Close your eyes for a moment and think about a scientist working on a life-saving vaccine or medical device. The image that pops into your head is more likely to be a white, middle-aged man working alone in a lab rather than someone who is Latinx or Black. The middle-aged man is many people’s stereotypic image of a “scientist,” which is a barrier for many talented Latinx and first-generation students striving for a biomedical research career. To break down this barrier, Cal State San Marcos professors Anna Woodcock and Kamel Haddad were awarded a three-year, $830,000 grant from the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences for a research project called Families for STEM Success. The project is a fusion of Haddad’s vision to educate families to help their sons and daughters in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors and Woodcock’s program of social psychological research on balancing stereotypically incompatible identities. While volunteering at a campus student research competition, Haddad was inspired by the presentation of one of Woodcock’s students who was presenting research on identity balance regarding gender in STEM and realized that this was immediately applicable to his vision. Before coming to CSUSM, Haddad was on the mathematics faculty at Cal State Bakersfield, and he observed that many students, especially Latinx and first-generation students, were struggling with not having enough time for homework and studying because of obligations at home. “Anecdotally we would get lots of stories, especially from the Hispanic community, where the parents would ask their kids to spend a lot of time with the family business, with their siblings,” Haddad said. Haddad enlisted the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) to help create a series of workshops for the families of incoming science majors. PIQE had pioneered workshops and outreach to the families of high school students across California for more than 30 years and accepted the challenge to expand its reach to the families of college students. The workshops educated parents on how to foster their children’s success at college and their interest in STEM fields. A significantly higher percentage of students whose parents graduated from the workshops were still STEM majors during their second academic quarter than those whose parents did not and performed better academically. CSUSM’s Families for STEM Success grant will provide a rigorous test of a new Spanish-language workshop series for families of incoming first-year STEM majors. CSUSM will offer customized workshops designed for families to understand the value of a science degree, the compatibility between scientific research and Latinx heritage, and the support systems students need to be successful in the first year of college, and graduate with a biomedical sciences degree. “Children succeed when families, schools and communities work together,” said Patty Chavez, PIQE’s director of policy. “However, many schools struggle to engage parents. The challenge is complex, with reasons ranging from cultural and language barriers to parents’ limited time or rigid work schedules to lack of know-how, fear and distrust.” A rigorous longitudinal research study will track student outcomes across students’ freshman and sophomore years. There will be two control groups tracked alongside the students whose families graduate from the workshops so they can see the direct impact of the intervention in order to see how much it improved academic outcomes such as persistence, retention, grade-point average and staying in STEM. Woodcock and fellow CSUSM professor Wesley Schultz along with Texas A&M University educational psychology associate professor Paul Hernandez have been working for several years on balanced identity theory. They predict that these workshops will help families support their student developing a strong science identity. “We do not want an increase in STEM or science identity to come at the price of backing away from a racial/ethnic identity,” Woodcock said. “Our whole intervention is about changing part of the social context, which in this case is the family, that supports the idea of building an identity as a Latinx scientist. That those two things are completely compatible, and what we’re doing is rather than intervening with the students, we’re intervening with the families, teaching them about science and how being a scientist can be a rewarding career that helps people and is not at all incompatible with a Latinx heritage.” Hernandez is contributing to the statistical analyses on the project. Specifically, he is helping to determine the degree to which students are positively impacted by the project. He is particularly interested in learning how students develop resilient and balanced personal-professional identities and how these identities support engagement, learning and achievement. “Students in the CSUSM community have the potential to be the next generation of professionals that lead discovery, innovation and scientific advancements,” Hernandez said. “We are thrilled to be able to support them and produce research that may impact many others at institutions across the U.S.” Added Schultz: “Programs like PIQE’s are grounded in behavioral science, so our partnership provides an opportunity to put the findings from our academic research on things like motivation and identity into practice to improve the success of students interested in careers in STEM.” Rigorous scientific research and evaluation is vital to scaling up this intervention across the CSU system and beyond. Woodcock said there is no reason other Hispanic-serving institutions with large commuter populations across the U.S. could not benefit from this. “Once we can provide empirical evidence about the impact of the intervention and why it works, it could help tens of thousands of Latinx students in STEM majors succeed.” Said Haddad: “The idea is not that we want one cookie-cutter picture of what a scientist looks like and all conform to that picture. That’s not what this country is about. This country is about us succeeding while looking different. That is what is beautiful about this research. We want to see diversity in the ranks of the population that succeeds in science. That is the message we’re trying to promote across the country – that it is possible to succeed while retaining your identity, whatever that identity is.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

On a recent cool, fall Saturday morning with the leaves changing colors on the trees outside of his residence, Cal State San Marcos marketing professor Glen Brodowsky discussed his latest endeavor – a recently completed book he edited with professor emerita Camille Schuster. Only Brodowsky wasn’t speaking from San Marcos. He was admiring the sights and sounds of Chicago, where he resides on a part-time basis. It’s fitting that Brodowsky splits his time between CSUSM – a bastion of multicultural faces, teachings and values – and Chicago, which, in his words, has the feel of a large European city. His new book, “Handbook on Cross-Cultural Marketing,” takes a deep dive at cross-cultural marketing research in a constantly changing global environment. “My classrooms in San Marcos are looking a lot more like my classrooms in Taiwan and Denmark,” said Brodowsky, who received the first volume of the book in the mail on the morning he discussed its process, merits and future plans. “We’re seeing a lot of international students and students from different ethnic groups and genders all mixed in together. I find with my students in any classroom in the world: you just plop me down there and they seem very similar in their diversity.” The book is designed to be used by marketing researchers, graduate students and corporations. It addresses challenges of cross-cultural research and identifies successful approaches and applied examples of what works in the evolving field. While it’s a historical overview of all the models that have been used, it also outlines directions for future research. The book is a compilation of chapters written by 30 contributors who span the gamut of cross-cultural marketing. The chapters were compiled, edited and organized by Brodowsky and Schuster. It’s published by U.K.’s Edward Elgar Publishing, which solicited Brodowsky as it wanted an experienced voice on a timely topic. Brodowsky has been a global market researcher ever since he was in graduate school. His dissertation was on international marketing research. While he has been teaching at CSUSM for more than two decades, he has also been teaching around the world for the past 13 years in places such as Taiwan, Ecuador and Denmark. “It seemed like the right time,” Brodowsky said of writing his first book. “I’m in my 25^th year of teaching. It’s time to start summing things up and putting it together. I don’t think editing a volume is something one does in your early years but rather in your later years to say, ‘I have a different perspective, a broader perspective, a different view of things than in my early years.’ It’s a great opportunity.” Brodowsky and Schuster have worked on a number of projects together, usually with Dr. Beverlee Anderson, also a professor emerita from the CSUSM marketing department. Schuster points to their respective high standards and openness to each other’s ideas as their secret formula for a successful collaboration while Brodowsky is quick to admit they were able to get some of the biggest leading researchers in the world to contribute because Schuster knew them personally. Schuster feels their focus on this project is important because there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in marketing across various cultures in an increasingly global world. “How people operationalize their value differs from one cultural group to another,” said Schuster, who was actually recruited to CSUSM by Brodowsky. “Identifying the differences, understanding them and working through how to accomplish goals together is essential to be able to live together. Globalization may increase or decrease in approval, prominence or operationalization. However, it has never and will never go away. Learning to make it work is essential for survival. This handbook is a major contributor to the conversation as we move toward the future.” The book originally contained a portion on underserved markets like the African-American, Latino and LGBTQ markets. But it became such a big topic, Brodowsky decided to make it a major focus of his follow-up volume to “Handbook,” which is already in the works. He just signed a contract to edit a second book that will focus on intra-cultural marketing. It will look at the aforementioned markets as well as social classes, religious groups, etc., and marketing to them. Instead of having leaders in the field who have been doing research for 35 years like in the current book, he’s looking at including younger authors who are doing emerging areas of research. The follow-up volume will include a familiar face as Brodowsky has brought on Rebeca Perren, an associate professor of marketing at CSUSM and the interim department chair, as a third editor. The trio has recruited about a dozen young authors to contribute, and the book is scheduled to be released in October or November of 2022. “I love that we are looking to recruit young scholars to be the main contributors to this handbook,” Perren said. “I think it is particularly essential for this subject matter because we want to spotlight ideas at the vanguard of current issues. It is timely and relevant to examine the various cultural groups of consumers in society that have often been overlooked in marketing literature. We aim to create a resource for scholars seeking to investigate emerging questions at the crossroads of consumption and race, gender and sexual identity, religion, social class, etc. This literature can help marketers understand, respect, and serve these growing, attractive subcultural market segments.” Growing up in Brooklyn, Brodowsky had a grandmother who talked about having lived in China in the 1920s with her mother. He found her stories fascinating, and it sparked in him an interest in traveling and connecting with people of all cultures. When he went to college in the 1980s, “everyone was studying Japanese.” He sat in on a Japanese class and a Chinese class, preferring the latter. Some 40 years later, it has been a lifetime adventure. “You don’t have to go across the border to enter into a global marketplace,” said Brodowsky, who helped design the curriculum and policies for the College of Business Administration when he arrived on campus 25 years ago. “Everything we buy, everything we eat, everything we see is either sourced globally or financed globally. If you want to meet people from different cultures, you don’t have to go out of the country. You just have to go to downtown L.A. or downtown New York or downtown Chicago and you’ll find that countries are not the unit of measurement anymore because people have traveled so much. You have cultures living side-by-side. “Understanding what motivates customers in those cultures gives you a chance to enjoy what they have to offer and learn from them, but also you understand what they value and how they think and what they want to buy so you can ethically sell to them and trade with them. I think the more you trade with and do business with people who differ from you, the more opportunities you have to learn from them and learn that they’re people just like you.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Kristine Diekman is a professor of art, media and design at Cal State San Marcos, where she teaches media theory and production, and sound studies. She’s also a media artist working in documentary and experimental film, new media and community-based media.   Since 2014, Diekman has been working on a digital media project, “Run Dry,” which tells the story of the water crisis in California’s San Joaquin Valley.  This interview about the project, conducted by Kathryn Stein, originally appeared in The Confluence, a blog of the California Institute for Water Resources. It’s reprinted here with their permission.     Question: Could you provide an overview of the “Run Dry” project?  Kristine Diekman: “Run Dry” is a story of small, rural California communities and their struggle to remain connected to the most precious resource — water. This digital media project combines short documentary films, personal stories, photographs and data visualizations about water scarcity and contamination in the San Joaquin Valley. It asks: What does clean water bring us, and why should we tell the story of its loss? Without water, we cannot drink, bathe, cook or clean. It is indispensable for empowerment, health, dignity and economic security. Water is a human right, yet 10% of the world's population, mostly in rural areas, lives without safe water. The personal stories in “Run Dry” investigate the significance of water and reveal the systems of power that govern its distribution. The project addresses how water is accessed, what systems govern water resources, how they have developed over decades, and how they impact human well-being today. Audiences learn specifically about how race, class, migration, water policy, climate, hydrology and agricultural history combined to create the water crisis in the San Joaquin Valley.   Q: What was your inspiration for the project, and how did it come to be?  KD: I was inspired to connect people to a human understanding of the value of water and how scarce a resource it is. “Run Dry” was originally funded by the California Humanities Community Stories grant, which supports projects that tell unheard stories of marginalized communities. In 2014, when the drought hit hard, I was compelled to collect the personal stories of people living without water, or with contaminated water, in the San Joaquin Valley. Media outlets had been focusing on these stories of hardship, and only a few sustained their reporting or connected water scarcity to larger issues. I wanted to make something comprehensive that also had community impact and empowered people living there. I collaborated with the Community Water Center and Self-Help Enterprises in Visalia to identify individuals who wanted to share their stories. I also focused on success stories of communities connecting to neighboring water systems. I highlighted efforts to install water tanks to temporarily bring water into homes and the work of local water board members to improve community conditions. An animation I produced explaining groundwater contamination and scarcity is still being used by the Community Water Center. Q: This project spanned 2014-17. Since then, do you think the water shortage and contamination issues in the San Joaquin Valley have changed?  KD: Since 2017, California has had some years with above-average rain and snowpack, but it is never completely free of drought. Climate change affects the snowpack, which previously provided reliable surface water that could be utilized over time. During 2011-15, little to no surface water was allocated to San Joaquin Valley farms from the State Water Project or the Central Valley Project. Without surface water for irrigation, farmers pumped water from underground aquifers at greater and greater depths, some as deep at 2,000 feet, which depleted shared groundwater. Private family wells that reach on average 100 to 200 feet began to run dry as the aquifer lowered below that of private domestic wells. Well drilling is very expensive, and most rural residents could not afford to drill deeper wells. The State Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was enacted to alleviate this through regional water regulation. But equitable solutions are still in the future as plans for water sustainability won't be fully implemented until 2040. Q: The project highlights how important it is to inform people about the personal impacts of water access. What do you hope people will take away from the stories in “Run Dry”?  KD: When I show these videos to people, they are shocked. Viewers generally don't know a lot about the human impacts of water scarcity, even in their backyards. I found it sadly ironic that some scientists who viewed it – people who have the most in-depth information about water science, hydrology, climatology and climate research – did not necessarily connect the importance of their work to the human condition. This is not their fault. The compartmentalization of knowledge and research, especially the divide between the arts, humanities and the sciences, leads to this disconnect. My hope is that the films help people feel personally connected to the issues through storytelling. The public was also not aware of the threat of water scarcity due to drought. One of the messages is about water conservation, which everyone can do. Find out where your water comes from. Once you understand the complexities of water conveyance in California, you will be more likely to conserve what does reach your faucet. In the video “This Happens to Real People,” Mary Schaffer says: “Go to one of these areas that don't have no water and see how the people are having to live and what they are having to do to get by. You'll be more conscious with your water. Conserve that water, because we could run out. We are very close to being out again, and this time it will be everybody.” We need to work together as residents, policy makers and scientists to make sure our water use is sustainable, not just now but into the future. Q: Watching these stories can lead to feeling a bit hopeless. How did gathering them impact you?  KD: I have made several documentary and educational films that focus on telling the personal stories of struggle. These include films about gang prevention, pregnancy prevention, the legal system, and others. Each time I engage with an interview subject, I am deeply affected. My role as filmmaker is to facilitate the stories and be a witness. I provide time and space for someone to tell me about their life or community. As a filmmaker, I often do not go into these projects with a deep knowledge of the subject. I let the experts and community members educate me. With this project, I started to educate myself about water conveyance, water science and water policy. It is truly a complex and unending story. I do think there is hope in mitigating water contamination. There are grassroots organizations, like the Community Water Center, that work tirelessly to facilitate community members speaking at hearings for policy change. They connect municipal systems, help to install water treatment facilities and gather data to support their mission. Water sampling and monitoring is crucial, and the state is working toward compliance. As for drought and climate change, I believe that California will always have a tenuous relationship to water – either too much or too little. Do we spend on storage or environmental health? Agriculture or wildlife? Small rural communities or urban centers? I do hope that the State Groundwater Management Act will reflect true community need. Q: What are you working on now, and what are your plans for future projects?  KD: I haven't truly finished “Run Dry” yet. There are two outstanding features. First is real-time GIS maps, which I will add to the “Run Dry” website. I want people to understand the relationship between climate change, water, socio-economics, agriculture, migration and other factors. I hope that when people see this data visualized, they will understand how interlocked these factors are. Second, I promised to bring the project back to the San Joaquin Valley, where it originated. The public library system in Tulare County has agreed to house the project, show the films and create a place for residents to provide feedback. Because of COVID-19, this project is temporarily suspended. Educating young people about climate change is important, too. I am working across academic disciplines to create college curricula that help students connect science to the human condition. A team of faculty from across CSU campuses in the sciences, social sciences and humanities developed a proposal for an integrated, interdisciplinary and experiential hydrosocial curriculum for students. Hydrosocial studies focus on how people, societies, institutions, technology, science and geo-political interests interact synergistically to allocate, protect and understand water's importance as a community resource. The curriculum is designed to address both social and environmental relationships we have with water in California from humanistic and scientific viewpoints, something I think is desperately needed. Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Dr. Reza Kamali, associate professor of electrical engineering, and Dr. Ricardo D. Fierro, associate dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, received a $107,432 supplemental award for the Hispanic-Serving Institutions STEM grant “ ‘¡Si Se Puede!’ to Close the Equity Gap in Engineering Degree Completion.” CSUSM launched its software engineering program in fall 2018 and electrical engineering (EE) in fall 2019 thanks to a $6 million, HSI STEM grant from the U.S. Department of Education, a $1.5 million gift from Carlsbad-based communications company Viasat and its employees, a $100,000 gift from San Marcos-based Hunter Industries and a $100,000 gift from Nordson. The supplemental award will help with the ongoing transition to virtual learning in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal for the supplemental award notes the importance of adapting EE laboratories “to the COVID-19 environment and engage students with experiential laboratory practices at their home without interruption so that they can make progress toward their degree and build their early identity as an engineer (in the lower-division EE courses), which in turn feeds their motivation to persist in the major.” Ways in which the funds will be used include:Training Systems for AC and DC Electric Power Machines and Systems. This system is required to teach EE 310 Electrical Power Systems. Power is one of the most challenging laboratories to be offered online, and this laboratory system comes with a simulation tool to model the exact electric machine in use. Control System Laboratory, for EE 420 and EE 280. These laboratory tools can be used remotely, and students will work with a real control system. CSUSM needs four additional software packages to offer laboratory and course works using simulation in several courses: for EE 210, EE 330, EE 430, EE 110, EE 280, and EE 435. The project’s overarching goal, according to the proposal, is to make an effective and immediate transition of the EE program into an online/hybrid program, offering laboratory practices using online, remote and take-home kits. The new laboratory activities are aiming to improve retention and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the students’ skill, innovation and interest. Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

As Cal State San Marcos faculty and staff continue to go above and beyond on behalf of students and the campus community during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re pleased to highlight some of the campus heroes as nominated by students and colleagues. Know someone who deserves special recognition for their efforts? Email details to publicity@csusm.edu and we’ll include them in an upcoming edition of this ongoing series.   Tasos Lazarides, director, Academic Innovation & Strategic Solutions, IITS Learning & Tutoring Services (LTS) Team Lazarides and the LTS team were nominated together for their collective effort in moving all tutoring, supplemental instruction and academic support webinars to a virtual format. LTS is a seven-person team (pictured above) that leads the Academic Success Center, STEM Success Center, Supplemental Instruction, and Writing Center in the Office of Undergraduate Studies. The team includes Jennifer Brich, director of the STEM Success Center; Alexa Diaz, Academic Success Center coordinator; Julia Garcia-Medina, STEM Success Center coordinator; Maricruz Macz, director of Supplemental Instruction; Trevor Ryback, Math Lab coordinator; Evan Smith, director of the Writing Center; and Amanda Tomanek, academic English language specialist for the Writing Center. “This student-focused group supported more than 27,000 student visits to the learning centers this past year,” the nominator wrote. “More impressively, in response to COVID and the need to move to remote delivery, they worked alongside Dr. Tasos Lazarides in IITS to move all tutoring and supplemental instruction online within four days last spring. They had to come together in significant ways to test and modify digital platforms, develop training for tutors and SI leads, and more. “Based on what they learned between March and May, this summer the LTS team tested several digital delivery platforms and then moved forward in building a model to provide fully remote tutoring and Supplemental Instruction via Microsoft Teams. This work also included the development and delivery of a multi-day online training for all of the student staff this summer with detailed plans for ongoing training throughout the academic year. Furthermore, the team had to determine how best to track student engagement in the remote learning centers. When the fall semester began, LTS launched their deeply revised approach to providing academic support.” The nominator noted that their efforts caught the attention of Microsoft, which consults with Lazarides to address suggestions that emerge from their work with Teams.   Farideh Farheidar, instructional support technician, CSTEM chemistry and biochemistry Farheidar received multiple nominations for her work preparing personal protective equipment (PPE) for different campus departments, particularly chemistry, biochemistry and biology. “She’s an important part of why CSUSM is able to offer hybrid in-person lab classes this fall semester,” one nominator wrote. “Farideh is a registered nurse and very familiar with medical protocols with respect to PPE. Her experience, advice and insight are invaluable. She has an overriding heartfelt concern for staff, faculty and student safety.” “When COVID hit, she kicked it into gear and put in place sterilization procedures that have kept our students, faculty and staff safe in both Science Hall 1 and Science Hall 2,” another nominator wrote. “Her major contribution to the campus at large, however, is that she secured thousands of masks for the campus through our membership in BIOCOM. This request resulted in masks being available for on-campus classes, for researchers, for campus staff, and for anyone else on campus who needs a mask.”   Andre Kundgen, mathematics professor Kundgen was highlighted for his efforts to ensure his students’ success during the transition to virtual learning. “Not only did he make himself available to all of us above and beyond the required scope, he also provided many resources and links for us to help facilitate our success in our education and overall well-being,” the student nominator wrote. “He provided us with information regarding refunds, computer and electronic access, financial resources, educational tools, as well as emotional support. He was patient and encouraging when we were all struggling through our distance learning experience and was understanding when we felt confused and frustrated.”   Veronica Ohm, assistant to the associate vice president, Facilities Development and Management In the early weeks of the pandemic, Ohm provided cloth, reusable and fashionable face coverings to employees in Facilities Development and Management, Safety, Health & Sustainability, Distribution Services, University Police, Parking and Commuter Services, and anyone who stopped by Distribution Services. “She even took requests from our employees for their families in the early days,” the nominator wrote. “This assistance came at a time when you couldn’t find or order reusable face coverings from other venues. She made various sizes to accommodate everyone in her FDM family that was interested. In fact, when I asked her why she was doing this, she said that she wanted to do whatever she could to protect her FDM and campus family. She explicitly exudes our campus safety culture, and her degree of humanity was extraordinary during a very concerning time.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Every year, Cal State San Marcos’ College of Business Administration executes a highly successful program for its students called Business Professional Development. It’s taught by Executives in Residence, a group of experienced business professionals, most of whom have started and run companies. BPD aims to identify students' professional strengths, clarify their career goals, build their confidence for job interviews and provide strategies to secure internships and jobs before graduation. But those goals took a turn last spring when the world halted following the onset of COVID-19. Instead of lamenting the inevitable changes in BPD, CoBA Dean Jim Hamerly and his team looked at the needs of the local business community and reimagined a new approach known as the CSUSM Business Response, Recovery and Resource Program. With the new goal of finding ways to help local businesses impacted by the pandemic, this initiative assesses a company’s positioning and planning for the current economy and beyond. The recommendations provided by faculty members are then offered with the assistance of student teams going forward. “It’s one thing to work in a course and have a project that’s due,” said Hamerly, who in addition to his academic experience has served senior executive positions at major corporations such as Xerox, Netscape and AOL Time Warner. “It’s quite something else when you have an external business owner who’s saying, ‘I’m depending on the results of what you’re doing.’ It puts a level of accountability on the student’s shoulders that makes them, first of all, far more engaged and far more committed. But then there’s a sense of pride when they’re done so it works for the community and equally works for the students.” Since there were no students on campus toward the end of the spring semester, this program originally began without them. Hamerly and his team were concerned about what was happening as a result of COVID-19 in terms of impact on local businesses. But without students, what could the team do? Executive in Residence Scott Corriveau came up with the idea originally. The team then met and brainstormed, asking one key question: How can we help these people? The program launched in the summer. “CSUSM school of business is very blessed to have the overall number and quality of senior executives who want to give back and help the students and the local business community,” said Corriveau, a global senior executive and CEO who is known for building profitable businesses and companies across a wide range of sectors. “While the main focus has been on preparing and assisting the business school students, it was equally a logical extension to reach out the local business community to further leverage this expertise, especially during the current pandemic and its impacts on small businesses.” CoBA normally performs 100-150 projects for businesses every year. With what Hamerly estimates as roughly 2,000 connections in the community, the college has relationships with most of the chambers of commerce and all the Economic Development Councils, particularly the North County EDC. So Hamerly and team began the largely volunteer project by reaching out to the Carlsbad and Encinitas chambers. They quickly responded and agreed to co-host it. The one-hour first segment was well-attended. The team distributed a survey asking where the greatest need was in order to survive the sudden and drastic market change. Pillar managers were then assigned to each business that requested assistance. The pillar managers met with the business owner, then reported back to the team with three areas of focus: where the need exists, where the help is and the recommended course of action. Each of the pillar managers wrote a one-page summary detailing the recommendations for each interested business. The team met once or twice a week in addition to meeting with the chamber members who requested to help. The process was quick and efficient. Adjustments were made on the fly. “We learned as we went, obviously,” said Hamerly, who holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon, the University of California at Berkeley and MIT. “We didn’t have it all perfectly right the first time. I know the second time we did a chamber meeting we used a tool at the front end of the meeting that asked, ‘What are the problems you’re having?’ We gave them a whole series of categories and then we re-targeted what we said and focused on the fillers that resonated with the audience that had the areas of greatest need.” Although the team expected to see businesses in the 5-20 range in terms of number of employees, most of the businesses they helped had fewer than five employees. Just like their large counterparts during the great unknown, the small local companies were struggling. “Many local business climate surveys indicate that a great number of small businesses will not survive the current pandemic’s limitation on their business model,” Corriveau said. “These business failures will have a cascading impact on our local economies and we at CSUSM want to help as much as possible to ensure we slow this trend down.” While the team planned on just helping during the opening stages of the pandemic, the focus turned to long-range goals. The Senior Experience program within CoBA has long been one of the most popular business initiatives in the CSU system. A core part of the business major, students work as consultants on rigorous projects that require teamwork and application of classroom knowledge through 750 real-world hours. Each student team works under the supervision of a faculty member, and often local businesses hire students straight from the program. So the team decided to do something similar to continue the outreach for this program, offering the chance to work with student-led teams in the fall to continue with the recommendations. So far, several local businesses have CSUSM student-led teams working with them through the constant struggles of running a company during a pandemic. “Some of the companies liked the recommendations so much but didn’t know what to do next, so some of them have signed up for teams in the fall,” Hamerly said. “It was not our intent to find companies that needed help from students, but it turns out our recommendations when you look at them were best implemented when you assign a student team to that company to help them through the detail.” CoBA puts more than 500 students into businesses every year. Normally the student team will negotiate with a business owner the consulting agreement, the specific deliverables and the timeframe. Everyone then signs the document, and the team is off and running, sometimes with the company’s help, sometimes independently. The Business Response, Recovery, and Resource Program has been no different. As is the case across many departments on campus, CSUSM identifies problems and works tirelessly to execute solutions for the greater good. “They might be seeking new markets for the business to try to attract, or new customers,” Hamerly said. “Whatever it might happen to be. It could be social media prospects, it could be improving their website. Everything you can possibly imagine we have done with student teams. And we consider that an essential part of our contribution to the community. But equally important, it’s a very valuable learning experience for our students.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Noted author, musician and activist Simon Tam will be the featured speaker for an Arts and Lectures webinar titled “Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court.” The free Zoom webinar is at 6 p.m. on Oct. 28. RSVP online to reserve your spot. Tam is best known as the founder and bassist of The Slants, the world’s first and only all-Asian American dance rock band. Tam named his band The Slants to "reclaim" and "take ownership" of Asian stereotypes. But when he applied to register a trademark on the band’s name, he had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court. He eventually won a unanimous victory in the landmark case Matal v. Tam, helping to expand civil liberties for minorities. Tam also leads The Slants Foundation, a nonprofit that supports arts and activism projects for underrepresented communities. Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

In the fall of 2016, Cal State San Marcos student Jake Northington took a photography class for the first time as part of his pursuit of a degree in visual and performing arts.  For the final project, lecturer Nancy diBenedetto instructed students to create a photo book on a topic of their choosing. Many of his classmates, Northington remembers, opted to show off their newfound shutterbug skills around such themes as family or pets or hobbies.  “My book,” he said, “was completely different.”  As the inspiration for his photos, Northington picked a court case from that September in which the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against an Alabama woman who had sued a company that had denied her a job because she wouldn’t cut off her dreadlocks. The court determined that the move didn’t violate Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting race-based discrimination.   Northington decided to make a social statement with his project. He sought out Black women students across campus and shot pictures of them wearing their hair naturally, and proudly.    “It was about Black women and what they go through in the world as far as their hair being attached to their culture – that push to make them assimilate with their hair in a particular way,” Northington said.  Northington valued the experience and received positive feedback on the visual product. Though he had no intention of studying photography when he arrived at CSUSM, he found that he was good at it and he enjoyed it – particularly the ability to use the images to counteract deeply ingrained societal stereotypes about Black people.   This semester, the University Library is giving a platform to the art of Northington, who graduated from CSUSM in 2019. The virtual exhibit, titled “Chasing Andromeda,” displays his favorite photos from a collection that has swelled to three professionally produced photo books in addition to the ones from the class project that started the whole enterprise.   On Thursday from 6-7 p.m., the library will host a panel via Zoom featuring Northington, two of his School of Arts instructors (diBenedetto and professor Lucy Solomon), Black Student Center Director John Rawlins III, Marilyn McWilliams and Ariel Stevenson from the Office of Inclusive Excellence, and Sean Visintainer, the library’s head of special collections. Northington’s work will be shown in a slideshow while the panel discusses the photos as well as larger issues regarding art, photography and race in America and at CSUSM.  Anyone who joins the Zoom discussion can submit questions during the event that will be asked and answered at the end.  “In our programming this year, we’re really focusing on representation, and I think that this exhibit fully does that,” said Jennifer Fabbi, dean of the library. “It draws attention to members of our Black community on campus, especially students, and helps us to understand how we have been conditioned to see white as the default.   “Jake’s photography seeks to show a more holistic view of the Black members of our campus and put that in front of you, instead of some of the negative portrayals that we see on TV and in the media. The exhibit shines a spotlight on Black beauty and the Black experience on our campus, which is not something that we tend to focus on.”  All three of Northington’s photo books will be available for viewing in the library archives when the library re-opens. The first, “HUEMAN,” published in 2017, is his attempt to “re-image Black males on a college campus,” to depict them as regular students rather than how he felt he often was treated, as someone who didn’t belong. He recalls being the only Black person in his major and dealing with people moving out of the way as he strolled across campus. For the book, he asked his subjects not to smile to achieve the rawest look possible. And as with all of his photos, he relied only on natural light to increase the sense of authenticity. “The title refers to not being seen as human,” Northington said. “This is me in my rawest form, giving you my somber, melancholy look. I don’t need to smile. This is me; accept it. I’m human. But I spelled ‘human’ with a ‘hue’ because the people in the book identify themselves as many races and cultures.” The second book, “Solar Amalgamations” (2018), turned his camera’s gaze toward Black women at CSUSM. This time, he found it easier to recruit fellow students as photo subjects because he had “HUEMAN” in hand to show them how the final product would look. And Northington’s most recent book, “WE ARE,” published this spring, captures groups of Black students rather than individuals. “I asked people just to naturally enjoy themselves – walking, hugging, talking, skateboarding,” he said. “I want that to feel supremely exciting. I want you to see these people loving each other and loving being college students.” Northington intended for the three book titles to combine to form a larger message – “we are human solar amalgamations” or, as he translates it, “we are stars.” There’s a similar depth of thought behind the name “Chasing Andromeda,” the virtual exhibit that culls pictures from each of his books. “Andromeda is supposedly a queen in Africa, and she was called that by the ancient Greeks. But in Africa, the word means something else; it’s like calling something beautiful,” Northington said. “And Andromeda is also the largest cluster of stars in the solar system. Then I came to notice that Andromeda is built like a DNA helix. It spirals and it coils, which I connected to my hair and the hair of black people. So I put all that together – chasing Andromeda is like looking for the beauty in Black people.” Northington didn’t come to CSUSM to be a photographer, nor did he limit himself to the discipline after he started to gain some praise for his work. He contributed to “Data Stacks,” a library exhibit created by Solomon and Juliana Goodlaw-Morris, CSUSM’s sustainability director, featuring student art and data visualizations about campus sustainability. He designed a program for the annual All Peoples Luncheon. He produced logos and other promotional materials for several campus organizations, including the Black Student Center, Black Student Union and Project Rebound. And even as an alumnus – he’s now a graduate student at Cal State Fullerton, pursuing a master’s degree in education, with a concentration in higher education – Northington continues to be involved in CSUSM’s campus culture. He was interviewed by Visintainer as part of the Black Student Center Oral History Project, a collaboration with the library that aims to record and preserve the narratives of people who were instrumental to the creation of the center in 2017. “This is not a Black-and-white thing. It’s a person thing – how people treat each other, how students on campus treat each other,” Northington said. “A law can’t make you treat me better. If things are going to change, people need to work on changing them. We have to find different avenues for change, and some people march and protest. Other people take pictures.” Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

When Betina Scott saw that Cal State San Marcos was looking for a person to launch a new program to support faculty at the university, she explored the job description with curiosity. The position sought someone who’s a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). Check, thought Scott. Someone who had been on staff and understood both the academic and administrative sides of CSUSM. Check and check. Someone who had built programs before. Check. “As I read the proposal, it felt as if the position was made for me,” Scott said. “It was one of those perfect timing things. This was very much in alignment with who I am and the work that is important to me.” Scott is now the director of Faculty Advocacy, Care, Engagement and Support (FACES), a program started this fall that’s designed to enhance the professional success and workplace experience of CSUSM faculty by connecting them with resources, providing supportive services, and advocating for them. Indeed, it’s a hand-in-glove fit for Scott, who possesses an LCSW degree as well as a Doctorate of Social Work (DSW). She had been a full-time lecturer in CSUSM’s Department of Social Work before spending the past year as the interim director of ACE Scholars Services, the university’s innovative program for former foster youth. The faculty who wrote the proposal for FACES, Scott said, intended for it to be modeled in part as the faculty version of the student-oriented Cougar Care Network. Besides offering supportive services, resource linkage and crisis resource coordination, FACES will provide departmental, community-building workshops to address faculty incivility, care-based professional training, advocacy for equity for faculty of color, and faculty-to-faculty coaching. “FACES can be considered the emotional, feeling side of the Faculty Center,” Scott said. “The Faculty Center provides services aimed at improving teaching and learning, engaging in research, navigating the tenure process, and assisting with grant writing. FACES will strive to provide care, advocacy and at times emotionally supportive services to faculty as they navigate the complexities, challenges and concerns they may face in academia. “It is very difficult to be your best self, to bring your best to the students, if you are not OK emotionally, not feeling supported or valued as a contributing part of the university.” Just as FACES offers services not covered by the Faculty Center, it’s also different in a significant way from the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) through the Office of Human Resources. The EAP provides brief counseling services to employees, while FACES is more focused on confidential consultation, care coordination, psychoeducational trainings and workshops, and crisis response for faculty. FACES grew out of a movement that followed the Poway synagogue shooting by a CSUSM student in April 2019. After that horrific incident, Jewish faculty and faculty of color reported being threatened both on and off campus, and there were other racially charged episodes that occurred on campus. As a result, a committee of faculty members was charged that fall with writing a proposal for the creation of an institutional faculty support initiative. “Following the shooting, there were a number of questions: What do we do for faculty and staff when there’s a crisis? How do we help them to heal, feel safe, and process these tragic and traumatic events?” Scott said. “It’s about safety, not only in the sense that we feel physically safe coming to campus, but also that we feel emotionally safe. It’s important for faculty and staff to have a space to share experiences, process fears, express needs, and trust that the university is going to hear them, validate them, and do what’s possible to support them.” The original idea for FACES predates the arrival of President Ellen Neufeldt in July 2019, but Neufeldt elevated it as a university priority as part of her mission to establish a lasting “culture of care” at CSUSM. FACES completes a trio of programs in that vein, along with the Cougar Care Network for students and the Staff Center – also new this fall. Scott emphasized that FACES serves all faculty, including part- and full-time lecturers as well as tenured professors. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, FACES is a virtual center for now. With a limited budget and staff, Scott already has begun building and leveraging connections around campus to assist with getting the program up and running. She plans to use her fundraising and grant writing experience to secure additional funding for FACES down the road. Scott has started running workshops and working with faculty on issues related to incivility or non-collegial behavior, as well as anti-racism efforts within departments. And though FACES was conceived of and proposed before our current moment dominated by a devastating pandemic and heart-wrenching racial strife, it might as well have been designed for this world – and the fear, anger and anxiety that accompany it. “It’s almost as if this is fortuitous, because who knew that all this would be happening in our country, in our world right now?” Scott said. “The people who are educating our students must be healthy – physically, mentally and emotionally. If not, this will trickle down to our students. “FACES is right on time and just what our campus needs in this trying period.” Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Juliana Abraham’s epiphany about what to do with her life occurred when she was barely a teenager. Abraham’s life to that point had been devoted to gymnastics, the sport she loved and excelled at on a national level. At 12 years old in 2015, she was consistently winning competitions and posting impressive scores as a Level 9 gymnast, just one stage from reaching the final level in the Junior Olympics program. If she advanced to Level 10 and successfully performed all of the required skills, she would have an opportunity to try out for the Elite program – the group of gymnasts from which Olympians are selected. “I was definitely planning on going to that Olympic level if I could,” Abraham said. But Level 9 became Abraham’s final stop as a competitive gymnast. Not by her choosing or due to an inability to compete at such a high level. Instead, it was a diagnosis of central neurocytoma, a slow-growing brain tumor that is rare in children. Abraham isn’t one to wallow in self-pity. She is grateful for the path she is on now as a freshman at Cal State San Marcos as she works toward her new goal. It’s a journey that has been made a little easier with help from Make-A-Wish San Diego. “I want to be a nurse,” Abraham said. “I want to be able to give back to the community and really be able to give kids the same experience and the same love and care that I was given when I was first in the hospital.” Abraham had no idea she was headed for that first hospital stay in June 2015. Though she had been dealing with a variety of ailments – including headaches, blurry vision and stomach pain – she figured they were simply part of her rigorous training or side effects of puberty. The issues got progressively worse throughout the spring, with Abraham even suffering from double vision. “I didn't know what to make of it, so I just ignored it,” she said. “People always ask me, ‘How did you ignore that? That's such a big thing.’ And I don't know. I was just training. I was focused on the sport and every upcoming competition. I just didn't have time to think about it, and you think maybe it’s normal.” It wasn’t until her final competition of the season that Abraham mentioned the double vision to her mother, Nicole. Abraham had concurrently been having bouts of severe back pain, and her sports doctor recommended she take a couple of weeks off. Nicole used the break to take Abraham to an eye doctor, who diagnosed Abraham with a swollen optical nerve, which is a reaction to pressure on the brain. The doctor told Nicole that Abraham needed to go straight to the emergency room for an MRI, which revealed a tumor that was larger than a golf ball. Abraham was transported that night to Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, where she underwent surgery for nearly eight hours to remove the tumor. When she woke up following the surgery, she was paralyzed on the left side of her body. Though doctors said the paralysis might last 8-12 months, Abraham was able to leave the hospital using a leg brace and a cane after 2½ months. Three more months of physical therapy followed before Abraham returned to gymnastics. “I told my coach, ‘I'm coming back. I'm going to start training again,’ ” Abraham said. “And she looked at me like I was crazy. She was like, ‘Why would you come back? You almost died. This is crazy.’ And I said, ‘I don't know how to do anything else. This is my life.’ ” Abraham eased back into training by focusing on conditioning and stretching while gradually adding to her workouts as her health improved. But it all came to a halt after a follow-up scan in March 2016 showed a regrowth of the tumor. A month later, it had doubled in size. In July – barely a year after her first operation – Abraham underwent surgery again. Doctors couldn’t completely remove the tumor because part of it was located near the hypothalamus, which plays a vital role in many functions of the body. Abraham had to undergo nearly two months of proton therapy, a form of radiation therapy that uses protons to treat cancer. Abraham returned to the gym again after completing her treatments, but persisting through daily, seven-hour gymnastics training sessions proved difficult. She also suffered from drop foot syndrome, which meant that her leg was prone to giving out from fatigue – a dangerous prospect for someone performing complex, high-level gymnastics routines. “I would be training and then all of a sudden my leg would just give out and I would fall,” she said. “I needed to retire. I don't like saying ‘quit’ because I didn't quit the sport. But I didn't want to put my coaches at risk or my teammates at risk or myself at risk anymore, so I retired.” It has been three years since Abraham stepped away. She stays active by working out at home and going on hikes and bike rides. But it still feels strange to her after so many years dedicated to gymnastics. Focusing on the next stage of her life helps. Abraham, whose family lives in Escondido, wanted to remain in California for college, and she knew that she wanted to pursue a career as a pediatric nurse. Though many nursing programs in the state are impacted, CSUSM offered an alternative that no other university did – an opportunity to major in kinesiology. Abraham had never entertained the thought of majoring in something other than nursing, but the more she looked into the kinesiology program, the more she realized it would be a perfect fit. Abraham soon received two more welcome surprises. The first was learning that she had been accepted to CSUSM’s TRIO Student Support Services, a program funded by the U.S. Department of Education to support students who meet at least one of the following criteria: They come from a low-income background, they are a first-generation college student and/or they have a verified disability. The program offers academic, personal and professional support to increase the retention and graduation rates of participants. “In only four months, Juliana has been an outstanding TRIO SSS student,” said Perla Rivas, a TRIO SSS counselor. “I spend considerable time working with the scholars in various workshops and other activities, and it was quickly obvious to me that Juliana is bright, inquisitive and motivated. If you gave 100 students a rare learning opportunity, you would walk away realizing Juliana was the most appreciative, eager and excited student of the group.” The other surprise came during one of Abraham’s check-ups with her neuro oncologist. He wanted to refer her to Make-A-Wish, which works to empower children battling critical illness by granting them a wish. Abraham is determined to graduate from college without debt, so she asked if a college scholarship or grant was possible. A short time later, she learned that she was receiving a $10,000 grant from Make-A-Wish, funds already helping to cover costs of her first semester at CSUSM. Despite the roller coaster of the past five years, Abraham wouldn’t change a thing. Her future may look different than what she imagined before her initial diagnosis, but she knows it’s a future that remains bright. “I always look back at it now and I’m so grateful that I went through it because I would have never been able to meet the people I've met, been through the experiences I've been through,” she said. “I've made so many connections in the medical community and with my doctors. My neurosurgeon and my neuro oncologist are like uncles to me. I love them to death. There's so many little things that I would have never experienced if I didn't go through what I went through.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314