucht-Haviar, university senior international officer and dean, and Sherry Sidick, associate director of external relations.

“Given the relevance and connection of the field of water to diverse departments and disciplines at CSUN, it was important to create a group of faculty from across the university to foster collaboration,” Feucht-Haviar said. “Research across fields and disciplines can inform and guide choices and strategies to benefit the region and state. In that light, CSUN is committed to providing forefront education for those in influential roles in this area.

“This collaboration will inform the development of courses and programs and, in turn, result in expanded, innovative options and strategies to benefit the urban Los Angeles region, California and beyond,” she said. “The university’s impact has been recognized nationally — CSUN was recently honored as an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.”

Potential Community Partnerships

CSUN faculty and staff have existing water-related community partnerships that give students real-world experience and contribute to beneficial water management efforts. CSUN’s Center for Geospatial Science and Technology has contracts with key resource agencies, such as the California Department of Water Resources on a project to update maps of all surface water features in the state, as well as a similar project for the US Forest Service focusing on the southwestern United States, said Danielle Bram, the center’s director.

The CSUN water group meeting evolved as a way to identify more partnerships, originating from an invitation from Sidick to members of the city of Los Angeles’ One Water LA team to meet with campus experts in fall 2017 to explore the possibilities of working together to meet common goals. This included CSUN faculty possibly assisting with preparation of the One Water LA 2040 Plan, a city strategic plan aimed at providing a roadmap to fiscally responsible water planning solutions. One Water LA’s presentation to CSUN researchers included bullet points of its research needs, and requested proposals from anyone in the room with expertise in those areas.

CSUN experts now hold regular cross-disciplinary meetings, where faculty, staff and administrators can discover opportunities to work together on projects requiring various fields of expertise, potentially opening up the possibility of shared grants.

“This forum gives access for faculty to share and discover what each person is doing in water-related research,” Sidick said. “We have faculty and staff from various disciplines across campus collaborating and building relationships. Faculty often comment that it’s really illuminating to explore the wide range of research interests and expertise among colleagues.”

Meeting attendees also discuss the campus’ innovative sustainability and conservation measures, many of which are spearheaded by the CSUN Institute for Sustainability.

In 2013, the Institute for Sustainability finalized the CSUN Sustainability Plan, which established 10 key areas of focus for improvements including water conservation; the campus is working towards a 15 percent reduction in water consumption by 2023, said Misha Kouzeh, the institute’s project coordinator.

Erica Wohldmann, the institute’s interim director, said the campus offers research opportunities for water quality testing, drought tolerant planting, medicinal gardens and more. She worked with CSUN Facilities this summer to add an 850-gallon cistern at the Chicano House to catch rainfall and support campus irrigation.

“I see a world where CSUN could be capturing rain and stormwater, serving as a model and resource for the community,” Wohldmann said. “I’m thrilled about the cistern we installed at the Chicano House. Not only will it reduce the need for potable irrigation water for their garden, it will also provide countless learning opportunities and discussions around issues pertaining to social justice and water rights, among others.”

CSUN Water Science Research

The two new water science researchers aim to further research and establish public and private partnerships to advance water-related policies.

Ganguli, an assistant professor of geological sciences, studies how contaminants — especially mercury — travel through ecosystems. She also is interested in the long-term effects of environmental remediation projects, such as those in Malibu Lagoon and the New Idria Mercury Mine Superfund project.

“Climate change has resulted in longer droughts, more severe rain events, and an increase in wildfires — these changes impact both the quantity and quality of water,” she said.

Bray, an assistant professor of geography and environmental studies, focuses on rivers, including how sediment moves, water temperature patterns and what features make riverbeds suitable habitat for fish and incubating fish eggs.

“We have a real opportunity at CSUN to work on water science and water policy issues, broadly across the state and throughout the western United States,” Bray said. “Really, [our research] is about science for solutions.”

Ganguli and Bray are establishing partnerships with individuals in departments  across campus (such as political science, engineering, biology and health sciences) and with local stakeholders and environmental resource agencies to expand CSUN’s growing research presence. The water science professors, for example, are collaborating with professor Tyler Hughes in the Department of Political Science, who is working to understand how policies are implemented and to identify ways to better use science to inform policy debates.

Benefit to Students

CSUN’s water-related research, which is conducted in collaboration with state, regional and even international organizations, helps prepare students for innovative careers, Feucht-Haviar said.

Every semester, the Center for Geospatial Science and Technology utilizes about 15-20 students who perform the bulk of the project work. Hughes, the political science professor, is working with an undergraduate student to study the policy history of Malibu Lagoon, which will inform future coastal restoration projects.

CSUN students also are able to volunteer for opportunities related to the Institute of Sustainability, including the annual Water Day event, which will next take place on March 26, 2019. Wohldmann received a grant from the Metropolitan Water District to explore the effectiveness for reducing irrigation water on turf grass fields by comparing biodegradable polymers to compost produced on campus from green waste.  Students interested in assisting with this, and other projects, can contact the Institute for Sustainability.

Ganguli chose to conduct her research at CSUN in part because the university values diversity and undergraduate research, and her projects always have benefitted from the work of undergraduate student assistants, she said.

“My research is very applied. Therefore, the students I work with gain skills that give them a jump start for jobs in environment consulting and resource management, as well as research experience that makes them more competitive for graduate programs,” she said.

Thousands of alumni and friends of the university are expected for CSUN’s 60th Anniversary Grand Reunion on Saturday, Oct. 13. Thousands turnout 10 years ago for the 50th reunion, above. Photo by John Dubois.

California State University, Northridge is marking its 60^th anniversary by inviting alumni from across the decades to take part in a Grand Reunion celebration, taking place over the course of three days in October.

The festivities include a picnic for thousands on the lawn of CSUN’s iconic Delmar T. Oviatt Library, a 5K run, an introduction to the defending Big West Conference Tournament champion women’s basketball team, a welcome to the men’s basketball team and new head coach Mark Gottfried, men’s and women’s soccer matches, and a special performance of the music of Henry Mancini at The Soraya. All that and more are taking place at CSUN Oct. 12-14.

“It’s been a decade since we’ve held an alumni event of this magnitude,” said Shellie Hadvina, assistant vice president for alumni relations and annual giving.

“All Matadors across all class years and all members of the community are invited to CSUN to reconnect with old friends and professors, explore the campus today and see firsthand how CSUN has grown into a leading university in the region and beyond,” Hadvina continued. “If you were at the last Grand Reunion, you’ll remember what a celebration it was. Bring your family, call your CSUN friends and come spend a few hours walking down memory lane. You’ll be amazed where that road has led CSUN today.”

The celebration begins on Friday, Oct. 12, with Matador Madness in the Matadome. Alumni and guests are invited to tip-0ff the basketball season with an introduction to the defending Big West Conference Tournament champion women’s team, and welcome a new era for the men’s teams with an introduction to Head Coach Mark Gottfried.

Saturday, Oct. 13, is packed full of reunion activities, beginning at 9 a.m. with a 5K Matador Fun Run around the campus perimeter. From 1 to 3 p.m., the campus will host an invitation-only Founders’ Lunch and 50-Year Club Induction Ceremony for members of the Class of ’68 and faculty and staff who began their service to CSUN in 1968.

“The campus changes every year,” said Cindy Chernow, president of the CSUN Alumni Association. “When people come back and see how far the university has come, they will be amazed by its outstanding progress.”

The Grand Reunion Picnic is scheduled to take place from 2 to 6 p.m. on the lawn in front of the Delmar T. Oviatt Library. The event — which includes food trucks, a beer and wine garden, reunion gatherings for specific communities, tours, open houses and a kids’ zone — offers an opportunity for alumni to reconnect with classmates and faculty. The picnic also features the Matador Motorway, where attendees can compete in a pinewood derby car race.

The festivities with continue when CSUN men’s soccer taking on Cal Poly at 7 p.m. at Matador Soccer Field.

Saturday’s activities end with an 8 p.m. with “Moon River and the Music of Henry Mancini” at CSUN’s Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts. The evening is scheduled to be hosted by Monica Mancini and feature music director Gregg Field and the New West Symphony.

The Grand Reunion celebration culminates on Sunday, Oct. 14, when CSUN’s women’s soccer takes on UC Riverside at 1 p.m. on Matador Soccer Field.

For a complete list of the scheduled events and activities for the Grand Reunion, visit csun.edu/60.

CSUN ranks among the top universities in the country that award undergraduate degrees to minority students, according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Photo by Lee Choo.

California State University, Northridge ranks among the top 15 universities in the country that award undergraduate degrees to minority students, according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

The magazine’s annual ranking of the “Top 100 Producers of Bachelor’s Degrees” appears in its Aug. 23 edition.

“I am pleased to see the university maintain its high ranking on this list,” CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison said. “The recognition underscores our standing as one of the most diverse university campuses in the nation. The ranking illustrates our commitment to the success of all students by providing opportunity and access to students from traditionally underrepresented communities.”

CSUN ranked 11th in the nation among colleges and universities awarding undergraduate degrees to minority students.

The magazine also ranked CSUN second in the nation for bachelor’s degrees awarded to Hispanic students in liberal arts and sciences; second in bachelor’s degrees awarded in psychology; fourth in degrees awarded in the social sciences; and fifth in all disciplines combined. In addition, CSUN ranked second in awarding bachelor’s degrees in marketing to Asian-American students.

CSUN has nearly 40,000 students, 48 percent of whom are Hispanic, and offers 69 bachelor’s and 57 master’s degrees, 28 teaching credential programs and two doctoral degree programs. CollegeNET named CSUN a Social Mobility Innovator for its transformative effect on students and the region, and The Wall Street Journal ranked CSUN second in the nation for the university’s diverse learning environment.

The tornado of content from the Royal Wedding was still churning through the office of a Westwood high-rise, home to three of the most iconic brands in publishing — People, People En Español and Entertainment Weekly.

Maybe it was the Chuck Taylors on his feet, or the easy cadence of his speech that made the president of the media powerhouses, California State University, Northridge alumnus Bruce Gersh ’91 (Accounting Theory and Practice), appear calm in the storm followed Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s “I dos” in May. Work was still heavy, as a flood of Royal Wedding content rushed in from across the pond.

“If I’m nervous, my entire team is nervous,” Gersh said, explaining his calm. “I also have a lot of trust in the people that work for me. I’m not a micromanager. You have to put trust in your team.

“I work incredibly hard,” he said. “I work long hours. But at the same time, I have a great group that I work with and work for that lift me up.”

More than calm, it may be confidence — built from years of successfully navigating a dynamic career.

No straight line can be drawn from the start of Gersh’s career to Westwood. It has been an unconventional journey for the media executive who started in accounting, a journey with roots at CSUN.

“I was always a dreamer,” Gersh said. “If you grow up in LA, you’re always connected to the entertainment business in some way, shape or form. I always thought I’d be connected to the entertainment business, but I thought it would probably be on the finance-only side.

“If I look back to the day I put on my cap and gown and graduated, I definitely wouldn’t have thought I’d be doing this exact job,” Gersh said. “But I knew I’d be in this space in some shape or form.”

As a child, the career choices presented to Gersh were a doctor, lawyer or accountant. His father owned liquor stores and wanted his son to choose a different route than him.

At 13, Gersh declared in his school yearbook that he would become an accountant. The road to that career ran through Northridge.

After graduating from Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles — a private Jewish school where classes were small and everyone knew everyone — Gersh chose CSUN for a couple of reasons, including proximity and prestige.

“CSUN had the best accounting program in Los Angeles,” he said.

It was an impactful educational experience, he said.

“I don’t think CSUN gets enough credit for how it prepares all of us,” Gersh said. “I went to a very small high school. I never sat in classes with more than 20 people. CSUN opened my eyes to how to learn to work as a team. As the classes got larger, you had to not only figure out how to work with your friends, but how to work with your colleagues in the spirit of a work environment.”

Gersh also recalled the program’s valuable real-world experience. As a student, he prepared taxes for low-income residents in Hollywood as part of CSUN’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Clinic, which further fed Gersh’s career goal.

“It was an inspiring program and a way to give back, and it was hands-on experience,” he said.

As a junior, Gersh landed an internship at accounting giant Arthur Andersen, and, after earning his degree, he was hired by the company for the firm’s tax practice.

His career shifted in the late 1990s, when Gersh joined NBC as a strategist on the business development side. The transition from accounting was eased by the fact that Gersh still worked with numbers, analyzing data and creating business plans. But his stay at NBC was brief, as he jumped into the internet bubble, helping to launch a sports website.

In 2000, after a year in the bubble, Gersh left for Disney/ABC and stayed for the next eight years. It was the most transformative time of his professional career, he said. Gersh ultimately became the company’s senior vice president of business development, responsible for business development online, ABC daytime and primetime, and ABC’s TV studio.

In 2006, Gersh won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Enhanced or Interactive Television (New Delivery Platforms) for the ABC.com Full Episode Streaming Player, a forerunner to popular episodic TV streaming services such as Hulu.

“The Disney process and systems are top notch, so you’re learning from and working with some of the smartest people,” Gersh said. “I was able to really grow as a [professional], had some great mentors and had an opportunity to lead a pretty significant team over a relatively short period of time.”

One of those mentors was Mark Pedowitz, current president of The CW Television Network. There was a point during his time at ABC, Gersh said, where he was entertaining an outside opportunity. But the desire to learn more from Pedowitz, then an executive at ABC, kept him with the company. It was a decision that proved beneficial because it helped Gersh further develop business and creative skills.

Both sides of Gersh’s brain battle each other for dominance. In the end, it’s a draw. He calls himself a “business/creative guy,” but could very easily be called a “creative business guy.”

The foundation of everything, though, is numbers. Understanding the mechanics of numbers and how they come together is how he makes decisions, Gersh said. That foundation was laid at CSUN. As his career has continued to evolve in media, he still uses the skills he learned at the university, he said.

After ABC, Gersh held executive positions at the William Morris Agency, Fishbowl Worldwide Media (a production company he co-founded with Peabody- and Emmy-winning producer Vin Di Bona), and ITV Studios America.

In January 2016, Time Inc. hired him as senior vice president of strategy and business development. Shortly after media conglomerate Meredith Corporation completed the purchase of Time Inc. earlier this year, Gersh was promoted to president of People, People En Español and Entertainment Weekly.

In this position, he oversees all aspects including editorial, advertising, marketing, sales and finance.

The tornado of content and the demand for it won’t stop. Yesterday, it was Royal Wedding coverage. Tomorrow, it’s the next big story — or stories. And for Gersh, it’s not just the content side, but the business side that he has to be concerned about.

“I’m having a blast,” he said. “I have the best people working with me and alongside me, and that’s all you can ask for. As you flashback over your career, I look back and there are so many amazing people I’ve worked with or for. … Now, as I look across my organization, there are so many people who are inspiring and are inspired by our brands.”

It was the language in the job listing itself that first told Natalie Mason-Kinsey she might be the perfect fit for California State University, Northridge’s new chief diversity officer.

When Mason-Kinsey, who was then the chief officer for Equal Employment Opportunity for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bus Company in New York City, compared CSUN’s posting to notices for similar positions around the country, she found a key difference. While most job descriptions were focused on checking boxes for compliance requirements, CSUN’s listing sounded both aspirational and inspirational — the description spoke of building community alliances and maintaining an intentional and sustained focus on achieving inclusive excellence. CSUN sounded like it had inclusion in its DNA.

“I thought, ‘Oh, that’s different, I like how they wrote that,’” Mason-Kinsey said.

Mason-Kinsey has a long track record of fostering opportunity and inclusion for everyone, including stints as the chief diversity officer for Brooklyn College and diversity-related roles for City College of New York and Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College.

Mason-Kinsey, who started her new post in May and as a Cabinet member reports directly to CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison, provides big-picture guidance in promoting diversity and inclusion, educational and employment opportunity, and cultural proficiency. She helps lead CSUN’s Commission on Inclusion and Diversity Initiatives, ensuring the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion programs. One of her priorities will be measuring the effectiveness of CSUN’s faculty diversity initiative, including recruitment and retention. She also provides strategic oversight and direction to the university’s Office of Equity and Diversity, which promotes and implements equity and diversity programs and conducts investigations related to discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

“In addition to her extensive qualifications and experience, Natalie brings a vision to help CSUN advance in its goals and commitment to a diverse and inclusive learning environment that elevates all students,” Harrison said. “Fostering an environment of cooperation and collaboration requires the commitment of people and departments across campus, and Natalie is the right person to inspire those efforts so our university can continue to provide a meaningful and impactful education to all students.”

Mason-Kinsey grew up in Seattle and earned a Bachelor of Arts in American ethnic studies from the University of Washington before traveling east to earn a law degree from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. After a couple of summer internships, she realized working in a law firm wasn’t her passion — she wanted to feel like she was helping people solve problems. So, she clerked for the Howard University Office of General Counsel, where she led training for sexual harassment, diversity, and equity and inclusion.

“It’s fulfilling work,” she said. “I’m not going to say everyone’s always happy with me; that’s not how this works. At the end of the day, hopefully most of the time, I feel like I helped people or resolved an issue for them.”

At CSUN, she has joined one of the most diverse universities in the United States. Recognized by the Wall Street Journal for having the second most diverse learning environment in the nation, CSUN’s student body is more than 48 percent Latino, and the university is designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American, Native American, Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). CSUN educates more deaf and hard-of-hearing students than any other U.S. state university.

“CSUN is focused on really making diversity and inclusion part of CSUN life from top to bottom, side to side, and that’s one of the reasons I am excited for this opportunity,” Mason-Kinsey said. “It’ll be a challenge, but one well worth meeting. CSUN has pushed itself and now we’ll focus more on building the community and enhancing what’s already here.”

As CSUN’s culture of inclusion continues to grow, Mason-Kinsey wants to encourage “thought diversity.” This can take many forms, she said, including encouraging professors to incorporate teaching techniques that appeal to students with different learning styles. For example, introverts and extroverts bring different strengths, as do people who grew up in one-parent households compared to two-parent households.

“People don’t always talk about it, but to me, that’s the most important part of diversity,” Mason-Kinsey said. “Race is important because that’s what people see, but nobody is one thing. We’re all a multitude of things. So intersectionality and talking about how we think, and why we think the way we think, are more important to me on the diversity front. Everybody’s life experience makes the way they view the world different, and the more we open that up and allow people to share those views comfortably, I think it will make us all better.”

CSUN philosophy professor Adam Swenson conducted a pain study that reveals trust issues between patients and their doctors.

As one of his faculty colleagues put it, Adam Swenson feels your pain, philosophically speaking.

A professor of philosophy at California State University, Northridge, Swenson has devoted more than a decade of research, and a doctoral dissertation, to philosophical and ethical issues surrounding pain and its treatment. In 2013, he formed an interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) Pain Center to explore those issues.

Swenson and his colleagues studied how the physician’s impressions of their pain patients can affect decisions to prescribe powerful opioid medications — or not. They have submitted their findings to a leading scientific journal.

“There are no fully objective measures [for pain],” said Swenson. “With a heart condition, you can take an EKG reading, but there’s not much like that with pain conditions. At some point, the clinician has to make an assessment about how much pain a patient is in. And that’s going to depend largely on what they tell you.

Adam Swenson

“While [the field of] pain medicine is increasingly interdisciplinary, treatments for people with extreme pain will often involve powerful narcotics or certification for disability,” he said of chronic pain conditions such as severe migraines, post-traumatic injury pain and neuropathic diseases. “So, at the end of the day, the clinician has to decide whether to write a prescription for oxycodone or fentanyl based largely on whether they trust the patient, a stranger, to be telling the truth.

“On top of that, [patients have] an incentive to malinger or lie, in order to get powerful narcotics or disability certification,” Swenson continued. “But when we looked into the research on this, there was a lot about what affects the patient’s trust in their physician — but very little about the physician trusting [his or her] patients.”

Swenson collaborated with Dr. Steven Richeimer, director of the USC Pain Center; Faye Weinstein, director of pain management psychology for the center; and Doerte Junghaenel, a behavioral scientist at the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research. The group used as their foundation a survey conducted for the National Academies Institute of Medicine’s groundbreaking 2011 report, “Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research.”

They obtained a copy of about 5,000 responses to the survey, which included long narratives from Americans living with chronic pain conditions. With Swenson’s computer programming skills, the team organized and processed the narratives to identify those they could use to explore responses to the ways pain patients present their own stories. They then built their own online survey and advertised it among pain patient groups and physicians in 2015. They received nearly 1,000 responses.

Their survey asked respondents to assess the trustworthiness of selected narratives’ authors, as well as their perceptions of the author’s personality and whether they seemed, for example, likable, histrionic, appreciative (of the doctor), depressed or stoic.

“I built a web app, which let us randomize the order of the questions and narratives so that we could probe how perceptions of personality relate to judgments of medically relevant trustworthiness,” he said. “For example, one of our hypotheses was that whether someone comes across as stoic or histrionic would affect whether they were trusted to follow the physician’s instructions.”

They found that patients who came across as dramatic correlated very strongly with not seeming trustworthy, he said.

“If you seem stoic, you seem more trustworthy about pain,” Swenson said. “We also asked about likability, and we found that [a patient’s likability] also correlates really strongly with trustworthiness.”

In the study, patients who seemed depressed also were deemed more untrustworthy by clinicians and non-medical personnel. It’s a Catch-22 for some patients in pain: “The more upbeat a pain patient seems, and not complaining, the more likely [the physician is] to trust them,” Swenson said.

He noted that patient advocate groups provide tips on how to be a “good patient,” such as bringing health records, asking questions and not treating the doctor as the enemy.

Physicians must be more aware of biases in their own treatment decisions, Swenson said.

“Our results suggest that clinicians should be cognizant of, for example, the role the patient’s tendency to be dramatic may be playing in their decision-making,” he said. “They may need to slow down and ask themselves: ‘This person strikes me as a complainer. Am I sure that’s not making me discount what they’re telling me?’

“We all rightly have a lot of respect for doctors — we see them as practical scientists,” he continued. “We trust them with our lives, quite literally. When I talk about this with people sometimes, they’re just [shocked] by the idea that your doctor might not trust you. But doctors are human beings, too.”

The team’s findings emerged under the cloud of the country’s pervasive opioid epidemic. When Swenson first started studying pain in 2003 as a doctoral student, he said, years of under-treatment of pain had finally given way to doctors being told, “Trust your patient and prescribe accordingly.” Now, the opioid epidemic is killing so many Americans that it’s pervasive across age groups.

“We need to figure out how to help doctors strike the right balance [in prescribing],” Swenson said. “[Learning] what affects trust in patients will help.”

“There’s something about pain that makes it particularly inscrutable,” he said. “Elaine Scarry, who wrote the book, ‘The Body in Pain,’ has this great line: ‘To feel pain is to know, but to hear of pain is to doubt.’ At some level, we just don’t want to believe that it could suck that much. We’re naturally skeptical, because you can’t see inside anyone else’s head. But in the case of pain, you don’t want to.”

While highlighting milestones from California State University, Northridge’s storied six decades, CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison looked to the future in her annual Welcome Address to kick off the university’s 60th academic year, illustrating how the institution must prepare students for careers in a modern economy that requires critical thinking, problem solving and innovation.

The nearly 40,000 students enrolled for the academic year that began Aug. 25 will graduate into a world of constant technological change, and they likely will face work lives consisting of many different and distinct careers. Harrison quoted Northeastern University president Joseph Aoun, noting that CSUN students must be educated and prepared to be “robot proof.”

“The world is changing, and the future of work is changing — society and employers are asking us to change as well,” Harrison said. “We must if we are to remain relevant and prepare students for careers and lifelong learning.”

Change, evolution and student success were consistent themes in her Aug. 23 address, which showcased the numerous accomplishments of the university’s students, faculty and staff, while also addressing opportunities and challenges of the new academic year. CSUN is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a Grand Reunion in October, and Harrison intertwined stories of the past (a first graduation class of less than 100) with snapshots of the present (a record-breaking 2018 graduating class of more than 11,500) to demonstrate what she referred to as CSUN’s “relentless pursuit of helping students achieve their educational goals.”

“Though some of the challenges students face may have evolved and changed, CSUN’s historic commitment to access, and to support students and advance their academic success, remains strong and unchanged,” Harrison said.

The venue for the address itself, the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, marked a historic milestone for CSUN — the sparkling center is now known as The Soraya, in recognition of a $17 million gift from the Y&S Nazarian Family Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of Younes and Soraya Sarah Nazarian and their family.

The speech noted historic and recent successes for each of the university’s planning priorities — from expanding research activity and sponsored programs to fostering diversity and inclusive excellence — with particular focus throughout on student success and boosting graduation rates.

The achievements Harrison highlighted included the College of Science and Mathematics exceeding $10 million in grants for the fourth year in a row; Associated Students allocating nearly a quarter of a million dollars to student research, the largest student government grants for student research in California; CSUN’s new Health Equity Research and Education Center, which will be hosted in the university’s first-ever, 10,000-square-foot research building, Lilac Hall; and the opening of the first Sustainability Center in the California State University (CSU) system.

CSUN has used a variety of methods to improve student success, progressing toward graduation goals for the year 2025 set forth by the CSU chancellor’s office and the CSU board of trustees — CSUN’s initiative is called “Matadors Rising.” CSUN is using technology to support student success, including the “Ask Matty” and “CSUNny” chatbots (computer programs that can conduct conversations). A new website and mobile app will provide information on the basic needs and services available to students.

Harrison noted recent gains in graduation rates, particularly among transfer students. The university’s retention rate for fiscal year 2016 freshmen was 81 percent, a 3-point gain over the fiscal year 2015 group and the first time in years CSUN has achieved a retention rate in the 80s. These improvements — fueled by a new Student Affairs peer mentor program, smaller class sizes, a pilot early-alert system and awareness campaigns highlighting appropriate unit loads — help students learn the skills they need to keep up with the requirements and demands of the evolving economy.

Harrison highlighted multiple programs that infuse critical thinking into the curriculum, including the newly launched Department of Criminology and Justice Studies, Bull Ring new venture competition, AppJam mobile app development competition and AI-Jam artificial intelligence problem-solving competition.

“In today’s modern economy, it is important we ensure students are lifelong learners who are flexible and adaptable,” Harrison said. “The ability to innovate is paramount.”

Biology professor Mary-Pat Stein, president of the Faculty Senate, opened the program and welcomed new faculty members, staff and leadership.

“Together, we all share the same goal — to help students achieve success in whatever form that takes,” Stein said. “Faculty, staff and administrators will need to come together this year to continue providing opportunities for our students to not only achieve but to excel.”

Beverly Ntagu, president of Associated Students (AS), noted that she represented CSUN students in many ways, but said that her role was not about her or even AS.

“It’s about 40,000 students that applied, got accepted or transferred to this institution,” Ntagu said. “It’s about the hard work, dedication and time that the faculty and staff and so many key student leaders will put into this year to make sure that every student feels at home when they walk on this campus, that every student’s needs are met and they exceed their own expectations.”

CSUN biology professor MariaElena Zavala, second from right, is helping to reimagine how colleges meet the needs of STEM students. Photo by Lee Choo.

The goal is to strengthen old relationships and forge new ones among educators at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI), developing new strategies for teaching future members of the U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce.

California State University, Northridge is one if three institutions sharing a first-of-its-kind $3 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to create an HSI Resource Hub. The hub is charged with reaching out to colleges and universities across the country to build partnerships that will support STEM education, increase STEM research and education capacity at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and encourage the implementation of cutting-edge training.

“We are hoping to bring people together to come up with ideas to help faculty at all HSIs better serve their students, and help those students on their paths to becoming valued STEM professionals,” said CSUN biology professor MariaElena Zavala, who is working with colleagues at Dona Ana Community College in New Mexico and New Mexico State University to create the hub.

With New Mexico State University serving as the hub’s center, Zavala and her colleagues are hoping to create an environment where educators feel comfortable enough to reach across the traditional divisions that separate community colleges, comprehensive universities and research institutions to share ideas.

“We are hoping we can have honest conversations with our colleagues at HSIs and ask how we can work together to improve student success at HSIs,” Zavala said. “We talk about working together all the time, but we don’t ever really sit down and have frank discussions about what HSIs need, or need help with, and how we — community colleges, comprehensive and research institutions — can work together to improve student success. This also is the perfect opportunity to share best practices, as well as what didn’t work and what we can learn from those failures.

“The ultimate goal is creating an environment where STEM students can learn, thrive and have the tools to succeed in college, graduate school and their professional lives,” she said. “To do that, we need to break down silos, put aside academic differences, and talk and listen to each other.”

To that end, Zavala said she and her colleagues plan to reach out to all 451 of the country’s Hispanic-Serving Institutions — a designation created the federal government to identify colleges and universities with 25 percent or more total Hispanic full-time undergraduate students — and invite them to take part in a dialogue about the needs of STEM students. If enough institutions agree to participate, clusters of regional colleges and universities may be formed to help facilitate partnerships between institutions.

Workshops and conferences also are planned to encourage the sharing of information about what works, what doesn’t work, and how they can help each other help their students succeed.

“We are hoping to plant seeds, have roots set and nurture it into something that facilitates dialogue and yet is flexible enough to respond to the ever-changing needs of the participating institutions and their students,” Zavala said.

As the semester begins and California State University, Northridge students begin sending out applications into the internship world, one aspect of the process becomes suddenly daunting: a professional wardrobe. Yes, picking the right interview outfit can make a huge difference in the eyes of future employers. To help ease that burden for CSUN students, the Career Center has opened a new “closet” — right on campus.

Matty’s Closet is a new clothing resource at the Career Center, aimed at helping students in need and facing tough wardrobe decisions. The Closet will offer not only wardrobe advice for an interview, but also provide a free complete professional outfit for the student, with pieces such as shirt, skirt, pants and tie.

On Sept. 5 at 11 a.m., Matty’s Closet, in Bayramian Hall room 413, will open its doors to CSUN students for the first time.

“Appearance counts. Interviewers evaluate how you project yourself professionally and look to see if your attire fits into their corporate culture. Matty’s Closet can help our students learn how to pick the right outfit for their industry,” said Ann Morey, director of the Career Center. “When a student dresses right for their interview, it makes a winning first impression and tells the employer they are ready to be hired.”

Amaralys Gastelum, a student recipient of the program said, “Thanks to Matty’s Closet I feel more confident for my upcoming interview.”

Matty’s Closet is a completely donation-based program. Last spring, a donation drive was organized by the Career Center to amass a variety of clothing options for the wide range of body types in CSUN’s diverse student population.

“In order to bring in donations, we launched a donation drive here at CSUN last spring, placing donation boxes around campus where students, faculty or staff could drop off their new or gently used professional clothing,” said Lucy Macias, a career counselor at the center. People have been very generous with donations. We are continuously receiving items and since we are a large campus we will continue to need and accept donations,” said Lucy Macis, a career counselor at the center.

Patricia Gaynor, an Assistant Director at the Career Center, saw a great need that had to be filled. She presented the idea to the Career Center and that is how Matty’s Closet came to be.

“One day it just hit me that students need these services at the Career Center,” said Gaynor. “College is a place that should prepare you for the workplace and all things professional. It is only appropriate that our CSUN Career Center should provide such a resource.”

Upon researching the project, Patricia found that “closets” were just starting to become a growing trend at universities throughout the country.

To receive one full professional outfit per semester, students must show a CSUN student ID.

Matty’s Closet will always be in need of clothing donations. To donate your gently used casual to professional business clothing items and accessories, please visit Bayramian Hall 413. To make a cash donation, please email jd@csun.edu or call (818) 677-3935.

CSUN has received a $3.81 million grant from the National Science Foundation to increase the number of minority students who study materials science. Photo by Lee Choo.

The field of materials science — the research and discovery of new materials, particularly solids — incorporates elements of physics, chemistry and engineering. Researchers study not only how a material is created, but are often at the forefront of creating new and complex materials, from nanotechnology to biomaterials and metallurgy.

California State University, Northridge has received a six-year, $3.81 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue support of a partnership between the university and Princeton University’s Center for Complex Materials. The partnership provides opportunities for minority CSUN students to work alongside scientists at Princeton and CSUN as they conduct research in the field of quantum materials.

“One of the benefits of a grant like this is the opportunity it offers our students to work with some of the leading researchers in the field,” said physics professor Gang Lu, who has headed the project since 2012 with the help of an NSF Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) grant. The new monies are a continuation of that initial award.

“Our students, especially undergraduates, are doing important research in the field of quantum materials, and their work has been published, — and will continue to be published — in some of the leading scientific journals,” Lu said. “We, as scientists, also benefit. Hopefully, we are fostering and encouraging a new generation of researchers interested in entering the fields.

“The greater diversity of people in the field, the greater diversity of questions, ideas and perspectives there are only makes the research better,” he said.

The CSUN and Princeton project focuses on such fundamental challenges as the energetics and dynamics of excited states in quantum materials. Research on quantum materials brings together scientists working on a variety of problems at the frontiers of physics, materials science and engineering. The properties of these systems are uniquely defined by quantum mechanical effects that remain manifest at high temperatures and macroscopic length scales.

Quantum materials have unusual magnetic and electrical properties that, if understood and controlled, could revolutionize virtually every aspect of society and enable highly efficient energy electrical systems and faster, more precise electronic devices. Quantum materials include systems based on metals, semiconductors, oxides and organics that have a range of potential applications including semiconductors, sensors, low-power memory modules, high-density storage devices and quantum computers. Quantum materials also are important components of the infrastructure for energy-related technologies.

“We’re talking about some serious, cutting-edge research that our students get to take part in,” Lu said.
Lu said that since the partnership started 12 years ago, a large cohort of CSUN students have taken part in the project, which includes sending five to six students to Princeton each summer to do research. During the school year, there are ample research opportunities at CSUN, as well as workshops and symposiums. There also are outreach efforts to local high schools to encourage students to consider going into the field.

“If we want the United States to continue to be a leader in the world in materials research, then we need to ensure that the pipeline to graduate school and post-doctoral research has the bodies it needs, particularly when it comes to women and minorities,” he said.

One of the highlights of the project is the interaction between the CSUN undergraduates and the Princeton graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, Lu said.

“Not only are they doing research together, there are numerous opportunities for the CSUN students to be inspired and to ask questions — questions about what it’s like to go to graduate school, possible career paths and things like that,” he said. “So many of our students are first-generation college students. While they can ask us, their professors, those questions, it can have so much more impact when the answers come from another student who appreciates what they are going through.”

Among a sold-out crowd of Dodger blue at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 1, nearly 2,300 people were out in CSUN red for a highly successful CSUN Night.

As part of a ticket package with the Dodgers, the group of fans received a dual-branded CSUN/Dodgers cap.

During the pregame ceremonies, CSUN alumnus and CSUN Foundation member Rick Levy ’74 (Political Science) and his wife and alumna Barbara Levy ’74  (English), CSUN Alumni Association President Cindy Chernow ’78 (Anthropology), ’91 M.A. (Counseling and Guidance) and Matty the Matador were recognized on the field at Dodger Stadium. Levy threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

In addition, CSUN alumna Gretchen Bradley Anderson ’18 (Music) sang the national anthem.

There is no better beginning to a semester than free tacos and cold drinks at California State University, Northridge’s annual President’s Picnic.

On Sept. 6 on Bayramian Lawn, students, faculty and staff enjoyed an afternoon of free festivities, as well as a chance to learn more about CSUN resources such as Associated Students, the Department of Police Services and the University Student Union.

With music, free food courtesy of the Orange Grove Bistro and free five-minute massages, picnic attendees were able to take a breather from the busy semester to meet new people, mingle with CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison and have some Matador fun. To accommodate student schedules, the picnic took place during both afternoon and evening sessions.

“The President’s Picnic is an interactive experience that allows students a great opportunity to connect back with each other,” said student Juvaliet Lopez, who is studying in the College of Humanities’ Four-Year Integrated (FYI) Teacher Credential Program in English. “It helps students get back into the groove of things after a long summer break.”

Members of the Canoga Park community building a community garden, one of several projects launched as part of Champions for Change. Photo courtesy of Viridiana Ortiz.

It has been two years since California State University, Northridge faculty, staff and students launched the Champions for Change – Healthy Communities Initiative in Canoga Park, with the help of a grant from the California Department of Public of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In that time, community gardens have sprouted at more than a dozen sites; more than 70 community events have been held to educate people about healthy eating habits; and more than 400 classes have been conducted to teach school children, their families and other Canoga Park residents nutrition education and healthy living habits. In all, the initiative has touched the lives of more than 28,000 people.

“We have been very busy these past two years, but there is still a lot we’d like to do,” said Viridiana Ortiz, Project Coordinator of the Champions for Change – Health Communities Initiative in CSUN’s Marilyn Magaram Center for Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Science. “We have funding for the initiative for only three years, but we are hoping that by the end of that time we will have planted the seeds so that our efforts — which have been done in collaboration with the community — will continue and grow, and are flexible enough to respond to community needs as they change.”

To that end, officials at the Magaram Center in the College of Health and Human Development teamed up with officials at the university’s Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing and its Neighborhood Partners in Action (NPA) initiative. NPA is designed to help optimize Canoga Park’s resources, collect data about community needs and form partnerships to foster relations between residents, local businesses and the university. Together, the two enterprises helped take the Champions for Change initiative into nearly all corners of Canoga Park, from local churches and businesses to schools and centers that serve the elderly.

Initiative organizers also are working with Guadalupe Community Center’s food pantry, and a food pantry at the university, to procure fresh fruits and vegetables and provide patrons of the pantries with nutrition education. A task force made up of university personnel and community members has been created to ensure that the initiative is responding to the needs of the Canoga Park community.

CSUN students have conducted classes on developing healthy eating habits and cooking practices, helped establish community gardens, and attended weekly farmers market to distribute health information, including recipes for turning the produce being sold at the market into healthy, affordable family meals that respect cultural sensibilities.

The initiative, which was funded with an $880,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health that supports a project to reduce obesity rates among low-income populations in Canoga Park that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education benefits. The grant aims to reduce obesity by providing nutrition education, promoting physical activity and working to create healthier environments for low-income individuals and families where they live, learn, work, play, pray and shop.

California State University, Northridge students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members worked together to beautify the campus and surrounding neighborhoods during the fourth annual Matadors Day of Service on Sept. 8.

This year, more than 500 Matadors and volunteers — up about 200 people from 2017 — packaged food for the CSUN Food Pantry, swept the streets, picked up trash and planted fruits and vegetables in the campus gardens early Saturday morning. The event was a combined effort between CSUN’s Unified We Serve, the Northridge Beautification Foundation and the Northridge City Council, and was sponsored by SoCalGas.

“One of the major differences this year is that we have alumni participating,” said Maria Elizondo, CSUN coordinator for Volunteer and Community Involvement.

“Also, a lot of the students who came out were first-time students,” Elizondo said. “At a university that’s almost 40,000 strong, sometimes you can get lost. One idea behind Matadors Day of Service is that new students come and create connections with the students who are already engaged on campus.”

State Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) also came out to support the event. He praised the volunteers for turning out to serve their local community.

“It’s unbelievable. There’s 500 people here at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Hertzberg said. “It’s not just kids from the campus. It’s community people, neighborhood council people and alumni. CSUN’s an important place in the San Fernando Valley.”

CSUN senior Veronica Torres said she volunteered because she wanted to make a difference on campus.

“I wanted to be more involved on the campus — it’s my first time [at the Day of Service],” Torres said. ”It’s a good way to meet people. [I’ve been] talking to people I’ve never met before.”

David Meza, public affairs manager for SoCalGas, explained why the company supports the annual Day of Service — including sending ​​a dozen employees to volunteer side-by-side with students and alumni.

“We not only work here [in the Valley], but we also live here, so for us community work is really important,” Meza said.

The fall 2018 semester at California State University, Northridge got off to a thrilling start as students took a break from their new class schedules to join fellow Matadors at Matador Nights on Sept. 14.

Every semester, CSUN’s University Student Union (USU) transforms into what the USU calls “CSUN’s Best Party.” This semester, Matadors filled the USU to enjoy games, live DJs, food and fun.

Students had the chance to challenge their friends to a game of laser tag in the Northridge Room, which was transformed into a laser battlefield where teams of Matadors battled for victory.

Free pizza, sliders and popcorn helped keep students’ energy up, so they could (try to) keep up with Matty the Matador’s dance moves on the Plaza del Sol dance floor. DJ teams Deux Twins and LA Leakers kept the dance floor bustling and the party going until 1 a.m.

Walter the Bus, “the World’s Largest Volkswagen Bus,” visited CSUN for the night and offered a fun hangout spot and popular photo-op with its bright neon lights. Students looking for more action took a dizzy ride on the fast-spinning Tornado carnival ride.

In the Cosmic Room, party-goers could get horoscope predictions for the upcoming semester or stop by for airbrush tattoos.

The USU Grand Salon was turned into an arcade with a modern twist, packed with classic arcade games as well as virtual-reality games.

This Matador Nights also celebrated 30 years of events at the USU. In honor of the special occasion, Matadors were treated to “anniversary cake.”

Transfer student and first-time Matador Nights attendee Klara Gadd said she came for the fun and free food.

“I wanted to feel like a part of the school and see what CSUN has to offer, now that I’m a Matador,” Gadd said.