STAN STANISLAUS STATE
SPRING 2020
MAGAZINE
The New Student Center
A Word From the
PRESIDENT As I am writing this message to you, we are all in the midst of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic. We are experiencing this together, with shared concern, anxiety and uncertainty — but there is also a sense of hope, as our Warrior community is steadfast in its dedication to supporting one another. With the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff at the forefront — and following the guidance of local, state and federal health experts, and leadership at the California State University — we have taken the extraordinary measure of transitioning all courses to an online or remote format for the remainder of the spring semester at both our Turlock and Stockton campus. While our campuses remain open, many campus operations have transitioned to virtual modalities as well. This is a historic undertaking — one that certainly has brought unprecedented challenges. Our students have been amazingly flexible and demonstrated maturity and initiative in taking on so many changes and finding positive ways to move forward toward reaching their educational goals and completing their degrees. Our faculty has put students first and dedicated itself, collectively, to adapting to alternate teaching modalities so lessons would not be interrupted, and student progress could continue unabated. And, our staff has shown an unwavering effort to make these necessary but demanding changes occur as seamlessly as possible. I’m especially proud of our campus community’s willingness to create and adapt to new protocols that, in the early stages, changed daily, and even hourly. There has been a great sense of camaraderie in making these necessary changes work for everyone. This is the strength of our Warrior community.
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That strength is a long-standing tradition of Stan State as the articles in this issue of Stan Magazine reflect. Alumna Pam Kehaly, who earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration, is at the forefront of the response to COVID-19 in Arizona where she is the president and CEO of the state’s leading health insurance company. Fellow alumnus Steve Gordon is applying tenets he obtained with his Stan State degree to lead the California Department of Motor Vehicles down a smoother path of customer service while providing new licenses and identification cards that meet federal guidelines. The ability of our alumni, faculty and staff to adapt to change is not new, as our stories about the campus’ move toward more sustainable methods and ideas demonstrate. And, many of our students profiled in this issue have overcome adversity to achieve great success in the classroom and that perseverance and tenacity will continue as we weather this unprecedented crisis. This spring semester has proved challenging and lifealtering. We look forward to the day when we will all reunite. When that will happen and what it will look like, we don’t know. But, I do know we will be transformed as tougher, more intrepid and more buoyant than ever before, because WE ARE WARRIORS and we are #WARRIORSTRONG. Warmly,
Ellen
COVID-19
REFLECTIONS “I am heartened by the hard work of our instructors and the candor and appreciation showcased by our brilliant music students as we navigate this transition. I often hear students sharing that our quick move to the online forums is saving their semester. Our students see purpose in their lessons and strive to outdo themselves against all the odds placed before them. It is an honor to be their instructor!” David D. Chapman Professor of Guitar & Lute Studies, Interim Music Chair “The campus moved very quickly in support of faculty and students. I have a staff member who had no internet at her home or laptop. The University, within one day, was able to provide a laptop and hotspot so she could work safely from home. I think we have to be proud of ourselves for putting our students first and making sure they get the education they deserve and want, no matter what format it takes.” Debbie Tavernier Director, School of Nursing “I’m grateful for my health. I stay home to hopefully return back to the old reality I took for granted. It is going to be rough to stay on top of my studies but I have to remember to take it one assignment at a time and ask for help when I need it." Maria Marquez President, Associated Students Inc. “If I could give a round of applause to Stan State's faculty, staff, student leaders and everyone in between — I would. I appreciate all the emails and social media updates; they are affirming and reminding us that we are all in this together.” Chelsie Muro-Lopez Senior, Liberal Studies Major “Although the period we are living in at the moment is unlike anything we have experienced, there is one thing to remember, and that is we are all in this together.”
University Response
TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Following the guidance of the Governor’s stay-at-home order, the University began transitioning to online/remote learning and operations March 17. The collective effort of our entire faculty, staff and student body has made this monumental transition possible. It has been truly remarkable to see our Warrior community come together to support one another, even though we are apart. Our faculty members are heroes. They are keeping learning going in a way that we never-before imagined possible. Our staff is incredible in its support of our faculty and students. Processes have been made paperless, advising is taking place via Zoom, and countless video chats, phone calls and emails keep our community informed.
view Stan State’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and ask a question online. To our extended Stan State community, we thank you deeply for supporting and caring about your University. You are key to helping us prepare and augment the Central Valley’s workforce and fuel our economy. While the campus seems empty, please know we are here and available as a resource and partner to respond to the effects as we emerge from this global pandemic.
In addition, some have asked how they can help during this difficult time. To provide updates and resources that Our answer is “support our students.” can easily be accessed by our entire They remain our focus and the reason campus community, the University has for our work. We encourage those in established the COVID-19 Updates & our community who want to make a FAQs website www.csustan.edu/covid-19, difference for our students to consider geared to specific audiences. The website a financial gift to our Stan State Campus features information and resources for Cares Fund. Gifts to this Fund will help students, faculty, staff and is updated offset the financial hardship our students frequently — sometimes hourly. You can face, or support our Warrior Food Pantry. Learn more: stanforacause.csustan.edu/WarriorStrong You can also uplift the graduating Class of 2020 by sharing an encouraging #StanGrad message on social media. Together, we are #WarriorStrong.
Donovan Orozco Junior, Economics Major “What I see now more than ever is everyone trying to establish a connection. Friends, co-workers and even strangers are taking the time to make sure that everyone is OK and comfortable with this new reality that we’re living in. I can’t say enough how many acts of kindness I’ve seen these past few weeks and I hope that people will continue to remain this way even after this all comes to an end.” Wonuola Olagunju Senior, Biology Major
Support Our Students During COVID-19
stanforacause.csustan.edu/WarriorStrong
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Spring 2020 STAN Magazine is published by the Office of Communications and Public Affairs in the Division of University Advancement at Stanislaus State. President
Ellen Junn
Vice President for University Advancement
Michele Lahti
Director of Alumni Engagement
Karlha Davies (’00)
Senior Associate Vice President for Communications, Marketing and Media Relations
Rosalee Rush
Director for Communications and Creative Services
Kristina Stamper (’06)
Senior Writer and Content Specialist
Brian VanderBeek
Content Specialists
Tatiana Olivera (’17) Gina Oltman Linda Mumma Solorio Lori Gilbert (’91) Digital Communications Specialist
Sara Balisha (’13)
Senior Graphic Designer
Steve Caballero
Senior Web and Electronic Communications Developer
Mandeep Khaira (’02) Photographers
Tracee Littlepage Justin Souza Stay in touch!
Phone: (209) 667-3131 cpa@csustan.edu www.csustan.edu/stan-magazine If you receive more than one copy of STAN Magazine, please pass it along to a friend of Stanislaus State. If you would like to support Stanislaus State, visit www.csustan.edu/giving. Stanislaus State serves a diverse student body of more than 10,000 at two locations in the Central Valley — a beautiful 228-acre campus in Turlock and the Stockton Campus. Widely recognized for dedicated faculty, high-quality academic programs and exceptional value, the University offers more than 100 majors, minors and areas of concentration, along with 15 master’s degree programs, seven credential programs and a doctorate in educational leadership. We are a proud member of the 23-campus California State University system.
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From left to right: Past and present University Student Union Board Chairs Allysa Gonzales, Natalie Dykzeul, Hailey Holm and Jennifer Galeana-Vasquez cutting the ribbon to the new University Student Center alongside ASI & SC Executive Director Cesar Rumayor, President Ellen Junn and Vice President for Student Affairs Christine Erickson.
CONTENTS 04 News Briefs
20 Changing Lanes
08 Campus Sustainability
24 Each Day is a Gift
14 Returning to Her Roots
26 Celebrating Excellence
16 University Student Center
30 The Next Chapter
NEWS BRIEFS
CareerReadyU GAINS PARTNERS AND GENERATES MOMENTUM CareerReadyU continues to build momentum throughout the region by fostering formal partnerships between Stanislaus State and regional employers and organizations, with the goal of developing focused learning that will send career-ready graduates into the regional workforce. As of the start of the spring 2020 semester, the University had completed memorandums of understanding with 18 regional businesses and organizations, pledging to partner with Stan State in the development and execution of this vital program. The first 18 CareerReadyU Founding Partners Include: • City of Turlock • • • • •
Mayor's Office Turlock Chamber of Commerce City of Modesto Mayor's Office Nathan Dabulewicz Insurance Agency, LLC (Farmers Insurance) Price Ford of Turlock Basic Resources
• Opportunity Stanislaus • Stockton Unified • • • • •
School District Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce TID Modesto Bee Availability Professional Staffing Stanislaus Community Foundation
• Bixby & Aguiar,
Attorneys at Law
• Merced County Human
Services Agency
• Turlock Unified
School District
• Gallo Center for
the Arts
• Merced County Office
of Education
www.csustan.edu/CareerReadyU
STAN STATE CONTINUES TO EARN NATIONAL ATTENTION The quality, value and transformative nature of a Stanislaus State education continued to be noticed by national publications in recent months, including MONEY Magazine ranking the University No. 2 among all the nation’s public colleges for being the “most transformative.” In MONEY’s view, there are almost no public colleges in the country better at improving the lives of students than Stan State. In addition, Washington Monthly placed Stan State at No. 1 on its list of the West Coast colleges that offer the most “bang for the buck,” which weighs the quality of education against the cost. Also, Stan State made the Princeton Review’s list of the country’s best 385 colleges, based on the quality of the education offered, for a 14th consecutive year. And Stan State’s Online MBA program was ranked 118th in the nation among all colleges by U.S. News and World Report, a ranking that reflects an improvement of 46 spots over the last two years.
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HISTORIC FALL SEASON FOR WARRIOR ATHLETES The fall 2019 athletics season was the most successful for Stan State Athletics across the board since the University began awarding athletic scholarships in 1998. The men’s cross-country team finished 11th as a team at the NCAA Division II National Championships, the women’s soccer team reached the NCAA
Tournament for the first time since 2014 and the volleyball team reached the conference tournament for the fourth time in five years. Entering the winter sports calendar, the Warriors were ranked a bestever 58th (out of 310 Division II institutions) in the Learfield Director’s Cup Standings, which measure the overall strength of a college’s athletics programs.
View the COVID-19 letter from director of athletics, Terry Donovan, to Stan State student-athletes.
STAN STATE ADVANCES TO SECOND DAY OF COMPETITION IN FIRST MOOT COURT EVENT 6
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In its first venture into American Moot Court Association competition, Stan State had one team reach the Sweet 16 in the Western Regional, held fall 2019 at Fresno State. In all, 36 teams competed, and the tandem of Manroop Chandi and Ana Villegas — one of three Stan State teams to enter the event — reached the round of 16. Unlike mock court, which is a trial simulation, moot
court replicates the style and form of arguing present at the appellate level. All members of the Stan State group took the Criminal Justice Moot Court course, offered for the first time in the fall by M. Blake Wilson, assistant professor of criminal justice. The coursework prepared the students for the two-day competition, in which they argued both sides of a case in front of local attorneys posing as members of the U.S. Supreme Court.
UNIVERSITY PARTNERS WITH NATIONAL AG SCIENCE CENTER
In an effort to increase the visibility of its agriculture program and spark interest in STEM studies in the region’s elementary and junior high classrooms, Stan State has entered into a partnership with the National Ag Science Center. At the core of the center is its mobile classroom, which visits every seventhand eighth-grade class in Stanislaus County each year with a variety of hands-on science labs.
“So much of what we do at Stan State has relevance to the agriculture industry — be it in science, computer science, arts, behavioral health, public policy, etc.,” said David Evans, dean of the College of Science at Stan State. “This partnership with the National Ag Science Center will help bring attention to these cross-curricular relationships and will create new opportunities for the University to serve the agriculture community in our region.”
FALL 2019 BUSINESS FORECAST POINTS TO SLOWING OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY All regional and national indicators point to further slowing of economic activity according to the biannual San Joaquin Valley Business Forecast produced by Gökçe Soydemir, the Foster Farms endowed professor of business economics at Stanislaus State. As the report states: “As the longestlasting period of expansion comes to an end, it is important for the business community to begin positioning itself to consider this change in the dynamics of the Valley economy.” Read the report: https://www.csustan.edu/sjvbf SPRING 2020
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CAMPUS COMMUNITY
Campus SUSTAINABILITY Young people across the globe are more aware of global warming and sustainability issues than any generation before them, and Stan State students are demonstrating daily their own commitment to saving the planet. By Lori Gilbert, Linda Mumma Solorio and Tatiana Olivera
Wendy Olmstead, Ashley Camarena Morales and Emma Denison enjoy a conversation next to Village Lake.
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Olmstead’s New Role at Heart of Campus Sustainability Efforts In her new role as Stanislaus State’s sustainability coordinator, Wendy Olmstead has made it her mission to educate the campus community that sustainability is not just about recycling. “All life is interconnected, which requires us to conduct ourselves through the lens of economic, environmental and social sustainability,” she explained. While growing up in Kirkland Lake in Northern Ontario, Canada, Olmstead adopted sustainability as a lifestyle. “I was raised in a forest, so it’s really easy for me to be passionate about the environment,” she said. “I spent most of my time outdoors, so I really value nature.” Olmstead earned her bachelor’s degree in agricultural studies at Stan State as well as two master’s degrees — ecology and sustainability and public administration. For the last 12 years, she has worked as an administrative analyst, commercial operations manager and lecturer in political science and public administration. But she said she’s always been passionate about sustainability. “I actually pitched the idea of a sustainability coordinator seven years ago when I was finishing my ecology master’s,” she said. She officially started her new role in September and said her first order of business is to conduct a Sustainability Tracking and Rating System (STARS) audit on campus. Olmstead said all CSUs are mandated to do a STARS audit. The audit is expected to take about a year to complete and will entail examining every aspect of the campus — from procurement (such as what type of paper to use and what food to buy) to
greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, food waste and academic programming. “The audit encompasses four main categories,” Olmstead explained. “Academics, engagement, operations and planning and administration.” While her office is involved with the audit, Stan State’s Council for Sustainable Futures will focus on campus events. “I also co-facilitate a faculty learning community, which means we’re teaching faculty how to teach students about sustainability,” Olmstead said. Olmstead said students are already embracing sustainability on campus, bringing back a club called “Eco Warriors” to help spread awareness. “Students are such great ambassadors,” she said. “You just have to empower them and stand back. They have great ideas of what they want to do.” Olmstead believes the STARS audit will not only help identify Stan State’s strengths and weaknesses, but will also shine a light on just how green the campus already is.
Students Breathe New Life into the Eco-Warriors Associated Students, Inc. representatives Diana Avalos and Cynella Aghasi Lolham are so passionate about sustainability, they brought the campus club EcoWarriors back into existence last fall after a nearly 10-year hiatus. “I go to other CSUs and connect with other student leaders and I noticed other campuses have sustainability clubs and we were one of just a few that didn’t have one,” said Avalos, vice president of EcoWarriors and a graduate student in public administration. Avalos, from Modesto, earned her bachelor’s degree in international relations at UC Davis and enrolled at
Stan State in fall 2017 to work on her master’s degree. When she returned, she was surprised to see the disconnect between students and issues such as climate change, energy, air and water quality and in protecting the natural resources that surround the campus. The revelation prompted her to take action to raise awareness. “We have prime agricultural land here that feeds roughly one-fourth of the United States, but students don’t know where their food comes from or where their trash goes when they dispose of it. It’s mind-blowing!" said Avalos. She believes everyone should do their part to protect our food, farmland and natural resources. “Sometimes it seems like we’re at war with ag, but we (environmentalists and residents) need to work together with the industry to make the region more sustainable,” she added. Once sophomore Aghasi Lolham, from Turlock, was elected as the ASI Director of Sustainability, she and Avalos quickly got to work resurrecting the Eco-Warriors Club, building its membership and hosting a series of promotional events on campus. “One of the first things we did was host a clothing swap on campus,” said Aghasi Lolham. “Students were encouraged to bring a piece of clothing they no longer wanted or needed and exchange it for another used or gently-used item that we collected through donations.” Aghasi Lolham, who got involved in sustainability initiatives after taking an environmental science class at Pitman High, said the goal of the event was to slow down the amount of waste generated by the fast-fashion industry. She said the clothing industry is the second-largest polluter in the United States and fast-fashion, which is described as inexpensive clothing
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rapidly produced by mass market retailers in response to the latest fashion trends, is a large contributor to the problem. “Spreading awareness through that event was important,” she said. “We got a lot of great feedback from students who want us to hold the event again.” In just one semester, Avalos and Aghasi Lolham grew the club’s membership to include more than 15 students. The co-founders since have started the Instagram page ecowarriors_csustan, and plan to push-out messaging to educate and engage students in sustainability. “We eventually want to do park cleanups, Earth Day activities, and partner with some of the other green clubs on campus to raise awareness of practical sustainability: little things students can incorporate into their daily lives,” said Aghasi Lolham. “We have a lot planned.”
Boettcher hoped to find the kind of activism he remembered as an undergrad student. After all, the Medford-born and Ashland-raised Oregon farm boy had begun college in 1969 at the University of Oregon in the midst of student protests. He decided to take a step toward inspiring students to positively use their voices for change by starting Climate Action Now!, a group dedicated to informing the campus about the climate crisis. “Since Oct. 8, 2018, there’ve been four warnings from the International Panel on Climate Change (on behalf of the United Nations), about the different aspects of the global warming crisis,” Boettcher said. “There’s actually a fifth one that came out in December.” The Oct. 8, 2018 warning moved Boettcher to act. He came up with the idea for the club, asked history professor Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt to serve as advisor and found 22 like-minded students to join. “Our purpose on campus is to spread the science,” Boettcher said. The warnings, about rising global temperature, species extinction and the effects of climate change on land and on the oceans and ice caps all are summarized in literature Climate Action Now! has produced and shares at its table on the quad during Warrior Wednesdays.
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Master’s Candidate Starts Club Dedicated to Informing Campus About Climate Change
He looks at the numbers — including the expected rise in air temperature from greenhouse gas emissions — and sees a need for action now. If not for himself then for his two grown children, his four grandchildren and others of their generations.
When he arrived at Stan State in 2017 to pursue a master’s degree — 42 years after completing his Bachelor of Arts degree in humanities at Southern Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University) — Ken
As a journalist who covered social issues for a Bay Area publication called The People, Boettcher knows how to communicate. He’s pursuing a master’s degree in environmental history with an eye toward writing about the subject.
STAN MAGAZINE
In the meantime, he’s using his skills to create informational literature for fellow students, including the designing of placards his organization will carry bearing the name: Climate Action Now! and the warning “Extinction is Forever.”
Student Research Focuses on Preventing Plastic Pollution While engineers and scientists worldwide endeavor to clean up the estimated 150 million metric tons of plastic trash circulating in the world’s oceans, a small team of Stanislaus State science students is working diligently in a microbiology lab with a focus on prevention. In an effort led by Professor My Lo Thao, students Victoria Coffey, Miranda Marshall, Eliseo Garcia and Angel Avalos are experimenting with bacteria to identify species that quickly break down polyhydroxybutyrate, or PHB, a newly developed bio-derived plastic. In the plastics industry, PHB is being hailed by manufacturers as the product of the future because, under the right conditions, it is easily biodegradable. “The trick with this PHB plastic is you must have the organism (bacteria) present to break it down,” explained Thao. “If you don’t have the organism present, the bioplastic can stay in the environment as long as petroleum-based plastics.” And as Thao’s students are learning, not just any bacteria will do the trick. Some are quick and efficient at breaking down PHB into water and carbon dioxide, while others are quite slow. To separate the best from the rest, the students take bacteria from compost, wastewater and seawater, apply it to PHB in petri dishes, then wait for results. When a dish shows fast breakdown, the species of bacteria in it is analyzed for a DNA sequence and added to a list of successful bacteria.
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So far, the project has a list of more than 10 bacteria species that can break down PHB rapidly.
Management that can be used in a carving class I teach,” Weigel said. “This is a super cool project in terms of what it can do for the environment,” he said. “It can help decrease pollution, and I find that really exciting.”
“The exciting thing about this project is the potential,” said Thao. “There is a lot of plastic accumulation in the environment and if this research can help solve the problem, that would be a great contribution.”
Bringing Sustainability into the Classroom
Coffey agrees. A graduate student focused on seawater bacteria, she envisions a day when a safe bacteria spray can be applied to plastics in home trash and compost bins to get a jumpstart on breakdown before garbage pick-up day. “That would prevent waste buildup and a lot of pollution issues could be solved,” she said. Started five years ago, the project is a collaboration with two professors at Chico State. Thao has as many as 10 students working on it every semester. For Garcia, a biology major planning to go to medical school, joining the project was initially viewed as a chance to get the research experience he needs to show on his graduate school applications. But now he sees it as a chance to help make a difference in the world while he learns about microbiology and lab techniques.
The Key to Sustainability When remodeling of the lock shop at Stan State began last fall, maintenance manager Manesh Chand was confronted with five five-gallon buckets of old brass keys and locks that were broken or had been replaced. The debris had been tossed into the plastic buckets for eight or more years and the buckets were taking up space, but Chand was worried about properly disposing of them, for security reasons. “I called around to a lot of recycling places and there was a place in Modesto that said, ‘you can bring them, we’ll take the broken brass,’” Chand said. “But I wasn’t convinced that they were going to destroy them in my presence.” Tim Overgaauw, director of facilities operations, had a better
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idea, one both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. He approached art professor Jake Weigel and asked if the teacher of sculpture could use the metal. “Students pay course material fees to purchase some stuff, but getting yellow brass is different,” Weigel said. “We haven’t used yellow brass for casting. It’s nice to be able to recycle or upcycle, especially the novelty of it coming from Stan State.” Weigel, who was a part of the teaching sustainability cohort in the fall and plans to resurrect the art department’s visual art and ecology class during the 2020-21 school year, delighted in getting the brass keys and locks. The material was melted in one day into 14 bricks weighing about 25 pounds each. The bricks will be melted again when a student project calls for the unique brass. “We can get different patinas,” Weigel said. “You can patina brass and bronze to accurate color variations, but there is something nice about that natural straw yellow, golden color that will lend itself to certain sculptures or certain designs, for sure.” Weigel and fellow sculpture teacher Dan Edwards eagerly embraced the gift, since they’re both eager to repurpose materials for artistic purposes. “We’ve got wood that we received from Capital Planning and Facilities
Looking at the environmental waste of the United States penitentiary system that operates on a 1950s model; making sustainability the topic of research projects for English and communications classes; reworking established classes to focus on a greener future. These are just some of the actions taken by Stan State teachers who were part of the Teaching Sustainability faculty learning community during the fall 2019 semester. “When we first started talking about sustainability with our Council for Sustainable Futures, we recognized one of the most important ways of transforming our campus culture and educating our students about sustainability would be to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum,” said Wendy Olmstead, Stan State’s sustainability coordinator. “We thought the best way to do that would be to offer teaching sustainability faculty learning communities.” The first effort, in spring 2019, drew 13 faculty members and the fall session included 10, supported by grant funding. Another learning community is active this semester. “Some of the richest curriculum comes from people who didn’t have any knowledge of sustainability,” said Olmstead. “For me, the most heartwarming presentations come from people like Blake Randol, a faculty member in criminal justice, who say, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do with this,’ then they come up with something. It was incredible what he found in terms of green corrections.
“Then, we had a faculty member last spring in computer science who similarly thought, ‘what am I going to do with this?’ while talking about the different chemicals used in manufacturing computers and semiconductors. You also have faculty like (Julia Sankey, professor of paleobiology and geology), who are well-versed in climate change, and that’s the obvious aspect of sustainability. It’s amazing to me the ways they find to integrate this.” Betsy Eudey, professor of sociology and gender studies, is changing the women’s development and lifestyle choices course to encompass women’s lives and sustainable happiness. Likewise, art professor Jake Weigel is updating Art 3830, visual art and ecology, to place the emphasis on sustainability. The mission of the faculty learning communities is to emphasize sustainability as its own reward in addition to an important factor in addressing climate change. “Sustainability is one thing, climate change is a whole other issue, and there’s a sense of urgency around that,” Olmstead said. “Sustainability is not going to matter if climate change eradicates us.”
University’s Community Garden Inspires the Next Generation of Providers Demsen McFaddin is a business major who helps his father grow almonds on family property in Turlock. But the entrepreneur in him dreams of using his business acumen to create a community garden. “Probably a couple acres that could produce enough vegetables to feed underresourced communities,” McFaddin said. “I’d take it to a food truck to sell, but have a non-profit truck. That would be the business model, make money but have a non-profit component off the same garden.” The idea came to him when he became involved in the new community garden at Stan State, located north of the Agriculture Department's Sustainable Garden. Volunteers and two paid staff members began working on the garden last summer, having been inspired in part by lessons they learned while attending the University’s first Indigenous Peoples Day in 2018.
“I was thinking about food insecurity,” said Antonio Anaya Tapia, an ethnic studies major with a minor in business. “We live in the Central Valley, one of the powerhouses of the world in producing and creating food. And yet we have food insecurities in so many communities in the Valley?” Anaya Tapia started thinking about the Warrior Food Pantry, and the idea of providing fresh produce for students hit him. Planning, approval, insurance and literal seed money from the CSU system that wanted campuses to create such gardens helped launch the project. Anaya Tapia said students are “using this as a space to learn how to create our own food, and how to use that for healing, to find out about foods and herbal medicines we can take with us to any community.” Ethnic studies faculty member Cueponcaxochitl Sandoval Moreno invites students in her indigenous studies class and members of the Indigenous Students in Activism club to work in the garden, which consists of 17 large planter boxes that last fall produced carrots, squash and other vegetables. “We’re on native land,” Sandoval Moreno said. “When you think of studying computer science or business or physics, it’s important for us to have a common north, where we can establish this is native land. How are we going to develop, as a scholar, as a leader, as a graduate of this University and recognize this is native land? By working this land, we activate the molecules, the cells in our bodies in relationship to the land as we get our hands dirty. “As we organize, we have a meeting place on our campus that we could affirm native presence, and that is a really important thing we can carry with us in our lives and in all the work we do to combat the continuous erasure of indigenous peoples.” The project, students say, leaves them hopeful, motivated, inspired and connected. “It’s what we’ve been longing for as humans,” said Julissa Ruyz Ramirez, a political science and ethnic studies major. “From colonialism, we’ve been part of many spiritual things, but this ties us together.”
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RETURNING TO HER By Lori Gilbert
Cueponcaxochitl Moreno Sandoval spent part of her class time early in the spring 2020 semester to introduce her indigenous studies students to the Stanislaus State community garden, should they choose working there as one of three project options for the class. She opened the lesson by honoring the land and those who originally lived on it. Respecting those who came before us, and returning to their ways is very much a focus for the second-year Stanislaus State assistant professor of ethnic studies. “I think one of the most radical things we can do is grow our own food, because then we cut the transportation, the emissions of transporting our food,” Moreno Sandoval said. “We build a relationship with the land. We build a relationship with our foods. We start now eating different types of foods that are not very fast-food based. We develop relationships with neighbors around foods. If I have a surplus of oranges, I’m going to share with you, and maybe you have a surplus of beets and we can trade.” The idea for a community garden on campus — which has been fallow 10 years or more — grew out of conversations and ideas shared with members of the Indigenous Students and Activism Club she advises. A section of land — and 17 planter boxes — north of the agriculture department’s sustainable garden, was offered as a location and students began working it in the summer of 2019. The garden is only a part of what Moreno Sandoval contributes to the sustainability movement on campus. Her hope and her research is in nurturing student voices 14
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as a way of strengthening sustainable practices in everything she does. She sits on Stan State’s Council for Sustainable Futures and according to Wendy Olmstead, director of sustainability, Moreno Sandoval introduced social justice to the conversation. “A lot of people don’t realize the social injustice part of sustainability,” Olmstead said. “The President’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, that’s sustainability. A lot of things we’re doing on campus, people are doing for sustainability. They don’t even realize it.” Moreno Sandoval is very aware, though. It’s as much a part of her makeup as her Mexican roots — from the Caxcan Nation of Zacatecas — and the work ethic instilled by her parents. She arrived in the United States in the womb of her mother, who was hiding in the trunk of a car as it crossed the border. Her father worked in agriculture fields in Southern California, as his parents and grandparents had in their native Mexico. “I am carrying on their legacies,” Moreno Sandoval said. “I am the first generation that has not worked in the fields, the first generation that had the opportunity to go to U.S. schools. “My parents were ag workers in Mexico. My grandparents came as ag workers in the bracero program. So, I definitely
connect with the students’ experiences as first generation.” As an undergraduate student at Pomona College, Moreno Sandoval chose not to “divorce myself from myself in ways that allowed me to continue to be immersed in Eurocentric epistemologies.” Instead, she was more curious about why there weren’t more people who looked like her at Pomona College. “That question led me to where I am now,” she said. “I uncovered what systems of oppression were. I uncovered what experiences my family had gone through and have been able to put a name and policy to them. I studied abroad in Mexico City and that deepened it.” Questioning the status quo, as a lot of young people do, could have driven a wedge between her and her parents, but they’ve overcome their conflict, what she calls a “beautiful challenge,” with love. She continues to question the status quo and encourages her students to never lose sight of their ability to effect change. “Who are our ancestors? From which places did our ancestors travel to and from?” asks Moreno Sandoval, who earned her Ph.D. at UCLA and taught at Arizona State before arriving at Stan State in the fall of 2018. “How can we get in touch with our ancestral knowledge, earthbased knowledge systems? It’s all of our work to do that and to come together and meet together and be able to relate to one another. Let’s plant some seeds together. Let’s plant some indigenous foods that are of this land and learn how to cultivate them and take care of them and cook them together.”
FACULTY
Rerupidi tiiscium ut latur rem dolecus dolupti consecae. Nem dignim es unt. SPRING 2020
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UNIVERSITY COVER FEATURE STUDENT CENTER
Grand Opening of the
UNIVERSITY STUDENT CENTER After six years of planning and designing and two years of construction, the new Student Center opened its doors on Jan. 27. The campus community has been excited to explore the 152,432-square-foot building and all the wonderful resources it has to offer.
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Introducing the
WARRIOR STEPS The Warrior Steps are one of the most iconic features of the Student Center. Overlooking the open stage and University Quad, the Steps are a great place to enjoy a performance or take a break between classes.
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The Perfect Place
FOR STUDYING The Student Center has 1,228 seats and plenty of space for students to study, lounge, eat, socialize and hold meetings. This conference room has a retractable partition wall, so multiple groups can use the space simultaneously without worrying about distractions.
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ALUMNI
CHANGING LANES STAN STATE GRADUATE STEVE GORDON VOWS TO STREAMLINE AND MODERNIZE CALIFORNIA’S DMV BY BRIAN VANDERBEEK
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Steve Gordon didn't wake up one morning suddenly intending to become the director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The opportunity almost literally fell into his morning coffee. Gordon, a Stanislaus State graduate (’83, business administration/ accounting) and veteran Silicon Valley tech executive and entrepreneur, was sitting at his table on March 28, 2019, swapping sections of the San Jose Mercury News with his wife Debi, when a particular story caught her eye.
included more than 30 years in private sector IT, including 18 with Cisco Systems.
The headline was at once challenging and foreboding: “Hate the California DMV? Here’s your chance to run it.”
“I didn’t know many people in the 916 area code, so I was wondering who it was,” Gordon said. “It was the undersecretary for appointments for the Governor's Office, and she had this wonderful personality — so that was the first person I talked to.”
“She looked up at me, handed me the paper and said that I ought to consider applying for that job because it looks like it would fit,” Gordon said. She was serious, and so was the article’s subject. Gov. Gavin Newsom was making a very public effort to find the DMV’s next director, and that person would be the third person in a fourmonth span to be at the helm of, well, as the article said, “the beleaguered state department.” Gordon, a Modesto native and Beyer High graduate, was 59 at the time and considering retiring after compiling an impressive business resume that
He applied for the job. And he waited, not knowing if his application would warrant as much as a nod from Sacramento. Two months later his phone rang.
They set a date a few weeks out for Gordon to come to Sacramento for an interview, and that was his cue to dive-in. He did an informal survey of close friends and former co-workers to get their opinions about the DMV as a service, and said the response was much more positive than he expected. Not only did his friends see the potential in the modernization of the department, but they offered ideas and shared a willingness to help. “Without exception, the people that I’ve reached out to have all stepped up,” Gordon said. “They’ve been on phone calls, they’ve shared data and have been helping us think through things, which has been fantastic.” While waiting for the interview date, Gordon also visited the front lines. On at least two occasions, he’d grab his morning coffee to-go and show up at one of the DMV field offices in the San Jose area, just to see for himself how long people had to wait in line to access DMV services. According to a Sacramento Bee story, he arrived at 6 a.m. at one field office that didn’t open until two hours later and saw a person
who had camped-out in a lawn chair, just to beat the anticipated crowd. What he had heard about people planning their entire day around a visit to the DMV was true, and he’d read enough about the department to know that his experience in transforming enterprises gave him the particular set of skills the DMV might need most. “I apparently passed the first interview, but I wasn’t so sure about it at the time,” Gordon said. “And then there were more interviews and another wait, but all of this has worked out. It’s worked out well.” Gordon recieved another call from the 916 — this time to schedule a meeting with Gov. Newsom. “When I met the governor, we got to discuss what was important to him, and I told him what was important to me, and I think he was happy with what he heard. I know I was happy with what I heard. “That talk was important because I needed to know that his goals were aligned with where I wanted the organization to go, and that these weren’t goals that would be changing a couple months later. And here we are.” Newsom introduced Gordon as DMV Director on July 23, 2019. That morning, the state DMV offices were feeling a familiar source of stress. Its computer system, based on decades-old technology, crashed. “Just an hour ago, an entire computer system was down,” Newsom said during the press conference. “I love it. On the day of the press conference. You’ll probably need to write that down. It’s just too perfect.” If nothing else, it underscored Gordon’s first order of business, especially as the department was rushing to prepare for the anticipated crush around the Oct. 1, 2020, federal enforcement date for Real ID. “We will not modernize the DMV overnight,” Gordon said at the press conference. “This is really going to allow us to be able to make those changes to the infrastructure, make those changes to the system and really
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improve the ability to deliver the services that all Californians expect.” It would be easy to assign a level of luck to Gordon’s path to the top DMV position, but that would be wrong. Yes, his wife just happened to see the newspaper article, but once he decided to pursue the job, he went all out. In a way, that’s similar to his Stan State story. The University found Gordon, and then Gordon found himself at the University. A 1978 Beyer High graduate, Gordon was attending Modesto Junior College and waiting tables at a restaurant in Modesto. He really didn’t know what his next step in life would be.
Gordon said. “I recall one time when it was really foggy that he called my house in Modesto and told me not to drive to school that day. “I remember that to this day, because I thought that was really above and beyond for him to do that. And it really set a tone that, look, we need to make sure that people are safe.” Gordon also retained many of the lessons, both on and off the page, he learned from David Jenkins, professor of accounting.
“I use the stuff I learned in Dr. Jenkins’s class frequently,” Gordon said. “I was one of the rare accountants in my previous field, so when I dealt with my finance peers, I actually could talk to them.” the beautiful
“Once I got here, I saw campus, the professors were fantastic and you know, it was the perfect environment for me and it just worked. It was a great experience for me.” - Steve Gordon “Two of my fellow waiters — a husband and wife — were attending Stan State at the time and were constantly talking about how good it was,” Gordon said. “I was getting near the end of the road at MJC and I needed somewhere to go. Stan State was close, so I could live in Turlock and commute to my job in Modesto. “Once I got here, I saw the beautiful campus, the professors were fantastic and you know, it was the perfect environment for me and it just worked. It was a great experience for me.” Gordon had particular praise for several professors who taught him to look at things from new and interesting perspectives, as did economics professor Fred Kottke. “He always had an 8 a.m. lecture, which is fantastic for me since I'm a morning person, but when students would fall asleep, he would toss erasers at them — probably something you couldn’t do today,” 22
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That ability to communicate with the moneymovers in the public and private sectors is an invaluable trait that Gordon securely connects to his days at Stan State. “I never underestimate the power of being able to talk to the controllers and treasurers, because these are the powerful people in corporate America,” Gordon said. “I found that if you can communicate with them in their terms, you get a different level of respect.” Nothing, however, may gain Gordon more respect than finding success in his current role. He not only understands the grand challenge he’s taken on, but like the rest of us, can’t wait to see how it all turns out. “We follow a pretty regimented process, with steps that are mandated by laws, but what we can do is implement those steps in different ways to reduce the time it takes from start to finish — the cycle time,” he said. “We’re going to try to make as many changes in the DMV as humanly possible over the coming months to prepare for Real ID and
start laying the foundation for the digital transformation that needs to happen. “By next October, when we are able to get people through the process, it will be called a short-term success. Whether we have systems that are 30 years old, or we have processes that are equally old that are supported by those systems, well that’s part of the modernization effort.” Tech upgrades and overall system modernization is understandably at the forefront of Gordon’s vision for the DMV. But he’s not leaving behind the human element that is so important to every transaction and DMV interaction. Much as he did when he was doing homework on the director’s position, Gordon continues to visit DMV field offices. There are 171 scattered throughout the state, and he hopes to be able to visit each one. So, on Nov. 5, 2019, Gordon drove south on Highway 99 to the Monte Vista exit, drove past his alma mater and dropped-in on the Turlock DMV field office. He entered, coffee in hand, without fanfare and made small talk with people waiting in line. A few of them did double-takes as they noticed the tall, friendly guy bore an uncanny resemblance to a man whose portrait hung on the office wall. He may be tasked with upgrading and streamlining the processes of the DMV, but he’ll never lose sight that service always will be a peoplefirst endeavor. “It’s important to break down those kinds of barriers, because we’re all residents of California,” he said. “We’re all neighbors and friends and we work together. And to me, that's one of the most important parts of everything we’re doing. “It's just a breakdown of the communication barriers so people can feel that I’m a human being and maybe think of the DMV in that way. Look! There’s a human being behind the DMV.”
The University found Gordon, and then Gordon found himself at the University.
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ALUMNI
Each Day
IS A GIFT Stan State alumna Pam Kehaly conquered early challenges to reach the top of her field. BY LORI GILBERT A job lead from a friend led Stan State graduate Pam Kehaly into the health insurance business, two years after she earned her business administration degree in 1983. That claims supervisor position at Blue Cross launched a career that enabled Kehaly to apply her business skills. It also allowed her to pursue her greater passion of helping people. Kehaly recently combined that passion with inspiration from her mother — who raised her as a single parent — when she established a scholarship fund at Stan State to support students in the School of Nursing or College of Business Administration who were raised in a single-parent household. As president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona since
November 2017, she is dedicated to providing quality health care to everyone in the state. It’s a role she accepted after spending seven years as president and general manager of Anthem Blue Cross of California. Such a mission — seeing to the wellbeing of so many — can’t help but spill over into her personal life. The motto she passed on to her two grown sons, Trevor and Ryan, is borrowed from Nickelback: “Each day’s a gift and not a given right.” “I encourage them to appreciate each day and live it to its fullest,” Kehaly said. “We have a finite number of days on this earth, and each day is precious and should not be squandered or wasted.”
To that end, she makes the most of her time away from work. She counts Sunday family dinners with her husband, Bill Kehaly — a technology entrepreneur she met at Stan State — her sons and daughter-in-law “the highlight of each week” because it’s “most fulfilling to spend time with family.” Kehaly balances family life with a rich and challenging career. She was recognized as one of 2018’s Most Influential Women and Most Admired Leaders by AZ Business Magazine and the Phoenix Business Journal, respectively, and is highly sought by agencies for positions on their boards of directors. She also serves on the advisory board of the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California and is a member of the board of directors for Arizona Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Greater Phoenix Leadership, UNS Energy, T-Gen and HealthCorps. Here’s a look at how Kehaly, who started working as a 12-year-old cleaning houses and selling carpet cleaner at flea markets, rose to the top of her field. Pam Kehaly and Dr. Oz team up to raise the standard of health in Arizona.
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inspired you, friends you made, places you liked to go in Turlock and the surrounding area?
with Pam Kehaly
Q: Your mom was an inspiration for
you. How did she accomplish what she did, and how did that influence you?
A: My mother had to raise young children as a single parent. In order to manage, she held down two jobs but always made the time to create a healthy, loving environment for us. She worked her way up from a mailroom clerk to senior vice president at the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange in Los Angeles. Her drive and determination were things I saw every day, and that greatly influenced my own approach to my life and career. Q: Why did you decide to attend
Stan State? How did your Stan State education prepare you to launch your career?
A: I researched all schools in
California that were within a twohour drive. Stan State had a number of attractive features for me. The most important was size. I did not want to go to a school with enormous classes where it would be easy for any individual student to get lost amongst the crowd. The smaller classes at Stan State meant relationships and individual attention from teachers, which kept me engaged and interested in learning.
Q: What memories of Stan State
A: There are so many great memories of my time at Stan State — it is hard to pick just a few. The most significant and memorable was meeting my husband, Bill Kehaly, who was running for class president at the time. The Turkey Trot races were, of course, legendary. School time was also memorable from lunches on campus to marketing classes with my favorite teacher. Q: After graduating from college,
you worked in retail before making the jump to health insurance. What was it that convinced you to make the change, and what was it that held your interest to pursue your career in this field?
A: While going to school, I worked
part time in retail. The company offered me a full-time manager role when I graduated, which I accepted. I did not feel I was using my education, nor was I making a positive difference in people’s lives. So, I shifted to the health field. I found this to be a space where I could have a meaningful impact, and I could use more of what I learned at Stan State.
Q: What inspired you to recently
reconnect with Stan State and make a generous donation?
A: One of the great things about Stan State is that it is not over when you graduate. It stays a part of your life, not only in your education and memories, but also through ongoing connections, like this magazine, individual outreach and local events. Stan State has given me so much in my life — I want to give back to enable others to have the same learning and development opportunities I was given.
Q: You’ve developed or overseen innovative health care initiatives throughout your career. Which are you most proud of and why?
A: Mobilize AZ is a program I started almost two years ago to address the health issues in Arizona that are ranked lower than the national average. Mobilize AZ’s areas of focus are opioid overdose deaths, mental health and diabetes. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona is supporting programs to improve the health of all Arizonans, particularly in these three areas.
Q: Was there any connection
Q: Many of your volunteer activities
A: Learning from Stan State in the areas of finance, business and marketing have been extraordinarily helpful in my career advancement. Accounting classes helped me run P&Ls (profit and loss statements), marketing classes helped me develop successful products and programs, and business administration helped me make good business decisions.
A: Health is the most important aspect of life. It is so easy to take health for granted until you or a loved one lose it. And at some point in every person’s life, they will face that fact. People I care about have battled or are battling serious disease, which drives me to find solutions. For me, it is personal.
you found between what you learned during your time at Stan State and finding success in pursuing your passion?
stand out to you — professors who
have revolved around health care — breast cancer, March of Dimes and multiple sclerosis — to name a few. Is this an extension of your work, or is there a more personal connection to some of these causes?
COVID-19 is exacting a terrible toll on the health and well-being of all. This is a time when standing united will makes us stronger and more resilient. Martin Luther King said, ‘We may have all come in different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.’ We are indeed in the same boat, so, let’s row together. Let’s all do the right things — like social distancing and frequent hand washing. But, lets also help one another — be kind, compassionate and helpful to those that need it. If we all do our part, we will emerge victorious. - Pam Kehaly, CEO, Blue Cross® Blue Shield® of Arizona
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Celebrating Excellence
By Lori Gilbert, Gina Oltman and Brian Vanderbeek
Choosing Stan State was just the first step toward obtaining an invaluable education, and these scholars are making huge strides, and making a difference, with their academic excellence. RIVAS EYEING A CAREER SPRINGBOARD FROM BUSINESS DEGREE
“I was like, wow, who just gives away that much money? I can’t just say, ‘OK, that’s it.’ I have to give back,” said Rivas.
Receiving a substantial scholarship from an organization that has helped hundreds of students improve their lives and communities can be a lifechanging experience.
Rivas is unsure how he will “give back” and admits it probably can’t happen soon, but he is eager to someday start a scholarship fund through the church he attends.
That’s what Stanislaus State business administration major Oscar Rivas discovered when he received his first Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation scholarship. It introduced him to the world of philanthropy and the desire to someday help others.
A resident of Modesto and a firstgeneration college student on track to graduate this spring, Rivas is one of 20 Rogers Scholars 2019-2020 academic year. He came to Stan State three years ago and has been covering his expenses by working 30 hours a week in a Gallo warehouse and, until recently, driving for Uber and Lyft.
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Rivas hopes to move up the ladder at Gallo and believes Stan State has prepared him with an education that combines quality with exposure to actual business practices in local industries. “In the business school, they have professors who have experience in the field, so it’s not just theory,” he said. “They provide real life examples of how the theories apply in the workforce.”
Ileana Trujillo
STUDENT PROFILES degree in fall 2020, then pursue a master’s degree and a career as a genetic counselor. She may end up at a larger university for her post-graduate work, but says she is probably ready “to leave the nest.” “I’ve learned that nothing is easy in life. You’re faced with challenges and you become stronger when you overcome them,” she said. “It might be scary, but once you overcome that, you learn so much and you’re a stronger person.” YANG’S ART BECOMES HER PATHWAY IN A NEW COUNTRY
Oscar Rivas and supporters TRUJILLO FLOURISHING IN STAN STATE’S SMALL-CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT While a student at Turlock High School, Ileana Trujillo dreamed of attending a large university. But during her first quarter at UC Santa Cruz, which has nearly 20,000 students, she learned that bigger isn’t necessarily better. The campus seemed massive to her. Feeling homesick, she called her older brother for advice. “He said, ‘Come home, go to Merced College, then go to Stanislaus. It will be completely different at Stanislaus.’” She took his advice and is glad she did. “The classes here are way smaller, and I’m much closer to my professors. That makes all the difference for me,” she said. “Here, if I’m having trouble with the material in a class, I can just talk to the professor before or after class.” A psychology major with minors in biology and chemistry, Trujillo is a second-year Rogers Scholar and is participating in the Honors Program. She plans to graduate with a bachelor’s
Ten years ago, Stanislaus State art major Ia Yang left her home in Laos and moved to Ia Yang Merced knowing practically no English — just the alphabet and the words yes and no. Today, she speaks English and three other languages fluently and plans to become an art professor. “I want to teach art because I want to be a role model for other artists. I want to encourage them to follow their dreams and believe everything is possible,” said Yang. A Rogers Scholar on track to graduate in fall 2020, Yang left behind a hard life in Laos. There, her family worked their small farm to feed themselves and earn a little money selling vegetables. Once here, Yang picked up the English language on the internet and by socializing only with Englishspeaking friends. By high school, her English was good and her innate artistic talent had clearly emerged. She entered and won a few art contests. Then
she sold a colored pencil drawing for $300 — a shining moment that gave her confidence as an artist. But when she came to Stan State, she put her passion aside and declared nursing as her major. “I was scared to make art my major, and I knew nursing would be a good profession with stable jobs,” she said. “Then I took an art class and remembered it was my true passion. It was a tough decision to switch from nursing to art, but I decided to follow my dreams and my true passion.” VAN HOOGMOED INSPIRED BY DAD’S DIAGNOSIS A one-time theatre major, Emma Van Hoogmoed didn’t take long to exit stage left into the field of science. “I knew I wanted to do something more science based, Van Hoogmoed said of switching gears while at Fresno City College. “Then, that same year, my dad got diagnosed with terminal cancer. It was eye-opening for me, but there’s thousands of dads everywhere getting diagnosed with cancer. I want to do more than just support my dad. I wanted to support everyone else.” Now a third-year computer science major at Stan State, the Madera native has her eye on using technology for medical research. Van Hoogmoed will advance her studies toward that end as a McNair Scholar. She is already thinking about UC Davis as a graduate school destination with a goal of conducting research. “I want to go toward the field of oncology and work with doctors to come up with better treatments for patients,” she said. “All of that is rooted in research, lots and lots of studies, and formulating ideas and trying to come up with better ways of doing things.” Emma Van Hoogmoed SPRING 2020
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Joana Alfaro and daughter, Sofia 28 STAN MAGAZINE
DESIRE TO GIVING BACK DRIVES MARTINEZ
program seems unfathomable to the one-time agriculture field worker.
Fernando Martinez arrived in the United States from Mexico at the age of 10. He knew neither English nor Spanish, having come from a village that speaks Mixtec, an indigenous dialect.
“When I first read all the requirements and you needed letters of recommendations from professors I thought, ‘Little me, I can’t do that. Who was going to speak for me?’ Alfaro said, tears brimming. “I asked two professors from Merced College. Right away they had letters of recommendation that spoke so beautiful of me. I thought, ‘That’s awesome. That’s Me?’ I didn’t realize they saw me the way that they did.
As a teenager he worked sideby-side in the strawberry fields of Santa Maria with his parents. Not only did Martinez leave those fields to obtain an education at Stanislaus State, he’s preparing to enroll in graduate school as a McNair Scholar. The McNair Program, named for the physicist-astronaut who was killed in the 1986 Challenger disaster, provides financial and other support for first-generation and underserved college students to apply for and be accepted to graduate school. “My ultimate career goal is either to become a counselor in K-12 or higher ed,” the senior psychology major said. “The main reason is because being the first-generation student, my parents are agricultural workers and never really had an idea or advice for me to pursue higher education. All they knew was work.” A counselor at Santa Maria High School encouraged Martinez and now he hopes to someday return there, support his parents and guide the next generation of students. “I feel like me being the first one to attend a four-year college and graduate and pursue higher education will allow me to educate those who are in my shoes,” he said. ALFARO INSPIRED BY VETERAN HUSBAND A mother of three, Joana Alfaro returned to school after deciding to stay home and enjoy all the first milestones of her youngest child, having missed them with her other two because she was working. Alfaro is now achieving milestones of her own, studying sociology and contemplating graduate school as a McNair Scholar. “I plan on working against the stigma we’ve created on mental health and veterans,” Alfaro said. “I want to pick topics that will hopefully open up some doors for these veterans: PTSD, suicide, these are all things we need to be talking about more. They’re really important to me.” Alfaro is the wife of a U.S. Navy veteran who has seen PTSD first-hand. A 1993 immigrant from Mexico, Alfaro didn’t even consider college when she graduated from Delhi High School. Now a U.S. citizen, she enrolled in college at her husband’s urging. That the first-generation college student is now on a path to graduate school through the McNair Scholars
“Doing the application, I doubted myself. I think I always doubt myself. I don’t want to say I deserve it, but yes, I worked hard for where I'm at. It doesn’t feel real, doesn’t feel like it’s for me. Here I am filling out an application to get me into graduate school. ME? It’s very surreal the thought of me and graduate school being in the same sentence.” Fernando Martinez NIETO VAZQUEZ TRAVELS ROCKY ROAD TO SUCCESS On the day Juana Nieto Vazquez was set to interview for migration from Mexico to the United States, an opportunity her father had worked on for years as he toiled in California to support his family, tragedy struck. Her father died suddenly. Nieto and her mother considered remaining in Mexico, but family convinced them to make the move her father had worked to achieve for them. Plunked in a new place where she didn’t speak the language, Nieto found support at Atwater High School and not only worked her way into Stan State, where she’s a third-year student majoring in psychology, but also a McNair Scholar, preparing to enroll in graduate school. “I would like to provide services to people, resources, guidance for them,” said Nieto, who currently tutors migrant students in programs that helped her when she first arrived in Atwater at 14. “I want to make an impact on people. I would like to work in a school, but I don’t know for sure. I was thinking about becoming a school psychologist, but I took a class here, Psychology 3000, and I like how they conduct studies.” Research is part of the McNair Scholars program, and that she was selected for the prestigious group doesn’t surprise at least one of her supporters. “I had a teacher (at Atwater High School) whose name is Mr. Gutierrez. He still teaches ELD. He made me believe in myself. He told me one time he wanted to see me graduate, from high school, but also from a university.”
Juana Nieto Vasquez
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The Next
CHAPTER
A sleek, state-of-the-art library awaits Stan State students, who currently rely on annex buildings as a substitute for the VaschÊ Library Building, from which the sounds of demolition give testament to the transformation taking place inside one of the campus’s original buildings. When the doors swing open in Summer 2021, visitors will find, among other changes, an event room, cafe, increased study spaces, computer zones on two floors and a room dedicated to the special collection and University archives.
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Division of University Advancement STANISLAUS STATE One University Circle Turlock, Ca 95382
“CONTAGION IS REAL, BUT IT DOESN’T JUST WORK FOR VIRUSES. IT WORKS FOR KIND WORDS AND GENEROUS THOUGHTS, AND ACTS OF SELFLESSNESS AND HONESTY.” -NEW YORK TIMES
Unprecedented challenges bring opportunities for kindness, compassion and care. Every Warrior can be proud of their contribution to the effort of moving Stan State forward in the face of this unprecedented challenge. Thank you to the Warrior community for the many examples of persistence and dedication shown during this crisis.
#WARRIORSTRONG stanforacause.csustan.edu/WarriorStrong
