The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded California State University, Northridge marine biologists Robert Carpenter and Peter Edmunds nearly $1.9 million to further their study of the effects ocean acidification on coral reefs.

CSUN’s research site in French Polynesia. Photo courtesy of Robert Carpenter

For more than a decade, the pair have taken CSUN graduate and undergraduate students with them to the coral reefs of French Polynesia near Tahiti as they conduct research on how climate change — in particular the increasing acidification of the world’s oceans, affect the reef ecosystem — and the broader implications for the world’s oceans.

The NSF grant for $1,892,911 will allow Carpenter and Edmunds to take their project to the next level. For the first time, a yearlong experiment will use replicated outdoor water flumes with different carbon dioxide treatments. Additionally, these experiments will be extended to the field to quantify the effects of reduced pH — the lower the pH level, the more acidic the water is — on fully intact reef systems off Moorea, located west of Tahiti in the Windward group of French Polynesia’s Society Islands. The marine biologists hope to assess ways through which organisms might mitigate some of the negative effects of increasing acidification.

“One of the key things we want to be able to do is to better understand what the reef will look like in 50 years’, 100 years’ time,” Edmunds said. “The more negative of our colleagues say that reefs will dissolve and disappear. We’ve felt for a long time that that’s not a true reflection of the full range of possibilities. We hope to gain insight into the possibility that in 50 years’ or 100 years’ time, there will be a subset of corals that are still surviving. While these may for attractive marine communities, they likely will provide very different goods and services than they do today.”

Peter Edmunds

Among the oldest and most diverse of the earth’s ecosystems, coral reefs provide natural storm barriers for homes and beaches; habitat for more species per unit than any of the planet’s marine environments; commercial fisheries; tourism; and recreation jobs. Often called the “medicine cabinets of the 21^st century,” the reefs’ plants and animals are important sources of new medicine.

They are also “the canary in the coal mine,” warning of the dangers ahead as the oceans’ continued acidification threatens the status of current marine ecosystems, Carpenter said.

Carpenter and Edmunds are focusing their research on how the algae and corals in a reef system respond to increase the probability of surviving in a warmer and more acidic ocean. To do that, the pair will conduct some of their experiments underwater on the reef itself.

“What we’ve been able to do is step up from our initial experiments, which involved taking individual specimens, bringing them in to the lab, creating the environmental conditions that we wanted to simulate and looking at the response at the organismal level,” Carpenter said. “So, the next step is to build flumes — basically long water tables where we can control the flow — and then build communities. Now, we’re expanding the ecological scale of the investigation by building communities with several organisms and several species, quantifying their response.

Robert Carpenter

“Finally, we want to expand the approach and go into the field and put similar flumes on intact reef communities and expose them to similar acidification treatments.”

Carpenter said that for years, researchers have focused on how individual species and organisms have responded to the oceans’ changes in laboratory settings. However, circumstances change when the organisms are brought together and other components of the reef community are introduced, he said.

“Until we can truly demonstrate what is going on in the field, there is going to be skepticism that what we’re seeing as a response is the true response,” he said.

Edmunds said the NSF grant underscores the global impact their research can have.

“These issues are immensely important for any country that has a coastline,” he said. “It has huge implications for local economies and tourism.”

Carpenter pointed out that officials estimate that the businesses that sprout up around coral reefs generate about billions of dollars in income annually.

The costs of climate change can be even more personal, Edmunds said.

“When you live on an island and your island is only three feet above sea level and climate change is pushing the sea level up and stopping coral reefs from laying down lime stones, it’s a pretty significant issue,” he said. “It can wash away your island and that’s it, end of country.”

Part of the NSF grant provides Edmunds and Carpenter an opportunity to include local K-12 educators in their research.

“You take those teachers out in the field and get them involved in the process, the passion is ignited in them — and that translates into the classroom and with their students,” Edmunds said. “They realize that science can be exciting and fun, and have an impact.”

California State University, Northridge theater students will be touring San Fernando Valley middle and high schools this fall with a play that bridges Greek mythology with contemporary times to explore the challenges of being a teenager in today’s world.

The play, “Persephone and Me,” which also will have a special performance Oct. 17 at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park, explores the dangers that teens encounter in two worlds: the modern world and an ancient Greek mythological one.

“The bridging of today’s world with Greek myth invites young people, parents, educators and all of us to consider the universal challenges adolescents face,” said CSUN theater professor Doug Kaback, who also wrote the play. “Following this teenage girl’s struggle for identity and empowerment as she transforms before our eyes, we recognize her desire to become a young woman. She matures because of her willingness to take responsibility for her actions.”

“Persephone & Me” brings the Greek myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, to life along with such colorful characters as Cerberus, the three-headed dog, Zeus and a love-struck pig farmer named Triptolemus. The story gets interrupted by a 14-year-old girl named Stephanie, who is starting ninth grade while struggling to communicate with her divorced parents and deciding what to do when a 16-year-old boy wants to be more than friends.

Kaback said as many as 20 CSUN theater students will be involved in the production as it visits a number of San Fernando Valley middle and high schools, including Patrick Henry Middle School, Columbus Middle School, Canoga Park High School, Nobel Middle School and Our Community Magnet School.

“This project will not only have a positive impact on our CSUN theater students, but it will also provide opportunities for people of all ages to participate in the arts, help our communities to become more connected and foster healthy relationships among teenagers and parents,” said the play’s director, CSUN theater professor Shad Willingham.

At 10:15 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 17, area students will have the opportunity to take a field trip to see the play at the Madrid Theatre, located at 21622 Sherman Way, Canoga Park. Free buses will be provided to four schools by the office of Los Angeles City Council members Bob Blumenfield and Mitch Englander. Student workshops will be available in collaboration with CSUN’s  Strength United, to examine questions that the play raises with regard to peer pressure, decision making and teen-parent communication.

At 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 17, the play will be performed for the public as a benefit for three Canoga Park organizations — R.U.T.H. YouthBuild, Child Development Institute and the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley. A special reception before the show will honor leaders from each program.

The play is being presented by the university’s Department of Theatre and CSUN’s Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing’s Neighborhood Partners in Action, as well as the Valley Cultural Center. Funding for the program is being provided by a service-learning U.S. Department of Education Title V grant to support civic engagement in the Latino community. The Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Title V Grant’s Building Connections for Success Program is dedicated to providing effective support services and academic resources to diverse students, while strengthening freshmen retention rates and improving six-year graduation rates among undergraduate students at CSUN.

For more information about the play, its performances and purchasing tickets for the benefit performance, call (818) 677-5811.

Dozens of faculty, staff and students showed up for the California State University, Northridge Black Alumni Association’s inaugural awards and scholarship fundraiser on, Sept. 27, at the Orange Grove Bistro.

The event, “Celebrating a Legacy of Success: Linkages Beyond the Classroom,” recognized the contributions of CSUN alumni, faculty and staff of African descent.

“We must not forget our past,” said the Rev. James D. Key ’88 (Speech Communications), the keynote speaker and author of Tough and Go: From the Streets of South Central Los Angeles to the War in Iraq. Key, a major in U.S. Army in charge of the North East Chaplain Recruiting Team and a minister with a master’s from Princeton Theological Seminary and doctorate degree in ministry from Howard University School of Divinity, said CSUN helped to lay the foundation for his success.

“One of the toughest classes I ever had was in the Pan African Studies Department,” he said. He said the PAS Department faculty were tough but compassionate. Those honored were:

• William Watkins ’74 (Urban Studies), CSUN vice president of student affairs and dean of students – Shining Star Award
• Fluke Fluker ’88 (Kinesiology), co-founder of The Village Nation – Community Service Award
• Charles Humphrey ’86 (Mechanical Engineering) and Andrea Humphrey ’88 (Economics), pastors of H.O.P.E.’s House of Christian Ministries – Community Service Award
• CSUN Faculty, Founders of CSUN’s Department of Pan African Studies (now known as Africana Studies). Those faculty who attended the event included emeritus professor James Dennis, emeritus professor Barbara Rhodes and Adewole Umoja ’68 (History).

Sen. Holly Mitchell, chair of California’s Legislative Black Caucus, and Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander were among the dignitaries to congratulate the honorees. CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison sent a letter of congratulations and helped to sponsor the event along with the CSUN Foundation. John Harris ’72 (Political Science), CSUN’s 2012 Distinguished Alumni Award winner also made a significant contribution to the organization’s scholarship fund.

“Since our chartering on Sept. 27, 2011, we have dedicated ourselves to connecting all those interested in promoting and supporting the needs of alumni, faculty, staff and students of African descent at CSUN,” said Shanté Morgan-Durisseau ’90  (Journalism/Afro-American Studies), president of the BAA. “We were able to reconnect alumni and faculty from across the decades.”

For more information about the BAA, visit, csunalumni.com/baa.

Students in CSUN’s David Nazarian College of Business and Economics study federal tax procedures. Photo by Lee Choo.

Americans fear few things more than the Internal Revenue Service. Immigrants face even greater fear and confusion when confronting challenges with the IRS, as they strive to navigate a confusing tax code in their new country. Enter California State University, Northridge and the Bookstein Institute for Higher Education in Taxation.

Launched in 2005 at CSUN with the support of an endowment created by philanthropist and longtime public accountant Harvey Bookstein ’70 (Business Administration) and his wife, Harriet, the institute assists about 130 low-income taxpayers each year — free of charge. The clinic opened in 2008 and is the only one of its kind in Los Angeles County.

“Students really benefit as well,” said Rafi Efrat ’89 (Accounting Theory and Practice), institute director and professor of accounting. “They work as a team, made up of a senior accounting student studying federal tax procedures, and a supervising graduate student. They meet with clients here on campus, gather information and do research on tax issues.”

Faculty member John Balian ’89 B.S., M.S.T. (Accounting Theory and Practice), a former IRS agent, approves each recommendation the students make to their clients, Efrat said. Each student serves about four clients during a semester, and the clinic operates year-round. Clients may be facing an IRS audit or other “controversies” (in taxation parlance) such as wage or pension garnishment, or the need for a payment plan or non-payment status while they regain their financial footing.

Jonathan McCormick, a graduate student supervisor for the clinic, shared the story of one client, Melanie, whose case proved as rewarding for the student clinicians as it did for their client.

“Melanie faced a tax debt of over $27,000 for many years of overdue taxes,” said McCormick, a student in the institute’s master of science in taxation program. “She had already started some of the work herself, so she was not facing collection action by the IRS when she started with the clinic. We resolved this case with an accepted offer in compromise — $639 for a balance due.

“Now the client has received her fresh start,” he said. “As the supervisor for this case, the best lesson was the relief and enjoyment of the clinician when the IRS finally decided to agree to accept the offer in compromise.”

The service is so popular that it has a waiting list, and most clients come to the program by referral from the IRS website or word of mouth.

“There was a clear need — there was no full-service clinic that served low-income taxpayers here,” said Efrat, who recently received the 2014 Outstanding Educator Award from the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. “We have an immigrant population that really doesn’t know how to communicate with the IRS.

“That type of plight leads to so many other problems,” he added. “Being able to help them in that area frees them up to concentrate on other parts of their lives.”

The federal government recognizes the clinic’s community service as well. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has supported the program with matching grants since its inception, this year awarding $70,000 in matching funds. In September, the IRS also recognized the contributions of the Bookstein Institute, presenting Efrat with its Excellence in Partnering Award.

The clinic grew out of the institute’s master of science in taxation program, and many of the graduate students are supported by scholarships from the institute’s endowment. The institute is operated within the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics at CSUN.

In addition to the tax clinic, Bookstein Institute graduate students — approximately half of whom are immigrants themselves — travel around Los Angeles presenting workshops in several languages. Popular topics include the earned-income tax credit and payroll tax FAQs for small-business owners. The students offer about 30 workshops each year, reaching about 700 Angelenos.

“We wanted to offer students experiential learning and provide support for community needs,” Efrat said.

CSUN students are embracing the opportunities.

“The tax clinic is a great way to learn a whole different world of tax that most tax practitioners have no experience with,” McCormick said. “The IRS collection process is something that has rules of its own.”

In a new partnership at California State University, Northridge, Matador Athletics and the Delmar T. Oviatt Library are joining forces to launch the Read to Lead Initiative.

Brandon E. Martin, Ed.D., CSUN’s director of intercollegiate athletics, and Mark Stover, Ph.D., dean of the Oviatt Library, announced on Monday, Oct. 6, the launch of the program, which will run from November through the end of the school year and will highlight 20 leaders and their favorite books on leadership.

“The Oviatt Library is the soul of our university and connects with the educational and intellectual values that are true to CSUN,” Martin said. “This new initiative will undoubtedly empower our current and future leaders to make CSUN shine.”

Martin and Stover are collaborating to identify the 20 leaders that will be featured from CSUN faculty, staff, students and alumni. Each leader will be asked to select a book on leadership that has played a vital role in his or her personal life and professional career development. Confirmed participants include CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison; baseball head coach Greg Moore; Michael Spagna, dean of the Michael D. Eisner College of Education; and Octavio Cortes, chair of athletics for Associated Students.

“Dr. Martin came to me to convey his vision of this initiative, which I found to be compelling,” Stover said. “It is a powerful message that we are sending to the CSUN community. Books and reading can be an influential force in personal and career development, in building relationships and developing leadership qualities and opportunities.”

Participants will be featured in a library exhibit and take part in panel discussions during the fall and spring semesters to examine their chosen book and leadership philosophy.

“The campus community will connect with the models of leaders that we have on campus who have been influenced by books that communicate either explicitly or implicitly the values that it takes to be a leader on the job, with family and in life itself,” Stover said.

Students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members can join the Read to Lead Initiative by learning about and reading each of the featured books when the exhibit opens in the library next month.

California State University, Northridge students now have access to a new creative space to produce and design multimedia projects.

Thanks to library funding from the Campus Quality Fee, the Creative Media Studio (CMS) provides specialized hardware and software to create digital, audio and visual productions.

As an extension of the Learning Commons renovation, the CMS is fully equipped with:

• 27-inch iMac computers, equipped with software such as Adobe Creative Cloud Master Collection, Final Cut Pro and Pro Tools.
• A soundproof recording room and professional recording equipment for the production of audio voiceovers, interviews and podcasts.
• Media equipment checkout including HD cameras, tripods, headphones, audio recording devices and green screens.
• A fully remodeled space, with new furnishings that complete the first-floor transformation of the library.

A wide variety of equipment is available to students for four-day loans outside of the CMS. After a student is finished using the equipment, he or she can return to the CMS and edit footage using the extensive software selection including Final Cut Pro or Pro Tools.

Photo by Joyclyn Dunham.

For the not-so-media savvy, the CMS offers friendly assistance  to help projects look professionally done.

“What makes the Creative Media Studio at CSUN unique is that we have compiled software and hardware resources used across these multimedia-based majors and made them available to all CSUN students,” said Sarah Sayeed, coordinator of the CMS. “Students will be able to utilize the CMS resources in countless ways in order to create music recordings and mixes, podcasts, audio voiceovers, film editing, graphic design portfolios and image editing.”

Lynn Lampert, the library’s interim associate dean who originally conceived of the idea and co-wrote the proposal for the studio, said the CMS shows the library’s diversity as a specialized support center.

“It is important to view the Creative Media Studio as a special space that reflects the fact that libraries are no longer solely access points to knowledge and collection sharing — but they are also important places that provide specialized support for knowledge creation and skills development,” said Lampert. “The Creative Media Studio is a place where students can gather to create, invent and learn from one another about 21st century media skills and emerging technologies in a supportive space that engages their voices, ideas and research needs.”

When Demonte “Tray” Thompson was approaching high school graduation in 2010, he already had started learning lessons about the importance of making sound economic decisions.

His family had little disposable income, so if he wanted to have money for high school activities like the prom, he had to earn it by working at a fast food restaurant.

So he was ahead of most incoming freshmen when it came time to look ahead to college and how to pay for it. Considering various universities, he kept coming back to California State University, Northridge. He wanted to major in finance, so the CSUN David Nazarian College of Business and Economics was quite attractive. He also looked at the tuition cost, which was significantly lower than other schools.

Yet Demonte and his twin brother, Demontea, knew they were going to need more help to afford college without incurring a lot of debt. So they reached out to CSUN’s Financial Aid office, where they found out about Pell Grants.

Pell Grants are government funds awarded to students based on financial need. The grants take into account the institution’s tuition costs, as well as other ancillary factors. When the Thompson twins found out that they qualified for this aid, that sealed their respective decisions to come to CSUN.

“It relates to needing the aid to figure out which university I would attend, as well as whether I’d be able to afford going to college,” Demonte said. “Without receiving the right amount of financial aid, it could affect our decisions to go to college at all or going to a community college.”

During the 2013-14 school year, 18,107 CSUN students received a cumulative $79,219,274 in Pell Grants. That was the most by far in the state of California, nearly $10 million ahead of the second university on the list (California State University, Long Beach). Nationally, CSUN was third in total Pell Grant money awarded at public universities, behind only Penn State and Arizona State. The fact that nearly 50 percent of CSUN’s student body receives some level of government aid is a testament to the situations of the people who make up the student body.

“High need. We bring in kids who are this region,” said William Watkins ’74 (Urban Studies), CSUN vice president of student affairs and dean of students. “We have made a decision here at CSUN to not become exclusive in ways that might cause some kids from that socioeconomic strata to not be here. Part of the demographic reality of our campus is that we draw from the region in a very authentic way. We don’t have a whole lot of standards that we keep some in larger percentage than others from being enrolled. If we’re enrolling kids from the community here — and if we’re attractive to them and they believe that they can achieve success here — to be able to offer them the aid that makes that possible is huge.

“The Pell Grant is a gauge for the economic status of your student body. It reflects, number one, who we have here, but also demonstrates the capacity of the staff in our financial aid department and all the other supporting cast that assists students in getting those financial aid applications in and processed on time — and then delivering that aid to them at a time when they need it to pay their fees and their other obligations in a timely manner.”

Lili Vidal has been helping students like Thompson reach for their dreams of a better future for more than two decades. As CSUN’s director of financial aid and scholarships, Vidal has learned over the years how important support in the form of Pell Grants can make the difference between going to college and not for a great number of CSUN students.

“It’s critical for them,” Vidal said. “They really can’t come to school. Students who are eligible for Pell Grants, they don’t have additional family resources. They don’t really have another place to turn.”

Vidal pointed out that along with the aid must come a fair amount of education. Many students receiving this financial aid are first-time college students, so there is no background knowledge in what college costs and what resources are available to help pay for it. In many cases, the parents are receiving the financial education along with their children, and for many Latino families that learning is done in Spanish as well as English.

“It’s not just the money, it’s the education we have to deliver to them,” Vidal said. “Their parents didn’t go to college. They don’t understand what this money is for. They could get a refund check for $5,000 that could be the income for a family for a year.”

The education brings with it a real-world lesson about the responsibilities that come with the aid. These students must maintain an academic standard that shows passing grades and consistent progress toward a degree. If their academic performance lags below standards, the reality that the support could go away is quite sobering for many first-time college students. This requires maturity early on to make the most of this opportunity. In some instances, this is a hard lesson.

“They don’t really understand the responsibility that comes with that opportunity,” Vidal said. “They do need to have discipline — academic discipline, financial discipline, social discipline. They’re responsible for themselves in a lot of ways.”

CSUN offers workshops on money management to help students with budgeting their financial aid money. There have been past instances when students received aid, but spent it only partially on their education — leaving them scrounging to make ends meet until the end of the semester.

“This financial aid is important to them,” Vidal said. “It’s important to their family, and it’s important to their community.”

Demonte eventually went to work for Vidal in the financial aid office. He’s been able to help other students facing a similar situation to his own. When he finishes his undergraduate degree in December (he’s already looking ahead toward graduate school), it will be clear how aid like the Pell Grant has helped him.

“It’s made an amazing difference,” Demonte said. “This grant and other financial aid I received let me know that I do have a cushion to help me with school. I won’t have to work as much so I can focus on my education.

“It has propelled me. Not only is my major finance, but I’m at a university that has a good business school. Even when considering pursuing an MBA, I know I have the support of faculty and staff.”

For Vidal, the reward is in knowing the difference she’s making in helping these students elevate themselves to earn a degree that can boost their future careers.

“I do get students coming back to tell me they wouldn’t be where they are without our help,” Vidal said. “We believe in them.”

Having someone believe in them gives many students the confidence to persevere through the hard work that lies ahead during their college years. But just knowing that a college education is possible because of aid like Pell Grants and people like Vidal is often the start that many need on the road to success.

“I have a tremendous respect and regard for the work that’s done through financial aid,” Watkins said. “When our recruiters go out, they can say affirmatively to kids that if you prepare yourself to come to college, we have the resources to make that possible. That’s huge.”

California State University, Northridge has been awarded a five-year, $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to address the educational gap of Hispanics and other underrepresented groups in health care-related graduate programs.

The grant will fund a new program in CSUN’s College of Health and Human Development, CAMINO, which in Spanish translates to “pathway.” The ultimate goal of the initiative is to increase the number of Hispanics and other underrepresented students completing their graduate education and going on to careers in health care.

“The health care field is one of the fastest-growing employment sectors in the United States,” said Sylvia Alva, dean of the College of Health and Human Development. “Concurrent with projected national shortages in health care is the demand for a more ethnically diverse health care and public health workforce. Research shows a strong link between a culturally diverse workforce able to provide high-quality, culturally competent patient care and improved health outcomes from the population being served.

“The need to increase and widen the pipeline to careers and occupations in health care is critically important to the San Fernando Valley, the region and the nation,” Alva continued. “I am thrilled that CSUN is going to be part of the effort to address that need.”

Sloane Burke Winkleman

CSUN public health professor Sloane Burke Winkleman, project director of CAMINO, will work with faculty throughout the College of Health and Human Development — including faculty in communication disorders, environmental and occupational health, gerontology, health administration, kinesiology, nutrition, public health and physical therapy — to develop strategies that address the specific needs of Hispanic graduate students in an effort to improve their acceptance and retention rates in health care-related majors.

“With this grant comes great opportunity,” said Burke Winkleman. “We can increase the university’s capacity to address the specific needs of Hispanic post-baccalaureate students in health-related disciplines. By showing these promising students the routes to take to reach their graduate degrees, we will see increased participation in allied health professions in the years to come.”

Part of the initiative will include peer and faculty mentoring, the establishment of a student learning community, career counseling, networking and professional development opportunities, scholarships, graduate research showcases and assistantships and a speaker series featuring leaders in regional health-care fields. Outreach to families to inform them about their students’ graduate school and career paths also will be a key component of the program.

“Many of the students who will be part of this program are first-generation college students,” said Burke Winkleman. “Even with having an undergraduate degree, it can be a challenge to navigate an entirely new environment and ensure one has the skills and resources for some of the complexities of graduate school.

“At the same time, as the first in their families to go to college, some students meet resistance from family members who don’t understand why they are going on to graduate school, and may feel pressure to fulfill more expected roles and responsibilities that don’t involve continuing education,” she added.

Burke Winkleman noted that about 40 percent of the undergraduates in the College of Health and Human Development are Latino, but that number drops to about 17 percent — even as low as 5 percent in some programs — of the graduate students in the college.

The new initiative will provide a more holistic environment for graduate students pursuing health care majors. Burke Winkleman said it will take into account the unique experiences of first-generation college students during the application process, as well as to build infrastructure and providing meaningful opportunities to increase admissions and retention while they are graduate students.

“We need to provide our students with support and a place where they feel connected,” she said. “We tell students that they need a college degree to succeed. But when their career goal requires more than a bachelor’s degree, we need to provide them with a road map and an environment where they can not only succeed, but thrive, and are prepared for competitive and rewarding careers in health care.”

White House representatives joined California State University, Northridge faculty and administrators and more than 80 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education leaders from across the country at CSUN on Oct. 7 to cultivate strategies for keeping students in STEM fields, with the goal of making the United States more competitive in a technologically savvy global market.

The White House workshop, co-sponsored by CSUN and The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, highlighted ways to recruit and retain women, underserved minorities and first-generation college students in STEM fields. These groups statistically have the lowest numbers in science and engineering fields, according to Patricia Falcone, the White House’s Associate Director for National Security and International Affairs of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The workshop was part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to expand college opportunity for more first-generation, low-income and underserved students, building momentum toward the second White House College Opportunity Summit later this year.

Falcone said women occupy only 28% percent of STEM careers in the U.S., and 60 percent of students who enter STEM majors leave those STEM fields before graduation.

“It is a fact that students from underserved communities often lack the tools and resources early on to get inspired and prepared to study STEM in high school and beyond,” Falcone said. “But it is also a fact that young people, by nature, are curious and creative about how to solve problems in the world around them. We must offer support to students to gain the foundational skills they need to succeed in STEM careers.”

CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison noted that the university serves a highly diverse community, with two-thirds of its students being first-generation college students and more than 18,000 students eligible for Pell Grants. Harrison highlighted CSUN’s efforts to enrich the STEM student pipeline and improve student outcomes by addressing student readiness, giving students hands-on experiences and confidence and providing the foundation for students to carry their success forward beyond the classroom and into careers and graduate school.

“As one of the most diverse universities in this country, we take great pride in our historical commitment to provide access to traditionally underserved communities,” Harrison said. “Student success and degree attainment are our top priorities in all fields, including STEM.”

One example of a long-running CSUN program successfully elevating underrepresented student achievement is the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program funded by the National Institutes of Health. The program, which is directed by CSUN biology professor Maria Elena Zavala, aims to increase the number of traditionally underrepresented students prepared to lead in research careers in basic biomedical sciences. Since 1990, 36 former MARC students have completed and an additional 17 CSUN students are currently in doctoral programs.

Panel speakers and conference participants discussed ways to prepare and inspire students in STEM fields. Some said starting exposure to hands-on science and engineering earlier in education was vital to getting students STEM-ready for college.

CSUN biology professor Steven Oppenheimer spoke about the university’s work with local grade schools on integrating more STEM experiences in the classroom and how research kept students focused on science. Oppenheimer pointed to the annually published “The New Journal of Student Research Abstracts,” which spotlights the young scientists’ work.

“We start with elementary school level,” Oppenheimer said. “We started many decades ago. The kids were excited. … They come to Northridge and present their posters. This has been a tremendous success. The students are turned on to science. Research, in my opinion, is key and it should start as early as possible.”

Others added that building career paths for students was vital to keep them motivated and on track for the future.

Panelist Peggy Nelson M.S. ’91 (Electrical Engineering), vice president of engineering and global product development at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, said female role models are vital to keeping students inspired in their careers.

“I have learned that the role model of a lady engineer cannot be underestimated,” she said. “Women need to be kept in the workforce. We need to provide them the role models. … We need professors to be supportive. We need those kinds of relationships where we have diversity.”

Internships also give students an edge in the career field, said panelist Anna Park, chief executive officer of Great Minds in STEM.

“What students are being asked to do is not found in a textbook,” Park said. “Having that access really will differentiate them.”

S.K. Ramesh, dean of CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, moderated a breakout session on Connections to Career and Industry. He spoke about the role of mentoring and undergraduate research activities in attracting and graduating students from diverse backgrounds in STEM fields. CSUN’s AIMS2 program, supported by a five-year, $5.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, was recently recognized by the Excelencia Foundation as a national exemplar of breaking down barriers and successfully supporting and graduating underserved students in Engineering and Computer Science.

“To err is human. To engineer is divine. To educate is sublime,” Ramesh said. “We need to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to echo the call from the National Academies to strengthen and diversify our nation’s capabilities in STEM Education.”

The federal government has awarded California State University, Northridge $1.25 million over the course of five years to train teachers who are uniquely equipped to work collaboratively with parents and others to ensure deaf students get the best education possible.

The grant, from the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education, is for CSUN’s new Interdisciplinary Deaf Education Teacher Preparation Program (IDEP). The program will develop a team that will include members of the Deaf community, parents, interpreters, paraeducators and related service professionals to help prepare teachers to more effectively impact their deaf students.

“Because of the unique and varied needs of deaf students, it is essential that Deaf educators collaborate with a wide variety of people who are invested in educating deaf children,” said Judy Coryell, the project director and an adjunct professor in CSUN’s Department of Special Education.

The interdisciplinary program was created in response to the critical shortage in the state of California of highly qualified special education professionals prepared to serve deaf, hard-of-hearing and deaf-and-blind students.

From 2008 to 2010, the number of such candidates enrolled in teacher-education programs in the California State University system decreased by 18 percent. In 2011, state education officials recognized the need for such educators, establishing specific goals to address the shortage.

Ellen Schneiderman and Rachel Friedman Narr, both professors in the Deaf education specialization in CSUN’s Department of Special Education, came up with the idea for a project that emphasizes bringing together all the people who have a stake in preparing highly qualified teachers.

“The essential roles of families, the Deaf community, related-service professionals like speech pathologists and audiologists, as well as interpreters and classroom assistants, will become an integral part of the content in the preparation of Deaf educators,” Friedman Narr said.

The new program will start admitting students for enrollment in spring 2015. Program faculty will recruit a limited number of qualified students.

The Deaf education teacher preparation program at CSUN is one of only two bilingual American Sign Language-English preparation programs in California. It has a national reputation for graduating highly qualified special education teaching professionals.

Dozens of California State University, Northridge faculty, staff and students filled the Delmar T. Oviatt Library’s Jack and Florence Ferman Presentation Room ready to learn about compelling research at CSUN’s 6th Annual Research Fellows Colloquium on Oct. 14. Nine faculty members from the Research Fellows Program presented topics ranged from fluid flow in an aneurysm, to masculine man caves.

Some of the presented research focused on learning new ways to solve health problems that many deal with, such as Ben Yaspelkis’ research on seeking nutritional approaches to treatments that may improve Type 2 diabetes. Others’ research took a deeper look into issues in our community, like Susan Auerbach’s critical examination of how parent trigger laws and corporate reform in K-12 schools are being represented in the media.

“The Research Fellows Program is important in that it allows faculty to pursue what they love to do,” said Marianne Afifi, former associate dean of library operations and the moderator for the event. “It lets them take the time and use the funding to contribute to their own research community as well as showcase the variety of academic work to the CSUN campus.”

After each speaker gave their 10- to 12-minute presentations, they all sat on a panel and answered questions from the audience about their research.
The colloquium was created and is funded collaboratively by the Office of the Provost, the colleges and the Oviatt Library.

The Research Fellows program is a competitive program, available to all tenured and tenure-tracked faculty. Selected fellows are given the opportunity to pursue and conduct research or creative works during the school year. The program, founded in 2007, initiates a more vibrant research focus for the campus, spotlighting the diversity of research and mentoring new scholars.

Other faculty who presented their research were: Martha Escobar (Chicana/o Studies), “Criminalization of Latina Migrants and the Construction of Irrecuperability”; Vibhav Durgesh (Mechanical Engineering), “Fluid Flow in an Aneurysm”; Maia Beruchashvili (Marketing), “Mancaves and Masculinity”; Ellen Jarosz (Special Collections and Archives) and Steve Kutay (Digital Services), “Creation of the Guided Resource Inquiry (GRI) Tool”; Alexandra Monchick (Music), “Opera as Film”; and Scott Plunkett (Psychology), “Cross-cultural Comparisons on Parenting Related to Academics and Mental Health.”

Bobbie Eisenstock

It started in 2008 with a small classroom-run project at California State University, Northridge. It’s now a national campaign to advocate for positive body images by providing media literacy in partnership with the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).

As part of her journalism service-learning courses through CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement, Professor Bobbie Eisenstock is leading an effort at the university and around the country about how to be media literate in a digital age.

“While media are not a causal factor, media are one of the factors that can affect body satisfaction and self-esteem and subsequently lead to disordered eating,” she said.

This is one reason why Eisenstock and her students created the “Get REAL! Digital Media Literacy Toolkit” last year.

The toolkit, which explores ways for the public to be more media literate, aware of how media affects body image and advocate for positive body images in the media, is available on NEDA’s website and is used nationally to help counteract unrealistic body images with media literacy. She also published an article about how to use the toolkit in NEDA’s magazine “Making Connections” last month. Eisenstock was the recipient of NEDA’s 2013 Westin Family Award for Excellence in Activism and Advocacy at its conference in Washington, D.C. for her advocacy work in the field.

Eisenstock partnered with NEDA after leading a media literacy boot camp at its annual conference in 2011. She asked if they ever worked with college campuses before. The answer was no, and a collaboration was launched.

“The collaboration between NEDA and CSUN students is a way to develop authentic content around body-image messaging that connects with college students,” she said. “My students really wanted to make a difference. They use the knowledge they gain in the classroom and their own personal experiences to create interactive activities to engage, educate, and empower their peers.”

Eisenstock explained that media has a large impact on college students, noting that some students enter the university either predisposed or already suffering from an eating disorder.

The average person spends more than 11 hours a day on media, which includes using the Internet, apps, listening to the radio and watching television, according to a study conducted last year by the Nielson Group.

Body image issues touch everyone in today’s digitally immersed age, Eisenstock said.

“Considering how much time we spend in the digital media culture, it’s really hard to escape the pressure of attaining a certain body ideal when everywhere we turn we are bombarded with picture-perfect digitally-retouched images of women and men,” she said. “Media body images have normalized a cultural body standard that is virtually impossible to achieve by the average person.”

Journalism major Cicely Chisholm, a former student of Eisenstock’s, worked on a body positivity campaign last semester. She said body image is a rampant issue for students as early as grade school.

“I had a friend who suffered from an eating disorder when she was 12,” she said. “It just doesn’t leave you. Kids in middle school are affected by what they watch on television and what they see in magazines. It’s a major problem.”

Communication studies student Carli Olson said working on the next step for media literacy at CSUN has inspired her.

“It’s sending a really positive message to those who need it,” she said. “We are the people who watch the most TV, we are the ones buying the most products.”

CSUN is one of two universities in the country currently working on a new national outreach initiative by NEDA. Titled “Proud2BMe On Campus,” it is a program to address the growing concern about eating disorders on college and university campuses. In a recent survey NEDA conducted, they found that 10 to 20 percent of female and 4 to 10 percent of male students are affected by eating disorders.

Her students are hard at work framing CSUN’s “Proud2BMe On Campus” projects, which include a storytelling booth for students where they can share their stories about how media affects their body image and a selfie wall of positive body image.

Theater major Avery Rodriguez said he is glad that Eisenstock gives her students the space to be creative with their projects on media literacy.

“I’m not too knowledgeable with body image and media literacy, I wanted to learn more,” he said. “It’s a great outlet to be creative.”

Olson said Eisenstock’s students are dedicated to being a positive change for the CSUN community and now the country.

“We are adamant about not only showing how media affect body images but helping people recognize it and learn not to dwell on it and appreciate who they are inside and out,” Olson said.

Chisholm said she was glad that students are involved in making a difference for the community.

“[Eisenstock's] ‘Get REAL!’ project is worth it. It’s making a difference,” she said.

Professor Bingbing Li.

California State University, Northridge’s China Institute will feature a series of presentations ranging from topics such as contemporary Chinese art to the application of acupuncture and herbal medicine in an effort to promote important issues related to China and the United States.

“The goal of the series is to promote researchers working on important issues related to China and the U.S. and to introduce those researchers to CSUN students and members of the local community,” said Weimin Sun, a member of the China Institute advisory board.

The lecture series will begin Friday, Oct. 24, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Live Oak 1124 with a presentation by manufacturing systems engineering and management professor Bingbing Li on “Laser Additive Manufacturing for Remanufacturing of Critical Components and Environmental Sustainability of High-Capacity Lithium Ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles.”

There are three other presentations:

· Oct. 31 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Sierra 209 – CSUN physics and astronomy professor Debi Prasad Choudhary will discuss “Chromosphere of Sunspots – CSUN and NAOC Collaboration.”

· Nov. 14 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Live Oak 1124 – CSUN art professor Meiqin Wang will discuss “Contemporary Chinese Art in the Past Three Decades.”

·  Dec. 2 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Education Building 1214/1216 – Dr. Hongyan Li, a medical doctor who practices acupuncture, and Shanghai University professor Carol Ma, a CSUN visiting scholar, will discuss “The Application of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine in our Daily Life.”

Professor Meiqin Wang.

CSUN has a long history of collaboration with China. It was one of the first American universities to pursue educational and cultural exchanges with Chinese universities when the late-President James Cleary signed CSUN’s first foreign student exchange agreement in 1981.

Today, CSUN has agreements and letters of intent with nearly 50 universities in China. These agreements have helped to promote the academic and cultural exchange of faculty and students through joint teaching, research, creative projects, visiting professor opportunities and other projects. Hundreds of visiting scholars and thousands of students from China have studied at CSUN, and many CSUN faculty and students have participated in exchange programs.

The lecture series is sponsored by the CSUN China Institute and the College of Humanities. It is free and open to the public. A campus map is available at this link, http://www.csun.edu/csun-maps, and public parking is available on campus for $6 a day. For more information, contact Weimin Sun at Weimin.sun@csun.edu.

UCLA education professor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco.

Immigration reform and education may not seem connected at first, but for University of California, Los Angeles education professor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, it is the epicenter of his research and upcoming guest lecture, “Rethinking Education in the Age of Vertigo: Further Thoughts on Globalization, Immigration and Inequality.”

His talk is the highlight of CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education Third Annual Research Colloquium, which will take place Wednesday, Oct. 29, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. in the University Student Union’s Northridge Center. Miguel Ceja, the director of CSUN’s doctoral program in Educational Leadership, is co-hosting the event.

Suárez-Orozco will explore the best ways to prepare students and young adults in an immigrant-saturated country to succeed in higher education, the labor market and citizenship, according to his abstract.

Adele Gottfried, director of research enhancement for the College of Education, said Suárez-Orozco’s talk is highly appropriate for the CSUN community.

“It applies to our teacher education programs, but perhaps more widely to the CSUN community,” she said. “We have a fair number of students in our campus who do come from immigration backgrounds. I would assume that it would intimately relate to our student body at CSUN, as well as to people going into professions that will work with immigrant populations.”

Suárez-Orozco is on the forefront of immigration and Latino studies at UCLA. Since 2008, he has published five books that discuss immigrant students, Latino migration to the United States, its impact on the workforce and how to see immigration as part of the bigger picture instead of an issue.

According to his book “Latinos: Remaking America,” while Latinos make up the majority of the Los Angeles population (47.6 percent, according to a 2008 study), they also hold a high unemployment rate.

“There is an ever more urgent need to ease the transition of Latino youth via schooling to citizenship and the labor market,” according to the book’s forward.

Gottfried said the talk will explore new perspectives on education and help educators better understand how to work with a growing immigrant population.

Faculty, staff, alumni and the public are welcome to attend the colloquium. Attendance is free and parking is $6 without a CSUN parking permit. The University Student Union’s Northridge Center is located on the east side of the university’s campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

For more information, please email adele.gottfried@csun.edu.

The Delmar T. Oviatt Library celebrated the dedication of the Robert and Maureen Gohstand Leisure Reading Room. From left: Library Dean Mark Stover, Robert Gohstand, Maureen Gohstand and English professor Charles Hatfield. Photo by Nestor Garcia.

Securing a dedicated space for leisure reading at California State University, Northridge’s Delmar T. Oviatt Library had been a longtime dream of emeritus professor Robert (Bob) Gohstand. During his nearly 40 years as a professor in the Department of Geography, Gohstand encouraged his students to not just read for academic reasons, but also for fun and pleasure.

Last week, on Oct. 22, the emeritus professor’s dream came true with the dedication of the Robert and Maureen Gohstand Leisure Reading Room, located on the second floor, west wing of the library.

 “I wanted to have a space in this library where one could relax and read,” said Bob Gohstand. “Reading expands one’s imagination and perspective on the world.”

 The Gohstands were joined at the dedication by dozens of faculty, staff and supporters including emeritus library Dean Susan Curzon, Oviatt Library Dean Mark Stover and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Harry Hellenbrand, who welcomed and offered remarks to attendees.

 “The reading we do on our own time, reading that isn’t deadline-driven, isn’t job-driven, isn’t necessarily research, is some of the most important reading we can ever do,” said English professor Charles Hatfield. He opened his keynote address to the crowd with the song, “In This Quiet Room,” written and recorded by his brother-in-law to raise money to build a library in Westhampton, Mass.

 Referencing the song’s lyrics, “in this paper sanctuary,” Hatfield applauded the Gohstands for their donation to the library.

 “With a tip of the hat to Bob and Maureen, long may this room, this paper sanctuary, extend a welcome to readers — whatever joys, terrors, provocations or hopes, whatever blend of light and darkness they seek,” Hatfield said.

 Bob Gohstand has long been an advocate for the library. He was a member of the Faculty Senate Library Committee for two decades and served as the chair of the committee for 10 of those years. He remains an ardent supporter of the community, the campus and particularly the Oviatt Library, where he continues to serve on the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Library and as director of the Old China Hands Archive.

More than 150 high school journalism students, their advisers and several local journalists came together for the annual “Generation J” Journalism Day and AdviserFEST at California State University, Northridge.
The free workshops were designed for students in the areas of mobile journalism, breaking news, sports writing, layout and design, photojournalism and Spanish-language journalism.
The department’s “Generation J” event is designed to give high school journalism students opportunities to connect with journalism professionals in a wide variety of workshops, and to test their skills in writing, visual and online communication competitions. “Generation J” is an SPJ national project. Workshop presenters included working professionals, CSUN’s own journalism faculty members and graduate students. Here are photos from the day’s event.

Seventh grader Caroline Smith looked up in awe of the Great Hall of the Valley Performing Arts Center (VPAC).

“This is my first time here,” she said. “It’s so huge!”

Smith, an honors student from Holmes Middle School, was about to witness her first fine arts experience with 800 fellow students from local schools. This time, the performance was the Swiss silent theater group Mummenschanz on Oct. 24.

She is just one of more than 12,000 K-12 students from around the San Fernando Valley who have enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of the Student Matinee Series, an ongoing year-round program at California State University, Northridge that brings free, high-caliber artistic experiences to local students.

The program, which began in 2011, has been providing local schoolchildren firsthand experience with professional performers, which can be used in the classroom to enhance their understanding of the arts. Since art recently became a common core standard for the Los Angeles Unified School District, teachers from these schools will be able to use the performances as part of the curriculum to teach fine arts, said Anthony Cantrell, director of arts education at the VPAC.

“LAUSD recently stated that the arts should be a core subject, which we in the arts knew they should have been all along,” he said.

The series also tied into the VPAC’s mission to serve the Northridge community, he said. Cantrell, who has 20 years of experience as a high school theater teacher, helped prep many of the students for the Mummenschanz performance.

“I help put their minds and bodies into the Mummenschanz performer, as opposed to just giving them a handout,” he said. “With my background in education, it has led me to structure the matinees as a learning experience and not just a field trip. I go to their schools as much as I can to offer pre-performance workshops.”

Students from the international humanities magnet Holmes Middle School discussed what they expected and learned about silent theater before entering the Great Hall, such as interpreting body language and working as a unit to send a message.

Diego Borgsdorf, another Holmes seventh grader, was eager to see how the performers would work together.

“I want to see how they act as an ensemble and put the group’s needs in front of [their] own,” he said.

Mummenschanz lit up the stage with acts such as a giant yellow slinky playing catch with a mammoth red balloon and the audience, a silver ribbon dancing in a black background, and red lights reflecting off shimmering and crackling sheets to imitate what could be interpreted as fire.

With the LAUSD’s new standard, arts will be integrated into different disciplines in the classroom, such as health sciences and mathematics, Cantrell explained.

“Non-arts teachers can learn more about how to use arts more effectively in their classrooms,” he said. “There are strategies that we explore and share with teachers to weave them in more seamlessly, rather than as a separate lesson.”

Holmes Middle School health and life science instructor Dina Karathanas was one of the teachers who learned how to use art in her classroom. The common core standard aims to encourage students’ creativity, she said, and the series helps reinforce the new goal.

“This is an international humanities magnet, so the performance ties right into that,” she said.

Karathanas also said that because the series is free to join, the only cost was transportation.

“I love it. We are so close that we can walk,” she said. “The cost factor is huge.”

Students gathered around lunch tables outside the VPAC after the performance and reflected on their experiences. Borgsdorf said his favorite performance was the yellow slinky and the red balloon playing catch with the audience.

“I liked it because the character had emotions,” Borgsdorf said. “I was very into the expressions of their body language.”

Smith was amazed by the way the troupe used ordinary objects in an unconventional way, such as a skit that involved shiny plastic and a giant foam eye floating on the stage.

“I liked the one with the fish and the crocodile,” she said. “I thought it was funny how plastic could be a bunch of fish. It was neat.”

Smith also said Mummenschanz inspired her to be more creative.

“I’m in Girl Scouts, and we have to do skits,” she said. “I can use my imagination to make stories for the skits.”

Karathanas said she was glad the students could be more creative and get some outside help from CSUN in finding performances to discuss in class.

“Technology can take away imagination from the kids,” she said. “This [series] lets them create their own reactions.”

Cantrell said that while he is a department of one in providing a series for students, he believes it is worth it.

“I’m designing a program that I would have loved to take part in when I was a teacher,” he said.