The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Monday October 15, 2018
Volume 104 Issue 20
Titans celebrate Coming Out Day The LGBT Queer Resource Center held events in honor of the national celebration. SOPHIA ACEVEDO Asst. Opinion Editor
BROOK FARIEN Staff Writer
A balloon-rainbow arch swayed in the central Quad on Thursday, welcoming students to participate in interactive arts and crafts activities for a National Coming Out Day celebration, hosted by Cal State Fullerton’s LGBT Queer Resource Center. “(To me) this event means celebrating queerness and celebrating the milestones and progress that the LGBTQ community has made over the years,” said Isaiah Acevedo, a student leader at the LGBT Queer Resource Center. Albert Xiong, a graduate assistant of the LGBT Queer Resource Center, said he hoped the afternoon event would provide visibility and a sense of community for LGBTQ students and let them know the resource center was available in helping them. Janice Orozco, a freshman English major, passed by the event with Kris Delrio, a student from Orange High School, and created a self-flower in one of the activities, which depicted the different parts of Orozco’s personality. “I felt like it was a really nice event because it made me feel included in the community,” Orozco said. “It’s OK to be ourselves and I know that people aren’t going to accept it all the time, but
SOPHIA ACEVEDO / DAILY TITAN
Students wave a rainbow flag in the Quad on Thursday in support of the LGBTQ community.
just surround yourself with those who do accept you and you’ll be fine,” Orozco said. Participants could receive a goody bag once they collected signatures from each of the four tables at the event. In addition to the arts and
crafts, there were also two community resource tables, OC Accept and the LGBT Center Orange County. Marco Ramirez, a therapist of OC Accept, said their program focuses on case management and mental health services for people
in the LGBTQ community. National Coming Out Day celebrates the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, which was the nation’s second demonstration to occur on the basis of LGBTQ rights. The march led to the creation
of foundations such as the National Latino/a Gay & Lesbian Organization and AT&T’s LEAGUE, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ civil rights organization. SEE PRIDE
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Syrian student pursues degree Pups lend a paw to readers
Sarah Albassri escaped turmoil five years ago and has since graduated. SAMMY JONES Staff Writer
Sarah Albassri, a Syrian refugee, escaped the war zone in Syria five years ago and came to the United States. She graduated from Cal State Fullerton last spring. Accompanied by her mom, Albassri said she was finally reconnected with her father, who had already been living in the U.S. Despite her family successfully immigrating to the United States, Albassri said it wasn’t their plan to stay in the country very long. She said her family had hopes of returning to their native country. “My dad came first, and then after the situation got worse in Syria and I wasn’t able to study, me and my mom traveled,” Albassri said. “I wasn’t intended to stay here, I thought I was going to go back and then it didn’t work out.” Albassri said because she couldn’t get U.S. citizenship; she cannot return to Syria. “My passport is expired and if I travel, I’m afraid I can’t come back here,” she said. Albassri said she wanted to go to pharmacy school, but ended up graduating with a degree in biochemistry. She struggled understanding English when she first arrived and began to teach herself the new language through YouTube videos. “Once I got here, everything didn’t make any sense. I might know some English, but it didn’t make sense to me, how I heard it. I started listening to songs, movies and a lot of YouTube videos,” Albassri said. Wylie Ahmed, an assistant
Kids improve their reading skills reading to dogs at the Fullerton Library. WENDY CHAVEZ Staff Writer
SAMMY JONES / DAILY TITAN
Graduate student, Sarah Albassri, is currently studying to become a biomedical engineer.
physics professor, said he couldn’t believe she had trouble with English. “The first time I found out that she was having problems with English was when I read her personal statement, which was very well-written, and she mentioned that she had problems with it. Her English is pretty much perfect. It’s as good as any native English speaker’s anyway,” he said. Albassri said she decided to pursue her master’s in physics and work on research involving non-equilibrium dynamics of colloidal swimmers and ultimately, become a biomedical engineer. She was able to use her
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biochemistry background to enter the new field of science. Ahmed and Albassri started a project together involving micro-swimmers, and eventually Albassri was convinced to stay at CSUF for graduate school, Ahmed said. Her focus is trying to understand the movement of tiny molecules such as swimmers, which are man-made microorganisms or bacteria, Ahmed said. Albassri said she preps the swimmers, covers them with a slide and places it under a microscope. To further break down the microscopic image, she relies on computer programs to enlarge what she
observes. Ahmed said their bigger goal is to eventually engineer or create swimmers that can transport drugs or perform self-assembly. Outside the lab, Albassri said she is a taekwondo instructor. This is where she can unwind and relieve her stress. “Sarah is one of those amazing people, where she has overcome a lot and you would never know it. She never lets it show,” Ahmed said. “In the lab, it’s different. There’s research challenges, which are very different especially transitioning from biochemistry to physics, but she’s overcome everything.”
Reading from a book to a crowd of people for the first time is nerve-wracking. But picture this: the crowd is furry, happy, and listening attentively. This is the vision the Fullerton Public Library tries to bring to life through its monthly fall program Read with the Dogs for kids on every second Wednesday. Read with the Dogs was established in 2011 to help children improve their reading skills by reading to therapy dogs, according to Janine Jacobs, the Fullerton Library children’s services division manager. In doing so, children develop the confidence to read more efficiently. “Practice makes perfect. Just by doing it, they get more comfortable and they get more and more confident and pretty soon they’re just doing it,” Jacobs said. Therapy dogs are provided by the Pet Prescription Team, a full-service organization that is dedicated to providing comfort and therapy services to the public through pets. These dogs must complete an eight-week training through Pet Prescription Team and pass the American Kennel Club requirements, according to the Pet Prescription website. SEE DOGS
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