Craftsmanship runs in the Arceo family.  While her father has been an exceptional woodcarver for decades, Tania Arceo focuses on painting. But not in the way one would expect. A childhood and adolescent development major at Cal State San Marcos, Arceo has spent the last year and a half working with Voices for Children, a nonprofit organization where volunteers are trained to become court-appointed special advocates (CASAs). Volunteers like Arceo represent juvenile dependency cases in San Diego County. “I'm basically their companion and their voice,” Arceo said, “I have the honor of getting to understand their stories and represent them in front of the judge during the various court cases and meetings that we have.”  Arceo is making a strong impact on the foster youth that she represents. She focuses on displaying a unique visual element of the children, allowing the judges to understand them better.   “They're typically this black and white file,” Arceo said. “The judge really wants to know who the child is at their core, what is in their best interest, so I paint their picture and it's important to paint that part of the picture for everybody so that they can understand these children and their behaviors. Sometimes they act in a certain way and we label that as negative or we label the child as struggling. But all that child really needs is somebody to invest in them a little bit of attention.”  As someone who deals with imposter syndrome, it was an eye-opening experience for Areceo when she realized how much of an impact she had on the children.  “I try to highlight them in court. I talk to them about all their strengths, their differing abilities, and I give recommendations on what the best placement for them is,” Arceo said. “To my surprise, every single time that I've gone to court, my suggestions are the ones chosen.”  Arceo had to go through a month of training to be part of Voices for Children. The training period helped her understand different situations she may face. She also went through court report writing training.  Areceo feels such a connection for these kids because of her past experiences. Born in Tijuana, Areceo and her family moved to San Diego when she was just 6 months old. Her father was offered a job at a factory, which prompted the family’s move.  Arceo’s father was offered the job due his work as a woodcarver. He was orphaned by the time he was 14 and, being the oldest of six siblings, the responsibility to take care of the family was placed on him.  With this new responsibility, her father looked toward the art of woodcarving to make ends meet.  “He would stop by these wood shops and he would hang out and for a while before they would shoo him away,” Arceo said. “Eventually they told them, ‘If you're gonna hang out here then might as well put you to use,’ and they started teaching him carpentry. He really fell in love with it and started engaging with the art of woodcarving.” A big part of why Arceo’s father is attracted to woodcarving is because of the magic he finds in the wood and the story it tells.  For Arceo’s upcoming graduation, her father used his woodcarving skills to show admiration for his daughter being the first in the family to graduate from college. This gift points out important characteristics of her journey at CSUSM. While his woodcarving talent brought the Arceo family to the United States, it continues to form a connection between Arceo and her father.  “I do woodworking as a kind of side hobby, more so to spend time with my dad,” Arceo said.  “I want to spend time with him and listen to his stories.”  Arceo’s father is interested in mythology and Mexican culture, and Arceo loves to listen to him share his knowledge on the subjects. Since he did not have access to education or amenities such as a library, Arceo feels like she owes it to him to pursue a higher education.  “That's part of the reason why I felt like I definitely needed to pursue higher education,” she said. “The fact that they were able to bring me here and allow me to open up these doors for myself, I know that it means so much to my parents. I could do something that they didn't have the opportunity to do.”  Arceo will wrap up this chapter at commencement this weekend. But she’ll be back on campus in the fall as part of the Master of Social Work program as she looks toward a career with Child Protective Services.  Her family will be cheering her on in the crowd while she gets her diploma, and they will continue to cheer her on no matter what she does next. Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

High school graduates from the San Diego Unified School District will be guaranteed a spot at California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) under a new compact that includes college prep and supports for students and families starting in middle school. Approved by the Board of Education on Tuesday, the partnership is designed to provide students the access and resources they need to attend and thrive at CSUSM.  “San Diego Unified is committed to giving every student a path to college, as well as the resources they need to prepare for a successful transition to higher education,” Deputy Superintendent Dr. Fabiola Bagula said. “We are so grateful to Cal State San Marcos for this partnership, which provides our students with access to a world class university.”    Among the requirements for the district’s high school graduates: Students must be continually enrolled in the district from at least 9th grade with exceptions for homeless, foster youth, and military dependents. Completion of all A-G coursework required through California State University (CSU) system. Meet minimum CSU eligibility requirements. Graduate with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. San Diego Unified will help prepare students for guaranteed enrollment under the compact with supports that include:  A Common Core State Standards-aligned mathematics curriculum for grades 6-12. Additional high school mathematics electives that prepare students with skills to pass college entrance exams or to meet college course requirements. Summer school opportunities for basic skills preparation. Increased opportunities for 11^th and 12^th graders to experience university-level academic work at all high schools. Additionally, the district will offer expanded intervention and credit-recovery opportunities for students and submit the required Cal Grant GPA Verification by March 2 of their senior year. Family and community engagement is an integral component of the guaranteed admission partnership, especially for families of first-generation college students. Beginning in seventh-grade, students, families and staff will receive notifications about the CSUSM partnership and how to meet eligibility criteria. The district will also lay out criteria for identifying and supporting incoming seventh graders who are at risk of not meeting the admission requirements. For Blessyn Lavender Williams, a student Board of Education member and a senior at Lincoln High School, one of the benefits of this agreement is that it could eliminate some of the anxiety - and mystery - that comes with the college application process.   “Getting into college often feels like a random lottery for so many students. This agreement gives students at every San Diego Unified high school the ability to plan for college without the stress and uncertainty of increasingly competitive college admissions,” Lavender Williams said. In an effort to help students and their families familiarize themselves with CSUSM, tours and orientations - along with transportation - will be organized by the district. “The admission pipeline to Cal State San Marcos provides an incredible opportunity to students at every San Diego Unified high school by providing them with a clear path to college,” Board of Education President Shana Hazan said. “This alliance shows the shared commitment of both institutions to enhance and expand educational opportunities that benefit our students, families, and the entire community.” For its part, CSUSM has pledged to assign a Recruitment and Outreach Officer to San Diego Unified schools who will, among other things, promote college awareness, preparation, and access to CSUSM. “This partnership with San Diego Unified School District will provide opportunities to transform the lives of more students, their families, and their respective communities,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Viridiana Diaz. “We want students to envision themselves in college early on and to know that CSUSM is a great option given that many of our graduates stay in the area after college to give back to their community.” The district will begin providing supports to students this summer. The class of 2025 will be eligible to apply for admission to CSUM under the compact.  More 17,000 students are currently enrolled at CSUSM in 43 undergraduate programs, 24 master’s programs, 11 teaching credentials, and one joint doctoral program. MEDIA CONTACT: Communications Director Maureen Magee, mmagee@sandi.net  

Department of Kinesiology faculty looking for adult female participants for a cardiac screening study. We are scheduling Summer and Fall appointments. This would include a one hour visit where heart health is measured non-invasively. Contact Deborah Feairheller at dfeairheller@csusm.edu to schedule.

Cal State San Marcos has recently received both Level 1 arboretum accreditation and Tree Campus Higher Education recognition. CSUSM Facility Services in collaboration with Sustainability, faculty, students, IITS and the university's outside landscaping contractor, LandGraphics, came together to create a dynamic walking tour of the arboretum, which is unique in that it encompasses 150 acres across campus.  The tour can be found on the Campus App.  “Receiving both the arboretum status and Tree Campus USA is a great opportunity for the campus community to use our grounds as a living laboratory," said Juliana Goodlaw-Morris, CSUSM's director of sustainability and climate justice. "We have already had service-learning students assist in the process and we look forward to more students, staff and faculty engaging with our trees, scanning the QR codes around campus and utilizing the website to learn about our trees, plants and shrubs across campus.” If you've ever wondered about the names of trees, shrubs and plants on campus, you can find out on the new CSUSM Arboretum website. You'll find detailed information on the variety of trees and plants, including facts such as if they are native to southern California or if they are drought tolerant.   The arboretum mission is to provide opportunities for education and recreation for members of the campus and local communities, which is achieved through five objectives: To preserve and care for the existing trees and landscape on campus. To promote a resilient and diverse campus tree collection. To educate visitors about climate-appropriate and drought-tolerant tree species, indigenous trees, general tree care and maintenance, and the benefits provided by trees. To provide outdoor education and research opportunities for members of the CSUSM community. To foster community involvement with organizations or individuals outside of the CSUSM campus through events, donations, volunteer opportunities, or other activities. An arboretum plan has been prepared to further Facilities Development & Management’s goals of maintaining and enhancing the quality learning environment of CSUSM through sustainable development and growth. The Tree Campus USA designation is awarded by the Arbor Day Foundation and works in conjunction with the Level 1 arboretum certification. Universities must meet five overarching standards to earn Tree Campus Higher Education recognition:  Establishment of a campus tree advisory committee. Evidence of a campus tree care plan. Verification of the plan’s dedicated annual expenditures. Observing Arbor Day. Creating a service-learning project aimed at engaging the student body. CSUSM takes pride in its tree canopy and continues to plant new trees, including fruit trees, across the campus landscape.  To learn more, please contact sustainability@csusm.edu. Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Karissa Tran is a San Marcos native who entered Cal State San Marcos intending to study clinical psychology. Nicolas Morales is a transfer from Northern Arizona University who came to CSUSM with a goal to become a physical therapist or physician’s assistant. Both learned through faculty mentors about the existence of a new program to train students in research that would help them lessen the harmful effects of tobacco and vape use in their communities. It didn’t quite dovetail with their academic interests at the time, but both thought it sounded like a good opportunity to develop their research skills in an area that long has been vital to public health in the United States. Now, almost two years later, Tran and Morales are not only graduating from CSUSM – Tran with a degree in psychology, Morales in kinesiology – but they are standouts in the first cohort of eight students to complete the Smoke and Vape Free Scholars Initiative Program for Reducing Tobacco Disease in Diverse Communities (SVFSIP). The initiative, which involves a partnership with UC San Diego, is the result of a four-year, $1.3 million grant from a state agency named the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program, or TRDRP. The training opportunity is tailored to students from racial/ethnic minoritized, low-income or LGBTQ+ groups, the same populations that studies show are disproportionately targeted by tobacco companies and affected by tobacco-related disease. Thanks in large part to their experience in SVFSIP over the last two years, Tran and Morales are headed to graduate school to continue their research in public health. This fall, Tran will begin pursuit of a Ph.D. in health psychology at UCLA, while Morales will start a Master of Public Health program at San Diego State, with a doctorate on the horizon for him as well. “It’s been absolutely wonderful,” Tran said. “I really credit the program and my mentors for getting me to where I am and pushing me to the point where I can accomplish my next steps. Without them, this wouldn’t be possible.” Said Morales: “Overall, I think the program was amazing. I got to meet remarkable people that hopefully are going to be colleagues in the future.” The faculty who shepherded the inaugural cohort through SVFSIP (seven other students just finished their first of two years) are Kim Pulvers, a psychology professor who has devoted her career to tobacco-related research, and Richard Armenta, a kinesiology professor who’s the associate director for the Center for Training, Research and Educational Excellence (CTREE). SVFSIP is one of many programs housed within CTREE, the mission of which is to enhance the educational and research experiences of students from underserved backgrounds. “Developing the resources to provide students a substantial training experience to grow as researchers and advocates reducing the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States has been very rewarding,” Pulvers said. “I am proud that the footprint for tobacco research at CSUSM has grown beyond the studies that I conduct and the students I personally mentor.” The eight students who are the initial SVFSIP graduates spent their first year working with a mentor on research project related to prevention or treatment. During the recently completed second year, they worked with a community-based tobacco control specialist on a local advocacy project. Throughout the program, they received an annual stipend and a discount of 50% on tuition. For her research year, Tran was paired with Pulvers on two studies. The first examined the relationship between the age that a person first uses cannabis and their current level of abuse, and whether anxiety or depression helps explain that relationship. The second explored behavioral economic demand for cannabis and tobacco among young adults. For her advocacy year that is wrapping up this month, Tran worked for the California Youth Advocacy Network (CYAN), investigating the legality of tobacco sales to several college campuses in the state. In between, she was selected for a competitive internship last summer with the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, a 10-week assignment that was extended into the entire academic year based on the quality of her research output. In his first year, Morales was mentored by Eric Leas, a public health professor at UCSD. His two research projects concerned the self-reporting of adverse effects from the use of delta-8 THC, a psychoactive substance found in cannabis, and searching for loopholes in the enforcement of the ban on flavored vape products in California. The latter study was published in the online journal Tobacco Control. After a summer internship in which he continued his research with Leas at UCSD, Morales for his advocacy year worked at the Institute for Public Health at SDSU. There, he collected data on the extent to which current and former tobacco users are up to date on non-lung-related cancer screenings, since tobacco use increases the likelihood of developing more than a dozen different types of cancer.   Morales says his curiosity with this line of research stems from his own history as a smoker of both cigarettes and vapes. “I felt like it was affecting my physical and mental health as well as affecting the people around me,” he said. “I wanted to get out of that, and I pulled myself out of it. So when I found out about the TRDRP scholars program, it particularly sparked my interest just from my previous use.” Pulvers credited the training and mentorship provided by CTREE, led by Armenta and biology professor Denise Garcia, the co-direction of research internships by UCSD faculty member Dennis Trinidad, and the support of community partners like CYAN, Vista Community Clinic and SAY San Diego for the success of SVFSIP thus far. “The level of student training in tobacco prevention and treatment research and advocacy and student outcomes achieved would not be possible without the time and talent of our research and advocacy mentors,” Pulvers said. Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

In a landmark moment for youth mental health, Cal State San Marcos has received a grant of $250,000 from the Prebys Foundation to advance mental health services for its diverse student population. The grant is a part of the Prebys Foundation’s recent announcement of a $6 million investment in grants to 23 local organizations during Mental Health Awareness Month.   At a time when mental health challenges among young people are pervasive and most CSUSM students come from systematically disadvantaged communities where accessing mental and behavioral health services is stigmatized, the Prebys Foundation’s support for bolstering inclusivity and accessibility in mental health intervention is paramount. The grant not only enhances crisis response, mental health training and peer support initiatives on campus, but also it serves as a collective commitment toward fostering a supportive environment where all students can thrive academically and personally.  Additionally, this funding will broaden resources like the Health Assistance Fund and BetterYou app, and it will provide stipends to Master of Social Work interns, promoting social mobility by empowering students to pursue their education without sacrificing employment opportunities. Student voices are echoing the significance of such investments in mental health support. “I will always be so grateful for Student Health & Counseling Services because it allowed me to receive the mental well-being help I needed,” said CSUSM student Amber Arenas, who's pursuing a double major in psychology and criminology and justice studies. “Everyone has financial burdens, and this fund helps a lot of us not have the stress of money so we can fully spend our time being a college student and becoming academically successful.”   Social mobility cannot exist without breaking down these systemic barriers to provide students with access to testing, training and treatment that honors their lived experiences. CSUSM’s Community of Care initiative aims to enhance these wraparound services and address the mental health needs of students.  The impact of the Prebys Foundation grant will be amplified further thanks to a recent philanthropic pledge. In March, CSUSM Foundation Board Director Dan Epstein and his wife, Phyllis, made a transformational $10 million matching gift to CSUSM, effectively doubling the foundation grant into a total of $500,000. CSUSM’s receipt of the Prebys Foundation grant, coupled with the Epstein matching gift, symbolizes the power of community partnerships in effecting transformative change.  Grant Oliphant, CEO of the Prebys Foundation, emphasized the importance of empowering young individuals and building meaningful community ties. “San Diego can become a national model by consistently supporting the well-being of youth and young adults," Oliphant said. "The health and vitality of student leaders are crucial for a vibrant future.”  As CSUSM continues its mission to strengthen mental health services, the university remains dedicated to ensuring that students thrive academically and personally, irrespective of background or circumstance. To get involved in mental health and wellness efforts on campus, follow the Cougar Care Network (@csusmccn) and SHCS's HOPE & Wellness Center (@csusmhope) on social media.   Visit the Health Assistance Fund and Student Health & Counseling Services websites to learn about upcoming Mental Health First Aid trainings.    Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314