There were a few telling signs of just how excited the more than 150 attendees at the inaugural David Nazarian MBA and Graduate Programs Distinguished Speaker Series event at California State University, Northridge were to receive some expertise from the guest speaker — David Nazarian.

Those signs were the number of hands that went up when Nazarian said he had time for one more question and the crowd of people who approached him with more questions after the March 8 event ended.

Nazarian ’82 (Business Administration) spent more than an hour at Kurland Hall at the Valley Performing Arts Center telling a group of graduate students from CSUN’s David Nazarian College of Business and Economics, faculty and CSUN leadership about his successes and failures in business. He also motivated the group with the message of the evening: “There is a startup in all of us.”

Nazarian, the visionary businessman and driver of a $25-million fundraising campaign for CSUN, gave a motivational speech during the first portion of the event. He spoke about the variety of businesses in which he’s been involved and the common denominator that has allowed him to adapt to these different ventures — his entrepreneurial spirit.

“The desire to build and create is in our DNA,” Nazarian said, explaining that everybody has the potential to be an entrepreneur. “Creativity, growth, risk-taking, having confidence in your abilities are the cornerstones of entrepreneurship.”

Nazarian also touched on a point about face-to-face communication that carried over into the Q&A portion of the event. He spoke about how technology has taken the personal connection out of doing business and how speaking to people in person creates more opportunities because it builds relationships.

Here’s a sample of some of the enlightening answers he gave to questions from the audience:

On whether he still receives mentorship:

“One of my biggest successes is I surround myself with people smarter than myself. I am humble enough to know that I don’t know everything.”

On mistakes he learned from:

“When I had a venture fund, one important [thing I should have known] was to decide when to pull the plug. There were times I let my emotions get involved. Any time my ego and emotions got involved, I invested more and I learned the hard way.”

On keys to his success:

“I try to make sure to make the best of people. Everyone has a strength.”

“Vision. I always like to see how things are going to be five to 10 years from now. I could see [that in] CSUN and its demographic. It’s seeing the potential. I can imagine we’re going to have so many facilities for the students.”

On what he has learned from the younger generation:

“The younger generation cares more about the environment, health, what they eat, taking care of the planet, respect for the planet. It’s something we need to learn from them.”

On a defining moment:

“No. [I don’t have one.] It’s all the evolution [of experiences] that has added up. And the biggest have been my failures. It’s where I had my biggest growth.”

Plans are afoot to make the David Nazarian MBA and Graduate Programs Distinguished Speaker Series just that — a series of events. Deborah Heisley, director of Nazarian College graduate programs, said with Nazarian’s contacts, the series will continue to bring in influential and well-known business leaders to speak. As for this event, she said it was quite a start.

“It was really exciting,” Heisley said. “We had [graduate students], faculty, alumni here. It was a really nice mix. That’s the goal — build a network, build a community. We really want to engage our alumni more. This is the way to do it.”

Dianne Philibosian with staff from the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing at her retirement celebration in August 2015. Philibosian retired as director of the institute. Photo provided by the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing.

When Dianne Philibosian arrived at California State University, Northridge in 1973, early childhood education was being taught in disparate pockets on campus.

The doctoral student with a specialization in early childhood education was hired as one of the founding faculty in CSUN’s Department of Elementary Education’s early education program. She eventually served as coordinator of an interdisciplinary major in child development — putting CSUN on the map as a place to learn about the education of children.

Today, Philibosian is a nationally known expert on the care and education of children.

She recently retired from CSUN after 42 years of service in various capacities, including as director of the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing and associate dean of the College of Health and Human Development. She has served as faculty in four different departments and two different colleges.

“I’ve had such a magnificent career,” said Philibosian about her four decades at CSUN. She recalled a multitude of firsts, including serving as head of CSUN’s new pre-kindergarten through third-grade credential program and director of an innovative off-campus early childhood development master’s degree program.

“We were pioneers,” she said. “It was so exciting to be here, laying the foundation.”

Philibosian said she found CSUN through a combination of convenience and timing.

Although she was born in San Diego, Philibosian spent most of her childhood in the Fresno area. After graduating from the University of the Pacific, she taught elementary school in Stockton for several years before entering graduate school.

She earned her master’s degree and her doctorate at Southern Illinois University, spending several years helping establish and train the workforce for the first Head Start preschool programs in Illinois. She was tired of the snow and decided to relocate to Southern California to be closer to her brother, his wife and children, who lived in Tarzana.

“This was a natural place to gravitate to,” Philibosian recalled.

At CSUN, she adopted a teaching approach similar to what she had experienced as an undergraduate and graduate student — close relationships with faculty.

When asked about the best part of her experiences at CSUN, she responded: “The students throughout the years — so many have touched me deeply. We really have unique students who are overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds to stay in school, graduate and launch successful careers.”

“I saw them not as a sea of students, but a sea of individuals,” Philibosian said. “I found ways to personalize my assignments.”

Philibosian accepts an award from Michelle Miranda of Canoga Park-based RUTH YouthBuild, one of the many community groups she assisted.

She also has almost seamlessly straddled the fence between academia and community, serving on numerous state and local boards and task forces, including the state of California’s Child Development Policy Advisory Committee, County of Los Angeles Child Care Planning Committee and working with the Warner Center Association in developing a model early childcare program.

She said her work with the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing is a great place to end her formal career at CSUN. The institute, which is a collaboration of campus and community members, is committed to enhancing the health and well-being of individuals, families, organizations and communities within CSUN’s service region. The primary mission of the institute is to foster healthy living through community and campus partnerships.

“Our relationships with people and the communities we serve are so important,” Philibosian said. “As we go into the community, we say we are part of the community and let’s plan how we can leverage our faculty, grants and resources so we benefit the community together.”

Philibosian, a Pasadena resident, also has won numerous awards, including CSUN’s Extraordinary Service Award, the Medallion of Excellence Award from the University of the Pacific and the Northridge Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Community Contributions in Child Care Development Award.

She said she plans to remain connected to CSUN. She is currently working as a special-projects consultant with the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing, the College of Humanities and the Office of Research and Graduate Studies in their efforts to affiliate with the American University of Armenia (AUA).

In October, CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison and the president of AUA signed a memorandum of understanding to foster scholarly and educational collaborations. Philibosian spent two weeks in November at AUA meeting with faculty, staff and students who want to collaborate with CSUN.

“We have many irons in the fire,” said Philibosian about the potential for collaboration and exchange. “It’s all very exciting.”

Philibosian is participating in the campus’ Faculty Early Retirement Program, which allows faculty to transition into retirement by working a reduced schedule over a five-year time period. She said once the project with AUA is completed, she’ll see what’s next.

“It has been a great career,” she said. “I’m grateful to the students and my colleagues, who have made it such a gratifying experience.”

The magic of making movies lies in the collaborative process for Screen Gems executive Glenn Gainor, ’95 (Radio-Television-Film). As president of physical production for the Sony Pictures’ company responsible for such popular hits as The Perfect Guy, The Wedding Ringer, Think Like a Man, Friends with Benefits and Death at a Funeral, Gainor could spend his days working in his office on the Sony lot, taking only an occasional glance out a window that offers him a bird’s eye view of the soundstages where such film classics as The Wizard of Oz and Singing in the Rain were made.

But Gainor admits he is not that type of film executive. He likes to be in the middle of it all — helping find locations for a shoot and offering suggestions for “non clichéd” casting.

“There’s a lot of hard work from a lot of people that goes into making a movie, and there’s no place more exciting to be than on a movie set,” he said. “I really believe wholeheartedly in the collaboration of all the crafts that it takes to make a movie. That’s what I truly believe makes our business special. We have people who know so much about costume design, people who know how to edit, people who know how to shoot a film, how to record the sound…. What I love [as a producer] is knowing and touching all the people with those skills and putting them together.”

Glenn Gainor on a set at Sony Studios. Photo courtesy of Glenn Gainor.

Growing up, Gainor said, he didn’t truly appreciate the art of storytelling, particularly on screen, until his family moved to the San Fernando Valley as a teenager in the mid 1980s.

“We were a family that had conservative ideas about work,” he said. “The idea that someone could work in and make movies didn’t even occur to my parents. If they were driving around town and happened across the movie or television shoot somewhere, they were just as likely to take pictures of the camera and the people working behind the camera as the actors. The entertainment industry and all that goes with it was just so foreign to them.”

But it captivated Gainor, and he was determined to become part of the industry.

Warned that entry into California State University, Northridge’s film program was highly competitive, Gainor decided to apply to the university’s journalism program instead.

“CSUN’s journalism program is considered one of the best in the country, and I figured it would give me a solid foundation in storytelling,” he said.

A theater class taught him about Molière and reminded him what he really wanted to do.

“I decided very quickly that I’ve just got to get into the film program,” he said. “I knew that’s where I belonged. Journalism is one kind of storytelling, one based solely in facts. I wanted to tell a different kind of story.”

He spent days walking the hallways that housed what was then CSUN’s Department of Radio, Television and Film, talking to as many faculty he could find about his passion for filmmaking. His efforts paid off and he got in to the program. He said it was one of the best decisions he ever made.

“I found my academic experience to be very personal,” Gainor said. “My interactions with the faculty — from Nate Thomas, John Schultheiss, Alexis Krasilovsky and I could go on — were invaluable. They were all great champions of what they taught. Each professor believed wholeheartedly in the art and science and history of filmmaking, and I caught on to that very quickly.”

Thomas, now head of the film option in CSUN’s Department of Cinema and Television Arts, called Gainor “one of those students you remember because you knew they were going places.”

Glenn Gainor, center, on the set of his student film, “Rough Cut Riley”. Photo courtesy of Glenn Gainor.

“He had talent, but a lot of our students have talent,” Thomas said. “He stood out because he listened to what we said in the classroom and ran with it. His senior film project, kind of noir detective piece called ‘Rough Cut Riley,’ was a little overly ambitious. I don’t know if it was too ambitious for him or for the department at time. But I can tell you this, I wanted to see more from this filmmaker. I knew he had what it took to make it, and I am happy to see I was right.”

Thomas proudly noted that Gainor produced his first movie, a short feature film, about a year after he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1995. Now a veteran filmmaker with a long list of producing credits, Gainor is a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Gainor said the lessons he learned at CSUN influence the decisions he makes every day at Screen Gems: how to structure a story from Krasilovsky, how to remain focused and an appreciation of film history from Schultheiss and a passion from non-traditional perspectives from Thomas.

Looking back, Gainor admitted that his senior film project, a capst0ne for CSUN’s senior film majors, was a “bit too ambitious.” He noted that CSUN film students are responsible for all aspects of making their short films, from writing the screenplay, directing and shooting to raising the money to pay for the project, renting equipment, casting, finding locations, and everything in between.

“It was one of the best learning experiences I’ve ever had,” he said. “I learned what I was capable of doing, and, because I was still in school, I was able to learn from my mistakes. I feel for those young filmmakers who didn’t go to film school and have the opportunity to make mistakes in the secure environment of academia.”

Gainor noted that his time at CSUN also influences his support of producer Clint Culpepper’s efforts to reflect the diversity of the greater community. Screen Gems’ productions are known for their appeal to diverse, urban audiences.

Glenn Gainor, left, at work on a film location. Photo courtesy of Glenn Gainor.

“It’s just a way of thinking and a way of feeling,” he said. “I think that so many filmmakers will go to a clichéd place when casting films. I think the challenge and fun of telling a story is telling the story differently and casting with diversity in mind. Everybody wants to be treated with a little bit of dignity, and to see their culture, their race, their sex reflected on the screen. Not everybody has to be a white, male hero.”

When he talks about his industry, Gainor rarely uses the term “film business.”

“There are so many more ways to tell a story — film, television, Netfix, Amazon, and who knows what will come next?” he said. “I think the more diverse avenues we get as filmmakers, as storytellers, the more diversity is going to rise.”

Gainor regularly returns to his alma mater to talk to film students. He reminds them to appreciate film history and to keep in mind that they are not in this business to make one movie, “you’re in this business to make a lot of movies.”

California State University, Northridge mechanical engineering junior Steven Paqueo has been involved with robotics since the fifth grade, when his mother convinced him to participate in the VEX Robotics summer camp. From there, he stayed active in VEX Robotics clubs throughout middle school and high school. When Paqueo enrolled at CSUN, he decided to try something new — working for the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation, rather than joining the CSUN VEX Robotics club.

But two years later, CSUN’s VEX Robotics team has qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship, which will take place April 20-23 in Louisville, Kentucky — with Paqueo on board.

While working for the REC Foundation, Paqueo helped organize various robotics competitions, including the annual VEX Robotics World Championship. When he saw two of his friends competing for the University of Colorado at Boulder at the 2014 World Championship, he felt his passion for robotics competitions rekindle.

“I couldn’t believe how well [the Colorado team] was doing, because they just started from scratch with their own money. I just thought, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me,'” Paqueo said. “So, I came back [to VEX Robotics] right after the world championship. I walked straight through the club’s door and signed up. I wanted to beat my friends so badly. Ever since, I have spent more hours [at the club] than I have at home.”

VEX Robotics is an international education initiative, encouraging students of all ages to discover science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields related to robotics design, and supporting leadership, teamwork and problem-solving skills. In 2011, CSUN established a VEX Robotics club, which has been growing ever since.

“When I joined in 2012, it was only five of us gathering around one little cabinet and working out of a cardboard box full of steel components,” said Edwyn Jocol, president of the club and a senior in computer information technology. “Now we are more than 20 members, and I am proud to be part of the club and see it grow.”

CSUN’s VEX Robotics club recently won the championship and excellence award at a four-round tournament at University of Southern California in February. A robotics tournament is similar to a basketball game: Two teams each send two robots — one small and one big — into the match, trying to score as many points as possible. The robots collect and throw different kinds of balls into a basket on the opposite side of the field, scoring points. The team with the most points qualifies for the next round, until the final teams compete against each other.

“I was pretty confident that we were going to win. However, the last match against USC got me nervous,” Jocol said of the final round. “But I had confidence in the robots, and the circumstances made it more exciting.”

Looking forward to the World Championship in April, the CSUN team is eager to compete.

“With our recent success, we definitely think we have what it takes to compete there,” Jocol said. “It’s going to be tough, but we’re expecting to perform really well.”

Adrian Castellon, a junior in mechanical engineering and vice president of the club, emphasized the other teams’ competitiveness and unpredictability.

“Sometimes their whole strategy is to stop the other teams’ strategy, or know how to work around the strategy,” he said. “You can prepare all you want, but you never know which team will be able to counter your strategy, which can cost you the game.”

The CSUN group will compete against top VEX Robotics teams from all over the world — an exciting, yet nerve-wracking experience.

“We’re going up against engineering students from high-tech colleges like New York Institute of Technology or Worcester Polytechnic Institute,” Paqueo said. “We’re not just competing against the best and brightest, but we’re also competing for the prestige of CSUN.”

The VEX Robotics World Championship hosts competitions for students in elementary school, middle school, high school and college. Many students base their college decisions on the robotics achievements they observe at the World Championship, Paqueo said.

“As we do better in competitions — especially at the World Championship, where everyone is watching — we also increase the chances of student enrollment at CSUN, pulling from the brightest kids,” he added.

Club member Erin Kubo, a mechanical engineering junior, said she hopes to attract more young girls to CSUN and the robotics club. She sets an example that female students contribute to STEM fields just as much as their male counterparts.

“[VEX Robotics] gives them the opportunity to try something that they don’t think they can do,” Kubo said. “I want to show them that they can. Especially as a girl, you should just try it and don’t limit yourself.”

She added that she joined the CSUN club with no prior experience in robotics.

“I tried doing a design last year, but it wasn’t that great because I was just starting out,” she said. “But this year, they actually picked my design, so I am the design lead for the small bot. Seeing it work feels great.”

CSUN’s VEX Robotics club encourages students from all majors to join and become more involved in robotics, regardless of their level of experience. Any major can contribute a unique skillset, which can provide significant input in robot design, functionality and techniques, Castellon said. Others can help with club administration.

“You learn a lot of things in the club, like teamwork, believing in your projects and not quitting on them when things are frustrating or when it seems like things might not work out,” Castellon said. “Your team is always there to support you.”

Rodolfo Acuña, Ph.D., Historian
from Chicano Male Unbonded series
©2000, Harry Gamboa Jr.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the Autry Museum of the American West have acquired several photographs by California State University, Northridge Chicana/o studies professor Harry Gamboa Jr. for their permanent collections.

The photographs are from Gamboa’s acclaimed ongoing series, “Chicano Male Unbonded,” black-and-white portraits of more than 100 Latino males that call into question the assumptions and stereotypes society has of men of Mexican descent. Among the photographs going to the National Portrait Gallery is one of CSUN professor Rudolfo Acuña, a founder of CSUN’s Department of Chicana/o Studies who is often hailed as the “father” of the field of Chicana/o studies.

Gamboa, an internationally recognized artist who co-founded the pioneering Chicano art group Asco (Spanish for “nausea”) with Gronk, Willie F. Herrón III and Patssi Valdez, said given the current political climate, he was particularly moved that images from the “Chicano Male Unbounded” series were chosen for acquisition.

“I created this work as a way to counter the negative stereotypes people have of Chicano men,” he said. “They are all photographs of men I know on some personal level. Some I know from academia and the art world, others are family or friends. They all self-identify as being Chicano. It’s very interesting to stand back and listen as viewers speculate on who the men are. I’ve heard people comment, just from looking at the pictures, that they are gang members. But then they get closer, read the descriptions and discover that the ‘gang members’ are lawyers, Ph.Ds, artists and novelists.

“In these days, when political talk includes discussion about the mass deportation of Mexicans and Mexican males in particular are negatively portrayed, this work stands out,” Gamboa continued. “It provides a positive discussion about what these men could be and who they actually are and what they represent — pillars of not only Chicano culture, but American culture.”

Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said the gallery aims “to interpret the American story through the people who made a contribution to its history.”

“Important to that effort is to represent achievements that often make a major impact in a specific field but receive little national recognition,” Sajet continued. “Harry Gamboa’s portrait of Rudolfo Acuña acknowledges how Chicana/o studies came into the modern university setting and has subsequently broadened the understanding of who we are as a people.”

W. Richard West, president and CEO of the Autry Museum, said his museum’s selection of works is based on criteria such as art historical significance and connection to the museum’s mission to bring together the stories of all peoples of the American West.

“Our acquisition of Harry Gamboa’s portraits — including those of Willie Herron and Louie Perez — contributes to our ability to present a more comprehensive narrative of the Chicano experience in Los Angeles,” West said. “We plan to exhibit the portraits in fall 2017 in tandem with an exhibition of photographs from ‘La Raza’ magazine as part of the Getty’s broader ‘Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA Initiative.’’

Willie Herrón, Artist/Musician, 2000
from Chicano Male Unbonded series
Autry Museum of the American West
©2000, Harry Gamboa Jr.

Amy Scott, the Autry’s chief curator and Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator of Visual Arts, said Gamboa’s “Chicano Male Unbonded” series “sits at crossroads, between traditions of photographic portraiture and street performance, between self-styling and artistic presentation.”

“As a result, the series constitutes a versatile framework for reconsidering some of the many labels so often applied to men in the Chicano community or of Mexican descent,” Scott continued. “Autry visitors will have the opportunity to examine traditions of photographic portraiture relative to race and identity in Los Angeles, and the West at large.”

When Gamboa and his colleagues first hit the streets of Los Angeles more than 40 years ago with Asco, the community did not know what to make of its performance pieces, which tackled the day’s issues, including racism, head on.

The initial reaction to Asco’s work was resistant and political. Over the years, art collectors, museum curators and academics have hailed Asco and its members for presenting the realities of a community that was long ignored and provocatively translating the universality of its experience. The Smithsonian American Art Museum created a special exhibition in 2013 that includes their work, “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.” The exhibition is currently on display at the Delaware Art Museum.

For the past four decades, Gamboa has documented and interpreted the contemporary urban Chicano experience through his art, whether in photographs, videos or performance pieces.

Last year, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York featured pieces by Gamboa from its permanent collection as part of its opening celebration of its new home in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Some of those pieces will be on display later this month as part of the Whitney’s new exhibition “Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection,” which is scheduled to run from April 27, 2016 to Feb. 12, 2017.

Gamboa’s work has been exhibited in museums around the world. Despite the international acclaim for his work, Gamboa continues to teach four classes in CSUN’s Department of Chicana/o Studies and is a faculty member in the photography and media program at California Institute of the Arts.

California State University, Northridge is home to the one of the largest, most developed and oldest Asian American studies departments in the United States.

Established in 1990, CSUN’s Department of Asian American Studies has graduated a generation of scholars, community activists, business leaders, artists and teachers imbued with a critical understanding of race, ethnic history and issues affecting Asian Americans.

On Saturday, April 23, the department’s students, alumni, faculty and founders will come together to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The Asian American Studies 25th Anniversary and Annual Student Awards Celebration and fundraiser will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Grand Salon in the University Student Union on the east side of the campus, located at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge. 

Speakers will include former CSUN Vice President for Academic Affairs Bob Suzuki, former department Chair Enrique de la Cruz, alumnus Gary Mayeda, current President’s Associate and CSUN Educational Opportunity Programs Academic Liaison Glenn Omatsu, current department Chair Gina Masequesmay and professors George Uba and Laura Uba, who taught some of the first Asian American studies courses in the program.

The department was established after students and faculty authored a position paper on the need for Asian American studies and organized a successful Asian Pacific American Cultural Awareness Week in 1989 to demonstrate there was a campus interest in learning about Asian-Americans.

Suzuki, who served as vice president for academic affairs from 1985 to 1991, said he supported the creation of the department based on his experience teaching Asian American studies at the University of Massachusetts.

“It was the first time [my students] realized Asian-Americans played a very important role in this country,” Suzuki said. “It was almost scary, because for the first time they began to realize they were just as American as any other student at that university. That’s why I supported the effort [to establish Asian American studies at CSUN].”

Kenyon Chan, who served as the department’s founding chair from 1990 to 1997 and recently retired as the chancellor of the University of Washington Bothell, said he and faculty quickly worked to develop a major and minor, and put Asian American studies courses on the CSUN map.

“We fought hard to make sure the AAS curriculum became a central part of the CSUN curriculum, including part of every category of general education,” Chan said. “We also demonstrated how vital it is for students to understand the historical and contemporary impact of Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the United States and learn an alternative theoretical view of the world.”

De la Cruz, who served as chair from 2000 to 2003, said there were only two full-time and two part-time faculty in the department when he started.

“It was a juggling and balancing act to be able to offer the full complement of courses that would enable our majors to graduate on time,” de la Cruz said. “During my tenure, we developed ethnic subgroup experience courses, research methods and Asian-Americans and the Law as an upper division general education class. We streamlined the courses to really develop the major.”

He said that having Asian American studies is vital to maintaining a fair account of American history and to keep Asian-Americans relevant in historical dialogue.

“Even today, there is a continuing struggle to ensure that minority communities, in particular Asian-Americans, are acknowledged for their roles in building American society,” de la Cruz said. “If we are not in the curriculum, it’s like we don’t exist.”

Suzuki understands from personal experience what it is like to have his history as an Asian-American kept off the books and out of public discourse. He was just 6 years old when he and his family were interned along with more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.

While an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, Suzuki took a speech course and decided to write a speech about his education in the internment camp.

“I started doing research on it and the more I read about the internment, the angrier I got — what a gross injustice it was,” Suzuki said. “When I gave the speech to the class, it was pretty hard hitting. After I was finished, the teaching assistant asked the class if they had any questions, and I was received with shocked silence. He then asked them if they knew this had even happened. Only one student in the class said he knew, but it was another Japanese-American who had spent time in the camp himself.

“That was 1955. It blew my mind that in this society, even those whose friends were taken away in the camps could be ignorant of the internment. I think that experience was a major factor influencing my interest in and support for Asian American Studies.”

Omatsu said teaching students about the kinds of experiences of Asian-Americans like Suzuki is crucial to understanding the present and preventing injustice.

“At this particular time, with all the attacks coming down on immigrants and on Muslim-Americans especially, we need to understand that most of these attacks are not new,” Omatsu said. “Anyone who takes a basic Asian American studies course learns about the Chinese Exclusion Act, the 1924 immigration act excluding Asian-American immigration, and the Japanese internment. When Donald Trump comes down saying he wants to temporarily ban all Muslims from coming into the United States, people should know that’s been done before to the Chinese and Asian-Americans and that it’s wrong, but not a lot of people do. When politicians call for patrols of Muslim areas or want Muslims to inform other Muslims of their activities, we need to remember all of those things happened to the Japanese-Americans.”

Masequesmay said Asian American studies is an empowering experience for many students.

“It provides more self-definition, and links you to a history of struggle and resistance — not just to Asian-Americans, but to other ethnic groups as well, those who have been historically disadvantaged,” Masequesmay said. “You see the struggles of peoples and it gives you a sense of connection and power.

“It’s an inspiring, wonderful feeling to know you are not alone in struggling for justice,” she continued. “It’s a wonderful feeling to be part of something larger than yourself. We must focus on that sense of inter-being to envision a society that benefits all of us and not just some of us, a justice that is restorative and not destructive.”

For more information on the 25th anniversary celebration and fundraiser, or to donate to the department, email gina.masequesmay@csun.edu or call the Department of Asian American Studies at (818) 677-4966.

The encyclopedia salesman knocked on the door, and Geneva Williams answered. He gave his pitch, and then Geneva looked to her 8-year-old son, Robert D. Taylor, for advice.

Not a good investment, the little boy told his mother. But for some reason, she decided to go through with the purchase, despite being cash-strapped.

At some point soon after, Taylor decided what he would become when he grew up — a scientist. So, he looked it up in the new encyclopedia, and it prompted him to keep digging until he read about engineering.

“At that age, I knew I wanted to be an engineer,” Taylor said.

Forty-five years later, Taylor insists that at age 8, he made his life plan: earn an engineering degree, go to law school, create jobs and opportunities for African-Americans and make a difference in society. He met all of those aims. And something he didn’t plan or ask for happened on April 16: California State University, Northridge honored Taylor with one of the university’s highest accolades — a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Taylor ’82 (Engineering) admitted being slightly uncomfortable with the honor. He often uses the example of Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, who safely landed a disabled plane carrying 155 people on the Hudson River in New York in 2009. Sullenberger struggled with the word “hero” and said on many occasions that the safe landing was simply the result of a job done well.

“I have lived my life the way I think my mother would be proud, the way that Captain Sullenberger recommended,” Taylor said. “He inspired me to continue to labor without concern about whether or not anybody notices. That’s what I [have said] to my team: ‘The most important thing is what we do when no one will notice.’”

Taylor is one of the most impactful African-American financial industry leaders in California. He is a private equity investor and partner at holding company 3.5.7.11. Taylor began his career at McKinsey & Company, one of the world’s most-recognized management consulting firms, where he helped improve the performance of large, complex for-profit and nonprofit enterprises. He also has been a difference maker in the community, serving as an instrumental figure in the rebuilding of Los Angeles after the 1992 riots and as a leader in the National Urban League and Los Angeles Urban League (LAUL). He also has served on the CSUN Foundation board and the CSUN Task Force on Engagement.

Taylor’s Mission

Taylor’s connection with CSUN began when he was drawn to the school’s engineering program. Professor and later Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science Raymond Landis founded the Minority Engineering Program at CSUN — the first such program in the state. Landis and the program’s associate director, Rick Ainsworth, became mentors to Taylor and helped support his work.

“Right from the beginning, he was a standout,” Landis said. “It was almost like he didn’t need the program, the program needed him. He was such an outstanding young man — bright, motivated, caring. He set an example and was a role model for others.”

After earning his degree in engineering from CSUN, Taylor went to Stanford, where he earned an MBA and a law degree. That led him to McKinsey, where he quickly climbed the ladder.

His teams’ work often featured pioneering solutions to pivotal business challenges ranging from broad-based, physician-led innovation in the practice and management of medicine, to re-engineering the investigation and resolution of property casualty claims. In the process, Taylor rose to become the firm’s only black partner.

Charles Schetter, a former senior partner at McKinsey, began working with Taylor in 1986, shortly after Taylor graduated from Stanford Law School. He said Taylor was the glue of the company.

“I entrusted to Robert the people processes for the several hundred people we had in the practice,” Schetter said. “Robert is a man of great empathy and an inspiring leader, and he is the person I wanted to be in charge of the care and feeding of our people.”

Schetter also called Taylor a crusader. In 1992, in the aftermath of the Los Angeles/Rodney King riots that ravaged the inner city, Taylor told people close to him — Schetter and his wife, Joy, primarily — that he felt a calling to help. Mayor Tom Bradley started the Rebuild L.A. initiative and placed 1984 Time Magazine Man of the Year and former Major League Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth in charge of the effort. Taylor reached out and offered his assistance.

“I reached out to all kinds of communities. We needed thousands of people to help us, but we needed some really key leaders — and Robert was one of the first to step forward,” Ueberroth said. “He showed a calmness and a skillset that was very unusual, and it was key to our success.”

McKinsey volunteered early on to help organize the rebuilding effort, with Taylor playing a significant leadership role.

“He was not afraid,” Ueberroth said. “It’s a nasty assignment. He wasn’t looking to be a hero. He wasn’t looking to be in the newspapers. He was working to make the city better. He knew as a citizen, he’d make the city better. … It was totally unselfish. It was a case where he wanted to give back. Not a lot of people do that, but those were the kinds of people we attracted, and he was a superstar.”

It was through Taylor’s work with Rebuild L.A. that he caught the eye of the National Urban League.

Taylor became a longtime volunteer for the Urban League, whose mission is to enable African-Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights.

On two occasions, Taylor led the effort to fundamentally reset the Urban League’s strategy, as well as assisting with the design and execution of key programs and chairing several board committees during his tenure. The highlight of Taylor’s service was being entrusted with the position of senior vice chair (the most senior volunteer role) from 2005-12.

“[Taylor] possesses a really strong passion and commitment and compassion for making a difference in this community and beyond this community,” said civic leader and former LAUL president John Mack. “[He applied] his knowledge, his expertise for creating a level playing field for people of color … to educate their children, to live in a safe community and provide for them … and narrow the gap of the inequities. He really has a passion in that regard. It wasn’t just about doing his professional thing. There was the compassion, the human spirit that Robert possessed and brought to the table.”

Creating Opportunity

Taylor did all that while maintaining a strong passion for his professional work. His objective from an early age was to become an entrepreneur and bring his skills and resources back to his community to create opportunities. He has done that at many steps along the path.

Taylor co-founded two private equity firms, including Centinela Capital Partners, LLC. That firm has backed 46 new and emerging investment teams who have created an estimated $5 billion in value and unprecedented levels of diversity among their general partners, according to Taylor.

CSUN recognized how vital Taylor has been to his field and his community. On the night he received the Distinguished Alumni Award, Taylor seemed to find more comfort in accepting the honor and expressed excitement.

When he got on stage, Taylor thanked his wife and children, CSUN mentors Landis and Ainsworth, friends and colleagues, his alma mater, and most importantly he reflected on what his mother did for him.

“I’ve had help and guidance from a lot of people,” he said. “Mom, through her sacrifice.”

Then, Taylor shared her advice to him:

“Work hard. Be graceful. Believe in yourself. Stick together. Don’t complain. Don’t quit. And don’t embarrass me by wasting the sacrifice I made for you.”

California Student University, Northridge educates one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation. This diversity allows students to gain an insight into a world that was once previously unknown to them, and discuss many issues from around the globe. Eager to be at the forefront of these discussions, the campus was honored to welcome the 2014 Los Angeles Poet Laureate and Scholar in Residence at CSUN, Luis J. Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was introduced by the chair of the Department of Chicana/o Studies Gabriel Gutierrez, who spoke of his own personal admiration for Rodriguez’ work.

“I was in Santa Barbara at the time, and one of my friends told me about this guy down in LA who had written a book called Always Running, and that I should read it,” Gutierrez said. “I was one of the lucky ones, and was able to find a brand-new copy, and I read the first chapter and said, ‘OK, it’s pretty good.’ Then I got home that evening, and I couldn’t put the book down. In fact, I couldn’t sleep. The following day, I was riveted, because it spoke to so many themes and so many issues that we need to address in the world.”

Rodriguez proceeded to live up to this reputation, prefacing the reading by saying that he wanted the event to serve as a dialogue for the CSUN community. He delivered four poems that spoke to the aspects of people’s lives that the audience could relate to, and would inspire them to speak about their feelings. His first poem, entitled Heavy Blue Veins, was a personal story from Rodriguez’ childhood, when he would watch his aunt treat his mother for the various medical problems that plagued her life, and spoke to the ideals of roots and family.

His second poem focused on the idea of cultural acceptance, having been drawn from a dark time in Rodriguez’ life when he suffered from heroin addiction, and how he struggled to overcome the fact that he could not identify with any one particular culture. His final poems were sonnets inspired by the works of William Shakespeare. Rodriguez mentioned how he was brought to tears the first time he heard the poems, and felt compelled to write his own.

After the reading, Rodriguez changed roles from poet to moderator, and facilitated a discussion on a range of different subjects, from wealth to racial relations to modern literature. People of all ages, from students to faculty members, stepped up to voice their opinions and asked questions, listening to what Rodriguez had to say.

Teresa Ramirez, an astrophysics major and avid fan of Rodriguez’ work, spoke about how the reading had affected her and how she believed it could help the campus.

“I thought it was very beautiful,” Ramirez said. “How he talked about different races. How there are sometimes tensions between us, and how it’s really sort of false, in a way that we really shouldn’t play into. I think it can help CSUN because the school is extremely diverse, and I think with that there are some tensions, but events like these help to ease those tensions.”

After the lecture, Rodriguez further reiterated his statements about how he hopes that these kind of events can help people ignore the stereotypes about one another, and begin a discussion to prove that the lives they lead are not so different.

“I think that CSUN needs to carry the dialogue further,” Rodriguez said. “I think this is a great community, very diverse, and I think that we just need to keep dialoguing further on the issues because I’m afraid that with the media and the kind of yelling that’s coming out of the political process, we’re missing some of the salient points of who we are as a people, and as a country.”

California State University, Northridge biology professor MariaElena Zavala has been named the first Latina Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB).

The ASPB is a professional scientific society devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences worldwide. Zavala was named a Fellow in honor of her service to the society and her distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology.

Zavala said she was surprised and honored to learn she had been named an ASPB Fellow.

“I didn’t even know that my name had been put forward,” she said. “I was at a meeting when I received the call. It is quite an honor.”

Zavala, who has been teaching at CSUN since 1988, is the first Mexican-American woman in the country to earn a Ph.D. in botany. Since coming to the campus, she has played an integral part in building the national reputation of CSUN’s Department of Biology’s as a place where students, particularly those from underserved communities, thrive and successfully pursue advanced degrees at top tier research institutions.

She has served as the director of CSUN’s Maximizing Access to Research Careers Undergrad Student Training and in Academic Research (MARC U-STAR) program since 1990 and Research Initiatives for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) since 1993. Her work as a mentor and advocate for countless students who have gone through these program earned her recognition from the White House. In 2000, Zavala received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from President Bill Clinton.

Zavala’s research focuses on the manipulation of genes as a way to improve plant productivity by enhancing root growth. She also is studying ways to make beans more nutritious.

“When we eat beans, we basically are eating special leaves, cotyledons (seed leaves) that store huge amounts of protein.” she said. “The most abundant of these proteins in beans have low amounts of an essential amino acid that humans need to eat.”

She and her students are working to increase that amino acid — that has sulfur — into the bean seed to improve the nutritional value of beans.

Zavala said plant research is critical in the effort to combat hunger around the world.

“There are more than 925 million people who are malnourished or undernourished in the world right now. That’s a huge number of people (about 1:7 worldwide), and the consequences are tremendous,” Zavala said. “Malnutrition disproportionately affects young children and older people leading to premature death. Infants and young children, who are malnourished often suffer life-long consequences including poor brain development and weak bones and short-term effects including susceptibility to infections because of a poor immune system.

“The world’s farmers grow enough food for every single person to eat the recommended 2,300 calories a day,” she continued. “People should not be starving. The problem is that food isn’t produced where it is consumed, the food distribution system is flawed and much food is lost to pests. The field of plant science has an important role in solving these problems.”

California State University, Northridge’s Department of Asian American Studies celebrated its landmark 25th anniversary with a rare gathering of the department’s founders, faculty, alumni, students, campus officials and community members on April 23 on campus in the Grand Salon at the University Student Union.

The 25th Anniversary and Student Awards event was a self-reflection of the quarter-century journey of the department’s struggles, successes and the deep commitment to its students, which remains to this day. It honored the department’s founders — former CSUN Vice President of Academic Affairs Bob Suzuki, faculty George Uba, Laura Uba and Warren Furumoto, former department chair Enrique de la Cruz, alumnus Gary Mayeda, and founders not in attendance, including former department chair Kenyon Chan, former faculty members Gordon Nakagawa, Michael Ego and Emily Lawsin. Asian American studies students as well as students from the CSUN Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) also were recognized for their outstanding achievements.

The evening began with student performances. CSUN’s Filipino American Student Association, the campus’ oldest Asian-American student group, performed a traditional Filipino dance called the Tinikling. Members of the Asian-American fraternity Alpha Psi Rho did a step performance and CSUN Asian American studies Alumna and poet Alina Nguyen recited an original piece titled Genealogy.

CSUN Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Yi Li welcomed the 200 attendees on behalf of the university. Li was a young international graduate student of mathematics when he emigrated to the United States, and talked about how as an Asian-American, he discovered the challenges and hardships impacting the Asian-American community while serving as Wright State University’s Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics. He cited the importance of supporting Asian-Americans’ access to higher education.

“Higher education attainment is not just an educational issue, it is actually a social justice issue,” Li said. “It is an issue of our children and our future generation — whether or not they have a good standard of living, whether or not they can achieve their dreams. Higher education is so important to the life of our future and we must, as a higher education [institution], help our community to achieve that goal.”

CSUN Dean of the College of Humanities Elizabeth Say, who earned her bachelor’s degree at the university, reflected on seeing the department grow.

“Watching the Asian American studies department develop has been one of the great joys of being part of this college,” Say said. “They have tremendous faculty, amazing students, and their staff are outstanding. I’ve never known a group of faculty who are more committed to their students than the faculty of Asian American Studies — we have ones who are just as committed, but not more committed.”

John Lee, chief of staff for Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander and a CSUN alumnus, presented a proclamation by the city recognizing the historic achievement of the CSUN Department of Asian American Studies, which was the second in the nation to gain departmental status.

Former Vice President for Academic Affairs Suzuki, who taught Asian American studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst before coming to CSUN, highlighted the importance of the positive impact that Asian American studies has on student achievement. Suzuki — who was mentioned throughout the night by faculty and other founders as being the key figure who made the Asian American studies department possible by pushing for a department and not just a program — put the attention on the important work of the students and faculty who pressed for Asian Americans studies during the late 1980s.

“The idea of Asian American studies came about from students who felt they needed to take some courses in Asian American studies,” Suzuki said. “They worked with some of the few Asian-American faculty we had at that time [to draft a position paper] on why we needed Asian American studies.”

CSUN alumnus Mayeda, who was one of the student pioneers who worked on the position paper in the late 1980s, also spoke about what it was like to fight for an Asian American studies program during a time when Asian-American students faced much more hostility, discrimination and alienation from greater society. Mayeda helped form the Asian Pacific Student Association and organized an Asian-American cultural awareness week that helped bring visibility to Asian-Americans on campus. He said he admired the department today and the milestone it has reached.

“As a student I never would have dreamed it would be this big,” Mayeda said. “But you just know when something is good and you know something is there for you — not only for you, but for the community and greater Los Angeles. We just never realized it would be this impactful.”

After more founders spoke, the attention turned to the students who were also being rewarded for their excellence and contributions to the department. Dozens of students from EOP were given “Promising Freshman” awards, celebrating the strong connection between the department and EOP. Over a dozen Asian American studies majors and double majors received awards, such as the Promising Sophomore and Transfer Award, Community Builders Award, Promising Future Teacher Award, Donna Kawamoto Special Achievement Award, Laura Uba Academic Achievement Award, Enrique de la Cruz Social Justice Award and the Kenyon Chan Leadership Award.

In thanking the department, the students spoke about how crucial the department has been, not only to their academic success as students, but to their well-being, sense of self and world view.

Asian American studies major Cielito Fernandez, who won the Kenyon Chan Leadership Award for her positive influence among students, said the department helped her to realize who she is as an Asian-American and as a CSUN student.

“Asian American studies made me realize my potential as a student,” Fernandez said. “My capacity as a person has expanded and I believe in myself a lot more. Asian American studies is so important — if you don’t study it, you will forget about the hard work of previous generations. It can provide a road to self-actualization in this society, especially when as a person of color, you don’t physically fit into the larger narrative.”

Asian American studies major Lorenzo Mutia, who won the Enrique de la Cruz Social Justice Award, said Asian American studies gave him a sense of empowerment.

“What Asian American studies means to me is realizing the power that exists in the communities we live in,” Mutia said. “There are a lot of unheard stories in the mainstream. There are so many positive assets in our communities that aren’t heard about out there, that are kind of lying in secret, waiting to be used. A lot of times we are told that what we have to offer does not matter. Asian America Studies gives us an outlet to be utilized for the benefit of ourselves and others.”

Asian American studies alumni also spoke of their gratitude to the department for helping shape their identities and prepare them for their adult lives.

“Coming into my identity as an Asian-American person was based on learning about multiple histories and multiple experiences, of different trials and tribulations,” said alumnus Jean-Paul deGuzman, who teaches Asian American studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. “American American studies has a dual purpose — on the one hand it’s personal, it’s about situating our own identities and stories, and on a practical and a more political level, it helps students to think critically about the world around them, to deconstruct what they see in the media, in history books and in the news. Those tools are very powerful no matter what profession you move on to.”

Alumna Emi Vallega, who is currently coordinating Communications and Resource Development at Pilipino Workers Center as well as at the California Domestic Workers Coalition, said Asian American studies transformed her academic life and inspired her to work in community organizing.

“Walking into my first class with professor Laura Uba changed my life,” Vallega said. “Learning more about your own history — because you don’t get that in regular school — was important for me. You don’t hear about yourself and your family in mainstream history classes. Developing my own consciousness around my own familial issues and being able to discuss them was very powerful for me.”

Alumnus CJ Berina, who owns a store called Collective Lifestyle LA in Northridge and was just awarded a $15,000 grant from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office to do an arts activation campaign on Reseda Blvd. this summer, said he learned from Asian American studies that the most important thing in life is making the world a better place.

“One thing we are doing with our company is change the world in a positive way,” Berina said. “Everything that we do is for people. A lot of people start businesses to make a profit, but we started it for the people. We wanted to provide culture to the Valley, through fashion, music art and live events and fill a need [for arts] in the Valley. Life is all about the people around you, serving the people and not just yourself.”

Asian American studies professor Allan Aquino, who served as the master of ceremonies for the event, reflected the same sentiment back to the students with his own message of thanks.

“You, our students, are the heartbeat of our purpose,” Aquino said. “You will always be the source of our joy, our reason to get up each morning, our reason to embrace our calling as educators — this is a calling, not just a job. And I for one am proud to embrace all of you as comrades and as dear friends, and members of a community family. No matter what happens in the rest of our lives, our hearts are full of joy right here, right now, because all of you are here and we love you.”

California State University, Northridge has made it a point in recent years to put extra attention into making CSUN a more sustainable, environmentally friendly campus. Now, those efforts are being recognized statewide.

The Associated Students (AS) Sustainable Office Program (SOP), a student organization formed in 2014, recently won the Student Sustainability Leadership award at the 12th annual California Higher Education Sustainability Conference Best Practice Awards Competition — an event that highlights the accomplishments of California campuses that have made innovative and effective energy efficiency projects and sustainable operations.

“Winning this award definitely feels like a step in the right direction, for both the SOP program and our campus as a whole,” said SOP Lead Assessor Carlos Chavez-Iglesias. “Winning an award tends to generate positive feedback and recognition, which can help further the program here on campus.”

The program — led by Recycling Coordinator Cynthia Signett, the Institute for Sustainability and a group of four CSUN students within the AS Recycling Team — provides information and resources to CSUN faculty and staff about what it means to “go green” at their jobs and offices.

“The students talk to designated staff and conduct surveys to evaluate existing practices and procedures in the workplace,” said Helen Cox, director of the Institute for Sustainability. “By participating, each department on campus is actively assisting CSUN in reducing waste, saving energy and achieving our goal of carbon neutrality by 2040.”

So far, the program has assessed more than 50 offices on campus. Moving forward, Signett said, the goal is to assess every office on campus and make all CSUN employees aware of what it means to be sustainable.

Being more sustainable is essential because, according to Cox, people are causing irreversible damage to the planet through development, deforestation, resource extraction, pollution and much more.

“Some people think it all comes down to heating, cooling and things beyond their control, but actually a big part of sustainability is about practice — changing attitudes toward turning off lights, walking [instead of driving], using public transport and switching from single-use disposable products,” Cox said.

CSUN and the SOP program will be recognized with the award during the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference on June 27.

For more information and to take part in the program, contact the Sustainable Office Program at (818) 677-4262.

Cynthia Lemus ’15 (Child Development) had a “proud-mommy moment” when her 5-year-old daughter asked to include a prayer for homeless children at bedtime one night. The California State University, Northridge graduate student occasionally takes her daughter to the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, where she has been working as an intern since August 2015 as part of CSUN’s Master of Social Work program.

Lemus, whose first year in the master’s program ends in May, said she enjoyed the practical part of the curriculum — essential experiences and hands-on opportunities that can’t be gained in a classroom.

“It was interesting and definitely different from what I expected,” Lemus said. “I expected more sitting down and lectures, but now I get to learn from my internship, which is, I think, the best way to learn.”

The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission is a nonprofit organization that provides families shelter and a host of resources, as well as fundamental living necessities to the Valley’s homeless community. Lemus and another CSUN student from the online cohort of the MSW program are the first CSUN interns at the Rescue Mission, getting firsthand experience in community service and supporting people in need.

“I never worked with the homeless community before,” Lemus said. “But it’s a great experience because you get to meet people from all different backgrounds, and you realize that you have so much in common.”

As one of the few Spanish speakers working at the Rescue Mission, Lemus manages a variety of responsibilities. She serves as a case manager for homeless families, monitoring their progress toward permanent housing and a more stable family life.

“I try to get them back on their own feet,” she said, adding that she has weekly meetings with families to get updates on their housing and employment status.

Lemus also co-facilitates a parenting support group, and she created an incentive program for children at the Rescue Mission — to reward reading, completed homework and good grades.

“There is so much more the [Rescue Mission] does that I don’t see because I’m only there from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.,” she said. “I see the clients at that time, but there is so much more going on during the day. I want to help as much as I can, but there’s only so much I can do. I think that’s the biggest challenge — I want to be everything, but that’s not possible.”

Lemus said the children at the Rescue Mission are the main reason she enjoys working for the nonprofit organization. As a child development graduate, she knows the importance of childhood phases that influence a person’s future development. Working with the children, Lemus said, she hopes to make an impact on their lives.

“My favorite part is being at dinner and asking them, ‘So, how was your day?,’ giving them the feeling that someone cares,” she said. “I love knowing that I can make a difference, and if I can make only one difference, their path might change.”

The feeling of being helpful to people in need is one aspect of the MSW program Lemus particularly appreciates. She said her passion for children always has driven her professional goals, but she hadn’t been able to provide significant help until she started interning at the Rescue Mission.

“I worked for afterschool programs, and I’ve known kids that were homeless, but there was nothing really I could do about it because I was always just the coach or the person who helps with homework,” she said. “Now, being on the other side, I can be their emotional support and do more than ever before.”

For her second-year placement, Lemus will work for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), expanding her focus working with children.

“You always have to be very creative with [children]. That’s why I love them,” she said. “I’m not sitting at a desk all day doing the same thing. Every day is a new creative challenge.”

Yet, Lemus said, she and her daughter will continue to support the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, even when her internship ends in May.

“The people there are really nice people, and they want the best for everyone,” she said. “It’s such a warm and loving environment.”

CSUN manufacturing systems engineering professor Shereazad Jimmy Gandhi and his students work on the efficiency of New Horizons’ manufacturing systems. Photo courtesy of Roschell Ashley.

This spring, students in professor Shereazad Jimmy Gandhi’s manufacturing systems engineering class MSE507 benefitted from a special partnership between the nonprofit organization New Horizons and California State University, Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science.

New Horizons is a local organization that helps people with special needs and disabilities to acquire significant skills for different work environments. The organization provides vocational training, work placements and supportive housing. New Horizons reached out to CSUN for help implementing lean manufacturing practices and processes within the organization, which supports the training of people who aim to work in manufacturing and assembly processes.

“As a nonprofit, we are always challenged with finding resources to assist us to remain innovative and grow our services, in order to fulfill our mission of empowering individuals with special needs to fulfill their dreams,” said Roschell Ashley, chief operating officer at New Horizons.

Over the years, New Horizons has developed partnerships with several departments and colleges at CSUN, such as the Department of Social Work, the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics and the College of Health and Human Development. After collaborating with the College of Engineering and Computer Science in spring 2014, when CSUN students worked to improve New Horizons’ warehouse and production operations, the organization turned to CSUN again.

“We were so impressed with the level of sophistication and recommendations from the students that we reached out to CSUN again to provide an opportunity for students to work on other sub-divisions,” Ashley said. “It was without hesitation that we turned to CSUN — a university with great expertise in business and teaching lean principles in manufacturing — to assist us to rebuild this division.”

Gandhi’s service-learning class is targeted at undergraduate seniors and graduate students in the Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department. The course is only an elective, but it is one of the most popular classes because of its hands-on opportunities, said Gandhi.

“The collaborative project is very well organized and developed under the leadership and guidance of professor Gandhi,” Ashley said. “The students display a high level of professionalism and are eager to assess and provide recommendations for challenges that can make or break your business.”

According to the professor, the hands-on approach to real-world issues helps students develop better problem-solving skills and builds an understanding of lean manufacturing implementations. Students identify current processes and evaluate them to understand constraints and make recommendations for improvement.

Esteban Estrada, New Horizons’ director of work services, talks to CSUN engineering students about manufacturing processes. Photo courtesy of Roschell Ashley.

“If recommendations are implemented, they can help [New Horizons] to have a better-flowing process, which can help them to reduce their costs,” Gandhi said. “We would love to help more nonprofits in the area to achieve similar efforts.”

Esteban Estrada, director of work services at New Horizons, said that two CSUN students who participated in the 2014 collaboration became volunteers with the organization. They worked on improving inventory processes in the warehouse and created a cleaner and more organized warehouse environment.

“CSUN is a great partner for New Horizons, a true win-win, positive community relationship,” said Erik Sjogren, New Horizons’ director of business services.

“The teams come equipped with the latest tools and knowledge of best practices,” Ashley added. “They display compassion and creativity while solving issues that involve a workforce of individuals with and without disabilities.”

California State University, Northridge is one of the most diverse universities in the United States. A Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), CSUN’s student body is more than 44 percent Latino, as of Fall 2015. It is also an Asian American, Native American, Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI), with a variety of renowned ethnic studies disciplines, helping students become even more connected with their ethnic background. It educates more deaf and hard-of-hearing students than any other U.S. state university. And it has a large population of students from around the world, making CSUN a truly international campus. This rich mix of diversity represents the full spectrum of the human experience for a student body that is more than 40,000 strong.

Into this cultural richness has stepped Dr. Raji Rhys, CSUN’s first chief diversity officer (CDO). Rhys will work with all levels of the university community – primarily students, faculty and staff – so that the university’s operations are equitable, inclusive and use one another’s differences as creative fuel to help CSUN achieve its seven university priorities.

Rhys comes to CSUN with more than 15 years of experience in higher education as a champion for diversity, focusing on how individuals adapt to social groups and how that impacts culture change. Most recently she was a special advisor to the president for diversity and inclusion at the University of Arizona, and she recently consulted on diversity issues in Silicon Valley. Previously, Rhys was the founding director for the first multicultural center at San Jose State University.

“We are so happy to welcome Raji to the Matador family,” said CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison. “With her extensive experience and passionate approach to inclusiveness through diversity, I am confident that she will work with all campus stakeholders to help our university grow and continue to be one of the leaders in providing a high-quality education to an incredible array of students from cultures around the world.”

Growing up in Yuba City as part of an Indian-African household, Rhys had early exposure to social influences that helped guide her to her future calling. Her hometown had a sizable migrant Latino population and a fairly large Indian population, even though Yuba City’s population remained a majority white through her formative years.

Rhys recalled her mother going out to run normal errands, but experiencing different treatment than other people in the area.

“I watched how my mother was treated going to the bank because she had an accent, and knowing that people were not providing her the customer service that they would provide someone else,” Rhys said. “There was some pretty overt prejudice going on. I remember feeling angry that she got treated differently because of her accent and skin color.”

Rhys also recalled a time during her teenage years when she was in a car with friends when they passed by a Sikh man wearing a traditional turban. One of her friends uttered a derogatory term about the man, and Rhys remembered not saying anything at the time.

“These were my friends, and this is what they’re saying about this guy out there. And that’s me. What does that mean for me?” Rhys said. “I thought about what role I played by not saying anything in the car. It got me starting to think about equity, fairness and identity.”

These early influences helped shape Rhys’ life path, as after high school she enrolled at California State University, Chico and majored in psychology. She later earned her Ph.D. in counseling psychology at the University of Maryland, focusing her doctoral work on diversity in complex systems like cultures. Examining how diversity impacts larger groups has been at the core of the work Rhys has done in her years in higher education.

“The part about diversity that’s really exciting to me is about diversity as a force for innovation, for resilience,” Rhys said. “Diversity is our greatest hope to solve the grand challenges of humanity. The only way we’re going to solve them is through diverse teams.

“How do we leverage those differences to come to the innovative solutions that we so badly need to challenges that are beyond any individual? It’s going to be the collective that solves them. But two heads are better than one, only if they’re different heads.”

The makeup of CSUN’s diverse campus population is what made this new opportunity quite intriguing for Rhys. She saw the many different ethnicities represented among the student body, and the ever-rising number of first-generation college students who come to CSUN, many from low-income backgrounds.

“All of those things are important, because to graduate and be successful, students now need to be interdisciplinary thinkers,” Rhys said. “Twenty-first century leadership is about being a diversity thinker. CSUN does that as well. It’s a real-world learning lab.

“CSUN leverages difference, where a lot of colleges stop at making the campus diverse. Creating the opportunities to engage with difference so they get the best education possible, and they become the innovators of the next generation who will solve our problems.”

Rhys pointed out that where she has experienced the greatest success is not in honing in on deficiencies in diversity, but “to focus on what is working and amplify that.” She has reviewed the work of the psychologist and author Angela Duckworth, who has extensively explored how grit and determination positively impact career and personal success for individuals. Rhys especially sees plenty of resilience in the many CSUN students who are the first in their families to attend college.

As CSUN’s new chief diversity officer, Rhys plans to spend the coming days, weeks and months to learn as much as she can about the different cultures that make up the campus community. She said she hopes to build upon the positives to help create a campus culture that is even more welcoming to diversity than it already is – and foster an environment where students from all backgrounds can thrive and launch successful, well-rounded lives.

“Ultimately the ideal is to be an authentic campus of access, opportunity and diversity thinking,” Rhys said, “so that Matadors would be really proud and know what diversity means to them as far as the CSUN way, and they would know how to use diversity in the CSUN way.”

Liberal studies junior Bryan Gomez received the Newman Civic Fellows Award for outstanding engagement in leadership positions. Photo by Luis Garcia.

As the oldest sibling and cousin, Bryan Gomez strives to set an example in his family. He is, after all, the first in his family to attend college. The California State University, Northridge junior was recently awarded the Newman Civic Fellows Award by Campus Compact, a national coalition of more than 1,000 higher education institutions supporting civic engagement on campus.

The Newman Civic Fellows Award honors students who commit themselves to leadership positions to achieve positive social change and inspire others to engage in social action.

“It is a great honor,” said Gomez, a liberal studies major. “Even if I hadn’t won, it was a great honor to be considered. I never expected to win an award like that.”

Gomez serves as a committee leader for Unified We Serve (UWS) — the California State University’s largest volunteer program — where he volunteers to address community needs through the program’s service projects. He also assists Coaching Corps, a nonprofit organization that helps connect volunteer coaches with children in low-income communities.

“I recruit students to volunteer for coaching at places that don’t have the money to coach kids,” he said. “I like to give back to the community and to motivate other students to give back.”

Gomez said he has a passion for helping children become educated and independent individuals. After graduating from CSUN, he said, he wants to work on a master’s degree in education and become a teacher and mentor to the next generation.

“I want to be an elementary school teacher,” he said. “Kids are the future and the ones who are going to live after us. I want to shape the leadership for the future.”

If Gomez has free time to spare, he volunteers at the Everybody Reads program at Noble Elementary School in North Hills, which provides children with learning and reading experiences through donated books.

“Bryan’s volunteer work shows his dedication and commitment, but most importantly speaks to his passion for addressing the needs of his community, including education,” said Maria Elizondo, UWS coordinator. “He is passionate, focused and the kind of person who seeks accomplishments through hard work and dedication.”

Elizondo has worked closely with Gomez on multiple UWS projects, which is why she nominated him for the Newman Civic Fellows Award.

“Bryan aims to position himself to contribute significantly to our society by teaching our next generation of leaders the way to success through education,” she said. “He is truly in tune with his passion, personal interests and values. He is a great role model who exudes confidence through an unwavering positive attitude.”

It takes hard work, determination and long hours in the library to master the art of juggling an often capricious schedule amidst the demands of midterms, multi-page papers and final projects. It pays off in the end, as thousands of family members, friends and fellow classmates will cheer as California State University, Northridge’s class of 2016, more than 11,120 strong, walks across the stage at graduation ceremonies beginning May 20.

Some of the graduates are the first in their families to get a college education. Others set out on a path forged by a desire to learn more about the world or through the determination of loved ones who believed that education would open doors to new opportunities.

Here are some of those students’ stories:

Charles Etienne, B.S. in Physics, with an emphasis in Astrophysics

Charles Etienne

“I have an astrophysics degree,” said Charles Etienne, 35, of North Hills. “I work as an engineer in industrial design. And I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for CSUN.”

Etienne was born in Canada and grew up in New Jersey. He had dreams of being a musician, so after high school he moved to New York City, where he got a job as a sound engineer and played in a band. After six years, the band members moved to Los Angeles because of its thriving music scene and a lower cost of living. They settled in Van Nuys in 2001.

“I would work as a sound engineer during the day, temporary jobs here and there, and play shows at night,” Etienne said. “Wherever I worked, as things broke I would repair them. That sparked a curiosity about the principles behind why things work and why they don’t.”

After he got a job in technical support for the music equipment company Line 6, he started taking classes in 2009 at Pierce College to see if he could find the answers to his questions about how things worked. Eager to learn all he could, he decided to take a class at CSUN the following year.

While on campus, he stumbled upon CSUN’s Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Formula One car design project. Learning that the student team needed members, he volunteered.

“There was chemistry on the team and, lo and behold, a couple of months later, I was the project manager,” Etienne said. “That really was an experience. It exposed me to engineering, and I fell in love with math all over again — in the relationships between math and how things work in the world.”

He enrolled at CSUN that year as a physics major. Inspired by his time with the Formula One team, Etienne decided in his sophomore year to look for a similar experience in CSUN’s physics department.

“I was willing to sweep the floors somewhere — perhaps someone needed help cleaning up,” he said. “I knew how to solder, and I thought that might be of use. Dr. [Hendrick] Postma was ‘Welcome. Come in. You can help out.’”

In his spare time, Etienne would wander around CSUN, hoping to learn as much as he could about the “interesting things that were happening all over campus.”

“I would go into buildings,” he said. “If the door was locked, I wouldn’t go in. But if the door was open, I would go in and talk to whoever was there. I think I have been to part of every building on campus, and I have had interesting interactions with other students and professors. I felt there was a willingness and openness in the people in the different departments to say ‘This is what we’re working on.’ Those, for me, are the moments that I remember, that I treasure, from being at CSUN.”

In spring 2015, in the third week before the end of his last semester, Etienne, who had just landed a full-time job as a mechanical designer at the music technology company Strymon, was diagnosed with testicular cancer. His professors suspended his studies while he sought treatment. Etienne had surgery and is now cancer free. A few months after taking a health leave from CSUN, Etienne returned to the campus, finished his assignments and completed the requirements for his bachelor’s degree in physics, with an emphasis in astrophysics.

Etienne has been invited to take part in the commencement ceremony for the College of Science and Mathematics at 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 22.

“There is a tremendous sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and pride when I’m around the Valley or wherever, and I see a Matador sticker or a CSUN T-shirt, I think ‘Yep, me too,’” Etienne said.

He will be touring this summer with his band, The Alpine Camp.

Tamus Glunz, B.S. in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Real Estate and a minor in Business Law

Tamus Glunz

Tamus Glunz’s world imploded in 2009, during the worst of the recession. She lost her home and investment properties, and was left homeless.

“Life changed dramatically,” she said. “It was a matter of reinventing myself. I’ve been as low as the darkest of the dark, and I’ve been back in the sunshine. I’ve learned in my 50s that it’s not about ‘you,’ and you can’t accomplish it all on your own. You have to surround yourself with positive people and move forward.”

Glunz said she found those positive people at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria and at CSUN.
The 58-year-old Northridge resident spent much of her childhood in Europe, living in Germany, Spain and Majorca and traveling. Her father was a pilot and her mother a stewardess for Pan American World Airways. The family moved back to the United States when Glunz was in fourth grade and settled on a ranch in Madera, Calif.

Glunz’s longtime passion for photography turned into photojournalism in high school and college, which led to a job as a concert photographer. Her first black-and-white images were for the musical group KC and the Sunshine Band. Over the years, Glunz has held a number of jobs, including postal worker.

All that time, she flirted with the idea of returning to college to finish her degree, but never felt comfortable in the classroom. But as the physical demands of her postal worker job began to take a toll on her mobility and issues concerning her investment properties came up, Glunz decided to give college another try.

In 2006, Glunz enrolled at Hancock College — her sixth attempt at completing her college degree — before transferring to CSUN in 2013. It was during her time a community college in Santa Barbara in the 1980s that an attentive professor realized that Glunz had a learning disability and made accommodations. When her world imploded during the recession, Gluntz was determined not to give up.

Despite being homeless — sometimes living on friends’ couches, housesitting or helping those in need of in-home healthcare assistance, or occasionally living out of her car — Glunz dedicated herself to her education. She said she owes her bachelor’s degree in part to the staff at Hancock College and CSUN’s Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP)and Disability Resources and Educational Services, who helped her when she needed it most with words of encouragement, guidance or accommodations for her disabilities.

Singling out CSUN TRIO Director Frank Muñiz and late EOP Director Jose Luis Vargas, Glunz teared up. “I am so lucky,” she said. “I am a lucky girl to have found such amazing people.”

In 201 4, realizing that there were other students like her — homeless or unsure where their next meal would come from — Glunz started what is now the Matador Food Bank, with the help of Justin Weiss, former director of CSUN’s student volunteer service program Unified We Serve. The food bank fed more than 300 students this past year. Glunz has met with CSUN and California State University system leaders about food insecurity and homelessness among CSU students.

At 8 a.m. on Sunday, May 22, Glunz will take part in the commencement ceremony for the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. As for what comes next, Glunz said she is going to take a minute to breathe and take care of some long overdue health issues.

“I have a lot of opportunities, an abundance of opportunities, and I need a minute to think,” she said. “It’s been a decade-long journey, but we made it.”

Nazanin Keynejad, M.A. in English

Nazanin Keynejad

Nearly 23 years have passed since the first time Nazanin Keynejad stepped onto the CSUN campus. At that time, she was here to get a degree, and nothing else. Her employer at the time had promised her a promotion if she had a college degree. She applied to CSUN to finish a bachelor’s degree in English, which she had started a few years earlier at UCLA.

“I was here during the [1994 Northridge] earthquake,” said Keynejad, of Oak Park. “I went to classes in the trailers. It was a very wet winter that year. They had these wooden planks between the trailers and the mud. People would walk outside on the planks, the trailers would shake and literally, spiders would fall on you. It was a very interesting experience.”

Keynejad, who immigrated from Iran as a teenager with her mother, said she finished her degree and she was able to take advantage of the job promotion. She eventually got married, had a son and started her own event marketing company. Then the recession hit in 2008, and work became scarce.

One day, while cleaning, she found a journal dating back to 1989 in which she had written her dreams of getting a master’s and doctorate in English.

“I talked to my husband,” Keynejad said. “He said, ‘You’ve been thinking about this for 20 years. You don’t have a steady job right now. Maybe it’s time to do it.’ It was the spring of 2012. I just opened up the [CSUN] catalog. Unbeknownst to me, I signed up for one of the toughest undergrad classes with one of the toughest professors in the department. I took the class and loved every minute.”

Keynejad hadn’t given much thought to her grades when she first attended CSUN, and she had to make up for that. She spent a year taking classes through the Tseng College’s Open University program to spruce up her academic credentials before formally applying to the Department of English’s graduate program.

She said CSUN’s English faculty have fueled her passion for English literature and encouraged her interest in studying the rise and progression of the strong female literary characters in the 18th century. Her efforts earned her the CSU’s prestigious 2015-16 Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral scholarship. The scholarship is designed to give historically underrepresented students more access to doctoral-level study. It places a special emphasis on increasing the number of CSU students who enter a doctoral program at a University of California institution.

In addition to her studies, Keynejad is the graduate student representative on CSUN’s Community Engagement Advisory Board and a graduate assistant in CSUN’s Learning Resource Center.

“What I want to do is get my Ph.D., come back and teach here at CSUN,” she said. “I love CSUN. As a good friend of mine once said, ‘CSUN is the school of second chances.’

“I have had the opportunity during the past couple of years to be a supplemental instructor in freshman composition,” she continued. “I am so humbled by these students. I had students who would take the bus at five in the morning to make it to class. Some are the first people in their families to go to college. If I can help just one of those students get to where they want to be, that would be the only reward I would need in my life.”

Keynejad is scheduled to take part in the commencement ceremony for the College of Humanties at 6 p.m. on Monday, May 23.

Laura Ontiveros, B.S. in Public Health

Laura Ontiveros

When Laura Ontiveros walks across the stage in front of the Oviatt Library later this month as part of commencement, the loudest cheers will be coming from her parents, Jose and Hermalinda Ontiveros. They made the decision more than 26 years ago to immigrate to the United States from Mexico, in hopes of creating a better life for their children.

Laura Ontiveros, the fourth of their five children and the first in the family to be born in the U.S., watched as her parents, who spoke limited English, struggled to make ends meet. She knew education was important, but it was the unwavering support of a counselor at Arleta High School that convinced her that college was possible.

Ontiveros, 25, of Pacoima, was the first in her family to go to college. Her sister, Yesenia, who will be finishing her degree in psychology this summer, is the second to get a college education.

An honors student in high school, Laura Ontiveros chose biology as her major freshman year at CSUN because she thought a career in healthcare would be interesting. She admitted to struggling that first year to find her foothold at the university, and being disappointed when she discovered biology just wasn’t her forte.

During her sophomore year, Ontiveros joined a sorority, Sigma Alpha Zeta, to become more involved on campus and find a way to give back to the community. The sorority is involved in several community projects, from working with survivors of domestic violence to feeding and clothing the homeless and helping organize the campus’ annual Relay For Life, which raises money for cancer research.

Aware that Ontiveros was looking for a new major, one of her sorority sisters suggested she explore public health.

“I ended up taking a class with professor Carla Valdez, and that first day of class, I knew it,” Ontiveros said. “She showed us the big picture of what it means to be a public health educator and I was like, ‘This is it!’ I remember, that same day I went back to my sorority sister and told her, ‘I found what I want to do for the rest of my life.’”

Ontiveros said she treasured her time at CSUN and the lessons, beyond the classroom, that it taught her.
“Sometimes, as a Latina woman, you don’t know how far you can go. You don’t know your worth,” she said. “Coming to college gave me a sense of who I am and how powerful I can be, and what I can do in the world. It gave me confidence in myself — that I am smart. I have reached goals that I never thought I could reach back in middle school. I never knew I’d graduate from college.”

Ontiveros will take part in the commencement ceremony for the College of Health and Human Development scheduled for 8 a.m. on Monday, May 23. She said she hopes to find a job as a public health educator after graduation, but eventually wants to return to CSUN to get a graduate degree in public health.

David Stamps, M.A. in Mass Communication

David Stamps

David Stamps, 35, of Simi Valley, is passionate about taking his thesis, the We Matter Project, to the next level when he graduates from CSUN later this month.

“It’s about how we use social media to change the narrative,” Stamps said. “I grew up in Ferguson, [Mo.]. That’s my community. But everyone is telling a story, and each one paints a different picture. I am Mike Brown. I am a black male from Ferguson, Missouri. Everything else that is created is painted and told by someone else outside of my control.

“People don’t understand that you don’t have to fit into a box just because someone has created a box for you,” he continued. “We have to be equipped to understand that no one can tell our story but ourselves.”
Stamps’ parents were hard-working people who never had been to college, but were determined that their son have opportunities they never had. He was voluntarily bused to a predominantly white school district so he could have the best public-school education possible. In his junior year of high school, a college counselor pulled him aside and told him she was going to do everything she could to help him get into college.

“I had never thought of going to college before,” he said. “It never seemed like an option.”

In 1999, he enrolled at St. Louis University to study communications and theater. Two years later, he transferred to Columbia College Chicago, where, in 2003, he earned his bachelor’s degree, with honors, in media studies with an emphasis in nonprofit administration.

After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles not exactly sure what he was going to do, but eager to spread his wings.

His love of dance led to teaching jobs and unexpected offers to dance and act professionally. He often would tap into his academic experience to help the small theater and dance companies with which he worked to write their grant applications.

One day, a student in one of his dance classes who worked at NBCUniversal mentioned he was looking for an assistant. Stamps gave him his resume and was hired. He worked for NBCUniversal’s marketing department for about six years, handling talent and arranging media events for more than than 80 films, from “Despicable Me” to the “Fast and Furious” and “Bourne” franchises. He also managed the internship program, which included working with CSUN students.

When Stamps married in 2010, he and his wife talked about starting a family. They knew the long hours his job demanded weren’t conducive to family life.

“I loved my job,” he said. “I knew that I was really good at it, but I realized that I loved working with college students more. I thought I could be a good teacher. In order to do that, I would have to go back to school and earn not only my master’s degree, but also my doctorate if I wanted to become a tenure-track professor.”

Shortly after the birth of his first child in 2012, Stamps quit his job and enrolled at CSUN. He became a stay-at-home dad who juggled three part-time jobs — as a dance instructor, a graduate assistant in CSUN’s Department of Management and a fitness instructor at the Student Recreation Center — and a full course load. He said his wife, Monique, an elementary school teacher, has been his biggest supporter. She offered him words of support when times got tough and has been steadfast in her faith that he will succeed.

Now a father of two, Stamps will take part of the commencement ceremony for the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 20. He will be pursuing his doctorate in communication studies at UC Santa Barbara in the fall.

California State University, Northridge’s VEX Robotics club scored fifth place at the VEX Robotics World Championship recently in Louisville, Ky.

From more than 200 VEX Robotics teams worldwide, only 60 teams qualify each year to participate in the world championships, which took place April 20-23 this year. With competitors separated into two divisions of 30 teams each, CSUN’s fifth-place score put the team in the top 10 of VEX Robotics teams across the globe.

“Fifth place in this year’s competition is their best showing yet,” said Robert Conner, professor of manufacturing systems engineering and management. “Their performance improves with each competition, and next year, if they don’t win, they will be close. Their confidence level is soaring.”

After winning all rounds of the qualifying tournament at the University of Southern California, CSUN’s VEX Robotics team worked around the clock to optimize the design of their robots.

“We rose to the occasion and pushed ourselves further than we ever had before,” said team member Steven Paqueo, a junior in mechanical engineering. “Going into next year, we know what’s expected of us and what it takes to win.”

In addition to a vision-tracking feature, the team designed and built its own sensors and 3-D printed parts to use on their robots.

“They have developed confidence in themselves that will help see them through any challenges they face,” Conner said. “That they did this so successfully speaks volumes to both their engineering skills and their maturity.”

Keith Goldstein, a professor in California State University, Northridge’s Department of Journalism and a guiding force for the news broadcast on the university’s radio station, KCSN-FM 88.5, passed away following complications from influenza May 18 in Woodland Hills. He was 61.

A native of Philadelphia, Goldstein graduated from Temple University and earned his master’s degree at Penn State University, before launching a radio news career that spanned more than three decades. In 1987, while mulling over offers from a university on the East Coast and CSUN, Goldstein chose the San Fernando Valley. At CSUN, he built a legacy through teaching a large number of journalism students who would go on to successful careers in radio and television.

“Keith often referred to himself as an ‘old-school journalist,’ and he devoted his life to teaching our students the all-important foundational skills needed in the workplace,” said Linda Bowen, chair of the journalism department. “Many of his former students can be heard on local and regional broadcast outlets and include those who also teach or have taught in our program.”

CSUN journalism students taught by Goldstein have garnered more than 450 awards that have ranged from local to national distinction. Included in those honors are 50 Golden Mike Awards and 34 Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association. In April, Goldstein’s students took the top three spots in the Radio Sports Reporting category at the Society of Professional Journalists’ Region 11 Mark of Excellence Awards. The overall winner, Carlos Gonzalez’s report on Narbonne High School football, will be considered for a national award. At the same competition, the KCSN Evening Update was a finalist for the Best All-Around Radio Newscast. During Goldstein’s tenure, his students have received 12 Mark of Excellence Awards.

“Those awards didn’t happen by themselves,” said Rick Marks, a CSUN journalism faculty member. “They happened because of one person, and that’s Keith. It’s a reflection not of him, but his students. But he should be remembered as it being a reflection of him and his teaching.”

Those students who launched broadcast and TV careers after taking Goldstein’s classes have felt the dramatic loss.

“He taught me more about the profession than anyone in school, in terms of how to write, report and produce for broadcast journalism,” said Mike Saeger ’90 (Journalism), the broadcaster for the San Antonio Missions, the San Diego Padres’ Double-A team and an early student of Goldstein’s. “I was clueless going in. I still use stuff today that I learned from him when it comes to writing and producing radio copy and reporting. Most of the same principles apply in play-by-play. I know for certain that he had a profound impact on countless students. Many of those who were part of my class have had successful careers in the field, and Keith was instrumental in that. His legacy will carry on in the body of work of those he shaped.”

In 2015, Goldstein was honored by the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ-LA) with its Distinguished Journalist Award. This was as much for his career as a radio news journalist as for his work shaping the careers of future radio and TV journalists.

“He was low key,” Marks said. “I never saw him raise his voice. I never saw him get angry. I never saw him get emotional. He was just a real steady individual. He was also a giving person. As a teacher, he was all about his students, and was about his profession. Not just the journalism profession, but the teaching profession. He was the ultimate professor, because he never wavered from what the ultimate mission was.”

“Keith cared about news,” said Jim Hill, a retired journalism faculty member. “He was a professional journalist. He cared about standards. He cared about journalistic values. Most of all, he cared about his students. He truly wanted to give them the best that he could. He was utterly dedicated to that. … We’re going to miss him in many ways at different levels.”

In preparing students for radio news, he also gave them skills that would translate into TV work, said Lincoln Harrison, a CSUN staff member who works in the TV lab and had worked alongside Goldstein since 2003. Teaching broadcast, one becomes a guru for the younger generation, Harrison said, and Goldstein filled that role for 29 years at CSUN. He praised the professor’s “gentleness and his persistence, sensitivity and humanity.”

Goldstein is survived by his daughter, Katy. The university is planning a memorial service to honor the professor, and details are pending. Since his passing, many tributes have filled social media from Goldstein’s colleagues and former students.

CSUN journalism faculty member Sally Turner described Goldstein as a selfless person who made a dramatic impact on the lives of so many he taught.

“He was a shy person. He was very reserved, very formal,” Turner said. “The reason he meant so much to students was he was able to help them with their own nerves, their own fears and help them find their voices. When students are learning, they need someone who understands why it’s difficult. That’s something that was so great about him.

“When you think of the hundreds of students who’ve graduated from our program and are working in radio and television all over the country — and how much he meant to all of them, and how his work lives on through them — I just don’t know how the department will fill that hole,” she said. “He meant a great deal to a lot of people.”

Farin Bakhtiari ’14 (Psychology) graduated with a master’s degree in general experimental psychology with honors this year and received the 2016 CSUN Graduate Scholarship. Photo courtesy of Farin Bakhtiari.

In 2010, Farin Bakhtiari ’14 (Psychology) and her family emigrated from Iran to the United States. She knew enough English to get along in her new country, but adjusting to a new culture while becoming the first person in her family to attend college placed multiple obstacles in her life — but they never kept her from pursuing her academic and personal goals.

Bakhtiari was one of more than 11,000 graduates from California State University, Northridge this year, receiving a master’s degree in general experimental psychology with honors. During her undergraduate studies at CSUN, she volunteered for on-campus and off-campus community services. As a graduate student, Bakhtiari served as teaching assistant and participated in department research projects. To honor her persistence and diligence, the university awarded Bakhtiari the CSUN Graduate Scholarship for 2016.

“Someone [is] out there that has invested in me and my education,” Bakhtiari said. “When we worry about money, it’s harder to focus on our education. Even if we are good students, we may have to work two or three jobs to just keep going.”

Bakhtiari said she appreciates the financial support and wants to give back to CSUN.

“Many students come from low-income families,” she said. “I can give back by supporting a scholarship later. Right now, I don’t have the financial resources, but I can mentor other students or volunteer — because now I don’t have to worry about the money aspect of my education.”

While attending Pierce Community College from 2010-12, Bakhtiari took several courses in sociology and psychology. After consulting with her advisor, Bakhtiari decided to become a psychology major when she transferred to CSUN.

“At CSUN, I have been involved in many activities to immerse myself in the psychology field,” she said. “[I explored] the various options available to psychology majors, [which helped] me decide on my future educational and career goals.”

In her first year at CSUN, Bakhtiari became a peer educator for CSUN’s Blues Project, an initiative for depression and suicide prevention. She completed 120 hours of training, gave presentations and educated college and university students about depression.

“This experience opened my eyes to the importance of providing fact-based information about mental health, and how much difference these workshops can provide to individuals in need,” she said.

Beyond her campus involvement, Bakhtiari contributed to local community services. She volunteered for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), gaining firsthand experience with families affected by mental illness.

“[It] made me more sensitive, understanding and realistic about mental illnesses,” she said.

While volunteering at NAMI, Bakhtiari helped Iranian families who had recently immigrated to the United States to identify resources, using her bilingual skills in English and Farsi

“Helping recent immigrants assimilate to the United States’ culture while still celebrating their native culture has sparked my interest in understanding how family dynamics influence positive mental health in immigrant families, as they experience the acculturation process,” she said. “I am very interested in how immigrant families cope with acculturative stress.”

As an undergraduate student at CSUN, Bakhtiari became a teaching assistant for a junior-level research methods class. As a graduate student, she taught the statistics lab PSY320L, which sparked her passion for teaching.

She also worked part-time as a student assistant in CSUN’s Department of Psychology and in the department’s psychology research office, working closely with students.

For the past three years, Bakhtiari has worked on the department’s Adolescent and Adult Adjustment research project. She examined how neighborhood, family, peer and school climates related to adolescents’ and young adults’ academics and mental health. Bakhtiari was quickly promoted to assistant lab supervisor and then to lab supervisor.

“Joining this lab was the most influential experience in my educational path, because it allowed me to discover my passion for conducting research,” she said.

This fall, Bakhtiari will move on to the University of Texas at Austin to pursue a Ph.D. in human development and family sciences, aiming for a research-based teaching career.

“Having firsthand experience with marginalization as well as immigration, I am ready to commit my academic life to those who need it most,” Bakhtiari said. “It is my deepest desire to secure a position in a diverse university where I can teach and mentor students, and continue my research on marginalized and underrepresented individuals and families.”