Sigma Xi installed its newest chapter at Cal State San Marcos on March 25.  Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, is the world’s largest multidisciplinary honor society with an international community of scientists and engineers dedicated to research excellence, promoting public engagement with science, and cultivating the next generations of researchers. Maya Qaddourah, a graduating biochemistry major, helped start the CSUSM chapter. She first brought the idea up to the Committee of Undergraduate Research (CUGR) in November 2023. She helped create a student organization through the Student Leadership and Involvement Center. It was a complex effort that involved bringing together groups across departments, colleges and divisions. As an informal honor, Qaddourah’s was the first student nomination accepted in a brief ceremony on May 6. Robert Iafe, associate professor and chair of chemistry and biochemistry, is the president of the new chapter. He will lead a group of founding members through the early years of chapter development. The chapter’s other founding members include David Barsky, Charles De Leone, Erika Díaz Almeyda, Kang Du, Sajith Jayasinghe, Julie Jameson, Jane Kim, Dennis Kolosov, Afra Panahi, Betsy Read and Deanna Schmidt. At CSUSM, Sigma Xi will provide a platform to celebrate STEM students while opening new avenues of support for grants, networking and presentation at professional STEM conferences. Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation will present a transformative $3 million endowment to California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) during the American Indian Studies and American Indian Graduate Honoring Ceremony on May 16 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Building courtyard. Tribal leadership will join CSUSM leadership to celebrate this landmark investment while honoring graduating Native students. This momentous gift from the tribe to the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center (CICSC) strengthens a vital partnership dedicated to cultivating tomorrow's leaders, advancing transformative research, honoring tribal sovereignty and cultural heritage, and creating new educational opportunities for generations to come. The partnership between Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation and CSUSM began more than a decade ago when the tribe contributed nearly $1 million to help launch the university’s CICSC. Since then, the CICSC has become a nationally recognized hub for Native student success, research and community engagement – serving as a vital resource for California tribal communities and a model for indigenous-led initiatives in higher education. By adding to the original endowment, the newly named California Indigenous Futures Fund will continue to grow, providing long-term sustainability for the CICSC and ensuring that the center’s work serves as a lasting cornerstone for tribal sovereignty and education. All media are welcome to attend. For more information, contact Jerry McCormick at JMcCormick@csusm.edu or 619-549-9438.   About Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation   Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation is a federally recognized Indian tribe located on the San Manuel Indian Reservation near Highland, California. The Tribe, formerly known as the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, proudly reclaims their ancestral name – Yuhaaviatam (pronounced "Yu-HAA-vee-ah-tahm") – honoring the deep-rooted heritage and enduring legacy of their people. Exercising their inherent sovereign right to self-governance, Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation is committed to providing essential services to their citizens by building infrastructure, maintaining civil services and promoting social, economic and cultural development. As the Indigenous people of the San Bernardino highlands, passes, valleys, mountains and high deserts, the Yuhaaviatam have called this region home since time immemorial and are committed to remaining a productive partner in the San Bernardino region. For more information, visit sanmanuel-nsn.gov  About the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center (CICSC) The California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center at California State University San Marcos fosters collaborative research and community service relationships between the university's faculty, staff and students and tribal communities. The Center's mission focuses on developing and conducting research projects that support the maintenance of sovereignty and culture within those communities. Founded on principles of respect and reciprocity, the CICSC serves as a vital bridge between academia and Native American communities in the state, ensuring that Indigenous knowledge and priorities are centered in all collaborative work. The Center's distinctive programs simultaneously strengthen tribal sovereignty and drive student success by creating unique opportunities for hands-on research experience through meaningful engagement with California's tribal nations. For more information: www.csusm.edu/cicsc

The Cal State San Marcos women's lacrosse team won its first national championship by defeating Montana State 17-5 in the title game on May 9. The Cougars were led by Shea Morgan, who scored seven goals in the final game of the Division II bracket of the 2025 U.S. Lacrosse Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Associates (WCLA) national championship in Wichita, Kan.  The event featured top women’s collegiate sport clubs from across the country, including 11 teams in the Division II bracket. CSUSM finished third at nationals last year.  The national title completed an undefeated season for CSUSM (15-0).  “At the beginning of this season, we struggled with offensive communication and showing up to game days focused and ready,” women’s coach Jillian Dohrmann said earlier this season. “Late fall, our whole offense met outside of practice and talked about their disconnect, and ever since then we have been excelling and have had great communication and collaboration.” Five Cougars were named WCLA Division II All-Americans: Morgan (first team), Angela Chantaca (first team), Kali Price (first team), Cierraleone Warfield (first team) and Kamryn Kinsey (second team). Morgan also was named the Attacker of the Year and the WCLA tournament MVP.  Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Dining at Campus Way Cafe for groups of 40 or more is available throughout the summer. Interested in this experience? Reach out to dining@csusm.edu. Please provide the date and number of visitors in your email. The menu will be based on the size of the group.  Looking for a place for your group to stay? Why not stay on campus? Summer Conferences can provide housing on campus for your group. Reach out to summerconferences@csusm.edu to book your stay. 

It’s a tough time to be a scientist. The National Science Foundation has made drastic cuts to research funding, with hundreds of grants terminated and the proposed budget slashed by more than half. The National Institutes of Health has been hit equally as hard. Few universities have been spared from such reductions, including Cal State San Marcos. As the dire headlines piled up this semester, a group of faculty members in the School of Arts began conversing about what they could do to show solidarity with their science colleagues. “The real-life impact of cutting scientific research and inquiry will reverberate for generations,” music professor Merryl Goldberg said. “We feel that being silent equates to complicity.” Rather than marching in angry protest with bullhorns, the arts faculty opted to take a more positive, life-affirming approach. They chose love. In March, the professors – a group led by Lucy HG Solomon, Goldberg, Judy Bauerlein and Karen Schaffman – began holding events called “Love Letters to Science” that involved exactly that: faculty, staff and students writing letters in which they expressed their admiration for scientists and the vital work they do for the world. “The arts have always been first on the chopping block, and that vulnerability makes us sensitive to the extraordinary, arbitrary and indeed existential threat facing the sciences,” said HG Solomon, an art, media and design professor. “At the same time, some of our students shared that they did not feel that they had a positive outlet for responding to those same threats to their education.” The meetings took place weekly, with some letter-writing sessions occurring in the Arts Building and some at The Makery in CSUSM’s library. Sometimes they intersected with other events, as when the Office of Safety, Health and Sustainability co-hosted a table outside the University Student Union on Earth Day because, as HG Solomon put it, “climate science matters.” Sometimes science faculty would stop by to express their gratitude for the effort. Some members of the campus community wrote letters to science in general while others addressed them to specific scientists at CSUSM. Student Melanie Wollrabe, for instance, wrote to Heather Cook, a lecturer in the chemistry and biochemistry department who Wollrabe said has been a source of constant support. “I have a lot of friends studying STEM, so it was important for me to write letters to them to let them know that their area of study is still important and appreciated,” said Wollrabe, a liberal studies major and STEAM ambassador who’s graduating this month. “I haven’t had a lot of science classes, but the few ones that I have had, instead of feeling intimidated, the professors made me feel included and not inferior to my classmates.” The “Love Letters to Scientists” campaign culminated on Wednesday afternoon, when arts faculty led a final writing session in The Makery. Then they took a brimming box of letters compiled over the last two months and – holding posters decorated with messages like “Science Rules,” “Science is Real!” and “Dear Scientist, Your research sustains me. Love, The Planet” – paraded across campus to the USU Ballroom, where the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics was holding its annual Celebration of Achievement. The worlds of art and science melded as the letters – along with buttons for CSTEM faculty, personalized according to research interests – were delivered to an emotional audience. “I think this initiative had great meaning for our faculty, our community guests and our student awardees,” CSTEM Dean Jackie Trischman said. “What a great group of colleagues!” Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

When Valeria Castellanos Rodriguez crosses the commencement stage next week, she will be thinking about the countless hours she logged in labs en route to a biology degree. She'll be thinking about her primary Cal State San Marcos mentor, biology professor Carlos Luna Lopez. She'll be thinking about her impending enrollment at UC Irvine to begin a Ph.D. program in cancer research. Mostly, though, she'll be thinking about her parents. Rodriguez’s father and mother never got the chance to pursue higher education, with her dad stopping in sixth grade and her mom in first grade. Rodriguez grew up in Oceanside with three siblings, and for the first 18 years of her life, she and her entire family resided in a house owned by a relative. Her father would rise by 5 a.m. seven days a week to do landscaping work, and still it was barely enough to scape by. Many parents in that situation would have urged their children to drop out of school to help earn money for the family, but Rodriguez’s parents thought differently. “They have always supported my journey of higher education, which I’m very, very thankful for,” Rodriguez said. “They didn’t choose not to have an education. They didn’t have an opportunity to. My mom used to tell me that if she could have gone to college, she would have become a nurse.” On her path to a science degree, Rodriguez benefited from more than just parental support. She had a sibling role model in her sister, Tanya, who’s only one year older and resembles Valeria so much that they’re often mistaken for twins. Tanya preceded Valeria at CSUSM (graduating in 2024) and, after taking a gap year, also will be starting a Ph.D. program in the fall, at UC Santa Cruz for immunology. Then there was her high school. Rodriguez had the advantage of attending Mission Vista, the newest high school in Vista Unified School District, which offers a program called Project Lead the Way that allows students to get a head start in STEM disciplines like biomedicine and engineering. As a result, Rodriguez arrived at CSUSM having been exposed to and liking science, specifically biology. It was at CSUSM, however, that she discovered research and the notion – previously unimaginable to her – that research could be a career. After her freshman year, she joined the lab of Luna, the biology professor, for the Summer Scholars program in 2022. She wanted to do research involving the human body, and she liked that Luna specialized in breast cancer research. Rodriguez has been a member of Luna’s lab ever since. She worked on a project to learn how different types of fat cells (brown and white) affect how breast cancer spreads, growing such cells in the lab and using a special microscope to examine how they change shape. She also helped the lab transition to employing 3D models to study breast cancer cells since, as she points out, “humans are 3D, so hopefully we make research a lot more relevant if we use a model that’s closer to us.” “Dr. Luna is the best mentor I’ve ever had,” Rodriguez said. “He’s very honest when it comes to meeting realistic goals but also supports me in the path that I want to follow. And he’s a very fun guy.” After she caught the research bug through Summer Scholars, Rodriguez set her sights even higher for the subsequent two summers, gaining acceptance to premier undergraduate research programs through Stanford University and the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle. Outside of the lab, she became heavily involved with both the Center for Training, Research and Educational Excellence (CTREE) – the hub for research-based initiatives at CSUSM – and The Alliance, a program aimed at increasing access to college education for area K-12 students. She also maintained a 3.96 GPA while being honored as one of the first two CSUSM students ever to receive a Barry Goldwater scholarship, a prestigious national award that recognizes leadership potential in research science.   Of being a first-generation Latina scientist, Rodriguez said: “It has been difficult. Sometimes I feel like I’m behind, like I’m sprinting a marathon rather than jogging it. But I’ve learned to appreciate the small moments, whether it’s winning an award, having a happy time with my family and friends, or just chatting about life with Dr. Luna. Those moments motivate me to continue and overcome the hardships that I’ve gone through.” Luna and Denise Garcia, the director of CTREE, said Rodriguez is one of the most motivated and talented students they’ve encountered in their careers as professors. “I put her in the top 1% of students that I’ve worked with,” Luna said. “She displays a great deal of dedication, intellectual capacity and compassion. She is driven to be a leader and role model in the field of cancer research.” The drive is innate in Rodriguez. It was forged as a child as she watched her parents struggle to assimilate into American culture and establish a livelihood. It carried her through her high school years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when her whole family was stuck inside the rented room, which simultaneously brought them closer together and drove them crazy. Now, with her family having moved out and living in their own apartment, that inner drive will propel Rodriguez toward a doctorate in UC Irvine’s Cellular and Molecular Biosciences program, which she could start as soon as next month. “I’ve always been motivated to get a college degree and a Ph.D.,” she said. “Yes, I want to have a better life for myself, but more importantly, I want to thank my parents and make them proud.” Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306