Trojan Family Magazine Summer 2014 by University of Southern California

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CA L I F OR N I A SUM M E R 2 0 14

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MAN WI T H A P LAN Gary Michelson sees science and engineering converge to create the future

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PHOTO BY JOHN MCGILLEN

You can literally get your hands on a Heisman—and a slew of NCAA championship trophies—in USC Athletics’ new museum in Heritage Hall. Check out Rebecca Soni’s 2012 Olympics opening ceremony outft, Annie Park’s 7-iron and golf shirt from her 2013 NCAA championship, football jerseys worn by the likes of Marcus Allen and Carson Palmer, and more. It’s open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

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Editor’s Note Millennial Trojans tackle their future with confdence, adaptability and passion.

President’s Page Construction brings much more than an altered landscape for USC’s campuses.

Mailbag Pats, pride and other observations from our readers.

News Developing biological batteries, making music at Dodger Stadium and strengthening U.S.-Japan ties.

Redefning Reality By Diane Krieger To get a glimpse at the future of virtual reality, look no further than Mark Bolas’ MxR Lab.

A Diferent Way By Diane Krieger Te Kortschak Center empowers students with ADHD, dyslexia and other learning diferences to achieve success in school—and life.

inside

The USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience will stand in the southwest quadrant of campus.

Te World Bachelor in Business degree is a frst-of-its-kind program that takes students from Hong Kong to Milan as they study business with a global view. By Michael Agresta

26 Brain Trust

By Amy Paturel Physicians and scientists push the boundaries of technology to help people with epilepsy and other neurological disorders.

63 Class Notes

Top of the Pops USC Tornton popular-music students are taking their creative talents to the next level—and the music industry is taking notice. By G. Bruce Smith

44 Alumni News Trojans worldwide join the USC Alumni Day of SCervice, an LAbased alum raises funds for Latino student scholarships, and former Trojan Marching Band members brew up their own business.

Business Without Borders

Man with a Plan Philanthropist Gary Michelson boosts USC’s eforts to merge science and engineering to solve our greatest health challenges. By Katharine Gammon

Te Long Journey to Justice Te Post-Conviction Justice Project has given new hope to juveniles serving life sentences without parole. By Agustin Gurza

Who’s doing what and where.

Ask Tommy Trojans remember the best hangout spots around USC.

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e d i t o r’ s n o t e

Faith in Their Future Back when I was growing up, I knew my blue-collar dad, a machinist, could be laid of at any time. It was an accepted possibility like any other: It could rain tomorrow, we might eat chicken for dinner, and Dad could lose his job. So when I started college, I decided to major in an engineering-related feld that seemed to guarantee a steady living: product design. I threw in a second major, history, because I liked writing. But seriously, I thought, who fnds gainful employment writing? Tis issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine sends me back to those youthful days when we frst faced decisions about our careers. Te students in our story on the World Bachelor in Business program are tackling their future with contagious confdence. Tese international Millennials (pictured here, taking a selfe during our photo shoot) believe they’ll shape the business world, however it evolves, and they’re gaining the skills to do it. Te same goes for the students in our story on USC’s Popular Music Program. Tey’re leaving college as the music industry changes dramatically, with new ways to buy, share and create songs. USC music students have conviction, though: Tey’ll succeed by pursuing an art they love, fueled by knowledge, commitment and mentoring from professionals. In the two decades after graduating, I’ve worked as a writer, survived newspaper upheavals and seen social media revolutionize communications. It’s inevitable that today’s graduates will see their felds change too. But they’ll adapt. To them—the history majors and the rest of the Class of 2014 who are following their passion—I say: Fight On! Alicia Di Rado Editor-In-Chief, USC Trojan Family Magazine

Te quarterly magazine of the University of Southern California E DI TO R-I N- CHI EF

Alicia Di Rado M ANAGI NG E DI TOR

Elisa Huang SE NI O R E DI TO R

Diane Krieger PRO DUCT I O N M ANAG ER

Mary Modina ART DI RE CTO R

Sheharazad P. Fleming DE SI GN AND PRO DUCTION

Pentagram Design, Austin

CO NT RI BUTO RS

Kirsten Aten

Sam Lopez

Merrill Balassone

Eddie North-Hager

Susan Bell

Russ Ono

Michelle Boston

Robert Perkins

Emily Cavalcanti

Jessica Raymond

David Davin

Abby Saunders

Allison Engel

Lauren Walser

Sue Khodarahmi

Claude Zachary

Dan Knapp PUBLI SHE R

Minne Ho M ARKE T I NG M ANAG ER

Rod Yabut ADVE RT I SI NG I NQ UIRIES

Kristy Day | kday@lamag.com

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USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published in March, June, September and December by USC University Communications.

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p r e s i d e n t’ s p a g e

Building USC’s Future

PHOTO BY STEVE COHN

b y c. l. m a x n i k i a s If you’ve visited our campuses in recent years, you’ve noticed tremendous changes underway, as the steady buzz of construction flls the air. As USC’s stature grows, so must our infrastructure, and our momentum is well-matched by our ambition: World-class faculty and students require world-class facilities. To this end, Wallis Annenberg Hall now stands at the heart of our University Park Campus, a dynamic addition to our USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Its exceptional laboratories and equipment will help us maintain our leadership in digital media communication. Nearby, at the campus’s main entrance, stands Verna and Peter Dauterive Hall, our frst interdisciplinary social sciences building. Featuring graceful arches and Gothic fourishes that evoke USC’s most beloved structures, Dauterive Hall will bring together leading thinkers from diverse disciplines. Along with these majestic buildings, our University Park Campus now boasts an elegantly restored Hahn Plaza, signifcantly enlarging the central space at the base of Tommy Trojan, as well as a meticulously refurbished courtyard outside Town & Gown; a beautifed, tree-lined Childs Way; and a handsome new quad at the heart of our USC Viterbi School. Our growth continues apace. In April, we broke ground on the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance along 34th Street. As the university’s sixth independent arts school, USC Kaufman will enroll its inaugural class in 2015, creating an innovative home for dance education on the West Coast and in the Pacifc Rim. We will also begin work on Jill and Frank Fertitta Hall, an instructional building for our USC Marshall School of Business. Tis will expand the school’s collaborative and technology-enabled learning space, increasing the school’s undergraduate student capacity by nearly one-third. We will also break ground on the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, a research facility for science and engineering. Tis center will help create a major biomedical research corridor in Southern California. In the coming months, we will advance construction on the USC Village, the largest development project in South Los Angeles’ history, with its site to be cleared this summer. Te USC Village will be an architectural masterpiece, with residential colleges for students, as well as an impressive promenade, retail stores and dining establishments. It will inspire a feeling of community that only a great town square can ofer. tfm.usc.edu

Meanwhile, on our Health Sciences Campus, we plan to add two major buildings, including a 420-bed student housing project for the Keck School’s medical and PhD students and residents, as well as our pharmacy students. Tis facility will ofer outstanding child care, and we plan to build a Hyatt House hotel nearby. We will also create the Norris Healthcare Consultation Center for clinical cancer services. Our health system continues to expand beyond our campuses, as we recently added the USC Verdugo Hills Hospital to our medical enterprise. And on both of USC’s campuses, we are adding thousands of trees and plants, creating a lush oasis of green for our community and guests. Finally, USC Athletics marked its 125th anniversary with the reopening of Heritage Hall, which now includes an interactive museum with the Patrick C. Haden Hall of Champions, as well as leading-edge training facilities for our women’s sports programs. This remodel coincided with the dedication of the Uytengsu Aquatics Center, a glorious new home for our swimming, diving and water polo teams. USC has grown spectacularly since the frst stone in its foundation was laid in 1880. Ten the space covered by our most treasured buildings was a dusty feld, an undeveloped expanse with scant visitors. Today it teems with the world’s most talented faculty and students. Indeed this is a period of exponential, even exhilarating growth—and for them, it needs to be.

C. L. Max Nikias leads USC during a time of tremendous growth.

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Trojan Heritage Saul Bass. What a genius he is, and you featured him in the Spring 2014 issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine (p. 11). His work can inspire numerous studies. I worked at DirecTV, USC and Security Pacifc National Bank. He created those logos and more. I used Why Man Creates, his animated short documentary flm, in several business classes I taught in both the USC Marshall and USC Annenberg schools. Saul really is a “Design Heritage” and an iconic graphic designer. Glad you shared his story. Larry Steven Londre ’71, MBA ’74 (bus)

Playa Vista, CA

On Campaign I read your article about our ambitious fundraising goals and success (“Cardinal, Gold and Bold,” Spring 2014, p. 38). When President Hubbard started his campaign it was titled “Toward Century II.” We have come a long way. Congratulations and Fight On! G r e t c he n G l a z en er ’ 7 7 ( b u s) La Jolla, CA It would be interesting to see these numbers adjusted for infation. B i l l N e w t on ’ 5 6 ( b u s) Jackson, WY Regarding the $6 billion campaign, I have a major concern that is shared by many of my Trojan friends. We are unsure what the real purpose is behind raising this much money. We hear talk of being an elite university. Frankly, I’d rather be a good university than an elite one. Tat means offering a great education to students, being a center of useful research and being a vital part of the community. As an alumnus, a part-time faculty member and a parent of a current student, I believe these seem like what should matter. Bar ry Wait e ’ 8 4 , M PA ’ 8 6 ( spp ) Lomita, CA

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We welcome your feedback. Submit your letter to the editor at usc.tfm.edu/mailbag.

EDI T OR’S N OT E: Tank you for sharing your thoughts. Te Campaign for the University of Southern California was launched to strengthen our work in education, research and the community. USC is known for its small class sizes and top-ranked academic programs. We’ve drawn transformative faculty from across the country in research areas from brain imaging to philosophy. More than 60 percent of USC students receive fnancial assistance, and to guarantee that the university remains accessible to the most deserving students, we’re raising endowment funds specifcally for scholarships. In support of talented students and faculty, we’ve undertaken large-scale construction and beautifcation projects to provide them with the best living, learning and working environments. USC is also adding features that will make our campuses more welcoming to our neighbors. To keep the momentum, we need to create endowments that will support these endeavors and ensure that the university continues to thrive for generations to come. We thank members of the Trojan Family who are contributing to the efort.

S O C I A L

M E D I A

Nikola Vavic ’14 ﬁnishes his senior year on a high note. For the second time, Vavic is the men’s water polo National Player of the Year. After the news, fans piled on the praise through the USC Trojans Facebook page. Vavic and his fellow seniors earned four national water polo championships at USC, where Vavic stands as the all-time leading scorer. The Trojan men enter next season with six straight college titles.

620,312 C O U N T I N G

C L I C K S

YouTube views as of April 30 for the preview of Unbroken, the story of Trojan Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini. Produced and directed by Angelina Jolie, the ﬁlm premieres in December. Watch the trailer at bit.ly/unbrokenmovie.

Nothing but Net Tank you for your piece “Te Straight Shooter,” about an old friend (In Memoriam, Spring 2014, p. 70). I was a wannabe athlete during those years (played freshman football but not good enough to make the varsity). I spent many nights at the girls’ basketball court to improve my basketball skills. I turned out to be “ball passer” extraordinaire! A kid named Bill Sharman was alone up there and was delighted to have someone throw him the ball from different spots and diferent speeds. A quiet young man, but when it came to getting that ball in the hoop he was like a cat going after a rat. I still feel that sports is a huge part of the college experience—but I fear that money is drowning out the “straight shooter” sportsmanship so prevalent in guys like Bill. Herman Koster ’51, MA ’55 (edu) West Hills, CA

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“Likes” on Instagram for an image of the Spirit of Troy leading a record-setting concrete pour for the new Wilshire Grand skyscraper in Los Angeles. Korean Air, whose CEO is USC Trustee Yang-ho Cho, is constructing the building.

No. 1

USC’s rank in CNNMoney’s list of top U.S. universities for international students. The February rankings generated lots of love on LinkedIn, where graduates from around the world shared their memories. Visit the site at bit.ly/linkedin_usc.

summer 2014

VAVIC PHOTO BY JOHN MCGILLEN; JOLIE AND ZAMPERINI PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES

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TROJAN

PHOTO BY SHEHARAZAD P. FLEMING

WELL-SUITED Drawing parallels between the creation of clothing and structures, architecture students in Lee Olvera’s ﬁfth-year studio class painstakingly construct Mao jackets using unconventional materials. To see more eye-popping fashion made from pencil erasers (shown), crocheted wire, matchsticks, thumbtacks and more, visit tfm.usc.edu/2014-jackets.

tfm.usc.edu

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trojan news

Personal estimated Facebook use in next ﬁve years:

Forecasting the Future of Facebook

Teens (13-17)

Facebook has admitted it’s losing its youngest users, and a survey from the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future and Bovitz Inc. shows that teens aren’t the only ones who plan to abandon the 10-year-old social platform. Social media users are turning to microblogs—communication tools like Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr that can quickly get their messages across, say media researchers. Tat especially goes for the younger crowd. But don’t expect Facebook, the world’s most popular social network, to disappear. “Facebook won’t collapse as a social platform as MySpace did,” predicts Jefrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future, which was established at USC Annenberg to study the global impact of digital technology. “It has more than 1 billion users, and should reach at least 1.5 billion users—a phenomenal number—with especially strong growth in developing countries.” Here are some highlights from the center’s recent survey about the future of social media.

47% (Less)

40% (Same)

13% (More)

Millennials (18-34)

Instagram and Twitter will continue to grow dramatically, especially among Millennials, but

48% (Same)

30% (Less)

22% (More)

Mature (35+)

perc ent

of respondents will use Facebook less in the future. I NSTAG R AM US E AMO N G ALL R ES PO N D EN TS

60% (Same)

27% (Less)

13% (More)

INS TAGRA M US E A MONG MIL L ENNIAL S

The survey found that the popularity of other social platforms like Instagram is growing dramatically, especially among Millennials.

16% in 2012

25% in 2013

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30% in 2012

45% in 2013 summer 2014

What was, is

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FA C U LT Y

P R O F I L E

M A R K

B O L A S

Mark Bolas draws an amoebalike diagram on his whiteboard, sketching an org chart of the people in his lab with a squeaky marker. Undergrads and grad students from all over the university. Paid lab staﬀ. Alumni. There’s even a category of people he calls “pre-students,” dabblers who are “trying things out” and might join USC later in one way or another. There’s one group missing from the diagram: faculty. When a visitor points this out, Bolas, an associate professor himself, laughs sheepishly at his oversight. Reﬂecting for a moment, he motions to the board. “I did forget faculty, because we’re working for these other people,” he explains. “Yes, we guide the research and have ways we want it to go, but these people are doing the research. That’s how we keep paying it forward.” Bolas is a faculty member in USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and associate director of

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the university’s Institute for Creative Technologies, where his Mixed Reality (MxR) Lab pushes the boundaries of human-computer interaction and the open-source movement. His team creates new content and technologies that provide virtual experiences that are visceral and immersive, and then oﬀers the blueprints for the creations for free. One of his “pre-students” was a young virtual reality enthusiast named Palmer Luckey. Inspired by a research paper authored by the MxR team, Luckey visited the lab and, impressing Bolas, landed a spot on a team with other MxR students, programmers and professors. Luckey, now 21, has since taken the tech world by storm with Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset, and Facebook recently bought his company for $2 billion. Seeing Luckey’s success is a source of unqualiﬁed pleasure

to Bolas. “I believe a big part of my job is helping to develop amazing people,” he says. Bolas grew up in LA’s Echo Park neighborhood and traces his research philosophy and his successful career to a lifechanging high school experience on the University Park Campus. Ditching his summer-school class on American government, he wandered around USC until he found an unlocked computer lab. He dug through the trash for a discarded password, logged into a computer and made himself at home. “That’s how I taught myself to code,” he says, grinning. Years later, as a Stanford mechanical engineering student, Bolas would again ﬁnd a space to let loose his curiosity. His Stanford mentor, Scott Fisher— founding chair of the USC School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media Division—was then head of the world’s ﬁrst virtual reality lab, located at NASA’s Ames

Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. “Scott said, ‘After 8 o’clock, when everybody leaves, this place is yours. Do whatever you want,’” Bolas recalls. “That became my thesis project.” Bolas helped create NASA’s prototype Virtual Environment Workstation, and he later founded Fakespace Labs, manufacturing virtual reality and interactive devices in the 1990s. Today, Bolas makes sure that the MxR Lab’s doors are open to students of all backgrounds. Humanists, social scientists and artists “aren’t preoccupied with the limitations of technology,” he says. “We take technology, push it to the edge of its limitations and, hopefully, break it.” To download free MxR projects, go to bit.ly/mxrfree. DIANE KRIEGER

summer 2014

PHOTO BY AL SEIB/LOS ANGELES TIMES

Redefning Reality

trojan news

Q U OTAT I O N

“It would be nice to make what we’re doing here obsolete.” George Clooney, actor, director and co-founder of the nonproﬁt Not On Our Watch. The USC Shoah Foundation honored him in 2013 for his eﬀorts to protect human rights worldwide.

UYTENGSU AQUATICS CENTER PHOTO BY JOHN MCGILLEN; EL-NAGGAR PHOTO BY MATT MEINDL

Breakthrough Batteries A world powered by “biological batteries” might sound like something from Te Matrix, but for Moh El-Naggar, it’s much more than the plotline for a science fction thriller. Te physicist heads the NanoBio Lab at USC Dornsife, conducting research that could lead to living energy sources—not to mention untold breakthroughs in the cell physiology, sustainable energy and nanotechnology felds. “We are talking about building hybrid cells that combine the best of biology and 21st-century physics, making biological batteries, producing fuels and turning cells into living foundries that build electronics,” El-Naggar says. Computers and smartphones depend on the movement of electrons through microchips and other components. Now NanoBio Lab researchers are focusing their attention on how electrons move in living systems to gain energy. Unlocking the mysteries behind electron movement in bacteria—and later, other living systems—could be the key to developing hybrid and renewable energy technologies. El-Naggar’s work has brought considerable recognition, including a Department of Defense Young Investigator Program Award, a spot on Popular Science’s 10 most promising scientists list, and most recently the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. For El-Naggar, these honors refect the rewards of interdisciplinary research, studies that bring together science and engineering: “Tis may be unusual for a physics lab, but my collaborators are in chemistry, they’re in biology, they’re in electrical engineering, they’re in earth sciences. So even though the recognition comes to me, it’s a program we have built at USC that involves many, many people.”

New Kids on the Block Many of USC’s newest undergraduate and graduate degrees offer students an interdisciplinary approach to coursework. Exploring where diverse ﬁelds like technology, science and culture intersect, these new degree programs and minors cut across several academic disciplines to explore innovative, emerging ﬁelds.

MS SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP USC MARSHALL Students combine business and entrepreneurship with social impact fundamentals to inﬂuence society for the better. MS COMPUTER SCIENCE, SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS USC VITERBI Designed for engineers and scientists with a limited background in computer science, this master’s program integrates foundational computer science courses. MS STEM CELL BIOLOGY AND REGENERATIVE MEDICINE KECK SCHOOL OF MEDICINE The ﬁrst master’s degree program in stem cell biology in California spans topics from basic science to the use of stem cells to treat disease. BS GEODESIGN USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, USC DORNSIFE AND USC PRICE Students study geographic information science and geospatial technologies by combining skills rooted in geography, urban planning and architecture. BA LAW, HISTORY AND CULTURE USC GOULD AND USC DORNSIFE Researching justice issues from a humanistic and cultural perspective, students draw from literature, philosophy, religion and classical works. MINOR IN 3-D DESIGN USC ROSKI Topics include typography, motion graphics, advertising, design and digital media. MINOR IN RESISTANCE TO GENOCIDE USC DORNSIFE USC faculty in 11 academic areas, including art and politics, guide students through the causes, results and representations of attempted genocide.

S P L A S H Y

D E B U T

Generations of Trojan swimmers, divers and coaches gathered to celebrate the opening of the Uytengsu Aquatics Center in February. Made possible by a landmark $8 million gift from Fred Uytengsu ’83, the state-of-the-art swimming facility includes locker rooms, a diving tower, several lounge areas and a training center. The facility’s pool was named in honor of Uytengsu’s mentor and swim coach, Peter Daland, who led USC to nine NCAA championships.

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trojan news

Live From Dodger Stadium… Te Trojan Marching Band The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has been home to Trojans since 1923, but there’s another LA sports venue that’s also played a celebrated role in USC lore. For more than 35 years, the Trojan Marching Band and Dodger Stadium have shared a storied history that includes movie cameos, World Series games, a papal visit and a platinum album recording with one of the most famous rock bands in history.

1979

1977, 1978, 1988

Recorded with Fleetwood Mac on Tusk, which earned the band a platinum album and international fame.

Performed at the World Series. (File footage of the performance at the 1977 World Series was cut into “The Bronx Is Burning,” a 2007 miniseries about the Yankees.)

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1987

1994

Played fanfares on herald trumpets during Pope John Paul II’s entrance into the stadium for mass.

Played during intermission at the Three Tenors concert.

1988 Cameo appearance in the climactic scene of the comedy classic The Naked Gun.

2013 Performed at the Dodgers’ postseason rally.

2014 Led the Anaheim Ducks and LA Kings to the temporary ice rink in the stadium’s infeld during the NHL’s frst outdoor game in California. Played at Dodgers’ opening day.

summer 2014

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As educators across the country prepare for new inquirybased teaching standards, a USC professor helps them think outside the textbook. By Diane Krieger As early as fall, thousands of California science teachers may be tossing their dogeared lesson plans and starting from scratch. Te Next Generation Science Standards are new proposed teaching methods for kindergarten through high school that focus on helping students develop the analytical skills that are core to scientifc methodology, like posing questions, solving problems and studying cause and efect.

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By training students to think like scientists, educators hope to show the bigger picture of how subjects like physics, biology and chemistry are interconnected. How will the standards go over with teachers and their students? Frederick Freking already has a pretty good idea, though Next Gen likely won’t hit classrooms in California and other states for at least another year. Every Saturday for the past two

ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN STAUFFER

A Curriculum for Curiosity

years, the USC Rossier School of Education associate professor has been helping teachers involved in USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI)—USC’s precollege enrichment program—transition to the new standards. Based on this experience, he predicts a few challenges. “Bottom line, it’s hard for teachers who have learned science from a more traditional approach to implement inquiry-based approaches,” Freking says. “It’s a total paradigm shift. It does not happen overnight and requires extensive professional development.” Freking means no disrespect. Quite the opposite. “Tese teachers are working extremely hard to make an impact on kids’ lives,” he says. “In this era of more summer 2014

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accountability and changing standards, we should have more of a focus on supporting these teachers.” Te good news is the hard work seems to be paying of. “We’ve done pre- and post-tests for all the content areas the NAI teachers have taught, and we are showing signifcant learning gains with the students,” he says. Freking’s own background is in neuroscience; he did his doctoral work at UCLA on the brains of zebra fnches. “I loved doing that work,” he says, “but I’m a teacher. My passion is making sure every kid has access to science. Te critical thinking skills, the questioning skills, the analytical skills you gain by doing science can be applied to almost anything in life.” Freking joined USC Rossier’s faculty in 2010, training teachers in the school’s respected Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program. Te coursework in the MAT program has already integrated the Next Generation Science Standards and trains teachers to use the new inquiry-based practices. “We prepare our candidates to create K-12 science learning experiences that are similar to what real scientists do,” Freking explains. “Kids doing science learn science.”

OUT OF THE BOOK, INTO THE CLASSROOM Frederick Freking describes Next Gen teaching standards using mitosis—or cell division—as an example: “Currently, teachers give a lecture about mitosis and tell students what happens using drawings and diagrams. “A teacher in a Next Gen-aligned unit might start a discussion instead: ‘What parts of a plant need to grow?’ Eventually some student would say ‘the roots’ or ‘the tip of a branch.’ Then, using microscopes, teachers would run the discussion based on student observations about what they see magnifed in their slides. “That’s what scientists do. That’s how the body of knowledge in science is formed—people asking questions, conducting experiments, fnding evidence and coming up with theories about how things actually work.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHINNYO-EN

Q U OTAT I O N

“People are making instruments out of vegetables, snow shovels, tennis rackets—it’s amazing what they do.” Karen Koblitz, of the USC Thornton School of Music, about “Sound Art,” a course pairing USC Thornton and USC Roski students to create original instruments and sounds. tfm.usc.edu

trojan news

Strengthening U.S.-Japan Ties Te pathway to peaceful coexistence can be bumpy, but a historic gift to USC aims to make that path a little smoother through cultural understanding. USC received a $6.6 million gift from the Shinnyo-en Buddhist order to establish the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture, which will enable students to explore Japan’s culture through international relations, history, arts, media and religion. Te center is named after Her Holiness Shinso Ito, the current leader of Shinnyo-en. Founded in Japan, the Buddhist order is made up of nearly a million practitioners around the world dedicated to enlightenment, peaceful coexistence with other religions, and compassion and service to those in need. “Shinnyo-en views this support of the center as an expression of our common purpose with USC to educate people from diverse backgrounds to become efective agents for understanding, peace and harmony in the world,” said Rev. Minoru Shitara, director of Shinnyo-en’s international afairs department. Te center is one of the most active facilities for the study of Japan in the country, hosting weekly events that bring scholars from Japan and around the world, in dialogue with students, thought leaders and the public. Current projects examine the future of Japan, such as how its aging society afects labor, taxation, pension and health care issues. “It is because of philanthropic gestures such as this that USC can be a leader among American universities in contributing to the strengthened partnership with Japan that I know we all envision for the future,” said Steve Kay, dean of USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, which houses the center. Te gift is one of the largest ever received for the study of Japan in North America. usc trojan family

C O L O R F U L

L E G A C Y

El Centro Chicano has been supporting and educating Trojans with a focus on Latino issues for 42 years, but when it moved to the Student Union, it had to leave behind its vibrant mural. To bring the center’s spirit to its new home, Alfredo Davalos, the artist who created the original artwork in 1996, was commissioned to paint a new mural. Weaving together elements old and new, the mural celebrates historical ﬁgures such as César Chávez and Martin Luther King Jr.

C’MON, GET APPY Whether sharing images with friends, organizing your work calendar or just killing time with some angry birds, apps have become as indispensible as the phones we use them on. Here are a few that are tailored to Trojans (available for iOS and Android). The Trojan Family Weekend App includes a campus map, real-time updates on events and a customizable schedule for a packed parents’ weekend on Nov. 13-16. The USC Trojan Game Day App covers all major USC sports from basketball to water polo. Check out your seats before the game, save your parking location and keep up with scores. Available in June, Project Trojan has exclusive videos and features on players and coaches, as well as the philosophy and culture behind the Trojan football program.

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Radio Revival It’s been three years since KDFC San Francisco made the jump from commercial to public radio. Te Bay Area’s only classical music station seemed doomed in 2011 when its owners decided to switch to a classic rock format. In a last-minute rescue, USC Radio made an $18 million buyout deal that involved a public radio makeover and the acquisition of three smaller frequencies. ¶ “We already are self-supporting. Last year we fnished in the black,” says KDFC President Bill Lueth, who is also vice president of USC Radio and oversees programming at KDFC and sister station KUSC. ¶ KDFC’s $10 million “For the Music” campaign has already raised $3.8 million, much of it in the past year. In April 2013, San Franciscobased USC Trustee Ken Klein ’82 and his wife, Natalie, gave $1 million. Longtime supporter Karen Lee Finney kicked in more than $400,000. Ten, in January, an anonymous donor issued a $1.5 million challenge grant that must be matched with $2.5 million. ¶ Lueth says everyday listeners are helping, often exceeding KDFC’s on-air fund drive targets. ¶ “Tey’ve been great about supporting the station,” Lueth says. “We went on the air and said, ‘Look, here’s how it works. Public radio needs your support.’ And people said, ‘You got it.’” summer 2014

UNITED FARM WORKERS MURAL PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

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STUDENT PROFILE JENNIFER BOU LAHOUD

Step by Step Jennifer Bou Lahoud aims to pursue research that will help others with spinal cord injuries. Jennifer Bou Lahoud walks confdently, with purpose, in front of her USC Dornsife classmates with her diploma in hand. In her mind’s eye, at least, she walks as she used to, before the accident—the way she dreams she’ll someday walk again. In 2008, the 16-year-old from West Covina, Calif., went on a ski trip with family and friends that took a tragic turn. Bou Lahoud skidded of her sled and slammed into a bed of rocks and packed snow. “The moment I landed, I felt paralyzed,” she says. “[After that] I knew everything was about to change.” Physicians frst predicted she might never regain use of her legs. But an MRI showed her spinal cord might still be intact, which meant a chance to walk again. She was hopeful, but after nine bolts, two steel rods, and a piece of her hipbone were fused to her vertebrae through a fve-hour surgery, she still couldn’t feel any sensation in the lower half of her body. “Just the day before I was running up and down the hill, and now I was facing life in a wheelchair,” she says. Bou Lahoud didn’t lose hope. Her spine was injured, but the determination and competitive spirit that made her a star athlete and straight-A student before the accident were stronger than ever. “Every morning when the therapists came in, I would say, ‘You will see me walk again,’” she remembers.

Through months of intensive physical therapy and strong support from her parents, sister and brother, Bou Lahoud eventually regained the ability to stand and take steps with assistance. Determined not to fall behind in classes, she fnished high school on time and in good academic standing. She was unsure how she could attend or aford college, though, until she found out about USC’s Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund, supported through the Swim with Mike program. The fund helps aspiring college students who’ve sufered serious illness or injuries. She jumped at the opportunity, applying both to USC and the scholarship program. “Within the same week, I got both acceptance letters and I knew that I was going to do whatever it took to make it work,” she says. A senior, Bou Lahoud is pursuing a double major in neuroscience and psychology, hoping to integrate the two felds into tangible research that will help other recovering spinal cord injury patients. She plans to attend grad school and earn a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, and continue to bring more awareness to the needs of those with spinal cord injuries. And she’s still working hard to realize her dream of walking again. To learn more about Bou Lahoud’s story, visit www.HelpJenWalkAgain.com. ALEX KANEGAWA

PHOTO BY ELIAS TAHAN

WHAT’S SWIM WITH MIKE? Friends of swimmer Mike Nyeholt ’78 started a swimming fundraiser in 1981 after he was paralyzed in a dirt-bike accident. The $58,000 raised was enough to specially equip a van for him and start USC’s Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund. The next year, Nyeholt got into the pool to continue the fundraiser. The Swim with Mike swim-a-thon is now held every April at USC and at pools from Hawaii to Connecticut. It’s raised more than $14 million for more than 140 scholarships. To learn more or get involved, visit swimwithmike.org.

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trojan news

A Diferent Way

CAMPBELL PHOTO COURTESY OF SYMIAH CAMPBELL; ASHJIAN PHOTO BY KYLIE NICHOLSON

Trouble concentrating? ADHD diagnosis? Or just disorganized? The USC Kortschak Center helps students with much-needed college survival skills.

Dani Ashjian composes and arranges her own songs. She sings with a band around town. An emerging recording artist, she’s developing her personal brand on her website. Plus she ofers voice lessons on the side. All this while carrying a full course load at USC. It’s a wonder this ambitious popularmusic performance major manages to keep everything together, especially given her diagnosis of attention defcit hyperactivity disorder. Luckily for Ashjian, a student from Richmond, Va., who just finished her junior year, she’s found the USC Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity. Te center specializes in helping students with learning diferences, such as dyslexia and ADHD, develop college survival skills like time management, goal setting and study organization. Te Kortschak Center’s focus refects a growing national awareness about the needs of such students. Experts estimate that about one in every fve students at four-year universities have learning diferences, yet far fewer of these college students get the kind of accommodation and support they had in high school. At USC, Ashjian is one of 95 students currently receiving weekly oneon-one academic coaching through the Kortschak Center. “My academic coach helps me tremendously with time management, planning and goal setting,” Ashjian says. “She helps me break up tasks, making sure nothing is slipping through the cracks.” Symiah Campbell has no diagnosed tfm.usc.edu

learning diferences, but after the frst, overwhelming week of her freshman year, she headed to the Kortschak Center. Te Columbus, Ohio, native was matched with one of the center’s nine academic coaches, and they’ve met weekly. “She helps me get organized, plan out my schedule, basically just helps me not go crazy,” Campbell says. Te Kortschak Center welcomes any students who need assistance and determines which academic support program at USC

could best help them. It holds frequent clinics on essential skills such as note taking. Before fnal exams, it hosts relaxation workshops and even brings therapy dogs to campus. Before the Kortschak Center opened in 2011, USC ofered tutoring services through various centers and ofces, but there was no coordinated service for students with learning diferences. “Te Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity has established USC as a national leader in the design of innovative pedagogy for students with learning diferences. In the short time since its creation, the center’s efect on students and programs has been transformative,” says

Gene Bickers, vice provost for undergraduate programs. Located on the third foor of the Student Union Building, it provides a quiet setting for academic coaching. Its computer lab has the latest assistive technologies, from screen magnifcation software to speech recognition tools. Walter and Marcia Kortschak, who founded the center with a $10 million gift in 2010, have two children of their own who’ve benefted from the center. Sarah, who graduated in May from the USC School of Dramatic Arts, majored in visual and performing arts studies, and her brother Andrew ’13, a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, majored in flm and television production. Te Kortschaks, of Palo Alto, Calif., are strong advocates for entrepreneurialism and creativity. “Our objective in establishing the center is to help students with learning differences fnd their strengths and build on those abilities,” Marcia Kortschak says. “It’s through this discovery process that students learn self-advocacy to creatively break out of the structured academic regime that holds so many students back from maximizing their potential.” Te resources provided by the Kortschak Center put USC at the forefront of academic support services. “It’s something unique that other institutions do not have,” says learning specialist Kristina Alvarado. For students like Campbell, Ashjian and the Kortschaks, that’s a big Trojan advantage. DIANE KRIEGER

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trojan news H E A LT H F I L E S

B R I G H T

F U T U R E

In this photo taken at USC’s 70th commencement, Barbara Roberts ’53 smiles proudly as the 60,000th Trojan to receive her bachelor’s degree. Sixty-one years later, Trojans received more than 15,700 degrees and certifcates (about 5,500 of them undergrad diplomas) at the 131st commencement May 16.

Three Worlds, 24 Performances In

the demanding world of USC repertory, third-year MFA actors perform three plays eight times each for their month-long thesis project. Before graduating, Dee Dee Stephens MFA ’14 appeared in Molière’s Tartufe as a French servant girl, a plump middle-aged gentleman and a bewigged King Louis XIV—and that was just one play. “Multi-play rep is not for the faint of heart,” says Andrew Robinson, director of the MFA acting program. “It requires stamina, patience and true belief in the creative imagination.”

OUR TOWN Role: Emily Webb

TARTUFFE Role: French gentleman

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TARTUFFE Role: French serving girl

TARTUFFE Role: King Louis XIV

TROJAN WOMEN Role: Helen of Troy

Could a chicken wing be as harmful as a cigarette? A study led by USC researchers found that eating a diet rich in animal protein during middle age makes you four times more likely to die of cancer than someone with a low-protein diet— a mortality risk factor comparable to smoking.

When physicians prominently displayed a pledge in their ofces to reduce unnecessary antibiotic treatment, inappropriate prescriptions dropped by 10 percent, according to a USC-led study. Researchers hope that this simple intervention can eliminate 2.6 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions annually.

COMMENCEMENT PHOTO COURTESY OF USC LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS; STEPHENS PHOTOS BY DIETMAR QUISTORF

USC Viterbi scientists aim to make breast cancer detection easier on patients by using a familiar technology: microwave radiation. Engineers are building a prototype of the system to test it as an option gentler than mammography.

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SUMMER NIGHTS 2014

FUSION FRIDAYS AT USC PACIFIC ASIA MUSEUM 7:30–10:30 p.m. Don’t miss Happy Hour from 7:30-8:30 p.m. Join the newest cultural arts addition to the USC Trojan Family for Fusion Fridays, a dynamic mix of art, DJs, drinks and dancing in the museum courtyard. Catch unique performances and enjoy a variety of L.A.’s best food trucks. JULY 18 Listen to Korean drums and stand back for a samurai reenactment. AUGUST 15 Enjoy a night of dance and live music by Afro/Arab music group Bedouin X.

Free for members, $15 nonmembers. Designed for adults. Reserve your tickets now at fusionfridays2014.eventbrite.com. 46 N. Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101 626-449-2742 pacifcasiamuseum.usc.edu

From Dinosaurs to Dissection When you want to teach anatomy to eager medical students, who better to do it than bone experts? At the Keck School of Medicine of USC, though, these instructors are connoisseurs of really old bones. Mikel Snow, chair of the Keck School’s Department of Cell & Neurobiology, hired paleontologists Michael Habib and Biren Patel in 2012 to help him teach Human Gross Anatomy, a class where medical students dissect a human cadaver. Habib and Patel represent part of a growing trend at medical schools: picking anatomy faculty from top paleontology programs. But there’s a second beneft to USC besides strong anatomy teaching: creating an even deeper paleontology bench. USC recently collaborated with researchers at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County on several signifcant discoveries, including Habib’s work on deciphering the fying style of the four-winged Microraptor gui. Patel specializes in primate fossils, and Habib studies ancient vertebrates including dinosaurs. Paleontologist Gene Albrecht also serves on the fve- to seven-member Human Gross Anatomy team, which supervises about 200 students working with about 30 cadavers. One of the strengths of paleontologists is that they’re experts on the anatomy of a whole body, rather than specializing in one area of it—not to mention that their anatomical expertise draws from all the Earth’s animals across the ages, not just those that are currently on the planet. As a paleontologist, Habib says, his domain includes a huge animal kingdom that spans time. “Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of all of the species that have ever existed are currently extinct.”

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PRIMEVAL EYE USC scientists aim to track down the truth about dinosaurs and other ancient animals. They’ve partnered with researchers at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and institutions around the world to study a variety of creatures that once roamed the Earth. Hongshanornis longicresta This bird flew throughout what is now China roughly 125 million years ago. Researchers who analyzed the shape of the wings and tail determined that the bird bounced through the air with bursts of flapping. Birds from that time had been thought to mostly glide, but this “flitting” style is far closer to that found in modern birds. Microraptor gui (above) This small Velociraptor-like dinosaur, thought to be a precursor of birds, had both wings and hind legs featuring long feathers. USC scientists and colleagues have proposed that it used its hind legs to steer and maneuver through thick forests. Panthera blytheae A team led by a then-USC doctoral student made a surprising discovery in Tibet in 2010: the oldest big cat fossil ever unearthed. After several years of anatomical and DNA study, the team announced in January that the fossil represents a new species. The cat is thought to have lived about 4 million to 6 million years ago.

summer 2014

MICRORAPTOR GUI ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID KRENTZ; HONGSHANORNIS LONGICRESTA ILLUSTRATION BY KAHLESS28; PANTHERA BLYTHEAE ILLUSTRATION BY JULIE SELAN

trojan news

FROM THE COLLECTIONS LEWIS CARROLL LETTER

Literary Lamentations

PHOTOS COURTESY OF USC DIGITAL LIBRARY/CASSADY LEWIS CARROLL COLLECTION

In celebrity-crazy LA, hand-scripted words by C.L. Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) about fame ﬁnd a ﬁtting home—123 years later. As an Anglican deacon and member of the mathematics faculty at Oxford, C.L. Dodgson would’ve spent a quiet life in his bucolic English town—if only he hadn’t written that book. Writing under the pen name Lewis Carroll, he earned his fame for creating Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. And it was too much fame, judging by his words in an 1891 letter that was recently purchased at auction by USC Libraries. In the missive to a friend, Dodgson railed against the notoriety the book brought him, lamenting, “I hate all of that so intensely that sometimes I almost wish I had never written any books at all.” USC now preserves the letter as part of its G. Edward Cassady, M.D. and Margaret Elizabeth Cassady, R.N. Lewis Carroll collection, one of the preeminent Carroll research collections in the country. USC Libraries Dean Catherine Quinlan announced the acquisition at Doheny Library during the 10th annual Wonderland Award ceremony in April. The letter will be available soon to the public at the University Park Campus and online at the USC Digital Library, digitallibrary.usc.edu. To learn more and support the Cassady Lewis Carroll Collection, call (213) 7403672 or visit bit.ly/ LewisCarrollUSC.

tfm.usc.edu

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PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

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trojan health

Brain Trust

Te future of neuromedicine grows closer at the USC Neurorestoration Center, where patients are already seeing the benefts.

ILLUSTRATION BY JEONG SUH AT BRYAN CHRISTIE DESIGN

by amy paturel When she was 19, Kathleen Rivas woke up one night with an uneasy, numb feeling in her left arm. Her left hand had involuntarily clenched into a white-knuckled fst and she couldn’t control her body, move or talk. After it passed, she felt weak and exhausted. “I thought I was having a heart attack,” Rivas says. She went to a neurologist who ran tests and prescribed medications, but didn’t come up with any results. A few years later, she experienced another episode so severe that it landed her in the hospital. “I fell to my knees after I felt a lightning bolt run through my whole body,” she says. Doctors diagnosed Rivas with epilepsy, a potentially debilitating neurological condition that afects about 2.2 million Americans. Although many associate this condition with convulsive seizures, the bursts of electrical activity in the brain that spur epilepsy can also cause everything from blurred vision to blackouts. Physicians often can stop a patient’s seizures through drug therapy or by removing the part of the brain where the seizures start. Tey have few options, though, for patients like Rivas whose seizures begin in critical zones that afect speech or movement. After visiting USC’s student health center in 2009 while pursuing a master’s degree in journalism at USC Annenberg, Rivas began a four-year treatment odyssey that included medications, complicated procedures and exploratory surgery. None of these measures stopped the seizures entirely. “It’s like somebody hits the pause button on my body and it shuts down,” Rivas says. “I’m able to talk, but I slur my words and only become comprehensible when the episode starts to wind down.” tfm.usc.edu

So when Keck Medicine of USC neurosurgeon Charles Liu told her she was the perfect candidate for a promising new epilepsy-fghting device, Rivas didn’t think twice—even though it meant it would be implanted in her brain. Keck Medicine of USC physicians had been testing the implant in clinical trials since 2006. “I didn’t really understand the magnitude of this technology. Once Dr. Liu explained how long they had been working on the device and how it could help people with epilepsy and even other neurological conditions, moving forward was a no-brainer,” Rivas says with a chuckle. Last December, Rivas became the frst person to receive the Neuropace device outside a clinical trial, only a month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared its use for patients with difcult-to-treat epilepsy. About the size of a credit card, the responsive neurostimulator detects and directly responds to abnormal brain activity to prevent seizures before they occur. A bonus: It’s virtually undetectable. “Neuropace sits in a plate fastened to the skull, so there’s no movement,” explains Christianne Heck, medical director of the USC Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. “Te electrodes that help prevent the seizures stimulate at a very low level. Plus, since there are no pain fbers on the surface of the brain, patients don’t sense any activity or discomfort.” Now 28, Rivas may be saying goodbye to her seizures. Te device is helping her doctors capture information about her episodes when they occur. Over time, physicians calibrate it to detect the “signature” of these seizures, and when it senses that

signature, it sends an electrical charge to stop the episode before it starts. So far, so good. Rivas is already experiencing fewer seizures, and physicians expect her seizure activity to continue to diminish over time. “SMART” PROSTHETICS Responsive neurostimulators are just one example of the advances under development at the USC Neurorestoration Center, the brainchild of director Liu and co-director Heck. Te physicians are moving treatment beyond traditional surgery, medications or even cell-based therapies such as stem cell transplantation. Teir treatment goals are to improve a patient’s ability to think, move and remember—all while keeping the brain intact. “Traditionally, doctors of the nervous system have been content with whatever function is left after treatment,” Liu says, “but the function of the nervous system, or the loss of function, is what matters to patients.” “We’re not cutting anything out or ablating tissue. We’re modulating it. Tat’s the wave of the future,” Liu says. It’s also a cornerstone of the BRAIN Initiative, an efort by President Barack Obama to focus research attention on mapping, decoding and repairing basic brain function. Enter the concept of “smart” prosthetics—electrical devices that work in concert with the patient’s brain. Responsive neurostimulators have all of the essential components of these advanced prosthetics: an electrode that records brain activity, an electronic component that transfers those recordings to a central database for processing, and an electrical stimulation that’s applied back to the brain based on this digitized information. usc trojan family

trojan health Other neurological devices like the deep brain stimulator, which is used to treat Parkinson’s disease, and the vagus nerve stimulator, used in epilepsy, essentially turn on and of as programmed. But the Neuropace is “smart”—it responds to the patient’s needs even before they’re aware of those needs. Physicians can adjust the device for long-term therapy. Tis technology opens the door for the treatment of many types of disorders, from epilepsy to Parkinson’s disease. Even pain management and memory restoration, say the physicians, could eventually be treated using smart devices. CRACKING THE CODE Engineering treatment tools is the last step in a long process. First, researchers have to understand the science of the brain. Tanks to advances in technology, scientists are starting to decode how the brain works, and they’re using that information to create novel therapies. USC’s strengths in engineering, bioscience and medicine put the university in a special position to make advances against neurologic disease. “Through our work with patients, we have the unique opportunity to record brain waves and map out physical function as part of our routine surgical care,” says Heck. Tat means that physicians are gathering information from patients during treatment that scientists can use to better understand the brain. During epilepsy surgery, for example, neurosurgeons remove part of an area of the brain called the hippocampus. Te surgical team sends tissue samples to a USC Viterbi School of Engineering lab, keeping the tissue alive in a bath of artifcial spinal fuid. At USC Viterbi, faculty neuroscientist Ted Berger and his team of researchers scan the hippocampus for abnormal activity.

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“As humans we can identify galaxies light years away, we can study particles smaller than an atom, but we still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter between our ears.” — President Barack Obama, announcing the launch of BRAIN

(Clockwise from left) Charles Liu, nurse Doris Arroyo, physician David Ko, Kathleen Rivas and Christianne Heck.

Te scientists hope to use the tissue to fne-tune how and where to stimulate the hippocampus to control seizures. Berger and his colleagues also use the tissue to learn about memory—and potentially will develop tools to restore it. “Short-term memory becomes long-term memory by a transformation of brain signals from one region of the hippocampus to another,” Liu explains. “Dr. Berger and his collaborators have developed a very complex methodology to predict this transformation.” Berger aims to use this mathematical modeling as the launchpad for a prosthetic to restore memory in the brain. Memory is only one of the targets for implantable smart devices. “We’re investigating how technology like Neuropace can help patients with complications from stroke, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury,” explains Heck. In the neurorehabilitation realm, the possibilities with these smart tools are seemingly endless. Take, for example, how such devices might help patients who have lost the use of their arms or legs. Scientists are laying the groundwork for this technology by studying the “intent to move”—how the brain directs the body to take an action. Tis is encoded in an area of the brain called the parietal cortex. Caltech neuroscientist Richard Anderson—a USC Neurorestoration Center collaborator—and his research team are decoding signals of intent to operate a smart robotic arm. Ultimately, if a patient wanted to, say, pick up a spoon, a device implanted on the surface of the brain could detect that intention in the brain’s electrical signals—and then direct an exoskeletal robot surrounding his arm to move the limb and grab the utensil. FROM COLLABORATE TO INNOVATE While many of these innovations remain several years away, others are already improving lives. “I’m excited to witness frsthand the innovations in treatment options for epilepsy patients,” says Rivas, who confesses that she sometimes forgets she’s a patient. “I think of myself as a student, and I’m astounded by the work being done at USC.” Tese advances don’t occur in a vacuum. True to its collaborative mind-set, the nascent center has already engaged in clinical research partnerships with USC Viterbi, Caltech and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. “Los Angeles is the epicenter of imagination and creativity in the world,” Liu says. “We are working with the best minds in science and engineering to transform some of these science-fction-like applications into reality.” Heck sees the center as a home for inspiring possibility. “We’re striving to create a real and virtual place where the brightest minds in science can gather and assist each other in diferent research eforts,” she says. Scientists and engineers are all working toward restoring people’s lives in unimaginable ways, and patients like Rivas are reaping the rewards. Aided by her responsive neurostimulator, Rivas is fnally back in control of her dreams—and her life. “With the help of my amazing parents, I’ve been able to keep learning and working at internships, helping out at my dad’s business and volunteering for charity organizations,” Rivas says. “And making better use of my Disneyland annual pass is always a plus. “I’m excited to get my life back in order.” summer 2014

BEYOND EXCEPTIONAL MEDICINE TM

Many hospitals treat digestive disorders. We specialize in the toughest cases. When Laura, a family matriarch, contracted an infection caused by a bafing case of severe gallstones, her family needed answers. After three procedures at a local hospital, Laura had no relief: many large stones remained and her body kept producing more. That’s when she went to the USC Digestive Health Center at Keck Medicine of USC. There, our world-renowned team had the latest laser technology to remove her stones and the foresight to put her on medication that would prevent future fare-ups. This spared Laura from recurring pain and multiple procedures every few months. Today, Laura’s family says that Keck Medicine of USC saved her when no one else could. That’s why we’ll continue to seek out the latest treatments to tackle the toughest cases, for generations to come. Read Laura’s story and see how we’re going beyond exceptional medicine: KeckMedicine.org/beyond

Aseem Afsah

WHERE ARE YOU FROM? Round Rock, Texas WHAT ARE YOUR INSPIRATIONS? I am inspired by clean fonts and classy design. Street photography and cherry blossoms. Thunderstorms and good art. Simple fashion and slow music. Penetrating quotes and creative genius. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT YEAR? Next year, I’m looking forward to simply exploring all that Hong Kong has to offer. I’m excited to meet new people and develop relationships that will last longer than the year I’m there, and I’m looking forward to going to places and experiencing things I’ve only ever read about or seen in pictures. I also hope that my location will allow me to explore other parts of East Asia since I’ll be so close. In terms of random specifics, I’m looking forward to living on a campus right next to the sea, and also to buying all sorts of unique items. WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT STUDYING IN MILAN AND HONG KONG? I’m most looking forward to being able to learn in completely different contexts. The prospect is pretty scary to think about, considering the way we’ll have to adapt quickly to different environments and learning and teaching styles. However, I’m looking forward to it because I think the challenging experience will help me as well as the rest of my WBB cohort to really grow into mature global citizens. WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER STUDENTS CONSIDERING THIS PROGRAM? My main piece of advice is to be open to new experiences and perspectives. The WBB cohort is incredibly diverse, so it’s important to try to understand everyone and their backgrounds when you’re getting to know them. Similarly, when you’re traveling it’s essential to have an open mind, especially when your values or worldviews contrast with those of others you may meet. WHICH LANGUAGES DO YOU SPEAK? I speak English and Spanish. I have been self-studying Korean for over a year, and have also recently begun studying Italian in preparation for junior year. I also took a conversational Mandarin class last semester, and can understand Urdu, though I can’t speak it well.

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Business Without Borders Globe-trotting Millennials are on the move. Tey’re taking on our interconnected economy through USC’s World Bachelor in Business. BY M I C H A E L A G R E S TA PHOTOGRAPHY BY DUSTIN SNIPES

“What’s your major?” It’s a question USC freshmen hear a lot in their frst few months on campus. For Aseem Afsah, answering that question was a little complicated. Afsah is studying business—a pretty typical feld of study for Trojan undergrads. Here’s what’s unusual: He’s not just studying at USC. Before he’s done with his undergraduate degree, he’ll go to classes on three diferent continents. As part of the frst group of students in the World Bachelor in Business program, Afsah recently fnished his freshman year at the USC Marshall School of Business. Now the Round Rock, Texas, native is getting ready to move to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and next year he’ll head to Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan. usc trojan family

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Sophia Lim WHERE ARE YOU FROM? Hong Kong and Shanghai WHAT ARE YOUR INSPIRATIONS? God is one of my greatest inspirations, guiding my thoughts and actions. My family is also an inspiration. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT YEAR? I’m looking forward to being closer to my family. I’m also excited to show my classmates around Hong Kong, and maybe even Shanghai. It will also be a great chance for me to brush up on my Chinese and Cantonese. WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT STUDYING IN MILAN AND HONG KONG? I look forward to meeting and studying with people from diﬀerent backgrounds. I also look forward to opportunities to travel and explore various cultures. WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER STUDENTS CONSIDERING THIS PROGRAM? FOR PROSPECTIVE APPLICANTS: In addition to rigorous academics, WBB is a unique opportunity for you to explore your interests, talents and limits. If you’re willing to embrace the future of international business, this is the program for you. FOR APPLICANTS: It’s not all about the numbers. To succeed in this program, you need an excellent academic background. However, equally important is your character and personality. WBB students are open-minded and adaptive to change. We embrace the challenges and diﬀerences. That’s what makes us special. WHICH LANGUAGES DO YOU SPEAK? I am comfortable speaking English, Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese. I know some conversational and basic Spanish as well. One of my hobbies is learning American Sign Language.

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Like other WBB students, he’ll fnish his senior year at one of the three institutions (he’s currently leaning toward Hong Kong). Ten comes the kicker: Upon graduation, he’ll receive three degrees—one from each university. A passion for languages and cultures drew Afsah to the program. In high school, he won a prestigious travel grant to Mexico from the Spanish National Honor Society. More recently, he’s developed an intense interest in East Asia. “I’m irrationally obsessed,” he admits. Afsah’s curiosity is deep and genuine, but he also understands how valuable intercultural skills are in international business careers. “I’m totally embracing it, and it’s sort of nice for me because it goes along with my passions,” he says. Afsah’s globalist outlook is increasingly the norm among Millennials. Born in the 1980s and 1990s, Millennials tend to be more open and tolerant of others, more entrepreneurial and more interconnected than previous generations, according to a Pew Research Center study. As the most networked and globalized generation to date, Millennials are looking to explore, network and build careers that will eventually span the world. Te WBB may be just what they ordered. But the international experiment grew just as much from the global binoculars of business leaders as it did from Millennials’ interests. In the two decades since Afsah and his classmates were born, global markets have grown more interconnected thanks to the transformative power of electronic communication, transportation and liberal trade accords. Business has evolved rapidly, and so have the skills needed to lead it. “To be successful in business, our students need to understand cultures around the world,” explains USC Marshall Dean James G. Ellis. “In the future, our students may be designing a product in the U.S., making it in China and selling it in Europe. Tey need to understand all those pieces to make it in the world.” Fittingly, the idea for WBB emerged when two former classmates from two renowned business schools on diferent continents came together. John G. Matsusaka, former vice dean for faculty and academic afairs, had dinner with an old friend from graduate school who at the time was vice provost for global initiatives at Bocconi, a top-fve European business school. It hit them: Why not work together to create an education for the world business leader of the future? Te Hong Kong University of Science and Technology would later round out the program. Freshmen start by exploring electives as well as foundational courses like Microeconomics and Leading Organizations at USC Marshall, then travel to South America for a 10-day trip to meet with business executives. WBB classes are taught in English, though students will learn some Chinese and Italian throughout the program. As sophomores at HKUST, students leverage the school’s strengths in science and technology, studying information systems and statistics while becoming immersed in Asia’s business world. Students continue to select humanities electives that span history, philosophy and literature to give them a deeper understanding of Western and Chinese cultures. As they head into their junior year at Bocconi, they home in tfm.usc.edu

on subjects like corporate fnance, economics and the European Union legal culture. In their fourth and fnal year, seniors select a concentration and university to complete their degree based on their academic interest. In 2013, its frst year, the WBB attracted a highly selective class of 45 students hailing from 13 countries, from Malaysia to Switzerland. WBB freshmen averaged a high school GPA of 3.7 (without weighting for Advanced Placement courses), and 37 percent of them were on a merit scholarship. A panel of representatives from the three universities chooses the program’s students. Sophia Lim, a soon-to-be-sophomore who spent the last decade in China, is a sort of poster child for the program. Lim grew up speaking Mandarin, Cantonese and English, and has traveled throughout Asia, Europe and North America. Lim embraces opportunities to understand others better: She was inspired to learn American Sign Language after visiting Gallaudet University, a school for the hearing-impaired in Washington, D.C.—even though she knew no one who was deaf. Lim’s father, who moved the family from Hong Kong to Shanghai to take a job with a Dutch company when his daughter was 7, understood well the potential of a

WBB Facts and Figures Students from more than a dozen countries kicked oﬀ the ﬁrst year of the World Bachelor in Business at USC. Here’s a quick look at the international program. Inaugural year: 2013 Participating universities: USC, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Milan, Italy) Entering students per year: 45 Applicants to the inaugural class at USC: 855 Countries represented in freshman class: 13 Average GPA (unweighted): 3.7 Gender balance: 43 percent female, 57 percent male Student life: Read about Sophia Lim’s adventures in USC’s badminton club, Aseem Afsah’s forays into soccer and more on wbb.usc.edu/blog.

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program like the WBB and encouraged her to apply. “Since he has such a global perspective in terms of the people he works with, he understands that having this exposure can really help me, especially if it’s in business,” Lim says. “I can learn the best from three schools and be prepared for a future on all three continents.” Like a true Millennial, Lim is eager to explore the world and immerse herself in other perspectives. “I always thought I’d go back to Hong Kong for university, which was the plan up to the moment when I submitted my application,” Lim says. “But I felt like if I went back to Hong Kong I’d be stuck there, which is not what I want yet. Te WBB gives me the opportunity to try different things.” Alec Levenson, a research scientist at USC’s Center for Efective Organizations, consults with leading companies on generational diferences in the workforce.

Growing Up Global Millennials are often referred to as “digital natives” because they grew up with online technologies and can wield them as ﬂuently as their ﬁrst language. World Bachelor in Business student Benjamin Rubin, the son of an American and an Israeli, may be more native than most. He adopted digital communication platforms like Facebook and Skype early, thanks to a childhood of shuttling between the U.S. and the Middle East. He learned quickly how to keep up with friends and family half a world away. “The current generation has a lot of potential because of access to technology,” Rubin says. “If you have a laptop, you can become a very knowledgeable and powerful person.” Combined with his instincts for entrepreneurship, his digital savvy served him well in high school—he taught himself Photoshop and teamed up with a friend to start a small business designing T-shirts. He had to leave behind the business to serve in the Israeli military, but he sees more entrepreneurship and business ideas in his future, perhaps in partnership with new friends in the WBB. When it came time to decide on a college, Rubin asked his Israeli grandfather’s advice on an intriguing new program that seemed custom-made for globally oriented budding entrepreneurs. They discussed its pros and cons. “He told me to take into consideration the fact that I’d be pretty much alone, as opposed to going to college in Israel and staying in the protective bubble of my family,” Rubin says. “But that was also one of the things I wanted—to be thrown out into the deep water and see how I dealt with it. My grandfather encouraged it. He said, ‘Be exposed to as much culture, as much experience as you can.’” Rubin was glad to have his grandfather’s support. When he left for USC, Rubin did what he could to keep their bond strong, even across vast distances: He taught his grandfather how to use Skype.

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While he cautions that similarities between generations are much more signifcant than diferences, he’s found a few broad areas where Millennials are unique. One is their interest in learning about completely diferent societies. “Tis generation is much more colorblind and culture-blind than previous generations,” Levenson says. “Tey approach meeting new people and cultures with much more of an open mind and less bias in terms of interacting with them.” Just ask Anna Chiara Pollastri, a freshman from Italy. Pollastri grew up in a small town 40 miles outside Bologna. Most people never leave the area, she says, so her parents were shocked by her decision to go to college in the United States and Hong Kong. “Tey couldn’t really understand it,” Pollastri says. “Te mentality there is, you are born there and you stay for your whole life. My decision was kind of revolutionary.” Pollastri hopes to build a career in international consulting, in part because it will allow her to travel around the world and interact with a wide variety of people. She discovered her passion for travel and cultural interchange after studying in Massachusetts as a high school exchange student. “Living in a small town all my life had made me kind of closedminded. Here in the States, people are so open-minded. You can be as weird as possible, and you can still fnd people who accept you for who you are,” Pollastri says. “I want to accept and embrace every culture, every kind of person.” One surprise is how quickly the diverse group of WBB students connected with each other. Lim helped launch an informal language program for WBB students who want to improve their Chinese and Italian. Afsah, who played soccer in high school, formed an intramural team with his new European WBB friends. “Tey really know how to play, and it gives us another way to bond,” he says. Te students seem to love the cultural and intellectual give-and-take. Teir classroom and informal discussions have covered everything from the rules of American football to climate change. Pollastri enjoys discussions about current afairs; education in the WBB program, she says with relish, is about “burning issues.” As the students learn from each other, their professors and the vibrant cities around them, they’re building an invaluable network. USC Marshall’s Ellis is already impressed with the maturity of the students, and adds that friends in international business, desperate for candidates with global experience, have told him that they want to hire the whole class. Tese employers recognize that there’s no substitute for real experience in international business settings, he says, and they’re hungry to hire graduates with a global outlook. USC Marshall’s program may just be the beginning. Students are asking for more global opportunities, and Ellis hopes to launch similar eforts for USC Marshall in other corners of the world. “Students today just seem to get it,” Ellis notes. “Tey say, wow, there’s so much opportunity around the world, how do I get on that bandwagon and take advantage of it? Tose are the students we want.”

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Anna Chiara Pollastri

WHERE ARE YOU FROM? I am from San Giovanni in Persiceto, a small town near Bologna, Italy. WHAT ARE YOUR INSPIRATIONS? I am inspired by people who truly make a difference —the game-changers. Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, J.K. Rowling. I try to learn as much as possible from their lives and the kinds of choices they had to make to become who they are and change the world. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT YEAR? I am very much looking forward to attending HKUST, which is one of the most prestigious schools in Asia, and living in Hong Kong. WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT STUDYING IN MILAN AND HONG KONG? I am looking forward to living the everyday life of a HKUST student and a Bocconi student, trying to understand the similarities and differences among the American, Asian and Italian school systems. I believe it will be interesting, at the end of the four years, to have this kind of useful experience. WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER STUDENTS CONSIDERING THIS PROGRAM? You should definitely get in touch with students who are already in WBB. We know what you are going through, because we have been in the exact same situation just a year ago, and we are more than happy to help you and answer any questions or concerns you may have. WHICH LANGUAGES DO YOU SPEAK? I speak Italian (my mother tongue), English and some basic French.

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TOP OF THE

POPS USC THORNTON’S POPULAR MUSIC PROGRAM EMERGES AS A LAUNCHPAD FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF MUSICIANS AND SONGWRITERS. BY G. BRUCE SMITH

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To learn about the USC popular music program go to bit.ly/USCPopMusic.

ROZZI CRANE First artist signed by Adam Levine CHRIS SAMPSON Director of the USC Pop Music Program

GURU PHOTO BY JARED FULLERTON

YOUNG GURU 2014 artist-inresidence

Its alums sing with multi-platinum-album bands, win major industry awards, sign recording contracts, tour worldwide, and perform on television and flm soundtracks. Dubbed “cuttingedge” by Rolling Stone, USC’s Popular Music Program may have only just graduated its second class, but it’s already infuencing the music industry—and it’s gained the industry’s respect. “USC was completely integral to everything that happened to me since I moved to LA,” says San Francisco native Rozzi Crane, 22, who signed a record deal her junior year with Adam Levine, lead singer of Maroon 5 and a judge on NBC’s Te Voice. She went on to sing with Maroon 5 on the Hunger Games soundtrack and toured with the band and Kelly Clarkson. And she’s just one of the frst stars to emerge. A drum lab, soundstage and recording studios give young musicians the tools to perfect their craft, and it’s no wonder the program has spawned more than 50 student bands. Pick any day of the week and you’re likely to fnd several of them performing shows on or of campus. Launched by the USC Tornton School of Music in 2009, the undergraduate program ofers a uniquely entrepreneurial climate and gets applications from all over the world. Pop, alternative, folk—whatever the genre, hundreds of aspiring musicians submit video auditions. From those, about a third are invited for a live audition. Admission is based not only on the applicants’ musical ability but also their academic record. Each year, 25 of the most promising students make the cut. “What we’re trying to gauge in applicants is student success rate,” says Chris Sampson, BM ’91, MM ’96, founding director of the program and vice dean of the contemporary music division, who also oversees the jazz, music industry, music technology, flm/ tfm.usc.edu

TV scoring and studio/guitar programs. “Our curriculum is challenging, and it doesn’t help anyone to set them up for failure.” School of Rock it’s not. Students follow a rigorous music curriculum that includes music theory, ear training, performance (the centerpiece) and drum profciency, a frst for music programs nationwide. Seniors even have to write a business plan as their fnal project. Sampson’s Popular Music Forum—which he calls a kind of Inside the Actors Studio for musicians and music industry reps— has brought in icons including Smokey Robinson, Chaka Khan, John Fogerty, Randy Newman and Elton John to immerse students in the craft and business of music. After one of the forums with Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of Te Beach Boys, students had the opportunity to open for the band at a concert later that evening. Te forums have also called on industry heavy-hitters such as songwriter/producer Benny Blanco (who’s written for Katy Perry) and Capitol Records CEO Steve Barnett, as well as successful arrangers, recording engineers, managers and publicists. Students beneft from an artist-in-residence as well. Tis year’s artist, prolifc sound engineer Young Guru, helped entrepreneur and hip-hop mastermind Jay Z shape his sound. Just as music industry VIPs infuence students’ experiences at USC, they also give students a chance to see the business frsthand. Internship and related programs include a mentoring program with BMI, a leading music rights organization in the U.S. “Commitment to study and creative discipline [in the USC program] is extraordinary,” says Barbara Cane, BMI vice president and general manager. Sometimes the connections spring from faculty. Rozzi Crane, for example, got backup-singing gigs for Brazilian musician usc trojan family

RISING STARS USC Popular Music Program students are making a name for themselves—some before they’ve even graduated. Here are six artists who are launching their careers.

LARA JOHNSTON

is a singer-songwriter who won the grand prize in the ﬁrst Unsigned Only Competition in 2012 and recently performed for Sara Bareilles and Ben Folds at the American Voices Festival at the Kennedy Center. A soul and R&B vocalist, she completed performance residencies at the Bitter End in New York and the Sundance Film Festival.

LARA JOHNSTON

PENTATONIX

is an acapella group that includes Trojan Scott Hoying, the winner of NBC’s The Sing-Oﬀ in 2011. Hoying discontinued his enrollment in the program after winning the competition because of time demands on the group. Former songwriting student Ben Bram brought Hoying and Pentatonix together. Bram, who helped pilot the Popular Music Program, has become an in-demand vocal arranger and is still a primary arranger and producer for the group.

ALEC BENJAMIN

has performed and recorded internationally. Often compared to Jason Mraz and Amos Lee, this soon-to-be junior frequently performs in Los Angeles and his hometown of Phoenix, and has also played in Germany and London.

MORA MORA

is composed of Matias Mora, Leland Cox, Cary Singer, Riley Knapp and Nick Campbell—all 2013 grads. Their cover of “Royals” by Lorde has been making the rounds on the Internet. The band has been described as the “sonic baby of Radiohead, Foo Fighters, MuteMath and U2.”

JACKSON MORGAN

is a pop-songwriting student who in his junior year signed a signiﬁcant publishing contract with Kobalt Publishing, thanks to its general manager, Sue Drew ’83. Jackson, about to start his senior year, has had songs recorded by pop powerhouses Pitbull, Nicole Scherzinger, Akon and will.i.am.

BEAR ATTACK

includes Eric Radloﬀ, Mia Minichiello, Nick Campbell (also a member of Mora Mora), Logan Shrewsbury and Brandon Bae. Except for Bae, who majored in studio/jazz guitar, the members of this indie band are among the ﬁrst crop of graduates from the program’s class of 2013. Bear Attack members successfully funded their debut six-song EP, Shapes, through Kickstarter. Since the EP’s release in summer 2013, the hit ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars has featured three of its songs, garnering the band a global following.

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Sergio Mendes and the Eagles’ Don Henley through one of her professors. Brett Fromson—whose Americana sound blends folk and country—had one of his teachers co-produce his frst album, Heartbreak Like a Train, earlier this year. “Te program has been life-changing,” Fromson says. “Not only did I grow as a musician, I’ve met a lot of people. And the Trojan Family is a real thing.” Although the Popular Music Program bills itself as a “music degree program for the rock, pop, R&B, folk, Latin and country artist,” these labels are too restrictive, Sampson says. Music and instruments themselves will no doubt change over the next two decades—for example, someday musicians might not use guitars to crank out a rock song’s wailing rifs, he says—but graduates will be well prepared for these shifts. “Te thrust of the program is to be creative,” Sampson says. “I want the students to carve their own path. We put these students through this mind-set that their career is theirs to create.” Bilal Akhtar, a songwriter and music industry major who transferred from UC Berkeley and just fnished his junior year, relishes his freedom and the challenges posed by the program. “I’ve really seen that it encourages you to explore, to fnd your own voice, summer 2014

ALEC BENJAMIN

BEAR ATTACK

JACKSON MORGAN

PHOTOS COURTESY OF USC THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC

MORA MORA

to make your own sound,” Akhtar says. “We don’t need another Prince, we already have that.” Karina DePiano, a keyboard major, sees power in the camaraderie among the students. “Whether you’re a producer, songwriter, vocalist or instrumentalist, we all work together to create something bigger than we could have done alone, and that to me is inspiring,” DePiano says. Pop stars need a crowd to put their creativity and sounds to the test, and the USC students get that too. Almost every day, students do gigs at Tommy’s Place and Ground Zero Performance Café, creating a new, vibrant campus music scene. Tey also regularly perform at storied LA venues like Te Roxy, Whisky a Go Go and House of Blues. Students put on their Senior Showcase at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, in the same spaces where Janis Joplin and Te Doors once growled. Te live shows build their fan base, an increasingly important step toward a successful career at a time when savvy use of the Internet is a more likely fast track to success for young artists than the long shot of signing early with a major label. (At a recent forum, Capitol Records’ Barnett told students the label receives 10,000 solicitations a year, and “we sign maybe two.”) tfm.usc.edu

Each gig and collaboration builds buzz and momentum— and program organizers designed it that way. “Tat chemistry you see and community you see is part of our process,” says Patrice Rushin, who became program chair in 2012 after serving as artist-in-residence for three years. “When we select students we’re also careful to look not only at musical abilities but also how they get along with each other. We push them hard to play outside their comfort zone, and they often fall on their face and need to feel comfortable doing so with other students.” But even with the many advantages of USC’s program—the curriculum, the contacts, the location in the heart of the nation’s pop music business—Sampson acknowledges some students will end up not as performers but instead as arrangers, producers or managers. And some will not work in music at all. “Te lifestyle of the professional musician is not for everyone,” says Sampson, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in classical guitar performance. “I maintain that music is a great platform to learn about the world. And I’m just as proud of the student that might go on to become a lawyer, educator or businessperson.” usc trojan family

SUEMY GONZALEZ, TRIO ELLAS

FINDING HER VOICE Ever since Suemy Gonzalez ’13 and her bandmates in Trio Ellas were nominated for a Latin Grammy Award, her professional life has been a whirlwind. “We could be at the Hollywood Bowl one night and playing a funeral the next morning,” says the violinist-vocalist, who was a USC junior when the band was nominated. “A day being a pirate fiddler at Disneyland could be followed by a day stuck in a recording studio, followed by a red-eye to do a concert in Chicago.” Trio Ellas garnered a 2012 Latin Grammy Award nomination for their first album, Con Ustedes…Trio Ellas. Since then, the group’s success has taken off—recording on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way on the track “Americano,” performing at the Hollywood Bowl and Ford Amphitheatre, accompanying Death

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Cab for Cutie frontman Benjamin Gibbard on late night’s Conan, and playing for Hillary Clinton. “I never thought that playing for tips at local restaurants would lead to performing for a variety of prestigious venues and artists,” Gonzalez says. “That was never the plan, but I’ll gladly take it!” Gonzalez has been a musician virtually all her life, but it wasn’t until she was in the USC Popular Music Program that her range and creativity blossomed. The ﬁrst Latina to graduate from the program, Gonzalez is the daughter of a retired truck-driver father and almond-factory worker mother. The ﬁrst-generation Mexican American from Sacramento grew up with Latin music—and not much exposure to pop. “Nobody in my family is a musician, but my mom had always had a dream of playing violin,” she says.

So, starting when Gonzalez was 5, every Saturday morning meant violin lessons. The next 13 years were filled with classical recitals and concerts and, later, traditional mariachi performances. At 16 she joined an all-female Los Angeles mariachi group, flying frequently to LA for gigs while juggling high school classes. At 24, she moved to LA permanently and began working twice a week as a pirate fiddler at Disneyland, a gig the self-described Disney fanatic still does twice a week. Around the same time, Gonzalez hooked up with Nelly Cortez (guitarrón and vocals), a fourth-generation mariachi musician, and versatile artist Stephanie Amaro (guitar and vocals) to form Trio Ellas. “We all knew each other from gigging with various mariachi groups,” Gonzalez says. Starting out by playing traditional mariachi in skirts and jackets (now discarded for hipper

summer 2014

T ROJA N T R AC KS USC Popular Music Program students and alumni have created an extensive playlist of eclectic songs and albums. From covers of chart-topping hits to original songs infused with Latin rhythms, indie rock and freestyle violin, these works showcase the diversity of pop music.

MUSIC VIDEOS USC LATIN POP ENSEMBLE “Fruta Fresca” bit.ly/USCLatinPop

DERIK NELSON “Take Chances,” original song for USC’s 2011 graduating students bit.ly/DerikNelson AARON CHILDS “Crazy,” a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s song bit.ly/AaronChilds PETER LEE JOHNSON “The Show Goes On,” a freestyle violin cover of Lupe Fiasco, with Pachelbel’s “Canon” bit.ly/PeterLeeJohnson HUXLEE “Mr. Brightside,” a cover of The Killers’ song bit.ly/HuxleeBrightside

PHOTO BY REUTERS/ RADU SIGHETI

ALBUMS

outﬁts) at a Pasadena restaurant for tips, the Trio Ellas members soon branched out to weddings, baptisms and private parties. Their style started to evolve as requests came in for Beatles songs, classic rock and country tunes. They added Andrews Sisters-type harmonies. But it wasn’t until Gonzalez transferred to USC in 2010 that the group’s repertoire really expanded. “I came out of USC a transformed musician,” Gonzalez, 31, says. She learned not only from professors but also from her “extremely talented” fellow student musicians. She was exposed to new styles and genres of pop and was introduced to songwriting, arranging and producing. “USC’s Popular Music Program really turned on the creativity switch for me. I have a constant urge to create music,” she says. It’s reﬂected in Trio Ellas’ second album, scheduled to come out this summer. Featuring covers and original songs, the album captures their unique brand of blended pop. “We’re super excited about this one,” Gonzalez says. “We’re producing this ourselves. I feel there’s more of a game plan this time around.”

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BIGGER DIVYA MAUS

MAKE REAL FRIENDS BRIGHTENER

BLOOM HUXLEE

DAYS END HOUSE FIRE

Go to bandcamp.com to listen to tracks from these albums and more. Visit tfm.usc.edu/2014-popmusic to watch music videos and hear tracks from USC student and alumni artists.

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PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS. OPPOSITE: PHOTO BY JARED FULLERTON

THE GURU OF HIP-HOP It’s a fully booked day for USC Tornton artist-in-residence and hip-hop legend Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton. He’s already guestlectured in an African-American music class and spent two hours in a small seminar room brainstorming with advanced music marketing students. Still ahead are two hours with seniors majoring in popular music performance, where Guru will critique their fnal projects. A successful sound engineer, music producer and DJ (he’s worked with nearly every A-list MC and has collaborated on 10 of Jay Z’s albums), the music industry veteran has a new handle: “Professor Guru.” But why go from the mixing booth to college classroom? “It has to do with my wanting to teach, and my ability to bring students into my world, and also to understand the things they need,” explains Guru, 40, during a short break between classes. It also has to do with setting the record straight on hip-hop. “I can look at that shelf,” he says, pointing to a collection of scholarly pop music tomes, “and see books about Te Beatles, about Western music, but there’s nothing there that represents who I am, what my music is about. We’re at that point now where that story needs to be told from a musical context—and correctly presented for what it is, especially because of its confusion with rap.” Guru follows with a quick history lesson: An ofshoot of reggae, hip-hop originated with Kool Herc, a Jamaican DJ living in New York. It comes out of the Jamaican tradition of “toasting”—talking over the music—to promote a song and get the word out about an artist in

THE VALUE OF COLLEGE “You have to grow up as a person as well, and college allows you to do that. And as an artist, you have to develop, live life, or else you will have nothing to talk about and you’re going to be a one-hit wonder.”

the community. “DJ Kool Herc drove around the Bronx with these huge speakers in his car to attract people to his parties,” Guru explains. Guru’s own history dovetails with the rise of hip-hop. “I was born in 1974, and hip-hop was born around the same time,” he says. Growing up in Wilmington, Del., he began DJ’ing parties in seventh grade. A precocious musician (“I’ve been taking lessons ever since I can remember on a variety of instruments”) and born tinkerer (“My mind was always on how systems work”), Guru majored in broadcast communications at Howard University and, later on, studied recording engineering at Omega Studios School in Rockville, Md. He believes college was essential in his development as an artist. “It was the most dynamic place I’ve ever been in my life,” he says of his student days at Howard. “My whole network was created there.” To those who say a pop musician doesn’t need a college education, Guru responds: “You have to grow up as a person as well, and college allows you to do that. And as an artist, you have to develop, live life, or else you will have nothing to talk about and you’re going to be a one-hit wonder.” On top of teaching and mentoring, he hopes to work closely with USC Tornton pop music program director Chris Sampson and Rick Schmunk, chairman of the music technology program, in designing a music production major. He’s also consulting on a proposed wellness program for musicians at USC and, since he’s especially interested in hearing protection, he’s been in talks with otolaryngologists from the Keck School of Medicine. “What is going on here at USC,” he says, “is way bigger than music engineering.” See more photos from Young Guru’s class at USC at tfm.usc.edu/2014-popmusic. DIANE KRIEGER

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c o n v e r g e n c e

Man with a Plan Scientists and engineers need to work alongside each other to push the next great biomedical advances. At USC, philanthropist Gary Michelson just put their eforts into overdrive.

PHOTO BY JOHN LIVZEY

by katharine gammon

Gary Michelson fxes people, machines and all things broken. His natural leaning toward fnding solutions to problems may come from a will deep inside him to ease sufering. ¶ It may also partly come from his desire to build a world that simply works better. ¶ Michelson grew up seeing his once-athletic grandmother struggle with debilitating back issues, even at a young age. “If it hadn’t been for her very strong will to walk, my grandmother would have been in a wheelchair,” says Michelson, now a successful spinal surgeon and serial inventor. ¶ He was also a born tinkerer who once found a broken record player in a Dumpster, took it apart and brought it back to life. Coming of age in Philadelphia, “I was the only kid on my block with a record player,” he says. ¶ Te early lessons of putting pieces together have stuck with him. ¶ “One of the most important things to inventing is the permission to fail,” he says. Despite struggling in high school (Michelson says he “didn’t so much graduate as the teachers couldn’t stand the idea of looking at me for

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HE LOOKS FOR ANSWERS After medical school, Michelson dedicated himself to inventing new surgical procedures, tools and implants to allow surgeons to achieve vastly improved results. Facing the universal frustration of a back surgeon—that patients often still had pain after their operations—he worked to create tools that would enable surgeons to operate more gently and precisely. He brought out his old physics textbook and studied mechanics, but in earnest this time. He penciled out drawings and shaped his medical inventions in metal and plastic. Now, the products and procedures Michelson created have reached countless spinal patients. If orthopaedic surgeons ever installed a plate on the front of the delicate bones in your neck to protect and stabilize your spine during a fusion, his inventions have played a part in your operation. And surgeons all over the world use devices based on Michelson’s technology as artifcial spacers between bones of the spine during fusion procedures, alleviating the back and neck pain that plagues so many. In all, he holds more than 950 issued or pending patents worldwide for instruments, procedures and medical devices related to the treatment of spinal disorders. A GRAND VISION Michelson didn’t attend USC, but “I’m thinking about taking a money-management course there,” he says with a laugh. In seriousness, he came to know the university and partner with it because they share a similar motivation. Its vision for science with practical results, he explains, matches his own. “Universities have been notorious for the purity of scientifc research, and from the inside looking out, they take pride in doing science for science’s sake,” he says. “USC and I share a sense of impatience that prefers a more purposefully directed approach.” In other words, both want to see science and engineering come together to improve lives. Tis shared vision will take shape in the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, set to break ground later this year thanks to his $50 million gift. Engineers will mingle with molecular

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scientists at the center to tackle the challenges of the modern biomedicine era. “Dr. Michelson’s generous gift is truly visionary, as it will bridge USC’s strengths in a broad range of disciplines, including the sciences, engineering, medicine, mathematics and computer science,” says USC President C. L. Max Nikias. Cancer and chronic diseases could be a place to start: Diabetes alone afects 370 million people today and will touch as many as 440 million people by 2020. Within the center, faculty and students also will try to boost food production through molecular techniques, generate alternative energy sources, and address environmental and climate change. AN ACCELERANT FOR IDEAS Michelson has seen the power of bringing people together to push other great leaps, such as the decoding of the human genome, an international project that spanned decades. Biologists and computer scientists had to work together with theoretical mathematicians to crack the data. “So I think the issue is, how do you get all these brilliant masters of their own subspecialized felds of science to work together in a convergent way to solve real-world problems?” he says. Tree examples of his dedication to the pursuit of convergent research live—and bark—in his own home. He and his wife, Alya, have adopted three rescue dogs: a whippet named Gracie, a German shepherd named Abby and a pit bull named Honey. An animal lover who understands the efects of animal overpopulation, Michelson started a foundation that ofers a $25 million prize for scientists who come up with a sterilizing injection that could easily be given to a cat or dog, male or female. Michelson embodies invention and the merging of science and engineering to solve human health challenges. Over time, he’s made it his life’s work to spur others along in the pursuit of elegant solutions to these problems. Te words of Edwin Land, who created the Polaroid instant camera, might best sum up his belief in the power of the creative scientifc process, Michelson says: “It’s an interesting quality of science. Once you solve the problem, the solution seems almost obvious.”

COMMITMENT TO CAUSES Alya and Gary Michelson back initiatives close to their hearts, including protecting animals, bringing higher education into the digital age and supporting scientifc innovation.

GOOD TIMING Convergent research takes place across USC, including in the lab of USC Dornsife Dean Steve Kay. He and his team have identifed plant genes that act like biological clocks. These genes, seen in the glowing areas of this image, switch on and of regularly to help a plant adapt to its environment and give it a competitive edge. Ultimately, knowledge gained from the group’s work could suggest better targets for potential disease therapies.

PHOTO BY JOHN LIVZEY. OPPOSITE: COURTESY OF THE KAY LAB

another year and kicked me on through”), he went to medical school and chose to become an orthopaedic surgeon.

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Come Together, Right Now The world has become an enormously complex place. In 1790, the U.S. Patent Offce opened its doors, and it took 103 years for the ofce to issue its frst half-million patents. Now it issues far more than that in a single year. And this acceleration toward complexity isn’t just about patents—it’s also about the science that drives them. Tat’s especially pronounced in biomedicine. A century ago, a physician was everything in a town. He (or she) would deliver babies, dispense medication to the ill and even tend to a dog’s broken leg. Today, doctors are so specialized they can be experts on a disease like cancer, for example, in only certain parts of the body, such as the bones, in a specifc segment of the population, like children. Tey may do research too. Tat specialized knowledge has led to big advances, but there’s a fip side: Tese highly specialized scientists risk becoming so isolated that they might miss suggestions from others that could turn dead ends into new, promising research directions. It turns out that as our explorations peel away an ever-more intricate world, the connections between experts with wide-ranging perspectives become more vital. At USC, a movement is underway to bring together bioscientists and engineers to make the next generation of great leaps. It’s called convergence, and it melds three felds: life science, physical sciences and engineering. FIELDS APART To understand how we got here, it helps to look to the past. Te world of biology used to be rather fat, says Susan Forsburg, professor of biological sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Biologists mostly studied how living organisms looked and behaved, and didn’t have a clear way to “get under the hood” to examine the molecular mechanisms that explained those behaviors. But during World War II, physicists got involved and shook up the feld. Tey became interested in the mechanics of DNA.

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In 1953, physicist Francis Crick teamed up with James Watson to crack the structure of DNA. Driven by new ideas, scientists then fgured out how DNA works, changing biology forever and giving rise to an entirely new feld: molecular biology. “Biology quickly went from observational science to something that used quantitative molecular approaches,” Forsburg explains. Te understanding of disease shifted dramatically as well. To cure someone of a disease, it became necessary to take that illness apart, cell by cell and gene by gene. More recently, a genomics revolution has swept the sciences since the frst map of the human genome was published in 2001. Sequencing an organism’s entire genome and pinpointing sequence diferences has ofered insights into the foundation of many diseases and suggested potential solutions. “Te Human Genome Project gave us a parts list for understanding living systems, and what we want to do now is understand what the instruction manual looks like,” says Steve Kay, dean of USC Dornsife. Engineers have started bringing their own knowledge and skills to biological research as well. Take nanotechnology, which spurred new tools and understanding of the world on a tiny scale. Researchers have already created teeny particles that deliver drugs to targets inside the body. Tey’re even exploring using nanosponges to stop internal bleeding. Te stage is now set for the next wave of change, melding engineers, molecular biologists and geneticists. Researchers call this wave convergence, and it relies on specialists working side by side. “Te way you approach a problem is a team atmosphere, and the tools are new, so it can’t be efective through virtual connections between people,” Kay says. “Convergence needs a venue to be efective—a venue for really smart scientists and engineers to approach problems that are relevant to medicine.” USC in 2103 recruited biologist and interdisciplinary bridge-builder Scott Fra-

The Experts

SUSAN FORSBURG “We’re always looking for anything that mixes the pot and makes great synergy possible.”

STEVE KAY “The way you approach a problem is a team atmosphere, and the tools are new, so it can’t be efective through virtual connections between people.”

MARK THOMPSON “We’re almost at the point where we can sequence someone’s genes and identify the best drug based on the person’s genetic makeup.”

MICHAEL QUICK “I think we’re about to see an increase in the number of practical solutions to problems coming at a faster rate.”

YANNIS YORTSOS “In the past, it took a long time for something to become useful. Today, the distance between the discovery of a phenomenon and its leveraging for useful purposes has shrunk dramatically.”

THE SMALL PICTURE Research from the lab of Scott Fraser crystallizes the value of convergence. Fraser brings together physicists, biomedical engineers, geneticists—you name it—to create the technology they need to see critical microscopic moments in the life of an organism. They use their new imaging tools to better understand complex events, like specialized nerve cells forming in mice, as shown, or the origins of the disease.

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ser from Caltech to help bring these experts together as director of science initiatives within the USC Ofce of the Provost. He’s uniting physicists and engineers, computational biologists and chemists, and that’s just for starters. Already, he and fellow faculty have begun bringing in the latest scientifc equipment—including one of the world’s most powerful experimental microscopes— that they’ll all share, whether they come from biology, engineering or another feld. Te new faculty, new equipment and new cooperation are evidence that the age of scientifc silos is over. Forsburg, for one, relishes it, and she’s quick to cite another example of convergence from her discipline of biological sciences. “If you look at the acronym MCB at USC, here that stands for ‘molecular and computational biology,’” she says. “Our math-oriented colleagues help us make sense of those big data sets. We’re always looking for anything that mixes the pot and makes great synergy possible.”

IMAGING BY DAVID KOOS

THE CHALLENGES It hasn’t always been easy to cross-pollinate diferent arenas of science. Mark Tompson, a chemist and materials scientist at USC Dornsife and USC Viterbi School of Engineering, says that when he started his career in 1987, scientists strived to be the

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sole authors on research papers. Forget collaborating with peers in your department, much less with researchers in other felds across campus. “Fortunately, we’ve moved away from that model,” he says. With researchers today more open to working together, big ideas from one scientifc feld can quickly translate into others, says Michael Quick, executive vice provost and professor of biological sciences. “I think we’re about to see an increase in the number of practical solutions to problems coming at a faster rate,” he says. Part of the challenge is time and communication, Quick says. Physicians might have ideas that could help scientists, but they’re busy with patients. And scientists and engineers aren’t aware of the essential problems physicians need to solve. But Yannis Yortsos, dean of USC Viterbi, says that the explosive pace of science and engineering has radically transformed all felds, including medicine. More than ever before, experts are working together to condense the time between scientifc discovery, technology development and its application. “In the past, it took a long time for something to become useful,” Yortsos says. “Today, the distance between the discovery of a phenomenon and its leveraging for useful purposes has shrunk dramatically. Tis is particularly important for

interdisciplinary work, where people work and innovate closely together.” Take the artifcial retina, for example. Te implanted device helps restore vision. Led by University Professor Mark Humayun, a team of engineers, ophthalmologists, computer scientists and biologists from USC, other universities and industry have come together to invent, test and perfect the device. Te researchers had to bridge cellular biology—necessary for understanding how to stimulate retinal cells without permanent damage—with microelectronics, which led to the miniaturized, low-power integrated chip that converts signals and stimulates the cells. Te hardware had to work seamlessly with software processing and tuning algorithms, and the whole package had to operate inside the eye. Ten the team had to fgure out how to surgically integrate the device inside the body, making sure that its 1,000 electrodes were placed in the exact spot in the eye only 6 millimeters across. Te U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the device in 2013, and physicians are now implanting it into patients. THE FUTURE AWAITS Finding clean and sustainable energy. Fighting disease. Feeding a growing world population. Which of these problems might convergence begin to solve? Perhaps all of them, and more. Tompson already lives out the movement every day. With his USC Dornsife and USC Viterbi colleagues, he’s used chemistry and engineering to create a way to light up smartphone screens four times more efciently than ever—a technology now used by Samsung. He’s also working on lightweight, portable solar energy cells. Yet he’s just as excited about the potential for convergence to boost human health. “We’re almost at the point where we can sequence someone’s genes and identify the best drug based on the person’s genetic makeup,” Tompson says. “So, as we understand the human body better, it’s going to lead to revolutionary things.” Convergence will usher in a new generation of investigators who are uniquely prepared to work together and tackle challenges. “Te students, both graduate and undergrads, they’re not going to think of themselves as a chemist or a biologist,” Kay says. “Tey’re going to think of themselves as a problem-solver.” usc trojan family

Let’s Talk About Tech He’s a physician. She’s an engineer. Terry Sanger and Andrea Armani tackle problems from different directions, but their combined creativity shows the promise of convergent bioscience. On cross-training in convergence Sanger: When I went to school, I was interested in engineering, machine learning and computational neuroscience. And those felds had applications in the medical domain, so I went to medical school just to get the knowledge to apply engineering principles. My research uses engineering methods to understand medical problems. Engineers are people who apply voltages and try to understand how things work mechanistically. For a kid who can’t walk or talk, I try to fgure out what broke, what that part of the brain is supposed to be doing, and what are my options to make it work better.

Terry Sanger THE VITALS Disciplines: Pediatric neurology, electrical engineering and computer science What drives him: He strives to ﬁnd treatments for dystonia and other childhood movement disorders. Roles: Provost Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Neurology and Biokinesiology at USC Viterbi School of Engineering and Keck School of Medicine of USC; director of Pediatric Movement Disorders Clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles; academic director of the Health, Technology and Engineering program, or HTE@USC, which unites physicians and engineers to solve health care problems

Armani: I came from a background of laser optics. As an undergraduate, I was in a physics lab that was beginning to build optical tweezers to study DNA, and I started to see how building a single instrument could open foodgates and enable discoveries. I thought that was incredibly cool, and I realized that instrumentation design was something I really wanted to pursue, so I changed felds from physics to engineering, so I could do research that had a concrete goal. Along the way, I also got a minor in biology. I wanted to have an understanding of biology so I could recognize the interesting questions, even if I couldn’t answer them myself. Most importantly, I wanted to be able to speak the language, and I fnd that helpful as I discuss problems with biologists.

On keeping an open mind Armani: Both parties have to go into a discussion thinking that the other party has something to bring to the table. Te biologist has to be open to the idea that the engineer is going to bring a new way to look at data, and the engineer has to be open to the idea that the biologist will bring new types of data. And that takes a lot of patience. Sanger: You have to recognize that basic concepts of truth can be diferent, and it takes a lot of respect. Respect means you trust that felds that have diferent systems of logic and diferent cultures are nevertheless correct, even if it doesn’t match anything you’ve seen before. And that respect gives you the basis to learn not just the language but also the culture. summer 2014

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Working together: How did that happen? Armani: [laughs] He proposed a problem for me, I came up with a solution, but it didn’t work. Sanger: Here’s the situation: I wanted to know if you could noninvasively read out the electrical activity from your entire brain while you’re thinking or moving. You came back in three days and said, “I think I have a solution.” And I said, “Tat’s not even possible!” Armani: Well, technically, I did have a solution! Te problem is, it didn’t work. Sanger: I was very impressed. It was great. Tis is a huge, huge problem that may not even be solvable. Armani: It is solvable. It will be solved. Sanger: See, this is what makes this work—you believe that it’s solvable, and I believe that if it’s solved it will change the world, and so between the two of us, there’s a good chance something is going to happen.

Engineer or scientist: Pick a side? Armani: Te mindset of a scientist is very diferent from that of an engineer. An engineer is looking to discover something that has a fnite application and at least has an immediate application in society, whereas a scientist is more looking to discover things, whether it’s to discover that a material is magnetic, or that a cell has a signaling protein. An engineer is interested in discovering, but for a purpose—to do something with it. Sanger: Make it work. If it works, you’re done.

Why USC? Sanger: Because USC cares deeply about interdisciplinary work. USC puts their money where their mouth is on this. Students have tremendous fexibility to move between departments. Tere’s a culture of collaboration and respect across feld boundaries, so it’s a very good place to be for those of us who sit on many sides of fences. Armani: USC is one of the few institutions that have a medical school and an engineering school under the same umbrella. Tat removes a lot of the internal, artifcial, institutional boundaries present at other schools, and it allows you to put the research frst. Tere are enough challenges in research without adding in administrative ones. tfm.usc.edu

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Andrea Armani THE VITALS Disciplines: Electrical and materials engineering What drives her: She creates and improves instruments that use optics to explore biological systems. Roles: Fluor Early Career Chair of Engineering and associate professor of chemical engineering, materials science, electrical engineering and biomedical engineering in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and chemistry in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

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LONG JOURNEY TO JUSTICE The Post-Conviction Justice Project leads a nationwide movement for juveniles serving life sentences without parole. BY AGUSTIN GURZA I L L U S T R AT I O N BY WAY N E B R E Z I N K A

Jacob Agi always knew he wanted to be a lawyer, but he never saw himself as a criminal defense attorney. The USC Gould School of Law student knew he needed courtroom experience but gave little thought to the intricacies of the criminal justice system. For him, issues surrounding victims and perpetrators played out in black and white, like cases in a textbook or an episode of Law & Order. tfm.usc.edu

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But that all changed last summer when Agi joined the Post-Conviction Justice Project, one of the law school’s clinics that give students real-life experience representing prisoners in California. He’s visited lock-ups and sat across from inmates with seemingly lost-cause cases. His recent clients include men serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for ofenses they committed when they were teenagers. Suddenly, crime was no longer something remote. Criminals had a history, a family, a life before prison and the potential for a productive life afterward. “We take criminal law in class and read the cases where this person killed that person, and it’s just sort of theoretical, right?” Agi says. “But when the person is in front of you, it becomes real. When I see what good people they are and how much they’ve worked [to deserve release], and still they’re just not being heard because of this thing they did 20 years ago, I just want to rip the doors of the prison cell and let them go!” Due in large part to the work of the students and professors with the Justice Project—and their allies—prison gates have been opening for more inmates who show they no longer pose a threat to society. Te project leaders, along with Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups, have spearheaded a national efort over the past few years to reform the legal standards that allow harsh sentencing terms for juveniles. Te United States, they note, is the only nation in the world that sentences minors to what lawyers often call LWOP—life without parole. The Justice Project lawyers have fought to overturn what they consider extreme sentences for clients convicted when they were juveniles, arguing that teenagers, because of their inherent immaturity, deserve a second chance. Teir arguments are based on recent scientifc research into adolescent brain development impetuosity that shows teens’ susceptibility to peer pressure and emotional impulse. Legally, they are much less culpable for their actions than adults, and are much more capable of rehabilitation. Tese arguments have started gaining traction with federal and state lawmakers and judges. In a landmark 2012 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court declared mandatory

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Lydia Oregel, whose brother Edel Gonzalez was sentenced to life in prison without parole as a teen, has stuck by his side.

LWOP sentences for juveniles to be cruel and unusual punishment, and thus unconstitutional. In the wake of that decision, California passed the Fair Sentencing for Youth Act, allowing certain juvenile LWOP inmates to petition for resentencing to a parolable life sentence after 15 years. Te law, co-sponsored by the Post-Conviction Justice Project, gives some 300 current convicts at least the hope of a life beyond prison walls for a new start. In December 2013, Edel Gonzalez, a former Santa Ana, Calif., gang member incarcerated 23 years ago when he was 16, became the frst person to be resentenced under the new statute. Tough he has a long way to go, a light has appeared at the end of what was once a hopelessly dark tunnel. For an attorney in training, there’s no better learning experience than seeing frsthand how lawyers can change society. “It’s really eye-opening for the students to see that they have an impact on how the law is changing,” says Heidi Rummel, the USC Gould professor who co-directs the Justice Project with fellow professor Michael Brennan. “It’s a great experience to know that they can afect the law by being good lawyers and arguing a case well.” For Agi, the experience has opened more than his mind. “Even if you come in to the clinic to get practical legal skills,” he says, “you leave really understanding your clients, and developing your heart.”

In addition to the recent research about the adolescent brain and the groundbreaking Supreme Court ruling, a confuence of social factors have brought about sweeping changes in the way courts treat juvenile crime. First, with crime rates dropping, media scrutiny and public calls for action have subsided. Meanwhile, California has seen a crisis of prison overcrowding, forcing a reassessment of hardline policies that meted out sentences of 100 years or more, amounting to de facto life terms. Rummel sees signs of a “sea change” in the way these cases are handled. Just this year, another law took efect that automatically grants parole eligibility after 15, 20 or 25 years to inmates who committed crimes as juveniles. Te law, also co-sponsored by the Justice Project, afects as many as 6,000 inmates. “California is leading the country in developing laws to address extreme sentencing for juvenile ofenders,” she says. “We’re the model for other states right now.” summer 2014

Te outlook was not so rosy a few years ago when Rummel frst considered taking over as the clinic’s director. Founded in 1981, the Post-Conviction Justice Project has represented more than 4,000 clients, with an emphasis on women who committed murder, often related to domestic abuse. Te project recently expanded its focus to include the juvenile cases. In the past 20 years, it has won the release of more than 70 inmates. But prior to the recent legal and political developments, each victory was rare and hard-fought. “Te most deserving people would just get a no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no [from parole boards or the governor], because there was no political incentive to let them out,” Rummel says. As head of the project, the former federal prosecutor knew she’d have to fnd a way to motivate students trying to learn the practice of criminal defense while they learned how to handle defeat. She remembers one dejected student who came to her after working on a few seemingly hopeless cases. “I can’t keep doing this,” the student confded. “I’m just drained.” Rummel searched for something to say to keep him going. “Back then, all I could tell students was, ‘Look, you’re making a diference in her life, whether she ever gets out or not. She has hope. You believe in her. And just the fact that you’re fghting for her is signifcant in her life.’” After graduation, that student, Chris Cowan, went on to join a prestigious law frm. One day, Rummel recalls, he called to ask if there was any case from the Justice Project his frm could take on pro bono. Indeed there was. Te case of Edel Demetrio Gonzalez.

When Gonzalez was sentenced on April 26, 1993, he became the youngest person in Orange County history to receive life without parole. It was the same month he turned 18. He’s been in jail continuously since his arrest two years earlier for his participation in an attempted carjacking that left Janet Bicknell, a 49-year-old teacher’s aide, dead. Gonzalez, then 16, was charged with the murder, along with four fellow Santa Ana gang members, including his 21-year-old brother. Although he didn’t pull the trigger and claimed he didn’t know his cohort was carrying a gun, Gonzalez received the same sentence as the 19-year-old shooter—life without parole. At the time, Gonzalez was so young that newspapers didn’t identify him by name. Since then, the details of his harsh upbringing have become the subject of court proceedings in an attempt to reduce his sentence. Gonzalez was one of six children raised by a single mother, a Mexican immigrant, who worked long hours as a housekeeper. He never knew his real father and had two stepfathers, one who abused him and one who bought him beer. By the time he was 11, Gonzalez had joined a gang with his two older brothers “for acceptance and for a sense of family,” as he once put it. He was drinking and smoking marijuana before he was old enough to drive. On the day he stepped in front of Bicknell’s car to steal it, court records show, he was intoxicated and following the gang’s orders. tfm.usc.edu

“Look, you’re making a difference in her life, whether she ever gets out or not. She has hope.”

Te teen’s background elicited little sympathy at the time. Indeed, the victim’s brother called for the death penalty for all fve defendants. “I believe they should be given the same punishment they gave Janet,” he told the sentencing judge. Now, 22 years later, the argument made for resentencing Gonzalez to a parolable term boils down to this: He’s not the person he once was. Gonzalez, who turns 39 this year, has now spent more time behind bars than as a free man. Tough he had no hope of ever being released, he made the choice to stay away from prison gangs, has turned to Christianity and has repeatedly expressed deep remorse for the pain he caused family members, both the victim’s and his own. He’s completed courses to control his addictions and manage his anger. He has studied to be a barber, a janitor, a carpenter and cabinet-maker. He has become an avid reader and is learning to play the guitar. At his resentencing hearing, he had one more thing that weighed in his favor: the support of his family. “My brother, he’s made a lot of changes,” said his younger sister, Lydia Oregel, in a recent interview. “He’s worked his way to being a better person. I’ve seen him mature, and that’s why I support him.” Of course, there is one thing that will never change: He can never bring back Janet Bicknell. Victims groups have been among the most aggressive opponents of new sentencing laws and parole policies, though even that seems to be changing. Rummel says there is a growing realization among families of both victims and perpetrators that violent crime claims casualties on all sides.

Nowadays, Rummel finds that winning isn’t so rare. Each time a client prevails in court or is released on parole, the group hangs a “victory fag” at the law school. Te fag is actually an Afghan blanket that was hand-knitted by a client after she won her parole date. At the center of the blanket, a dolphin is depicted leaping out of the water. “Now we’re a little spoiled,” Rummel says. “We’ve had an extraordinary number of wins in the last fve years. Te fag is always up.” usc trojan family

Trojan Pride = Doing Your Part There are a lot of things to be proud of at USC. Let’s make alumni participation one of them! More than 190,000 donors have supported the $6 billion Campaign for USC. You can join them today. It takes only a few minutes to make a gift and a diference. There is strength in numbers, so let’s show the world that USC’s alumni are proud to be Trojans!

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Please call or make a gift online: USC Ofce of Annual Giving (213) 740-7500 Toll Free: 877 GIVE USC https://giveto.usc.edu

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FA M I LY

PHOTO BY ALLISON V. SMITH

A MIGHTY STEED As students leave the University Park Campus for summer break, the enduring spirit of Traveler remains. A monument to the noble white horse stands on campus as a reminder of football seasons pastâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and builds anticipation about the new one to come. Traveler frst made an appearance at the 1961 home opener against Georgia Tech, and continues to inspire the Trojan faithful and intimidate the competition as one of the most recognizable college mascots in America.

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family news

Texan Trojan Spirit Austin alumni are among the hundreds of Trojan faithful who give back at the USC Alumni Day of SCervice. by dana frank It was a boisterous evening on the midway at the annual Big Hair Country Fair outside Austin, Texas. Guests tried their luck at games like ring toss, dug into the famous all-you-can-eat Salt Lick barbecue and, of course, got their hair coifed into Texassized do’s, courtesy of local hairstylists. It all benefted Creative Action, a nonproft dedicated to the academic, social and emotional development of youth, and more than 20 volunteers from the USC Alumni Chapter of Austin pitched in to make the fair a success. Te Texas-based Trojans were part of USC’s Alumni Day of SCervice, in which USC alumni around the globe volunteer their time to beneft others. “I love the alumni club in Austin,” said Jason Schukraft ’09, with a straw of hay clenched between his teeth. Dressed for the day in a cowboy hat and boots, Schukraft— a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin—stafed a booth where fairgoers tried to pop balloons with darts. “We were into volunteering at USC, and we do it here in Austin too,” said Schukraft’s wife, Katie Plemmons ’09, an English teacher. Tousands of Trojans across fve continents share that same spirit: Te Big Hair Country Fair was just one of 80 community projects staged around the world during the third annual Alumni Day of SCervice on March 22. Cheryl Mendoza ’08 traveled 200 miles to Austin from her Texas hometown of Corpus Christi to participate. Mendoza, an aerospace engineer who’s heading to law school, was willing to “volunteer to do whatever at the event.” She set up dinner tables and responded to logistical requests from event organizers. Volunteering became a habit for

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Mendoza at USC. She participated in Alternative Spring Break, traveling to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, in 2005 to help clean up beaches and paint a school. Mendoza took the idea of serving even further from April to August 2013, deploying with the U.S. Army to Afghanistan, where she authorized repairs on helicopters. “It was incredible to serve my country,” she said. “Every time I see Day of SCervice, I check what’s happening,” Mendoza said. “I choose between Austin, San Antonio and Houston. Tis event looked fun, and my sister came to join me.” Marcel Teson, the Austin club’s Alumni Day of SCervice event organizer, chose to team with Creative Action, which aims to inspire youth to be “creative artists, courageous allies, critical thinkers and confdent leaders in their community,” because the organization’s mission made it a great ft for USC alumni. Teson and his wife, Hannah, both veterans of previous Big Hair Country Fairs, worked a bank booth that kept carnival patrons stocked with colorful bills reminiscent of Monopoly money. Elsewhere at the fair, Vanessa Martucci ’09 and other volunteers guided revelers through silent auction tables laden with valuable goods and services. “Being here with other alumni makes me miss USC!” said Martucci, who’s working toward her master’s degree in global health at UT Austin. For Amy Escalera ’07, volunteering with other alumni provides a sense of belonging. “When I frst moved to Texas, I didn’t know anyone,” said Escalera, a marketing director, “so I connected with people through the USC alumni group.” When dinnertime was called, partygoers flled their plates with barbecue, activity

on the midway slowed, and USC volunteers took a breather. Brandon Ramirez ’10 and Kat Richards ’11 took over for the Tesons at the bank booth. Ramirez, an entrepreneur, said he knew that when he enrolled in USC, he was joining a bigger Trojan Family network—and it has helped his career. “So when I volunteer here, I am just paying it forward,” he said. And they did just that at the Day of SCervice. Creative Action, which serves more than 18,000 Austin-area children each year, raised more than $180,000 at the 2014 Big Hair Country Fair—surpassing last year’s total, Teson said. Teson, who teaches flm, knows that good things can happen when Trojans come together. “We have a great alumni group,” he said. “It’s an oasis, and makes you feel like you are back home [at USC] again.”

SCerving Around the World On March 22, Trojan alumni from LA to Shanghai organized 80 projects for the Alumni Day of SCervice, giving back to their communities. Here are a few of their activities:

LOS ANGELES On its home turf, the Trojan Family organized more than 30 community projects across the Southland. At the LA Food Bank, for example, the Intersorority Parents Council, USC School of Social Work and Young Alumni Council came together to pack more than 5,000 food boxes for seniors. At the Downtown Women’s Shelter, the Society of Trojan Women organized donations and served snacks. The USC Alumni Club of LA’s Beach Cities painted murals and helped clean and restore the El Cerrito Wetlands. NEW YORK The USC Alumni Club of New York gathered to rake leaves, tidy up and paint outdoor benches at Brooklyn’s Dyker Beach Park. WASHINGTON, DC At the Capital Area Foodbank-Metro DC, the USC Alumni Club of Washington, DC, sorted 128 pounds of donated food, providing 2,320 meals for families in the city’s metropolitan area. SEATTLE The USC Alumni Club of Seattle helped with spring cleaning and yard work at YouthCare’s Casa de los Amigos, a program that supports disadvantaged and homeless youth. SHANGHAI In partnership with the Shanghai Huangpu Philanthropy Federation, the USC Alumni Club of Shanghai spent the day visiting seniors in the community, helping with home cleaning and distributing donated household items.

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LONDON At the Chalgrove Primary School, the USC Alumni Club of London beautifed a community garden, play area and street curbs.

AUSTIN

BANGKOK Members of the USC Alumni Club of Bangkok played games and read books with disadvantaged children at a youth center in the Red Community area.

AUSTIN PHOTOS BY JON J. SHAPLEY; BROOKLYN PHOTO BY JASON GINSBURG; BANGKOK PHOTO BY PIMPLOY WATTANACHAI; LOS ANGELES PHOTO BY ARMANDO BROWN; AND LONDON PHOTO BY WALTER LADWIG

PARIS Teaming up with the American Church in Paris Sandwich Ministry, the USC Alumni Club of Paris packed sandwiches and boxed juices to distribute to the homeless in four neighborhoods around the city.

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To learn about Half Century Trojans go to alumni.usc.edu/groups and click on “Generational Groups.”

Longtime Trojans Still Fight On fessor. Tey raised their children, Tony Manos ’83 and Cathie Manos ’84, as much Trojan as Greek. For the young ones, when college time neared, any university other than USC was not an option. As the children told their parents, “No, you’ve already done it. We’re Trojans.” Jim, Mary and their family continue to be active as alumni, and attend many Trojan events where they include their grandchildren, Jimmy and Nicholas Parker. Te Manoses wear golden lapel pins that identify them as Half Century Trojans, USC alumni who earned their bachelor’s degrees at least 50 years ago. “Isn’t that perfect?” she says, pointing to the group’s motto—Still Fighting On!—on her pin. She serves as the organization’s corresponding secretary, while Jim is an adviser to the board. Says Jim: “You come to USC and you can’t help but be included and involved.” Of all the USC events the Manoses attend regularly, including the annual USC Alumni Awards dinner and the Half Century Trojans Going Back to College Day, graduation may be their favorite. Leading the parade with their age group, they can hear the announcer introduce them as 50-plus-year graduates, prompting young students to applaud. Jim and Mary chuckle as they interpret the students’ cheers as disbelief: Could these people really have graduated 50 years ago? Are they still alive? You bet, the Manoses say. Somewhere along the way, Mary saw Jim’s dark curls turn gray, then white. But the energy of their dating days is still there. “We laugh a lot,” Mary says. Jim’s reply? “We better—and we are still fghting on.” CHRISTINA SCHWEIGHOFER

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PA R T N E R S I N P R I D E Rigo Diaz ’89 can’t get enough of listening to USC students talk about their lives, especially Latino students. He understands their experiences all too well, because he was once one of them. His single mom, a dancer, raised him and his three siblings with the help of welfare and food stamps. By the time he’d graduated from high school, the Diazes had moved 17 times across East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. Diaz knows that he would never have become a Trojan if it hadn’t been for two forces: his mother, who pushed for his education, and the USC Latino Alumni Association (LAA)—founded 40 years ago as the Mexican American Alumni Association—which provided him with a scholarship. At USC, Diaz walked on to the football team and majored in business. He formed lifelong friendships with Trojans from all walks of life, and it was through his roommate that he met his wife, Kim. With a successful real estate business of his own, a grateful Diaz now gives back. He serves on the LAA’s board and co-chairs an endowment initiative that aims to raise $3 million for scholarships for USC Latino students. In March, at LAA’s 40th anniversary scholarship gala, several of these students told the alumni and others in attendance how the scholarships enabled them to go to college. “When you’re there,” Diaz says, “it’s emotional because you hear what these kids do, and have to go through, to get to USC.” Diaz vows to keep rallying other Trojans to support tomorrow’s students. “It is absolutely essential to pay it forward,” he says. “There have got to be more of these stories, and the only way is to help.” Find out how to get involved at latinoalumni.usc.edu.

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MANOS PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM AND MARY MANOS; DIAZ PHOTO BY RON MURRAY/IMAGEACTIVE

Mary Manos ’58, née Kotsikos, was only 13 years old when she fell for Jim Manos ’54, MS ’57, EdD ’72 and his head of black curls. Mary was in eighth grade, and Jim was already an upperclassman at Los Angeles’ Dorsey High School. One look at Jim rendered her speechless, and he still remembers that day, too. “She was wearing a poodle skirt and rolled-down bobby socks,” Jim says. Love would have to wait a few years, though. Te pair only started dating during Mary’s freshman year at USC, and two weeks after she graduated, they got married. As the frst university-goers in their families of “diedin-the-wool Greeks,” as Jim puts it, they took up careers in education in Los Angeles: Mary as a teacher and principal, and Jim as a pro-

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A former Olympic sprinter juggles professional life in LA, a country home in Arizona and volunteering for USC.

As an event organizer in Altadena, Calif., Inger Miller ’94 networks and keeps a stream of weddings, conferences and trade shows running smoothly. But in her free time, she retreats to Tubac, Ariz., population 1,191, where she swaps her impeccable outfts and high heels for cowboy boots and a pickup truck. She tends to her chickens, horses and dogs. In Tubac, she

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refuels and relishes a life well lived. Miller always dreamed of becoming a Trojan. Her father, Olympic medalist Lennox Miller ’69, DDS ’73, had come to USC from Jamaica on an athletic scholarship. Inger and her sister, Heather Miller MD ’03, grew up at the Coliseum and on campus, eating doughnuts at the latenight haunt Spudnuts across the

street. Like their father, they were fast runners, and Inger came out of John Muir High School in Pasadena as one of the nation’s top track and feld recruits. At USC, Miller had a packed college career. A biology major who aspired to become a veterinarian, she shuttled from classes and studies to practice and competitions. “I didn’t have

room for anything else,” Miller says. “But I loved it.” Her hard work shot her to the top of the track world. She won an Olympic gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay in Atlanta in 1996 and four World Championship medals after that. (Lennox and Inger Miller were the frst father-daughter medalists in the history of the Olympic Games.) As Miller’s athletic career began winding down in 2002, she again considered pursuing veterinary medicine, but the prospect of going back to school at 30 seemed daunting. Instead, she and her best friend from high school, Jill Hawkins, opened an event planning business, and in 2005 Miller retired as a professional athlete. Looking back, Miller says that USC equipped her with two essential skills for success: discipline, learned from the need to manage her time well; and confdence. “I wasn’t a business major,” she says, “but I started my own business, and I had the confdence to do that.” She credits her self-assurance to her many experiences speaking in front of her classes at USC and interacting with other students, faculty and staf. As busy as Miller is, traveling between her clients’ events in California and her horses in Arizona, she still fnds time to remain involved at USC. She is president of the Second Decade Society, USC’s group for alumni who earned a bachelor’s degree between 1983 and 2003 or graduate alumni now in their 30s and 40s. She also co-chaired this year’s USC Women’s Conference in March, a gathering that inspired and energized her. Women in their 30s and 40s, her own demographic, are “holding our own in all areas of life,” she says. “We have learned to be very independent and strong. We’re standing up there with the men, saying we can do the same things you do, our opinions matter, women’s issues matter. And I’m happy to be part of it.” CHRISTINA SCHWEIGHOFER

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2014 Football Weekenders Take Home-Field Advantage on the Road Pack your bags and come along to cheer on the Trojans in three away games during the 2014 Football Season. Fight On! http://alumni.usc.edu/football

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Class notes appear online. Read news about each graduate at tfm.usc.edu/classnotes and send your news for consideration to classnotes@usc.edu.

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S. L. “Sid” Stebel ’49 (LAS), former editor of USC Alumni Review and adjunct in USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program for nearly 20 years, donated his manuscripts and materials relating to his career as a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and teacher to USC Libraries. He lives in Los Angeles.

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Carole Beswick ’63 (EDU), CEO of Inland Action, a nonproft dedicated to the economic well-being of California’s Inland Empire, was appointed chair of the board of trustees for the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif. Eloise Blanton ’64 (EDU) and Carlton Blanton PhD ’87 (EDU) endowed the Dr.

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Carlton and Eloise Blanton Endowed Scholarship at the USC Rossier School of Education with a gift of $160,000 to support students who aspire to be school principals. Tey live in Culver City, Calif. Richard W. Carlson MD ’64, PhD ’72 (MED), chairman emeritus of the Department of Medicine at the Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Arizona College of Medicine, received his Mastership in the American College of Physicians (ACP) in April 2013, and Mastership in the American College of Critical Care Medicine in January 2014. He is a past president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and a former governor of the Arizona chapter of the ACP. Christopher Jacobs MS ’65, PhD EE ’71 (ENG) invented and patented a breakthrough in diabetes testing with a painless lancing instrument called Genteel (mygen teel.com). Te instrument allows people

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with diabetes or those on blood thinners to draw a drop of blood painlessly from anywhere on the body. Bob Lewis MS ’68 (ENG) has been the president of the Rotary Club, Exchange Club and Gideons over the past two years. Lewis is active in Texas real estate and looks for Texas corporations that want to sell or lease back buildings.

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Joyce Kennard ’71 (LAS), MPA/JD ’74 (LAW) of Marin County, Calif., the longest-serving justice of the Supreme Court of California, retired in April. She spent 25 years in the state’s highest court and took part in many landmark court rulings on issues including gay marriage and the death penalty.

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A L U M N I P R O F I L E J O H N R O C K W E L L ’0 4 A N D K R I S T O F O R “K I P” B A R N E S ’0 5

Brewing Up Business Los Angeles Ale Works co-founders John Rockwell (left) and Kristofor Barnes

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thoughts. And Barnes, now practically obsessed with brewing himself, cajoled Rockwell to start the company. They’ve worked together methodically to grow the concept for their brand. “As a trombone player,” says Barnes, who attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts on a band grant, “you can’t make good music without the other instruments surrounding you.” The pair poured this spirit of collaboration into their beer. While holding down day jobs—Barnes in post-production information technology and Rockwell as project manager at a consulting frm—the pair collaborated on the business plan and brewed beer at home every chance they got. Nearly every Saturday, Rockwell would arrive at Barnes’ backyard in the early morning hours to refne their recipes and techniques. Years of research, practice and planning culminated in

a successful 2013 Kickstarter campaign to raise the capital to make beer on a commercial scale. Without a brewing facility of their own, Los Angeles Ale Works brews everything from steam beer—a California original—to Bavarian-style roggenbier using rented space and equipment at Ohana Brewing Co.’s facility near downtown Los Angeles. The money raised with Kickstarter bought the equipment needed to co-exist in Ohana’s brewery while the pair pursues a brewery of their own. They brew in small batches, and about three dozen bars in Los Angeles County ofer the beers on draft periodically. Rockwell says USC Marshall School of Business gave him “a solid business foundation” and the tools to become an entrepreneur, but it was the school’s community that he’s found most valuable. “Last year,” he says, “I was able to go back to meet a professor of entrepreneurship

during his ofce hours for fundraising advice.” Craft beer is growing at a prodigious rate in Los Angeles, but the partners are wary of too much growth too fast. They envision a destination brewery in Los Angeles that captures its neighborhood’s feel. Barnes adds, “We’re very focused on community. [We want] to get big while staying small.” What does getting big mean to the Los Angeles Ale Works founders? Rockwell explains their simple metric: “When our beer is pouring at Traddies, we’ll know we’ve made it.” JOHN VERIVE PHOTO BY GEOFF KOWALCHUCK

Before John Rockwell ’04 and Kristofor “Kip” Barnes ’05 made beer together as Los Angeles Ale Works, they made music together in the Trojan Marching Band. With a friendship developed on practice felds and over years of bus rides, they stayed close after graduation. As Rockwell got into commercial real estate, Barnes taught English in Japan, where he discovered sake and began a romance with fermented beverages. When Barnes returned to the United States, Rockwell, an avid home brewer, enticed Barnes to give the hobby a try. Soon the duo’s creative drive and ambition led them to develop their own recipes, enter contests and win medals with brews ranging from classic styles to more experimental ideas. When the real estate market stalled in 2009, the idea of starting a brewery—the pipe dream of about every home brewer who’s boiled wort— began to occupy Rockwell’s

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We welcome updates from our fellow Trojans. Go to tfm.usc.edu/classnotes to submit news for consideration through your school’s online form or to your school’s listed contact.

Jim McConica ’73, MBA ’75 (BUS) broke the overall record for swimming from Santa Cruz Island to Oxnard, Calif. Te 19-mile swim took eight hours and 59 minutes to complete.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LISA LACORTE-KRING

Christine E. Geosling PhD ’77 (LAS) received the 2013 Resnik Challenger Medal from the Society of Women Engineers for “a long and visionary career of breaking barriers in space navigation technology, making longer, more complex data gathering missions possible.” She lives in Calabasas, Calif. Dean McCormick MBA ’77 (BUS), managing partner of Insight Wealth Strategies in Irvine, Calif., has been elected chair of the investment committee for the Catholic Diocese of Orange (Calif.). Mark R. Laret ’78 (LAS), chief executive ofcer of University of California, San Francisco Medical Center and UCSF Beniof Children’s Hospital, has been elected 2014 chair of the California Hospital Association Board of Trustees.

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Joseph M. Monroe MBA ’83 (BUS) is president and CEO of Green Energy Oilfeld Services LLC, the frst all-natural-gas-fueled oilfeld services feet in Texas. Lynn Nickens MSW ’89 (SSW) of Victorville, Calif., is a psychotherapist and owner of Lynn Nickens, LCSW, a private psychotherapy practice. She recently wrote Breaking Free From Anxiety, the frst in a series of books that address specifc emotions.

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Archana Ramasundaram MS ’91 (LAS) is director-general of police in the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board in Chennai, India.

Bill Bonaudi EdD ’93 (EDU), the longestserving president at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Wash., was honored at a Feb. 17 ceremony celebrating the naming of the William C. Bonaudi Library. He retired in 2012 after 17 years with the college.

Lisa LaCorte-Kring Lisa LaCorte-Kring MSW ’94 (SSW), a new member of the USC School of Social Work’s Board of Councilors, is a seasoned licensed clinical social worker who teaches classes about mindfulness throughout Los Angeles. A former opera singer, LaCorte-Kring worked in family mediation with the Los Angeles County Superior Court for 10 years before making the transition into mindfulness training, or focusing attention and awareness using techniques based on meditation principles.

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1964 1974 1984 1989 1994 2004 Is this your year to celebrate? Save the date – October 17-18 – and join us on Reunion Weekend as we celebrate undergraduate classes reaching their 50, 40, 30, 25, 20 and 10-year anniversaries. Relive Trojan memories, create new ones, celebrate Homecoming and support USC with your class, family and friends! For details, registration and reunion class giving information, visit http://alumni.usc.edu/reunions or call (213) 740-2300.

October 17-18 HTTP://ALUMNI.USC.EDU | TO MAKE A GIFT ONLINE: HTTPS://GIVETO.USC.EDU OR CALL TOLL FREE: 877-GIVE-USC

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Her classes include mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness in everyday living and mindful parenting. She also facilitates support groups for cancer patients at the Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology and the Benjamin Center Cancer Support Community in Los Angeles. LaCorte-Kring would like to see more mindfulness research and education, and she hopes to bring some of that thinking as a member of the USC School of Social Work’s Board of Councilors. She is married to USC School of Cinematic Arts alum Tim Kring MFA ’88 and has two children.

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Mide “Mac” Macaulay ’01 (LAS) was selected to serve as the new principal of USC Hybrid High School. Rhonda McFarlane MPA ’02 (SPP) was honored by the Sacramento Business Journal as its 2013 Chief Financial Ofcer of the Year for large nonproft/public agencies. She is the chief fnancial ofcer for the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

Mark Ruzon ’94 (ENG) and colleagues from Google Research won the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference in 2013 for their paper “Fast, Accurate Detection of 100,000 Object Classes on a Single Machine.” Ruzon is currently a software engineer at Google working on Street View.

Kyle Patterson ’09, MS ’10 (ENG) has been honored with two noteworthy awards. He received the Orange County Engineering Council Young Engineer Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement by a licensed professional engineer under the age of 30. Additionally, OC Metro Magazine named Patterson one of the 40 most infuential professionals under the age of 40 in the Orange County area.

Thomas Isenburg ’95 (ENG) recently moved from product development engineering management (focusing on tablet and smartphone product design) to long-range product planning within Intel Corp.’s business management group. “T.A.” celebrated 14 years at Intel in April.

R. Alex Saunders MRED ’03 (SPP) has joined the Los Angeles ofce of Phoenix Realty Group, a national real estate owner, operator and fund manager, as managing director in the frm’s acquisitions group.

Charles E. Lane MPA ’96 (SPP), DPA ’98 (SPP) has taken on the role of chief operating ofcer for the University of Florida, where he oversees the university’s Division of Business Afairs, Ofce of Human Resources and Division of Information Technology, and serves as the chief audit executive. He previously worked at USC, joining the staf in 1991 and serving as associate senior vice president for career and protective services from 2005 through December 2013. Daniel Rodriguez ’99 (LAS), MSW ’10 (SSW) of Los Angeles is the author of Angels Over Me, an autobiography that follows his life as a young Dominican boy who moves to New York and eventually overcomes gang life and addictions to gambling, alcohol and drugs. Currently, he is working on a project that provides at-risk inner-city youth with guidance and tutoring, showing them the benefts of attending and graduating from college. He is also working on his second book. tfm.usc.edu

Matt DeGrushe ME ’04 (EDU) joined the USC Rossier School of Education as director of alumni engagement, overseeing alumni events, career services and partnerships.

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Gregory Clarke MRED ’05 (SPP) leads international development for Horizon Group Properties, developing shopping centers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and China. He spoke at an international commercial real estate conference in Kuala Lumpur in April. He spends spend half of his time in Asia and the other half at home in Evanston, Ill., with his wife, Belinda, and two sons, Nolan and Wilson. Brit Belsheim ’06 (DRA) is an ensemble member at ComedySportz Chicago, an improvisational comedy show now in its 26th year. She regularly performs at iO (formerly ImprovOlympics), a comedy club in Chicago, and improvises Doctor Who episodes with the improv group WhoProv at various theaters in and around Chicago. She is a creator and star of the long-running, critically acclaimed Hitch*Cocktails,

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Carly Rogers OTD ’11, MA ’04 learned early on that water heals. Her mother died when Rogers was only 18, and Rogers, then a Los Angeles County lifeguard, used to cleanse her grief in the Pacifc’s salty waves. “I would dive under the water and just lie there,” Rogers says. One day, she watched a boy with cerebral palsy drop himself from his wheelchair onto the beach to crawl and pull himself toward the water. She had an epiphany: “Oh, my gosh, we need to take these kids surfng!” Fast-forward a few years to when Rogers was pursuing her master’s degree through the USC Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. She wrote a proposal for an ocean therapy program as a mock class exercise. But when her lifeguard-friend Jimmy Miller died shortly afterward, his brother asked her to implement her dream program

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through a nonproft organization set up to honor Miller. Not even a year after Rogers graduated, the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation began teaching adapted surfing to children who had sufered abuse. The foundation later extended the program to Marines and war veterans. It now runs about 60 sessions a year in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and farther south at Camp Pendleton. The feat of standing up on a board and riding a wave empowers people to overcome mental, emotional or physical challenges by boosting their self-esteem, Rogers explains. And for veterans, being part of the surfng community brings back a sense of family, something soldiers often say they miss after leaving the service, she says. The adrenaline rush associated with the sport ofers a socially acceptable alternative to risky behavior, too.

Even her frst time working with Marines, many of whom had post-traumatic stress disorder, Rogers saw that men who were guarded at the beginning of the session grew relaxed and open later on. “They came out [of the water] smiling and laughing and wanted to talk about it,” she says. “That inspired the rest of my life.” Ocean therapy grew from a far-fetched idea to a program serving hundreds thanks to a chain of serendipitous events, Rogers says. But it also emerged from what she knows best: the water. Raised on the beach, she’s taught surfng for two decades. She knows that you have to wait for that perfect moment to catch a wave, and then you go for it—in the ocean as in life.

“I would dive under the water and just lie there.”

CHRISTINA SCHWEIGHOFER

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PHOTOS BY LUCY NICHOLSON. OPPOSITE: PHOTO COURTESY OF LUCY FLORES

Carly Rogers introduces surfng to veterans returning from war. Learn more about her foundation at jimmymillerfoundation.org.

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an improv show where players use audience suggestions to create a full-length thriller in the style of Alfred Hitchcock, at Chicago’s Te Annoyance Teatre.

Lucy Flores Lucy Flores ’07 (LAS) recently announced her candidacy for lieutenant governor of Nevada, pledging to be a voice for the middle class. She was elected to the Nevada State Assembly representing the 28th district in the northeast Las Vegas Valley in November 2010, becoming one of the frst Latinas elected to the Nevada legislature. During the 2013 legislative session, she served as the assistant majority whip and the vice chair of the Legislative Operations and Elections Committee, and was a member of both the Transportation and Ways and Means committees. She is vice chair of the Nevada Hispanic Legislative Caucus. As a political science major at USC, Flores was named a Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics scholar. She graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law in 2010. Flores, a ferce advocate for her community, has volunteered with several outreach programs across the state. She was appointed to the Nevada Commission on Minority Afairs in 2008 and advocated for the renewal of the state’s ombudsman for minority consumer afairs, ensuring equal protection under the state’s consumer protection laws. As a legal extern, she successfully lobbied wrongful-conviction reform legislation during the 2009 legislative session. Last year, the Aspen Institute named Flores a Rodel Fellow in recognition of her commitment to efective and principled bipartisan governance. Christina Gagnier MPA ’07 (SPP) is running for Congress in California’s 35th congressional district. She is currently a partner in her frm, Gagnier Margossian LLP, and serves on the board of directors of Without My Consent, a nonproft that works to combat online invasions of privacy and to protect and provide a path to justice for victims of online harassment.

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Tom Prieto MBT ’07 (BUS) of Valencia, Calif., wrote a tax article titled “AMT Planning with Listed Options,” which was cited in the academic textbook SouthWestern Federal Taxation 2014: Taxation of Business Entities. Jessica Beemer MSW ’09 (SSW) is a clinical social worker who has worked for more than three years at Te Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, a school-based program that addresses domestic violence. She runs the foundation’s program Margaret’s Place at Mark Twain Middle School in Los Angeles, which provides students a safe room at school where they can participate in individual and group counseling, violence prevention workshops and a peer leadership group. David Haglund EdD ’09 (EDU) was appointed deputy superintendent of educational services by the Santa Ana (Calif.) Unified School District Board of Education. Nadia Bess ’11 (ENG) chaired the 2014 Society of Women Engineers Sonora Region Conference. Te conference, held in San Diego in March, hosted more than 400 engineers (including students from USC Viterbi) for a weekend of breakout sessions and technical tours, as well as a keynote address from Anne Smith, CEO of Southern California Gas Co. Bess also recently received the Young Engineer Award from the Orange County Engineering Council.

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Elizabeth Peisner EdD ’11 (EDU) was named director of student life at Bakersfeld (Calif.) College. Malcolm Smith ’11 (LAS), linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks, was named MVP at Super Bowl XLVIII, becoming the third Trojan to receive that honor. Katherine Schwarzenegger ’12 (SCJ) is the author of I Just Graduated…Now What?: Honest Answers From Tose Who Have Been Tere, an anthology that features more than 30 successful, well-known personalities usc trojan family

Obituaries of members of the Trojan Family appear online at tfm.usc. edu/memoriam.

family class notes who share personal triumphs, failures and lessons learned after graduating college. She also hosts her own lifestyle website. Jung Hwa Seo ’14 (LAS), a freestyle skier, competed for her native South Korea in Sochi, Russia, during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

M A R R I A G E S

Terri Chan ’95, MS ’00 (ENG), MBA ’08 (BUS) and Tony Dexter. Robert Huggins MD ’05 (MED) and Anh Do ’07 (DEN).

worked to advance the vitality of our university, and his eforts continue to be felt throughout the USC community.” Puckett was especially committed to the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. “Allen was a titan of industry and a brilliant scholar,” said USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos. “As a long-standing supporter, he greatly strengthened the Viterbi School’s research enterprise.” Puckett is survived by Marilyn, his wife of 50 years; children Allen (daughter-in-law Laura), Nancy Puckett Grant (son-in-law Jef ), Susan Puckett Prislin, Margaret Puckett Harris (son-in-law Russell) and James; six grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

A L U M N I B I R T H S Lester E. Wilson ’41 (SPP), Roseville, Calif.; Jan. 9, at the age of 95. Randolph Blair Pixley ’91 (BUS) and Charlotte Pixley, a son, Christopher Wallace. He joins sister Samantha and brother Nicholas. He is the grandson of Barbara Pixley ’56 (DEN), MS ’61 (EDU) and the great-greatnephew of Ted Blair DDS ’35 (DEN) and Lea Blair DDS ’54 (DEN).

Walter A. Flieg MD ’47 (MED), Los Angeles; Jan. 6, 2013, at the age of 92. Charles Ullman ’47 (BUS), Laguna Hills, Calif.; Aug. 15, 2013, at the age of 92. Mortimer C. Smith ’48 (BUS), Westlake Village, Calif.; Jan. 4, at the age of 89.

I N

M E M O R I A M

Allen E. Puckett, 94 USC Life Trustee Allen E. Puckett, a pioneering aerospace engineer and chairman emeritus of Hughes Aircraft Co., died on March 31 in Pacifc Palisades, Calif. He was 94. Elected to the USC Board of Trustees in 1983, Puckett was integral to USC’s growth. “Allen touched all those who work, study and teach at USC through his insightful guidance and remarkable generosity,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “Over the course of his three decades of distinguished service as a trustee, he

usc trojan family

Donald J. Harrison MS ’57 (BUS), EdD ’72 (EDU), Idyllwild, Calif.; December 2013, at the age of 83. Albert R. Vercoutere ’53 (LAS), Atascadero, Calif.; Nov. 19, 2013, at the age of 91.

Wilson C. Stockey MA ’73 (SPP), Naperville, Ill.; April 28, 2013, at the age of 75.

F A C U L T Y, S T A F F A N D F R I E N D S Dennis Dougherty III of Los Angeles; Nov. 8, at the age of 76.

L E G E N D

LAS ACC ARC BUS SCA SCJ DNC DEN DRA EDU ENG ART GRN LAW LIB MED MUS OST PHM BPT SPP SSW

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences USC Leventhal School of Accounting USC School of Architecture USC Marshall School of Business USC School of Cinematic Arts USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism USC Kaufman School of Dance Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC USC School of Dramatic Arts USC Rossier School of Education USC Viterbi School of Engineering USC Roski School of Art and Design USC Davis School of Gerontology USC Gould School of Law USC Libraries Keck School of Medicine of USC USC Thornton School of Music Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy USC School of Pharmacy Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy USC Price School of Public Policy USC School of Social Work

Ned Delmont Osborn ’58, MS ’60 (ENG), Torrance, Calif.; June 27, 2013, at the age of 94. Bernay Kurland Grayson ’59 (LAS), Santa Fe, N.M.; Dec. 21, 2013, at the age of 76. John E. Fleming DBA ’65 (BUS), San Marino, Calif.; Feb. 2, at the age of 87.

Susan Bell, Carrie Banasky, Andrea Bennett, Caroline Bhalla, Wendy Gragg, Katherine Grifths, Mike McNulty, James Morse, Jane Ong, Kathleen Rayburn, Mara Simon-Meyer and Teresa Marie Whitaker contributed to this section.

Bernard A. Gleason EdD ’69 (EDU), Long Beach, Calif.; June 8, 2012, at the age of 83. Harry C. Holmberg PhD ’73 (EDU), Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; May 31, 2013, at the age of 79. summer 2014

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family q & a

Send your questions or memories to Ask Tommy at magazines@usc.edu. Include your name, degree, class year and a way to contact you. Questions may be edited for space.

Ask Tommy Questions and answers with Tommy Trojan

Cofee Dan’s tempted Trojans with sundaes and cherry Cokes.

Dear Readers,

Who doesn’t love an ice-cold shake? Brain freeze notwithstanding, a tall cup of blended fruity-chocolaty goodness—with bendy straw—is a guilty pleasure that reaches straight back into the memory vault. Back during my teen years, we’d gulp down impossibly icy concoctions at Carnation restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard, now sadly no longer with us. And that’s where I come to my topic of the day: the epicenter of the milkshake at USC, Ground Zero Performance Café. Every so often I like to plop on a couch and chill at the student-run cofeehouse. For a few moments of sheer decadence and a sugar rush, I’ll have a shake blended with peanut butter cups and chocolate sandwich cookies. If you happen to stop by GZ—it’s located near Marks Tower—and you’re feeling adventurous, ask for something of the secret menu. Get in the know through @GroundZeroUSC on Twitter or go to facebook.com/groundzeroperformancecafe. Now let’s get to your thoughts. In the Winter 2013 issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine, I invited you to submit your own favorite hangout spots at or near USC. Here are some of your responses. During my undergraduate years at USC my favorite place to grab food and drinks was at the grill in the basement underneath the student union. My friend George Wong and I were commuters and we ate there almost every day. Te hamburgers were the best in the area! W a rren S pi k eS ’72 ( S c j ) I used to love going to Manny’s El Loco taqueria, later called Chano’s, with my buddies. It was just a short walk from the Row and we would go at all hours. I would get the steak picado burrito and the chili cheese fries. Man, was it good!! D a n H a n l e y ’90 ( l a S )

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I attended USC during the early ’60s. Tree places will always be remembered. All are gone now. Coffee Dan’s was a great place for breakfast and was always crowded with Trojans. Excellent food. Another place was Curries. This was a greasy-spoon-type place and nothing fancy. Tere always seemed to be a nice elderly lady/hash-throwing cook there who would whip up comfort food in a fastfood manner. It really hit the spot on weekends when my dorm kitchen was not serving. And then there was Peetys, just of campus. Nothing really memorable about it but the name. All played a major role in my frst couple of years at USC and contributed to a wonderful experience for me and my friends. Thanks, Tommy, for asking us to think about these hangouts that sustained us and kept us going. Tey will always be remembered fondly, as I certainly loved to eat! W i l l i a m r . D re i S b a c H p H a r m D ’65

Dear Readers,

Summer is wedding season, so naturally my mind turns to matters of marriage. Did you know that more and more Americans are getting married long after college? As of 2011, the median age for frst marriage was about 27 for women and 29 for men, according to Pew Research. Nearly 30 percent of all new couples meet online, according to a 2012 Stanford-City College of New York study, but college is still the time when many people fnd Te One. It just takes them awhile to make that walk down the aisle. How about you? Did you meet your signifcant other at USC? Share your memories of Trojan romance—how you met your USC spouse and whether you have any traditions as a couple that stretch back to your college days—and we may share them in a future issue. summer 2014

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