For those who dream of one day becoming a university professor, the journey from the student’s desk to the professor’s podium is more than just a short walk. It is a years-long process that involves difficult graduate coursework, papers submitted to academic journals and a knack for professional networking that can be nerve-wracking for many students new to the culture of academia.

A new program at California State University, Northridge called HSI Pathways to the Professoriate might help make that journey to the academy much easier to navigate for students in the humanities and related fields.

The Pathways program, which teams CSUN — a Hispanic serving institution (HSI) — with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education’s Center for Minority Serving Institutions, is supported by a $5.1-million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It aims to transform the landscape of the professoriate by increasing the presence and visibility of Latina and Latino faculty members.

The program will serve 30 students over the next five years. Ten qualifying juniors will be selected this fall for the first cohort of HSI Pathways/Mellon Student Fellows. It will prepare the students in humanities and related fields, by providing the skills and guidance crucial to success from the admissions process through the end of their Ph.D. programs.

Over 18 months, each student will be required to conduct an individual research project and attend a fully-funded six-week summer residential course on campus in 2017. Students will receive financial support for GRE preparation, application fees, trips to academic conferences — including an opportunity to present a research project at the University of Pennsylvania — and potential funding to begin doctoral research the summer after graduation from CSUN.

Students who are accepted at one of the program’s five participating graduate schools — UC Berkeley, UC Davis, New York University, Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania — will receive assistance with their transition and a faculty mentor to meet them on the campus. Funding for their Ph.D. programs will be available at the five participating schools.

Dozens of students attended an information session for the HSI Pathways to the Professoriate program. Photo by Luis Garcia.

A key part of Pathways provides each student with one-on-one mentoring from a CSUN faculty member, throughout the 18-month undergraduate program. The faculty mentors are recent graduates of Ph.D. programs who can share their insight into the current challenges of obtaining a doctoral degree and entering the professoriate.

CSUN professor of Chicana/o Studies Melisa Galván, who will serve as a Pathways faculty mentor, said the program is a wonderful and rare opportunity for students to get support throughout almost every step of the Ph.D. process. She said she would have taken advantage of an opportunity like this when she was a student.

“I had to be really proactive on my own,” said Galván, who received her Ph.D. in Latin American history from UC Berkeley in 2013. “I had to seek out faculty and get all my questions answered to see if it was something for me. In this program, we are giving students info sessions, structure and meetings twice a month, so they can enter their graduate programs and say, ‘I already know this.’”

Linguistics professor David Medeiros, also a Pathways faculty mentor, said the students will gain academic know-how, as well as knowledge about the culture of academia. Medeiros said he was familiar with that culture because his father and his brother earned doctoral degrees, and that exposure proved crucial to his success — he knew to focus on research as much as coursework, and not be discouraged when facing rejections along the path.

“Something I hope I have done is understand the privilege I have, so I can transmit some of that knowledge to my mentee,” Medeiros said. “It’s not just about developing the content knowledge, but learning about the enculturation process. Academic life is a very different kind of life than students might be familiar with, especially for first-generation college students. But it’s very rewarding because you get to see the world from so many different perspectives.”

Galván pointed out that since the university is an HSI and many of CSUN’s students are from low-income or historically underrepresented backgrounds, supporting their career paths to become humanities professors will only strengthen the professoriate.

“I’m really looking forward to working with students who have an intention to give back to their fields,” Galván said. “I hope they are as excited as I am to get this off the ground.”

The application deadline for the HSI Pathways to the Professoriate program is at 4 p.m. on Nov. 15. The next information session will take place from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 12 in Jerome Richfield Hall 319. For other deadlines and more information, visit http://www.csun.edu/humanities/pathways-professoriate.

S.K. Ramesh, dean of CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. Photo by Lee Choo.

A collaborative effort by California State University, Northridge and local community colleges to increase the number of underrepresented students who study computer science and engineering has received the support of the U.S. Department of Education, awarding the program nearly $6 million over five years to expand its reach.

The project, AIMS² — Attract, Inspire, Mentor and Support Students — has faculty at CSUN and the community colleges working together to ensure students, and now including incoming freshmen, have the support they need to graduate in a timely fashion.

“The program, which we started five years ago, was such a success that we now have a new grant to help us build on what we’ve done and expand our reach and the students we serve,” said S.K. Ramesh, dean of CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, who is leading the project as principal investigator of the grant.

The new grant is funded through a competitive program under the auspices of the HSI-STEM (Hispanic-Serving Institutions division) initiative of the U.S. Department of Education. CSUN will receive nearly $1.2 million in the first year, starting this year.

AIMS² debuted in 2011 with the help of a similar grant from the department. At that time, it targeted Hispanic and low-income transfer students. The participating community colleges were Glendale Community College and College of the Canyons.

The goal was to increase the number of Hispanic and low-income students who graduated with degrees in computer science or engineering. Project leaders hoped to develop a model that could be replicated elsewhere. In its initial five years, about 240 students successfully completed the program and are now working in their chosen fields or pursuing graduate degrees.

“This new grant will enable us to double that number,” Ramesh said, noting that three additional community colleges joined the project — Los Angeles Pierce College, Moorpark College and Los Angeles Mission College — and that participation in AIMS² has been extended to incoming freshmen.

Ramesh said a total of 12 campuses in the California State University system received similar grants. The campuses have agreed to share the best practices of their projects with colleagues in all campuses throughout the CSU system.

“We purposely designed AIMS² so that it can be replicated,” Ramesh said. “If something works, it’s in all our best interests to share the model.”

The AIMS2 Logic Model

AIMS² takes an interdisciplinary approach to ensure student success. Faculty and administrators from the participating community colleges and from CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Mathematics and Science, and Michael D. Eisner College of Education are on the project team that meets monthly and monitors the needs of the students and how the project is responding to those needs. CSUN and community college faculty work together to ensure that students’ transition to the Northridge campus is as seamless as possible, including implementing summer bridge programs.

Students must apply to the program. The application process includes an essay about what they aspire to be, the challenges they face and how they see themselves succeeding.

Ramesh noted that in the past, nearly every applicant was accepted, “and even those who were not selected, we made sure that some of the services, such as tutoring, were available to them.”

Once accepted, students are placed in a cohort based on their discipline. Each cohort includes proactive academic advising and tracking, organized tutoring, peer and faculty mentoring, hands-on research opportunities and project-based learning, career advising, and support with the transition to the workforce or advanced studies.

The program was singled out in 2015 by the White House Initiative on Excellence for Hispanics in its “Bright Spot in Hispanic Education National Online Catalog.” In 2014, it received an honorable mention from Excelencia in Education as an example of excellence in the baccalaureate category.

“AIMS² has the potential to significantly improve graduation rates and close the achievement gaps for Hispanic and low-income students, expand undergraduate research projects to mentor students, and enhance faculty collaboration between two-year and four-year institutions to improve student success,” Ramesh said. “We are humbled and thrilled to be selected, and look forward to serving larger numbers of students with the new grant award.”

California State University, Northridge (CSUN), the California State University Chancellor’s Office and Univision Los Angeles are joining together on Saturday, Oct. 15, as part of Univision Contigo’s award-winning education season, to help open the doors to success for thousands of Latino families from across Southern California with “Feria de Educación” (Education Fair), a daylong celebration of the power of education. The annual event has become one of the largest Latino education fairs in the nation and is free for all parents, students and educators.

Since 2008, a CSU campus and Univision Los Angeles have partnered to offer this one-day education fair filled with Spanish- and English-language workshops and other activities designed to help parents help their children achieve their educational and career goals, providing resources and valuable information on the full spectrum of education.

The Feria is scheduled to take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at locations across the CSUN campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge. This is the first time the community event has been held at CSUN.

“CSUN is committed to serving the needs of our community, and we are happy to host this life-changing event,” said CSUN President Dr. Dianne F. Harrison, who will welcome the Feria’s attendees at 9:30 a.m. in front of CSUN’s Oviatt Library in the center of the campus. “For many, this day is the first step on a rewarding educational journey, and I encourage families and students of all ages to join us and learn more about the resources, career paths and futures available through the power of education.”

Workshops will cover such topics as how to create a learning environment at home, an exploration of California’s three public higher education systems and its private colleges, overviews of the college application process, services for undocumented students, the financial aid process, scholarships, financial literacy and the support offered by the Educational Opportunity Programs to students, as well as conversations with currently enrolled college students about life on campus.

“There is a powerful potential in our youth and it is our responsibility to give them access to the tools and resources they need to feel empowered,” said Luis Patiño, senior vice president and general manager of Univision Local Media in Los Angeles. “Education is critically important to our community and we know that our continued partnership with our Cal State schools will allow us to continue to work towards our shared goal of empowering Hispanic families and students.”

Among the day’s highlights is a town hall discussion, offered in the morning and afternoon, on how parents can navigate the resources and services available to students with disabilities. The presentation, which will be in Spanish, will focus on the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. An IEP is a written statement of the educational program designed to meet a child’s individual needs.

The Feria will include a “reading garden,” and the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles will be giving away thousands of books to encourage children and their parents to read together. There will be exhibits explaining the “pathway” to education with additional resources and information, beginning with pre-K and continuing through post-graduate services. Univision’s on-air anchors Gabriela Teissier and Andrea Gonzalez and Univision Radio’s Eddie G will make special appearances throughout the event.

The Feria de Educación is part of the CSU’s Latino Initiative, which forges strong community partnerships that help increase the number of Latino students who attend and graduate from college. These efforts support the CSU’s new Graduation Initiative 2025 targets focused on increasing the completion rates of first-time freshmen, transfer, low-income and underserved students. Graduation Initiative 2025 will add 100,000 more college graduates to California’s workforce over the next 10 years, bringing the total number of expected CSU graduates between 2015 and 2025 to more than 1 million.

Originally launched in February 2010, Univision Contigo’s education platform remains the nation’s longest-running multi-media education campaign on the air. Today, with the help of leading organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Too Small to Fail, the Bezos Family Foundation, XQ Institute, and Common Sense Media, among others, the initiative continues to empower Hispanic families to invest in their child’s education in order to ensure their success in college and beyond.

For more information about the Feria de Educación, visit www.csun.edu/feria.

About Univision Communications Inc.

Univision Communications Inc. (UCI) is the leading media company serving Hispanic America. The Company, a leading content creator in the U.S., includes Univision Network, one of the leading networks in the U.S. regardless of language and the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast television network in the country available in approximately 93% of U.S. Hispanic television households; UniMás, a leading Spanish-language broadcast television network available in approximately 87% of U.S. Hispanic television households; Univision Cable Networks, including Galavisión, the most-watched U.S. Spanish-language entertainment cable network, as well as UDN (Univision Deportes Network), the most-watched U.S. Spanish-language sports cable network, Univision tlnovelas, a 24-hour Spanish-language cable network dedicated to telenovelas, Fusion, a 24-hour English-language news and lifestyle TV and digital network, ForoTV, a 24-hour Spanish-language cable network dedicated to international news, and an additional suite of cable offerings – De Película, De Película Clásico, Bandamax, Ritmoson and Telehit; Univision Television Group, which owns 59 television stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico; digital properties consisting of online and mobile websites and apps, including Univision.com, the most visited Spanish-language website among U.S. Hispanics, Univision Now, a direct to consumer video service, Uforia, a music application featuring multimedia music content, The Root, the leading online news, opinion, and culture destination for African-Americans and a stake in The Onion, the nation’s leading comedy and news satire brand; and Univision Radio, the leading Spanish-language radio group in the U.S. which owns and operates 67 radio stations including stations in 16 of the top 25 U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico. UCI’s assets also include a minority stake in El Rey Network, a 24-hour English-language general entertainment cable network. Headquartered in New York City, UCI has television network operations in Miami and television and radio stations and sales offices in major cities throughout the United States. For more information, please visit corporate.univision.com.

Dayna Middleton, a food science intern at California State University, Northridge’s Marilyn Magaram Center (MMC) for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics, spent her entire summer drying rosemary, sage, basil and cilantro, and mixing it with chili powder, cayenne pepper and various other spices in order to find the perfect mixture for an all-purpose seasoning blend.

After more than three months of drying, mixing and researching, the food science senior presented a prototype of the Spicy Matador blend at the MMC’s 25th anniversary celebration on Sept. 15.

“My goal was to make a seasoning for everything,” Middleton said. “We also want to have something available to CSUN students at an affordable price. We’re all college students on a budget. Spices are very expensive, so this can be an all-in-one solution.”

Middleton used herbs provided by the MMC’s new Wellness Garden, located in the interior courtyard in Sequoia Hall. The garden is funded by the Campus Quality Fee and is part of the College of Health and Human Development.

One of the center’s dietetic interns, graduate student Danielle Adler, is working on a marketing and distribution plan to bring Spicy Matador to the CSUN community as a product grown locally and made by the CSUN food science lab.

“[When] you’re grocery shopping, I think the last thing on your list is a $9 spice — most students just go for salt and pepper and call it a day,” said Danielle Adler, a graduate student and dietetic intern. “We wanted to make something that can have a health benefit of not having to add so much salt, and is also affordable for the community.”

Supervised by staff in the MMC, the Spicy Matador project was supported by a CSUN Instructionally Related Activities grant. MMC students, staff and dietetic interns have been involved in the planting, growing, harvesting, drying, packaging and labeling of these products.

Another highlight of the MMC’s anniversary event was the debut of Matador Marmalade, a vision of the MMC leadership and initially developed by food science students in a family and consumer sciences product development course.

“Matador Marmalade was created out of the idea that a product made by students, for students, could generate school spirit and add to the university’s great legacy,” said MMC director Annette Besnilian.

Food science seniors Jennifer Raj and Julie Jordan worked on a low-sugar version over the summer as part of their food science internships at the center.

“Sometimes it would be too clumpy, and we needed to figure out the right ratio for pectin [to fruit],” Jordan said. “[It was a challenge] trying to formulate the recipe to have the right ratios.”

CSUN’s historic Orange Grove provided the Valencia oranges for the zesty marmalade, which makes the product a sustainable food. MMC interns, staff and members of CSUN’s Food Science Association and Student Dietetic Food Science Association hand-picked 130 pounds of oranges from the grove in April.

“Our food science students have made exciting strides in product development,” said Cassie Berger, MMC’s food science internship coordinator.  “Our main goal is to offer a quality product created by CSUN students for our community.”

The MMC’s next goal is to sell Spicy Matador and Matador Marmalade at CSUN’s weekly Farmers Market, where the center has been providing frequent food demonstrations.

“We are working with LACI@CSUN to write a business plan and have it on the shelves of the university, the Farmers Market and local supermarkets,” Besnilian said.

Farrell J. Webb, dean of the College of Health and Human Development, said he was particularly impressed with the students’ inventiveness and dedication.

“The students are engaging in a high-impact practice for learning,” he said. “They are involved in every step of the product development process. And the samples were certainly a success with our guests.”

The aspiring food scientists said they were encouraged by the positive response from guests at the center’s anniversary event who tasted both products.

Besnilian added that the students’ work “will support CSUN’s efforts to move closer towards a sustainable campus by sourcing locally.”

California State University, Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science is hosting its ninth biannual Brown Bag series this fall, bringing together faculty from different disciplines across the college to share their work.

The series began in the fall of 2012 and is held every semester. Open to the campus and the community, it provides an opportunity to learn more about the research projects conducted by faculty in the college. Some of the topics to be covered this semester include: The Evaluation of Seismic Performance Factors in High Rise Steel Buildings; the Mechatronics Laboratory Experience for Undergraduates; and the Corrosion Protection of the Above Ground Tanks Using Nano-Particle Size Vapor Phase Corrosion Inhibitors.

Last year, the series caught the eye of the San Fernando Valley section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the largest professional technical society in the world with over 400,000 members worldwide. The IEEE provides lunch for those who attend the seminars.

“The Brown Bag seminars are a great opportunity for faculty in the college to share their work with an interdisciplinary audience of students, faculty, staff and just about anyone who is interested,” said S.K. Ramesh, dean of the college. “From wireless health, renewable energy, cyber security, the smart grid, and structural engineering — we have had a wide array of interesting talks.”

Ramesh said the series has led to collaborative research projects across the college. Electrical engineering professor Ruting Jia and mechanical engineering professor Vidya Nandikolla worked with a group of undergraduate students on a research project sponsored by Northrop Grumman. Professor Jimmy Ghandi, who teaches in the manufacturing systems engineering and management department, is leading the way, with a large grant that connects high school students to careers in the field. He is working collaboratively with faculty members from the college, as well as the Michael D. Eisner College of Education and the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication.

Nandikolla presented in the fall of 2014 on Active Footwear Designs for Diabetic Mellitus and will present this fall on The Mechatronics Laboratory Experience for Undergraduates. She said the series is often the only opportunity to identify the work of other colleagues.

“The series is a very good way to find out what everyone is doing,” Nandikolla said. “We might not know the faculty in other departments and even within our own departments, we are so busy that we sometimes don’t get a chance to talk to each other about our research.”

Professor Maryam Tabibzadeh, who teaches in the department of manufacturing systems engineering and management, gave a seminar in the fall of 2015. Her presentation, The Role of Human and Organizational Factors in the Safety and Reliability of Complex Technological Systems, gave her an opportunity to share her research into the human organizational errors that contributed to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She said the series provides a unique opportunity for faculty in the college with similar and different backgrounds to connect.

“The [Brown Bag series] provides a place for people to exchange ideas and give an opportunity for people with similar backgrounds to ask each other questions,” Tabibzadeh said. “You as a presenter can encourage outside the box thinking for those who attend the session.”

The next seminar is scheduled for Oct. 24 at noon. To RSVP for the event, contact Kathleen Pohl at kpohl@csun.edu.

Commitment to scholarship, excellence, innovation and experimentation are among California State University, Northridge’s five values. CSUN celebrated the living embodiment of those values by honoring 20 outstanding students at the Oct. 3 Northridge Scholars Reception.

The students are participants of the Northridge Scholars Program, a merit-based scholarship program that includes both the University Scholarship and the Presidential Scholarship. More than 200 undergraduate students apply for the University Scholarship each year. This year’s cohort includes 14 University Scholars, each of whom were awarded $7,500, and seven Presidential Scholars, who were awarded $10,000 to support the students’ yearlong research projects.

CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison, deans and faculty mentors welcomed the high-achieving students.

“You are an amazing group of young people,” Harrison said. “I was blown away by what you have done already, by what you will do this year and what you intend to do in the future. There is no doubt in my mind that you will be successful and that your success will carry you very, very far.”

Harrison also noted the diversity of this year’s scholars as remarkable. Among the cohort were several first-generation college students, an international student, a deaf student, students from the BUILD PODER program and students who are “Dreamers.”

Graduating senior and biology major Sa La Kim, a second-time Presidential Scholar and a MARC U-STAR (Minority Access to Research Careers Undergrad Science Training and Academic Research) student, has been studying the properties and role of integrin alpha 1, which is a cell surface receptor for collagen that is highly expressed in pancreatic cancer — one of the deadliest and hard-to-treat diseases.

She said the financial support has given her an opportunity to develop important research as an undergraduate — an opportunity not necessarily available at other universities.

“If I didn’t get the scholarship or the support of the MARC program, I would have to be working and have less time for studying — which is what I was doing before,” Kim said. “The support I get from the Presidential Scholarship and the MARC program give me a chance to explore many possibilities and take advantage of what CSUN has to offer.”

Senior Bhernard Tila, an Asian American Studies and Public Health double major, was awarded a University Scholarship. He said he chose his majors in part because of his mother’s recent battle with kidney failure and myeloma. Tila plans to obtain a graduate degree in public health, become a nurse and one day establish his own clinic to serve immigrant and low-income families.

Tila said the scholarship is important because financial support for his education is hard to secure as an undocumented student.

“As an undocumented student, I can’t really work or earn an income on a regular basis,” Tila said. “I can use the money for my books and transportation, as I commute every day. Winning the scholarship relieves me of the mental and physical stress of working that hinders me from focusing on my educational goals”

Tila also said being recognized by the university is a very encouraging experience.

“It sends a message that I can do more and expand,” Tila said. “Maybe in the future I could even win a presidential scholarship.”

The Northridge Scholarship Program awarded its first scholarships in 2005. The Presidential Scholarships are funded by generous donations from the Associated Students, the Bayramian Family Scholarship Endowment, the Blenda Wilson Scholarship, the Diane Ryan Scholarship Endowment and the Medtronic Minimed Endowment. The University Scholarship is funded by the Bayramian Family Scholarship Endowment.

Duran’s friends and family gather for a picture at the TCC Dedication.From left to right, Duran’s husband, Rick Nupoll; her brother-in-law Scott Lyons; her sister Mary Grace Duran; TCC Librarian Mara Houdyshell and Armand Duran, her brother. Photo by Joshua Valle.

The Teacher Curriculum Center (TCC) in California State University, Northridge’s Delmar T. Oviatt Library has long served as a resource center for teachers throughout the region, providing them with sometimes hard to get teaching materials for learning levels ranging from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade.

Last month, the center was renamed after the late Karin J. Duran, who served as the center’s director for 32 years before passing away in 2010.

Her husband Rick Nupoll said it was fitting to name the center after his wife, a CSUN alumna who dedicated her time at the university to making sure teachers who often have little, if any, budget for classroom resources knew they had a place to go for help at the Oviatt Library.

“The TCC was Karin’s baby,” Nupoll said. “The Library, the Teacher Curriculum Center, being a librarian, the campus — they were all her passion.”

The center was established in 1978 — then called the Instructional Materials Laboratory—as a resource for many students studying to be teachers at the university. During her tenure, Duran nurtured it into a valuable resource that not only provides support to CSUN’s education students, but also to teachers in classrooms throughout the region.

“The Teacher Curriculum Center helps bring teaching to life,” said Luann Rocha, the Oviatt Library’s director of development. “The center offers blocks and lesson planners for K-12 teachers.”

The center is located in the basement of the Oviatt Library, and the collection features more than 26,000 resources available to be used in the classroom, from textbooks and idea books to educational kits and games. There are even videos and supplemental teaching materials available. Materials are offered in various print and electronic formats.

Library officials estimate that an average of 1,271 people use the center each week.

The Karin J. Duran Teacher Curriculum Center is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11:45 p.m., on Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 7:45 p.m.

For more information about the Karin J. Duran Teacher Curriculum Center, call (818) 677-2638.

“We’re a high-touch community,” Fabian Garcia said. “If we don’t see it in our community, we’re not going to pursue it. If our uncle isn’t taking us hiking in the woods, or our neighbor isn’t taking us out there — we’re not going.”

The “we” Garcia spoke to and hoped to draw to the forests, the mountains — and the state and nation’s public lands in general — were Latino young adults, particularly California State University, Northridge students. The CSUN student body boasts a 44 percent Latino population and demographics that reflect Los Angeles itself.

Garcia, representing the U.S. Forest Service, and Vanessa Torres of the National Park Service (NPS) capped CSUN’s ninth annual Sustainability Day with an inspiring and candid session encouraging Latino students to consider careers with the Forest Service and NPS, and to take advantage of the public lands near and far. The Oct. 19 event was organized by the Institute for Sustainability — and co-sponsored by the University Student Union and CSUN’s Civil Discourse and Social Change program — and attracted a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 students and faculty members.

“Being outdoors, hiking a trail, is where you get your head straight again. Mother Nature speaks to us somehow — it’s where you find that clarity,” said Garcia, who grew up in the small town of Dinuba in the central San Joaquin Valley, as the son of immigrants from Jalisco, Mexico.

He attended UCLA as a first-generation college student — like many CSUN students — and earned a bachelor’s degree in Chicana/o studies, with a minor in Spanish. Then, a diversity recruitment program and the opportunity to earn a certificate in nonprofit management at Fresno State helped Garcia get his foot in the door at the Forest Service, he said.

“In Dinuba, we grew up about 40 minutes from the giant sequoias,” said Garcia, now director of the Southern California Consortium for the Forest Service, part of the agency’s Outreach, Recruitment and Workforce Diversity office. “We were right at the gateway to the sequoias.” Yet, few young people from his community aimed to work in the national forest or national parks, he said.

In his position, Garcia serves as liaison between government agencies, nonprofit organizations, local businesses, school districts, and colleges and universities.

“Our motto in the Forest Service is, ‘caring for the land, serving the people,’” he said. “It’s a big gamut of careers. What we’re trying to do is increase interest [among students from underrepresented groups] in the sciences — such as hydrology and geology.

“We also found that most youth in Watts, Pico-Union, Pasadena … they don’t go to the mountains,” he said. “We’re encouraging more families to get out and enjoy the outdoors together.”

Torres, who is the Los Angeles district supervisor for the nearby Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (part of NPS), also serves as chair of NPS’ Latino Employee Resource Group.

“I grew up in Hondo, a small town in Texas,” Torres said. “We grew up fishing and hunting. I was introduced to the National Park Service through an internship — in Alaska! It was my first time away from home, first time on a plane … that’s what got me hooked.”

After working at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, Torres started doing diversity recruiting for NPS, she said.

“A lot of people of color don’t prioritize going to the outdoors,” Torres said. “But we’ll save money to take our family to Disneyland.” When it comes to public lands such as national parks and forests, Latino families still don’t see those resources as their own, she said. Torres and Garcia said they hope to change this with help from the next generation — such as CSUN students.

“I’d encourage you to zero in on this [visiting public lands] and pass it on to the next generation,” Garcia said. “Being outdoors is very good for your health, too, and reduces stress.”

“Our generation, the millennials, if we don’t curb our habits of screen time, according to the surgeon general, we’ll be the first generation to lower our life expectancy,” Torres added. She noted that she tries to encourage young people and their families to use technology as a resource, not a barrier. She cited the stargazing and constellation-spotting app that she uses on her cellphone as an example.

Sustainability Day, a half-day symposium, also featured a screening of A Fierce Green Fire, a documentary on the history of the environmental movement, and a presentation by CSUN geography professor Amalie Orme and civil engineering and applied mechanics assistant professor Sami Maalouf on Your Water: Now and the Future.

“The present drought is not over,” Orme told the crowd of hundreds of CSUN students, many of them attending the morning session with their classes — part of the minor in sustainability offered by CSUN’s Liberal Studies Program. “One storm does not alleviate the presence of our drought.” With Maalouf, Orme explained the climate events that led up to California’s drought, such as persistent “ridges” of high pressure, and how long it could last.

Maalouf talked about groundwater recycling and reuse systems, as well as the impact of desalination plants on near-shore marine environments.

“Perhaps [desalination] is a great feat of mechanical engineering, but it has to work in unity with the environment,” Maalouf said. Compared to those costly plants, recycled municipal water and increased efficiency of urban water use are Southern California’s most critical tools for water conservation and change, he said.

“It’s up to us,” Maalouf told the students. “It starts with me and it starts with us.”

Sustainability Day participants also gathered to discuss and promote recycling, cutting energy use and other aspects of sustainability on campus and across the region. The Institute for Sustainability helps coordinate these efforts with Associated Students and other campus organizations, said Helen Cox, director of the institute and a professor of geography.

In addition to Sustainability Day, the institute sponsors an annual Water Day symposium and campus Earth Day celebration in the spring, and semi-annual campus Orange Picks in CSUN’s historic orange grove, benefiting local food pantries.

For more information on the Institute for Sustainability, go to www.csun.edu/sustainability.

For information on internships and working for the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service, go to www.usajobs.gov

They may discover the key to help repair spinal cord injuries, help paralyzed children run again or find the cure for cancer.

Fifty undergraduate students from California State University, Northridge will get the chance of a lifetime to conduct stem cell research alongside some of the top scientists in the country as part of a $2.77-million grant to the university. The grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) continues a stem cell research and regenerative medicine “Bridges” program between CSUN and UCLA that started in 2009.

CSUN biology professor Cindy Malone

“When we first launched the [CSUN-UCLA Bridges to Stem Cell Research Program], we didn’t know how successful it would become,” said CSUN biology professor Cindy Malone, who coordinates the program. “Our students are taking part in cutting-edge research alongside some of the greatest minds in stem cell research. They are presenting papers at some of the top professional conferences in the world. When they graduate, they are highly sought after by the top medical and graduate schools in the country, and rightly so.”

Randall Mills, CIRM’s president and CEO, said the Bridges program’s goal is to prepare undergraduate and master’s-level students in California for successful careers in stem cell research.

“That’s not just a matter of giving them money, but also of giving them good mentors who can help train and guide them — of giving them meaningful engagement with patients and patient advocates — so they have a clear vision of the impact the work they are doing can have on people’s lives,” Mills said.

The new five-year grant will fund the “Stem Cell Scientist Training Program,” which is similar to the CSUN-UCLA Bridges to Stem Cell Research Program, with the exception that the new program is exclusively for undergraduate students. The earlier program was open to CSUN graduate and undergraduate students.

“We will continue to partner with UCLA as our internship-host institution,” Malone said. “There, our students will perform 10 months of intensive stem cell research. New research training courses will be launched in the next year to prepare our undergraduates for the new Stem Cell Scientist Training Program and for the increasingly technical job market in California.”

As with the old Bridges program, 10 students will be selected during each year of the grant to conduct independent research, under the guidance of UCLA scientists and medical doctors who are conducting groundbreaking experiments in adult and embryonic stem cell research. While interning, the students will receive a stipend of $2,500 per month and travel fellowships to attend CIRM symposia and a professional conference.

Miller said that by the time the students complete their internships, they are skilled researchers who are immediate assets to any biotech company, graduate program or research institute.

“The Bridges program has been incredibly effective in giving young people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, a shot at a career in science,” said Jonathan Thomas, chair of the CIRM board.

Eliana Ochoa-Bolton, 26, spent much of her senior year at CSUN working as part of the Bridges program in the laboratory of UCLA professor Samantha Butler. During the academic year 2015-16, Ochoa-Bolton was one of only two undergraduates on a team of mostly doctoral  and post-doctoral students. The team was studying the mechanisms that establish the nervous system, in hopes of one day regenerating damaged or diseased neural circuitry in people who have spinal cord injuries. Ochoa-Bolton’s job was to insert proteins and other growth factors into stem cells.

“It was such an amazing opportunity,” Ochoa-Bolton, now a master’s student in CSUN’s Department of Biology, said of the Bridges program. “I got to do work I didn’t think possible as an undergraduate.”

Ochoa-Bolton continues to volunteer in Butler’s UCLA laboratory and plans to pursue a doctorate and possibly do research on autoimmune diseases.

Lorenzo del Castillo, 22, will graduate from CSUN this December with a Bachelor of Science degree in cell biology. He worked in Butler’s laboratory during the 2014-15 academic year. He made such an impression that Butler hired him to continue working in her lab on stem cell projects. The pair recently received supplemental funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue some projects into the coming year.

“Sometimes, when I think about what I’m doing as an undergraduate — doing research on stem cells to understand spinal cord development — I think, ‘wow,’” Del Castillo said. “It’s pretty cool, all the opportunities I’ve had. Not very many undergraduates get the chance to work in a highly scientific environment like I have, and it’s because of the Bridges program.”

Del Castillo plans to get his doctorate in developmental biology, and he said he hopes to one day have his own laboratory at a university, where he wants to research embryonic cell development.

“It’s interesting how something goes from being one cell and develops into a complicated organism,” Del Castillo said. “That fascinates me.”

California State University, Northridge was recognized for its innovation in education technology by the WICHE Consortium of Educational Technology (WCET), winning the Outstanding Work (WOW) Award on Oct. 13 in Minneapolis. CSUN was awarded for its work on mobile curricular app development to enhance STEM teaching and learning.

WCET is the educational technology arm of WICHE, the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education, an organization that aims to expand educational access and excellence for the Western states.

The award recognized the innovative work conducted by Information Technology and CSUN faculty to bring mobile app development opportunities to students and to help faculty create curricular apps for their classes. Apps accompanied faculty-authored e-Texts as a strategy developed by Information Technology and Academic Affairs to create high-quality, low-cost digital content to students in myCSUNtablet classes.

The apps were a result of the 2015 and 2016 AppJam competitions held at CSUN, where students from all disciplines were challenged to build mobile apps to improve student life. Students received prizes and opportunities to work with start-up firms LACI@CSUN and Bixel.

Apps developed by students for AppJam were submitted via CSUN’s ePortfolio network called Portfolium, which also allowed students to showcase their accomplishments to potential employers.

One app, Matador Patrol, was adapted by CSUN Information Technology and deployed by the CSUN Police Department to help students obtain safety escorts across campus using their mobile phones. Matador Patrol will become available to all faculty, staff and students through the CSUN App earlier this month.

Students who demonstrated mobile app development skills had the opportunity to be hired by Information Technology to join a team including faculty, instructional designers from the Faculty Technology Center, and software programmers from IT to create mobile apps that enhance curriculum. The work was funded by Campus Quality Fees.

“This two-fold strategy enabled students to gain valuable mobile app development experience, and faculty to author custom apps for their classes. This strategy is part of Information Technology’s ongoing goal to help leverage the potential of emerging technologies to benefit both faculty and students.” said Deone Zell, Associate Vice President of Academic Technology.

Four apps have been developed thus far, and are available for download in the iTunes App Store. Tree of Life, authored by Jeannie Robertson, helps students understand the evolutionary relationship among all living organisms. Elite Gene Team, authored by Cindy Malone, enables students to demonstrate their understanding of genetic transfer and to earn points to reach higher levels. Nematode Classification, authored by Ray Hong, helps students understand the relationships between tiny worms and the beetles that serve as their hosts. Biostats Buddy, authored by Kaitlin Bahr, help students learn how to calculate common procedures used in biostatistics.

A fifth app under development, authored by Mariano Loza Coll, will enable individuals to model the evolution of networks, whether in the context of genetic cascading or population dynamics.

IT continues to work with faculty to develop novel approaches to teaching and learning. In 2016, IT partnered with Jake Enfield, who heads the Multimedia Option in the CSUN College of Arts, Media & Communication’s Department of Cinema & Television Arts, and the Tseng College of Extended Learning, to explore the development and application of virtual and augmented reality to teaching and learning. In October 2016, this team launched VARx, a year-long exploration with faculty that will culminate in VARJam, a competition for students to showcase their innovation in virtual and augmented reality.

Just seven days before the historic presidential election, California State University, Northridge students and faculty had a rare opportunity to meet, question and pose for selfies with California’s two candidates for U.S. Senate — Orange County U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez and state Attorney General Kamala Harris. The two Democrats are vying for the state’s first open Senate seat in 24 years, to replace retiring four-term Sen. Barbara Boxer.

The race is historic in its own right — the victor will be the first woman of color to serve in the Senate in the nation’s 240-year history — but has received little attention, under the heavy shadow of the unprecedented presidential election and, perhaps, because Harris has held a commanding lead in the polls all year, according to CSUN political science professor Tyler J. Hughes.

Sanchez made a stop at CSUN on the morning of Nov. 1 to participate in the university’s Candidate to Campus series, sponsored by the CSUN Office of Government and Community Relations.

The Candidate to Campus program is designed to give candidates seeking office impacting the greater San Fernando Valley region the opportunity to become acquainted with the university. The Nov. 1 morning forum at the University Student Union attracted CSUN students from journalism, political science and other courses, and their professors.

“This is an opportunity for elected officials to know not only what makes CSUN tick, but how we can form partnerships to bring California to the next level,” said Francesca Vega, director of government and community relations, as she introduced Sanchez.

Sevag Alexanian, president of Associated Students, also helped welcome the Orange County congresswoman to campus.

“This election cycle is very important to all of us — especially students,” Alexanian said. “For a lot of us, this is our first opportunity to vote on the candidates and the local issues.”

Sanchez focused most of her remarks on her education agenda and talking about her upbringing in Anaheim in a family of seven children (she is the second oldest) and being the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her father was a union machinist and her mother worked as a secretary. All of her siblings earned college degrees, Sanchez said.

“I received a Pell grant, I received a Cal Grant A, I took out student loans, and that’s how I got through school (at Chapman University),” Sanchez said. “And my MBA (at American University) — it was paid for by the Rotary Club of Anaheim. So you’re looking at what happens when we decide to invest in each other. When we work hard, when our parents sacrifice, and when community — business, union and everybody else — says yes, we need to invest in people.”

She also gave a shout-out to her mother:

“After she educated all seven of her children, my mother went back to school and got her B.A. at Cal State Fullerton,” Sanchez said.

If elected to the Senate, Sanchez said, she would work to secure more funding for Pell grants and push to allow college graduates to consolidate their student loans to a 3 percent interest rate, “in the same way parents get to refinance their homes and bring their rates down to 3 percent.

“My husband and I have eight children, and they’re between the ages of 22 and 34 — once, we had five of them in university at the same time — so we know what it’s like, even today, to try to go and get an education,” she said.

She also zeroed in on research, and the funding for university research that comes from the federal government.

“Who invented the internet? The genome project? Most of these came out of the Department of Defense, done here in California through basic research,” said Sanchez, who has served 20 years in the House of Representatives and holds senior positions in the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee. “It’s about understanding where the money is, and how you move the money.”

She also spoke about funding free tuition for community college students.

“We don’t have a money problem in Washington, D.C.,” Sanchez said. “We have a priority problem in Washington, D.C.! We should be investing in our people, young and old. Everybody should be going back to school. This is a time when things are changing so fast, we all need refresher courses on what the heck is happening in the world. And we can do it, because the money is there.”

Just four hours later, Harris and her campaign caravan arrived on campus for a get-out-the-vote rally — sponsored by the student group CSUN Young Democrats — which included state senate candidate Henry Stern, state Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian and Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff ’87 (Communication Studies), an attorney and CSUN alumnus.

“I’m so excited to be here! Because the love of my life, my best friend, is a Matador,” Harris told the crowd of students, members of the community and members of the press packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a classroom at Jacaranda Hall.

“It’s my husband, Doug,” she said, gesturing to Emhoff, who stood near her at the front of the classroom. “If it hadn’t been for CSUN and the great education he got here, he wouldn’t have been able to go on to law school.”

Harris appealed to the students in the room to get out and vote in the historic presidential election — and encourage other Californians to do so.

“People say, ‘young people — wish they’d get out and vote, but they really don’t … are they paying attention?’ I know the truth, which is yes, yes, yes,” the attorney general said. “So here’s the deal: Seven days before the election, that’s where we are. We’re here to talk about the issues, but really to ask for your help to turn folks out — and remind them that their voice is their vote and their vote is their vote.

“I think we are at an inflection point in the history of our country,” she continued. “My parents met back when they were students at UC Berkeley when they were active in the civil rights movement. I think we are at a moment in time that is similar. … I believe we are a great country, imperfect though we may be. Part of what makes us great is we were founded on certain principles, on certain ideals. Ideals that were, for example, written and spoken in 1776, that says we are all and should be treated as equals.

“The ideals of our country are what is at stake in this election, and each one of us is being challenged to stand up and fight for our ideals,” she said.

Harris then spoke briefly about the criminal justice system, immigration policy reform, gun safety laws and student loan debt. She closed with another charge to the students in the room and those tuning in on social media:

“I’m going to remind our students of a saying I like to paraphrase from Coretta Scott King who famously said, ‘The fight for civil rights — which means the fight for justice, the fight for equality — must be fought and won with each generation.’ Whatever gains we make, they will not be permanent. So we must be vigilant. … Now is the time to get to work.”

California State University, Northridge celebrated its third annual Open Access: A Day of Data event on Oct. 25 at the Jack and Florence Ferman presentation room in the Delmar T. Oviatt Library.

Open-access data is free, published research information available to anyone connected to the internet. In the past, such information was mostly accessible through subscription payments. For example, more and more academic or scientific journals have opened their access to the general public for free.

The daylong conference featured discussions from CSUN faculty and other open-access data experts.

DataFest founder and UCLA professor Rob Gould opened the event with a keynote speech about open methods and tools. CSUN faculty Jussi Eloranta (chemistry), Rachael Mackelprang (biology), Regan Maas (geography), David Medeiros (linguistics), Mark Schilling (mathematics) and Crist Khachikian (associate vice president, research and graduate studies) then shared presentations on their use of open-access data.

Mark Stover, dean of the Oviatt Library, presented CSUN biology professor Steven Dudgeon with an award for his research achievements using open-access data.

“[Dudgeon] is a strong advocate and early adopter of data management and open-access data,” said Stover, who handed Dudgeon the award, along with a certificate of merit and a check for $500.

Trisha Cruse, executive director of DataCite — the leading global provider of digital object identifier systems — gave the afternoon keynote address, speaking about creating data and downstream impact, which is the process of combining data to complete an end result.

“Data is everywhere,” Cruse said. “It has always been part of scholarship.”

The event concluded with two more faculty presentations from Andrew Weiss (Library Collection Access and Management Services) and Charissa Jefferson (Library Research, Instruction and Outreach Services).

California State University, Northridge’s Department of Deaf Studies, the Deaf Studies Association and the National Center on Deafness hosted the seventh annual Social Justice: BY, FOR, OF People conference on Oct. 28 at the University Student Union.

The daylong discussion on the Deaf experience centered on intersectionality — the complexities in experience faced by individuals who identify with more than one marginalized group — and was open to all CSUN students, faculty, staff and people from the community. Nearly 400 visitors attended the event.

Speakers covered topics including racism, sexism, the Deaf Chicana/o experience, the diversity of signing communities and signing communities in rural Mexico.

Nancy Mendoza, a senior in deaf studies, took her day off to attend the conference.

“Events like this are important because there are still so many misconceptions about not only the Deaf community, but also minority groups in general,” she said.

Mendoza said she aspires to work with Deaf Chicana/o children after graduation and was excited to hear speaker Rogelio Fernández, president of Council de Manos, a national organization that serves the Deaf Chicana/o population.

“Education is so important,” Mendoza said. “[Fernández and Council de Manos] do so much and provide role models for young Deaf individuals so they can think, ‘there are things I can do’ and ‘I can be more than just a Deaf child.’”

Other featured speakers were Renzenet Moges-Riede, a Deaf Eritrean-American linguistic anthropologist; Lynn “Lina” Hou, a theoretical linguistics, linguistic anthropology and deaf studies researcher, and keynote speaker Carla García-Fernández, equity consultant and co-founder of Teachers for Social Justice: Deaf Learners Inc., a nonprofit organization supporting teachers who work with Deaf and hard-of-hearing learners.

“I was always told to conform to the hearing world and to read and write clearly because speech is an important vehicle to make change in the world,” said Carla García-Fernández, who grew up in New Mexico as one of eight children.

She shared her own experience as a member of the Deaf and Chicana/o community, as well as her research on marginalized students of the Deaf and Chicana/o community. Fernández shared her observations on the segregation between white Deaf and hard-of-hearing students and Deaf and hard-of-hearing students of color, advocating for anti-bias education.

“Why are we ranking certain Deaf people over other Deaf people, when we’re all in need of equality?” she asked. “All students need to be instructed and all students need to be respected.”

During the event’s lunch break, attendees were encouraged to visit CSUN’s West Gallery – located on North University Drive between Lindley and Etiwanda Street – to view the Justice Can’t Wait art exhibition, featuring the works of Deaf artists of color.​

“With this exhibit, we wanted to show the talent of our Deaf people of color,” said CSUN deaf studies professor Lissa Stapleton, who co-curated the event. “We’re using art to educate others and keep it as open as possible for everyone.”

The free exhibit featured paintings, poetry, videos and other mediums of expression that illustrated different issues and perspectives of Deaf people of color.

“Deaf studies can be a very white field, and some voices can be left out,” Stapleton said. “This exhibit centers on Deaf people of color to highlight their experiences.”

Many art pieces featured themes of depression, resistance or social justice issues faced by the artists themselves. Another common theme was violence and police brutality. CSUN’s Deaf sorority, Alpha Sigma Theta, created an altar at the exhibit to honor the lives of violated and murdered Deaf people. Visitors were encouraged to take a blue and silver ribbon to show their solidarity with the Deaf victims.

William Garrow, CSUN deaf studies professor and an organizer of the social justice conference, explained that the event has grown since its first year, 2010, when the event originated as Stop Audism — later changing its name to Social Justice: BY, FOR, OF People in 2015. Audism is a term for the social construct oppressing Deaf people, which leads to a system of overprivilege for hearing people and underprivilege for Deaf people.

“The only way to liberate Deaf people from the bondage of audism is to liberate all people from various forms of oppression that are running rampant in our society,” Garrow said. “We cannot have liberation of one if we don’t have liberation for all.”

Garrow was the first hearing person to attend Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., which is the world’s only university designed for Deaf students. By including all marginalized communities in the discussion of the event, Garrow said he hoped to highlight the concept of intersectionality, which recognizes people’s membership in various groups and identities.

“This [conference] is a deaf-centric space, but it is a zone of resistance from all forms of oppression,” he said. “We are trying our best to [eradicate oppression] at all times, and this conference is one way.”

A $3.2-million grant from the U.S. Department of Education will create pathways for Latino transfer students at California State University, Northridge to careers in high-demand fields.

The grant will fund a new program that will provide academic support for students from Latino and low-income communities at two Los Angeles-area community colleges — College of the Canyons and Los Angeles Pierce College — who are interested in attending CSUN and pursuing careers in animation, graphic arts/multimedia design, accounting, business administration, marketing, nursing and manufacturing systems engineering. CSUN received the grant, in part, because it has been designated a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education.

Juana Mora

“This is a very important grant for CSUN,” said Juana Mora, Title V (Hispanic-Serving Institutions) project director who will oversee the grant’s efforts. “It allows us to develop stronger relationships with two major schools that send students to our campus. We will be sharing funds and resources with the two campuses as we all work with the students to help prepare them for a quick and easy transfer to Northridge. We’ll work together to identify students who are interested in transferring to CSUN, give them tutoring in English and math if they need it, and help them out when necessary with the transfer process.”

In addition, Mora said, the project will provide the community college students with CSUN student mentors, who can give them insights into life on the Northridge campus, and faculty mentors once they are at CSUN.

“The goal,” she said, “is to provide Latino students and students from low-income communities with the support they need so that they can graduate in a timely manner and enter fields in which Latinos are significantly underrepresented. The students we are targeting bring cultural and linguistic capital and diverse experiences that can only enrich and broaden the reach of the fields we are hoping they go into.”

The project’s efforts to increase the diversity of workers in the targeted fields will begin early, with outreach to local high schools to educate students about the possibilities of careers in animation, graphic arts/multimedia design, accounting, business administration, marketing, nursing and manufacturing systems engineering.

Once the students are in community college, they will be encouraged to take part in learning and support communities, peer tutoring and mentoring, and student exchange opportunities. There also will be opportunities for faculty on all three campuses to work together to share best practices and to develop transfer plans that fit the needs of their campuses.

“For some reason, these are careers that Latinos are not going into,” Mora said. “Sometimes, kids don’t consider those careers because they require math, and they aren’t ‘good’ at math. Other times, the obstacles are cultural ones. As Latinos, they’ve never considered the possibility that those careers were open to them. I am sure there are other reasons as well. What we want to do is change the perception and show them that they can go into those careers, and succeed.”

The latest exhibition at California State University, Northridge’s Art Gallery explores China’s landscape in the late 1800s through the photography of John Thomson. “China: Through the Lens of John Thomson 1868-1872” runs through Saturday, Dec. 10.

This is the first time the show is being displayed on the West Coast. The exhibition includes 108 modern prints of Thomson’s work from China, drawn from the Wellcome Library in London. The library was founded by Sir Henry Wellcome in the 20th century. Wellcome’s wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of his time.  

Thomson was originally from Scotland. In addition to being a photographer, he was also a travel writer. Thomson first visited China in 1862 and set up a photographic studio to begin his work. He eventually settled in Hong Kong in 1868, and his trips throughout China covered roughly 5,000 miles. He captured a variety of images and themes, including landscapes, people, architecture and street scenes.

“We hope visitors enjoy the history,” said Jim Sweeters, director of the art gallery. “Thomson started his work 40 years after photography was invented.”

Thomson’s work captured China’s land and its people in their daily lives.

He used a popular photographic method called the wet collodion process, which creates exposures on glass plates. The wet collodion process had to be done in complete darkness on location in a portable dark room.

In 1876, he spent time in London, where he collaborated with journalist Adolphe Smith. They worked on a monthly publication called “Street Life in London.” His work in China and London helped Thomson become one of the most influential photographers and photojournalist pioneers of his time.

The CSUN Art Galleries have mounted more than 500 exhibitions, averaging 25,000 visitors per year. The gallery is open from noon to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, and noon to 8 p.m. on Thursday.

For information, please call the gallery at 818-677-3060 or visit www.csun.edu/artgalleries

California State University, Northridge scholars, students and other leaders hosted more than 100 Los Angeles-area high school students Nov. 2 for a half-day conference that examined racism, scientific research, artistic expressions on race and how to increase diversity in the sciences. The campus’ second-annual BUILD PODER fall conference, Science, Race and Racism, was organized to showcase BUILD PODER, the university’s new research training program that is supported by a $22-million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — the largest grant in CSUN’s history.

In its second year, the program has grown to 105 students for 2016-17, with more than 100 faculty members involved as research mentors. BUILD PODER stands for Building Infrastructure to Diversity (BUILD) and Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research (PODER). The program aims to increase diversity in biomedical research fields and prepare participants for Ph.D. programs. Students receive funding for 60 percent of their CSUN tuition, faculty mentorship and a paid research position.

The free conference also was sponsored by CSUN’s MOSAIC program — Mentoring to Overcome Struggles and Inspire Courage — and the university’s Diversity Program Consortium. The event took place in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union and featured BUILD PODER student research poster presentations, keynote speeches by two respected scholars from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and the University of Washington, as well as a social justice art installation created by MOSAIC mentors (CSUN students) and their teen mentees.

MOSAIC is a long-running and acclaimed CSUN program that pairs CSUN student mentors with youth at risk for educational failure, gang and family violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and emotional trauma. Since 2004, more than 500 CSUN students have worked with nearly 1,500 students enrolled in Los Angeles Unified School District continuation high schools. The service-learning program matches sociology students with teens as peer mentors and advisors.

The first hour of the conference was devoted to showcasing the large posters displayed by BUILD PODER student researchers. The posters summarized the initial results of their summer projects or year-long scientific research, and the students answered questions and gave mini presentations to their peers, professors and members of the wider community.

The undergraduate researchers must select and apply for their own mentors, from the program’s pool of CSUN faculty mentors, said Gabriela Chavira ’94 (Psychology/Chicano Studies), psychology professor and student training core director for BUILD PODER. It’s just one aspect of preparing the undergraduates for the kind of work and responsibilities they’ll have to take on in graduate school or post-doctoral programs, Chavira said.

The program also includes professional development workshops and requires (and funds) the students to present their research in at least one national or regional conference per year. Many of the students noted that the CSUN fall conference was great practice for out-of-town conferences — which are, for most, their first time traveling away from home to a professional event.

Over the summer, biochemistry senior Ashley Ward conducted research on tumor cell metabolism in breast cancer at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The summer program was an extension of her experience during the 2015-16 academic year, when she worked at CSUN with biology professor Eric Kelson — while juggling a full course load. On Nov. 2, she used the session at the BUILD PODER conference to fine tune her poster talk, before presenting at a national conference in Florida later that week. Ward also was juggling midterm exams and applying for doctoral programs for next year.

“I’m not gonna lie — it’s tough juggling all of my classes, the research and getting all of my applications out,” Ward said. “But this is great practice for next week [in Tampa, Fla.]. I presented this summer to the University of Colorado faculty, but it’s great to do this here at CSUN.

“Conducting cancer research in the [summer] program has definitely solidified my interest in studying cancer,” Ward said. “I know that I want to work in drug development or treatment of some type of cancer.”

At CSUN, Ward works in the lab with Kelson, chair of CSUN’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Kelson’s team is trying to develop anti-tumor agents, looking for a compound that can selectively enter a tumor cell and bind to DNA — strong enough to prevent DNA replication needed for cell division, Ward said.

Dayana Banuelos, a junior and psychology major, also presented at the BUILD PODER conference, where she presented her preliminary findings from summer research in brain development and altruistic behavior in adolescents at the developmental neuroscience lab at UCLA.

“Our goal was to focus on positive behaviors of adolescents,” said Banuelos, 20, who is the first in her family to attend college. Her parents didn’t finish high school. “So much research on adolescents has focused on negative behaviors.

“Before, I thought research was only for graduate students,” said Banuelos, who works with CSUN Psychology Department Chair Jill Razani in a neuropsychology lab during the academic year, studying older adults with Alzheimer’s disease. “BUILD PODER has been a really helpful program! When I apply for graduate schools, I’ll have conferences, presentations and experiments under my belt.”

Other undergraduate research presented Nov. 2 included topics such as hookah smoking and its effects among CSUN students, and stem-cell tissue regeneration.

BUILD PODER is a large regional program that partners with six community colleges (East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles Valley College, Los Angeles Mission College, Pasadena City College, Los Angeles Pierce College and Santa Monica College) and five local, doctoral-granting institutions (Claremont Graduate University, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and UCSB).

The program’s aim is to increase diversity in the biomedical research fields and open the “pipeline” to research careers, Chavira said.

On the other side of the large Northridge Center room, the MOSAIC art installation was the largest of its kind ever organized on the CSUN campus for the program’s teen mentees and CSUN student mentors. The temporary exhibit focused on themes of critical race theory and the high school students’ challenges and frustrations.

After mingling around the exhibit and touring the CSUN campus, the high school students from throughout Los Angeles stayed for presentations by the two guest speakers. Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, professor of history, Chicana/o studies, and feminist studies at UCSB, gave a riveting talk entitled Science, Scientific Research and Youth of Color: the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility and California’s Carceral State.

Chavez-Garcia’s research on the history of the California juvenile justice system focused on the use of so-called “science” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to study juvenile inmates. She looked at archived case files for young men and boys at the Whittier State School (then known as “reform school”) from the 1890s to the 1940s. She noted the disproportionate confinement of minority youth, which started as early as the 1930s and ’40s, and she spoke about “scientific researchers” of the time who created links between race and intelligence.

“The goal was to contain this ‘menace,’” Chavez-Garcia told the conference audience, about the state’s eugenics program. “And how did they contain this menace? Compulsory sterilization. (California passed a law legalizing forced sterilization in 1909.) California sterilized more than 20,000 people in the 20th century.”

She wrapped up her presentation with a stark and tragic look at the abuse suffered by the boys at Whittier State School (closed in 2004) during the 1930s, ’40s and beyond — and the two suicides in 1939 and 1940 that sparked a Los Angeles Examiner expose, court hearings and subsequent reforms.

Karina Walters, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and associate dean for research at the University of Washington (UW), spoke next on Indigenizing the Academy: Demystifying Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science.

 “The bridging of what we call Western science and indigenous knowledge has already happened in some ways,” said Walters, who is also the director and principal investigator of the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute at UW. “It’s time to acknowledge it. From an indigenous point of view, all things are connected — and now, Western science is catching up to that.”

Hoping to inspire an introspective and external exploration of the influences, including hip-hop, on the lives of men of color, California State University, Northridge is hosting its fall Bi-Annual Men of Color Enquiry and Student Poster Session on Monday, Nov. 21.

The session is centered around the origins of hip-hop on the West Coast and the role the music genre plays as a proxy for collective mobility for men of color. The event will feature a presentation by Alonzo Williams, founder of World Class Wreckin’ Cru, one of the first West Coast-based rap groups to do a major tour.

The Men of Color event is scheduled to take place from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union, on the east side of the campus located at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

“The first goal of the event is to provide a co-curricular experience outside the classroom that connects course content with what is happening in the world, and to provide an opportunity to share with the campus community and others what we are doing,” said Africana studies professor Cedric Hackett, director of CSUN’s DuBois-Hamer Institute for Academic Achievement. “But the bigger goal is self-exploration and sharing some of the challenges and triumphs that black men face in the diaspora, including America.”

Hackett pointed out that the evolution of hip-hop provided its artists and fans an opportunity to confront stereotypes and to take on social justice issues, such as police brutality to the reduction of the black male body as a commodity, hyper-masculinity, and issues of identity and class. The music genre also opened doors to new avenues for entrepreneurship and education.

“Given what’s happening in our country, it’s a particularly relevant time to make an examination of the role hip-hop plays in the lives of persons of color,” Hackett said. “We’re taking the issues out of politics and into society, with a view at looking at alternatives to violence as a way of getting your voice heard.”

The event will feature poster presentations by students about what they learned as they explored the issues raised by the rise of hip-hop and how it affected their lives or the lives of those around them.

For more information about the Men of Color session, visit the website at http://www.csun.edu/dubois-hamer-institute-for-academic-achievement/events/bi-annual-men-color-enquiry-student-poster.

California State University, Northridge celebrated the 47th anniversary of the birth of its Department of Africana Studies with an open house and keynote lecture during Africana Studies Week, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4.

The week commemorated the department’s historic founding in 1969, when CSUN — then called San Fernando Valley State College — was nothing like the multiculturally inclusive and highly diverse campus it is today. In 1967, the college had just 23 black and seven Latina/o students, representing about 1 percent of the student population.

Establishing the department was a hard-fought battle, according to Africana studies professor Cedric Hackett.

“We commemorate the sacrifice students made, requesting an increase in institutional diversity to include administrators, faculty and students of color, and bring ethnic studies programs to life,” Hackett said. “A lot of students who protested in the administration building did some jail time, anywhere from three months to 25 years.”

The 1968 movement demanding institutional support for black students was a joint effort between black students, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the United Mexican American Students (UMAS), now known as Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (M.E.Ch.A.). SDS and UMAS helped collect the signatures needed to create the BSU and fuel their mobilization efforts, and, one year later, UMAS put forth their own demands for Chicano and Chicana students.

One of the triggers for the  push to demand action from the administration was a violent altercation between a black CSUN football player named George Boswell and white coach, Donald Markham, on Oct. 18, 1968. During one of the football games, Markham grabbed Boswell — one of only three black members of the football team — by the neck and kicked him in the groin. Boswell took off his gear and quit on the spot. Players from the opposing team, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, harassed the black players. When the black players went to Markham to confront him, Boswell’s white teammates came to the coach’s defense.

One week later, on Nov. 4, about 60 BSU students gathered outside the athletic director’s office for a meeting. When the meeting proved unfruitful, the BSU group walked to the administration building (now known as Bayramian Hall) to demand a meeting with the college’s acting president, Paul Blomgren. According to historical accounts, the BSU group took over the fifth floor of the building and moved more than 30 staff members into a room and threatened to detain them until their demands were met.

The BSU protesters located Blomgren and made a list of 12 formal demands. The core of their demands included the creation of a black studies department, the recruitment of 500 black students a year to increase diversity amongst the student body, the recruitment of black faculty and tutoring services (run by black students) for black students.

Hackett said the founding of the department was especially unique because of the level of student involvement.

“Students had a 50 percent stake in the development of curriculum, making sure to have a community component,” Hackett said. “They had a say in faculty recruits and demanded that the department be headed by a black man.”

Today, students in Africana studies say they benefit  from the rich culture and history of activism in their department..

Senior and Africana studies major Jovon Johnson said the department helps to actively combat institutional racism.

“Africana studies has taught me how to critically think and analyze social constructions and theories at a high level,” Johnson said. “[Africana studies] is vital to filling the many gaps that are otherwise overlooked by our school systems and helps remove social stereotypes, improve understanding of world history and most importantly, increases overall confidence of students.”

Junior Ayanna Joshua, who double majors in Africana studies and psychology, said Africana studies has helped her personal development and secured her identity.

“Prior to coming to college, I had very little knowledge on myself or my culture,” Joshua said. “Black history was rarely taught throughout my K-12 education and when it was, I was given false information. Africana studies has become a safe haven for me and has taught me self-worth. It has allowed me to appreciate my culture and my black brothers and sisters. I am culturally awakened because of Africana studies. My experience on the campus of CSUN would not be the same without Africana studies.”

Senior MaRonda George, a double major in Africana studies and child development, said the department inspires students to become leaders.

“Africana studies is more than a department,” said George. “Our courses are more than just classes to take for GE (general education) credit. This department breeds leaders and ignites a flame in its students, because once you are aware of who you are, who you were, where you come from and where you could go, there’s no way that fire can be blown out. There’s no way you can graduate CSUN and not want to serve your community in some shape or form.”

At the Africana Studies Week keynote lecture on Nov. 2, speaker Anthony Samad,  professor of African-American studies at East Los Angeles College and the author of REAL EYEZ: Race, Reality and Politics in 21st Century Popular Culture and other books, talked about the notion of “post-racial America,” the 2016 election, race in popular culture and the importance of critical thinking among students.

“One of the things you will be asked to do as you evolve as scholars, as artists, contributors to the larger society, is to construct your own view of the world and resist conforming to the dominant culture’s view of the world,” Samad said. “Dominant culture would have you believe we live in a post-racial society. Part of scholarship is inventing your own theories [and] being able to sustain those theories in the context of societal reality. So whoever came up with ‘post-racial’ … their theory is not holding up.

“You’ve got to remain true to yourself.”

Avital Elkayam ’16 (Jewish Studies and Psychology) grew up in a Jewish household with European family roots. In January, she started listening to audio recordings of her great-great uncle, who talked about her maternal great grandfather’s family life in Poland. Always fascinated by her family’s past in Eastern Europe, Elkayam participated in a trip to Poland, organized by California State University, Northridge — which turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences of her life.

CSUN faculty Jody Myers, director of the Jewish Studies Program and professor in Religious Studies, has been organizing annual trips to Europe, specifically Poland, for CSUN students since 2011. With the help of history professor Donal O’Sullivan, the history department and the Jewish studies program, this year’s trip included destinations in Poland and Austria. Students of all majors and backgrounds were eligible to participate.

“The purpose is to provide expanded education to students,” Myers said. “They’re able to explore a foreign culture, landscape and people, and combine classroom learning with real-life learning — and it’s so much fun!”

Shortly after arriving in Poland, Myers introduced Elkayam to a Polish colleague, who translated old documents from the student’s family’s past from Polish to English.

“She translated many things for me, giving me more details about my family and what might have happened to them,” Elkayam said. “I went to an address of my great-grandfather’s uncle in Warsaw, where my family members lived up until World War II and possibly during the war as well.”

Elkayam’s great-grandfather was one of 13 siblings, and one of only five who survived World War II by migrating to the United States. Elkayam has been investigating the history of her ancestors for years and finally found herself in Chodel, Poland, where her family had lived.

“Professor Myers was amazing — when we looked at the map and saw how close Chodel was to our route, she decided that we could detour about an hour out of our way to go and spend some time there,” Elkayam said. “The church was the only building left from the era, but in the recording, my great-great uncle talks about how close they lived to the church and how their mother would sell fresh baked bread to the churchgoers after Mass. Standing in front of it was such a weird feeling, I can’t describe it. Knowing that they looked at that church every day. It was just crazy.”

The CSUN group visited multiple historic places, such as cemeteries containing the bodies of World War II victims, as well as concentration camps in Auschwitz and Birkenau.

“I felt numb the whole day, walking around the barracks while the tour guide explained what had happened in each place,” Elkayam said. “It was unreal to think about the pain and suffering.”

The majority of the participating students received various scholarships – funded by CSUN’s Instructionally Related Activities as well as private donors – helping them to pay for the trip.  In order to apply for a scholarship, applicants had to share how passionate they were about going on the trip. Students expressed how helpful the scholarships were for their travels.

“I wouldn’t have been able to go to Europe at all — let alone for a month — had it not been for the kind hearts of the generous individuals who provided me with a scholarship for the trip,” said Shant Goorjian, a senior in business law.

“[The scholarship] really helped to enjoy the experience, rather than living dollar to dollar,” added Adam Feldman, a dual major in criminal justice and business law. “It was a refreshing and eye-opening trip and a great learning opportunity.”

The students wrote a blog about their adventures in Europe. For more information and stories, visit their blog on http://csun2016polandaustria.blogspot.com/.

There’s a little slice of Wall Street running through Northridge this fall. They’re nearly 3,000 miles from the closing bell and the New York Stock Exchange, but students in the California State University, Northridge David Nazarian College of Business and Economics are flexing their finance muscles in a newly remodeled lab that boasts more technological tools and the opportunity to earn a certificate in financial analysis.

The Nazarian College, rated one of the nation’s leading business colleges, built the Financial Lab in CSUN’s Juniper Hall in fall 2014 and used its state funds to remodel the lab this past summer — changing its layout, adding more seating and installing Bloomberg Terminals. The terminals, equipped with financial-analysis analysis platform, enable finance professionals to monitor and analyze real-time data from the financial market.

“The remodeling transformed the facility from a computer lab to a multipurpose room,” said Monica Hussein, professor and chair of the Department of Finance, Financial Planning and Insurance. “The room is primarily used for investment and valuation-related finance courses, but it also serves as a computer training room for all units on campus.”

The Bloomberg Terminals debuted on campus in the fall 2015 semester, and professors incorporated the tools into assignments and projects for classes such as Advanced Topics in Finance, Business Valuation, Seminar in Financial Theory and Policy, and MBA Portfolio Management. However, the space was cramped and dark.

In January, the college started to train student lab assistants to assist their peers in becoming Bloomberg Market Concept certified. Many CSUN finance professors grant extra credit for passing the certification exam.

After an extensive remodel over the summer, the lab boasts eight specialized computers with specific keyboards, where CSUN students can work on their Bloomberg Market Concept certification for free. If students want to take the online workshop at home, CSUN provides discounted access for $149 per student.

Jeron Norsworthy and Shanaya Pourgehghan, both seniors in finance, said they are grateful for the opportunity to earn the certification in before graduating.

“It’s an in-depth look at what we were learning in class, but it also dives a lot deeper,” Norsworthy said. “It’s a big step in the right direction of offering students useful resources.”

“It is so expensive, but we get it for free, which is great,” Pourgehghan said. “We have access to this amazing room, and additional education on actual stock and bond data. I can put this on my resume, and I’m sure it will help me get hired.”

Funded by state funds, CSUN established a two-year contract with Bloomberg L.P. in August 2015 and installed the analytics platform in September 2015. The Richard Siegel Foundation, a nonprofit organization located in Murfreesboro, Tenn., that benefits educational institutions and related activities, donated $40,000 toward the total cost of the Bloomberg Terminals for 2015 and another $12,000 for this year’s costs.

“As for the future plan, the challenge is to maximize the benefit of institutional knowledge,” Hussein said. “It requires time for faculty to learn how to use Bloomberg before they can incorporate it in their course requirements.”

Hussein said she hopes to secure funding for another two-year contract and to continue investing in the training of lab assistants, who support students in their efforts to obtain the certification.

“The job market is more competitive than ever,” said finance instructor Zhong-Gou Zhou. “We believe that showing familiarity with Bloomberg will give our students an advantage.”