From the day California State University, Northridge alumnus Homero Magaña M.A. ’12 (Educational Administration) came to California from Mexico, he has been dedicated to getting an education.

Magaña’s father, an agricultural worker, brought Homero (who was 12 at the time) and his other children to the United States to get a better education and improved life. Last month, Homero Magaña’s dedication was validated when First Lady Michelle Obama recognized him at the College Opportunity Day of Action.

“Out of all the recognitions in my life, by far this is one of the most rewarding because it validates all the years of dedication and commitment to educational excellence,” Magaña said. “This recognition for me inspires me to be a voice for the thousands of students and parents who sometimes believe that education is not necessary.”

Magaña was selected to introduce the First Lady at the White House event on Dec. 4. The First Lady thanked the 33-year-old Moorpark High School counselor for his introduction and applauded his success.

“He’s just an amazing story, an amazing person,” the First Lady said. “[He’s] a clear reminder of why we’re here today.”

The White House College Opportunity Day of Action is part of President Obama’s commitment to partner with colleges and universities, business leaders and nonprofit organizations to support students across the country to help the nation reach its goal of leading the world in college attainment. CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison was among hundreds of college presidents and other higher education leaders, including CSU Chancellor Timothy White, to also participate in the event.

Harrison said CSUN will continue to do its part by supporting research and career pathways, and strengthening project-based learning and programs that link coursework to the world of work through engaged STEM research and careers starting in the first year of college.

Magaña said CSUN has contributed to his success. After graduating from high school, he attended Moorpark Community College. He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s in counseling at San Diego State University. He graduated from CSUN in 2012 with his master’s in educational administration.

“I strongly believe that having a positive attitude in life despite the barriers we face as first-generation college students is key to achieving goals in life,” Magaña said. “It is my hope that other students and parents will see this example in my story and, as a result, become inspired to remove those barriers that prevent them from maximizing their full potential.”

Helen Cox, director of CSUN’s Institute for Sustainability, speaks at a previous workshop.

Have you ever considered using solar energy but are not quite sure if it is right for your household or how much it will cost? California State University, Northridge’s Institute for Sustainability will host three workshops to answer these questions and more about going solar.

CSUN students, staff, faculty and the community are welcome to attend the free workshops at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 27, at noon Feb. 16 or 6:30 p.m. Mar. 19 — all on the garden level of the Oviatt Library 16.

Helen Cox, director of the Institute for Sustainability, along with Max Aram ’13 (M.S., Manufacturing Systems Engineering) and Chris Blevins, founders of Pick My Solar, will discuss how solar energy works, key factors to consider when using it and if switching to solar energy makes sense for you.

“Workshop attendees will receive unbiased information about solar options for their home and will be able to make an informed decision about whether or not it makes sense for them to install solar panels,” said Sarah Johnson, an administrative coordinator with the Institute for Sustainability. “ The feedback from past attendees include ‘excellent and information packed.’”

Pick My Solar is a website that allows homeowners interested in solar power to receive bids from companies with transparency. The site’s staff will be available at the workshop to determine installation costs, financing options and potential solar savings for all attendees who bring their utility bill.

CSUN’s Institute for Sustainability promotes, facilitates and develops educational research and university and community programs related to sustainability. It serves as an umbrella organization across the university on issues related to sustainability and is connecting the campus with efforts in the community. For more information and to RSVP, email sustainability@csun.edu or visit CSUN’s Institute for Sustainability.

CSUN child and adolescent development professor Virginia Huynh.

Money, family obligations and discrimination all play key roles in discouraging high school students from persisting on to and in college, according to a new study by California State University, Northridge child and adolescent development professor Virginia Huynh.

First-generation Latino students, in particular, are affected by a lack of knowledge about financial aid, family responsibilities and racially insensitive interactions with adults while they are in high school, the study found.

“Colleges need to be realistic about the barriers students face as they make decisions about higher education,” Huynh said. “It’s one thing to lament the state of the public school systems and say they are not doing enough. Colleges need to get out there and fill the gap, even if it’s something as simple as having college students visit high schools and talk to the students there, raising their awareness and understanding of the consequences of not going to college and the financial aid that exists to help them pay for college.”

Huynh, Willamette University psychology professor Melissa R. Witkow and UCLA psychology professor Andrew J. Fuligni have been following a cohort of 408 Latino, Asian and white teenagers in three Los Angeles-area high schools for more than four years. As the students completed high school, the researchers decided to study what factors affected the students’ decisions to go or not to college. The results of their research, “Understanding Differences in College Persistence: A Longitudinal Examination of Financial Circumstances, Family Obligations and Discrimination in an Ethnically Diverse Sample,” can be found in the online journal Applied Developmental Science.

Many of the students were the children of immigrants, Huynh noted.

“Pundits find it easy to lump all immigrants together, but there is so much diversity out there,” she said. “Many immigrants, some of whom are Asian, come here with money and other resources. The parents have college and even graduate degrees, and have the experiences and resources to help their children make informed decisions about going to college. Others come here as refugees, and the adults in the family may never have had an opportunity to get much education. No matter what race or ethnicity, kids are more prepared to go to college if their parents have higher education experience.”

It’s that familiarity with higher education and college financial aid resources that can make a difference in a student’s college persistence, the study found.

Huynh noted that many students start working in high school and contribute to their family’s finances.

“Their paycheck can literally make a difference in whether or not their family pays the rent that month or whether there is enough food on the table,” she said. “It can be hard for a student who has no family tradition of higher education to grasp that it’s worth it to quit their job, or at least cut back their hours significantly, and go to college. Recent college graduates make significantly more — nearly $20,000 a year more — than their counterparts with only a high school diploma. But when your family is facing the possibility of not having enough money to put a roof over their heads or food on their table, going to college can be a very hard choice to make.

“Our study found that many first-generation students, particularly Latino students, weren’t aware that there is financial aid out there — and not just student loans — to help them pay for college,” she continued. “That knowledge alone can make a difference in the path a student chooses.”

Other obstacle are callous, racially insensitive interactions with adults — from teachers or police officers — while the students are in high school.

“It’s during adolescence that we develop our sense of self, of who we are and what we are capable of,” Huynh said. “If a teen has been harassed, called names or been suspected of suspicious activity because of their race or ethnicity, it can affect the decisions they make later in life.”

The study found that the more adult discrimination an adolescent experienced in high school, the less likely they were to go on to college, regardless of their ability.

“It’s hard enough being the first one in your family to go to college,” Huynh said. “You have to do it all by yourself — from filling out complicated forms to trying to figure out how to pay for it all. Plus, there’s the guilt from feeling you’re letting your family down financially. If you’ve been told all your life by authority figures that your life isn’t going to amount to anything or that your kind doesn’t have it in them to succeed, then going to college may seem impossible.”

Huynh said she would love to see colleges establish programs with local public high schools, similar to ones CSUN has, that provide students and their parents with information about navigating the college application process and financial resources — from grants and scholarship to work-study arrangements and even loans — that exist to help students pay for their education.

“There needs to be a conversation so that the students know how going to college can truly change their lives for the better, and that there are resources out there to help them,” she said.

Citing a wide array of higher education thought leaders, California State University, Northridge President Dianne F. Harrison championed inclusive excellence and diversity during her keynote address at CSUN’s annual Faculty Retreat. Focusing on the areas where faculty can have the greatest impact, Harrison highlighted how innovative pedagogy and faculty hiring and retention can influence student learning.

“Inclusive excellence means that every one of our students deserves the very best that we can offer to ensure not only that they complete their degrees but that they also can demonstrate achievement of the expected learning outcomes needed for success in the 21st century,” said Harrison at CSUN’s annual Faculty Retreat.

Harrison, who titled her speech, “The Role of Faculty in Inclusive Excellence and Diversity” said she was pleased when she found out that this year’s retreat was focused on celebrating diversity because it has been one of her priorities. The past year saw CSUN host leaders like Nancy Gutierrez, dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Daryl G. Smith, a senior research fellow at Claremont Graduate University and an expert on faculty diversity.

“I believe we need to have a shared understanding and appreciation of the role of diversity in higher education and specifically at CSUN and the policy and practices that are necessary to achieve the associated benefits for our students and our campus,” Harrison said. “We should not focus exclusively on numbers or simply relax because we have an incredibly diverse student body.

“Rather, the generally recognized and legally sanctioned approach is to focus on the educational benefits that flow from diversity, including improved teaching and learning, preparing students for the 21^st century workforce, and enhanced preparation for civic engagement and leadership among others.”

Throughout her address, Harrison pointed to higher education research and data to illustrate her points. During a recent conference on Accelerating Academic Success, Harrison noted that Dr. Eric Cooper, Executive Director of the National Urban Alliance, shared strategies to reach students who are traditionally described as “academically at risk.” In her book, The Pedagogy of Confidence, Yvette Jackson turns the moniker on its head, calling these students “students of opportunity.”

“We also know from many different sources and research studies that students are more engaged and have better learning outcomes when they participate in active, applied learning activities that involve real world issues and cultural contexts to which they can relate personally and also better understand and apply course content,” Harrison said. “High impact practices that include students in research, community service learning, internships, and capstone and culminating projects that occur over more than one semester, should be available to all of our students.”

At the Faculty Retreat, the president also announced plans to appoint a chief diversity officer who will report directly to the president and to create and appoint a Commission on Diversity and Diversity Initiatives composed of faculty, staff, students, administrators and community leaders.

“We need to be open to dialogue and discussion on issues of diversity and inclusion,” Harrison said. “We need to be intentional and strategic about our diversity and inclusion efforts. We must walk the walk. This requires focus, sustained efforts and collaboration across many institutional sectors.”

Harrison’s remarks were made during her keynote address on Jan. 12. About 165 faculty attended the two-day retreat. The event was opened with a welcome from Acting Faculty Senate President Adam Swenson and event co-chairs Jongeun Kim and Christina Mayberry.

The retreat included a variety of panels and presentations, including “Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Assessment: Do We Need to Check Our Assessment Practices?,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You: Getting to Know the International and Exchange Student Center,” and “Engaging in Safe, Meaningful, and Connecting Conversations about Diversity.” Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Harry Hellenbrand offered remarks on “Why Diversity Matters.”

In support of the theme, students in the Department of Art’s printmaking class produced hand-printed covers inspired by the diversity of the campus. The second day of the retreat included a field trip to historic downtown Los Angeles and lunch in Chinatown.

“We as a faculty are only going to get better at understanding and promoting diversity if we talk about it,” said Swenson, a professor in the Department of Philosophy. “I hope this event gives us an opportunity to do that and begin to open the dialogue.”

Jessica ChenFeng, a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, who co-presented a discussion on engaging in safe, meaningful and connecting conversations about diversity, said faculty should be cognizant that not all students come from the same backgrounds and that students from varying ethnic and racial backgrounds bring those experiences to the classroom.

“These experiences are not always celebrated or encouraged,” ChenFeng said. “We hope our presentation brought some awareness.”

What if engagement in mathematics and science could always be fun? Not just for the students, but also for teachers? What if learning math and science became exciting for everyone involved?

California State University, Northridge professors Susan Belgrad and Norman Herr found themselves asking those questions.

“In California we know that by fourth grade, many children stop thinking of themselves as math achievers,” said Belgrad, professor of education and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Innovations Team leader. “We know that much of this occurs because current curricula and instruction isn’t meeting their needs. Pedagogies from the 1950s have persisted, and many elementary teachers, don’t necessarily go into teaching for the love of science or mathematics. So we are working to change that equation.”

Thanks to a continuing $35,000 grant from National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA- JPL), Belgrad and Herr a professor of science education, are leading a team of CSUN educators and JPL Education Specialists in combining forces to meet the needs of elementary and middle-school children by targeting the “next generation” of teachers.

“It’s can be seen as chicken-and-egg kind of thing,” said Belgrad. “It makes sense to begin with those who prepare teachers (incubators) and expect that it will result in golden eggs.”

Last year, Belgrad and Herr entered into negotiations with JPL and NASA and, received an initial $65,000 grant to begin the new teacher initiative that invited both credential students and teacher education faculty from four campuses.

During the summer, single and multiple subject K-8 credential students from CSUN, Cal State LA, Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Fullerton came to workshops at CSUN to get designed to get them excited about science, technology, mathematics (STEM).

“To promote STEM-integrated lesson development we embedded project-based learning (PBL), the notion that we learn best by doing, into the program,” said Belgrad. “By enabling new teachers to do this, we are essentially assuring that they lead their future students in problem identification, critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, team work and ultimately problem solving.”

Herr contributed his important tools for computer-supported collaborative science by teaching the credential students how to create their own googlesites and work with different Google applications, as tools to support student thinking, achievement and success. Then the teacher candidates visited JPL’s campus.

“We were there for three full days and climbed all over that campus to view NASA missions, learned from presentations from and conversations with their chief mission engineers and scientists.These teachers felt like they had died and gone to heaven,” said Belgrad. “After, we brought them back to campus, we coached them to work in teams as they updated their googlesites to include focus on one of the missions where they had learned about at NASA-JPL. They worked with JPL Education Specialist, DR. Ota Lutz, who led them in a full-day of learning how to build and program Lego Mindstorm Robots. Belgrad and Herr assisted them in completing designs of their own STEM-integrated lesson.

While some of the participating teacher candidates’ emphasis is in the sciences and mathematics, many of the credential students were general education elementary teachers.

“For our elementary people, this kind of experience is fabulous because we’re getting them ignited, and we’re helping them to see that scientific literacy and curriculum integration is going to be so important for teachers to acquire and utilize in their classrooms,” said Belgrad. “We’re helping them to understand that STEM is not just an acronym. It’s the integration of each of these subjects together with multiple literacies, social justice and global awareness.

“We really want new teachers to understand that the way we need to teach science and mathematics is to integrate it with technology and principles of engineering. This requires that students acquire social skills, communication skills, collaboration and flexibility of thinking, along with recognizing another’s idea can work as well as yours,” she said. “NASA-JPL understands this, and their mission has been to collaborate with educators across the state at the teacher-professional development level.”

With the additional $35,000, (totaling the grant money received to $100,000) Belgrad said, organizers plan on expanding the program to invite even more education students to the program.

“We want to advance their STEM knowledge and perspective in order to assure they can focus on scientific and mathematical literacy.”

One way Belgrad and Herr are doing this is by having the candidates participate in workshops hosted by NASA-JPL. “NASA-JPL constantly schedules these educators’ workshops on a regular basis. The workshops coming up are related to a mission that will be launched this month called SMAP (soil, moisture, active, passive). They will launch a robot into near-space that will orbit the earth, measuring the top two inches of soil moisture of the planet. These teachers will be able to go back to their classrooms and tell their students ‘I was there, I saw the NASA-JPL launch of this important mission!’

“We want students and teachers to know that a robust education can enable you to become anything you want to be,” she said. “If you’re intentional and you immerse yourself in the study of it, you can achieve it. That’s why we are looking for teachers to create safe, engaging, challenging and supported communities of learners.”

For more information on the grant and the program, please visit the website at https://sites.google.com/site/nasajplcsunpsti/.

California State University, Northridge officials have announced that the university’s 2015 commencement will remain on the lawn in front of the Delmar T. Oviatt Library, and most of the ceremonies will take place on the weekend to accommodate the busy work schedules of the graduates’ families.

Last year, university officials revamped CSUN’s commencement week by holding seven graduation exercises over the course of four days and, following the example of hundreds of universities and colleges around the country, requiring guest tickets of those attending the ceremony. Graduating students are able to request up to seven guest tickets for family members and friends.

“For several years, there have been requests from students asking that commencement ceremonies take place on the weekend so that their parents and family members could attend without the sacrifice of work,” said William Watkins, CSUN’s vice president for student affairs. For the first time in the history of the university, we will be offering most of our ceremonies on the weekend. This should make it much easier for those guests who have to juggle work and travel.”

Honors Convocation will continue to kick off CSUN’s commencement celebrations, but will take place at 8 a.m. on Friday, May 15. The ceremony includes the tradition of bestowing an honors medallion on worthy students, who are then encouraged to wear the medallion at their college’s commencement ceremony.

For the first time, the university will conduct a separate ceremony for graduate students, including masters and doctoral degree recipients from all colleges except the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Graduate students from that college will commence with the undergraduates of social and behavioral sciences in order to maximize guest seating availability.

The addition of the graduate student ceremony makes it possible for all students participating in the 2015 commencement to receive up to seven guest tickets. Specific instruction about the ticketing process will be sent to each graduating student via university email.

Christopher Aston, assistant director of the Office of Student Involvement and Development, which coordinates CSUN’s commencement celebration, said university officials received input from more than 4,500 students as they considered whether to keep the ceremonies on the Oviatt Lawn or move them to the North Athletic Field, where more seating could be provided.

“The student input was invaluable,” Aston said. “Our student government leadership took on the responsibility of ensuring that the students’ voices were heard, and we’re very grateful. They held open forums and solicited feedback from all our students.”

The 2015 commencement schedule is as follows:

• Friday, May 15 — Honors Convocation at 8 a.m. The graduate student commencement, with the exception of those graduating from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and deaf studies, will take place at 6 p.m.
• Saturday, May 16 — The undergraduates from the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media and Communication will have their ceremony at 8 a.m. The ceremony for the undergraduates from the College of Health and Human Development will take place at 6 p.m.
• Sunday, May 17 — The ceremonies for all graduates of the Departments of Africana Studies, Anthropology, Geography, History, Psychology, Public Administration, Public Sector Management and Public Policy in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and CSUN’s Deaf Studies Program will take place at 8 a.m. The ceremony for all graduates of the Departments of Sociology, Political Science and Social Work in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences will take place at 6 p.m.
• Monday, May 18 — The ceremony for the undergraduates of the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics will take place at 8 a.m. Undergraduates from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Science and Mathematics, and the College of Humanities will have their ceremony at 6 p.m.

Tall and lanky, Jared Sinn has the look of an athlete. That’s what he was for many years, as Sinn played a variety of sports growing up in Simi Valley and enjoyed the thrill of competition and sense of camaraderie built by playing on a team.

He also has experienced one of the difficult, and less glamorous, parts of sports: injuries. He has seen teammates get hurt on the field of play. In some instances, those injuries threatened their ability to play that sport again. Watching his teammates recover gave Sinn his life’s calling.

Sinn saw his friends find healing through physical therapy and rehabilitation, and he hoped to do the same for others. He enrolled at California State University, Northridge after being accepted to its acclaimed physical therapy program, hoping to help both athletes and non-athletes improve their physical well-being.

“My classmates, we all have the same values as well,” Sinn said. “We all strive to give the best treatment, the best care, to everyone. It’s my goal to let everyone know that everything’s going to be OK, and there’s something that I can do for them.”

Sinn, who is president of CSUN’s Physical Therapy Class 57, is looking forward to a long career, and he has continued his studies partly thanks to the Roy and Roxie Campanella Scholarship. Funded by the Roy and Roxie Campanella Foundation and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, the scholarship is the university’s only one dedicated to physical therapy students.

On Jan. 23, 10 scholarship recipients gathered at a luncheon with Joni Campanella Roan, the daughter of Roy and Roxie Campanella, and members of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and staff from CSUN’s College of Health and Human Development.

The scholarship honors the memory of baseball great Roy Campanella, who was awarded three Most Valuable Player awards during a remarkable 10-year career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, led the team to its only World Series title in Brooklyn in 1955 and was inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. Campanella may have had an even larger role in American history, as he was the second African-American player for the Dodgers when he debuted in 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier with Brooklyn.

In early 1958, just months before the Dodgers would play their first game in Los Angeles, Campanella was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. As his daughter recounted at the luncheon, the man who was one of the pillars of the “Boys of Summer” dynasty became wheelchair bound, his spirit crushed because he could no longer play the game he loved.

He started physical therapy, which helped Campanella gain enough mobility to become a guest instructor at the Dodgers’ Spring Training facility. In an area called “Campy’s Corner,” he offered lectures to young catchers in the organization. Campanella was also involved in the Dodgers’ community relations efforts.

The Hall of Famer passed away in 1993, and a year later, Roxie began to donate scholarship money to physical therapy programs, continuing to do so until her death in 2004. In 2005, the Roy and Roxie Campanella Foundation and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation joined forces to dedicate scholarships to physical therapy students at CSUN. The Campanellas’ daughter, Joni, relished the opportunity to meet the students.

“Knowing how we’ve come together in terms of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and the Roy and Roxie Campanella Foundation, helping these students get out there and help people have independent lives — and that through them, my father’s and mother’s dream and their legacy are continuing on means a lot,” Joni said. “They can help people to succeed, like the physical therapists helped my father to regain his feeling that he could be independent and self reliant. That meant a lot to him, and these students will be giving the same opportunity to a lot of other people in the community.”

“This is a unique partnership for us, being able to team up with Joni Campanella, and the rich history that Roy had with the Dodgers, to directly impact 10 scholars who we know need the funds to continue and to graduate from this program,” said Executive Director of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation Nichol Whiteman. “It’s very rewarding for us, and it’s a testament to the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and how we believe our investments are best suited.”

The partnership has grown to add more scholarships, and since 2010, the Dodgers have invited a CSUN physical therapy student to intern with the team’s medical staff, including the Dodgers’ Medical Director Stan Conte, M.S. ’78 (Physical Therapy), through the team’s nearly two-month Spring Training. It is quite rare to have a physical therapy intern work with a professional sports team, but it also shows the strength of CSUN’s program.

“CSUN has enjoyed a long and strong partnership between the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and the Campanella family that has been instrumental in supporting our students as they finish the graduate program — and now the doctoral program in physical therapy,” said Sylvia Alva, dean of the College of Health and Human Development. “This is really in the spirit of the Campanella Award [awarded yearly to the Dodgers’ most inspirational player]. Physical therapists can truly transform and enrich the lives of the people they serve. It’s nice to see that legacy and the need to give forward initiated early in our students through these scholarships.”

As the scholars expressed their gratitude during the luncheon, many gave a brief description of their circumstances. Some are the first members of their families to enter higher education. Some have come to CSUN after growing up in different countries. Some are even living away from loved ones as they pursue their dreams.

Sinn spoke for so many others as he explained the inspiration he drew from Roy Campanella’s story.

“I want to be the guy to make a difference in everyone’s life,” Sinn said. “If I can do that just by going to work, to me that’s not work. It’s something I want to do every day, to go out and save the world, I guess.”

Dwayne Cantrell, CSUN’s associate vice president of student access and support services, speaks to students during last year’s Harambee High School Student Conference during Black History Month. Photo by Nestor Garcia.

From a walkthrough history museum, which will introduce California State University, Northridge’s campus to black history, to Super Sunday and the Harambee High School Student Conference, which encourages African-American students to attend college, February will be filled with inspirational events in celebration of Black History Month.

The monthlong celebration will kick off Feb. 3 with a black organization and club fair in the Plaza del Sol from noon to 2 p.m. Various organizations including the Department of Africana Studies, the Black Student Union and the NABJ-Student Association of Black Communicators will be available to provide information.

“Black History Month gives us the opportunity to expose all the lies we were taught and to bring to light the truth about where we really come from, our accomplishments and our inventions,” said Ma’Ronda George, co-vice president of the CSUN Black Student Union. “It’s important that we pay homage to our ancestors who paved the way for us.”

Two highly anticipated annual events are CSUN’s participation in Super Sunday and the Harambee High School Student Conference. Super Sunday is an outreach partnership event with local churches to increase college enrollment among African-American students. On Feb. 22, CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison will speak at H.O.P.E.’s House Christian Ministries at 10654 Balboa Blvd., Granada Hills; and Vice President of Student Affairs William Watkins ’74 (Urban Studies) will speak at Living Praise Christian Center at 9200 Owensmouth Ave., Chatsworth.

CSUN’s Student Outreach and Recruitment and the Harambee Student Association will host the annual Harambee High School Student Conference on Feb. 27. Organizers invite hundreds of mostly African-American high school students to CSUN to expose them to and encourage them to attend college. Brandon E. Martin, CSUN’s director of intercollegiate athletics, will serve as the keynote speaker.

Other events scheduled for Black History Month include:

• Feb. 11 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Redwood Hall 292 – The Departments of Kinesiology and Africana Studies will sponsor GROOV3, a hip-hop dance class led by Benjamin Allen.

• Feb. 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the USU Grand Salon – “Professors and Alumni: After Hours,” sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies and the Black Alumni Association.

• Feb. 21 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the CSUN Art Galleries, West Gallery – Opening reception for “Haiti is a Nation of Artists,” sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies, the Department of Art, the Department of Cinema and Television Arts and the Office of the Provost. The event will include a screening of short documentaries of alumnus Jacquil Constant ’02 (Radio Television Video Film/Pan African Studies), M.A.’14 (Cinema and Television Arts /Pan African Studies).

CSUN’s Department of Africana Studies is one of the oldest and largest black studies programs in the nation. The department was officially formed in 1969 as the Afro-American Studies Department. It was organized in the wake of campus protests and the mass arrest of hundreds of students who were angry about the treatment of students of color.

For more information about the Black History Month celebration, contact the Department of Africana Studies at (818) 677-3311 or visit the Black Student Union website, http://csunbsu.weebly.com/.

Big names in performing arts, music and the Los Angeles community come together next month to support CHIME Institute, housed at California State University, Northridge, and its unique model of inclusive education at the annual CHIMEapalooza celebration on Saturday, Feb. 21.

Acclaimed actress Annie Potts, musician Tom Morello and former Los Angeles schools superintendent John Deasy will join actors and longtime CHIME supporters Benjamin Bratt and Amy Brenneman to raise funds and awareness of the institute’s mission to educate children of all abilities. The evening also will feature the musical talents of Gloria Loring, Chris Stills and others.

The celebration will be held at the El Portal Theatre located at 11206 Weddington St. in North Hollywood.

“I’m touched that all these talented performers are coming together for a special evening to support CHIME’s educational programs and spread the word about our mission,” said Annie Cox, executive director for CHIME Institute’s Early Education Programs.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the CHIME Institute.

Actresses Amy Brennaman (left) and Carmella Riley at last year’s CHIMEapalooza. Photo by Christy Cannon.

“I am thrilled to be once again emceeing and helping to create CHIMEapalooza,” Brenneman said. “It is so inspiring to witness the growth of this event and the mission of the CHIME Institute. CHIMEapalooza 2015 will be a wildly entertaining, funny and touching celebration of the vision of CHIME and the miracle of its many successes. There is no place like CHIME, and no event like CHIMEapalooza!”

Tickets are $65 pre-sale or $75 at the door. Ticket prices include a pre-show reception from 6 to 7 p.m., the show from 7 to 9 p.m. and a post-show party. To purchase tickets, visit www.CHIMEapalooza.org.

Established in 1990, the CHIME Institute is a national leader in developing and implementing model educational programs and dynamic research and training environments to disseminate best practices in inclusive education. The institute’s research and training center is housed in California State University Northridge’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education.

The institute began with an early childhood education program based on the CSUN campus. The success of that program, coupled with needs of the community and sound research, prompted a group of parents and CSUN faculty to develop a public charter elementary school in 2001 and a public charter middle school in 2003. The two schools merged into a K-8 school located in Woodland Hills in 2010.

CHIME also serves as a model for educators through its partnerships with the Eisner College and the Los Angeles Unified School District. It facilitates research opportunities and regularly hosts visitors from around the United States and the world who are interested in replicating its successes in their own schools. The institute has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a model for full inclusion of students with disabilities and for providing a blueprint for local schools across the country.

Proceeds from the CHIMEapalooza will go toward supporting inclusive practices in the institute’s early educational programs and charter school. For more information about the CHIME Institute, call (818) 677-4979 or (818) 346-5200 or visit its website www.chimeinstitute.org

New Horizons, one of the region’s oldest and most respected providers of services to adults with developmental disabilities and other special needs, will host a screening of the award-winning documentary Perfectly Normal on Thursday, Feb. 12, at California State University, Northridge.

The film is a positive, life-affirming, funny, edgy and groundbreaking documentary that allows viewers to get close to a group of friends who are developmentally challenged and see the “ability in their disability.” The screening is free and takes place at 6:30 p.m. in the Plaza Del Sol Performance Hall, located on the east side of the campus off Zelzah Avenue in the University Student Union. It will be followed by a question and answer session with the cast of Perfectly Normal.

“Acceptance comes through education and the opportunity to become familiar with people of diversity,” said Cynthia Sewell, president and CEO of New Horizons. “The goal of Perfectly Normal is to achieve this for individuals with special needs.”

Beth Lasky, a professor in the Department of Special Education and the creator of a new general education course called Introduction to Disability Studies, said CSUN is the perfect place for the screening.

“We’re known for the services we provide,” Lasky said. “Hopefully this will open up even more doors and windows and create more awareness about students with disabilities.”

CSUN is considered one of the most inclusive institutions of higher education in the country. CSUN’s Disability Resources and Educational Services assist more than 1,400 students a year in realizing their academic and career goals. The Center on Disabilities has gained international recognition for organizing one of the world’s largest events of its kind, the acclaimed International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference. CSUN’s National Center on Deafness is one of the largest of its kind in the western United States and a model program of excellence regionally, nationally and internationally.

The screening is free with seating limited to the first 500. Tickets can be picked up from the Associated Students’ Ticket Office. For more information, contact New Horizons at (818) 221-0651 or email smokuolu@newhorizons-sfv.org.

Linda Darling-Hammond

California’s educational shift will be explored in depth during the first Education on the Edge lecture of the year on Thursday, Feb. 19, at California State University, Northridge.

Linda Darling-Hammond, a Charles E. Ducommun professor of Education at Stanford University, and found and is co-director the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, will argue that “California is on the cusp of great change in its education system: New sets of Common Core standards are guiding curriculum, new assessments are underway and strong efforts are being made to strengthen the educational workforce.”

Her lecture, “California on the Edge,” is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. in the USU Northridge Center, located on the east side of campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

“Linda Darling-Hammond has been named one of the nation’s top 10 most influential individuals on education policy,” said Wendy W. Murawski, executive director and Eisner Endowed Chair in the Center for Teaching and Learning in CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education. “Teachers, administrators and teacher educators alike find her work insightful, timely and cutting-edge. The CTL is honored to have her as one of our Education on the Edge speakers because we know she is aware, not only of the barriers that all educators face, but also of our goals and how we might achieve them.”

Darling-Hammond launched the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute and the School Redesign Network. She also served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program, is former president of the American Educational Research Association, a member of the National Academy of Education and chair of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

Her research, teaching and policy work focus on issues of school restructuring, teacher quality and educational equity. From 1994-2001, she served as executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, whose 1996 report, “What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future,” led to sweeping policy changes affecting teaching and teacher education. In 2006, Darling-Hammond was named one of the most influential people affecting educational policy over the last decade.

“We look to Dr. Darling-Hammond to come and speak to us about where the field of education is going — especially in California — and how we can maximize our time, resources, and successes,” said Murawski

The Education on the Edge speaker series is free and open to the public. However, reservations are required. For more information and to reserve a seat/register, visit www.ctl-hammond.eventbrite.ciom.

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

The center was established in the summer of 2002, thanks to a generous gift from the Eisner Foundation, the family foundation of Michael and Jane Eisner. The center initially focused on neurodevelopment and how knowledge of those constructs can be taught to teachers—and ultimately impact the way they teach and the way students learn. During the past few years, the center has broadened its scope. Faculty and affiliates are researching and analyzing multiple innovative approaches to teaching, counseling, educational therapy, administration and professional development. The center also offers a speakers bureau that provides local schools and organizations an opportunity to bring these new approaches to their campuses, as well as a “What Really Works in Education” conference in March that is open to the community. More information on the CTL can be obtained at www.csun.edu/ctl .

It’s taken five years of writing lengthy appeals to the United States Department of Education (USDE), countless hours of constructing a high-profile research model, and numerous attempts at creating an innovative teaching method combined with a highly technological approach, but secondary education professor Ivan Cheng finally reached his goal.

With a $3.6 million grant titled “i3 Investing in Innovation” from the USDE, Cheng and his team of collaborators at California State University, Northridge – Andy Ainsworth is the associate director of the CSUN Center for Assessment, Research and Evaluation (CARE) and will be working as the lead evaluator on the i3 grant – can now start their work on a breakthrough method of teaching Common Core Standards mathematics to K-12 students and their teachers that combines technology with collaborative teaching. Helping them is Silicon Valley-based software firm LearningTech.

The idea for the project was inspired by the adoption of the new Common Core standards in 2010, which changed the way mathematics is taught in schools, from the structure of the textbooks to their content.

“The premise is that most teachers in mathematics are not adequately prepared to implement the new standards that have now been adopted by 43 states,” Cheng said. “The way that mathematics is taught historically is not aligned with the common core standards. So, when the standards were first adopted in 2010, teachers were left to fend for themselves. They were in the dark without adequate support.”

Cheng said his project would help instructors teach mathematics more effectively by creatively using a tablet app and a collaborative approach to teaching. This is in sharp contrast to the traditional method, which involves going through each chapter of a textbook that may no longer be aligned with the new standards.

“Many teachers are enslaved to their textbooks,” he said. “They put a lot of trust in the textbook as the ultimate guide for teaching the content. But no textbook alone can address the diverse needs of all students. As a result, many students fail. That failure has disastrous consequences, particularly for students of color.”

According to nationsreportcard.gov, eighth-grade African-American students scored a national average of 263, Latino students scored 272 and whites scored 294, more than 30 points above African-American students and more than 20 points above Latino students.

Cheng said he and his team hope to change mathematic teaching for the better.

“Our hypothesis is that not only will teachers become more effective in teaching their kids, they will also deepen their own knowledge of how kids learn and how mathematics could be taught, and even the content of mathematics,” Cheng said. “As teachers think through the math and how to teach it, they are no longer just blindly trusting the textbook. As a teacher thinks through what kids need to know, they are now thinking at a higher level of mathematics themselves.”

Cheng’s new approach consists of two parts: a collaborative teaching cohort approach where teachers will meet to discuss how to create lesson activities for their students; and a tablet app, currently titled the “Discovery Learning App,” that will be flexible in creating lesson activities that teachers may use with their students in the classroom.

“The app is designed to help teachers rapidly set up some kind of mathematical activity that requires kids to use their critical thinking skills and to take advantage of what technology offers, which is dynamic interactive activities,” he said.

Cheng explained the app uses various forms of expressing mathematic concepts. For example, with an equation, the app may develop a graph of the equation as well as a verbal expression of the problem.

“If you change one part of the equation, the other parts change with it,” Cheng said. “Or the teacher can unlink them to the students, so only the teacher can see everything. The student has to figure out what the graph should be aligned with the equation.”

While apps like his already exist, Cheng said the new teaching model, called the Responsive Teaching Cycle (RTC), will allow teachers to collaborate on how to use the app to be more effective in the classroom.

“While there are apps out there, what’s not out there is combining those features with a lesson activity” Cheng said. “Traditionally, you can go to an iPad and look at the app, but there is no lesson. Now it’s all in one place.

“It will be transformative for the teachers. It’s going to break down the silos and the individualistic mentality and foster a more collaborative environment. Teachers are going to have to talk to each other over lesson activities. The app will make it so quick and easy that they won’t need to have tremendous computer skills to create great lesson activities and assessments.”

Cheng and his colleagues will begin testing the new teaching method this month with 100 instructors from Los Angeles Unified School District, Burbank Unified School District and Ventura Unified School District, along with their eighth grade students. Subtracting 10 teachers who will use the beta version of the app in the first year, 90 teachers will be split in two groups, one being the control the other being the treatment group. The effectiveness of the teaching method will be compared to the control group by looking at the standardized test scores of the students.

Cheng said he and his team have high hopes for the success of the method.

“Hand in hand, we believe that this combination is going to help teachers be much more successful than teachers who don’t have it,” he said. “The new way of teaching is much more realistic to what life is like, to what life throws at us. There is no answer key in life. My biggest hope is that we can transform how teachers teach kids. That’s hands down what I want to do.”

Undergraduate and graduate students showcased their diverse research and creative work at last year’s Annual Student Research and Creative Works Symposium. This year, about 160 students are expected to make oral and poster presentations on various topics on Feb. 13 in CSUN’s University Student Union. Photo by Lee Choo.

Students will present their research on a host of topics — ranging from the impact of streaming on the music industry to the effect of performance-based pay on teacher motivation and student outcomes — on Friday, Feb. 13, at California State University, Northridge’s 19th Annual Student Research and Creative Works Symposium.

The symposium gives undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to share their scholarly research, while also receiving guidance from faculty mentors who are active researchers in their respective fields. The program also enlightens the campus community on the quality, diverse research and creative activity being done by CSUN students. This year, 35 disciplines will be presenting. Faculty, staff and students are welcome to attend, and refreshments will be served.

“The purpose of the symposium is to showcase excellence in scholarly research and creative activity conducted by CSUN undergraduate and graduate students across all academic disciplines,” said Hedy Carpenter, director of graduate programs. “It is an excellent opportunity for students to gain experience presenting their research or creative activity in a professional setting, without the stress of a big conference.”

About 160 students will present either an oral or poster presentation. The event will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the University Student Union’s Northridge Center. It is organized by the offices of Graduate Studies and has received funding from the Associated Students and the University Student Union.

This year, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to CSUN public health professor Sloane Burke Winkleman, 11 students from the College of Health and Human Development and one student from the Department of Sociology will present their research in a eight-minute TED Talk-style presentation in the University Student Union Plaza del Sol.

The presentations will be judged by 60 faculty representing 35 academic disciplines. Students across all fields of study will compete for first and second place awards in 12 concurrent sessions. Several of these students will be selected to compete in the CSU Statewide Student Research Competition.

For more information about the symposium, visit the graduate student events website.

It was 2007 when five students and art instructors Joe Bautista’01 (graphic design) and Dave Moon ’89 (graphic design) crammed into room 410 of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media and Communications. In that room a new door of opportunity opened for California State University, Northridge students to gain knowledge and experience in graphic design for their futures.

Nearly a decade later, 4V1SC0M Center for Communications has grown stronger than ever by opening its studio doors to dozens of dedicated students each semester and leaving behind a legacy of successful alumni working in major design firms.

Moon, founder and creative director of the center, said he was inspired to offer a hands-on approach to graphic design for students at CSUN because of his past as a Korean immigrant who had few opportunities available to him before coming to the United States.

“The main thing I learned from my parents was to work my butt off,” Moon said candidly. “They taught me that by working hard you get opportunities. We have a lot of gifted, talented students, and a lot of students who are first generation. I observed early on that even talented individuals can be impeded by people with money and titles, and this always felt wrong to me.”

Moon also gave credit to the CSUN staff and faculty who provided him with opportunities to grow as a part of the campus community since the 1980s.

“I received some opportunities, too, by intentional or unintentional angels,” Moon said. “People have given me opportunities without really understanding how much they gave me. Like simply believing in me enough to encourage me to go to graduate school, move to a faculty position, then a staff position. They literally set me up for opportunities.

“How do you forget that? That ties so deeply with how I grew up. I want to do the same thing for people here. 4V1SC0M was created for students.”

With students in mind, Moon brought a former pupil of his, Bautista, on board for the program as a fellow creative director and recruiter. Bautista’s position as a faculty member in the graphic design department aided him in getting the first five students on board, and his commitment to teaching allowed him to work as an educator with a hands-on and  real-world approach to graphic design at CSUN.

“It was a way to fuse two things that I really have passion about, which are design and education,” Bautista said. “Why not take the learning environment to the next level? That’s not to say that the classroom isn’t rewarding, but there is another level of rewarding experience when you see students meeting clients and taking ownership of their projects.”

Projects range from creating websites for CSUN nutrition experts to making television commercials for the Ford Focus to designing holiday cards for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The wide network that Moon and Bautista brought to their 4V1SC0M team has afforded numerous opportunities for students to work with professional clients as part of their design portfolios before graduating from CSUN.

Moon explained that the opportunities are not “handouts,” requiring vigorous dedication to achieve success before leaving the program.

“I have very high standards, demands and expectations,” Moon said. “Students have to do more. You have to be more dedicated. You have to prove yourself to get recognized, and show people around the world there are a lot more people like you that deserve the opportunities.”

Bautista added that 4V1SC0M’s goal was to get the teams excellent experience to take with them when they leave.

“The ultimate goal is to get them in and get them out,” he said. “We want to send them out for interviews and to call our connections. They give so much to 4V1SC0M. It’s our responsibility to give back to them. We are going to provide them the leads for job opportunities.”

With his background as a designer for the Santa Monica-based firm Hamagami Carroll, whose client base includes the creators of The Sims and Skylanders video games, Bautista used his connections to send 4V1SC0M team members out to interview for positions.

“We send Hamagami Carroll two to three student designers every year,” he said. “They don’t all stay there, but a lot of their designers are CSUN grads.”

Moon is proud of the success of 4V1SC0M alumni and the program’s ability to provide it for them.

“Give students an opportunity and they will surprise you,” he said. “You discover what a terrible waste it is if a person wasn’t given an opportunity just because he or she wasn’t in the right position for it.”

Members of the Canoga Park community and CSUN officials celebrate the creation of the Bridge to the Future Scholars program at a gala on Feb. 6. Photo by Victor Kamont.

California State University, Northridge officials announced Friday night the creation of a scholarship program that would cover CSUN tuition for high school students from Canoga Park who are committed to giving back to their community.

Through the Bridge to the Future Scholars program, CSUN officials said the university intends to offer free tuition to up to 100 high school graduates from Canoga Park each year who meet the program’s qualifications. The announcement was made during a gala celebration in Canoga Park that honored the university for its outreach in the area.

“At the heart of this program is the desire for young people to give back to their home community,” said CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison. “Through dedicated service, we believe the next generation of Canoga Park leaders will emerge who are informed with the highest level of knowledge and skills that our programs at CSUN can provide.”

Canoga Park officials said they were thrilled by the creation of the scholarship program.

“The scholarship program will serve as a multifaceted approach toward bringing out the voices of students who are silent and tearing down barriers preventing students from accessing the American dream,” said Luis Rodriguez-Cazares, principal of Canoga Park High School. “The emphasis on giving back to the community fosters the reinvestment of economics and social capital within the community by reinforcing the core values we have worked to instill in our students and encouraging them to ‘pay it forward.’

“On a wider scale, the program compels and lays the foundation — developing a robust infrastructure and augmenting social capital — for other leaders to follow when looking to implement similar pathways to educational opportunity,” he said.

To build community service awareness and participation among local youth, CSUN and Canoga Park officials said scholarship recipients will be required to volunteer and, if possible, return to Canoga Park to work after graduation.

The scholarship program grew out of an initiative, Neighborhood Partners in Action (NPA), launched by CSUN faculty, staff and students three years ago to help build bridges among community-based organizations and stakeholders in Canoga Park. The initiative fosters communication and collaboration among the stakeholders and with the university.

CSUN officials spent the first few months of the initiative listening to community leaders as they talked about what services they felt were lacking in their area. Faculty, students and staff then worked with community leaders to identify resources they could tap into and areas where university programs could fill gaps.

The successful, ongoing programs include nutrition education and food bank assistance from CSUN’s Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics to the Guadelupe Center and Child Development Institute; on-site tuberculosis testing provided by Providence Health and Services for men in the recovery program at the Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center; CSUN social work interns working with El Centro de Amistad; an oral history project by CSUN students and student veterans, working with senior veterans at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2805; and leadership development training and an all-sports day led by the CSUN baseball team at Coutin School, R.U.T.H. YouthBuild and other Canoga Park schools and centers.

CSUN students, faculty and staff also are working with the area’s K-12 schools, initiating math and science tutoring, drama and music classes and college-prep programs. They also are working to provide after-school activities with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Topanga PAL’s and the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley. NPA helped launch a robotics and space academy that brings Canoga Park High School student volunteers to Columbus Middle School and Hart Street Elementary School to build robots and serve as mentors.

“The goal of NPA is to be a good neighbor — and by good neighbor, we mean establishing a very long-term, reciprocal partnership that is evolutionary in nature and that meets the needs of the Canoga Park community and the campus,” said recreation and tourism management professor Craig Finney, who leads the initiative on behalf of CSUN’s Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing. “That is exactly what has happened. Authentic partnerships are based on trust, mutual respect and the mutual understanding that we all benefit from the sharing and leveraging of resources. The scholarship program is just another example of what we can accomplish when we work together. From the students who participate in the Bridge to the Future Scholars Program, we will see impacts and influences to Canoga Park and beyond what we can imagine at this time.”

Below is Harrison’s video presentation shown at the Canoga Park gala celebration.

California State University, Northridge kicked off Black History Month with a black clubs and organization fair and participation in a countywide discussion on black history.

Dozens of CSUN black organization came together in the Plaza del Sol on Feb. 3 to share information with the public about their clubs and associations. The event, which was co-organized by the Department of Africana Studies and the Black Student Union, included dance, poetry presentations and music.

“Meet the Black Matadors tabling event shines a light on the African-American campus community and gives black organizations and clubs a chance to show what they are about,” said Kayla Christian, co-vice president of Black Student Union.

CSUN’s Department of Africana Studies chair David Horne was one of several heads of black studies programs from throughout Los Angeles County to participate in a panel discussion on “A Century of Black Life, History and Culture” at Los Angeles City Hall. The event, which was organized by the City of Los Angeles and Our Authors Study Club, included representatives from California State University, Los Angeles; California State University, Long Beach; and California State University, Dominguez Hills.

The monthlong celebration will include dance workshops, art exhibits, speakers and other community activities.

For more information, visit http://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/university-news/csun-celebrates-black-history-month-2015/

California State University, Northridge music professors John Perry and Edward Francis have received the National Distinguished Service and State Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Music Teachers National Association and its state affiliate, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers.

“It may be a first in the history of the awards to have both honors given to faculty at the same university,” said Ric Alviso, chair of CSUN’s Department of Music.

Edward Francis at work.

Dmitry Rachmanov who heads CSUN’s keyboard studies, calls the award a great honor.

“These lifetime achievement awards reflect the recognition the two distinguished musicians rightfully command among their peers in the music community on the state and nationwide levels,” said Rachmanov.

Edward Francis is the recipient of the California Association of Professional Music Teacher’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Francis is a member of the piano faculty and coordinator of the piano pedagogy program at CSUN. He is also an alumnus of CSUN, having earned undergraduate in and graduate degree in from the university in piano performance.

“The award was completely unexpected,” said Francis. “I had been in charge of the actual process to identify candidates for the Lifetime Achievement Award in the late 1990s’ I was the vice president of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers for four years, and that task came under my purview of board member duties. So, I knew that it was a careful process all done by colleagues, which makes the honor even more meaningful to me.

“I am extremely grateful and humbled that such an award would come my way,” he said. “Obviously, I can’t and don’t do everything I do individually.  I’m involved with valued colleagues in just about everything I do musically. I find the ensemble efforts inspiring, and because we are in a creative art, many wonderful things can result from our work and dedication to the arts.”

Francis lives a versatile life in music, having established himself as a performer, professor, author, clinician, administrator and arts advocate. Off campus, he maintains a successful private studio and is in great demand as a teacher. He serves on several committees to support the arts and young musicians in performance. He founded and remains chairman of the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic, an educational nonprofit group that features a professional orchestra with a three-concert season highlighting young artists as soloists. In 2006, the U.S. Secretary of Education awarded him the Presidential Scholar in the Arts Teacher Recognition Award at the Kennedy Center.

Perry, is the recipient of the National Distinguished Service Award. This honor, rarely given, will be presented to Perry at the national conference to be held in Las Vegas, next month.

John Perry

Perry has an unparalleled legacy of performing and teaching. He has played solo recitals and concertos with orchestras worldwide. He also has extensive experience as a chamber music artist. His students have successfully participated and won awards in nearly every national and international piano competition. Nearly every one of his students has established a successful professional life in music. Many are performing artists, and most combine their performing skills with university and conservatory teaching positions all over the world.

A few years ago, Perry started his own summer institute, the John Perry Music Academy, which attracts high-level students from all over the world. Perry teaches piano performance and master classes at CSUN.

“These awards immeasurably enhance the reputation of the CSUN music department, putting us in the spotlight, gaining a wider recognition and respect,” said Rachmanov. “It raises our department’s rankings among the music departments and conservatories worldwide, assuring the attraction of top talent to our university. Consequently, it results in a higher quality of education for our students.”

Francis said the honors reflect the caliber of the talent that teaches at CSUN. “All of us in the department are working hard to attract excellent students to our program, and then guide them to the highest artistic levels possible,” said Francis. “Last year we enrolled the largest number of piano majors in our history. These awards highlight a very strong keyboard studies discipline within the department, and the university will also benefit as a result.”

California State University, Northridge officials today announced plans to change its admissions criteria through the limited use of academic, freshman and transfer-level impaction for undergraduate programs beginning in fall 2016. Four public hearings on the proposal have been scheduled for next month to seek community input and comment.

While CSUN is seeking full-program impaction, university officials plan to implement impaction as minimally as possible to meet state and CSU admissions targets.

“CSUN remains committed to serving our region and serving our community with the highest-quality educational opportunities,” CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison said. “We are seeking to use impaction as an enrollment management tool carefully and judiciously.”

The CSU has struggled in recent years to meet an ever-increasing demand for enrollment at its campuses. Declaring “impaction” is one way to manage that demand. Enrollment at CSUN has grown significantly in the past five years alone. In fall 2009, the university’s enrollment was 35,198. In fall 2014, CSUN had more than 40,000 graduate and undergraduate students enrolled, an all time high for the campus. CSUN’s new enrollment targets will aim to reduce CSUN’s undergraduate enrollment by 1 percent, approximately 300 students, each year for the next four years. Graduate enrollment is not affected by impaction.

“With the goal of a 1 percent reduction in the entering undergraduate student class, CSUN will continue providing access to most students throughout our area,” said Harry Hellenbrand, CSUN provost and vice president for academic affairs. “We will also work closely with our sister CSU campuses to ensure impacted students have options to pursue their bachelor’s degrees close to home.”

A campus or academic major becomes “impacted” when the number of fully qualified students exceeds the number of available spaces. Declaring a major impacted allows CSUN, which otherwise would have accepted all qualified applicants, to limit its admissions. In addition to full academic program impaction, CSUN proposes program impaction for four academic majors: psychology, kinesiology, music, and cinema and television arts.

CSUN officials are proposing an impaction plan for transfer students that would designate a “local area,” which would restrict admission to the university to qualified students attending 17 regional community colleges. Applicants outside this “local area” would be admitted on the basis of space availability and would have to meet a higher GPA requirement. Applicants from outside the local area who have completed SB 1440 transfer degree requirements would be given special consideration. SB 1440 guarantees community college students, who obtain associate degrees tailored to a specific major, admissions to a CSU campus.

CSUN also is proposing to change its local admissions area for first-time freshmen, eliminating high schools currently in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s East Educational Service Center, which includes downtown and East Los Angeles; South Pasadena Unified School District; Alhambra Unified School District, and Ventura County. These districts and areas are also served by CSU-Los Angeles, CSU-Dominguez Hills and CSU-Channel Islands. Students from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties who seek majors that are offered at CSUN and not their local CSU, which is CSU-Channel Islands, will be treated as local students for admissions purposes.

CSUN would allow up to 5 percent of its enrolled new student class to be comprised of students who do not meet the applicable CSUN impaction threshold but do meet the CSU eligibility threshold. This would allow the campus to admit a limited number of CSU-eligible students with promise or talent who would otherwise be denied based on impaction criteria.

Four public hearings have been scheduled to discuss the proposal:

• Thursday, March 5, from 6 to 7 p.m. at CSUN, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge.
• Monday, March 9, from 6 to 7 p.m. at Glendale Community College, 1500 N. Verdugo Rd., Glendale.
• Tuesday, March 10, from 6 to 7 p.m., Location to be determined.
• Wednesday, March 11, from 6 to 7 p.m. at Moorpark College, 7075 Campus Rd., Moorpark.

More information about the hearings and the proposed changes can be found at www.csun.edu/impaction.

Professor James Sefton teaches American military and naval history, World War II, constitutional history, and his specialty, Civil War and Reconstruction. But Sefton himself is the true historic institution, marking 50 years of teaching at California State University, Northridge this year.

Sefton, known as “Doc” by the hundreds of scholars he has mentored, estimated that he has taught 11,000 students over five decades at CSUN. On Feb. 12, more than 100 people — including former students, current and former colleagues, administrators, friends and the CSUN men’s volleyball team — gathered to pay tribute to Sefton for his longtime devotion to students and the university.

“This is not a retirement party,” Sefton told the crowd. He noted earlier that he’ll continue teaching as long as his health allows.

“When I got to be about 60, people asked me when I was going to retire,” said Sefton, 75. “I said, ‘I’m not going to retire until all the people who want me to retire already have.’ I’ve pretty much cleared out the original roster.”

Known for his straight-shooting candor, humor and unceasing demand for excellence, Sefton has served as a mentor and counselor to students since he set foot on the campus of then-San Fernando Valley State College in 1965.

“He taught me the true meaning of intellectual curiosity,” said retired Navy Capt. Dallas Bethea ’69 (History). “And that when you make a statement of fact, make sure it is absolutely correct — it served me well during my years in the Navy and the Pentagon.”

Bethea met Sefton in 1966 when he talked his way into the young professor’s full class on Civil War history.

“My ancestors fought for the Confederacy, so I did add some diversity [to the class]!” said Bethea, who traveled from his home in Virginia for the celebration. “I’m proud to say I earned an A.”

The former student and longtime friend said he plans to establish a $25,000 scholarship fund in Sefton’s name at CSUN, honoring the professor for his 50 years of teaching.

“How do you make 50 years? Well, you have to start early,” Sefton advised his colleagues. “Being a young Ph.D. helps — I was 25. You have to insulate yourself against departmental and university politics. Create a personnel file so strong that if your friends are on the committee, they won’t be embarrassed to vote for you, and if your enemies are on it, they’ll look foolish if they vote against you.

“And go out and buy yourself a book of John Wooden’s sayings,” he said of the late, legendary UCLA basketball coach’s writings. “There are a lot of sayings in there that you can use in dealing with students. One of my favorites is, ‘Any man can make a mistake, but he doesn’t become a failure until he starts blaming his mistakes on someone else.’”

Among those honoring Sefton’s contributions were history department chair Richard Horowitz; Stella Theodoulou, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences; and Harry Hellenbrand, provost and vice president of academic affairs.

“Friend, guide and teacher are the words used a lot to describe Jim Sefton,” Hellenbrand said. “It’s very rare that you come across a professor who can fill those roles. He’s played an incredibly important role for me as provost, as one of the three or four people at the institution whom I can trust to say what they think — and not mince words. He is one of the North Stars of this campus.”

Sefton was born in San Francisco and grew up in Marin County before moving to the Los Angeles area. He graduated from Hollywood High School and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree (1961) and Ph.D. (1965) in history at UCLA. He wrote his dissertation on the role of the U.S. Army as an occupying force in the South during Reconstruction, later published as a book in 1967.

Sefton has seen the size of the Department of History’s faculty expand dramatically and then contract over his five decades at CSUN. He attributed the decrease to the creation of the liberal studies major, which attracted many young scholars studying to be elementary school teachers who were once drawn to the history major.

A visitor to his office once called “Doc” a “‘strange hybrid — part of you is Mr. Chips and part a Marine drill instructor,’” Sefton recalled, referencing the famous literary character and schoolteacher Mr. Chipping in James Hilton’s novella “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” — later adapted for film and TV.

Sefton likes this description, but colleges now lean toward Mr. Chips, he said. In fact, most students need the drill instructor to teach responsibility and consequences, as they did 40 years ago. But he added, “The kids who are good today would have been good 40 years ago.”

Sefton has no children of his own, but hundreds of former students consider him a father figure, a mentor, a rock.

“He’s an amazing teacher and everything, but I’m a stutterer — and he was also a counselor for me,” said Brian Bold ’09 (History). “He has such a warmth with students.

“When I was in college, my stutter was worse. I wasn’t sure of myself, and he helped me through it,” said Bold, who is studying to become an occupational therapist. “Before and after class, we’d have quick chats, and we’d have more in-depth talks in his office. The fact that it’s six years later and we still keep in touch, and he still mentors me, is amazing.”

Beyond the history department, Sefton also has devoted himself to decades of Matador student-athletes. He served as faculty representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association from 1981-90. An ardent supporter of college sports, Sefton has channeled his lifelong passion and talent for photography into capturing some 600 CSUN games and athletic events.

Had he pursued sports photography instead of teaching, Sefton quipped, he “could have shot covers for Sports Illustrated — at a lot more money.” His study of Midwestern landscapes,“Remote Roads: Photographs Along the Way,” also has been exhibited in various California venues.

Sefton photographed football games and created slideshows for annual team banquets, even traveling with the team for many years. After CSUN dropped its football program, he focused his lens on the men’s volleyball program. In appreciation, the men’s volleyball team showed up for Thursday’s celebration, squeezing in between practices and classes.

As they celebrated the professor’s 50th year, his many admirers and students praised “Doc” for never lowering his standards or failing to care. He repaid their gratitude in kind.

“We are met on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, so it’s appropriate to close on one of my favorite of his sayings, from his first inaugural address,” Sefton said. “The ‘mystic chords of memory’ — that was Lincoln’s way of saying that, because the North and South had so much shared history, the Union would survive. I think that fits college life.

“So much that we do in college centers around memory and its preservation,” he added. “So, the ‘mystic chords of memory’ bind me to the 11,000 students I have taught, and all of you who have been so gracious to be here today.”

California State University, Northridge’s Delmar T. Oviatt Library, in partnership with the CSUN Athletics Department, will present the second Read To Lead panel discussion, which highlights the significant relationship between literature and leadership.

Women’s golf coach Gina Umeck

Campus leaders gather bi-monthly to discuss books that have influenced their leadership skills. The upcoming panel will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 9 a.m. in the Jack and Florence Ferman Presentation Room located on the garden level of the Oviatt Library.

Presenters at the second Read To Lead event include Michael Spagna, dean of CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education; Thor Steingraber, executive director of the Valley Performing Arts Center; Gina Umeck, head coach of CSUN women’s golf team and Deborah Wallace, CSUN’s associate vice president of financial services.

“When CSUN’s director of intercollegiate athletics, Brandon Martin, approached me with an idea to promote reading as a way to build leadership skills among staff, faculty, and students, I was on board immediately,” said Library Dean Mark Stover.

Thor Steingraber

The Read To Lead initiative includes 20 campus leaders from CSUN and includes faculty, staff, students and alumni. Each leader selects a book that played a vital role in their personal life and/or professional development. Some of the influential writing that will be discussed are “The Mismeasure of Man” by Stephen Jay Gould, “If”, a poem by Rudyard Kipling and “The Effective Executive” by Peter Drucker.

The panel discussion will be followed by a reception and light refreshments. The event is open to the public and RSVP’s are required by Thursday Feb. 20 by calling 818-677-5081 or via email at fatema.noor@csun.edu.

The Oviatt Library serves as the main research facility in the San Fernando Valley. Information about all library events can be found at the library’s website http://library.csun.edu/blogs/goingson or by calling 818-677-2638.