- Chemistry Student Brings STEM to Local Middle SchoolsIt’s a Monday afternoon in October at Del Dios Academy of Arts and Sciences, which means it’s time for a little STEM. Sixteen students from sixth through eighth grades line up outside a classroom door 15 minutes before the lesson is to begin at the middle school in Escondido. The regular school day is over, so they don’t have to be here. They want to be here. They want to see, and learn from, Emmanuel. Soon, Emmanuel Morales, a senior chemistry major at Cal State San Marcos, arrives along with a fellow STEM ambassador from the university’s Center for Research and Engagement in STEM Education (CRESE). Wearing a white CSUSM T-shirt with the words “Learn STEM Lead STEM,” he starts unpacking his supplies and informing the students about that week’s assignment: They will create a robotic arm out of ordinary household supplies like cardboard, plastic straws, popsicle sticks and string. “This is a semi-difficult project,” Emmanuel tells the middle-schoolers. “The idea is to simulate the function of tendons in the hand and wrist.” As he circulates around the room over the next hour, helping groups of two and three with their construction at separate tables, it’s clear that Emmanuel has earned the students’ respect with his soft-spoken, patient demeanor. “The kids are very attached to him,” said Sophia Gonzalez, an English teacher at Del Dios who supervises the weekly STEM sessions. “He doesn’t say a whole lot, but he’s very open with them and doesn’t really dictate; he just offers his expertise or alternate solutions. Today, they were all looking forward to him. They enjoy coming here, and I think it’s because of how he interacts with them.” Emmanuel is in his third year as a STEM ambassador, one of the senior members of a group of about 20 CSUSM undergraduate science students who fan out weekly to 12 middle schools across the San Marcos, Escondido and Vista school districts. They do their work through a program called Mobile Making – funded by a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, as well as a donation from Carlsbad-based Nordson – the purpose of which is to bring design-based, STEM-related activities to underprivileged schools that wouldn’t otherwise have exposure to such disciplines. Twice a week, Emmanuel stops by the CRESE center in the QUAD building – it’s nicknamed the STEMbassy – to load up on the materials that he’ll need for that day’s project. Besides the robotic arm, among the activities that STEM ambassadors (who also attend Saturday training sessions once every few weeks) assist students with are building basic robots with toothbrushes and cell-phone motors, creating solar-powered vehicles from recycled materials, and powering motors and buzzers with conductive Play-Doh. It’s all part of a nationwide trend toward the lost art of making things. Makerspaces are popping up in schools around the country – CSUSM is considering installing one – and Mobile Making is just a way to take the same concept on the road. “Making in general is a big movement right now,” said April Nelson, the program director for CRESE. “The mobile part is unique to us. We are definitely one of the schools leading the charge on this, and we’d like to be more of an example.” The Emmanuel of the age of the students he’s mentoring now would scarcely recognize the Emmanuel of today. Back then, not only was he not doing STEM activities at school, but he didn’t even know what STEM was. He was raised in a part of Vista where, he says, “not many people think about college. Most people just want to get a job and start making money.” Emmanuel was one of those people. He lacked confidence in his intelligence and academic potential. He switched from Rancho Buena Vista to Vista High after his sophomore year, and didn’t have many friends at the new school. And on the home front, his dad temporarily moved out of the house during his high school years, leaving him without a father figure during that crucial, angst-ridden stage of development. That was when the man Emmanuel still refers to simply as Mr. Robinson entered the picture. Mark Robinson is a Vista High science teacher who’s in his 25th and final year at the school – he plans to retire this spring to focus on his prosperous side venture of winemaking. Emmanuel took Robinson’s chemistry class as a junior, and something immediately clicked. He discovered that, unlike with other subjects, chemistry came easily to him. More importantly, he found in Robinson an adult figure who believed in him, who thought he was smart, who thought he was special. “He was a very big influence for me,” Emmanuel said. “He always told me, ‘You’re a fantastic student to have around here, you’re picking up this chemistry very quickly.’ It felt good hearing that from him.” Robinson, like Emmanuel a first-generation college student whose father wasn’t present in his life, saw in Emmanuel a kindred spirit. They frequently would sit and talk after class and after school about topics far beyond just chemistry. “He was an incredibly fascinating human being,” Robinson said. “He was serious about the subject matters, but he was way more interesting after class. He had so many ideas, a gazillion little hypotheses in his head. We would talk about anything and everything – philosophical things, science things, earth things, botany, ethnobotany, you name it. If you ask me to pick a word to describe him, it would be curious. He has a curious mind. He’s blessed.” Emmanuel liked Robinson so much that he proceeded to take his anatomy class as a senior. He went from getting Bs and Cs in most classes to taking AP courses. At Robinson’s urging, he began thinking about college for the first time. “When I graduated, he told me he was very proud of me,” Emmanuel said. “He would jokingly say, ‘If I could adopt you, I would.’ ” After he arrived at CSUSM, Emmanuel started looking for opportunities to teach, to take Robinson’s influential tutelage and pay it forward. When he learned about the STEM ambassador program, he knew he had found the perfect avenue. “The best part is seeing the students’ smiles and knowing that I taught them something,” Emmanuel said, “that they’ll go home and think about trying to be a STEM student.” Emmanuel used to aspire to be a high school science teacher like Robinson, but Robinson himself convinced him to aim higher. Emmanuel now says he wants to get a job at a company like Viasat or Genentech and try to earn a master’s degree while working. Asked if he thinks of himself as a Mr. Robinson for the middle-schoolers, Emmanuel smiles. “That’s something I can take pride in,” he said. “He was very highly looked upon at our school, and I want to be looked at that way as well. The students look up to me; my coworkers look up to me. “It’s great to think that all this happened because he told me I should continue going to school and get an education.” Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson.
- Daring to Dream: CSUSM Aimed High with CampaignThe first gift of the day came in just after the clock struck midnight. By 6 a.m., when the late-autumn sky was still dark, 114 donations already had been made. The pace rarely waned during Giving Day at Cal State San Marcos on Nov. 27. Administrators gave. Faculty gave. Students gave. Alumni gave. Community members gave. All around campus, people could be spotted wearing blue heart stickers, a telltale symbol of the spirit of generosity at the university. By the time the 1,488th and final gift was registered at 11:59 p.m., CSUSM – with the help of matching gifts from Jack Raymond, chair of the university’s Foundation Board – had raised $448,955 in a single day. That’s an astounding increase of 2,877 percent over the inaugural Giving Day three years earlier. When President Karen Haynes announced the launch of CSUSM’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign at the University Student Union ballroom in September 2015, surely there were skeptics. How could a university that only recently had celebrated its 25th birthday hope to raise $50 million, which was double the goal that initially had been proposed by the Foundation Board? Most comprehensive campaigns are built chiefly on the strength of alumni, after all, and CSUSM – as young as it is – simply doesn’t have a vast pool. The remarkable growth of Giving Day, however, is just one of the many signs that what CSUSM lacks in age, it more than makes up for in ambition. Haynes’ financial target for the Forward Together campaign might have sounded audacious to outsiders, but it was par for the course to anyone familiar with this campus and its leader. “I am fairly comfortable with bold goals if I think that they are attainable,” Haynes said. “Yes, it was a little scary, but it pushed all of us to stretch to say it is possible. I just thought the $50 million number felt right for this campus and the way we acted.” As it turned out, the $50 million figure not only was attainable, but it was surpassable. When Forward Together officially ended as the calendar turned to 2019, the campaign had blown past its objective, ultimately landing on $55,035,210 as the amount raised. How impressive is that? Consider that CSUSM raised more in the seven years of the campaign than it had in the first 21 years of its existence combined. Consider that nearly three-fourths of the university’s alumni graduated during Haynes’ tenure as president. It’s difficult to establish with certainty, but CSUSM does have good reason to boast that it’s the youngest university in the nation to undertake such an ambitious fundraising challenge at such a young age. And if not in the nation, it’s certainly the youngest in the 23-campus California State University system. As if inspired by the boldness of CSUSM, exactly a year after the public launch of Forward Together, Cal State San Bernardino – a university then twice as old as CSUSM – announced that it was embarking on its own $50 million campaign. The very next month, Cal State East Bay – a school that was more than twice as old and has an alumni base nearly three times as large – set off on a $60 million campaign. “I think some of them got the impetus, whether their presidents would admit it or not, to say, for example, ‘Why can’t East Bay do it at 60 years for $60 million?’ ” Haynes said. “So there was a little skepticism around the CSU about our campaign, but there were some that thought, ‘Wow, we’ve never done it and we’re 60 years old, we’re 80 years old.’ ” Because of its limited institutional history, Cal State San Marcos approached the campaign in its own youthful, scrappy, entrepreneurial manner – what might be called the “CSUSM way.” Most universities carefully arrive at a campaign goal figure by hiring a council that does an assessment based on its donor base. CSUSM did it based on a round, impressive number thrown out by its president during a Foundation Board retreat in 2012. “The meeting where we came up with the dollar amount, I wouldn’t recommend that for other institutions,” said Cathy Baur, vice president for University Advancement. “But it says a lot about our fortitude, our willingness to take a gamble and know that we have a good story to tell and have such strong support in the region that we could actually make it happen.” Most universities structure campaigns around a series of major gifts from well-heeled alumni. CSUSM did receive a number of donations of at least $1 million, but Forward Together would not have succeeded without the committed participation of a veritable army of staff, faculty, students, alumni and community members making sometimes small but meaningful contributions. The number of gifts in the campaign was almost 26,000, and the average gift size was about $2,200. That’s approximately half the amount of the average gift size for San Diego State during its recent comprehensive campaign. “We always viewed this campaign as the one to prepare us for the next campaign,” Baur said. “Part of our goal was to build and work on that culture of philanthropy. We really feel like we have done a good job with that. Every single senior manager on this campus contributed to the campaign through either a one-time gift or a multiyear pledge. I think that’s indicative of the commitment people have to this university.” Major fundraising campaigns, of course, didn’t used to be the province of CSU schools, which only a couple of decades ago received about 80 percent of the money for operating costs from the state. That number has fallen to 55 percent, with student tuition and fees accounting for the rest. Yet CSUSM continues to grow, both in students and in stature, and the demand for cutting-edge programs and services from the surrounding region only intensifies. That desire for transformational change in the face of ongoing financial belt-tightening by the state was the motivation for Forward Together, which was built around the three pillars of “Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders,” “Building Great Communities” and “Solving Critical Issues.” “In my early years in this business, there were people who would say, ‘I don’t know what you suits are doing here, but if you’re raising money, don’t raise it for my program,’ ” said Kyle Button, the associate vice president of development, who was recruited by CSUSM to help run the campaign in 2014, a year before the public launch. “The idea was that they’d never get the money back from the provost or the state if they saw their program as appealing to private support. We don’t hear that so much anymore. The game has changed. We’re now a part of doing business.” Once the campaign priorities were established, it was time to venture out into the philanthropic community and do a little storytelling. And CSUSM knew it had good stories to tell. Katherine Kantardjieff had come to CSUSM in 2011 from Cal State Fullerton, where she had gained experience in fundraising as a chemistry professor. In her new position as dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, she was sent on something of a road show around San Diego with a development officer, meeting with potential donors and heralding the innovative people and programs in her college. She came armed with so-called “wow” statements, and perhaps her most powerful one was about CSUSM’s proposed EngiBeering certificate program that would explore the science and engineering behind brewing craft beer – a powerful message in San Diego, which has come to be nicknamed the “Capital of Craft.” “The end of the wow statement was, ‘Come join us and help us fuel a billion-dollar industry because life is too short for bad beer,’ ” Kantardjieff said. “It was all about getting people’s attention and making them feel good and making them want to know more.” Kantardjieff also put together an advisory council in 2012 composed of “a team of people that was chomping at the bit to champion for this university.” One of the members was Simon Kuo, the vice president of corporate quality for Viasat, and it was partly through the cultivation of that relationship that CSUSM in early 2018 received $1.5 million from the Carlsbad-based global communications company (along with several employees) to become the founding partner of the university’s engineering program. “It’s not that easy to fundraise. You have to have a compelling vision,” Kantardjieff said. “When it comes to engineering, the reason we got a donation from Viasat is that the community believes we can do this. We have their trust, we have their confidence. They know we can deliver.” The gift from Viasat was far from the only one that will cause real and lasting change at CSUSM. Jan and Esther Stearns donated $1 million to ACE Scholars Services, the university’s one-of-a-kind program to support former foster youth. The Epstein Family Foundation gave $1 million toward a much-needed physical expansion of CSUSM’s Veterans Center. A small group of donors made it possible for the university to become an All-Steinway School, a designation held by fewer than 200 colleges, universities and conservatories worldwide. And for the first time in the 2017-18 academic year, more than a million dollars was dispersed to students in privately funded scholarships. “Those are the kinds of quantum leaps that you want to create through a comprehensive campaign,” Button said. “The results are visible and palpable and real, and that does make a good case in the future for the next campaign of support.”
- Chemistry Student Brings STEM to Local Middle SchoolsIt’s a Monday afternoon in October at Del Dios Academy of Arts and Sciences, which means it’s time for a little STEM. Sixteen students from sixth through eighth grades line up outside a classroom door 15 minutes before the lesson is to begin at the middle school in Escondido. The regular school day is over, so they don’t have to be here. They want to be here. They want to see, and learn from, Emmanuel. Soon, Emmanuel Morales, a senior chemistry major at Cal State San Marcos, arrives along with a fellow STEM ambassador from the university’s Center for Research and Engagement in STEM Education (CRESE). Wearing a white CSUSM T-shirt with the words “Learn STEM Lead STEM,” he starts unpacking his supplies and informing the students about that week’s assignment: They will create a robotic arm out of ordinary household supplies like cardboard, plastic straws, popsicle sticks and string. “This is a semi-difficult project,” Emmanuel tells the middle-schoolers. “The idea is to simulate the function of tendons in the hand and wrist.” As he circulates around the room over the next hour, helping groups of two and three with their construction at separate tables, it’s clear that Emmanuel has earned the students’ respect with his soft-spoken, patient demeanor. “The kids are very attached to him,” said Sophia Gonzalez, an English teacher at Del Dios who supervises the weekly STEM sessions. “He doesn’t say a whole lot, but he’s very open with them and doesn’t really dictate; he just offers his expertise or alternate solutions. Today, they were all looking forward to him. They enjoy coming here, and I think it’s because of how he interacts with them.” Emmanuel is in his third year as a STEM ambassador, one of the senior members of a group of about 20 CSUSM undergraduate science students who fan out weekly to 12 middle schools across the San Marcos, Escondido and Vista school districts. They do their work through a program called Mobile Making – funded by a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, as well as a donation from Carlsbad-based Nordson – the purpose of which is to bring design-based, STEM-related activities to underprivileged schools that wouldn’t otherwise have exposure to such disciplines. Twice a week, Emmanuel stops by the CRESE center in the QUAD building – it’s nicknamed the STEMbassy – to load up on the materials that he’ll need for that day’s project. Besides the robotic arm, among the activities that STEM ambassadors (who also attend Saturday training sessions once every few weeks) assist students with are building basic robots with toothbrushes and cell-phone motors, creating solar-powered vehicles from recycled materials, and powering motors and buzzers with conductive Play-Doh. It’s all part of a nationwide trend toward the lost art of making things. Makerspaces are popping up in schools around the country – CSUSM is considering installing one – and Mobile Making is just a way to take the same concept on the road. “Making in general is a big movement right now,” said April Nelson, the program director for CRESE. “The mobile part is unique to us. We are definitely one of the schools leading the charge on this, and we’d like to be more of an example.” The Emmanuel of the age of the students he’s mentoring now would scarcely recognize the Emmanuel of today. Back then, not only was he not doing STEM activities at school, but he didn’t even know what STEM was. He was raised in a part of Vista where, he says, “not many people think about college. Most people just want to get a job and start making money.” Emmanuel was one of those people. He lacked confidence in his intelligence and academic potential. He switched from Rancho Buena Vista to Vista High after his sophomore year, and didn’t have many friends at the new school. And on the home front, his dad temporarily moved out of the house during his high school years, leaving him without a father figure during that crucial, angst-ridden stage of development. That was when the man Emmanuel still refers to simply as Mr. Robinson entered the picture. Mark Robinson is a Vista High science teacher who’s in his 25th and final year at the school – he plans to retire this spring to focus on his prosperous side venture of winemaking. Emmanuel took Robinson’s chemistry class as a junior, and something immediately clicked. He discovered that, unlike with other subjects, chemistry came easily to him. More importantly, he found in Robinson an adult figure who believed in him, who thought he was smart, who thought he was special. “He was a very big influence for me,” Emmanuel said. “He always told me, ‘You’re a fantastic student to have around here, you’re picking up this chemistry very quickly.’ It felt good hearing that from him.” Robinson, like Emmanuel a first-generation college student whose father wasn’t present in his life, saw in Emmanuel a kindred spirit. They frequently would sit and talk after class and after school about topics far beyond just chemistry. “He was an incredibly fascinating human being,” Robinson said. “He was serious about the subject matters, but he was way more interesting after class. He had so many ideas, a gazillion little hypotheses in his head. We would talk about anything and everything – philosophical things, science things, earth things, botany, ethnobotany, you name it. If you ask me to pick a word to describe him, it would be curious. He has a curious mind. He’s blessed.” Emmanuel liked Robinson so much that he proceeded to take his anatomy class as a senior. He went from getting Bs and Cs in most classes to taking AP courses. At Robinson’s urging, he began thinking about college for the first time. “When I graduated, he told me he was very proud of me,” Emmanuel said. “He would jokingly say, ‘If I could adopt you, I would.’ ” After he arrived at CSUSM, Emmanuel started looking for opportunities to teach, to take Robinson’s influential tutelage and pay it forward. When he learned about the STEM ambassador program, he knew he had found the perfect avenue. “The best part is seeing the students’ smiles and knowing that I taught them something,” Emmanuel said, “that they’ll go home and think about trying to be a STEM student.” Emmanuel used to aspire to be a high school science teacher like Robinson, but Robinson himself convinced him to aim higher. Emmanuel now says he wants to get a job at a company like Viasat or Genentech and try to earn a master’s degree while working. Asked if he thinks of himself as a Mr. Robinson for the middle-schoolers, Emmanuel smiles. “That’s something I can take pride in,” he said. “He was very highly looked upon at our school, and I want to be looked at that way as well. The students look up to me; my coworkers look up to me. “It’s great to think that all this happened because he told me I should continue going to school and get an education.” Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson.
- Daring to Dream: CSUSM Aimed High with CampaignThe first gift of the day came in just after the clock struck midnight. By 6 a.m., when the late-autumn sky was still dark, 114 donations already had been made. The pace rarely waned during Giving Day at Cal State San Marcos on Nov. 27. Administrators gave. Faculty gave. Students gave. Alumni gave. Community members gave. All around campus, people could be spotted wearing blue heart stickers, a telltale symbol of the spirit of generosity at the university. By the time the 1,488th and final gift was registered at 11:59 p.m., CSUSM – with the help of matching gifts from Jack Raymond, chair of the university’s Foundation Board – had raised $448,955 in a single day. That’s an astounding increase of 2,877 percent over the inaugural Giving Day three years earlier. When President Karen Haynes announced the launch of CSUSM’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign at the University Student Union ballroom in September 2015, surely there were skeptics. How could a university that only recently had celebrated its 25th birthday hope to raise $50 million, which was double the goal that initially had been proposed by the Foundation Board? Most comprehensive campaigns are built chiefly on the strength of alumni, after all, and CSUSM – as young as it is – simply doesn’t have a vast pool. The remarkable growth of Giving Day, however, is just one of the many signs that what CSUSM lacks in age, it more than makes up for in ambition. Haynes’ financial target for the Forward Together campaign might have sounded audacious to outsiders, but it was par for the course to anyone familiar with this campus and its leader. “I am fairly comfortable with bold goals if I think that they are attainable,” Haynes said. “Yes, it was a little scary, but it pushed all of us to stretch to say it is possible. I just thought the $50 million number felt right for this campus and the way we acted.” As it turned out, the $50 million figure not only was attainable, but it was surpassable. When Forward Together officially ended as the calendar turned to 2019, the campaign had blown past its objective, ultimately landing on $55,035,210 as the amount raised. How impressive is that? Consider that CSUSM raised more in the seven years of the campaign than it had in the first 21 years of its existence combined. Consider that nearly three-fourths of the university’s alumni graduated during Haynes’ tenure as president. It’s difficult to establish with certainty, but CSUSM does have good reason to boast that it’s the youngest university in the nation to undertake such an ambitious fundraising challenge at such a young age. And if not in the nation, it’s certainly the youngest in the 23-campus California State University system. As if inspired by the boldness of CSUSM, exactly a year after the public launch of Forward Together, Cal State San Bernardino – a university then twice as old as CSUSM – announced that it was embarking on its own $50 million campaign. The very next month, Cal State East Bay – a school that was more than twice as old and has an alumni base nearly three times as large – set off on a $60 million campaign. “I think some of them got the impetus, whether their presidents would admit it or not, to say, for example, ‘Why can’t East Bay do it at 60 years for $60 million?’ ” Haynes said. “So there was a little skepticism around the CSU about our campaign, but there were some that thought, ‘Wow, we’ve never done it and we’re 60 years old, we’re 80 years old.’ ” Because of its limited institutional history, Cal State San Marcos approached the campaign in its own youthful, scrappy, entrepreneurial manner – what might be called the “CSUSM way.” Most universities carefully arrive at a campaign goal figure by hiring a council that does an assessment based on its donor base. CSUSM did it based on a round, impressive number thrown out by its president during a Foundation Board retreat in 2012. “The meeting where we came up with the dollar amount, I wouldn’t recommend that for other institutions,” said Cathy Baur, vice president for University Advancement. “But it says a lot about our fortitude, our willingness to take a gamble and know that we have a good story to tell and have such strong support in the region that we could actually make it happen.” Most universities structure campaigns around a series of major gifts from well-heeled alumni. CSUSM did receive a number of donations of at least $1 million, but Forward Together would not have succeeded without the committed participation of a veritable army of staff, faculty, students, alumni and community members making sometimes small but meaningful contributions. The number of gifts in the campaign was almost 26,000, and the average gift size was about $2,200. That’s approximately half the amount of the average gift size for San Diego State during its recent comprehensive campaign. “We always viewed this campaign as the one to prepare us for the next campaign,” Baur said. “Part of our goal was to build and work on that culture of philanthropy. We really feel like we have done a good job with that. Every single senior manager on this campus contributed to the campaign through either a one-time gift or a multiyear pledge. I think that’s indicative of the commitment people have to this university.” Major fundraising campaigns, of course, didn’t used to be the province of CSU schools, which only a couple of decades ago received about 80 percent of the money for operating costs from the state. That number has fallen to 55 percent, with student tuition and fees accounting for the rest. Yet CSUSM continues to grow, both in students and in stature, and the demand for cutting-edge programs and services from the surrounding region only intensifies. That desire for transformational change in the face of ongoing financial belt-tightening by the state was the motivation for Forward Together, which was built around the three pillars of “Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders,” “Building Great Communities” and “Solving Critical Issues.” “In my early years in this business, there were people who would say, ‘I don’t know what you suits are doing here, but if you’re raising money, don’t raise it for my program,’ ” said Kyle Button, the associate vice president of development, who was recruited by CSUSM to help run the campaign in 2014, a year before the public launch. “The idea was that they’d never get the money back from the provost or the state if they saw their program as appealing to private support. We don’t hear that so much anymore. The game has changed. We’re now a part of doing business.” Once the campaign priorities were established, it was time to venture out into the philanthropic community and do a little storytelling. And CSUSM knew it had good stories to tell. Katherine Kantardjieff had come to CSUSM in 2011 from Cal State Fullerton, where she had gained experience in fundraising as a chemistry professor. In her new position as dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, she was sent on something of a road show around San Diego with a development officer, meeting with potential donors and heralding the innovative people and programs in her college. She came armed with so-called “wow” statements, and perhaps her most powerful one was about CSUSM’s proposed EngiBeering certificate program that would explore the science and engineering behind brewing craft beer – a powerful message in San Diego, which has come to be nicknamed the “Capital of Craft.” “The end of the wow statement was, ‘Come join us and help us fuel a billion-dollar industry because life is too short for bad beer,’ ” Kantardjieff said. “It was all about getting people’s attention and making them feel good and making them want to know more.” Kantardjieff also put together an advisory council in 2012 composed of “a team of people that was chomping at the bit to champion for this university.” One of the members was Simon Kuo, the vice president of corporate quality for Viasat, and it was partly through the cultivation of that relationship that CSUSM in early 2018 received $1.5 million from the Carlsbad-based global communications company (along with several employees) to become the founding partner of the university’s engineering program. “It’s not that easy to fundraise. You have to have a compelling vision,” Kantardjieff said. “When it comes to engineering, the reason we got a donation from Viasat is that the community believes we can do this. We have their trust, we have their confidence. They know we can deliver.” The gift from Viasat was far from the only one that will cause real and lasting change at CSUSM. Jan and Esther Stearns donated $1 million to ACE Scholars Services, the university’s one-of-a-kind program to support former foster youth. The Epstein Family Foundation gave $1 million toward a much-needed physical expansion of CSUSM’s Veterans Center. A small group of donors made it possible for the university to become an All-Steinway School, a designation held by fewer than 200 colleges, universities and conservatories worldwide. And for the first time in the 2017-18 academic year, more than a million dollars was dispersed to students in privately funded scholarships. “Those are the kinds of quantum leaps that you want to create through a comprehensive campaign,” Button said. “The results are visible and palpable and real, and that does make a good case in the future for the next campaign of support.”
- A True Trailblazer: Leadership a Key to Campaign's SuccessJack Raymond marvels at the success of Cal State San Marcos’ first comprehensive fundraising campaign. When the quiet phase of Forward Together was launched in 2012, Raymond wondered if the $50 million campaign goal might be a stretch for such a young University. But Raymond, a longtime supporter of CSUSM and chair of its Foundation Board, didn’t view that as a negative. “There’s nothing wrong with stretch goals,” he said. Plus, he knew CSUSM had a unique advantage – President Karen Haynes. “Karen is the person who has made the sea change in the University,” Raymond said. When the Foundation Board was determining the campaign goal in 2012, someone suggested $25 million to coincide with the university’s 25th anniversary in 2015. Haynes, never one to shy away from bold goals, responded, “Why not $50 million?” When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, it signaled the close of CSUSM’s campaign. The University didn’t just meet its ambitious $50 million goal, it crushed it. The campaign raised more than $55 million, funds that will help CSUSM continue to prepare tomorrow’s leaders, build great communities and solve critical issues for years to come. Dan Epstein, who provided the gift that pushed CSUSM over the $50 million threshold, said Haynes’ leadership was critical in making the campaign a success. “She was the driving force, and people got involved because of her,” said Epstein, who gave multiple gifts throughout the campaign, including $1 million that is allowing for a much-needed expansion of CSUSM’s Veterans Center. “She’s been able to reach out to so many people in the community and gotten people behind the University’s mission, which is very clear – it is providing access to higher education for people who might not otherwise attend college.” Seeing CSUSM work to expand access for underrepresented students resonated with numerous donors, and they credited Haynes for making that one of her primary goals upon her appointment as president in 2004. “President Haynes has always struck me as a gracious and thoughtful leader, clear in her intent to serve the community, provide opportunities to students who may not otherwise have such access to education, and support the development of the ‘whole person,’ ” said Emilie Hersh, who serves on the Foundation Board and is an Executive in Residence for the College of Business Administration. Julie Pardee first met Haynes and Jim Mickelson, Haynes’ husband and founder of CSUSM’s ACE Scholars Services, about a decade ago. Impressed by the education her son, Chris, and his wife, Natalie, received at CSUSM, Pardee wanted to help other students. The Pardee Foundation Scholarship annually provides 50 awards of $2,000 to CSUSM students who show financial need and have a minimum 3.25 grade-point average. They later added a yearly gift to ACE, which supports former foster youth. “Karen and Jim inspired us, and we’ve been thrilled to watch it continue to benefit the students who have received these benefits for over 10 years,” Pardee said. “Each year we receive personal letters from the recipients and are blessed by each one. “Karen has grown CSUSM in creative and innovative ways. It’s been an honor to be part of her inspiring ways.” The University’s growth was another common element that donors highlighted in describing the importance of Haynes’ leadership. Ann Hunter-Welborn, another longtime supporter and a member of the University Council before CSUSM was founded, has seen the University’s growth from the beginning. “For years, people referred to the three major universities in San Diego County,” Hunter-Welborn said. “I can’t tell you how many times I corrected people – ‘There are four!’ That correction is no longer necessary. “Karen Haynes has provided the leadership that put CSUSM on the map. The University is firmly a part of the San Diego community, recognized for its offering of a sound education, for its contributions to the social fabric, and for its participation with the business community. Dr. Haynes’ enthusiasm is infectious, her wisdom is unbounded, and her drive for excellence is apparent in everything she does.” It’s a sentiment echoed by Christy Wilson, the executive director of the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation. “She’s brought a vibrancy to Cal State San Marcos,” said Wilson, who has attended every one of Haynes’ Report to the Community addresses. “People weren’t talking about CSUSM much before she arrived. It was there, but it wasn’t talked about a great deal. She’s brought a vibrancy and helped the campus feel more alive. “She’s not afraid to lead and she’s not afraid to take risks. She takes a stand and she believes in it and executes on it.” Haynes’ tenure as CSUSM president will end on June 30 when she retires. While the campaign may have ended, its success will leave a long-lasting legacy thanks in large part to Haynes’ leadership. “She’s one of the most impactful presidents of an academic institution that I have ever known,” said Ruth Westreich, a longtime supporter of numerous CSUSM initiatives. “Her impact will live on.”
- For the Love of the CraftFew job titles have earned the envy status that Judith Downie ’94 has in San Diego County. When Downie introduces herself as a craft beer historian, jaws drop and questions begin to pour in. It’s an unexpected title for a librarian, especially one who five years ago couldn’t stomach the taste of beer. While today she favors a good mead, stout or fruit sour over the iconic hoppy India Pale Ales of the region, she knows craft beer and is leading the effort to preserve its history, which dates back 150 years in the region. From capturing that history to launching a first-of-its-kind EngiBeering™ program, beer initiatives are bubbling up at Cal State San Marcos. A FLAVORFUL HISTORY The first recorded brewery to pop on the scene in San Diego was Chollas Valley Brewery in 1868 by German immigrant Christian Dobler. Naturally, German-style lagers were the preferred brew at 5 cents a glass. Agriculture dominated the region’s industry and a small handful of breweries emerged in that first wave before Prohibition. The second wave of craft beer in San Diego (1933-1983) brought mixed results and several false starts. Home winemaking was legalized, but not home brewing, which included the sale of supplies to make beer. At first, alcohol could only be served in restaurants, not bars or saloons in California. Confusion over government regulation and taxation stalled business. Four breweries came and went. Some closed operations, others moved north to Los Angeles. For three decades, craft beer production disappeared in San Diego, unable to compete with brewery giants like Coors, Budweiser and Pabst Blue Ribbon. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that permitted home brewing. By 1983, California legalized the sale of craft beer, ushering in the third and current wave of craft beer for San Diego. Bolt Brewing opened in Fallbrook in 1987. Then came Old Columbia Brewery, the first craft brewery of Karl Strauss and his cousin, which was soon renamed Karl Strauss Brewing Company. It is the longest continuously open brewery in San Diego. Downie points to a pivotal moment that may have clinched San Diego’s place in beer history. In 1997, a consortium of craft brewers came together to form the San Diego Brewers Guild. “It was Greg Koch, the founder of Stone Brewing Co., who said, ‘We can work together or fail separately,’ and it feels apropos to say, but the rest is history,” Downie said. “One characteristic that has undeniably influenced the success of craft brewing in our region has been the genuine collaboration among craft brewers.” Today, San Diego boasts the title of “Capital of Craft” with over 150 licensed brewers. And it’s a powerful economic engine, producing more than $870 million in output annually. In August 2017, the University Library launched the Brewchive™, a comprehensive archive celebrating the San Diego craft brewing industry. The collection is one of only a handful of specialty archives nationwide focused solely on beer. “They put their heart and soul into this industry and we want to make sure that history is preserved and celebrated,” said Dr. Jennifer Fabbi, dean of the CSUSM Library. The initial idea for an archive to record and preserve San Diego brewing activity was at the suggestion of Char Booth, associate dean of the library and a home brewer. Tap handles, growlers, beer lists, coasters, recipes, brewing logs, manifestos and marketing materials are all part of the growing collection of the Brewchive™. As the library collects and digitizes these historical documents and artifacts, it is also curating signature collections, including the Stone Brewing Co. Collection and Women in Craft. Oral histories told by homebrewers and professionals are also featured in the online archive. “Our business students and the students enrolled in the upcoming EngiBeering™ program can learn from both the successes and failures the local breweries have gone through,” Downie said. RAISE YOUR HAND AND RAISE YOUR GLASS This fall, the University will welcome its inaugural cohort of students into the EngiBeering™ certificate program. The two-part certificate, or what’s referred to as a stackable certificate program, explores the science and business of craft brewing. “Industry leaders need to fill this critical gap in their workforce,” said Dr. Jackie Trischman, biochemist and program director of EngiBeering™. “They need trained professionals who have business insight but also know the science of making exceptional craft beer.” Some of the courses for the 18-month program include recipe development, sensory evaluation to identify flavors and beer quality (yes, students will actually drink beer), learning the brewery processes, the evolution of beer, brewing science and an internship. Unlike traditional classes, EngiBeering™ lab courses will happen on-site at local breweries. And most notably, the program’s teaching faculty are professionals currently working in the industry. “It’s exciting to me because there is more science involved in beer production than people think,” Trischman said. “A brewer is a scientist.” EngiBeering™ was developed by eight CSUSM faculty across three colleges in partnership with more than 12 brewers including alumni Kyle Adams ’13 of Prohibition Brewing Company and Mike Stevenson ’12 of Culver Beer Company. “The brewing community is one of the most congenial and positive groups I have ever met,” Trischman said. “The love for their craft shines through their work, and it’s that same passion that built this program.” THE CRAFT BUSINESS As a prominent industry for the local economy, generating more than $100 million in tax revenue annually, craft brewing is a serious business. Measuring its impact and predicting its growth is in the hands of business researchers at CSUSM. Since 2015, the College of Business Administration has published its semiannual San Diego Craft Brewer Confidence Index, a survey conducted in partnership with the San Diego Business Journal, that gauges local brewer confidence in the industry. The latest report, released in April, revealed that brewers continue to display an impressive level of optimism in their businesses. Nearly 64 percent expect to add employees and 32 percent expect their total barrel output to increase from 11 percent to 20 percent in the next year. Business confidence is a predictor of industry growth, according to researchers. The college also produces an annual Economic Impact of Craft Breweries Report, in conjunction with the San Diego Brewers Guild and the San Diego North Economic Development Council, analyzing the impact of the industry on the region. On Oct. 10, the college will host the Craft Economic Summit, unveiling its latest findings and discussing trends and forecasts for the craft brewing industry. “The industry is thriving,” said Ed Ashley, director of business community relations for the college. “Stone Brewing Co. grew up a nine-iron away from us and our campus has grown right alongside it. We share the heart of the brewers and the love for the craft.” WHAT'S THE CATCH? A BASEBALL IN A BEER Gabrielle DiMarco was simply enjoying a beer and a ballgame on June 5 at Petco Park. While it was mostly a forgettable evening for the Padres, who lost 14-1 to the Atlanta Braves, it turned into a life-changing experience for Gabrielle when a foul ball landed in her beer cup. That alone likely would have gotten Gabrielle on the nightly sports highlight shows. What followed made the Cal State San Marcos literature and writing studies student a social media sensation. Gabrielle, with encouragement from the surrounding fans, proceeded to drink the entire beer with the baseball still firmly planted in the cup. Video from the moment went viral with Gabrielle even receiving marriage proposals from as far away as Australia. “I’m going to keep it in that cup forever,” Gabrielle told The San Diego Union-Tribune. “I’m never taking it out. It’s a trophy.”
- Life with No DestinationsLike many great stories, it began over cocktails. It was Oct. 9, 2013. Danika Garlotta ’06 can still recall what she was drinking as she and her husband Chris talked about wanting to travel the world but struggling to find the time. Somewhere between a Scotch Egg and an Old Fashioned, Chris turned to Danika and said, “Let’s take a sabbatical.” It was unexpected, unthinkable and completely exhilarating. Within three months, the couple quit their well-paying jobs, sold everything, rented out their house in San Francisco and said goodbye to family and friends as they boarded a one-way flight to Rome. To ease her mother’s angst and assure her that she was not dead on the side of the road halfway across the world, Danika set up a blog to chronicle their adventures. Their plan was simple. “We would do what we want, stay where we wanted, and if we didn’t like someplace, we’d move on,” Danika said. With no itinerary and no end game, she began sharing their adventures in their travel blog aptly named “No Destinations.” Four years and more than 200 destinations later, Danika and Chris have transformed their dream of seeing the world into a profitable, luxury-travel brand. LIKES LONG WALKS ON THE BEACH “We’re not the backpack-across-Europe, stay-in-a-youth-hostel type of people,” said Danika, laughing. “We prefer luxury and style and love to explore beautiful beaches and cities. Our focus is not to travel to, but instead experience new places, cultures and people.” And their experiences run the gamut from eating at questionable alleyway cafes in Hanoi, Vietnam, while sitting on plastic stools to a 12-course meal at a Michelin-rated restaurant in Paris. Along the way, they’ve had some truly once-in-a-lifetime adventures, including swimming with sea turtles in the crystal blue waters of the Maldives, trekking through the dense rain forests of Malaysia, hiking a breathtaking Icelandic glacier and exploring the deserts of the United Arab Emirates on camelback. Think luxury, but laid back – and that’s No Destinations. “We’re finally doing something we love, and we get to do it together,” Danika said. But the two are very different. Danika describes herself as the frantic worrier, while she says her husband always manages to stay cool under pressure. Consider their packing styles, and humor, as shared on their website, nodestinations.com: Danika: My packing style is chaotic, stuffed and somewhat unrealistic. Chris: My packing style is simple and organized – basically the complete opposite of Danika; one pair of shoes is enough. The couple met on Match.com shortly after Danika graduated from CSUSM in 2006 with a degree in communication. Friends at first, it took three years before they would fall in love and later get married on a white sand beach in Cabo San Lucas with a handful of their closest family members in attendance. A LIFE OF ITS OWN As Danika will tell you, they didn’t set out to create the world’s best travel blog. They set out for discovery. They set out to experience new cultures and see new things without being confined to two weeks of vacation time. And for the first year, they did just that. Soon, the blog’s readership expanded beyond family and friends and, in 2016, it caught the attention of Libby Kane, a reporter with Business Insider. Danika and Chris were in China at the time, and although Danika postponed the Skype interview a few times due to a cold, the three finally connected. The article and its accompanying video interview went viral. “It was wild,” Danika said. “Overnight we saw our following on Instagram and Facebook increase by the hundreds of thousands.” Thirty million views later, No Destinations was entrenched in the spotlight. Since then, their travels have been featured in Food & Wine Magazine, Forbes Travel Guide, Travel+Leisure, along with 16 other luxury travel publications A LIFESTYLE THAT WORKS Although the Garlottas have banished the stereotypical 9-5 workday, they do work. They call themselves digital nomads – freelancers on the constant move. “Just because we’re traveling does not mean we are ‘on vacation’ even though sometimes our office is a cabana on the beach in Indonesia,” Danika said. Before boarding their flight to Italy in 2014, Chris worked for startup tech companies in Silicon Valley, doing graphic design and web and app development. He is the founder of zingsale.com, a service that alerts Amazon users when a particular item drops in price. Danika was the head of marketing for a string of boutique hotels in San Francisco. Today, Chris continues to work remotely for a few tech companies, while Danika is a marketing and design consultant for a handful of clients, in addition to managing No Destinations full time. Both work 20-40 hours a week, and depending on travel schedules, they decide when to take on new projects or clients. Because they live in a different city every few weeks and primarily stay in apartment rentals, there is one nonnegotiable amenity must: a desk with a chair that has a back. Being a digital nomad can present its challenges, at times, like staying on top of constantly changing time zones, preparing for periods when WiFi access is limited or nonexistent in some areas, and relying almost exclusively on digital communication methods. The travel duo recently became a trio with the addition of their son Axel, born in December 2017. Chris and Danika have started a travel bucket list for Axel – and are already putting their little guy’s passport to good use. In the last few months, the Garlotta family has traveled to United Arab Emirates to take in the gorgeous views, went on a safari in Sri Lanka and got up-close with an elephant, and sailed to the Bahamas on a luxury cruise. Still on their bucket list: Antarctica and Australia. In traveling the world, Danika discovered something unexpected. “These experiences have taught me how truly big and open the world is and that there isn’t just one traditional path to happiness,” she said. “The toughest decision we ever made was making the decision to just do it. I never would have imagined that this life was possible, and now I cannot imagine our lives any differently.” Follow along on their adventures at nodestinations.com or @nodestinations
- Hitting All the Right NotesCal State San Marcos’ campus looked quite a bit different when music professor Bill Bradbury joined the faculty in 1993. Only Academic Hall, Craven Hall and Science Hall 1 had been built. As for a state-of-the-art music studio, well, only if you count a closet in Science Hall 1. “It was not a lot bigger than my office,” Bradbury said. “We had a mixing board and some mics and I could squeeze about eight or 10 students in the closet.” Times have certainly changed. In the past three years alone, CSUSM has added a music major, an innovative music lab and received the prestigious designation as an All-Steinway School, among other milestones. “It’s really a new era for music on our campus,” Bradbury said. “There are a lot of exciting things happening for our students.” Inventory upgrade Earning the All-Steinway School designation was not even on Ching-Ming Cheng’s radar when she arrived at CSUSM in 2011. Cheng, an associate professor of music and a renowned classical pianist, took one look at the 61-note keyboards being used by students at the time and knew an upgrade was paramount. By 2015, thanks to a fundraising event at which Cheng performed, CSUSM was able to open a music lab with 30 new, 88-key digital pianos. The music lab was the first step on an important journey for the University’s music program. In October 2016, nearly $150,000 was raised for the purchase of a Steinway D Concert Grand piano, the instrument of choice for most concert pianists. CSUSM students experienced playing on the Steinway D in the spring as part of their senior capstone projects. “It’s like you’ve been driving a Volkswagen and all of a sudden somebody gives you a Tesla,” said Dana Burnett, a lecturer in the music department. Building on the momentum from the acquisition of the Steinway D, the University publicly announced its goal to become an All-Steinway School on April 9, 2017, following a performance by Cheng at the California Center for the Arts Escondido. CSUSM reached its goal exactly one year later, joining an exclusive group of fewer than 200 universities and conservatories worldwide with the All-Steinway School designation. “In music, especially in piano performance, having a good instrument can bring you to the next level,” Cheng said. “For all the elite music schools around the world, becoming an All-Steinway School is really the goal. When you present yourself as an All-Steinway School, you don’t really need to say much more. That’s when you know that the teachers know what they’re doing, and the school knows what’s important and how to support students. “I’m really grateful and happy to be in this community where everybody supports music so much.” Student-centered approach The All-Steinway School designation and the music lab aren’t the only unique aspects of the program. Music professor Merryl Goldberg, who arrived at CSUSM the same year as Bradbury, notes that the small professor-to-student ratio is a boon for students, who are able to provide input into the structure of their degree. “Their path might be rock ’n’ roll, it might be classical or mariachi or some type of folk music, but we’re able to support and nurture students in any path they choose,” Goldberg said. “It’s really student centered.” The program has a group of core courses that all music majors take and then they are free to emphasize a specific area based on their interests. “The flexibility in creating your own degree that works for you is really unparalleled,” said Spencer Osborne, who will graduate in spring 2019 with a degree in music composition. “I don’t know another school that does that.” Students’ musical experience when they arrive at CSUSM runs the gamut from those who are highly skilled to others who are at a beginner level. Kristina Vo is one who arrived at CSUSM highly skilled on the piano, but she never considered majoring in music – not until she took a course with Cheng. Kristina started playing the piano when she was 7 years old and continued through high school. Then she quit, figuring it was time to focus on her economics major when she enrolled at CSUSM. Then Kristina signed up for an intermediate piano class taught by Cheng. With her previous playing experience, Kristina figured she would get an A in the class before moving on to fulfilling other graduation requirements. Instead, with encouragement from Cheng, Kristina added a second major and graduated in May with degrees in economics and music. “The professors are really passionate about teaching and conveying their passion to students,” Kristina said. Burgeoning program The growth over the past few years has attracted talented musicians eager to be part of CSUSM’s burgeoning music program. “We have really high caliber faculty,” Bradbury said. “There’s a lot of faculty-student interaction, which is really important, especially in music.” Renowned trumpeter Curtis Taylor, a Grammy Award-winning artist who has played in a dozen countries and with some of the heavyweights of jazz, is one such instructor. While some of his students are relatively new to their instrument, Taylor embraces the challenge of getting them up to speed. A music lecturer at CSUSM since spring 2016, Taylor begins each semester by finding a common starting place and building upon everyone’s knowledge base. “That happens through the instruction and the concepts I teach, but it also happens through the students who know a little more helping the students who don’t know as much,” Taylor said. “I try to foster that team-building environment. “It’s so rewarding. Even if people don’t go on to have a career in music, you can take the skills you learn from music in practice and discipline and consistency, and you can apply it to any area of your life that you want to excel in.” Malesha Taylor is another recent addition to the music program, becoming the department’s voice teacher in the spring. Malesha Taylor taught Vocal and Instrumental Instruction in the spring and will be leading a performance ensemble that will perform traditional and contemporary gospel music in the fall. “What I really like about this music department, which is unique to all music departments that I’ve ever seen, is the students are learning different genres,” said Malesha Taylor, noting that the repertoire of her students includes classical, Latin jazz, traditional jazz, musical theater, pop and soul, among other genres. Bright future Curtis Taylor and Malesha Taylor are two of nearly a dozen lecturers in the music department. Bradbury, Cheng, Goldberg and department chair Mtafiti Imara comprise the full-time faculty. Their presence and work toward developing the music major – not to mention the revamped music lab and All-Steinway School designation – have helped put CSUSM’s music program on the map throughout the region. “Our award-winning music faculty are skilled and talented artists, teachers and scholars,” said Julia Johnson, dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences. “They have won multiple awards, including Emmys and grants from organizations like the National Endowment of the Arts or the Federal Department of Education Arts in Education Program. “Additionally, they travel globally to perform for and to educate audiences in every part of the world. Students studying music at CSUSM have the benefit of learning from these accomplished professionals as they work toward their own professional goals as musicians.” Bradbury still remembers the email he sent to faculty when the music major was approved three years ago. He noted that the “grunt work” was done, referring to the committees, the seemingly endless paperwork and designing the curriculum. It was time to start the “real work.” “Now we have students coming here expecting this degree,” he said. “We have faculty with so much energy who are so supportive of the students. It’s really an exciting time.” The department members aren’t resting on their laurels. Space constraints are an ongoing issue as the music department shares Arts 111, the campus’ lone performance hall, with dance and theater classes. One of the more immediate priorities is raising funds for student scholarships. But seeing all that has been accomplished in a short period of time, Cheng has no doubt they can reach these goals and more. “Every semester something good happens,” Cheng said. “We’re growing so fast. We keep getting the right support. “The community really sees the importance of music education and arts education.”
- Rhapsody in Brew: Alumni Grow Culver Beer Co. Into Thriving BusinessBen Fairweather and Mike Stevenson have learned more than their share of lessons while working to open Culver Beer Company. But the biggest surprise? “The money going out the door,” said Stevenson, laughing. “Lucky for us beer is a pretty good bartering option,” Fairweather added. A few growlers of Tiger Ride or Strange Ways, two of Culver’s signature beers, goes a long way when it comes to getting help with welding or installing fire sprinklers. The lessons Fairweather and Stevenson learned are paying off as Carlsbad-based Culver continues to thrive since opening its doors in February 2016. “One of my favorite things is all the regulars we have,” Fairweather said. “We have all these friends from all walks of life. That’s what’s cool about it. People say it’s like the local Cheers.” Fairweather and Stevenson both grew up in coastal North County and attended Cal State San Marcos. But it wasn’t until after graduating – Fairweather with a business administration degree in 2014 and Stevenson with a bachelor’s in economics in 2012 – that they met through mutual friends and bonded over their shared passion for craft beer and a desire to start their own brewery. Fairweather had tried his hand at home brewing during college with minimal success – “That’s why I had to get Mike involved,” he said with a laugh – but he possessed the necessary business acumen to open a brewery. Stevenson also did some home brewing while at CSUSM, but wasn’t happy with the results. After graduating, he emailed breweries in Germany offering free labor in exchange for a bed and meals so he could learn the ins and outs of brewing. After six months at a brewery near Cologne, Germany, he returned to San Diego to work at Twisted Manzanita Ales and Spirits. “The experience in Germany was really cool,” Stevenson said, “but the experience at Manzanita truly taught me craft production brewing.” Once Fairweather and Stevenson decided to open Culver, they began navigating the lengthy, and often complex, approval process. The six-month waiting period to present their proposal to the Carlsbad City Council gave them ample time to work on plans for the business. They secured warehouse space on Loker Avenue in Carlsbad and were able to move quickly once the city approved the tasting room. There were hiccups along the way – they chose the name Culver after learning of trademark issues regarding their original choice – but Fairweather and Stevenson treated them as part of the learning process. They decided on a Frankenbrew system, which saved money by using parts from a variety of sources. By implementing cost-effective measures such as repurposing old dairy tanks, they were able to devote more resources to new fermenters. “A lot of breweries will start over $1 million in debt because they’ll just buy a brand new system,” Stevenson said. “That was a little scary for us and there wasn’t really a way we could have done that.” Fairweather and Stevenson were also able to rely on strong network of connections in getting Culver open. They did much of the labor themselves and used the ultimate currency in their business – beer – to get help with some of the more complicated projects. “There’s a big sweat equity aspect of it,” Fairweather said. The tasting room itself has undergone quite a makeover since first opening. Fairweather regularly scours Craigslist and eBay for potential additions. Even the bar top in the tasting room came from part of an old bowling lane. One highly anticipated change is coming this summer with the opening of an adjacent deli, Locally Toasted. While some breweries rely on food trucks, getting one scheduled can be a challenge so Fairweather and Stevenson figured they might as well have their own on-site food option for customers. But beer will always have center stage. Culver produced 240 barrels last year and is on pace for 500 in 2018. As the craft brewing capital of the world, San Diego County is well known for its IPAs, and Culver certainly offers its own array of IPA options. But Fairweather and Stevenson also take pride in the other styles they offer. Tiger Ride, a Belgian blonde, won a bronze medal at last year’s San Diego International Beer Festival. “Mike does a great job spreading out the beers and having a broad range available,” Fairweather said. Fairweather and Stevenson said they’re continuing to learn as they grow the business, and they look forward to expanding in the coming years. While each day brings a new lesson, they are also applying the lessons learned from their time at CSUSM. In Stevenson’s case, that includes using the knowledge imparted by CSUSM economics professor Ranjeeta Basu, who showed him the importance of analyzing data sets. As Stevenson notes, every sale that goes through the register tells them something. “Even if I don’t use it right away, six months down the road I’ll have a big data set in case I have a question,” he said. Then there were the other practical lessons learned at CSUSM. “I’m really good at Excel,” Stevenson said, with a laugh. “All of the professors were always helpful,” Fairweather added. “Even after I had graduated they were happy to answer questions. It’s a nice culture that they’ve created at Cal State San Marcos and it’s cool to be part of that. “And, yeah, Mike’s really good at Excel.”
- Crafting a Career: Colburn Uses Passion for Beer to Help Local BreweriesLong before San Diego came to be known as the “Capital of Craft” and the 78 was nicknamed “Hops Highway,” Todd Colburn was a lover of beer. This was in the 1980s — before Stone, before Karl Strauss, before Ballast Point — and he and his best friend (an accomplished homebrewer) would plan road trips around trying to find these far-flung, off-the-beaten-path things called microbreweries. Colburn still loves beer. But he has turned his passion into both a career and a fulfilling side gig. After a five-year stint as the senior marketing director for local beer behemoth Stone Brewing, Colburn in 2016 founded Higher Gravity Brand Advocates, a San Diego-based consulting firm for the craft brewing industry. For small breweries that don’t have a marketing department, Colburn and his team help them with branding, logo design, copywriting, public relations and social media, among other services. “There are so many breweries now that it’s hard to stand out,” Colburn said. “That’s where Higher Gravity brings value, to help brands of all sizes and phases to stand apart from other breweries, to do things that are unique to make consumers want to buy their beer.” Also two years ago, Colburn began working at Cal State San Marcos as an adjunct faculty adviser in the College of Business Administration, leading student teams in the Senior Experience program, often on projects related to the craft beer industry. Colburn, a member of the College of Business Administration advisory board for several years because of his association with Stone, a longtime partner of CSUSM, decided to pursue a closer involvement with the college after attending a dean’s breakfast in the spring of 2016. “The passion and enthusiasm was infectious and inspiring,” he said. “I called up Dean Jim Hamerly and said, ‘How can I do more?’ It’s been a natural for me to be an adviser, and I’ve really enjoyed it.” Colburn is also on the leadership team of the San Diego Brewers Guild, which last year partnered with CSUSM to produce a 2017 economic impact report on local craft breweries. And he’s a major advocate for the CSUSM Extended Learning program called EngiBeering™, which is launching this fall to serve people who work at breweries and want to advance their careers or for those who just want to learn about brewing science. It will be the only such program in North County. “I’m involved in all these initiatives,” Colburn said, “and really my main motivation is to elevate awareness for craft beer in San Diego and make it the capital of craft beer in the world, and develop Cal State San Marcos to be a research and resource hub for craft beer.”
- On the Spot: Is America Failing the Working Mother?Perhaps you’ve heard, breast is best. Or, party at the breast, coined by the late Encinitas lactation trailblazer Vicki Wolfrum. They are catchphrases that many new mothers hear. They are simple, yet salient, slogans that align with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation that babies be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, with breastfeeding continuing beyond the first year. Despite the medical community being armed with extensive research on the value of breastfeeding for both mom and baby, if meeting the one-year benchmark were a college course, America would receive a failing grade. In the U.S., 81 percent of mothers initiate breastfeeding, but by three months that number is nearly cut in half with only 44 percent of mothers exclusively breastfeeding. “A lot of nursing mothers struggle to pump the milk their babies need once they return to work and many inevitably give up,” said Olivia Nolan, a recent graduate of CSUSM’s public health program. “In order to improve public health, this needs to be a public conversation.” Nolan, along with public health graduate students Shawnee Morgan and Lisa Hammond, pioneered a research study that explored lactation supportive environments for both working mothers and student mothers. “We’re working to change the American culture,” Morgan said. “Just like you see a restroom sign, we want lactation rooms to be readily available and normalized. It doesn’t need to be something we whisper about.” The team conducted surveys, led focus groups, toured work sites across California, curated an index of resources and even shared their findings with lawmakers. They discovered a great chasm. Many mothers are unaware of available resources and many employers are falling short in supporting the new working mom. In 2010, it became federal law that employers provide nursing mothers with private space other than a bathroom for pumping breast milk, as well as reasonable break time to express milk as frequently as needed by the nursing mother. “But current laws are too vague and offer little enforcement,” said Nolan. By six months, the number of nursing mothers exclusively breastfeeding plummets to 22 percent. “I get it,” Hammond said. “With many mothers already feeling the often unspoken ‘mommy tax,’ many avoid asking for accommodations for lactation.” But accommodating lactation is an economic no-brainer, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP reports that for every $1 invested in creating and supporting a lactation support program (including a designated pump site that guarantees privacy, availability of refrigeration and a hand-washing facility, and appropriate mother break time) there is a $3 return. “Employers can be key to a mother’s success,” said Lisa Bandong, the supervising faculty for the research team. “The best first step we can all take is to start the conversation.”
- End of an Era: Running Legend Leaves Lasting LegacyIt was a run-of-the-mill workout when one of the Cal State San Marcos runners sensed someone on her hip. But it wasn’t just anyone tagging along – it was running legend Steve Scott. “He jumped in and ran with me,” Natalie Rodriguez said, “then he started going pretty fast. He still has it and he still loves to run.” The only cross country and track and field coach in CSUSM’s history, Scott stepped down at the end of the spring season after nearly two decades at the helm of the Cougars. “I feel honored to have had him as a coach,” Rodriguez said. “He doesn't act like he was a superstar back in the day.” There was a time when Rodriguez didn’t know much about Scott’s résumé. But it wasn’t long before she learned about the Great Scott. Learned that he was a two-time Olympian – and would have been a three-time Olympian had the United States not boycotted the 1980 Games. Learned that he held the American mile indoor mark (3 minutes, 47.69 seconds) for 26 years. Learned that he ran an unprecedented 136 sub-four-minute miles. Learned that he is a member of the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame. “When I researched him I was amazed at what he had accomplished,” Rodriguez said. “I’m so lucky to have had him as a coach and a mentor.” Luck? The Cougars got a big dose of it when Scott agreed to come aboard. Inauspicious beginning The christening of CSUSM’s Mangrum Track and Soccer Field in 1999 was a big deal. Longtime Cougars supporter Bob Mangrum wanted his running hero, Scott, to preside over the opening ceremonies. Scott was all in, although he wasn’t sure where CSUSM was located. “I thought it was across the 78 freeway from where San Marcos City Hall is,” Scott said with a laugh. “The only buildings on campus then I think were Craven Hall and the University Commons.” There were few cellphones back in 1999 and when Scott's ride was late to the track’s ground breaking, Scott didn’t make it to the ceremony. “When I said I would do it I had no idea what Cal State San Marcos was or where it was,” Scott said. “And when it became clear I couldn’t make it, I couldn’t call anyone because they were already out on the track.” An embarrassed Scott finally reached someone at CSUSM with a mighty mea culpa. But Scott’s rare misstep turned into a stroke of good fortune for CSUSM. Scott wanted to make things right so he went to Mangrum’s Valley Center home, where they enjoyed grub and a run. Mangrum revealed that the Cougars were starting a track and cross country program and, oh by the way, would Scott know of any coaching candidates? Scott’s right arm shot up so fast it’s a wonder he didn't dislocate his shoulder. “Yeah, me,” Scott said. With his racing career in the rear-view mirror, the rat race wasn’t agreeing with Scott. He was selling sponsorships for the Carlsbad 5K, an event he co-founded, and hawking nutritional goods. “I was miserable,” Scott said. “I needed something I could be passionate about, like I was with my running. So when he asked about finding a coach, it was the answer to my prayers.” One of a kind There were few runners like Scott. After graduating from Upland High School, about 90 miles north of CSUSM, he ran for UC Irvine before embarking on a running career that few equaled. Scott set the American indoor and outdoor records in the mile and the indoor standard at 2,000 meters. Track and Field News had Scott ranked No. 1 in the U.S. in 10 different years. There are scads more eye-popping marks and milestones. Scott even established the world record of playing a round of speed golf, scoring a 95 on 18 holes in under 30 minutes. Some would like to hear more tales of Scott’s running dominance, but he isn’t one to boast. “He’s a very humble man and he does not brag about what he did,” CSUSM runner Lisa Flora said. “We have to pry it out of him.” Greatness as an athlete doesn’t always translate into being a top-flight coach. Often those who have performed at the highest level don’t have patience to teach someone not up to those standards. Then there is Scott. “At the beginning of the season he always reminded us that he is happy as long as we are happy,” Flora said. “And to make him happy, you don’t have to be fastest on the team. As long as you are doing your best and are a good teammate, he is happy. That was always his main objective.” Lasting legacy What will the next 20 years bring for the CSUSM cross country and track and field programs? Scott sees only positive visions. The school successfully made the transition to NCAA Division II, and Scott said few universities offer what CSUSM does. “It’s got tremendous potential,” he said. “I could see this school being a dominant force in all of the California Collegiate Athletic Association sports because of the size of the school and our location, close to the ocean. It pretty much has everything, and other schools pale in comparison. Plus, we can start tapping into our graduates and have them support their alma mater.” Any time CSUSM Athletic Director Jennifer Milo needed a voice to spread the word on CSUSM, Scott was always available. “He was the first one to say ‘yes’ if asked to go speak to a group or do an event or clinic with youngsters,” Milo said. “He always lent a hand. That’s what is special about Steve and who he is as a person.” This being school, everyone gets a report card. When Scott’s evaluations landed on Milo’s desk, she knew the scores before opening the folder. “The student-athletes all say how much Coach Scott cares about them,” Milo said. “To Steve, it’s not just about how fast they run or how many miles they run. It’s how they are as people and how they are developing in college and working toward that degree and getting that job once they graduate.” After two decades, Scott is moving on to the next chapter of his life, but the Cougars are the better for his time at CSUSM. “I hate to lose Steve’s leadership in our department, but he has built his legacy and is leaving here having accomplished everything and more than he could have hoped for,” Milo said. “His student-athletes are better people because they had Steve Scott in their life.”
- Gift From Burnhams Benefits Nonprofits and StudentsCal State San Marcos’ Senior Experience Program has helped regional businesses and nonprofits for a quarter of a century. Now, thanks to a gift from Malin and Roberta Burnham through the Burnham Foundation, the door is open for additional nonprofits that may not have had the means to participate in the past.
- How Two Mothers Inspired a GiftStella Clark once had a student who was forced to sneak into his grandmother’s nursing home at night to sleep on the floor because he had nowhere else to go. Clark, who founded the Modern Language Studies department at Cal State San Marcos, recalls many students who struggled to make ends meet while they attended college.
- Commitment to ServiceCatalina Melendez isn’t fazed by a daunting schedule. “It’s challenging, but it’s not unbearable,” said Catalina, who will graduate from Cal State San Marcos in May with a bachelor’s in speech-language pathology. Being a full-time student is just one aspect of Catalina’s busy life. She is raising three children – 16- and 11-year-old daughters and a 9-year-old son. She is in the Navy Reserves, eligible to be called to active duty any time now that the three-year exemption since her last active tour in Afghanistan ended in 2014. Then there is the long list of school-related activities, including the Student Veterans Organization and the National Student Speech Language & Hearing Association (NSSLHA). And, for good measure, she’s a PTA member and volunteers every other Wednesday at Tri-City Medical Center. Catalina served in the Marines for nearly nine years before stepping away to focus on her family. Missing the military, Catalina eventually joined the Navy Reserves. It was while serving in Afghanistan that she learned about speech therapy from a co-worker and began giving serious thought to earning her bachelor’s. Catalina enrolled at MiraCosta College upon her return from deployment and is part of the first cohort in CSUSM’s speech-language pathology bachelor’s program. “Throughout her undergraduate studies in speech-language pathology at CSUSM, Cat has contributed to the overall excellence of both the department and its students,” said Rachel Nortz, a lecturer in CSUSM’s speech-language pathology department and the chapter adviser for NSSLHA. “Cat holds the position of undergraduate student liaison for the NSSLHA chapter at CSUSM and through this position she has encouraged new membership involvement from the student body. Being a veteran herself, she has already given back to her country and she now wants to continue that journey by becoming a speech-language pathologist.” Catalina plans to continue her education after receiving her bachelor’s, setting her sights on obtaining a doctorate in audiology, which focuses on hearing, balance and related disorders. “My command is really good about working with me, especially knowing that I’m a full-time student,” she said. “One of my senior chiefs really looks out for his people. That’s what I like about the military. You have those people who really stand out and take care of you. That’s how I want to be. That’s what’s kept me in the military – good people.”
- How Diversity Has Led CSUSM from the BeginningDiversity isn’t a fad. It’s in our DNA at Cal State San Marcos. More than demographics, diversity at CSUSM represents three core values: inclusion, social justice and equity.
- Rising Above: Biology Student Aims to Help OthersFrancisco Fernandez knows the importance of higher education. As he enters the final stretch of a seven-year journey toward his bachelor’s degree, Francisco is determined to help others from his hometown of Zapopan, Mexico, follow a similar path to college. Even if it means helping to pay for it himself. Francisco, a senior molecular and cellular biology student at Cal State San Marcos, regularly sends money to his mother in Lomas de Tabachines, a community in the northeast part of Zapopan, which is about 1,400 miles south of Tijuana. She then distributes it to children in the community who are doing well in school. It is typically just $5 here or $10 there, but the nominal amounts of money aren’t nearly as important as the gesture. Francisco will do whatever he can to inspire people from his hometown to pursue an education. “If I get one kid to go to college over there, I’m happy,” Francisco said. Francisco isn’t just helping financially, he’s setting an example through his actions. In September, his efforts were recognized at the California State University Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach where he was presented with the CSU Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement. The award is given annually to one student from each of the CSU’s 23 campuses who demonstrates superior academic performance, personal accomplishments, community service and financial need. “Francisco is always eager to learn and has an outstanding work ethic,” said Dr. Matthew Escobar, a CSUSM professor of biological sciences and Francisco’s mentor in the Maximizing Access to Research Careers-Undergraduate Student Training Research (MARC U*STAR) program. It’s been a remarkable journey for someone who arrived in the United States a day after his 18th birthday knowing just one word of English – “Hello.” As a teenager, Francisco said he was constantly told he wasn’t smart enough or wealthy enough to attend college. Rather than discourage him, it fueled a desire to pursue an education and help his family. To do that, he knew he had to leave Zapopan. “My high school years in Mexico are just a blur,” he said. “I didn’t know how to be a student. I wasn’t mature enough to be a student and I didn’t do well.” Francisco was born in the U.S., but his parents moved back to Mexico when he was an infant. He returned some 18 years later, in September 2011, and moved into the garage of an uncle who lives in Escondido. Almost immediately, Francisco began taking night classes to learn English. He got a job at a car wash – the same business where his parents worked two decades earlier – and eventually settled into a schedule that had him working 16 hours a day three days a week so he could attend community college Monday through Thursday. Trying to learn English, not to mention the intricacies of higher education, while taking courses at Palomar proved challenging. Francisco didn’t know what a credit class was, didn’t know about choosing a major and didn’t know the first thing about writing an essay. “I literally didn’t know anything,” he said. “Luckily for me, there’s a lot of people who speak Spanish at Palomar and I got a lot of help.” Though Francisco was able to get some direction from advisers, he still cringes when thinking about his early struggles in class. As his English slowly improved, Francisco took his first science course at Palomar. It proved to be a life-changing experience. It was in Jim Gilardi’s biology class that Francisco learned about the North San Diego County Bridges to the Future Program, a partnership between CSUSM, Palomar and MiraCosta to help prepare underrepresented students for a seamless transition to a four-year university and a career in biomedical sciences. The program includes a stipend for students, which allowed Francisco to ease up on the number of hours he was working each week and spend more time focusing on his classes and research. Another door opened after he transferred to CSUSM when he learned about the Office for Training, Research & Education in the Sciences (OTRES) and was accepted into MARC U*STAR, which prepares qualified underrepresented undergraduate students majoring in the sciences to enter and succeed in doctoral studies. Only five new scholars are admitted to the program each year. The accompanying program stipend allowed Francisco to quit his outside jobs and focus completely on school. With more time to devote to his studies, his grades skyrocketed. “OTRES is like your family,” he said. “They care about you. They help you with your personal problems, they help you with your research problems, they help you look for opportunities. I call them my school family, but they’re my family.” Francisco was chosen for a summer research program at Marshall University in 2016 and completed a stem cell summer program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 2017. The experience in Dallas led him to put UT Southwestern among his top choices for pursuing his Ph.D. “It’s been a long trip from literally knowing nothing to applying to Ph.D. programs,” Francisco said. “If you would have told me two years ago that I’d be applying to Ph.D. programs, I would have said you’re joking.” Francisco doesn’t get back to Zapopan often. It’s a long, expensive trek, so he only visits every two years or so. But he communicates daily with his family via Facebook. His parents tell him about the people in his community who are keeping tabs from afar, invested in Francisco’s success as if he were their own son. It’s similar to the reaction he receives when he visits the car wash where he used to work. “Now when I go to the car wash people ask if I’m doing my best and say, ‘Show them you can do it,’ ” Francisco said. “I have a lot of people who believe in me, here in the U.S. at the car wash and in Mexico in my community. “I’m pretty lucky. I come from humble beginnings, but when I was hungry, I always had food. Even though I struggled a lot, I consider my life as being easy. My parents are alive, I have all my limbs, I can see. I’m lucky. I want to help people who haven’t been as lucky.”
- Business Student Can’t Be Held DownJeff Mata never planned to attend college. He never thought about competing in judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He certainly didn’t expect to speak to audiences about the challenges he has overcome. Mata never could have predicted just how much the life he was living in his early 20s would change now that he’s 35. “If I still had my eyesight and was still doing the whole drinking thing, I could have totally gone off track, maybe gone to jail or even died,” said Mata, who will graduate from Cal State San Marcos with a bachelor’s in business administration next fall. “Now I have a new life. I’m living a new, healthy lifestyle and really looking forward to the future. I’m seeing the world in a different way, which I think is a better way. At a certain point in my life, I couldn’t see the big picture that I see now. I was going in a different direction, for sure.” Mata transitioned from a standout wrestler at nearby Poway High School to a fledgling boxer after graduation. When he wasn’t training, he was making a good living in sales. But Mata’s excessive training took a physical toll. He suffered a retinal detachment in his left eye as well as uveitis, an inflammation of the eyeball. Mata’s vision loss was gradual and he completely lost his sight in 2008. “It was devastating,” he said. “I went into a depression and everything was negative – anything and everything was negative. If there was something positive, I’d find something negative about it.” Mata said he tried filling the emptiness he felt through drinking and drugs, and the downward cycle continued for four years. “When I lost my eyesight, my independence was stripped away from me,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything for myself. I couldn’t even choose an outfit for the day by myself. That really takes a lot of your dignity away. It’s a humbling experience.” The turning point came through his Christian faith. Mata attended two rehabilitation programs where he learned how to live and function without his eyesight. At one of the rehab programs, Mata decided to sit in on a Bible study. He started attending church with his parents. He also witnessed the premature death of multiple friends who had lost their eyesight and endured struggles similar to his own. He didn’t want to follow the same path and knew it was time for change. Getting clean opened up opportunities. Once a finely tuned athlete, Mata gained weight during his depression. While learning living skills in the rehab center, people told him his athletic background would make him an excellent candidate for judo. It took a couple of years for him to act on the suggestion, but he eventually found a dojo in San Marcos that trains people with visual impairments. In addition to judo, Mata started competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu against sighted athletes. He has thrived in both disciplines, qualifying for the U.S. visually impaired judo team and competing – and winning – against sighted opponents in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He earned his third gold medal in October at the Sport Jiu-Jitsu Federation World Championships. Mata’s athletic prowess has earned him a sponsorship with Shoyoroll, a highly regarded manufacturer of the gi garments worn in martial arts. He also has received financial support for training from the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Mata frequently shares his story with others. He’s a speaker for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and also speaks at recovery centers and schools. At CSUSM, he serves as a peer leader in the Tukwut Leadership Circle, which helps students build their leadership skills. “I want to continue sharing the message that there is still hope and purpose in your life regardless of what disability or ailment you may have,” he said. Before losing his sight, Mata never gave a thought to pursuing higher education. Now, he’s a year away from becoming the first in his family to earn a degree. Mata communicates frequently with his professors to ensure that they describe anything that he may not be able to see such as a PowerPoint presentation. Mata said CSUSM’s Office of Disability Support Services has been invaluable in his success, helping him get documents in an accessible format as quickly as possible. Mata plans to continue his education after receiving his bachelor’s with a Ph.D. being his ultimate goal. He also will continue to stay busy with judo and jiu-jitsu and wants to expand his work as a motivational speaker. He is even looking into writing a book about his journey. “I just want to continue inspiring and motivating people who may be going through a struggle in their life, who may have lost hope and bring some light into their life,” Mata said. “It only takes a little bit of light to shine through a whole lot of darkness.”
- Alumna Finds Renewed Purpose as CFOFemale finance chiefs are rising. While the representation of women in senior financial roles is still less than 15 percent among Fortune 500 companies, there is progress. Last year, the number of female CFOs doubled. One of those executives joining that C-suite rank is CSUSM alumna Denise Gurulé (’10). In May 2017, Gurulé was named CFO of Feeding San Diego, the leading hunger-relief organization in San Diego County that provides 25.2 million meals annually to local residents. Gurulé never imagined herself in the nonprofit arena, having spent nearly 15 years working for Merlin Entertainment’s LEGOLAND California. She worked her way up from junior accountant to assistant controller while earning her BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in accounting at Cal State San Marcos. From her executive office above Feeding San Diego’s warehouse in Sorrento Valley, Gurulé laughs at the irony, recalling a business course in government and nonprofit accounting and how she scoffed at the thought of ever leaving the for-profit industry. “I remember thinking, ‘Who would do this?’” she said. On her nearly two-decade-long academic journey – one that included an extended hiatus as she took guardianship of her 2-year-old second cousin (who she now calls her daughter) – the single mom found that her love for numbers had a greater purpose to serve people. U-Turns and Speed Bumps Gurulé was 41 when she crossed the commencement stage to shake President Karen Haynes’ hand. The road to her bachelors was long and it included speed bumps and some unexpected detours. The ’86 San Marcos High School graduate first wanted to be a fashion buyer and even studied at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Though it was a passion, pursuing fashion as a career never quite felt right. So Gurulé turned to a familiar subject that always clicked for her: mathematics. Thinking she might like to own a business one day, accounting seemed like a natural fit. She enrolled in accounting courses at Palomar College, taking one course at a time and in 1999, she began working in the accounting department at LEGOLAND California. She transferred to CSUSM in 2000. That first year, Gurulé became a single mother as she took guardianship of Amanda. Adjusting to the new role of mom while balancing work and school was debilitating. Gurulé took a step back from her studies and put her degree on hold. Seven years passed, and then one night during a family dinner, her dad spoke up. “I remember him telling me, ‘Mija, I want you to finish your degree. Move back home, we’ll help with Amanda, and we’ll make this work.’” Moving home in her mid-thirties didn’t feel like progress, but Gurulé knew she would need the support of her family. She also knew that this time around, she needed a mentor. Gurulé was matched with then-business professor Dr. Jim Hamerly as part of the University’s Faculty Mentoring Program. Focused on her studies, working part time and armed with a mentor, Gurulé thrived. She was promoted to assistant controller a few months before she earned her bachelors. When Gurulé was ready for the next challenge, she once again turned to her mentor, Dr. Hamerly, who suggested she consider TGG Accounting to give her more opportunity to grow in her career. A competitive recruiter for CSUSM alumni, TGG is a managerial accounting firm that works with small businesses to help owners make better informed financial decisions for their companies. Crunching the Numbers for Good At TGG Gurulé discovered that her knack for accounting enabled nonprofits to serve more people, operate at greater capacity and flourish financially. Gurulé quickly became the go-to nonprofit accountant for her firm. It was there that Feeding San Diego came on her radar. She began as a consultant, filling gaps in accounting leadership. In November 2014, Gurulé officially moved over to Feeding San Diego as the director of finance. Last May, CEO Vince Hall named Gurulé the Chief Financial Officer. It’s a Matter of Green Feeding San Diego is part of the 200-member network of Feeding America and a member of the California Association of Food Banks – connections that allow the organization to leverage resources at minimal costs. For example, when local farmer harvests are larger than demand or when produce is deemed aesthetically unsellable because it’s misshapen, farmers donate their product and organizations like Feeding San Diego pay a small pack-and-pick fee to cover farm operation costs. The partnership means healthy food options are made available to families in need at the lowest cost to the organization. It’s a partnership made possible by financial strategy and agreements. That creative thinking fuels Gurulé and has her focused on the next big challenge. San Diego needs 80 million meals to meet the food insecurity needs of the community. Only about half of that need is being met by area food pantries and nonprofits. “Accountants are always working in the past,” Gurulé said. “My goal as a CFO is to work with our executive leadership team and look into the future to talk about how we’re going to meet the need. Being a CFO gives me the freedom to dream, and then crunch the numbers and find fiscally responsible solutions to get us there.” “What we do is so important. Leaving a legacy is what matters. I want to know that I left my world better than it was when I got here, and to accomplish that you need to start with what’s right in front of you.”
- Crate Expectations: New one-stop Shop for WorkoutsThe weight was worth it. "And it looks good with the blue turf,'' CSUSM basketball player Ethan Alvano said. Cal State San Marcos’ newest fitness facility -- powered by Aire-brand equipment, weights and training ropes -- has blossomed behind the M. Gordon Clarke Field House. A converted shipping crate is serving CSUSM students and athletes with a one-stop, outdoor tarp-covered strength and conditioning area that comes with a cushioned surface and a killer view looking west. It has quickly become a place to see and be seen. "You know how there is a Muscle Beach up in Venice?'' Erik Blekeberg said. "This is our beach.'' Well, if it's a beach then Blekeberg is its lifeguard. Blekeberg, who is in his second year as the CSUSM Sports Performance coach, recalls what was used before the center’s arrival. "It was this small, little Home Depot storage shed that you would have for a couple lawn mowers in the backyard,'' Blekeberg said. CSUSM student-athletes wanting to be a cut above also toiled under an unrelenting sun. But a canopy now shelters them from the elements. "It's exciting because you have this space which has everything,'' Alvano said. Blekeberg said the ability to organize workouts and have them in a confined, but comfortable, setting is essential when overseeing 13 Cougars squads. "It makes for a better way to organize the teams and manage them more efficiently,'' Blekeberg said. “There is little transition time from the start of the workout to going to work on turf, or on speed, or on jumping. Everything is just more efficient and you get more work and you get better.'' Blekeberg, who also teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology I and II at CSUSM, tailors workouts to the skill set of the athletes on the particular teams. It's his way of improving their play as he serves as a coach, albeit one who is concentrating on bodies and fitness and not techniques. "I can't teach somebody how to pitch or how to shoot a jump shot,'' Blekeberg said. “But if a coach comes to me and says, 'We're slow,' I can make them faster. If a coach says, 'My team doesn't jump well,' we can make them more powerful. "Then I get a kick out of seeing their improvement. It validates my work.'' Blekeberg didn't play sports while a student at nearby San Dieguito Academy. He liked video games and was "a nerd that wasn't necessarily the most gifted athlete.'' But he enjoyed the weight room, where he would work on building up different parts of his body. Now he does it for the Cougars' teams. "Let's say you want to get better at basketball,'' he said. “Well, if you can improve your jumping, then you can improve your basketball. That's how I look at it.'' Said Alvano: "It's awesome. And it's just another thing going on with San Marcos athletics. It's an exciting time right now.''
- Committed to Inspiring a Diverse Student BodyBorn and raised in the highlands of Kenya, Dr. David Bwambok was mesmerized by the healing powers in traditional medicinal plants often employed to treat villagers in place of modern pharmaceuticals. He set out to find out why, earning a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in analytical chemistry and furthering his research as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard along the way. After more than three years as a senior scientist at Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry in Wilmington, Mass., Bwambok in September took what he learned and became an assistant professor in chemistry and biochemistry at Cal State San Marcos – drawn in large part by its commitment to diversity. “I wanted to broaden the impact I was having, and for me, teaching is the best way to do that,” said Bwambok, whose research emphasizes the interface of chemistry and biology and who is interested in designing task-specific ionic liquid materials for forensic analysis and medical diagnostics. “It’s very fulfilling to see someone who may have a limited background in chemistry discover, ‘Yes, I can do this, I, too, can make a difference.’ ” Why CSUSM? “There is something about this place,” said Bwambok, whose daughter is a CSUSM criminology and justice studies major and who notes the campus setting reminds him of his childhood home in the Kenyan highlands. “There is a collaborative environment, a very inclusive environment with a commitment to diversity. I am the first in my family to go to college, and when I came here, I found so many students who also are the first in their family to go to college and who come from a similar background. It feels like family.”
- Knocking the ‘Fluff’ Out of ArtMerryl Goldberg is on a mission to change public perception of the arts. “I’ve never met a kid who wasn’t capable,” said Goldberg, a music professor in CSUSM’s School of Arts. “I have met a lot of kids who haven’t had opportunities. I was one of those kids for whom the arts opened a world of possibility.” For Goldberg – an avid boxer with a wicked left hook and longtime professional saxophonist turned renowned leader in arts education – one of the greatest challenges to fully integrating the arts in K-12 education is debunking the notion that arts are fluff or “nice to have” despite what research proves. “There is now a significant body of research that shows that kids who participate in the arts perform better in school, attain better jobs and become empathetic citizens” said Goldberg, who has been studying how art influences learning for more than two decades. “But what I have found is that the research isn’t enough.” To break through that stigma of fluff, Goldberg is zeroing in on public awareness as part of her newest endeavor, ARTS=OPPORTUNITY, a research-based initiative backed by a $200,000 grant from the Stuart Foundation and $25,000 grant from the Panta Rhea Foundation. ARTS=OPPORTUNITY focuses on improving K-12 arts literacy and advocates that every child, every day needs to have real opportunities to learn in, and through, the arts. Led by a team of artists, educators and business leaders, the multifaceted program, which launched late last year, provides leadership training, summits, workshops and anchor events for educators, parents, youth and teens, and arts providers. Goldberg has her sights set on the big picture. Beyond improving K-12 test scores and attendance rates, which increase significantly when art is integrated in the K-12 curriculum, research shows that participation in the arts can be a precursor to career success and civic involvement. Not only does art encourage risk taking, flexibility and thinking outside of the box, but a student who participates in art is more likely to pursue and succeed in college. Art-literate students are sought after as employees and set higher career goals. “Art is essential and it unlocks opportunity,” Goldberg said. “I revel in helping to change the landscape of education so that all kids, especially kids who have not had opportunities, have a chance to have arts fused into their daily lives.” Learn more at csusm.edu/artopp
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