When Department of Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management faculty Maryam Tabibzadeh completed California State University, Northridge’s New Faculty Orientation (NFO) last week, she felt like she was part of a family.

“One of the most helpful parts of attending the New Faculty Orientation program for me was providing me with a feeling of becoming a family member in a community,” said Tabibzadeh, a new tenure-track professor. “This expanded the network of people I know and gave me this feeling that I know colleagues who are in a similar status, situation and have been dealing with similar challenges and excitements to me in other departments and colleges.”

Tabibzadeh was one of dozens of new faculty who attended the orientation Aug. 19 and 20. Her sentiments are just what the staff in the Office of Faculty Development were hoping attendees would takeaway from the event, along with tools—ranging from tips on creating a syllabus to helpful technology to icebreakers for getting to know their students.

“You cannot underestimate the power of these connections,” said Greg Knotts, director of the New Faculty Orientation program, professor in the Department of Elementary Education and coordinator of CSUN’s Queer Studies Program. He encouraged the new faculty to find “cross pollination” between them and faculty in other disciplines and develop working relationships.

“NFO manages to get the needed bureaucratic tasks accomplished while new faculty meet veteran faculty, have some fun and learn about the campus community,” Knotts said.

Nearly all of the 86 new tenure-track faculty hired for the 2015-16 academic year attended the annual event, which was held in the Oviatt Library’s Jack and Florence Ferman Presentation Room.

“I walked away from the orientation having bonded with other new faculty,” said Shu-Sha Angie Guan, new faculty in the Department of Child and Adolescent Development. She said the information provided including campus expectations, standards and teaching strategies were “super helpful.”

The program included presentations by the Office of Human Resources, the Division of Information Technology, the Division of Student Affairs and the Oviatt Library. In addition, members of the women’s soccer team, student orientation leaders and students from the Department of Kinesiology led an exercise break. Members of a CSUN student a cappella vocal group serenaded the new faculty, and President Dianne F. Harrison hosted a special reception for new faculty at her home on Aug. 20.

For more information about the New Faculty Orientation, visit the Office of Faculty Development webpage or contact Greg Knotts at greg.knotts@csun.edu.

As a child growing up in Mexico City, Tamara Romo dreamed about Hollywood. She went to the movies three times a week to see American-made movies with Spanish subtitles.

Romo’s dream came true this summer as one of 24 students from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), enrolled in California State University, Northridge’s first UNAM Film Producers Workshop. The 21-year-old business management major said she jumped at the opportunity to participate in CSUN’s three-week course on business management for motion picture production.

“This was a dream come true,” said Romo, who had never been to the United States prior to the program. “We got an inside view at how U.S. cinema operates that was really unique and exciting.”

Professor Nate Thomas lectures. Photo by Lee Choo.

Led by CSUN Department of Cinema and Television Arts professor Nate Thomas, an award-winning producer and director, UNAM students were introduced to basic business procedures of the American motion picture industry. The class included film screenings, studio tours and lectures by film experts, including CSUN alumnus Donald Petrie, director of Hollywood feature films like Grumpy Old Men and Miss Congeniality; and Robert Mitas, producer and executive vice president of Academy Award-winning actor Michael Douglas’ Further Films.

The course included discussions on the management of both independent and major studio projects; financing for film projects; budgeting, distribution and legal matters as they relate to film production.

“Everybody is interested in how films are produced in the United States,” Thomas said. “It was great working with this group of students, hungry to learn all they could about the U.S. film industry.”

Jon Stahl, professor and chair of the cinema and television arts department, said the UNAM students received a “full immersion in American approaches to filmmaking.”

He said it was a “cross-cultural” exchange that benefitted both the UNAM students and the American faculty and students who had an opportunity to meet the visiting students.

The film producers workshop is the latest student exchange with UNAM, one of the oldest and highest-ranked academic institutions in Latin America, since signing a partnership agreement last year. The agreement created a Los Angeles-based center that is housed in CSUN’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and open to faculty and students in all disciplines across the campus interested in the study of Mexico and Latin America.

“This agreement benefits both universities because of the education, cultural exchange and international internships,” said Paula de Gortari, director of UNAM’s Los Angeles office. “Both UNAM and CSUN have a great cinema school.”

Gortari said with the film workshop and similar programs reaffirm UNAM Los Angeles and CSUN’s “ongoing and clear commitment to the educational development of bright young minds, expecting in return an equal commitment to making the best of these opportunities.”

CSUN is considered one of the top film schools in the world. UNAM has an outstanding reputation as well — Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón and multi-Oscar-nominated cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki are both alumni of the Mexico-based film school.

“I learned a lot about the business side of filmmaking,” said Itzel Dekovic Bravo, a law/intellectual property major. “I’m going back to Mexico with new ideas.”

Remember being a freshman on a new, enormous university campus and thinking, “I have a long way to go before I graduate?”

For more than 5,000 freshmen at California State University, Northridge, the annual Freshman Convocation, beginning at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, in Matador Square, aims at shedding light on the end goal for students — graduation.

As the students walk in lines through Matador Walk, they mirror a similar route many will take as they head toward their seats at commencement in a few years. While they filter into their seats on the Oviatt Lawn on Sept. 10, CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison, the vice presidents and academic deans will stand at the top of the library steps in full academic regalia, welcoming the newest members of the Matador family.

Christopher Aston, assistant director of student development, is a coordinator of the convocation each year. He said the event helps freshmen get acclimated to being at the university.

“It is an academic welcome in nature,” he said. “They will see the regalia, they will see the robes and they will see the pomp and circumstance. But what they get to really see is the bookend to their journey in academia at CSUN.”

Highlights of the event are expected to include the awarding of the Dianne F. Harrison Leadership Award to outstanding freshman Kenia Lopez; a speech by an outstanding outgoing senior, former CSU Student Trustee and Associated Students Vice President Talar Alexanian; and the keynote address by David Levithan, author of the freshman common reading book, “Every Day.” The attendees will be able to meet with Levithan prior to the event for an hour-long question-and-answer session.

Aston said he is looking forward to the freshmen’s reaction to this year’s convocation.

“I’m interested in seeing what [they] think about it,” he said. “At times, we’ve seen their faces are smiling, but it’s not until the middle of the convocation, when they’re lauded with jubilation, their faces lighten.”

Director of Student Development Patrick Bailey said he is excited for this year’s convocation, since it highlights the future dreams of the freshmen.

“It’s the first time I will get to see it,” said Bailey, who came to CSUN earlier this year. “I’m looking forward to seeing the freshmen as part of the [academic] process, where they understand that their goal is ending here [as a graduate]. I’m excited to see their hopes and goals on their faces.”

The first year of classroom teaching is a bit like Army bootcamp: Newbies face months of sleep deprivation, inconvenient illnesses and long, grueling days, not to mention the fear of failure. Those who make it through that first year are awarded no uniform, no special title and no medals — but they should be.

Los Angeles Unified School District leaders and their hometown ballclub seemed to agree, taking a late-summer day this year to honor 23 exceptional “rookie” teachers from throughout the sprawling district. California State University, Northridge alumni took seven — almost a third — of the awards, as the inaugural “LAUSD Rookie Teachers of the Year” for the 2014-15 school year. All seven earned credentials from the renowned teacher-credential program in CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education, along with their degrees.

The teachers were nominated by their colleagues and schools for their effective teaching practices and efforts to meet the school district’s goal of preparing all students to be successful 21st-century learners. They were honored Aug. 2 at Dodger Stadium, where the district and team officials presented each teacher with a personalized Dodgers jersey and announced their names over the stadium loudspeakers during the game.

“We were practicing our kindergarten graduation (in May), and the principal and the coordinator and the coach walked in with a lady in a suit, and they made this big announcement — it was nice,” said Heidy Lopez ’12 (Liberal Studies) of the moment she learned she’d been named a “Rookie Teacher of the Year” at Queen Anne Elementary in Mid-City Los Angeles.

Lopez has matriculated to (teaching) first grade, along with her students from last year, and she had high praise for CSUN’s Integrated Teaching Education Program, which helped her earn a bachelor’s degree and a “preliminary” teaching credential.

“As soon as I was out of school, I was able to get a job,” said Lopez, who has obtained her full teaching credential.

CSUN’s heavy representation among “rookie” teacher honorees “speaks a lot about CSUN,” she said.

“Even before I went to CSUN, I knew that it was known for having an amazing program,” Lopez said. “This proves it, because teachers from a lot of other [universities] couldn’t get jobs right away, and we did — and now to learn that seven of the ‘rookies of the year’ were from CSUN, that says a lot.

“I’m really spoiled at my school,” she said of Queen Anne Elementary. “I had a mentor for my first two years, and I’ve had a lot of support. I’m adjusting to the new curricula and Common Core standards. I love coming to my job, because every day is different. By the end of the year, you can really see the kids change.”

Cindy Flores ’14 (Liberal Studies), who also taught kindergarten in 2014-15, said the award was especially gratifying after the exhaustion and struggles she overcame during her rookie year in the classroom.

“I struggled a lot in the beginning, where I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish my first year of teaching,” said Flores, who also completed CSUN’s credential program and teaches at Van Nuys Elementary School. “Teaching is a lot of work! I was trying to figure out the administrative side of the job, the prepping that is involved, planning, etc. I felt like I lived at school. I was there for about 11 to 12 hours some days.

“I tend to set my standards very high for myself, and I didn’t want to let my students down,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that they learned as much as possible and enjoyed their first year of school. As the year came to an end, I felt more comfortable, and planning was becoming easier. … When I found out that I was being awarded rookie teacher of the year, it was such a surprise. I started the year feeling overwhelmed and, at times, even defeated. And I ended the year remembering why I chose this career.”

Flores also praised CSUN’s credential program for its practical approach in training teachers.

“There is help every step of the way, and professors really get to know the students and work with them since the cohorts [are] not very big,” she said. “All of the [CSUN] classes were hands on, where we were asked to teach lessons to our peers as if we were teaching an elementary classroom. I liked that aspect of the program because for me, it is much easier to remember something when I practice it than when I just read about it. In my first year of teaching, I used many techniques for behavior management, teaching phonemic awareness, art projects, how to communicate with parents — to name a few — that I learned from classes I took at CSUN, or from the student-teaching experience we had to fulfill.”

According to LAUSD officials, the honorees demonstrated excellence in preparing and planning instruction, creating a positive classroom climate and using a dynamic and engaging teaching style. In the inaugural year of the award, the school district employed more than 900 first-year teachers. Of those, 87 were nominated by administrators, and a committee then selected the 23 winners.

“These talented teachers are the building blocks of great schools,” said Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines. “They inspire young people. They encourage students to achieve and embrace lifelong learning. We look forward to their impressive work for many years to come.”

The 23 winners and their guests watched a Dodgers-Angels baseball game from a private suite at the stadium. In addition to Flores and Lopez, the other CSUN alumni winners were: Jose Pillado ’07 (Child Development), Leichman High School; Enrique Rodriguez ’03 (Cinema and Television Arts), Sheridan Elementary; Jessica Blake ’00 (Marketing), ’06 (MBA), Trinity Street Elementary; Maria Angeles Huerta ’09 (Liberal Studies), Saticoy Elementary; and Jessica Garcia ’13 (Psychology), Wisdom Elementary 2014-15, now at Parmelee Elementary School.

“Not only did I teach my students a lot, but they taught me what teaching is all about,” Flores said. “I don’t think I would trade my experience. There were many bumps on the road, but it is reassuring to know that I got through my first year of teaching. I believe that no other year can be a roller coaster with so many surprises as this year has been.”

California State University, Northridge will help the CSU digitize 10,000 documents and 100 oral histories related to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

The CSU Japanese-American Digitization Project is a collaboration between 15 CSU campuses to create a public, online repository of internment-related documents, audio files, photographs and oral histories, as well as materials documenting the era’s Japanese-American life in California. The project is spearheaded by CSU Dominguez Hills’ archives and special collections, which was awarded a $321,554 grant from the National Parks Service to complete the digital archive over two years.

CSUN’s Head of Special Collections and Archives Ellen Jarosz said each campus library’s special collections has different materials that are complementary. CSUN’s collection in the Delmar T. Ooviatt Library mostly is composed of oral histories; newsletters from various camps produced by internees; correspondence, such as letters passed back and forth between family members in camps and those not in the camps; and clipped newspaper and magazine articles.

A letter sent from an internee at the Santa Anita camp to an outside friend.

A letter sent from an internee at the Santa Anita camp to an outside friend.

“The website will be really valuable,” Jarosz said. “The materials themselves slowly deteriorate; over time, they break down. It’s important to capture them before they crumble apart.”

Roughly 120,000 Japanese-Americans, most of whom were United States citizens, were

forcibly relocated to camps, where they lived in squalid conditions for three years — most of them losing their homes and livelihoods. The majority of internees were from the West Coast, many of them from California.

CSUN Asian-American studies professor Edith Chen lauded the CSU for the project.

“Anything the university can do to say we value the history and perspectives of Asian-Americans sends a message out there about what is important to learn and preserve,” Chen said.

Japanese-Americans are one of the nation’s smallest ethnicities, and their population is not growing, said Chen. She compared the former internees, whose numbers are dwindling as they age, to libraries that are burning down — losing valuable information as the population dwindles.

CSUN’s Asian-American studies department has tried in the past to do a similar kind of digitization project, but technology was not as accessible and there was a lack of funding, she said.

Asian-American studies lecturer Laura Uba, whose parents were interned during WWII at the camp in Heart Mountain, Wyo., said the portal could be “fantastic” for students and members of the public interested in Asian-American history. She said it could highlight a part of history that often receives little attention and is misrepresented.

“This archive can dispel the sophomoric narratives that still dominate so much of the middle and high school curriculum, and instead provide more realistic, illuminating and useful perspectives,” Uba said. “Away from the West Coast, many Americans know little more than that the camps existed. Those who do are often misinformed because they rely on what family elders have said, but the latter formed their opinions based on the contemporaneous rantings [that] racist newspapers spread — and sugarcoated narratives the government fed the American public. So, they still haven’t learned about what the Japanese-Americans really experienced, much less why the government really acted as it did.”

Uba said the oral histories could be important. Depending on what the survivors chose to expose and if they were particularly introspective, the oral histories could “go a long way toward filling a hole in the corpus of scholarly knowledge — precisely because they are testimonies.”

“Presenting some people with concepts and facts moves them to appreciate the importance of the internment experience for the United States, as well as for Japanese-Americans specifically,” Uba said. “But many people need to feel a connection to the people studied. These testimonies can be just the link needed to stir empathy and thereby arouse interest in the internment experience and see its importance.”

Freshmen should not let others define who they are, urged author David Levithan, the keynote speaker on Sept. 10 at California State University, Northridge’s Freshman Convocation, an annual event that formally welcomes first-year students to the university.

Levithan, author of the Freshman Common Reading book, Every Day, spoke to one of the largest gatherings of freshmen ever at this annual event. His remarks were inspired by the plot of Every Day, the story of “A,” who wakes up in a different body at the beginning of each day.

Levithan used this premise to explore the idea of identity and the labels that others attach to a person’s physical appearance. He spoke about how people should try to overcome these stereotypes.

“You have to choose how to define yourself,” Levithan said. “It is too easy to fall back on how everybody sees you, or how you think everybody sees the way you look. You have every right to be the human being that you want to be. You have every right to be in whatever body you choose, to identify as whatever gender you choose, to love whomever you choose — and don’t let anybody ever tell you differently.”

Approximately 2,600 students made their way to the Oviatt Lawn to attend the convocation, an event that welcomes students as Matadors and sets the stage for future success. CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison emphasized that students hold the keys to their futures.

“The university’s first priority is your success,” Harrison said. “The faculty, staff and administrators of CSUN are focused on providing programs, resources and services to support you. But this effort must also be a partnership with you, our students, and depends greatly on your commitment to your education and personal success. Have confidence in yourself, but understand the work may not be easy. You are the future. You will innovate. You will do the research. You will solve the problems of our world. I know you can succeed because you are now part of the CSUN family — but to succeed and achieve excellence, you will need to plan well for the journey. And we will be here to help you.”

Former CSU Student Trustee and Associated Students Vice President Talar Alexanian, a 2015 outstanding senior graduate, urged students to take advantage of the wealth of resources the campus has to offer.

“There are endless possibilities, as long as your eyes are open to finding them,” Alexanian said.

President Harrison also presented the 2015 Dianne Harrison Leadership Award to Kenia Lopez, a sophomore majoring in journalism with a 3.51 GPA.

The Delmar T. Oviatt Library grant winners. Photo by David J. Hawkins.

Through a joint grant from the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the California State University, Northridge’s Delmar T. Oviatt Library will host a program that works with local Latino/a community centers to synthesize classroom and community experiences into one program — to paint a broader picture of Latino American history.

Grant coordinators Jennie Quinonez-Skinner, Luiz Mendes, and Isis Leininger are heading the yearlong project, which will be focused on delving deeper into topics highlighted in a PBS documentary series titled “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History.”

“We are showcasing the six segments of this documentary,” she said. “It really helps bring about the richness of the Latino history in the U.S.”

The project will explore various aspects of Latino American history, such as their influence in the Hollywood film industry, veterans of foreign wars and public art projects in the San Fernando Valley.

Quinonez-Skinner explained that the wide variety of topics the documentary series covers gave her department a chance to bring in other groups — such as the CSUN Veterans Resource Center, the library’s Creative Media Studio and local public entities — for an opportunity to work together on telling the history of Latino Americans from a more personal perspective.

Grant coordinator Jennie Quinonez-Skinner, center, discusses the upcoming events for the year-long project on “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History,” with team members in the library. Photo by David J. Hawkins.

“We have a huge amount of diversity in the U.S.,” she said. “It is important to encourage Latino Americans to share their stories in different ways.”

Mendes is reaching out to local libraries and community centers for the program. He said he is inspired by these collaborations because they provide a different approach to learning.

“One of the things we wanted to focus on is the partnership between the academic institution and the local cultural heritage,” he said. “We can design programs and activities that will educate [the community] about Latino Americans, their culture, their history — while going beyond the traditional walls of the academic institution.”

Fellow team member Veronica Muncal described the program as a path for other cultures in the region to be discussed.

“CSUN is such a diverse campus — that is one of the things that made me excited for this,” Muncal said. “I see this as a door opening for other cultures as well. I am Filipino, and I have a place in the Latino community [in Los Angeles]. It’s interesting to see a wider view of Latino history here.”

Quinonez-Skinner said she believes the program will provide a more open story of Latino American history.

“For a lot of us, no matter our backgrounds, we hear the singular story of a culture,” she said. “There is so much more. We want to make some great connections, provide more access to these scholarly topics to a wider audience and see ourselves in another light.”

“Latino Americans: 500 Years of History,” will be shown in six segments. Showings begin on Sept. 16 and end on April 2, 2016. For information on locations and times of showings and events, visit library.csun.edu/latino-americans.

How well do you know Los Angeles? Officials at California State University, Northridge’s Center for Southern California Studies (CSCS) and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences are curious.

Faculty, students and members of the public will explore the cultural landscape of the City of Los Angeles at an event celebrating “LAtitudes: An Angeleno’s Atlas,” an eclectic volume of essays and cartography on the geographic history of Los Angeles, published earlier this year by HeyDay Books. The event will take place Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the university and will feature a panel discussion moderated by former Los Angeles Times journalist, Hector Tobar.

Lawrence Becker, director of the CSCS, said the book is an example of ways that CSUN serves as a social and cultural hub in the region.

“The center generally focuses on public policy and public affairs in the region and the book is kind of a tasting menu of the region,” Becker said.

CSUN’s geography department was heavily involved in the book’s production, contributing essays, maps and artwork. Professor Steven Graves, who authored the chapter “Woody and Buzz,” an interpretation of the landscape of the San Fernando Valley, said he did not expect the book would be so well received.

“I thought the book was an exceptionally cool idea, but then again, I’m a geographer and it’s right up my alley,” Graves said. “The first pressing completely sold out and I wouldn’t have guessed that would happen. You get excited if you work hard on something and have people appreciate your work in a way that you wouldn’t have expected.”

The event will start with a visit to the geography department’s map library, and end with a panel of several LAtitudes contributors including Charles Hood, Sylvia Sukop, Teddy Varno, Jason Brown and Michael Jaime-Becerra.

Becker said Tobar will be an excellent moderator.

“If you think of Los Angeles and of people who can speak to its culture, history, geography, and landscape, he’s the perfect person to introduce this,” Becker said.

An open house will be held in the Geography Map Library and Sanborn Collection on the first floor of Sierra Hall at 4:30 p.m. The event will continue in the Whitsett Conference Room on the fourth floor of Sierra Hall with a reception at 6 p.m. and the panel at 7 p.m.

For more information and to RSVP, please visit the Center for Southern California Studies website at www.csun.edu/cscs.

Graduates celebrating at of California State University, Northridge’s 2014 commencement ceremonies. Photo by Lee Choo.

Graduates from California State University, Northridge earn more than $64,000 annually — nearly $16,000 a year more than their classmates who dropped out — 10 years after leaving the university.

Research by a pair of CSUN faculty members in the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics led to the development of what they believe is a more accurate way of measuring the success of college graduates using state employment and tax data to track how much alumni earn two years, five years and 10 years after they graduate from an institution. Their method takes into account students who drop out or transfer to other institutions, and it tracks the success of students who go on to graduate school.

In 2013, management professor Richard Moore and economics professor Kenneth Chapman issued their first report on the status of CSUN graduates five years after graduation, about the time President Barack Obama first started pushing for a new rating system for colleges. The president advocated for a system that, among other things, judged schools on the success of their graduates.

The White House abandoned the ratings system earlier this month for a new “College Scorecard” that includes measurements of students’ earnings six and 10 years after they started at a college, a concept very similar to the research done by Moore, Chapman and study contributor Bettina Huber, CSUN’s director of institutional research.

“We salute the federal government for making the extraordinary effort to provide comparable information on the cost of college and the earning of students, after they leave,” Moore said. “But this first effort comes up short by our standards. The federal earning measures are based on the 36 percent of CSUN students who took out federal loans, and then mix together the earning of graduates who earned bachelor’s degrees with dropouts and students who went on to earn graduate degrees.

“We look at these groups separately,” Moore continued. “In our search, we found data for almost 60 percent of all students and a higher percentage of graduates. The Department of Education reports average earning of $44,000 10 years after graduation. Our results with a larger population of students find earnings of $48,000 for dropouts and $64,000 for graduates with only bachelor’s degrees 10 years after leaving CSUN. In terms of earnings, this is a huge difference. The federal estimate, while showing CSUN to be above average, significantly underestimates the value of a CSUN degree.”

Moore, Chapman and Huber established five guiding principles they argue would create a realistic, unbiased way of measuring success of an institution’s students: follow all matriculated students over time; use standard data available in every state, such as employment records and tax rolls; create standard, easy-to-understand labor market measures; break down the data to the campus and program level; and make the results public.

The trio of researchers used this method to measure the economic success of CSUN students. They collected records for all entering students, including first-time freshmen and transfer and post-baccalaureate students, for the years 1995-2000. They issued their first report in 2013, offering a snapshot of CSUN students’ success.

Five years after leaving CSUN, the average annual salary for the university’s graduates was about $51,000. For those who completed graduate degrees, the average annual salary five years out of CSUN was more then $68,000, while the salary for those who dropped out of the university was about $38,000.

The follow-up study takes a look at the annual salary for CSUN students 10 years after they leave the university. CSUN graduates earn, on average, $64,000 annually a decade after leaving the university. Those who completed graduate degrees have an average annual salary of more than $73,000. Those who dropped out of the university earned, on average, about $44,000 a year 10 years after leaving CSUN.

“Any group that you look at has different job market characteristics,” Chapman said. “They all start out pretty close to each other when they exit school, but the really impressive differences are over time because the earnings profile gets steeper for the higher level of education received. The gap between the ones who got their degrees and the [dropouts] is always there, but the more years you are out of school, the bigger the gap is.”

The follow-up study also includes a look into the industries CSUN graduates choose for careers. Five years after leaving the university, the top five industries for CSUN graduates are: educational services; health care and social assistance; professional, scientific and technical services; finance and insurance; and information.

“If you look at the industries that our graduates are going into, we are aligned with the modern service economy,” Moore said, noting that some skeptics wonder why such a report is even necessary. “This tells the story about how aligned we are with the economy, as well as how our students are doing, and communicates the value of graduating and providing information to students and their families for making choices.”

A copy of the complete report, including a breakdown by college and program, can be found on the university’s Office of Institutional Research website in the “CSUN by the Numbers” link under Alumni Earnings.

Noral Walker at the NSBE 41st Annual National Convention, March 2015. Photo courtesy of Walker.

California State University, Northridge student Noral Walker wants engineering to be a household name within the African-American community.

Before graduating in May with a bachelor’s in engineering, Walker was elected to the 2015–2016 national executive board of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), an organization dedicated to fostering and supporting African-American engineers on pre-collegiate, collegiate and professional levels in the United States and internationally. He was appointed National Programs Chair in March after serving two years as the NSBE Pre-College Initiative Chair at regional and national levels.

Now a graduate student in structural engineering, Walker said the NSBE’s mission statement, “to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community,” resonates with him.

“In every single engineering class I’ve taken at CSUN, I was the only African-American student,” Walker said. “There were black students from other countries, but I was the only American one.”

Walker is determined to change that.

Shortly after enrolling at CSUN in 2009, Walker joined NSBE and surrounded himself with black engineering professionals and mentors. Seeing how NSBE could help support and grow the number of African-American engineering students, Walker re-started a NSBE chapter on campus while serving as the regional pre-collegiate chair.

NSBE connects with schools and communities across the nation to provide programming for elementary, junior high and high school students. The organization sponsored 17 Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) camps this year in 16 cities across the country, fostering interest in engineering for almost 4,000 students at no cost to their families.

Walker said these programs could help inspire more African Americans to become engineers, which isn’t a field that African-American youth typically desire.

“At first, it doesn’t seem like a very attractive subject or career to get into because the kids think it’s boring, since they need science and math for engineering,” Walker said. “But with the summer camps, we asked the parents toward the end of the day if they saw a difference in their child, and they said their kids were now interested and excited.

“Some communities we go to are struggling. You see how some people live, you see their quality of life and you look at the possibilities of engineering and how that could enhance their quality of life. It’s really about growing the black experience.”

As national programs chair, Walker said he is working to increase the engagement of NSBE’s professional demographic with its pre-collegiate and collegiate demographic. He said it is important to provide that kind of mentorship.

Walker said he hopes the lack of diversity in engineering at the student and faculty level will change with the help of NSBE, and a push by universities to engage African-American students. The organization has an initiative to help graduate 10,000 African-American students with engineering degrees from 2025 on. NSBE is also working with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and the Society of Women Engineers to graduate 50,000 engineers total among the different groups within the same period of time.

“There is a unified effort to grow engineering from so many different fronts,” Walker said. “It’s exciting and challenging. Ten years is a very long time, but when it gets here we’re going to feel like we started yesterday. So many things could come up, so many twists and turns, unforeseen changes, but we can do it as long as we maintain this process without losing sight of the goal.”

Looking toward his own future, Walker is deciding between pursuing a Ph.D in engineering or working for a corporation developing blast-resistant structural design. Walker said he may or may not pursue teaching, but he knows that whatever he does, he will continue to mentor African-American engineers.

“Mentoring is something you automatically do in NSBE, and it’s something I’ll be doing until I’m too old to talk,” Walker said.

Karen Cator, president and CEO of Digital Promise and a leading voice for transforming American education through technology.

How can schools close the digital learning gap? That question and others regarding education and technology will be explored at California State University, Northridge’s first Education on the Edge lecture of the new school year on Tuesday, Oct. 13.

Karen Cator, president and CEO of Digital Promise and a leading voice for transforming American education through technology, innovation and research, will discuss the realities faced by teachers and students in the classroom as they deal with the impact of emerging technologies on education. Her lecture is scheduled to take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union on the east side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

Wendy Murawski, executive director and Eisner Endowed Chair at CSUN’s Center for Teaching and Learning, which presents the lecture series, said she was excited to have Cator visit the campus.

“I asked around to find out who was really knowledgeable about what was cutting edge related to technology and its current and future use in educational settings. Karen Cator’s name kept coming up,” Murawski said. “She is clearly on top of what to expect in pre-K-12 and university classrooms, so we know her talk will be relevant to a wide audience of students, teachers, professors, parents, administrators and community members.”

Cator served as director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education from 2009-13. In that role, she led the development of the 2010 National Education Technology Plan and focused her office’s efforts on teacher and leader support. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of Education, Cator directed Apple’s leadership and advocacy efforts in education. At Apple, her work centered on the intersection of education policy and research, emerging technologies and the realities faced by teachers, students and administrators.

She began her educational career in Alaska, where she was a teacher, and helped lead technology planning and implementation efforts; she served as a special assistant for telecommunications for the governor of Alaska. She received her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Springfield College in Massachusetts and her master’s degree in school administration from the University of Oregon. She is the past chair of the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills.

The Education on the Edge lecture series is free and open to the public. However, reservations are required. To reserve a seat, register at http://CTLcator.eventbrite.com.

CSUN’s Center for Teaching and Learning is the research, collaboration and professional development arm of the Michael D. Eisner College of Education. Faculty from departments across the college are conducting cutting-edge research and professional development to address the needs of schools in collaboration with K-12 teachers, administrators and community members.

The center was established in 2002, thanks to a generous gift from the Eisner Foundation, the family foundation of Michael and Jane Eisner. The center initially focused on neurodevelopment and how knowledge of those constructs can be taught to teachers and ultimately impact the way they teach and the way students learn. During the past few years, the center has broadened its scope. Faculty and affiliates are researching and analyzing multiple innovative approaches to learning, counseling, educational therapy, administration and professional development.

From Left: Luis Reyes, Brenda Velasco, professor MariaElena Zavala and Kimberly Arellano

A little more than 56 percent of all doctoral students in the United States attain a Ph.D. within 10 years, according to the Council of Graduate Schools.

However, California State University, Northridge undergraduate students who participate in the Minority Access to Research Careers Undergrad Science Training and Academic Research (MARC U-STAR) program dwarf that statistic, boasting nearly a 90 percent success rate among those who go on to pursue a doctorate.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the program provides funding, academic training, mentoring and research opportunities for historically underrepresented students who show excellence within the sciences and are interested in research careers. The program is open to juniors and seniors and lasts for two years.

CSUN biology professor Maria Elena Zavala, director of the program, said the students are successful because they are prepared for more than the academic challenges.

“[The program is] taking talented students and helping them develop skills they need, but not just scientific skills,” Zavala said. “They develop the social and psychology skills they need to deal with being a Ph.D. student, like the ability to sort things out and set priorities.”

Zavala has directed the program since it came to CSUN in 1990. At that time, it had only four students. Since then, the NIH has awarded the program millions of dollars. The program’s current grant, renewed in May, provides a total of $509,256 annually for the next five years. The grant funds the students’ research, and programs such as math and science summer training for incoming freshmen. Most recently, program officials developed a science 100 course specifically tailored for each science major.

This year, 16 students in the program are doing research in fields such as psychology, biology and public health. Each student must choose a scope of work, write an undergraduate thesis and participate in a summer research program.

Luis Reyes, psychology Major

Senior Luis Reyes, who is majoring in psychology, works in an applied behavioral analysis lab in the psychology department. His research focuses on children with disabilities. The project includes computer simulations, analyzing behavior in college students and using the findings for real-world applications.

Reyes said financial assistance from the MARC program gave him a chance to focus on his research.

“For many students in the program, we wouldn’t be able to be engaged in the research if they had to work outside of school,” Reyes said. “We get to work in the environment without distractions.”

In addition to funding and academic guidance, Zavala said mentorship, especially mentorship in cultural awareness, is a big part of the program. As the students come from historically underrepresented groups in the sciences — women, Latinos, Native Americans, African-Americans and Pacific Islanders — Zavala said many have faced discrimination in the past. The program gives students a chance to talk about their experiences.

Zavala, who was the first Mexican-American woman in the United States to obtain a Ph.D. in botany, said it is important for the students to understand who they are and develop the confidence to confront uncomfortable situations when they are professionals.

“There is the reality of what others think of you versus what you think of yourself,” Zavala said. “You have to get some armor and develop your own way to deal with people who are committing microaggressions or even big aggressions, especially if you are a woman.”

Brenda Velasco, biochemistry major, at work.

Senior Brenda Velasco, who is majoring in biochemistry, said the program helped her develop a strong sense of identity, as well as cultural sensitivity toward others. This summer, Velasco worked in a laboratory with an immunology oncologist at Harvard University, studying how proteins involved in clearing infections can also be used in treating autoimmune diseases and cancer.

Initially, Velasco was nervous she would be the only minority in the Harvard project, but was pleasantly surprised to learn that the other researchers were international students and very diverse.

“I was afraid everyone there would be rich, or that I wouldn’t be able to relate to them. But no one in the lab was even from the United States, and we all spoke different languages,” said Velasco, who was the only undergraduate student participating in the project. “They were so successful and getting published, and it made me feel like I could be that successful, too.”

Zavala said some of the students’ research can be considered social justice research, as there is an uneven burden of diseases in underserved communities.

Kimberly Arellano, public health major

Graduate student Kimberly Arellano, who graduated from the program in 2014 and is participating in the CSUN Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) program, is pursuing a master’s degree in public health. She wants to expose and alleviate health inequities and disparities affecting disadvantaged Latinos. She said her research is inspired by her personal experiences.

“My parents came here undocumented, and they experienced the effects of inequality in housing and health,” Arellano said. “Growing up, I could see there are many gaps and disparities in access to health care. That’s really where my passion stems from. I can offer a different perspective into the field, and that is important.”

Zavala said programs like MARC are important because they can help counter racial inequities in the sciences and increase diversity within university faculty. Reyes, Velasco and Arellano said the program has pointed them in that direction, as all three want to become public university professors after they complete their doctorates.

“My dream is to come back to CSUN and teach in the health science department,” Arellano said. “I want to help diversify the academic workforce and educate future public health professionals. I want to give students the mentoring that I received, encourage them to go out there and show them they can do what they initially did not think was possible.”

CSUN mathematics professor Helena Noronha sits in her office. She is heading the Research Experience in Community Colleges project. Photo by Luis Garcia.

For many students, community college is an economical first step on their way to getting a bachelor’s degree. California State University, Northridge is now giving those students interested in studying mathematics a leg up when it comes to doing research before they even step foot on a four-year college campus.

Through a $434,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant awarded to CSUN math professor Helena Noronha in September, Pierce Community College and Mission College instructors and students will perform research alongside CSUN math professors over the next three years.

The project, titled Research Experience in Community Colleges, or RE-C^2, is one of the first mathematic research opportunities for community colleges in the nation. It is aimed at attracting more students to Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, a growing demand in the United States.

California has one of the largest community college student populations in the country, with more than 50 percent of CSU students attending a community college first.

Noronha explained that with a growing community college population, it is important for CSUN to focus on grooming future university students for research in graduate STEM fields.

“We need to pay attention to this population because they are being overlooked,” she said. “If [universities] start engaging them earlier, we can attract more students to higher education. Extending [mathematical research] to community colleges is a way to tell [students and faculty] what higher-level mathematics is like.”

Werner Horn, a CSUN mathematics professor and collaborator on the project, said having students involved in mathematical research would create a focused goal for them if they choose to transfer and become mathematicians.

“A lot of our math majors come from community colleges,” Horn said. “If we can get them involved in research a year before they transfer, they will have a much better idea of what is expected of them as a [mathematics] student, [and] it gets them more vested in the subject.”

Horn said that exposing community college students to mathematical research would give them a chance to understand the opportunities available if they choose to become mathematicians.

“Do you know what a mathematician does?” he laughed. “Very few people know what we are doing. A lot of beginning math students only have a vague idea of what it means to be a mathematician. They think the only career choice is teaching. They have no idea there are other choices out there.”

Students going into STEM graduate programs are more successful if they have had undergraduate research experience, Noronha said.

“Now a days, it is almost a must for any undergraduate applying for a graduate mathematics program to have done research before,” she said. “There are studies that show that students who find the basics of research as undergraduates turn out to be some of the best students in graduate school.”

Having CSUN professors partner with community college teams is also beneficial for the connections between faculty members.    

“I see an outcome of a better relationship among the faculty, because CSUN faculty will better understand how to approach community college students and faculty,” Noronha said.

Horn agreed that the program could bridge the gap between community colleges and CSUs.

“I have taught transfer students. I know what they know,” he said. “It could get the faculty and students involved at community colleges more involved. This will be a model in enhancing students and their work before transferring.”

Children studying hard at the CHiME Institute’s K-8 school. The institute is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Photo by Lee Choo.

It started out as an idea from a couple of California State University, Northridge special education professors who were looking for a real-world way to demonstrate full inclusion of all children in a classroom.

Over the past 25 years, the CHIME Institute has grown into a nationally recognized program that includes an early childhood education component, a public charter K-8 school as well as a research and teaching demonstration center. It has been hailed by educators around the world as a model for inclusive education.

The institute is marking its 25th anniversary with a special celebration at the Woodland Hills Country Club on Friday, Oct. 30. The evening will include a ceremony to honor current CHIME parent and advocate, actress Amy Brenneman, former CHIME parent Rochelle Gerson, and long-time CHIME supporter and CSUN special education professor Deborah Chen for their contributions to the institute. Celebrity DJ Richard Blade of KROQ and SiriusXM Radio is serving as the night’s master of ceremonies.

Brenneman, who has two children attending CHIME’s K-8 public charter school, called the institute “a visionary community where individuals of varying abilities come together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and support.”

“Before we were enfolded by CHIME, and as my daughter’s cognitive differences were making themselves known, my family was isolated, worried and, quite frankly, scared of what the future held,” she said. “At CHIME, not only did both my children flourish, but my husband and I got to know other families who also previously felt isolated and worried. Together, we are challenging old beliefs and creating a bright future for our children and ourselves — the students, the parents and the committed educators who never say die and whose hearts blaze a trail for all of us.”

The CHIME Institute began as an early childhood education program on the CSUN campus. It grew out of a futile search faculty made for a school to which they could refer their students — one that had successfully implemented a full-inclusion program. Not finding what they were looking for, they decided to create one at CSUN.

“It was kind of a Judy Garland moment. We needed a place to demonstrate inclusive education, so we created it,” said special education professor Michele Haney, a CHIME founder and chair of the institute’s board of directors. “What started out as a small grant has evolved into a respected institute that provided benefits to all families with children. Its work with all children — those with disabilities and those without — has turned into a model for social justice for everyone.”

Inclusive education at CHIME means that children who reflect the demographics of the surrounding region — including children who develop typically, children with special needs and children who are gifted — learn side by side. CHIME’s model allows for the individual needs of each child to be addressed in a manner that enhances his or her strengths, while providing educational progress.

An initial grant from the U.S. Department of Education in the late 1980s inspired the creation of an inclusive preschool program in CSUN’s Children’s Center, which serves the preschool-aged children of the university’s students.

“In the late ’80s, the word ‘inclusion’ wasn’t even used. At the time we talked about ‘mainstreaming’ children, especially in preschool,” said Annie Cox, executive director of CHIME’s early education programs and a founder of the institute. “By the time CHIME started, there was some really good research that showed that if it’s a high-quality early education program, with collaboration between general and special education to support diverse needs, is good for all children.”

At the end of the three year grant in 1990, CHIME started its collaboration with CSUN’s Child and Family Studies Center’s Laboratory School, and the CHIME Institute was born. In 2001, the institute opened a public charter elementary school at the urging of families who could not find an inclusive educational environment for their children once they left CSUN. Two years later, a middle school was added. The two schools merged into a K-8 school located in Woodland Hills in 2010.

As it’s grown, the CHIME Institute has gained a national reputation as a leader in developing and implementing model educational programs and dynamic research and training environments to disseminate best practices in inclusive education. The institute’s research and training center is housed in CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education.

CHIME serves as a model for educators through its partnerships with the Eisner College and the Los Angeles Unified School District. It facilitates research opportunities and regularly hosts visitors from around the United States and the world who are interested in replicating its success in their own schools. Visitors have come from as far away as Japan and Holland to explore the educational practices of the institute, and CHIME readily offers to send its educators to local schools to help them adapt its methods to their curriculum.

CHIME has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a model for full inclusion of students with disabilities and for providing a blueprint for local schools across the country.

“CHIME is a wonderful charter school that actually holds the key for successful, larger lessons that can be brought forward to all of public education, which is what charter schools were intended to do — explore innovative ideas, refine and generalize them to the benefit of all of public education,” said Michael Spagna, dean of CSUN’s Eisner College. “It exemplifies the best of what charter schools can be.
“I encourage everyone to come and connect with CHIME,” he continued. “Its success, its generalized lessons can be borrowed and implemented in public schools all over the country, not just in our area.”

For more information about CHIME or information about attending the institute’s 25th anniversary celebration, call (818) 677-2922 or visit the website CHIMEinstitute.org.

Three years ago, California State University, Northridge professors Tami Abourezk and Dan Hosken, by happenstance, began the same career journey as associate deans in the College of Health and Human Development and the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication, respectively.

This fall, Abourezk and Hosken continued along the same path as interim deans of their colleges.

“It’s been great to have someone to share with and bounce ideas off of,” Abourezk said. Both said they share a similar approach and enthusiasm about CSUN’s diverse student body.

“It’s very rewarding to be a part of CSUN’s mission of teaching students in the region, particularly first-generation students,” Hosken said. “It’s very exciting to see that moment when students get something you’re teaching. … That awareness in their eyes.”

Abourezk has been teaching at CSUN for 25 years. She was appointed interim dean in August, after Sylvia Alva accepted the position of provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Cal Poly Pomona.

She started in the Department of Kinesiology in 1990 as an assistant professor. She has served as assistant chair of kinesiology; chair of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences; and coordinator of faculty development for the College of Health and Human Development. She has published extensively and written numerous grants.

Abourezk, a native of El Paso, Texas, has a doctorate in movement and science education from Florida State University; a master’s in exercise science from Florida State University; and a bachelor’s degree from Lander College in physical education. She first came to CSUN because of kinesiology’s use of both science and movement in teaching the discipline. She first came to CSUN because the philosophy of the department encompasses the art and science of human movement.

“I love the diversity at CSUN and that I’m surrounded by a team of staff and faculty who share a core value centered around student success,” she said.

Hosken has been teaching at CSUN for 16 years. He accepted the job as interim dean this summer, upon the retirement of Jay Kvapil.

Hosken, a native of Michigan, came to CSUN in 1999 as faculty in the Department of Music with an expertise in music technology. During his tenure at CSUN, he has served as assistant chair of the Department of Music, a member of the board of directors of the University Corporation, and served on the music and theater departments’ personnel committees. As a composer, his music has been performed in major world cities and has been featured at prominent festivals of electronic music.

He has a doctorate in musical arts in composition from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a master’s in composition with academic honors from New England Conservatory of Music and a bachelor’s in humanities and science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“The top priorities are student success and engaging with the community,” said Hosken about his new role as interim dean. “It’s an exciting job.”

California State University, Northridge, one of the nation’s leading universities in deaf studies, will host a conference on social inequalities and the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community on Friday, Oct. 30.

“Social Justice: By, For, Of People,” organized by the CSUN Deaf Studies Association, the Department of Deaf Studies and the Center for Teaching and Learning, will explore the intersections of identity and experience that the Deaf and hard of hearing may experience in their lifetimes.

“One of the biggest things that people don’t realize is that Deaf people cross every known community,” said Will Garrow, professor of Deaf Studies and an organizer of the conference. “We have to fight for the rights of all people to fight for Deaf people’s rights. This conference is the foundation of all that.” 

Education helps to create strong and tolerant communities, Garrow said.

“We’re always looking to bring people and show what we’re doing, and build bridges and bonds with people,” he said.

The conference was started in 2010 in honor of Larry Fleischer, who founded the Deaf Studies program at CSUN in 1983. Originally, the conference was called “Stop Audism” — a term for the oppression of deaf people.

This year’s conference features six speakers: Flavia Fleischer, chair of the department, will give a brief introduction on the issues of audism. “JT” Tozier will speak about his re-entry into society as a Deaf returning citizen. CSUN Deaf Studies professor Jessica Frank will discuss the issues of audism in correlation to sexism. Jeff Pollock, a deaf interpreter, will speak about oppression within the interpreting field. Isadore Niyongabo, who escaped the 1993 genocide in Burundi, will speak about his experiences fleeing the atrocities as a deaf individual. David Stovall, professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will talk about diversity and social justice.

Garrow said he is looking forward to having “all different communities coming together and sharing an experience to make this world a better place.”

“Social Justice: By, For, Of People” is open to the public and will provide free lunches to the first 400 guests. The event is scheduled to take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. at the Northridge Center of the University Student Union, on the east side of campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

For more information, call the Department of Deaf Studies at (818) 677-5116.

California State University, Northridge will help shine a light on suicide by hosting the fifth annual Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Summit, “The Power of Our Voice: Hope, Help & Healing for High School and College Students,” from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

The summit, which is free and open to the public, was started by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LADMH) in 2011. It brings together mental health community leaders to raise awareness about suicide risk factors, with a focus on high school and college age youth, and to inform students, parents, school and mental health professionals about suicide prevention, interventions and resources available in Los Angeles. 

This is the first time the summit will be hosted at a university. It was brought to the campus by CSUN social work professor Judith A. DeBonis, who is the principal investigator for Ray of Hope, a grant-funded initiative promoting campus dialogue about suicide. The initiative provides trainings such as Safe Talk, a four-hour training on suicide alertness and how to talk about suicide, and the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills (ASIST) training, where people learn how to approach those at suicide risk and connect them to resources.

DeBonis said the summit’s theme reflects Ray of Hope’s strategy to help professionals and clinicians, and to empower all individuals to talk about suicide in a non-stigmatizing, supportive way. She said people should view suicide as not only a clinical problem, but more broadly as a public health problem.

“Everybody’s voice is needed, and everyone can give or get help,” DeBonis said. “The question is, what part can each of us play in preventing suicide, reducing stigma and raising awareness? People need to feel comfortable enough to reach out to a person who might be at risk of suicide, or to reach out when they themselves need help.”

The summit will take place at the Northridge Center in the University Student Union, on the east side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

Registration and tabling resources will be available from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., where coffee and bagels will be served. From 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., Sam Chan, district chief of the LADMH, will welcome the summit’s attendees and introduce the first keynote speaker of the day, Stan Collins, a consultant on California Mental Health Services Act, who will speak about “the hero in each of us” and how all individuals can find their place in preventing suicide.

From 9:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., attendees can participate any of the seven breakout groups, which provide panel discussions on topics such as: the safe use of social media; lived experiences; suicide prevention in the LGBTQ community; high school and community college university policies on suicide and optimal ways of creating a safe environment; innovative prevention/intervention strategies that exist for high schools and colleges; suicide prevention and postvention; and supporting caregivers and clinicians who experience trauma vicariously.

A media room will also be available where people can use iPads to explore mental health apps.

Lunch will take place from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., and attendees can enjoy a boxed lunch from Belwood Bakery, which they can buy for $10 when they register online. During the break, they can also visit 21 resource tables showcasing the different mental health resources available at CSUN and in the broader LA community. Among those taking part will be organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Trevor Project and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, as well as campus groups such as the Blues Project, Matador MIND, the Pride Center and the Veterans Resource Center.

The afternoon session from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Northridge Center will feature two keynote speakers. Dese’Rae L. Stage, a photographer and creator of “Live Through This,” a collection of portraits and stories of suicide attempt survivors, will speak about her own experience surviving a suicide attempt.  Aron Steward, a clinical psychologist and a leader in the vicarious trauma prevention and intervention field, will speak about how to take care of oneself while giving support to others.

DeBonis said being comfortable with talking about suicide is key to prevention.

“If we can talk about suicide directly with each other, it will be more likely that we can connect individuals to resources that might help them,” DeBonis said. “We have a lot of resources on our campus and in the community, but our most valuable resource is each other. By sticking together and being open to talking directly about suicide, we can help keep everyone safe.”

To register for the summit and for more information, visit www.laspsummit.org. For more information about the Ray of Hope, visit www.csunrayofhope.org/get-give-help or www.facebook.com/csunrayofhope.

(L-R) Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Yi Li, Career Center Director Anne Morey, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students William Watkins, and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Dwayne Cantrell cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the new CSUN Career Center on Oct. 20, 2015.

On the fourth floor of Bayramian Hall, in room 413, stands the hub of a vital relationship that interweaves students, faculty, alumni and employers — California State University, Northridge’s new Career Center. The grand opening on Oct. 20 began with speeches by Career Center Director Anne Morey, who introduced William Watkins, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, and Yi Li, provost and vice president for academic affairs. The event was followed by a ribbon cutting and a tour of the new facility.

The center traditionally has been a place where CSUN students can receive guidance in discovering and learning about their careers, but it has “evolved to prepare intention programs and services to further help students based upon their strengths,” Watkins said. “The new center encourages collaborative learning, where students can learn from one another and experts in their field.”

Students can also learn from their peers and alumni through the center’s “education through multimedia” YouTube channel.

“We discovered that students love learning through videos and using YouTube, so that’s why we created this channel,” said Assistant Director Jan Potzmann, who has worked at CSUN for more than 17 years. Potzmann lays the groundwork and oversees the multimedia program, which is made up of a group of student animators, web developers, graphic design artists and videographers.

The channel has more than 65 videos in many different categories, such as how-to guides for experiential learning, career center events, CSUN department highlights, CSUN student stories and videos that feature notable alumni — including one filmed at Dodger Stadium, featuring CSUN alumnus and Dodgers team historian Mark Langill.

The center also uses student peer educators, so that students who come through its doors can connect though a shared perspective. Peer educators handle walk-ins; critique resumes, cover letters and thesis statements; and answer questions about specific careers and majors.

The new Career Center has added many new seating areas, where students can have more space and privacy. New books also were added to the center’s library, on topics including self exploration, internships, references, job searching, professional development and graduate schools.

“The environment feels more welcoming in this new building. It’s more spacious, and we have a lot more upgrades,” said student assistant Alexis Gonzales.

This year, CSUN has opened several new spaces for students: three freshmen residence halls and new dining facilities, the innovative Oasis Wellness Center, and now the Career Center. The expanded center “will engage our students, faculty and community,” Li said. “Reflection, inspiration and connection for life after college is the vision for this new facility.”

CSUN Career Center student assistants and staff teamed up to give guests a tour of the new facility on Oct. 20, 2015.