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MADE IN LOS ANGELES Silicon Beach tech startups are growing, and USC is playing a key role.
scene
Look up, or you’ll miss what might be the most breathtaking view in Doheny Memorial Library. The building’s ornate marble, granite and travertine interior details are well-known to generations of students, but it’s the details overhead in the main hall that are arguably the most memorable. The magnificent ceiling includes intricately carved motifs that are brightened by six stained-glass windows decorated with medallions symbolizing noted universities and scholars throughout history.
PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
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4 Editor’s Note
It takes a little fearlessness to be a startup success story.
5 President’s Page
Alumni have made their mark on the tech world.
6 Seen and Heard Your take on USC stories from our magazine and the social Web.
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News Scholarships support diversity in cinematic arts, a poet earns national praise and prosthetic hands go 3-D.
16 The Unexpected Journey
By Lynn Lipinski A 28-year-old sophomore’s persistence and hard work take him to USC Annenberg.
18 The Stuff of Legend Memorabilia from a Hollywood director find a home at USC.
Trojans wield influence in the LA startup scene in virtual reality, games and more.
22 Portrait of a Litigator
By Christina Schweighofer A landmark case to recover Nazilooted artwork is reexamined in the classroom—and the big screen.
50 Tune Up
By Candace Pearson Keck Medicine experts keep performing artists—and their hands, vocal cords and other essential tools of the trade—in peak condition.
55 Alumni News
ILLUSTRATION BY LINCOLN AGNEW
chool spirit abounds at Reunion S Weekend, Trojans heed the call to public service and the first-ever USC Day of SCupport kicks off.
61 Class Notes
Who’s doing what and where?
72 Now and Again
The Coliseum looks to the future with a fond nod to its past.
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Made in LA
The tide of tech startups is rising at Silicon Beach, and USC alumni, faculty and students are making waves. By Katharine Gammon
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Inside the Circuit
Meet a few of USC’s entrepreneurially minded students who dream of launching the Next Big Thing. By Daniel Druhora
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Trojan Tech Talk
Learn what makes four Trojan entrepreneurs tick. By Janet Rae-Dupree
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Class Acts
Great professors have the power to inspire, inform, enrich and incite—sometimes all at once. By Diane Krieger usc trojan family
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e d i t o r’ s n o t e
The quarterly magazine of the University of Southern California E DI TO R-I N- CHI E F
Alicia Di Rado
Risky Business
I’ve always liked the line “Failure is not an option” from the movie Apollo 13. Whenever a project grows progressively more difficult and I feel like escaping to some sandy beach, that’s the line that slaps me back into reality. There is no giving up, no throwing my hands in the air and walking away. For a segment of our Trojan world, though, failure is not only an option, it’s also encouraged. You’ll meet some of these innovators—just a small selection of the many entrepreneurial minds in the USC universe—in the pages of this special, startup-themed issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine. In a way, the idea for this issue began after I visited a class associated with the USC Marshall School of Business’ Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab. During a conversation with some USC students who were starting a crowdfunding campaign for their game company, I asked if they were worried about the financial insecurity of the startup world. What about paying off college loans or writing a rent check? Were they scared that their idea might flounder? They shrugged and smiled confidently, certain that everything would work out. Even more than that, they acknowledged that they might flop at first, and that’s OK. Learning lessons from failure is part of the entrepreneurial experience. Big failures are impossible without taking big risks, but so are big successes. For alumni and students, the skills, knowledge and connections nurtured at USC gradually help turn their ideas into wins. I hope you find their fearless conviction as inspiring as I do. Alicia Di Rado Editor-In-Chief, USC Trojan Family Magazine
M ANAGI NG E DI TO R
Elisa Huang SE NI O R E DI TO R
Diane Krieger PRO DUCT I O N M ANAGE R
Mary Modina
ART DI RE CTO R
Sheharazad P. Fleming DE SI GN AND PRO DUCT I O N
Pentagram Design, Austin
CO NT RI BUTO RS
Laurie Bellman Evan Calbi Nicole DeRuiter James Feigert Kayt Fitzmorris Steve Hanson
Patricia Lapadula Judith Lipsett Russ Ono Jennifer Town Holly Wilder Claude Zachary
PUBLI SHE R
Minne Ho M ARKE T I NG M ANAGE R
Rod Yabut ADVE RT I SI NG I NQ UI RI E S
Kristy Day | kday@lamag.com
USC Trojan Family Magazine 3434 S. Grand Ave., CAL 140 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818 magazines@usc.edu | (213) 740-2684 USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published in March, July, October and December by USC University Communications.
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p r e s i d e n t’ s p a g e
Spirit of Innovation
PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
b y c. l. m a x n i k i a s
American ingenuity has been the driving force of our economic prosperity for more than two centuries. Since our nation’s inception, a majority of the world’s significant advancements—from electricity to flight, from the personal computer to the Internet—were born here in the United States. Innovation—wrought from our boundless capacity for creativity—has always meant growth. USC and other leading research universities play an indispensable role in this growth. We bridge disciplines in ways that are vital for economies, supporting the work of a diverse range of scholars and artists. It is on college campuses that doctors and engineers can easily collaborate, producing pioneering innovations for the delivery of health care. It is here that filmmakers, digital design artists and social work experts can quickly come together, creating exceptionally effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder. Every university works toward such innovations, but at USC, we’re uniquely equipped to succeed. In addition to our vibrant USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, we have 18 outstanding professional schools—including six independent arts schools—and we’re located in the heart of one of the most creative, forward-thinking cities in the world. We also have three hospitals and two museums, as well as the talent of Hollywood and the know-how of Silicon Beach right at our fingertips. But just as significantly, we have a highly entrepreneurial spirit, and for this reason, it should come as no surprise that Reuters recently included USC on its list of the most innovative universities in the world. Given the profoundly important role of innovation in the future of the global economy—and USC’s deep commitment to its rapid advance—we have elected to devote a major portion of this issue to the subject—a first for USC Trojan Family Magazine. Taken together, the stories will give you a sense of the vast scope of innovative work being done at USC, and how our community works together to solve some of the most pressing concerns of our time. As we move these innovations forward, though, we build on a proud past. A recent article in Business Insider marveled at USC’s “surprisingly deep list of tfm.usc.edu
graduates who left a strong footprint in the overall tech industry.” Our alumni helped found a range of dynamic companies, including Salesforce, Box, Apple, Myspace, Lucasfilm, Qualcomm, Geocities, Intuit and Vizio. The article in Business Insider profiled the nine Trojans behind each of these tech powerhouses, highlighting just a small group of stellar talent that has already emerged from USC: Marc Benioff, Aaron Levie, Mike Markkula, Chris DeWolfe, George Lucas, Andrew Viterbi, David Bohnett, Scott Cook and William Wang. The number of Trojan pioneers will certainly continue to expand in the coming decades, especially if a campus event last fall is any indication. There, five engineering startup teams presented their business ideas to top venture capitalists and angel investors, and retired Gen. David Petraeus, who is a Judge Widney Professor at USC, and I provided feedback. The participants’ ideas inspired everyone in the room—but just as importantly, they reminded us all of the extraordinary spirit of innovation right here on our campuses.
C. L. Max Nikias and retired Gen. David Petraeus, a Judge Widney Professor at USC, encourage USC students to pursue innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit.
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seen and heard Musings about Trojan life and USC Trojan Family Magazine from mail, email and the online world.
Be Our Guest
The Ol’ Ballgame
In the Winter 2015 issue, we invited readers to send in their memories of favorite buildings on campus that no longer exist (“Committed to Memory,” p. 72). Former USC baseball player and assistant coach Robert Leach ’76 wrote to us about Bovard Field, a “magical little ballpark” demolished in 1974 that had been home to Trojan baseball (and football too, until the Coliseum opened in 1923). Leach sent this excerpt from Never Make the Same Mistake Once (Figueroa Press), a book he wrote about legendary USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux: “The variety of tall trees that encircled the field, blending with the red-tiled roofs atop the collegiate buildings, provided a beautiful contrast with the blue sky. The bells from Bovard Auditorium’s tower that chimed every hour, the birds that chirped in the nearby campus parks and the numerous vocal students that would stop in to watch the Trojans between classes created a great atmosphere for baseball.”
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The Pond Adjacent to Bovard Field until it was filled in 1926, the pond was part of USC’s botanical garden.
Old College USC’s first permanent building was cleared in 1949 to make way for Taper Hall.
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Other USC places that are lost but not forgotten:
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Science and Technic Building At Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard, the “S&T” building housed dental programs until 1969.
“Star” Power
Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke just about every box office record, and with this popular tweet, Trojans were proud to remind fans that without USC, we might live in a galaxy without Luke, Leia and Chewbacca.
Defying the Odds
Freshman Jake Olson made history when he joined the USC football team as a long snapper even though he lost his vision to cancer. A lifelong Trojan fan, Olson tried out for a walk-on position last fall, figuring he had nothing to lose. Media outlets from the Los Angeles Times to ESPN have shared his remarkable story of resilience. Watch CNN interview Olson about his experience at bit.ly/JakeOlsonCNN.
#IGotInToUSC
For thousands of hopeful USC applicants, spring is nail-biting season as they anxiously await an acceptance letter in the mail. Do you remember what you did when you learned that you were admitted to USC? Did you call your best friend, or run screaming to mom and dad? Maybe you stared at your admission certificate for hours. Share your own memories about the moment you joined the Trojan Family on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #IGotInToUSC, or drop us an email with your story. spring 2016
HISTORICAL IMAGES COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
After we posted a Facebook picture of sophomore Emily Hunter leading a campus tour group past Bovard Auditorium, Trojans eagerly shared memories about the first time they visited USC. For many it was love at first sight. “I decided on USC the moment I stepped on campus for my tour,” said sophomore Alma Carranza. Glenn Orzehoskie ’97, MAT ’07 wrote, “I liked the tour so much that I did it a second time the very next day!” Ian J. Hu ’84 remembered receiving a personal note from his tour guide after he returned home: “For a high school senior to receive a handwritten thank-you letter afterward, well, Syracuse and Colorado became also-rans. Because it sometimes takes an awesome USC tour guide to show you that you actually bleed cardinal and gold.”
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TAKING FLIGHT Before students at the USC Kaufman School of Dance (including Alyssa Allen, pictured) wrap up their first year, they’ll tackle their biggest performance yet. They’re slated to take the stage with the Martha Graham Dance Company on April 27 at Bovard Auditorium. Visit visionsandvoices. usc.edu/martha-grahamdance-company for details.
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The Prized Poet
The Holocaust brings to mind terrible tragedy, but the genocide also drove men and women to act selflessly to help others. These stories of courage make Holocaust survivors an important and unique resource on an unexpected research topic: thankfulness. “With the Holocaust, we only typically associate the awful things. But when you listen to the survivors, you also hear stories of incredible virtue and gratitude for the help they received,” says Glenn Fox PhD ’14, a postdoctoral researcher at the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC (BCI). Fox led a study that explored what happens in the brain when people experience gratitude, and he drew on testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for Visual History and Education for help. The USC brain researchers recruited 23 study participants, most of them in their 20s, who had no personal connections to the Holocaust. After showing participants documentaries about the Holocaust, researchers shared 50 stories from the testimonies with them. (A sample: “You have been sick for weeks, and a prisoner who is a doctor finds medicine and saves your life.”) The participants imagined themselves in the situations and rated the depth of their gratitude in each one. Using an MRI scanner, the researchers mapped circuitry in the brain that fired when the participants felt grateful. Activated areas include those responsible for feelings of reward and fairness. More researchers are starting to explore gratitude. Early research links the emotion to better psychological and physical health, improved sleep, greater empathy and friendships, and more. Yet it remains an under-studied subject, says the study’s senior author, Antonio Damasio, co-director of the BCI and professor of psychology and neurology at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “There has not been much attention given to the emotion of gratitude,” Damasio says, “and yet it is extremely important in social behavior.” E M I LY G E R S E M A
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the invaluable counsel from faculty, including her doctoral adviser Kate Flint, Provost Professor of Art History and English, and Percival Everett, Distinguished Professor of English. “They were incredible mentors,” Lewis says. What’s next? A doctoral dissertation addressing visual representations of Oscar Wilde in the United States is in the works—as well as a book on the intersection of the history of black photography and black poetry.
SUSAN BELL
FESTIVAL OF BOOKS Soaking up literature is all part of the fun at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on USC’s University Park Campus. Besides its focus on the written word, the free event April 9 and 10 also will bring out cultural icons, celebrity chefs and performers. Expect kid-friendly activities, readings, book discussions, cooking demonstrations and live music, and get health screenings from USC health professionals. Learn more at events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks.
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FESTIVAL PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
Think Thanks
The prestigious National Book Award for Poetry has gone to some of the country’s most celebrated poets, including W.H. Auden, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell— and most recently Robin Coste Lewis, a doctoral student at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Lewis’ collection, Voyage of the Sable Venus, is her first book. It’s only the third time that a debut work has won a National Book Award. She describes the award as both a profound honor and “yet another accomplishment for African-American poetry.” Lewis edited the book during her first year at USC Dornsife and acknowledged
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Music That Moves
Evan Pensis is no stranger to performing in front of an audience. But last October, the senior from the USC Thornton School of Music played the piano for a whole new crowd: inmates at Florence State Prison, an hour southeast of Phoenix, Arizona. Music’s emotional impact should be shared with everyone, Pensis explains of his visit, “not just those who can afford a symphony hall ticket.” Before playing an assortment of Chopin, Beethoven, Prokofiev and more, Pensis talked through the history of each work. A few of the 300 inmates were familiar with the repertoire. Pensis, who is double-majoring in keyboard studies and linguistics, was touched by the audience’s candid and sincere reactions. “Some of the responses that I got were the most powerful things anyone has ever said to me,” he says. “There was one man who said that, in the 27 years that he’d been incarcerated, that was the first time he forgot where he was.” More than simply a musical experience, the project is important to Pensis because of his interest in humanizing people in prison and offering them experiences they’re often denied, such as arts programs. He’s making it his mission to expand his recital tour to other inmate facilities in Arizona. Listen to Evan Pensis perform at bit.ly/EvanPensis. E M I LY M A E C Z A C H O R
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Diverse Voices
The George Lucas Family Foundation is helping Hollywood more broadly reflect society by spurring the creative spark of budding storytellers at USC. A $10 million endowment from the foundation will help recruit talented USC School of Cinematic Arts students from communities underrepresented in the entertainment industry. It’s the largest single donation for student support in the school’s history. The gift will establish The George Lucas Family Foundation Endowed Student Support Fund for Diversity, which will give priority consideration for financial support to African American and Hispanic students at the School of Cinematic Arts. Funds will be split equally between male and female students. Recipients will be known as George Lucas Scholars or Mellody Hobson Scholars. Lucas ’66, a pioneering writer, director and producer, is married to Hobson, president of Chicago-based money management firm Ariel Investments. As African Americans and Latinos are particularly underrepresented in the industry, Lucas says, undergraduates and graduates from these groups will receive priority consideration. “It is Mellody’s and my privilege to provide this assistance to qualified students who want to contribute their unique experience and talent to telling their stories,” Lucas says. The endowment adds to growing momentum behind funding for scholarships and other forms of student support at the School of Cinematic Arts. These gifts further USC’s goal of offering all qualified students the opportunity to attend, regardless of their financial circumstances. They also support the Campaign for USC, an effort to raise $6 billion or more in private philanthropy to advance USC’s academic priorities and expand its positive impact on the community and world. More than four years after its launch, the campaign has raised nearly $4.8 billion. spring 2016 2015
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FACULTY PROFILE ED AVOL
Air pollution expert Ed Avol wants to help Angelenos breathe easy. Ed Avol didn’t start out trying to change Los Angeles. After he earned his master’s degree from Caltech in 1974, the engineer used his chemistry and physics background to measure air pollution. Fairly quickly, though, he became interested in the health aspects of the air we breathe. As a Keck School of Medicine of USC professor, Avol has been instrumental in USC’s influential studies on the relationship between air quality and children’s lung health. Despite his knowledge about smog, Avol has also been an avid runner and running coach in LA for decades. Science
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writer Katharine Gammon recently caught up with him to talk about his personal experiences in environmental health research. How has your research influenced your running? Do you think about the air when you run in Los Angeles? I think my research helps to motivate my running. Physical exercise is important and a good thing, and very few of us get enough. The message I want to get out there is: Get out and take a walk, run or bike—but be smart when and where you do it. Don’t do it in the middle of the day, because heat can push ozone levels to their highest and also puts additional stress on the body, and don’t do it next to a busy freeway during rush hour. I’ve been a runner most of my life, but I have to think about when and where and how to run.
You’ve worked on air quality issues around the globe in addition to Los Angeles. What are other countries doing about the problem? In almost any big city around the world, be it Beijing or New Delhi or even Paris, there can be severe air pollution episodes. In Beijing, there has been a move to put filtration systems inside buildings and homes. Several schools have created field house designs for sports fields, rather than having them open-air. Are you optimistic about LA’s air quality challenges? Guardedly optimistic, yes. If you take into account the financial gains of cleaner air that come from not losing work days or school days, the money spent to improve air quality is well-invested. I think we’re going to have to be vigilant and work hard to clean up all the sources we have, to improve
the roadways, to have better urban planning so we don’t have to drive everywhere. LA wasn’t built to jump on your bike, but built around the car. What do people need to know about exercise and air quality? In the context of exercise, people have gotten the idea that it’s bad to exercise because it’s polluted outside. Exercise is important and avoiding pollution is important, and you can find ways to do both at the same time. Also, collectively we truly do have power to improve our communities, societies and neighborhoods. We can’t assume that someone else will take care of it for us and make better choices. We don’t know everything, but we should be more engaged than we are. PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
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The Unexpected Journey Stephen Guy sits in the back row in his USC classes. He doesn’t say much to the other students. Sometimes he can’t believe that he’s there. Sometimes it’s hard to believe he made it to a university at all. As a communication major, the 28-year-old sophomore knows that his enrollment in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is a dream—and a lofty one at that, considering he had no formal schooling beyond the third grade. Guy’s childhood began to unravel in 1995 when his father died. Guy’s mother, who feared the government was watching her and trying to kill her, pulled her son out of his Colorado elementary school and hit the road.
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He was only 8 years old. They trekked for half a decade through America’s heartland in a silver Chevrolet Corsica. Later, when the car was no more, they traveled on Greyhound and slept in cheap motels. “I really missed the social part of school. I had no friends my age,” he says. “I just wanted a normal life.” Instead, he read Stephen King and Harry Potter books and played video games. His aunt and uncle tried to help, but in the end, he and his mother picked up and moved again. By 2005, Guy and his mother returned to Colorado Springs, where his older brother, John Martinez, was a single dad raising four kids. Guy got a job at the nearby Walmart and moved into his brother’s place, helping take care of the
bills and his nieces and nephews. After a while, mom left and Guy stayed, happy to finally have a home. But he questioned his career options. “I wasn’t making an impact on anyone,” he says. “I didn’t have a clear vision then of what I wanted to do, just a sense of ‘not this.’” Buddies from work suggested studying at a community college, but one look at a friend’s math textbook convinced him he wasn’t ready. He enrolled in free GED test preparation at a school in a shopping mall. “The instructors were calm and kind,” he says. “But for me it was nerve-racking. I remember not knowing where to go. I didn’t have a book. I just came with paper and a pen.” He endured with help and encouragement from his friends, and four months spring 2016
PHOTO BY LYNN LIPINSKI
Without a home or formal schooling for most of his childhood, a 28-year-old sophomore comes into his own at USC.
Summer Programs and More in Store later, he passed the GED exams with scores in the 92ndto-98th percentile. The wife of his manager at Walmart took him to Pikes Peak Community College to talk to an adviser, and he signed up for courses. After a shaky start, Guy fell into the groove of college life. He founded the school’s anthropology club, took leadership positions within the honor society Phi Theta Kappa and helped organize events for CollegeFish, a national program to help community college students transfer to four-year schools. He enjoyed helping his fellow students meet their goals as he considered his own. “The biggest thing about Stephen is that he’ll always take time to help another person,” says Jessica Johnson, a friend and fellow Pikes Peak alum. He applied to transfer to USC, and still remembers the date—May 30, 2015—when he opened his mailbox and saw his acceptance package. “I was super-excited, but I also figured that I couldn’t afford it,” he says. But a few days later came his financial aid offer: In addition to a Pell Grant and other funding, Guy received a University Grant worth $47,000. “He blew my phone up with text messages,” Johnson remembers. “It was a dream for him. USC was his number-one choice.” His only tinge of sadness is that his mother doesn’t know he got into USC. She’s been missing for three years. Because she has a history of long disappearances, it’s hard to open a missing persons case, Guy says. As for his other family and friends, they’re sure he’ll succeed at USC and beyond. While he’s still nervous, he’s gaining confidence in himself too. “After all,” he says, “USC is investing in me.” LYNN LIPINSKI
Trojan Transfers USC enrolls more transfer students than any other private research university in the country. Here are some facts you might not know about transfers at USC:
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Transfer students must take at least two years’ worth of USC coursework to earn a bachelor’s degree from USC.
Hundreds of high school students descend on USC every year for summer classes, but they’re only a sign of what’s to come. Their programs will grow through the new USC Bovard College. The college includes USC Summer Programs, the USC International Academy and other offerings that go beyond traditional undergraduate and graduate classes. USC aims to support diverse and high-achieving students’ academic and career goals through the college. Here are the basics: • USC Summer Programs (summerprograms.usc.edu) offer high school students a chance to live in University Park Campus residence halls, take classes from university instructors and experience life as an undergrad. Students can choose among six two-week non-credit courses, or 21 four-week courses for college credit. Classes range from architecture to science and include exposure to related career paths. “It’s a chance to test-drive college while you’re still in high school, and maybe find a major of interest,” says Sonny Hayes, program director. Application deadline for international students is March 25; the U.S. student deadline is April 29. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. • USC International Academy (international.usc.edu) helps undergrad and graduate students from other countries qualify for admission to research universities across the U.S., including USC, by assisting them with test preparation, language courses and individualized admissions consulting. In addition, the American Language Institute’s specialized programs support international PhD students. • College Preparation Programs for highly motivated, economically disadvantaged high school and transfer students are scheduled to begin in summer 2017. Programs build on USC’s efforts to help students gain admission to top-tier universities and provide the social and emotional support to succeed in college. • Graduate Programs will provide college graduates occupational skills that are in high demand in the workplace but fall outside USC’s traditional academic programs. These courses will begin in 2018. The college is named for Emma Josephine Bradley Bovard, one of the first students to enroll at USC in 1880. Years later she returned to the university when George Bovard, her husband, became its president. She advocated for women and helped form the Women’s Club of USC, which became Town and Gown of USC. She also was a vocal supporter of Southern California’s growing international population as a force for future economic prosperity in the region.
10% 3.7
About 10 percent of transfer students come from the University of California or Cal State University systems.
The average college GPA for new transfers is 3.7.
A third of entering transfers are in the first generation of their family to attend college.
20 to 25 percent of USC’s undergraduates are transfer students.
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The Stuff of Legend
Blade Runner. Alien. Gladiator. They all testify to director Ridley Scott’s reputation as one of the film industry’s master storytellers. Now materials from some of his movies have found a home at USC. Scott donated an extensive array of memorabilia to the USC School of Cinematic Arts because of the school’s standing in the creative world. From scripts to storyboards, take a glance at some of the collection.
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#4 Black Hawk Down Scott is known for using sketches to visualize scenes. This one comes from his 2001 movie about the Battle of Mogadishu. #5 Alien His widely acclaimed 1979 sci-fi horror flick inserted this terrifying creature into countless movie viewers’ nightmares. #6 Robin Hood Production drawings capture the visual feel of his popular 2010 adventure film.
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#1 A Good Year A production still from Scott’s 2006 romantic comedy-drama shows him working closely with leading man Russell Crowe. #2 Gladiator A director’s script from the 2000 Roman epic features notes in Scott’s handwriting. #3 G.I. Jane The collection includes sheet music from various films, including Trevor Jones’ score for this 1997 Demi Moore vehicle.
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY GUS RUELAS, WITH PERMISSION FROM THE USC CINEMATIC ARTS LIBRARY
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Visionary Leaders
Five dedicated university supporters join the USC Board of Trustees. The USC Board of Trustees’ newest members bring varied expertise across business, arts and philanthropy, but all share a singular passion: education. They join the board’s diverse and influential body of leaders. DAVID BOHNETT A philanthropist and dot-com pioneer, David Bohnett ’78 began his charitable foundation and venture capital firm after selling his company Geocities.com to Yahoo! Inc. in 1999. The David Bohnett Foundation seeks to improve society by providing funding, technology and technical support to innovative organizations. Deeply involved in the arts, Bohnett is a trustee of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. He also serves on the board of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. JEANIE BUSS The president and governor of the Los Angeles Lakers, Jeanie Buss ’85 co-owns the basketball team and represents the team on the NBA Board of Governors. She also is president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation, which supports underserved youth in the areas of education, health and sports. Her career in sports management began as general manager of the Los Angeles Strings tennis team. Later, she brought professional roller hockey to Los Angeles as owner of the Los Angeles Blades. She was president of the Great Western Forum prior to becoming the executive vice president of business operations for the Lakers in 1999.
She serves as a trustee of the Stanley’s Garden Foundation, named for her late father. She and her husband, Richard Leventhal, chairman and chief executive officer of Fedway Associates, are Trojan parents. Their son, Max, graduated in 2014, and their daughter, Jessie, is a senior at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Leventhal serves on the USC President’s Leadership Council and as executive board co-chair for the USC Parent Leadership Circle. KRIS POPOVICH USC and Kris Popovich ’65, MBA ’70 have a long history together. Through their philanthropy, he and his late wife, Jane Hoffman Popovich ’65, helped build Jane Hoffman Popovich and J. Kristoffer Popovich Hall at the USC Marshall School of Business. Further gifts established student scholarships and funded faculty and cancer research. Popovich was CEO of Hoffman Associates, a real estate company, and Hoffman Video Systems, a Los Angeles-based distributor of industrial
New USC Trustees (from left) Tracy Sykes, David Bohnett, Jeanie Buss, Kathy Leventhal and Kris Popovich
and broadcast equipment. He was instrumental in forming the USC Associates’ board of directors, and served as the group’s president. Popovich is a member of the USC Marshall Board of Leaders and helped lead USC Marshall’s fundraising efforts as development chair. TRACY SYKES Tracy Sykes PhD ’98 was in the inaugural class of the physical therapy doctoral program in the top-ranked USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy. As a member of the division’s Board of Councilors, Sykes has advanced USC’s leadership in physical therapy for children. She also is a founding member of the division’s alumni association. She and her husband, Gene Sykes, co-chairman of Goldman Sachs’ Global Technology, Media and Telecom Group, created the first endowed faculty chair within the physical therapy division. They have also funded a scholarship and two symposia focusing on the specialty. LYNN LIPINSKI
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PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
KATHY LEVENTHAL Kathy Leventhal is a former media executive and founding publisher of Allure magazine. Leventhal worked for Condé Nast publications for a decade before leaving the industry in 1993 to focus on family. spring 2016
Don’t Just Leave Your Mark. Leave A Landmark. Congratulations. You’ve lived life to the fullest. You’ve made a positive impact on the world around you and, in your own unique way, you’ve made history. Now it’s time to think of your legacy. And a good place to start is at Forest Lawn. Our hilltop, private garden, and premier sections are the most exclusive and sought-after cemetery properties in all of Southern California. Call today for a private consultation. We’ll help you choose a landmark location that your family will be proud of for generations to come — here in the breathtaking beauty of Forest Lawn. tfm.usc.edu
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F A C U L T Y P R O F I L E R A N D O L S C H O E N B E R G J D ’9 1
A USC Gould lecturer takes a stand at the intersection of history, law and art.
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Before E. Randol Schoenberg JD ’91 tackled what would become the biggest art restitution case ever fought, he had no background in art law. So how did the self-professed “regular litigator” win his case before the U.S. Supreme Court—and recover five paintings by famed artist Gustav Klimt that had been confiscated by the Nazis before World War II? It’s simple. Schoenberg knows how to jump into complicated situations and quickly figure them out. “I don’t have to be an expert in your business,” the litigator says. “But when you present me with a case, I have to understand it well enough that I can explain it to a judge, a jury or another lawyer. That’s a fun skill to have, and that’s
what good lawyers have.” It’s an appealing skill in Hollywood, too. In 2015, the film Woman in Gold dramatized the story behind the landmark Republic of Austria v. Altmann court case. The film follows how Schoenberg, played by Ryan Reynolds, worked for years to reclaim the Klimt paintings from a state museum in Vienna on behalf of family friend Maria Altmann, played by Helen Mirren. The paintings, including a portrait of Altmann’s aunt popularly known as “Woman in Gold,” were taken from Altmann’s family by the Nazi regime when Austria fell under German occupation. They’re now valued at more than $325 million. Since the landmark Supreme Court decision, Schoenberg
has taken on other stolen artwork cases. Four years ago, he was invited to teach an art law course at the USC Gould School of Law, his alma mater. Covering issues as diverse as indigenous cultures, looted and stolen art, and the rights of artists, the curriculum reviews how criminal, constitutional and contract law apply to the art world. Students seem to enjoy the course because cases tend to be interesting. “Besides,” he says, “every time I talk about a case I try to find a pretty picture for everybody to look at.” CHRISTINA SCHWEIGHOFER
spring 2016
PHOTO BY STEVE ANDERSON
Portrait of a Litigator
trojan news To make kids feel safer walking through their neighborhoods, urban planners may need to take a hard look at cities through the eyes of a child. Tridib Banerjee, USC Price School of Public Policy professor of urban and regional planning, and Deepak Bahl, program director of the USC Price Center for Economic Development, have learned that firsthand in San Diego. They’ve partnered with more than 200 fifth-graders and parents from five elementary schools in the City Heights neighborhood to learn how kids feel about walking to school each day. More than two-thirds of the children in their study report feeling unsafe during their daily walks, which average less than a half-mile. Banerjee and Bahl have worked with the children on travel diaries, hand-drawn maps and group discussions. They’ve come up with an enlightening lesson: Children view the types of people they meet on their route as a greater danger than traffic. Children worry about people driving their cars too fast, but other main concerns include homeless people, strangers and gang members (as well as unleashed dogs). And while children respond well to peaceful streets, the kids in the study feel even better about walking by specific commercial businesses—seeing more people and shopkeepers makes them feel safer. Principals of the City Heights schools appreciated the research and supported recommendations such as improving sidewalks, adding crossing guards and repainting pedestrian crossings throughout the San Diego neighborhood. Banerjee and Bahl’s work is part of the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation’s efforts to support research on solutions to challenges facing the City Heights community, with applications to other low-income, urban communities worldwide.
Future Forward The U.S. Army Research Laboratory recently tapped the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, or ICT, as the base for its biggest university research outpost yet. That means 70 new researchers will move into ICT’s Playa Vista headquarters in Los Angeles’ Westside. ICT was born out of a U.S. Army contract in 1999 to partner with film and game studios to advance the art and science of computer simulations. Here are just a few of the technologies that have grown out of Army research at ICT.
INTERACTIVE 3-D PROJECTIONS New Dimensions in Testimony, an educational collaboration with the USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for Visual History and Education, enables digital projections of Holocaust survivors to interact with and answer questions from a live audience.
VIRTUAL REALITY HEADSETS Low-cost, high-fidelity virtual reality headsets including Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear and Google Cardboard build on ICT virtual reality work.
VIRTUAL THERAPY Thousands of veterans have been aided by programs like Bravemind, a virtual reality therapy for treating soldiers and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorders, and a virtual veteran that provides training for social workers working in the military community.
Q U OTAT I O N
“Ultimately, our goal is to make Los Angeles the most veteran-friendly city and county in the country.” Nathan Graeser, of USC’s Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families 24
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spring 2016
CITY HEIGHTS PHOTO BY MATT GAINER; ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF USC INSTITUTE FOR CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES
Street Smart
HE ALTH FI LE S A protein found in tears may help end dry eye syndrome. Called clusterin, it can seal the surface of the eye and protect it from damage, according to USC research. The work already garnered a patent and could lead to new treatments.
An enzyme associated with tooth enamel growth could end toothaches for good. Researchers at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC will add the enzyme to an oral gel and test it in the lab to see if they can restore damaged teeth and create new enamel-like seals.
Life in 3-D
Too many children across the world bear the marks of violence and war: missing hands and feet. Determined to help these children, a group of USC students turned to technology. Their life-changing work all started with two inspirational young women. Kara Tanaka, an accomplished sculptor and student in the postbaccalaureate premedical program at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, linked with a network of volunteers called e-Nable. These volunteers create 3-D-printed hands for children on demand. Following e-Nable’s model, Tanaka started the USC Freehand Project to supply these hands to children in Haiti. But the human hand is a wickedly complicated sequence of bones and joints. Tanaka realized she didn’t just need to make a hand— she needed to engineer one. At the same time, Alison Glazer, a USC Viterbi School of Engineering mechanical engineering senior, was looking for projects that matter. Glazer is president of student-run club 3-D For Everyone, or 3D4E, which unites students inter-
ested in 3-D printing. “We were printing cool toys, key chains and iPad holders, but we wanted to do more than what the average kindergartner could,” Glazer says. Glazer and 3D4E had the know-how, equipment and manpower that Tanaka needed—more than 30 USC Viterbi engineering students. Together, the students printed about a dozen prosthetic hands for kids in Haiti and were ready for more. Their e-Nable partners gave them a new challenge: Create hands for war-torn Syria. The work so galvanized and inspired the leaders of 3D4E that they made the Freehand Project a permanent feature of their club. The work has always been about breaking the stigma of wearing prosthetics, Tanaka says. “Children who need a hand, no matter where they’re from, now have access to a functional, original and low-cost prosthetic customized to suit them perfectly.” Adds Glazer, noting the popularity of the hands among children: “We’re giving them something that actually makes other kids jealous.”
DANIEL DRUHORA
PHOTO COURTESY OF USC FREEHAND PROJECT
Turns out that CPR isn’t as effective as medical dramas would have you believe. CPR on TV shows works about 70 percent of the time, USC gerontologists report. The real survival rate is 37 percent. Breast milk with higher levels of certain carbohydrates has been linked to a child’s risk of developing obesity later in life. A USCled study found that the composition of a mother’s breast milk is more important in predicting a child’s obesity risk than the mother’s own weight or weight gain during pregnancy.
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Stronger Together
USC’s Good Neighbors Campaign supports arts, education, health, safety and sports in the Los Angeles neighborhoods around the University Park and Health Sciences campuses. The campaign, funded by contributions from USC staff, faculty and friends, has raised $19 million for more than 650 programs since it launched in 1994. Here are a few of the ways it helps: • A new farmers market in Lincoln Heights has become a gathering place for locals, farmers and vendors. It supports the importance— and enjoyment—of healthy eating. • The robotics team at Foshay Learning Center in South LA took part in an international high school robotics competition in St. Louis, Missouri and walked away with the prestigious 2015 Chairman’s Award. • JazzReach’s high-quality, low-cost jazz programming provides instruction or concerts to about 2,300 students and families from USC neighborhood schools, with 70 USC Thornton School of Music students serving as teachers.
Q U OTAT I O N
“I want to change the field of art history. It is time to have a new narrative and it is time to bring new, more diverse voices to the field.” Amelia Jones, Robert A. Day Chair in Fine Arts and vice dean of critical studies at the USC Roski School of Art and Design, in The Huffington Post 26
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Password Poetry You know you should have strong passwords to protect your online accounts. Yet it seems like the more secure your password, the more easily you forget it. Leave it to USC researchers to find a better way to log on safely—using poetry. Through the ages, people have used the meter and flow of poems to memorize texts as lengthy as the Odyssey. Poetry has “rhythm and rhyme that can help people memorize the password better,” says Marjan Ghazvininejad, a graduate student in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s computer science department. The Poetry Method created by Kevin Knight, USC research assistant professor of computer science, and Ghazvininejad starts with a 32,768-word dictionary. Each word in the dictionary is assigned its own unique, 15-digitlong code of zeros and ones. The researchers’ computer program then randomly creates a string of 60 zeros and ones, and matches words from the dictionary to those digits. The result is two eight-syllable lines. To make the lines easier to remember, the program makes sure that their last words rhyme.
The end product looks this:
Sophisticated potentates misrepresenting Emirates.
Or this:
The supervisor notified the transportation nationwide.
In tests conducted by the USC Information Sciences Institute researchers, 61 percent of Poetry Method participants could remember their 16-syllable password weeks later. While the system still has kinks to work out (and online accounts would need to start accepting long passwords), it may be a big step for cybersecurity, inspired by the time-honored technique of ancient oral storytellers. To see a randomly generated password, go to bit.ly/PoetryPassword. SHEYNA GIFFORD
spring 2016
Scholarships change lives. Every gift counts. giveto.usc.edu
“ I want to work for Teach for America after I graduate. That’s something I would not have been able to even think about doing if I had a huge debt load to worry about.” Anjali Ahuja Presidential Scholar Computer science major minoring in digital entrepreneurship, Class of 2016
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ILLUSTRATIONS BY LINCOLN AGNEW
BY KATHARINE GAMMON
Los Angeles may not be the first name that jumps to mind when it comes to tech startups. But Silicon Beach is flourishing, and USC plays a starring role.
Made in LA The outdoor sports website The Inertia has the kind of office space that Silicon Valley tech whizzes dream about. There’s an elevator outfitted with a putting green and mini golf clubs. Surfing and extreme snowboarding video games are scattered around to get the creative juices flowing. But the office isn’t in Mountain View. It’s 350 miles down the California coast, in Venice. For lifelong surfer Zach Weisberg MBA ’13, The Inertia’s founder and CEO, Southern California is the perfect place to combine journalism, entrepreneurship and his love for surfing into a burgeoning business. A stint as an online editor for Surfer magazine in 2010 opened Weisberg’s eyes to digital opportunities in the world of extreme sports. He decided to apply to the USC Marshall School of Business MBA program and launched The Inertia during the application process. He continued to run the website between classes, and in 2011, the site—dubbed the “Huffington Post of surfing” by Forbes—won $15,000 in seed money in a USC Marshall venture competition. Weisberg hasn’t looked back since. “I love the uncertainty involved in building your own project,” he says. “It’s all up to you to create a viable business and do things you love.” Weisberg has company in Los Angeles—and in the Trojan Family. For decades, USC has fueled and nurtured startups from cinema to biotech, and now it’s helping to grow the “Silicon Beach” community of tech entrepreneurs around Los Angeles and beyond. Entrepreneurship is in USC’s blood. USC Marshall’s Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies is the oldest integrated entrepreneurship program in the U.S., and it keeps growing—jumping to more than 3,100 enrollments this year, compared to 2,200 five years ago, says director Helena Yli-Renko. “Whether you’re an engineer or an artist you’re going to need these skills,” she explains. “As the economy has become more disaggregated, many careers have become entrepreneurial in nature. At the same time, entrepreneurship is pretty accessible these days.” tfm.usc.edu
While no one tracks USC’s precise footprint in the tech startup scene, the website angel.co lists more than 6,800 USC alumni involved in nearly 1,900 startups. With the Trojan Family network entrenched in media, entertainment, engineering and business, Trojans are starting, funding and spinning off tech-based ventures. THE HOLLYWOOD EFFECT “Silicon Beach is real. If you measure the number of dollars of venture money coming in, it’s real,” says Andrea Belz, entrepreneur-in-residence at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering who also has appointments at the USC Iovine and Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation and USC Marshall. Investors infused about $2 billion into LA and Orange County companies in the last half of 2015 alone, reports PricewaterhouseCoopers. Los Angeles has a thriving network of startups from Silicon Beach to Hollywood. And although the region’s scene may not be as well known as a certain valley in Northern California, it has a high-tech history. “USC and LA both have a deep set of relationships in aerospace and defense, which has always been a big driver of technology and innovation,” Belz says. Add to that LA’s status as a magnet for dreamers and creative entrepreneurs. “Every movie and every TV show is a startup,” says Peter Marx, chief technology officer for the city of LA and adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. “People talk about the Hollywood Model, which means coming together and bringing an idea to life.” Just as a startup may unite the skill sets of programmers, designers and visionaries who started out as strangers, the same is true of any movie, game or television show. A decade ago, some of the first startups in LA were based around media, entertainment and fashion. Today, startups have become diversified, and hot startup fields like robotics, games and virtual reality are about providing services or delivering experiences—areas of strength for USC and LA, Marx says. “Los Angeles is the place
Startups and the City
Cities from Boston to Bangalore hope to become the next Silicon Valley. What about USC’s home of Los Angeles? It’s the third-richest environment for startups, according to online business analysis firm Compass. The top five startup ecosystems in the world* ONE
Silicon Valley TWO
New York City THREE
Los Angeles FOUR
Boston FIVE
Tel Aviv *Research excluded China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. SOURCE: The 2015 Global Startup Ecosystem Report
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Value of all startups Silicon Valley $264–$323 billion Los Angeles $42–$51 billion New York City $40–$50 billion Number of high-tech workers Silicon Valley 1.7–2.2 million New York City 500,000 Los Angeles 200,000 SOURCE: The 2015 Global Startup Ecosystem Report
technology comes to be humanized.” Paul Bricault, founder of digital media accelerator Amplify.LA and adjunct professor at the School of Cinematic Arts, saw LA’s startup culture change in another way during the last five years. “Historically, the startup soil system in LA had great topsoil but not great roots,” Bricault explains. But the culture changed with the help of universities like USC, government efforts and venture capital funds aimed at growing companies. “Now entrepreneurs who have raised big money give back and promote others’ work. The larger companies they create end up spinning out younger employees and creating a virtuous
cycle that didn’t exist in LA previously,” Bricault says. Engineers’ outlooks also changed. “Traditionally, engineering grads went on to grad school or to large, established companies. But the recent explosion in technology has created many opportunities for ideas to flourish through small startups,” says Yannis C. Yortsos, dean of USC Viterbi. Today many USC student engineers strive to create their own apps and ventures. Innovation and entrepreneurship now comprise one of the four pillars of USC Viterbi, and in 2010, the school created several programs to support and enable meaningful startups and enterprises. At the same time, engineers now stand at the
Myspace’s USC Roots 1997
Before there was Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat, there was Myspace. It may spark nostalgia in today’s social media world, but the groundbreaking company and its founders were instrumental to the evolution of social networking. And it all started with an idea hatched in a USC classroom. Here’s a brief history of an influential startup with Trojan ties.
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For a final project in a USC Marshall course taught by Paul Bricault, Chris DeWolfe MBA ’97 proposes a website that has bits and pieces of what would be built into Myspace. Bricault gives DeWolfe an “A-” for the idea.
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2003
Myspace is founded by employees of Internet marketing company eUniverse after the service Friendster hints at social networking’s potential. DeWolfe and USC Marshall classmate Josh Berman MBA ’97 work with Brad Greenspan and Tom Anderson on the project. Anderson would become president and DeWolfe the CEO.
2004
Myspace (then known as MySpace) launches in January. Within a month it surges to 1 million users.
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center of LA-based companies, not just on the fringe, says Ashish Soni MS ’02, founding director of the USC Viterbi Student Innovation Institute. “The days when a businessperson would write a business plan and hire a team of engineers are gone,” he says. The culture has shifted so much that in 2015, the prestigious Global Startup Ecosystem Report ranked LA’s environment third best in the world for startups, after Silicon Valley and New York. The USC Institute for Creative Technologies was one of the first big tenants to move into the Westside’s Playa Vista development a few years ago, helping to catalyze what’s now a buzzing hub for integrated media. Today outfits like Snapchat, TrueCar and Oculus are based in the region. “There’s no longer a stigma to being here,” Bricault says. USC AS A STARTUP GARDEN The tech startup vibe is palpable at USC. Students compete in pitch contests and hold hackathons, while groups like Girls In Tech USC teach teen girls to code. Spark SC unites creative students across schools to team up on projects. The USC Iovine and Young Academy recruits students predisposed to disruptive ideas—and gives them the business, technical and design tools to make them real. Then there’s the USC Viterbi Startup Garage. The six-month incubator program for USC students, faculty and alumni includes $20,000 in funding, space, strategic and financial resources and access to top mentors. The 17 companies supported by the USC Viterbi Startup Garage since 2013 have gone on to raise more than $10.5 million in investment capital and created more than 100 jobs, Soni says. One of these companies is AIO Robotics in Marina del Rey, California. Since 2012, Jens Windau MS ’10 has been a doctoral student in computer science. When Windau and his colleagues tried using 3-D printers to build robots, the available machines couldn’t do what they wanted. Together, they built the first allin-one printer that scans, prints and faxes 3-D objects.
2005
News Corporation acquires Myspace for $580 million.
2005–08
The site is the largest social network in the world, frequently surpassing Google and Yahoo for number of U.S. visitors.
When their Kickstarter campaign raised more than $100,000 in 24 hours, Windau knew they were onto something. The USC Viterbi Startup Garage connected the entrepreneurs with people around USC to fine-tune their machine, and the students gave demonstration machines to any department that might eventually buy an easy-to-use 3-D printer. “USC was really a playground to figure out our target markets,” Windau says. The machine, Zeus, is now available through Amazon and more than 50 global distributors. As USC’s environment for startups grows robust, students, faculty and alumni are finding more support across the lifespan of their ventures. The USC Stevens Center for Innovation provides expert advice for faculty, and students can gain exposure for their ideas and learn to pitch them through an annual showcase. Efforts like Blackstone LaunchPad@USC offer mentors for prospective entrepreneurs too. For more mature startups, the Lloyd Greif Center incubates projects helmed by faculty, students and alumni that need a final push. “Our mission is to drive you from concept to customer with key resources you need along the way,” says Dave Belasco ’85, executive director of the Lloyd Greif Center and adjunct faculty member at USC Marshall. In addition to more than 70 courses, the center offers incubators, mentors, an accelerator, access to capital and six competitions with $300,000 in prize money. And innovators across USC are spurring startups in their own way, such as the USC Center for Body Computing, which uses technology to improve health. The center has already helped launch mobile apps. USC entrepreneurs admit to challenges, including less local investment funding than in Silicon Valley. Some still must fly to the Bay Area to meet with venture capitalists. But they see opportunities, too. Says James Bottom ’04, MBA ’14, program director of Blackstone LaunchPad@USC, with his trademark optimism: “USC is probably the best place to be building a business right now.”
2008
Facebook and Myspace have the same number of monthly users—115 million. Myspace launches many musical artists and game companies and starts the trend of creating unique URLs for companies and artists. Berman leaves Myspace and becomes president of Slingshot Labs, a Santa Monica incubator that builds and develops startups for News Corporation.
2009–10
DeWolfe announces he will step down as Myspace’s CEO and later purchases a social gaming company with former Myspace colleagues. The company, Social Gaming Network, makes acquisitions within the industry and DeWolfe serves as CEO.
2010
Berman founds ecommerce fashion site BeachMint. In 2014, the company starts a joint venture with Condé Nast called The Lucky Group, blending BeachMint’s platform with Lucky magazine’s advice on shopping.
Number of new entrepreneurs in every 100,000 people Austin, Texas, area 550 Miami area 520 Los Angeles/ Orange County area 500 SOURCE: The 2015 Kauffmann Index
2011
News Corporation sells Myspace, which has been revamped to focus on musicians and pop culture. Companies created by former Myspace executives and employees include Gravity, On the Run Tech, Gobbler and Gogobot.
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Acquiring Minds
For many startups, being acquired by a like-minded, well-respected large company is the ultimate payoff for years of hard work and planning. Here are just a few of the unique ventures from USC alumni that caught the attention of major tech companies.
Wavii Founder: Adrian Aoun ’05, MS ’05 Acquired by Google in 2013 Wavii offered users quick news updates, tailored to favorite topics such as celebrities or athletes, that could be accessed through an iPhone app. Its features were folded into Google.
Blendspace (originally called EdCanvas) Founder: Amy Lin ’08, MS ’09 Acquired by TES Global in 2014 The Blendspace app helps teachers organize digital content, giving them convenient access to YouTube videos, PDFs, pictures, Dropbox files and more. It also allows teachers to share their content with students and track student learning with built-in assessments.
VirtualTourist.com and Onetime.com Founder: J.R. Johnson ’93 Acquired by TripAdvisor, a property of Expedia, in 2008 VirtualTourist.com is a free online community with user-generated travel guides, reviews and online forums for traveling. OneTime.com is a price comparison tool for booking flights and hotels.
Embark Founder: David Hodge ’11 Acquired by Apple in 2013 Embark makes free, fast and simple mobile apps for mass transit riders. It includes a unique transit map for 10 cities, allowing users to access the application without an Internet connection.
280 North Founders: Tom Robinson ’07, MS ’07; Francisco Tolmasky ’06; Ross Boucher ’07, MS ’07 Acquired by Motorola in 2010 This Y Combinator startup developed tools such as the Cappuccino programming language, which allows developers to build rich Web applications with little programming knowledge though a proprietary framework and toolkit.
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USC by the Bay
A startup founder finds her footing in Silicon Valley
BY JANET RAE-DUPREE
Some USC entrepreneurs stay in Los Angeles and make Silicon Beach their home, but Amy Lin ’08, MS ’09 took her tech talents to Silicon Valley. After a stint in Seattle with Microsoft, the computer science graduate moved to San Francisco to create the digital education resource site Blendspace, which was acquired by London-based education technology company TES Global in 2014. Today, Lin leads global product development at TES. Her rapid rise recently earned attention: She was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for education. With tens of thousands of USC alumni in the Bay Area, Lin is one of the many Trojans influencing the region’s tech industry. She stays connected to USC and gives back by serving on the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Emerging Leaders Board, where she helps link up USC Viterbi alumni through events and programming. Why did you move to Silicon Valley? We were accepted into Imagine K12’s incubator program, which is modeled after Y-Combinator, a tech startup accelerator that helps with mentorship and funding. It’s important to congregate around like-minded people. My motivation for building an education technology company stems from my interest to get more girls into math and science, and Silicon Valley is a great place to work on that. You sold Blendspace in 2014. Why? Trying to tackle problems in the education space is deeply complex. Schools are not quick changers. Innovation comes with time. We wanted to get back to our original mission of helping teachers and we realized we couldn’t do that on our own. TES shared the spring 2016
USC alumni are CEOs and founders of a variety of Bay Area tech startups. Here’s a sampling of what they’re up to: Developing technology so consumers can easily monitor home electricity use Advising startups on how to build a more diverse workforce Creating social media for brands and organizations Designing turnkey private cloud computing solutions Using data science to evaluate and improve digital advertising campaigns
mission to help teachers. We are a lesson delivery platform and they have tons of resources. There was a natural synergy. What makes you a good entrepreneur? Empathy and curiosity. To invent something you have to deeply understand the needs of the people you’re inventing something for. I talk with them and experience the problems firsthand. I need to be in tfm.usc.edu
those shoes. I step out of the office and sit in classrooms and shadow teachers. I’ve always loved doing that and learning what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes and having that deep empathy for the other person. Curiosity goes hand in hand with all of that. I want to flip over every rock I see. If there’s a way to know why something is the way it is, I’m going to pursue that answer.
What inspires you? Teachers really inspire me. Not just because I work in education technology, but because the work to grab the attention of 30 young minds is absolutely amazing. That’s something that motivated me to start an education technology company more than anything else. Teachers are the most hardworking and inspiring people I’ve ever created products for. They’re so vocal when something works. usc trojan family
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For students who dream of starting the next Snapchat, the story begins in places like this. Tread carefully over the sleeping bodies of student hackers overtaken by fatigue and sprawled out on the floor, half-eaten sandwiches in their hands. Disheveled backpacks, stained Superman mugs and gutted circuit boards tell the story of the digital battles fought here. Welcome to the Hack SC student-run hackathon, where hardware and software developers come together to build new projects. Tech minds have come from all over Southern California to hunker down inside
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a USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism lecture hall and engage in 36 hours of nonstop, caffeinefueled coding. Some laptop screens flicker silently as bloodshot eyes squint at them. A few weary coders still plug away—the pros. A team of three USC Viterbi School of Engineering undergraduates is among them. They’ve been trying for three days to create a 3-D rainbow made entirely from code. It’s part of a game they’re designing. When they’re finally done, they jump and scream in an explosion of victory. All this over a rainbow?
“Freaking beautiful, isn’t it?” one of them marvels. This is the tech life. This is the life of triple cappuccinos and obsessive keyboard tapping, of smartphone app ideas that seem great at first and then crash and burn—or that survive and eventually make it to the promised land of the App Store. This is the life of student startups at USC. ALL IN THE GAME Few of the ideas and projects that come out of hackathons or competitions ever make it to market. Consider them a dry run. spring 2016
Inside the Circuit Startup-minded students explore, learn, network and, if they’re lucky, launch the Next Big Thing. BY DANIEL DRUHORA
But USC School of Cinematic Arts senior Catherine Fox and her friends are among the talented students who parlayed a contest into early success. Calling themselves Team OK, the friends developed a hide-and-seek fighting videogame with a twist: It’s set in a two-tone world where monochromatic samurai camouflage themselves in abstract backgrounds to ambush each other. It’s called Chambara, and what makes the multi-player game special is how players can disappear through a striking aesthetic that merges seamlessly with the gameplay. Prior to Chambara, Team OK’s core tfm.usc.edu
members—Fox, Kevin Wong, Esteban Fajardo and Alec Faulkner from the School of Cinematic Arts and Tommy Hoffmann from University of Colorado Boulder— worked on small games in pairs for game jams and classes. “We’re just a bunch of friends making games together for a bunch of future friends,” says Fox, Chambara’s artistic director and an interactive media major. You might say their ascendancy started through Dare to be Digital, one of the gaming world’s most elite invitation-only competitions. Considered the premier video game development compe-
tition for students and recent graduates, Dare is the only route to a coveted British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) “Ones To Watch” award. Every year between June and August, students from around the world form teams of five and travel to Dare in Dundee, Scotland, with one mission: develop a breakout game in only 10 weeks and claim a place among a pantheon of rock-star titles born in Scotland, like Grand Theft Auto. The contest is capped off by Dare Protoplay, the U.K.’s biggest independent games festival. The top three teams that can impress industry experts— usc trojan family
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“We’re just a bunch of friends making games together for a bunch of future friends.”
and more than 13,000 gamers— earn a BAFTA nomination. Two years into their program in the School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media & Games Division, the friends dreamed big and applied to Dare. On the recommendation of William Huber, adjunct professor in the School of Cinematic Arts, Team OK produced a pitch video and started scraping together funds for the trip. It worked: In 2014, Team OK joined 15 other teams at the contest—many from the world’s best university games programs. The friends had faith in their concept—and in each other. “We just wanted to work on something we love,” says Kevin Wong, a School of Cinematic Arts senior and Chambara’s team lead. “Yes, a BAFTA was also at stake.” On their first night in Scotland, Team OK met their first test. They pooled what little cash they had to buy a 14-inch pizza, but had a dilemma when the pie came out of the oven. “We didn’t realize we were on the metric system and that we bought a 14-centimeter pizza,” laughs Wong. “We split it between us until there was one tiny piece left.” It was just pizza, but how they allocated the last slice set their competitive tone. They didn’t draw straws, Wong says. “We decided whoever was the hungriest should get it.” Their pragmatic, team-focused attitude carried them through the grueling weeks to Protoplay, where Chambara dazzled gamers and judges and snagged a BAFTA nomination. Elated, the four School of Cinematic Arts students in Team OK returned to USC and were ready to try for the next major milestone: a capstone course in the Advanced Games program. Getting into Advanced
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Games is tough, even with a hefty resume. Some 60 to 70 concepts compete for five coveted slots in Advanced Games, according to Tracy Fullerton, director of USC’s Game Innovation Lab. Advanced Games is part of USC Games—a collaboration between the Interactive Media & Games Division and USC Viterbi’s Department of Computer Science that consistently ranks No. 1 in the country for game design. “Winning Protoplay gave us a lot of legitimacy,” says Zach Vega-Perkins, a USC Viterbi computer science senior who became Chambara’s lead engineer. “But Advanced Games at USC is where the concept was going to be taken to the next level. It’s one thing to get a prize at a festival, and another to get a game ready for launch on the market. That’s what our faculty mentors at USC are helping us do.” And yes, nearly a year after Dare, they won that coveted BAFTA. “It’s been a wild journey,” Fox says. “We started with five people and now we’re a team of 30: engineers, designers, composers, artists, quality controllers, producers and marketers.” Fullerton, who is one of six faculty mentors advising Team OK, is excited to bring new voices to the field and help them mature. “The alchemy of putting all these people together, watching them trust each other and respect each other’s skills, is always thrilling for me,” she says. “Teambuilding and collaboration are at the core of our game design program.” Team OK launched their own startup as part of the USC Games Bridge incubator program to create more games, and they plan to release Chambara on a major gaming platform later this year. Their mission in the games world is clear, says Fox: “We want to bring people together.”
THERE WILL BE BLOOD In an apartment near the University Park Campus, Deepika Bodapati bleeds for her business. Literally. Her desk is a Breaking Bad scene of diabetes lancets, eviscerated circuit boards and microscopes. G-Eazy’s “Let’s Get Lost” rap patter fills the room. This is Bodapati’s bedroom-turned-research lab, and she’s her own human subject, all in service of her startup, Athelas. Athelas (named after a healing herb from The Lord of the Rings) is the brainchild of Bodapati and her long-time collaborator, Tanay Tandon, a freshman at Stanford University. It’s a low-cost, portable bloodimaging device that aims to use computer vision and microscopy to diagnose medical conditions automatically. Bodapati, a junior in biomedical engineering, is developing a sophisticated test strip to test for malaria, anemia, flu virus and even early signs of leukemia using just a blood drop. You pop one end into a boombox-like machine and a smartphone provides a diagnosis. “We’ve built a low-cost independent setup that allows us to image and analyze blood at high magnification,” Bodapati explains. Similar blood-testing devices today are pricey and monstrously large. One common hematology analyzer costs as much as $92,000. By contrast, the Athelas would cost about $150 and aims to offer a one-stop, smartphone-based test for myriad diseases at once. Bodapati saw the need for it while on a visit to her family’s ancestral village in southern India, where malaria is widespread and often fatal. “I spent a summer on a chili farm in continued on page 39 . . . spring 2016
Ready for Launch BY DANIEL DRUHORA
With year-round pitch competitions, legal assistance and mentoring, USC entrepreneurs have lots of places to turn for help. These are just a few of the many resources that get Trojans ready to launch their next big idea.
USC Viterbi Startup Garage USC Viterbi School of Engineering What’s offered: $20,000 in seed funding, mentoring, legal and fundraising help as well as development space in Marina del Rey at USC’s Information Sciences Institute, an international innovation hub for computing and communication technologies dating back to the development of the Internet. Audience: Students, faculty and alumni focused on Internet, hardware or software startups Fact: The program’s first-year winners included AIO Robotics, creator of the world’s first combination 3-D printing, copying, scanning and fax machine.
USC Stevens Center for Innovation Office of the Provost What’s offered: Assistance with forming startups, from negotiating license terms to building connections with experienced managers, as well as intellectual property and licensing expertise. Audience: Faculty, students and industry partners Fact: The 2015 USC Stevens Student Innovator Showcase awarded more than $25,000 in prizes to business concepts with world-changing potential.
Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies USC Marshall School of Business What’s offered: Coursework, venture competitions, networking, incubation and research as part of the nation’s oldest integrated entrepreneurship program. Audience: Students and alumni Fact: The center’s partnership with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti helped create the Mayor’s Cup, an upcoming competition for USC entrepreneurs with innovative solutions to local civic challenges. Winners will receive $25,000 and the opportunity to work with city leaders to develop their ideas.
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The Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering USC Viterbi School of Engineering What’s offered: Consultation services for inventors to transform their ideas into commercially viable medical products, legal support, intellectual property evaluation and market analysis, PhD fellowships and tuition remission at USC Viterbi. Audience: Faculty, students and industry partners in biomedical fields Fact: The institute launched technology for implantable blood-sugar monitors and prostheses that can help amputees control artificial limbs.
Athena USC What’s offered: Access to funding capital and mentors for women. Audience: Female students and faculty Fact: Athena partners with USC Annenberg’s Women’s Leadership Society, USC Marshall’s Graduate Women in Business Association and USC Viterbi’s Women in Science and Engineering program to host workshops, speaker panels, pitch competitions and networking mixers.
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BY ORLI BELMAN
Trojans make their mark on the virtual reality scene.
LA’s Reality Check You can read a book. Watch a video or film. Listen to a podcast. They’re all ways to tell a story, and each has its pluses. But there’s a new game in town—virtual reality—and it has the power to transport. “VR puts you in a story,” says Nonny de la Peña MCM ’09, founder of Emblematic Group, a Santa Monica, California-based media company that provides first-person perspectives of unfolding news. De la Peña, a USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism alumna who is close to completing her doctorate at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, sees VR as a way to encourage an audience to care about important issues. Major news outlets agree. They’ve enlisted her for several collaborations that place viewers in real-world scenes just by putting on a headset. It’s a natural for De la Peña, whose prior projects whisked viewers to war-torn Syria and LA food banks—at least virtually. As part of the medium’s vanguard, De la Peña is in the right place because LA is putting VR on the map, and VR is growing. Americans
will spend $5 billion on VR by 2018, predicts tech-consulting firm KZero. With commercial virtual reality headsets starting to go mainstream, Trojan alumni, students and faculty are accelerating the field’s growth. From downtown LA to Santa Monica, their ventures create content and capabilities, conversations and converts. Many of these innovators got their start with USC’s Mark Bolas and his team in the Mixed Reality Lab (MxR) at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. Bolas is known for finding and developing promising young talent: De la Peña has worked with Bolas, and so did Palmer Luckey, who later founded OculusVR— which was bought by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014. In the early 2010s, Bolas and MxR published and freely shared research on how to build low-cost head-mounted displays, and distributed cardboard virtual reality viewers. The influence of their work and open-source designs can be seen in today’s high-fidelity, more-affordable VR headsets including the Oculus Rift, Google Card-
board and Samsung Gear. Now major entertainment companies in Hollywood, where USC alumni abound, are moving into the VR market. In turn, the buzz attracts funding and buoys the work of innovative alumni-fueled startups. Take Survios, for one. Started by MxR vets and School of Cinematic Arts alums Nathan Burba MFA ’14 and James Iliff ’13, the awardwinning company develops hardware and software for “active VR” games. (Imagine fighting off attackers in 3-D
during a zombie apocalypse, untethered by computer cables. That’s Survios’ world.) “LA has the artistic and technical talents to support VR,” Burba says. “We leverage the region’s more well-known industries: the storytelling of films, the real-time graphics of games, and even the sensing systems of aerospace.” Culver City-based Otherworld Interactive, founded by Robyn Gray MFA ’14, Andrew Goldstein MFA ’14 and Mike Murdoch MFA ’14, is developing VR content for entertain-
Ripe for Growth Entrepreneurs are digging deep into industries that are ripe for creative disruption. Here are just a few of the growing fields where USC alumni lead new ventures.
Drones
Matching
AWESOMESAUCE A drone outfitted with a GoPro follows and films your every move.
JELLYVIBES Musicians in different locations can jam together using real-time streaming software.
NVDRONES The drone software platform’s latest project is a “black box” to log and track your drone flights with detailed location and maintenance data recording. HOOVY This marketing platform uses drones to drive attention-grabbing advertising campaigns.
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UPWORK A secure online marketplace, it connects employers with qualified freelancers. TALENT TRAIL This startup matches students with companies that are recruiting interns.
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ment, advertising, music and education. “Sister,” their VR horror experience, is one of the most downloaded VR apps from Google Play. “We had the right conditions and the right mix to allow virtual reality to expand,” says Gray, who also put in time at MxR. Then there’s Visionary VR, a storytelling startup. One of the co-founders is School of Cinematic Arts undergrad Cosmo Scharf. Now on a leave of absence from USC, Scharf also launched VRLA, a meetup series in Los Angeles for people working in virtual reality. These events have grown so popular that Silicon Valley techies travel in by chartered bus and enthusiasts fly in from Europe and Asia. Virtual reality “used to be our secret that no one knew was going to be important,” Scharf told the Los Angeles Times. How times have changed. While VR is still a niche medium, investors are betting on it: The segment drew its highest funding ever in the first half of 2015, according to industry analyst CB Insights. The total: a cool $240 million.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MOVING ANALYTICS INC.
Learn more about virtual reality at bit.ly/USCVR.
“Every time I get panicked or I need to solve a problem, I send 30 emails to 30 different professors.” continued from page 36 . . . my dad’s village and I was shocked by the rudimentary health care,” Bodapati says. “I thought if I could hack a cost-effective, portable diagnostic tool, I could really stop this crazy disease from spreading.” With malaria claiming some 600,000 lives a year, her idea has world-changing potential. Ultimately, she wants to create an Athelas device for every home on the planet to provide inexpensive, life-saving data and track personal health trends. You could say that entrepreneurship is in Bodapati’s blood. Her parents, Sujatha and Chandra Bodapati, both started their own companies, and her father often fondly called them “the R&D family.” At dinner in the family’s Saratoga, California home, when the Bodapatis encountered a household problem that needed some engineering wizardry, Deepika’s father held Family Pitch Night, where each family member would suggest a solution. Whenever a great idea surfaced, Dad encouraged them to go further. “’Very good,” her father would say. “‘But how does this change the world?’” By sixth grade, Bodapati had come up with an idea for a smart test strip that,
when dipped in water, could reveal E. coli and salmonella contamination in the spinach her family bought from the market. So it’s probably no surprise that in high school she interned at Stanford’s molecular imaging labs, wrote research papers on medical imaging for Science magazine and blogged for The Huffington Post. At USC, Bodapati followed her dad’s advice and poured her focus into Athelas, trying her luck on USC’s competition circuit. She made him proud, winning first place and $25,000 at USC Marshall School of Business’ 2015 Silicon Beach @ USC competition and a $7,000 prize for innovation at the 2015 USC Stevens Student Innovator Showcase. She also found a support system: “Every time I get panicked or I need to solve a problem, I send 30 emails to 30 different professors.” Bodapati has generated interest among Silicon Valley investors, but she knows she still needs to keep refining Athelas. So she’s back in her dorm-lab poking her fingers. “This is my time,” Bodapati says, echoing other USC student tech entrepreneurs. “I’ll do the work now and let the product speak for itself later.”
Alternative Currencies
Health Monitoring
GEM Developers can build apps using Bitcoin without cryptography or security expertise.
MOVING ANALYTICS A personalized mobile app monitors vital signs and exercise for users with heart problems, so they can develop healthier habits.
POCKET CHANGE Loyalty “reward points” earned across mobile apps allow users to buy digital or physical goods.
WHITECOAT To increase patient access to primary and urgent care, the app provides a way to schedule home visits with nurse practitioners.
SFOX Users access exchanges around the world with a single platform for optimized Bitcoin trading.
STASIS LABS A continuous feed for patient vital signs can be monitored via tablets, making it easier and cheaper to track patient health in rural areas.
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The National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps supports seven regional hubs, or “nodes,” that are anchored by top-tier research universities to spur entrepreneurship. Atlanta Georgia Tech Michigan University of Michigan New York City University of New York; New York University; Columbia Northern California UC Berkeley; UC San Francisco; Stanford Southern California USC; UCLA; Caltech Texas University of Texas, Austin; Rice; Texas A&M Washington, D.C. University of Maryland, College Park; George Washington; Johns Hopkins; Virginia Tech
Portrait of Andrea Belz by Lincoln Agnew
From Lab to Marketplace A national investment aims to propel technologies from top U.S. universities into your own hands and homes. For investors looking for the next big idea, research universities can be a gold mine. But faculty scientists and engineers often don’t know how to adapt their work for the marketplace. Enter the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Innovation Corps, a network of entrepreneurial hubs that help spin off technologies from top U.S. universities. Southern California recently became one of the Innovation Corps program’s
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newest regional “nodes,” which include locations from the Bay Area to New York City. Called Innovation Node–Los Angeles, it’s headquartered at USC and brings together faculty from universities including USC, Caltech and UCLA for entrepreneurship education and support. “Combined, we graduate more engineering graduate students than anywhere in the country, so it makes sense to have this network in Southern California,” says Andrea Belz, director of Innovation Node–Los Angeles. Belz is entrepreneur-in-residence at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering with appointments at the USC Iovine and Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation and the USC Marshall School of Business. Yannis C. Yortsos, dean of USC Viterbi, is principal investigator.
“We teach, we think, we launch and we link,” Belz says of the program. “We teach entrepreneurship to engineers from freshmen to postdoctoral fellows and infuse business-model thinking into curriculum. We have a leading research partnership to understand engineering entrepreneurship. We help companies get started. And we link the universities to each other and link innovators with capital and mentors.” Peter Beerel, faculty director of innovation and entrepreneurship in engineering at USC Viterbi, also heads up NSF-funded innovation efforts specific to USC. These include funds for a pitch competition and a program that helps USC PhD students start commercializing their ideas. What’s next? Growth, Belz says. The Los Angeles node is based on the University Park Campus, but expect it to deepen its presence at Silicon Beach.
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BY JANET RAE-DUPREE P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y C O DY P I C K E N S
Four Trojan entrepreneurs share their advice, experience and hope for the future of innovation.
ABSTRACT PATTERN / CREATIVE COMMONS
Trojan Tech Talk Anyone can come up with an idea, but an entrepreneur acts upon it and brings it to life. So what distinguishes the entrepreneurial mindset? We asked four USC alumni and faculty members from the startup world about their decisions and why they made them. Their common ground: curiosity, persistence and the embrace of calculated risks.
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E L L I S MEN G Professor and chair of biomedical engineering, USC Viterbi School of Engineering Ellis Meng didn’t intend to become an entrepreneur—all she really wanted was to get tenure. But natural-born innovators need an outlet. Today Meng, 40, is co-founder of research micro-pump company Fluid Synchrony and is on the verge of creating a second company aimed at treating hydrocephalus, a serious, abnormal buildup of fluid in the brain. Why did you become an entrepreneur? I didn’t start off with any entrepreneurial leanings, but I came to realize that I needed to connect my research with real problems and real clinical applications. That pushed me to translate how my work could apply beyond academia. Once I was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, I never looked back. You trained as an electrical engineer, yet you invent medical devices. How did that happen? I wasn’t a standard electrical engineer. I was adapting microfabrication techniques commonly used for integrated circuits to build microfluidic devices—in other words, to push fluids around on silicon chips. The big push was to use them for diagnostics, but I started working with clinical applications, specifically implantable devices. What makes you a good entrepreneur? Every time I enter into a collaboration with a new clinician in a different area, it’s like speaking Greek at first. Over time I figure out their language and they figure out mine. You have to be very nimble and adapt quickly. Communication is key: Understanding the problems that other people face requires getting out there and talking to them. Clinicians don’t know to come to you. Once I do see what problems they’re facing, I need to understand what I can and can’t do. After I define the boundaries, I understand my creative space. When I hit a dead end, I can pivot quickly to another clinical indication until I find a good fit. What inspires you? Progress and the potential to make an impact. I’m constantly adapting as new information is fired at me and I’m revising the best approach. Clinicians want to work with people who are passionate about helping their patients. They want fresh eyes and new ideas to address problems that haven’t been solved. My students inspire me with their fresh eyes, too. They bring up new approaches that I’ve never thought of. I can’t do everything on my own.
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SA H I L LAV I NG IA Founder and CEO of Gumroad Sahil Lavingia was a USC Viterbi freshman when he was invited to create an iPhone app for Pinterest. Despite being employee No. 2 at a startup estimated to be worth $40 million at the time (Pinterest now has a roughly $11 billion valuation), Lavingia quit in 2011 to found social commerce startup Gumroad. He was named one of Inc. magazine’s “30 Under 30” for 2015. And did we mention that he’s 23? Why leave Pinterest to strike out on your own? It wasn’t the best decision financially, but if finances drove my decisions, I’d be a very different person. I had an idea to work with and I wanted to start a company myself. The idea behind Gumroad came from when I wanted to sell an icon I had designed in Photoshop. It was a tiny thing without much value, but I wanted to see whether I could put it up for sale. As it turns out, it was far more difficult than it should have been. I wanted to solve that problem and there was a business opportunity in making it easier for everyone else to sell their work. What makes you a good entrepreneur? I really like doing it, that’s the biggest thing. I don’t do it because I believe I’m going to make a bunch of money. I do it because I’m solving real problems. I especially like making things for people who make things. I like this meta-idea of building a product that lets people like me accomplish their goals. It’s important to me that I’m adding to the world. What inspires you? How do you generate new ideas? It’s hard to create a formal process for generating ideas and it’s frustrating to separate good ideas from bad ideas. Having too many ideas is the real problem. People have an inherent desire for everything they do to be good. But they forget that it takes a lot of editing and throwing out bad ideas to get all of the good stuff in the finished product. How do you avoid falling into a rut? Everyone falls into a rut from time to time, but good work is like motivating yourself to go for a run. The real challenge is getting started at all. The first five or 10 minutes of a run can be really difficult, but then you get into the pace of it. Ultimately, you’re a better person for having done it.
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Z ACH WEIS BERG Founder and CEO of The Inertia Zachary Weisberg MBA ’13 originally intended to become a journalist. But after managing Surfer magazine’s digital properties for four years, he decided to pursue an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business. The Inertia—his news site and online community for surf and snow sports enthusiasts—beat 120 other startup ideas for the top prize at USC Marshall’s New Venture Seed Competition in 2011. Why go back to school for an MBA? To learn the things I never would have learned on my own, or it would have taken me a very long time to learn them. What I came away with was a deeper understanding of the importance of relationships and helping each other along the way. Before school, my perspective was that of a journalist. To have a shot at building a great business, I had to adjust how I viewed the world. I had to learn how to be a great partner to our advertisers and to the brands that support us while staying true to our original vision. What makes you a good entrepreneur? I think I always had entrepreneurial tendencies. I had a punk rock band when I was younger, and we were selling CDs door to door until I paid off the cost of the digital recorder I used to produce the album. I guess I had entrepreneurial instincts and ambitions from a young age. Resilience is really important. If you believe in yourself and the people around you enough then you can begin to will things to happen. Entrepreneurship requires the relentless pursuit of an idea even if it’s challenging and even if you get turned down time and again. My mom has a saying she impressed upon me: Energy and persistence conquers all. What inspires you? Being outdoors and active and surfing in beautiful places lends itself to all the clichéd inspirational things you might imagine. I get a lot of energy from great people. Being around positive, driven people who are making things happen while enjoying themselves along the way is always inspiring. Of the many hats you wear, which do you enjoy most and why? I enjoy being able to participate in all elements of the business. It’s really fun. Today I was working on a feature and helping edit a video and coordinating an ad buy and forecasting our budget—all in the same day. Oh, and interviewing to hire. Sometimes it’s overwhelming and confusing and I’m sure I could benefit from giving some of these hats away. But I do enjoy the whole mix, rather than getting bogged down in the minutiae of one particular job. I probably gravitate more toward the creative and storytelling elements of what we’re doing, although it would be hard to go back to doing only that.
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ELI ZA BET H A MI N I Social entrepreneur and adjunct professor at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, USC Marshall School of Business Anti-AgingGames.com was born in 2008 after Elizabeth Amini MBA ’08 and her friend (and Atari founder) Nolan Bushnell were joking around about the volume of useless knowledge that video games embed in a user’s brain. The company offers online memory and focus games for people 35 and older. Amini, 43, who teaches business with an emphasis on social entrepreneurship, donates 20 percent of the company’s pre-tax profits to global charities helping people and animals. Why create your startup? Nolan and I had a lightbulb go off when we began to wonder whether video games could improve memory. My background is in cognitive science [Amini holds a bachelor’s in the subject from Occidental College], so I already knew that brain-training exercises could possibly work, but they tended to be boring. He said he could make anything fun. We immediately started researching the science side of it because we didn’t know if it was even possible. We put together a science advisory team and reviewed 17,000 medical studies about the brain. We discovered the short answer is, yes, it’s possible. We focus now on what can actually improve real life.
PHOTO COURTESY OF VIVIAN YAN
What makes you a good entrepreneur? Persistence. In my case, it comes from early childhood experiences. I was really bad at sports, but all the schools I went to required team sports every term. When you keep striking out over and over again, you get used to failing and it doesn’t bother you as much. I weaseled my way out of winter sports by helping manage the boys’ ice hockey team, so even my earliest management skills came from trying to escape sports. It’s a bit embarrassing but true. How do you generate new ideas? The ideas come from wanting to improve the world and asking people what problems they’re trying to solve. I happened to meet the director of the outpatient neurorehabilitation program at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. Like most neurorehabilitation hospitals at the time, they weren’t using computerized brain games and were still using dominoes and basic games to re-train the brains of patients who had had a stroke or traumatic brain injury. The director wanted to know why we weren’t working with these patients. When I told him we didn’t have any data in that area, he pushed us to use our technology with his patients. We let Rancho Los Amigos use our technology for a few months and the patients were so engaged. We were chosen as part of the National Science Foundation’s Zap! and CADRE innovation programs, and were advised to stop working on the project and instead start calling medical directors for input. That was key. We would have wasted time and money running in the wrong direction. Now Keck School of Medicine of USC is working with us to put together a better program than a clinical trial. We’re at the beginning of a revolution in the way medical science treats brain injuries. That’s really exciting.
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C LA S S AC T S Great professors have the power to inspire, inform, enrich or incite—sometimes all at once.
n the last day of class, Gene Bickers kicks off his shoes on Trousdale Parkway and struts across a trail of burning coals. He’s been performing this feat before his students for 20 years. What better way, after all, to illustrate the dynamics of heat transfer? Affectionately nicknamed Professor Firewalker, the USC physicist starts by tossing a paper onto the glowing embers. The sheet instantly catches flame. Next, Bickers wets down his bare feet and draws a deep breath. He takes six quick steps across the fiery path laid out on cinderblocks and hops to safety, to the oohs and aahs of his Trojan undergrads. Passersby stop and stare. As Bickers soaks his feet in cold water afterward, some students invariably ask if they can give it a try. “‘No. No you can’t!’” he says. How does he do it? “There’s really no trick to it,” he says. Different materials conduct heat at different rates. As anyone who has grasped the handle of a hot frying pan can attest, wooden handles won’t instantly sizzle your skin like metal. And during the fire walk, Bickers’ feet aren’t in contact with the wood coals long enough to burn. Professor Firewalker’s feet tingle for an hour afterward. A few times, he ended up with blisters. Uncomfortable, yes, but a small price to pay for an unforgettable physics lesson.
It’s impossible to define a great teacher, but Bickers surely qualifies. Mesmerizing performer, knowledgeable field guide, trusted mentor, trailblazing innovator—master professors come in many flavors. More often than not, two or three
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flavors mix in an inspirational mélange. What all great educators have in common is an uncanny ability to engage young minds, and a burning need to ignite intellectual fires. Fine universities are perhaps best known for their research, but the teaching mission is equally important. It’s a big part of the value students expect from a place like USC. One of the highest accolades a professor can earn at USC is the Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching. Only two are awarded each year; Bickers won his in 1999. Another hallmark of a great USC professor is fellowship in the Center for Excellence in Teaching (CET). Founded in 1996, this peer-run faculty development organization hosts a bulging calendar of workshops spreading the collective wisdom of standout teachers across the university. The honors lift up and recognize the many men and women who are dedicated to the power of teaching at USC. Read on for a celebration of a few of the finest. A FORCE FOR PHYSICS Demonstrations in college physics classes are common, but “USC is known for having spectacular ones,” says Stephan Haas, chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Gene Bickers gets a lot of the credit for that. His annual fire walk is one of more than 400 demonstrations on the department’s playlist. Another perennial crowd-pleaser is the bed of nails. In this show-stopper, Bickers lies unharmed between two pallets studded with roofing nails (illustrating the principle that greater surface area equals
less pressure). To drive home a related point about damping, the top pallet is weighted down by a cinderblock, which an assistant crushes with a sledgehammer. For a lesson on the properties of liquid nitrogen, Bickers takes a sip of the freezing stuff and blows out a spectacular condensation cloud (the warmth of his mouth briefly creates a protective vapor layer). An apple soaked in the same liquid nitrogen, however, shatters as it hits the ground. When he used to teach the general education class Physics 100, Bickers would take students to an amusement park and have them perform experiments on the rides: During the free-fall ride, drop a coin and watch it float; on the roller coaster, observe changes in your apparent weight at the top and bottom of hills; on the spinning Tilt-a-Whirl rides, notice how friction counteracts weight thanks to centripetal forces. Through teaching, Bickers re-experiences the joy of discovery, and occasionally sees his students get into the act. There was the time Andrew Horning ’08 challenged Bickers to try skydiving. The resulting video is now part of his lecture on the mechanics of terminal velocity. Another student, an expert pilot, once took Bickers up in an aerobatic plane and performed stunts, including a terrifying power dive over the ocean. “I’ve done a little bit of everything over the years,” Bickers says. “It’s been fun.” Bickers has spent his entire career at USC, joining the faculty in 1988. Since 2005, he has worn a second hat as vice provost for undergraduate programs. Even as a senior administrator, he still teaches three or four courses a year, all at the introductory level. His students literally follow him to the Office of the Provost. “There are always a spring 2016
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by diane krieger
Anything but textbook: USC professors (from left) Drew Casper, Todd Boyd, John Walsh, Tatiana Akishina.
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few of them doing homework in the front office,” says Haas, who is himself a 2010 winner of the Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching. “They hang out there. They feel drawn to him. It’s pretty unique.” UNPACKING PUZZLES Bickers’ boss, neuroscientist and USC Provost Michael Quick, is also known for his demos. When he taught an “Introduction to Neurobiology” course, students’ jaws dropped when he’d dip his hand in a dish of burning alcohol and calmly report his changing sensations over five excruciating seconds—from wet to hot to ouch! The point: to illustrate the different conduction speeds of various kinds of sensory nerve fibers. The larger the diameter of the fiber, Quick explains in his signature deadpan style, the faster its message reaches the brain. Touch sensation races across the thickest nerve fibers. Medium-sized fibers relay temperature signals a little slower. Pain travels the slowest via slender nerve fibers. Quick, who has been a senior administrator since 2005, no longer teaches introductory neurobiology, but every spring he still teaches Biology 423, “Epilepsy to Ecstasy.” Neuroscience majors consider the advanced elective the “cherry on top” of their USC education. The case study-based seminar feels like an episode of House. Like TV’s sleuthing doctor, the neuroscience students study a fictional patient’s symptoms, form hypotheses and systematically rule out possible diagnoses. “Each class we’d walk in and it was a new puzzle that we had to figure out,” says neuroscience major Gwen Holst, a senior who took the class in 2014. “It teaches you how to think critically, and does so in a very fun and engaging way. His wit and dry sense of humor makes for an incredible class experience.” As the semester progresses, the clinical puzzles get increasingly exotic. In a neural mapping drill called “The Lesion Game,” Quick will tell a student: “You can’t feel any pain in your right arm, and you can’t move your upper torso.” The class orders hypothetical tests—check the patient’s Babinski reflex, for example—until they successfully locate the affected neural pathway. “The best teachers never ‘teach’ anything to a student,” Quick says about his unorthodox style. “What they do is inspire students
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enough that they teach themselves.” Former CET director Danielle Mihram concurs. “I think this is one of the stellar marks of a professor: to encourage the ‘exits off the freeway,’ explore the many areas, and then come back on course. In so doing, the student’s understanding is vastly enriched,” says the university librarian and French professor who specializes in the assessment of learning at the college level. “Michael is willing to let the student’s curiosity take over.” Two years after taking “Epilepsy to Ecstasy,” Holst retains much of what she learned in Quick’s class. A while ago, she saw a Facebook post about a friend’s worrying eye condition: coppery discoloration on the edge of the cornea. Holst commented
on the thread: “Have you been tested for Wilson’s disease?” Stunned, the woman confirmed that her doctor had just ordered tests for the rare inherited disorder. Holst had nailed it.
several innovative programs at USC and has a knack for finding ways to make students take risks and turn failure into teachable moments. Over spring break, she takes students to Russia and puts them on a three-day train ride to Siberia, placing pairs of USC students in “kupes”—four-person sleeper compartments—shared with two Russianspeaking strangers. Students describe the Trans-Siberian Railway journey as life changing. A lot of preparation leads up to that moment: Akishina has to teach them Russian first. “But it’s going that extra step, having classroom work bear fruit for the student in the real world, that marks the great teacher,” says CET director Ed Finegan. Akishina, who is a CET faculty fellow this year, has measured the impact of such real-world experiences. Using pre- and posttests, she found that her students retain nearly all the knowledge presented in lectures leading up to the rail trip—far more than they would in an ordinary course. In 2014, her Siberian exchange class had to forgo the long train ride to Lake Baikal. The Ukrainian crisis was at full boil and a Moscow railway agent refused to honor the American group’s tickets. As Akishina hustled to book last-minute plane reservations and lodging for 20 stranded Trojans, she braced herself for their disappointment. Instead, she found her students energized. Never before had Akishina encountered such “eagerness to learn, alertness to everything around, ability to see and need to debrief every day.” Getting students out of their routine, whether positive or negative, ramps up learning, she says. “These outside-of-classroom experiences are very important for the general development of our students.”
A GATEWAY TO NEW WORLDS Great teachers give students the confidence to go out on a limb. Tatiana Akishina knows all about that. She’s been pushing Russian language students out of the nest for 35 years. A teaching professor at USC Dornsife, she received the 2011 Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching—the first non-tenure-track faculty member to win the prize. Akishina is an expert in how language is best taught and learned. She has designed
A STAGE FOR LEARNING Perhaps the most widely recognized style of great professor is the charismatic performer. Drew Casper PhD ’73 and Todd Boyd, both legends at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, are fine examples. In some ways, they couldn’t be more different. Casper, who holds the Alma and Alfred Hitchcock Endowed Chair, is a film historian and authority on Hollywood from World War II to the 1970s. He’s also a former Jesuit priest. For Casper, the secret to
“THE BEST TEACHERS NEVER ‘TEACH’ ANYTHING TO A STUDENT. WHAT THEY DO IS INSPIRE STUDENTS ENOUGH THAT THEY TEACH THEMSELVES.” MICHAEL QUICK USC PROVOST
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inspired teaching is a passion for one’s subject matter—in his case, movies. “Love is always honest, isn’t it? Further, being honest is the only guarantee of originality,” he says. Boyd is a sharp-tongued culture critic with tight connections to the AfricanAmerican entertainment, sports and music scenes. A hip-hop celebrity in his own right, he holds the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture, but goes by the handle “Notorious PhD.” Boyd’s lecture style blends street slang with critical theory. “I don’t see myself as a teacher,” he says. “I am a professor. There is a difference. I don’t teach, I profess.” Despite their differences, Boyd and Casper have much in common as educators. “They both love to be in front of students and to ‘perform’ their teaching in large classrooms,” says Akira Mizuta Lippit, the school’s vice dean of faculty and a professor in the Bryan Singer Division of Cinema and Media Studies, where Boyd and Casper are based. Both Boyd’s and Casper’s wildly popular introductory classes fill the 330-seat Norris Cinema Theatre to capacity. Somehow both men can turn an auditorium into an intimate space where it’s impossible to be a passive spectator. Boyd’s style is confrontational. “He’s somebody who’ll get in your face, agitate and provoke you to respond, to argue, to think and rethink what you believe,” Lippit says. “After a while, the students realize this is part of his pedagogy, and that he will let them argue back.” Boyd teaches a popular freshman course, “Race, Class and Gender in American Film,” and upper-division courses with names like “The Birth of the Cool” or “The Gangster in American Culture,” as well as the graduate course “Reagan’s America (Crack Nation).” Casper has his own trick for shrinking a large class: He learns every student’s name, and calls them out without warning. (For his blockbuster course “Intro to Film,” offered twice last semester, he memorized 661 names). Students squirm as he paces the aisles and picks out people to answer questions, act out a scene or sing a verse from the musical they’re studying. Despite such anxiety-inducing tactics, Boyd and Casper inspire intense admiration in their acolytes. Each received the tfm.usc.edu
Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching. Michael Bitar ’14 took five courses with Casper. “Some kids at SCA should just say, ‘I majored in Casper,’” jokes the critical studies major, now an assistant and story editor at Sony Screen Gems. The professors command the respect of the film industry, Lippit notes. Boyd doesn’t just talk about celebrity culture and media: He brings in guests like Grammywinning jazz artist Branford Marsalis,
President and Professor
Teaching is so important at USC that even the university’s chief executive makes time for it. Each fall, USC President C. L. Max Nikias leads a freshman micro-seminar on Greco-Roman history and drama during Welcome Week. This spring, he’s taking it to the next level with “The Culture of the Athenian Democracy,” a reading salon that examines three Sophocles masterpieces in the context of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. An electrical engineer by training, Nikias has a deep, personal passion for the classics. A native Greek Cypriot, Nikias was educated at Famagusta Gymnasium and the elite National Technical University of Athens. “The ancient Greeks pioneered many of the ideals that remain at the very heart of Western civilization, including democracy and personal freedom,” says USC’s 11th president, former provost and past dean of engineering. Co-teaching the new seminar with Nikias is classics professor Thomas Habinek, the author of six books on Latin literature and Roman history and winner of the 2000 USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching.
NBA Hall of Famer Joe Dumars and Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone. And whenever Casper teaches “The Spielberg Style” or “The Star Wars Phenomenon,” Steven Spielberg and George Lucas will drop in for a Q & A with the class. AN AGELESS APPROACH In the digital age, you can’t talk about great professors without mentioning technological innovation. USC Davis School of Gerontology associate professor John Walsh is a maverick in this arena. A pioneer in Web-based teaching, his latest National Science Foundation-funded innovation is the Root digital learning envi-
ronment. This free shareware reimagines how students acquire knowledge—incorporating social media and game psychology, along with multimedia videos and animations, electronic labs, interactive boards, real-time quizzes and other tools pushing the educational envelope. “I use Root to teach courses on cancer and neuroscience, not that it matters,” Walsh says. “Anyone could use Root to teach any course in any subject. It’s a really easy way to create a neat digital classroom for everyone.” Before winning the 2013 Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching, he received the 2008 Provost’s Prize for Teaching With Technology. Yet Walsh’s tech-fueled teaching couldn’t be more human. “Lectures should touch a raw nerve where you laugh and cry together,” he says. “Emotional learning has more meaning and it is lasting.” Josh Faskowitz ’14 took Walsh’s “The Neurobiology of Aging” course his senior year. Built around Walsh’s innovative neuroscience shareware, the course put students in charge of the website, turning each into a “mini-expert on their part of the curriculum,” says Faskowitz, now a staff scientist at the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute. Class meetings became lively discussions peppered with peer-to-peer teaching. Outside class, Walsh would invite students to comment on new papers he posted. The site became a bustling intellectual hub where students would take positions and link to articles supporting their arguments. For all of Walsh’s technical expertise, there’s a youthful, laid-back quality that catches students by surprise. “It’s a joy to be in his class because of his relaxed, down-toearth personality,” says Faskowitz, who will begin doctoral studies in neuroscience this fall. “He would talk about surfing, and then he would spew out all this neurobiology. It was a cool contrast.” USC Davis Dean Pinchas Cohen sums it up best: “John Walsh manages to be that extremely rare combination: a world-class scientist as well as a world-class teacher.” A 2008 video pays homage to his free spirit. In it, Walsh expounds on the joys of teaching: “Being a professor—it’s the best job in the world,” he says. “I wake up and I’m back in college again. I feel like Peter Pan. I never get old.” usc trojan family
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Tune Up
Specialists at Keck Medicine of USC keep performing artists in great shape. by candace pearson il lust rat ions by c hr is gash
FROM TOP: Javen Smith, Lindsay Reder, Jay Lieberman
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Javen Smith was singing for hours a day preparing for a major role in a USC production of the musical Songs for a New World, known for its vocally demanding score, and he felt fine—until his voice went out. “A week before opening, I couldn’t do all the things I’d been practicing,” says Smith, a junior majoring in popular music. “I couldn’t make the high notes.” His vocal coach in the USC Thornton School of Music reassured the worried singer that a doctor could help. Smith turned to Keck Medicine of USC, where otolaryngologists, physical therapists, orthopedists and other specialists understand and treat the special needs of musicians, singers, actors and dancers. Smith was afraid that he had irreparably damaged his voice, but Keck Medicine laryngologist Lindsay Reder, an assistant professor of otolaryngology and an expert in caring for vocalists, reassured him that a virus had only temporarily immobilized his vocal cords. She advised him to rest his voice and modify his performance. “I was able to get through opening night,” Smith says. Getting sick or injured can threaten the career of a performing artist. In recent years, singers from Adele to Sam Smith have had to cancel tour dates due to voice problems, while actors on elaborate sets have fallen and broken bones on stage or during filming. Among performing artists and professional athletes,
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some 4.7 people in every 100 were injured in the U.S. in 2014, the latest figure available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But artists can get specialized help quickly through resources like Keck Medicine’s USC Performing Arts Medicine Center within the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the new USC Voice Center in the USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery. Keck Medicine physicians draw patients from USC Thornton and the USC Kaufman School of Dance, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera and Los Angeles Ballet, as well as quartets, bands, musical theater actors and soloists. ART AS SPORT In the USC Performing Arts Medicine Center, orthopedic surgeons apply their extensive experience in sports medicine to the arts. “We understand the education and training needed to excel as a performer,” says Jay R. Lieberman, chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. “We have made a commitment to evaluate performers quickly and get them back to performing as soon as possible.” The center offers a dedicated hotline that musicians can call for appointments. It’s a collaboration with USC Thornton and its comprehensive Musician’s Wellness Initiative launched in 2015. spring 2016
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Orthopedic surgeons with expertise in the hand, elbow, shoulder, hip, knee, foot, ankle and spine are available not only for musicians, but also for artists ranging from stunt professionals to theater actors. These surgeons work closely with physical therapists to help artists heal from muscle, joint and bone problems. Seth Gamradt, director of orthopaedic athletic medicine, notes that athletes and performing artists have several traits in common: “passion, talent and drive.” Their key difference is the types of injuries they often experience. For athletes, collision injuries or muscle pulls and sprains dominate. For musicians and dancers, problems grow from overuse. “The tough thing about dancers and musicians,” Gamradt says, “is that they’re reluctant to take any rest. The exact thing that’s causing the problem is the exact thing that they want to do.” Keck Medicine orthopedic surgeon Milan Stevanovic has seen that time and again. As an internationally known hand specialist, he has treated the delicate fingers and wrists of professional guitarists, pianists, horn players and other musicians who want to keep playing despite injury or arthritis. It’s important to treat those digits with care. “The hand is the most creative organ after the brain,” says Stevanovic, director of the USC Joseph H. Boyes Hand Fellowship, the oldest training program for hand surgery in the U.S. “With the hand, you can talk without a voice and see without your eyes.” He works closely with patients to manage their hand problems conservatively, performing surgery only when appropriate. The physicians all agree: “No pain, no gain” might be a common motto for athletes, but it doesn’t work for musicians. Veteran artists know that firsthand. “With the fine motor control that musicians must have, pain indicates that something’s wrong. It should never hurt to perform,” says William Kanengiser ’81, MA ’83, an associate professor of practice in classical guitar and a member of USC Thornton’s Musician’s Wellness Initiative committee.
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USC Thornton offers wellness information online, as well as lectures and workshops on topics like performance anxiety, musculoskeletal issues, hearing protection, and posture and ergonomics for musicians—some of which are open to the public. “We want to build awareness among students that good health and good habits are lifelong essentials for performers,” Kanengiser says. That applies to vocalists as much as to a trombone player or cellist. As Reder points out, “Singing is an athletic event. The vocal cords are touching each other at a rate of 200 to 250 times a second. Over eight shows a week, that’s a hard thing to do.” Among vocalists, illness, overuse and trauma can hurt a voice, as can a lack of sleep, poor eating or dehydration. As young artists learn how to use their instruments, they’re also just beginning to learn how to care for them. Mezzo-soprano Cynthia Munzer, an associate professor in USC Thornton’s vocal arts and opera program, has sung with the Metropolitan Opera and around the globe, so she understands work-health balance among professional singers. Healthy vocal cords are free of nodules, polyps or inflammation, she says. Yet she admits thazt for working vocalists, “that’s a tall order, and the singer is sometimes part of the problem.” “We are really athletes,” she says—“artistic athletes.”
FROM TOP: Seth Gamradt, Milan Stevanovic, William Kanengiser
STRIKING A CHORD Just like their orthopedic colleagues, Keck Medicine physicians in the USC Voice Center try to get to the source of their patients’ problems to figure out the best way to treat them. “Care of the professional voice is best delivered by an interdisciplinary team,” says Keck Medicine surgeon Michael Johns, director of the center and division director of laryngology, who
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Learn more about orthopedics and voice disorder treatment for artists at keckmedicine.org or 800-872-2273.
notes the group includes laryngologists, speech pathologists and singing specialists. “We work together, evaluating each individual case from different angles.” The hallmark tool for diagnosis is called laryngeal videostroboscopy, a synchronized flashing light that’s passed through a flexible endoscope into the throat. It gives doctors a slow-motion view of rapidly vibrating vocal cords. The strobe effect, Johns quips, is “like taking your vocal cords to a disco.” During the procedure, vocalists sing, sometimes accompanied by a keyboard, enabling doctors to accurately assess problems with pitch, range or specific notes. The vocal cords or folds are just one-sixteenth of an inch thick and prone to injury, but they don’t have much sensation, so you can injure the folds and not feel it, says Johns, recently named by Billboard magazine as one of “Music’s Top Throat Doctors” nationwide. Complicating the issue: Performers can sometimes “power through” and develop workarounds that make the problem worse. Voice troubles may also increase with age, he explains. Changes to muscles and mucous membranes over time can result in loss of strength, agility and endurance. When vocal fitness workouts don’t help, physicians can inject fillers to plump up thinning vocal cords. Johns also is researching rejuvenation of vocal cord tissues using a patient’s own stem cells. Recently Justin Fatu Su’esu’e, a USC Thornton master’s student in opera, got a good look at his own vocal cords. At a Musician’s Wellness Initiative event, laryngologist Reder was offering free baseline videostroboscopies to USC Thornton students. Su’esu’e, rehearsing for a lead role as Der Tenor/Bacchus in the Richard Strauss opera Ariadne auf Naxos, opening in April at USC, hasn’t had any problems yet. But he wondered if his vocal cords might be getting damaged. His scope showed them to be healthy, but if he does get sick or injure them, doctors will have an invaluable diagnostic comparison. And when Reder, his Keck Medicine laryngologist, cautioned him that he could potentially do more damage to his vocal cords by speaking than through his singing, that gave Su’esu’e pause. “It made me more aware I have to be extra careful.” At age 30, his voice is still maturing, and he aspires to an international career. “Knowing you have medical professionals here at USC who understand the science of what you’re going through, and are just a call or email away, is quite reassuring,” he says. Javen Smith, whose ambition is to be both a recording artist and an actor, is equally comforted that whenever he sees Reder, her findings go to his vocal coach. At Keck Medicine, he says, “you basically have an entire team of people behind you who are making sure everything’s all right.” For performers, he believes, consistency is more crucial than just one great night. “To build a long career of great nights—that’s why keeping your body healthy is so important,” he says. tfm.usc.edu
Singing Support
An artist pairs with doctors to transform the recovery process.
FROM TOP: Cynthia Munzer, Michael Johns, Justin Fatu Su’esu’e
Singing might look easy, but for trained professionals, it’s physically demanding. Just ask Cynthia Munzer, a mezzo-soprano who has performed internationally for more than 100 opera companies and symphony orchestras. It’s about more than just healthy vocal cords. Singing requires correct use of muscles in the abdomen, ribs and back and freedom of the neck and jaws, so the associate professor in the USC Thornton School of Music’s vocal and operatic arts department uses a regimen of singing and vocal breathing techniques to prepare her voice and her body. Munzer believes in these exercises now more than ever. In 2013, her voice faced its greatest challenge: recovery from lung cancer surgery. During the singer’s rehabilitation, her team of Keck Medicine of USC doctors led by thoracic surgeon Daniel Oh, assistant professor of surgery, encouraged her to employ vocal exercises to expand her breathing. “I am now back to teaching, demonstrating vocal lines, and singing operatic passages with long phrases, thanks to my doctors and years of performance technique,” Munzer says. Her experience laid the groundwork for Sing to Breathe, a vocal arts and health program to help those with lung conditions recover and learn better breathing techniques. She’s using a USC grant to develop the program, which uses the breathing exercises she learned from Keck Medicine doctors to complement the singing exercises she teaches at USC Thornton. “I believe there is a need for collaboration between medical, vocal arts and lung organizations to fulfill any student’s creative desires to make music and, at the same time, organize breathing for quality of life. This program is a first step,” Munzer says. For the initial phase, Munzer will identify Keck Medicine thoracic physicians, otolaryngologists and vocal therapists to research the best methods for exercising the lungs and develop teaching methods emphasizing lung and diaphragm expansion. She aims to team with national lung health advocacy organizations to spread best practices for therapy and recovery, supporting people facing lung conditions so that they might one day sing again—or experience the joy of singing for the first time.
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SAVE
thedate APRIL 9 & 10 USC CAMPUS FREE ADMISSION
Learn more at latimes.com/festivalofbooks
FA M I LY
PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
HALF-CENTURY MARK On May 16, 1966, USC’s iconic 2½-ton globe finial was hoisted atop its 167-foot-tall carillon tower. Fifty years later, the metal orb remains one of the most recognizable signature elements of the University Park Campus.
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family news
USC Day of SCupport taps into a network of 377,000 alumni and the entire Trojan Family. by lynn lipinski
For more than a century, the Trojan Family has been a strong force behind the university’s rise from a humble two-story building to one of the country’s top research universities. Now thanks to the first-ever USC Day of SCupport, the power of the Trojan Family is about to send a new wave of support to benefit the university’s programs ranging from scholarships to research—all in one historic 24-hour period. The USC Day of SCupport is a campus-wide fundraising initiative to be held May 4. Its goal is to rally as many people as possible to create the single biggest day of giving in USC’s history. USC Alumni Association Board of Governors President Michael Adler ’86, MBA ’92 hopes that alumni and the entire Trojan Family will be inspired to think big by starting small. “Alumni hear about the multimillion-
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dollar gifts to USC and see all the new buildings going up around campus and think their donations won’t make a difference,” Adler says. “But every gift matters. You don’t have to donate a million dollars to have an impact on USC’s future.” One day of giving could help students and faculty accomplish amazing things, if enough people step forward. For example, a gift of $25 helps USC’s Joint Educational Program provide a science kit to a thirdgrader through its local community outreach program. Gifts of $500 and more help fund study-abroad opportunities such as USC Problems Without Passports courses. Adler knows this firsthand. Grateful for the financial aid that allowed him to attend USC when his family couldn’t afford it, he remembers walking by a plaque listing donor names on his way to class. He promised himself that if he could, he
Alumni can show their spirit on May 4 through the USC Day of SCupport.
would give back to USC to support students, just like the people on the plaque did. He pooled resources with his fraternity brother Chuck Miwa ’87, MBA ’00 to make their first pledge to Junior Cardinal and Gold in 1989, and he still remembers the amount: $93.75 each. It was a small sum, but when Ron Orr ’78, USC’s associate athletic director, thanked Adler personally for it, he felt appreciated. “That’s when I knew that every dollar means something at USC,” Adler says. Then there’s the spirit of competition. USC’s 41 percent undergraduate alumni giving rate for 2015 leads the Pac12 schools, according to Patrick Auerbach EdD ’08, associate senior vice president for alumni relations. Added incentive: Notre Dame’s and USC’s alumni giving rates tied in 2015. “Notre Dame received gifts from 10,149 donors last year in their annual day of giving,” Adler says. “We need to beat Notre Dame!” “It’s particularly gratifying to not only see the alumni giving rate rise above 40 percent, but also to see the incredible level of giving by non-alumni. Together, we’re making a real difference. It’s certainly an exciting time to be a Trojan,” says Bob Clifford ’85, co-chair of the Board of Governors’ philanthropy committee. Paula Ciaramitaro ’85, who co-chairs the committee with Clifford, hopes that the Day of SCupport will reach a broad audience, especially alumni who have never previously donated. “I’m looking forward to seeing as many alumni as possible, including our young alumni, give back for the first time, and want them to know that any dollar amount counts,” Ciaramitaro says. spring 2016
PHOTO BY ARMANDO BROWN
Power of Giving
To participate, visit dayofSCupport.usc.edu or text “USC” to the number 71777 on your mobile phone. Follow @DayofSCupport on Twitter or share on other social media using #DayofSCupport.
Service Call
For a special group of Trojans, serving the public good is a lifelong passion. We catch up with three dedicated alumni who took their cardinal-and-gold allegiance to the Washington, D.C., area to make a difference in policy and government.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MELISSA DETTMER SCHILD; NGA; AND STACY HOPE
Melissa Dettmer Schild ’98, MPA ’02
U.S. Army Colonel Mike Kolb ’89
Director of Planning and Performance Management, Office of Foreign Assistance Resources, U.S. Department of State
Military Deputy, Program Analysis and Evaluation, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
J O B DUT Y I ensure that there are strategic plans for all of the State Department’s embassies, regional offices and major programs ranging from refugee assistance to counterterrorism. I also evaluate how the State Department’s foreign assistance programs are doing.
JO B D UT Y NGA is a unique combination of intelligence agency and combat support agency. Anyone who fights wars, sails a U.S. ship, responds to natural disasters, or even navigates with a cell phone relies on NGA. NGA enables the U.S. intelligence community and the Department of Defense to fulfill the president’s national security priorities that protect the nation.
I NSPIRATION When I was 8 my family moved for three years to the Philippines, where my father served in the U.S. Air Force. He frequently brought me along on excursions into rural provinces to provide medical and food aid to impoverished people. It gave me a profound sense of gratitude for my own good fortune and opportunities, and sparked a desire to serve others. CAREER HIGHLIGHT My proudest contribution was my work at the White House Office of Management and Budget and the State Department to support emergency aid to refugees who fled persecution and mass murder in the Darfur region of Sudan. My work directly led to Congress providing money for life-saving food, water, medicine and shelter in the middle of a barren desert. I’m proud of all of my service, but this work was the most gratifying. T ROJAN SERVICE Alumni mentor
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INS PIR ATION My initial motivation to pursue public service was a financial one. My Army ROTC scholarship was the only way it was financially possible for me to attend a world-class private university like USC. In exchange, I served as an Army officer in Germany—not a bad trade! C A R E E R H IG H L I G H T My No. 1 priority in public service is saving lives—protecting those who can’t protect themselves. We attempt to do that here by ensuring safety of navigation for our sailors and airmen, responding quickly to natural disasters and pinpointing military targets. My proudest contribution is putting on the uniform every day. TROJA N S ERVI CE Co-chair for Class of 1989’s 25th Reunion
Stacy Hope ’98
Communications Director, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe J OB D U T Y I craft key messages surrounding commission initiatives, especially around events such as the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and other violations of the Helsinki Final Act. I also serve as spokesperson and lead digital outreach strategies across multiple online platforms. I N S P I RAT I ON My grandmother was a strong advocate of public service and that left a strong impression. Interestingly, each of her three grandchildren has followed in her footsteps. I’m a civil servant, one of my cousins is an Army officer, and the other is a teacher. I like to think she’d be proud of all of us. CA R E E R H I G H L I G H T On a daily basis, the United States does business with any number of regimes that treat their citizens incredibly poorly. Drawing attention to such cases at the Congressional level and advocating for those who have been persecuted for exercising what we in the U.S. would consider their basic rights is humbling. When we are successful—for example, when political prisoners are released thanks to pressure we’ve helped to place on a particular government—it’s unbelievably rewarding. T ROJA N S E RVI CE Former leader of the USC Alumni Club of Washington, D.C.
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family news
Welcome Home
by diane krieger
The University Park Campus buzzed with more than its usual Trojan energy. Alumni Park was festooned with banners as USC welcomed back nearly 1,000 Trojans from the Classes of 2005, 1995, 1990, 1985, 1975 and 1965. The first order of business at Reunion Weekend last November: reuniting with good friends. For Jeffrey Benford ’05 and four of his buddies from freshman year, the memories started early Friday over breakfast near Trousdale Parkway. “We just flew in this morning,” said the San Jose, California, real estate professional who was surrounded by luggage. Getting the old gang back together took
top priority. Checking into their hotels could wait. Also getting an early start were USC Marshall School of Business alumni Ragaie “Ray” Michael ’95 and Grace Rawlins Michael ’95, of Denver. The couple strolled around campus reminiscing. “During finals, we would take turns hanging out with our daughter by the fountains,” remembered Ray Michael, an AT&T executive. “By the time we graduated, she was about 3,” added Grace Michael, an IT professional with Western Union. “We have the fondest memory of using Tommy Trojan as a growth stick.” Asked if they left any marks on the
After 20 years, Class of 1995 Trojans (from left) Jason Lupei, Kelly Coomer and David Lopez are still close.
Trojan Shrine, they grinned conspiratorially. “Shhhh. We plead the fifth,” Ray Michael said.
Jason Lupei ’95, a history teacher in Long Beach, California, couldn’t wait to meet up with his brothers from Sigma Phi Epsilon, including best friend Dave M. Lopez ’95, an Oklahoma City fast-food executive. When Lupei and Lopez bumped into Kelly Yurick Coomer ’95 in front of Bovard Hall, they swept the Chicagobased IT executive into a bear hug. After 20 years, the three are still close. “We don’t get to see each other, but we talk all the time,” Lupei said. “We were all Order of the Torch and Pepsters. We pretty much ran the school,” said Lupei, a former Mr. USC, with a booming laugh. On Saturday night, Lopez, a former yell leader, was back on the football field, megaphone in hand, when the Trojans defeated Arizona State.
Fortieth reunion committee member Gerald Mouzis ’75 was eager to reconnect with classmates, but the attorney from Tustin, California, had no illusions about his wife’s agenda. “Alejandra is a huge animal lover,” he said, as they stood in line for photos with Traveler, “so this is the highlight of the weekend for her.” Liesl Griffin ’05 was also thrilled. “Every time I go to football games, I want
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PHOTO BY CRAIG ROWITZ
Reuniting feels so good for alumni coming back to University Park.
GEHRING REUNION PHOTO BY STEPHEN BLAHA; SANDRA AND LAURA GEHRING PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GEHRING FAMILY
See more about Reunion Weekend at reunions.usc.edu.
to take a picture with Traveler, but he’s always too busy,” said the Tampa Bay, Florida, law student. That day, she got her wish. “I got to touch him,” Griffin said happily. Donna Stanislawski Reisert ’85 was also excited to take her photo with the famous horse. This was the Honolulu-based nurse’s first time back on campus in 30 years. Reisert admitted to feeling a little disoriented: “Except for a few landmarks, nothing looks familiar. But it’s so fun to be back. It’s gorgeous.” Luckily, a campus tour was about to begin. As tour guide Olivia Chui, a junior double-majoring in business and communication, began her backward march, reunion-goers admired all the sights— from a freshly renovated Heritage Hall to the rising USC Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center. Chui described them one by one. When she mentioned taking the DASH bus to go downtown, Pamela Philipp Mathews ’65 chuckled: “In my day we rode the trolley.” The Palmdale, California, retiree was one of 80 reunion attendees to join the venerable Half Century Trojans community this year. As the weekend closed, 50th reunion co-chair Sally Jobgen Edwards ’65 summed it all up: “Perfect weather, big turnout. We had such a great reunion!”
A Typical Reunion Weekend Breakfast with friends Photo op with Traveler Picnic lunch A walking tour to see what’s new Drinks and dinner Tailgating Football at the Coliseum tfm.usc.edu
A Trojan Family: Andrea and Michael Gehring, left, and daughters Sandra and Laura
Blueprint for Success
Every day feels a bit like a Trojan reunion for architect Andrea Cohen Gehring ’85. She’s married to G. Michael Gehring ’81, a fellow USC School of Architecture graduate. She works at DLR Group, an architecture firm founded by her USC mentors Chet Widom ’62 and George Wein ’62. And the project that occupies much of her time these days is the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum renovation. Both of Gehring’s daughters study at USC. Their majors: architecture, naturally. “There are so many connections,” Andrea Gehring muses. The child of a furniture upholsterer from Mar del Plata, Argentina, she graduated from North Hollywood High School and attended the USC School of Architecture on scholarship, finishing at the top of her class. Today, she’s a senior principal and California region higher education sector leader with DLR Group. For Gehring, the Coliseum renovation follows other high-profile USC projects. Her first was the 1990 seismic retrofit of the Bovard Administration Building, including redesigning the president’s office. Other USC assignments followed, among them a major overhaul of the Norris Dental Science Center, concept designs for the Parkside Residential Colleges, the 2013 reconfiguration of Heritage Hall and an upgrade of the David X. Marks Tennis Stadium now underway. A member of the USC Architecture Guild, Gehring takes pride in being a Trojan role model for architects. “As a woman, having raised two daughters, having a full family life and professional life, I’m quite unique,” she says. “So I do a lot of mentoring.” A fellow of the prestigious American Institute of Architects (AIA), Gehring has served as president of the AIA/Los Angeles chapter. Husband Mike Gehring, a longtime USC Architectural Guild board member and 2004-2005 guild president, is a principal and CEO of KGM, an international leader in the architectural lighting design industry. Their daughters Sandra, 21, and Laura, 20, are both students in USC’s rigorous five-year bachelor of architecture program. In November, Andrea Gehring returned to USC to celebrate her 30th reunion, which she helped organize as a volunteer committee member. As an architect, she was jubilant during a campus tour with old friends. “Not only does the entire campus have a really strong master plan to create a pedestrian-focused environment,” she says, “but all these new buildings create a cohesive architectural language.” Sounds like she’s right at home. DIANE KRIEGER
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The USC Alumni Association proudly announces the
83rd annual usc alumni awards Saturday, April 16, 2016 | JW Marriott Los Angeles | L.A. Live
Asa V. Call Alumni Achievement Award WI L L I A M J. SC HO E N ’ 6 0, MBA ’ 6 3 USC Trustee; founder, Health Management Associates, Inc., and chairman, the Schoen Charitable Foundation
Alumni Merit Awards J O SE P H M. BOSKOV I C H SR. ’ 75, M B A ’ 7 7 USC Trustee; chairman and founder, Old West Investment Management
SU ZA N N E DWORA K- P E C K ’ 6 5, MSW ’ 6 7 Social work pioneer
SC OT T A . STO N E ’ 7 9 Award-winning television producer
Young Alumni Merit Award AM E RI C A FE RRE RA ’ 13 Emmy Award-winning actress and activist
Alumni Service Awards WI L L I A M HE E RE S P HA RMD ’ 6 3 Former chair and current member, USC School of Pharmacy Board of Councilors J O HN LY T L E D D S ’5 8, MD ’ 6 5 Longtime supporter, Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC and Keck School of Medicine of USC
ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300
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1 9 5 0 s
30 years of extraordinary public service in California.
Stanley K. Jacobs LLB ’59 (LAW) was selected and inducted into the National Association of Distinguished Counsel.
Dennis Neil Jones ’76 (SCJ), MPA ’78 (SPP) was named a 2015 “Super Lawyer” by Thompson Reuters, signifying that he is among the top 5 percent of insurance coverage lawyers in California. This is the eighth time in nine years that he has received this designation.
1 9 6 0 s Kurt Hahn ’61 (SPP) serves as interim executive director of the Northern California Healthcare Authority, which supports collaborative services for district hospitals on California’s north coast. He has been involved with health care since retiring from a city management career in 1998. Michael M. Mann PhD ’69 (ENG), a USC Viterbi School of Engineering adjunct professor, is founder of a corporate development group that assists high-tech ventures from universities. He serves as the executive chairman of Transient Plasma Systems Inc. and is on the board of directors of the Caltech Associates. 1 9 7 0 s H. Elizabeth Harris JD ’72 (LAW), Superior Court of California Commissioner, was honored at the John M. Langston Bar Association’s 24th annual hall of fame induction ceremony. David Esquith ’74, MSW ’75 (SSW) retired from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after more than 35 years as the manager of medical social work in the Department of Case Management. During his tenure, the department grew from about 20 full-time social workers to more than 50 full-time staff and an additional 10 per-diem social workers. Kenneth Post ’75 (ENG) owns and operates a hearing aid franchise called Zounds of Laguna Hills in California. Richard A. Rothschild JD ’75 (LAW) received the 2015 Kutak-Dodds Prize from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. He was recognized for nearly tfm.usc.edu
O’Malley M. Miller JD ’76 (LAW) received the Outstanding Real Estate Lawyer Award from the Los Angeles County Bar Association. David Newman ’76, MM ’82 (MUS) and Angel Velez MAT ’14 (MUS) hosted workshops on the art of conducting at the inaugural Los Angeles Film Conducting Intensive workshop in January. Debra L. Reed ’78 (ENG) has been ranked among Fortune magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Business” for 2015. It’s her fifth consecutive year on the list. Since 2012, she has served as chairman and CEO of Sempra Energy. Previously, she was executive vice president, and has served as president and CEO of San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas, which are utilities of Sempra Energy. She first joined the company in 1978 and became its first female officer 10 years later. Henry D. Gradstein JD ’79 (LAW) was named to Billboard magazine’s “Top Music Lawyers” list. Byron Veasey ’79 (ENG) is the principal of quality assurance of the Enterprise Data Warehouse at E*Trade Financial in Alpharetta, Georgia. 1 9 8 0 s James B. Curtis JD ’82 (LAW) received the Almon McCallum Award from the California Bankers Association as the California in-house banking attorney of the year for 2015.
Carol J. Najera ’82 (LAS/SCJ), JD ’85 (LAW) was elected to the Los Angeles County Superior Court in California. She took office in January 2015. Cary Goldstein CRT ’86 (DEN) was recently inducted as treasurer of the American Academy of Esthetic Dentistry’s executive council. Erin Kim ’86 (LAS), MS ’91 (RSE) is now commissioner of the California Children and Families Commission, also known as First 5 California, which supports and promotes early learning, health and quality child care. Renee Baumgartner ’87 (LAS) was named athletic director of Santa Clara University. She spent the past four years in the Syracuse University athletic department after a 17-year tenure at the University of Oregon. John L. Segal JD ’87 (LAW) was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal in May. He previously served as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. James Olson ’02 (BUS), vice president of global corporate communications and Asia-Pacific public affairs for Starbucks, was honored Oct. 29 in New York City as an accomplished professional by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. 1 9 9 0 s Stacie Strong MPW ’90 (LAS) was named the Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law at the University of Missouri. She specializes in international and comparative law, particularly in the area of international arbitration. Mauro A. Morales JD ’91 (LAW) was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed as staff director of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
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A L U M N I P R O F I L E K A B I R A S T O K E S M P P ’1 1
Resourceful Resilience
Kabira Stokes MPP ’11 once aspired to become a fashion designer. But today, instead of creating clothes, she helps rebuild lives. Stokes runs Isidore Electronics Recycling, which trains and employs former prison inmates. She’s on a mission to ensure that the world’s resources—both human and environmental—aren’t wasted. It all started when the Vassar graduate moved to Los Angeles. A costume designer by day, she spent her free time on political activism, co-founding a nonprofit group for young progressives. That’s how she met then-LA City Council President (now mayor) Eric Garcetti. In 2005, when a position opened in Garcetti’s office, Stokes applied. She had no experience in local government, but “Garcetti took a chance on a very angry activist,” she remembers. There the young field deputy learned lessons that would shape her future. When the city set up a summer after-hours recreation program in South LA to give youth an alternative to gangs, the neighborhood saw homicides drop to zero. So Stokes helped the council member’s office structure a similar program in the Glassell Park neighborhood. The Summer Night Lights program has since spread to 32 recreation centers in LA. “It was amazing to see how such a small program could be successful and then replicated,” she says. Stokes was inspired, but she needed tools to make a bigger difference in neighborhoods where crime and imprisonment were all too common. She turned to the USC Price School of Public Policy to study environmental issues and policy for re-entry into society after prison. “Being able to put numbers, research and reality behind issues I was passionate about made my arguments less emotional. Instead, they came from a place of, ‘I know I’m right about this solution, and here’s proof,’” she says.
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As it turns out, a paper she wrote at USC Price became her springboard. In it, she proposed combining environmental sustainability with job training for the formerly incarcerated. She did her research on similar efforts, and others jumped in to help. A USC Marshall School of Business grad formed a business plan and raised funds. American Apparel provided warehouse space. She connected with programs offering re-entry services, including Homeboy Industries and Chrysalis. Isidore would serve as a next step—a bridge for parolees
ready for long-term jobs. Four years after its launch, the for-profit Isidore employs 15 workers who dismantle, repair and refurbish old computers and electronic gadgets, including preparing materials for extraction. Isidore also destroys data, using a crowd-funded truck with a portable hard-drive shredder. Stokes hopes to have 80 employees within five years. For the fashionista-turnedactivist-turned-business owner, it’s been thrilling to see the rewards of resourcefulness and second chances. Best of all, Stokes has seen increased
awareness of environmental sustainability and re-entry programs. “When I started this business four years ago, there was no national discussion about criminal justice reform. Amazingly, it’s come forward as one of the only bipartisan issues in this country,” she says. Not that she’s relaxing. Stokes recently co-founded Impact Recyclers, an electronic waste recycler network that hires workers who have employment barriers, such as being formerly incarcerated or physically disabled. BEKAH WRIGHT
spring 2016
PHOTO BY BUCK LEWIS
A public policy expert gives people—and digital debris—a second chance at life.
Do you have news to share? Send it along with your name, school and class year to classnotes@ usc.edu and it may appear in a future issue.
PHOTO BY RANIERO TAZZI
Lansing McLoskey MM ’92 (MUS), professor in the Department of Music Theory and Composition at the Frost School of Music in Miami, was chosen from 150 applicants for a 2015 Barlow Commission Award. He will write works for The Crossing ensemble. He also completed commissions for New Spectrum Foundation and Miranda Cuckson, oboist ToniMarie Marchioni, TAWA Sax and The Silver Duo. In addition, he had two world premieres in Berlin and one in France. Greg Reitan ’96 (MUS) and his trio (composed of Jack Daro ’93, MM ’99 [MUS] on bass and Dean Koba MM ’93 [MUS] on drums) were recently reviewed by ArtsJournal about their latest release, Post No Bills. The new album continues to receive positive reviews in the U.S. and internationally. Richard Rosenbaum MPA ’96 (SPP) was named chief development and commu-
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family class notes
nications officer for the Children’s Burn Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing reconstructive treatment, emergency family assistance, survivor and family camps, counseling, a teen support program, and prevention and education programs that reach more than 60,000 children and families around the world every year. Ana M. Storey ’96 (SPP) has been selected as the new executive director of the Levitt & Quinn Family Law Center. Levitt & Quinn provides family law legal services for poor and low-income families unable to afford private attorney representation or obtain representation from other legal services providers. Silvia Maier MA ’99, PhD ’01 (LAS), a clinical assistant professor at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, co-launched Women Across Frontiers, a quarterly digital magazine dedicated to furthering gender equality around the globe.
Nadia Shpachenko-Gottesman MM ’99, DMA ’04 (MUS) recently became a Steinway Artist and performed a solo recital for Piano Spheres at REDCAT at Disney Hall. Her performance included three world premieres by Lewis Spratlan, Annie Gosfield and Harold Meltzer, as well as works from her recently released album, Woman at the New Piano. 2 0 0 0 s Seaton J. Curran MBA ’00 (BUS), an intellectual property attorney affiliated with the Las Vegas office of Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC, was named to Super Lawyer’s Mountain States “Rising Star” list for 2015. Reyna Gordon ’01 (MUS) was appointed research assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Vander-
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Put Yourself on the Map
The USC Fight Online app enables USC-degreed alumni to: • Locate and network with fellow Trojans in real time • Connect to USC’s career services • Find nearby Trojan-owned businesses and alumni gatherings Now available for iPhone® and Android™. Go to alumni.usc.edu/app to download USC Fight Online today.
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Do you have news to share? Send it along with your name, school and class year to classnotes@ usc.edu and it may appear in a future issue.
bilt University Medical Center, where she founded the Music Cognition Lab. She was awarded a grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to study the relationship between rhythm skills and language development. Iran Hopkins JD/MBT ’01 (LAW) was appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti to the Commission on Disability for the city of Los Angeles. Nic Danna ’02 (LAS), an Afghanistan combat veteran, was named director of the Office of Military Legal Assistance for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. The new program offers free legal civil services to active duty, Army Reserve and National Guard service members, as well as veterans in Nevada. Richard Sheehan EdD ’02 (EDU) was named superintendent of the Covina Valley Unified School District, which serves the California communities of Covina, West Covina, Glendora, San Dimas and Irwindale. Kevin Baxter EdD ’04 (EDU) was named director and superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and will oversee more than 250 schools in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Martha Parra MSW ’04 (SSW) is a clinical therapist for San Bernardino County, providing crisis services at a juvenile detention center. She is also an adjunct professor at Loma Linda University and a global trainer for the Trauma Resource Institute, training mentors in Guatemala and therapists from Juarez, Mexico. Thanh Tan ’04 (LAS/SCJ) was named as one of 12 “Rising Stars” by the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation. She is on the editorial board of The Seattle Times and was previously an Emmy-winning reporter, producer and host with Idaho Public Television. Stephen Brogan MS ’05 (ENG) became the commander of the 72nd Comptroller Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base in tfm.usc.edu
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Oklahoma. He is responsible for 145 personnel as chief financial officer of the base. He provides financial customer service to more than 65,000 personnel. Adriana Gonzales Acosta MSW ’07 (SSW) is a licensed clinical pediatric social worker for the Department of Defense at the Naval Medical Center of San Diego. She is also an active member of the Latino Social Work Network, MANA de San Diego and the Latino Networking Consortium of San Diego. Christopher Grillo ME ’07 (EDU) serves as the chief operating officer for the Boston College Connell School of Nursing. Merrill Irving EdD ’07 (EDU) was named president of Hennepin Technical College, Minnesota’s largest technical college, serving more than 10,000 students in Brooklyn Park and Eden Prairie. Erin Kunkle ’05, MAT ’07 (EDU) is the director of statewide writing assessment at the Nebraska Department of Education in Lincoln, Nebraska. Kristen Azevedo ME ’08 (EDU) is director of student-athlete leadership and development at Stanford University. Julio Fonseca EdD ’08 (EDU) was named superintendent of the San Ysidro School District, a K-8 district located adjacent to the United States-Mexico border that serves more than 5,000 students at seven schools. Donald Webber Jr. ’08 (DRA) was featured in NBC’s musical broadcast of The Wiz LIVE! Hasmik Danielian EdD ’09 (EDU) was named superintendent of the NorwalkLa Mirada Unified School District, which includes 28 schools serving more than 19,000 K-12 students. Dan Hirsch ME ’09 (EDU) is associate dean of students for campus life at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.
Dallas Woodburn ’09 (LAS) had her one-act play Woman, Running Late, in a Dress selected out of 200 submissions as a winner of the inaugural WordWave Playwriting Competition. 2 0 1 0 s HOCKET, a new music duo featuring composition faculty member Sarah Gibson MM ’10, DMA ’15 (MUS) and Thomas Kotcheff MM ’12 (MUS), recently performed at the Carlsbad Music Festival, where they received rave reviews. Tammi Oyadomari-Chun EdD ’10 (EDU) was named assistant superintendent of strategy, innovation and performance at the Hawaii State Department of Education. Tomm Polos ’10 (DRA) is the current digital spokesman for AT&T. He portrays “Owen” in the “Owen on the Move” campaign to promote the “myAT&T” app. Robert Stender EdD ’10 (EDU) was named executive vice president of education at Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu. Justin Vance EdD ’10 (EDU) was named 2015 Hawaii History Educator of the Year. He is a associate professor of history at Hawaii Pacific University, where he also serves as the associate dean for academics. Manish Jain MS ’11, PhD ’13 (ENG) is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Armorway Inc., a startup based in Santa Monica, California. Jonathan Muñoz-Proulx ’11 (DRA) directed a public reading of the Sanskrit drama Shakuntala by Kalidasa at A Noise Within, in collaboration with East West Players. He also directed a public reading of Madhuri Shekar’s new play, Monkey Love, at Playwrights’ Arena and a public reading of Louisa Hill’s new play, Frances and the Argonauts, at Skylight Theatre Company. Youngjae Kim ’12, MS ’13 (LAS) currently works at MemorialCare Health System in Fountain Valley, California, as a data usc trojan family
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Bottle Service A dentist owns and operates a winery— all without quitting his day job.
When not tending to teeth in his Newport Beach dental office, Doug Hauck ’81 turns his attention to something quite different: grapes. For the past eight years, Hauck and his wife, Kim, have owned and operated HammerSky Vineyards and Inn on 50 acres of rolling land in Paso Robles, California. What made the dentist expand from gumlines to grape vines? “I always enjoyed a good glass of wine, and I have a palate,” Hauck says. Like many Californians, he and his wife had mused about the romance of owning a winery. Unlike others, however, they actually
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bought one. “People always ask me, ‘Why did you do it?’ But for me, it was ‘why not?’” A self-proclaimed “nonstop creative guy,” Hauck studied economics at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and was a member of USC’s ski team and Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After graduation, he forayed into jobs ranging from film production to house flipping. In the end, he decided to follow in his family’s health care footsteps and completed dental school at the University of the Pacific in San Francisco. But even when running his dental practice, Hauck found time to teach at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC and even coached the ski team for a few years. When he decided to try his hand at winemaking, it took him 10 years to find the perfect spot—four hours north
of his home in Orange County. Besides a vineyard and tasting room, the property includes a 112-year-old inn. “HammerSky is estategrown, single-block, singlevineyard only,” Hauck says. “That means we only get grapes from our place. It gives our wine a certain flavor. We’re Bordeaux-centric; we do Cabernets, Merlots, Petit Verdots and Zinfandels. Personally I love the Cabernets, that’s my thing.” Their estate wines have received impressive ratings— 93s and 94s on a hundred-point scale—in major publications like Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast. Of course, most dreams don’t come to fruition without a lot of hard work. “[When I bought the property] I didn’t realize the business was really five jobs,” Hauck said. “There’s the winemaking, the growing,
selling the wine onsite and to restaurants, running the inn and doing events. It’s a lot of moving parts.” For Hauck, it’s a labor of love. “It took me several years to rebuild the place, but now when we’re there doing a wedding or see the property on TV, it definitely has a certain spirit and visual pop. And when you’re standing there watching a group of people enjoying it, it’s like ‘wow.’ That’s the kind of investment return you don’t get back from a stock or bond.” Hauck still makes time for fun, and he loves following USC sports and staying in touch with college buddies. His Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers have planned a reunion at HammerSky this spring. “We still get together—that was a great bond, a great network of friends. ’SC is where my heart is.” L AU R A PA I S L E Y
spring 2016
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A L U M N I P R O F I L E D O U G H A U C K ’8 1
Make May 4 Your Day to Give
Together, we can do great things. On the inaugural USC Day of SCupport, USC alumni, parents and friends will come together to demonstrate the power and generosity of the Trojan Family. We invite everyone—longtime contributors and those who have never given—to join us in the proud Trojan tradition of philanthropy on May 4, 2016, by making a gift of any size to any USC school, program or initiative.
dayofSCupport.usc.edu | (213) 740-7500
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THE KECK EFFECT: MORE WALKS ON THE BEACH
The experts of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center lead the way in cancer treatment and prevention. Our team provides customized care for each patient, incorporating the latest research and a wide variety of groundbreaking clinical trials. That’s The Keck Effect — more innovative cancer treatments, personalized for you.
cancer.KeckMedicine.org (800) USC-CARE © 2016 Keck Medicine of USC 68 usc trojan family
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A L U M N I P R O F I L E T R A C Y O L I V E R M F A ’1 0
Role Model
PHOTO COURTESY OF TRACY OLIVER
Tired of waiting for good parts to come to her, an actress and writer created them herself. Sassy sidekick. That’s the role in which Tracy Oliver MFA ’10 found herself perpetually typecast. “I was always some version of Rizzo from Grease,” the young actress from Columbia, South Carolina, recalls. Eager to show her range, Oliver came up with a strategy to change the roles she played: Take control of the story. So the Stanford graduate enrolled in the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ Peter Stark Producing Program, and her transformation into a behind-the-scenes entertainment powerhouse began. Oliver compares entering the Stark program to being thrown into a boot camp on reality TV. “It’s a very intimate program, where you’re suddenly working alongside 25 other grad
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students, day in and day out,” she says, but the grind was well worth it. “I saw just how much further USC put me ahead of other people my age.” She praises acclaimed movie producer Larry Turman (his credits include The Graduate and American History X), a professor and chair of the Stark program, for preparing students for an evolving entertainment industry. When Oliver asked program faculty about producing content for online digital and streaming platforms, instructors helped her jump in. “Learning how to put my own content together changed my life,” she says. “This is so valuable in the Internet age, when access to places like YouTube allows everyone to see your work.” Her Stark program experience proved vital when she became an actress, writer and producer for the popular Web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl with friend Issa Rae from her undergraduate
days. Relationships she fostered at USC helped bring together the series, which she says felt like “a third year of grad school.” Awkward Black Girl became a calling card for Oliver, who soon landed writing gigs with studios and networks. Often the only woman in the writers’ room, she feels a responsibility for representing female and minority characters. “Before Scandal and Empire, there was a 10-year period when there was a lack of content for people of color,” she says. “There are still areas, particularly in the comedic space, I’d like to tackle.” Another of the areas to be tackled is the arts: FOX Television recently hired Oliver to develop a one-hour drama set in the ballet world. She’ll partner with American Ballet Theatre principal ballerina Misty Copeland on the project. Meanwhile, her resume in television has grown to include writing for The Neighbors on ABC and serving as executive
story editor for Survivor’s Remorse on STARZ. The experience gave her a chance to pay it forward. When Survivor’s Remorse needed a new staff writer, Oliver submitted a writing sample from Marquita Robinson MFA ’12, who studied movie producing in the Stark program. Robinson got the job. Oliver likes the control and creative freedom of being behind the scenes—but she admits it’s hard to shake the desire to perform. So, what if she got a call to play Rizzo? “Rizzo really is the best part of Grease,” she says. “I’d love to play her again, just not every single time.” BEKAH WRIGHT
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family class notes
Blas Villalobos MSW ’12 (SSW) recently became veteran affairs manager in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, where he develops and implements the mayor’s strategic vision to leverage public and private resources to assist veterans and their families to reintegrate into civilian life. Previously, he was the Los Angeles executive director of community programs and veteran services for U.S.VETS. Greg Woodburn ’12 (LAS), MBA ’15 (BUS) became a Clinton-Orfalea-Brittingham Fellow at the Clinton Global Initiative, serving as a working group manager with CGI America. He works to empower youth through education, athletics and access to opportunity. Esther Armendariz ’13 (MUS) recently won the position of associate principal trombone with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Mayra Jimenez MS ’13 (ENG) has joined BKG Structural Engineers in Redwood City, California, and is working on residential design as a project engineer. Jennifer May MBA ’13 (BUS), director of the Designmatters department at Art Center College of Design, is responsible for cultivation of external partners in the international development, NGO, nonprofit and social innovation industry sectors, as well as the management of a curated set of course collaborations. Francisco Pryor Garat MFA ’13 (DRA) played Esteban in the off-Broadway production of STEVE, directed by Cynthia Nixon. Seth Houston DMA ’14 (MUS) has been appointed the director of choral activities at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine. Troy Quinn DMA ’14 (MUS) is the new music director and conductor of the Juneau Symphony in Alaska.
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Jason Saunders MM ’14 (MUS) was recently awarded the Washington State ACDA Outstanding Emerging Choral Director Award for 2015. He was also asked to join the Washington ACDA Board of Directors as the chair for youth and student activities. Sade Burrell MSW ’15 (SSW) is an academic counselor at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon, California, where she works with foster youth working to obtain higher education.
B I R T H S Beau J. Boudreaux ’94 (LAS) and Heather P. Boudreaux, a son, Rhys Justin. Betty Wei ’97 (SCJ), MBA ’08 (BUS) and Brent Hawkins MBA ’09 (BUS), a daughter, Riley Grace. Adrian Juarez ’01 (NUR) and Josefina Carmona, a son, Aron Doroteo. He is the nephew of Michael Cuellar ’02 (LAS).
Rohit Chawda MS ’15 (ENG) works at Apple Inc. as a physical design engineer.
I N
Natalie Johnson ’15 (DRA) started full time at Saatchi & Saatchi in the social media advertising department for Toyota.
A L U M N I
M E M O R I A M
The Argus Quartet—which includes Clara Kim DMA ’15 (MUS), Jason Issokson MM ’10 (MUS) and Diana Wade GCRT ’13 (MUS)—has been appointed quartet-inresidence at the Yale School of Music. Sharon Peykar MSW ’15 (SSW) has been nominated to serve on the 2015-16 Committee for Next Generation Leaders under Beverly Hills Mayor Julian Gold. She recently completed the Maher Fellowship, a leadership and training program for Iranian-American Jews. Toby Sherriff GCRT ’15 (MUS) traveled to Zurich, Switzerland, in September 2015 to score his short film, The Control Master, which will premier at the Zurich Film Festival. His music was selected as one of five finalists in Forum Filmmusik’s International Film Music Competition. M A R R I A G E S Kyle Cabodi ’08 (SCJ) and Stephanie Van Boxtel ’09 (BUS). Jacqueline Wing ’13 (LAW) and Rory Phillips ’07 (SCA), son of James Phillips ’76 (LAS), DDS ’80 (DEN).
Nick Pappas, 99
Nick Pappas ’37 (LAS) of Pasadena, California; Oct. 23, 2015, at the age of 99. He was affectionately known as “Mr. Trojan” because of his 59 years of service at USC as a player, coach and athletic department administrator, and for creating the Trojan Club athletic support group. Perhaps nobody has had a longer or more valued association with USC Athletics than he did. A three-year tailback for Coach Howard Jones’ Trojans from 193537, Pappas then played professionally with spring 2016
PHOTO COURTESY OF USC ATHLETICS
consultant, working to improve business segments of the company’s operations and develop and train company leaders. He is pursuing a degree in pastoral and general ministries at Biola University.
Obituaries of members of the Trojan Family appear online at tfm.usc.edu/ trojantributes.
the Hollywood Bears in 1938 and 1939. He returned to Troy to coach the freshman football teams in 1939 and 1940. He scouted for pro teams for six seasons and for USC for two years, becoming a Trojan assistant varsity football coach from 1953 to 1956. He built USC’s Trojan Club donor group into the most successful organization of its type in the nation. He rose to the position of associate athletic director in charge of athletic development. Although he retired from his full-time position in 1981, he remained active in the department until 2004, working on the endowment fund through wills and estates. Pappas earned a Purple Heart and Silver Star during his service with the Navy in World War II. He doubled for actor Pat O’Brien as Knute Rockne in the football scenes of the 1940 movie Knute Rockne, All-American. He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997 and was a recipient of USC’s Alumni Service Award. He is preceded in death by his wife of 66 years, Deede, and a daughter, Rene Arrobio. He is survived by daughters Lisa Widman and Mona Pappas, along with five grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. Gert Hirschberg ’48 (LAS) of Los Angeles; July 17, 2015, at the age of 88. John Frederick Dean ’50, EdD ’66 (EDU) of Newport Beach, California; May 19, 2015, at the age of 88. Mary Ellen Holland ’50 (LAS) of Ashland, Oregon; Oct. 3, 2015, at the age of 90. Roger P. Johnson Jr. ’50 (BUS) of Solvang, California; Jan. 31, 2015, at the age of 88.
OLSON PHOTO BY LOIS GERVAIS
Nicholas J. Ivans ’53 (PHM) of Coalinga, California; Feb. 15, 2015, at the age of 90. Phillip R. Nicholson ’57 (BUS), LLB ’61 (LAW) of Pacific Palisades, California; Sept. 21, 2015, at the age of 79. Robert G. Viles ’57 (BUS) of Ventura, California; Aug. 12, 2015, at the age of 80.
tfm.usc.edu
Ronald Holden ’63 (LAS) of Redding, California; June 5, 2015 at the age of 79. Ray Hampton MBA ’66 (BUS) of Westminster, California; June 27, 2015, at the age of 83. Daniel L. Nay MA ’66 (LAS), EdD ’76 (EDU) of Pasadena, California; Jan. 7, 2015, at the age of 87. Veking Tollette MA ’73 (EDU) of Inglewood, California; Sept. 22, 2015, at the age of 96. Racquel Custodio Furbeyre MSW ’79 (SSW) of Los Angeles; May 18, 2015, at the age of 64. Timothy W. Doede ’95 (BUS) of New York City; March 26, 2015, at the age of 41. FA C U LT Y, S TA F F A N D F R I E N D S Roger F. Olson of Dawsonville, Georgia; Oct. 2, 2015, at the age of 84. He was USC senior vice president emeritus for university relations. Upon Olson’s retirement in 1993, then-USC President Steven Sample and the USC Board of Trustees granted him the emeritus title as a senior vice president, the first such honor accorded in the university’s history. He led fundraising efforts at USC for more than three decades. By the time he retired in 1993, he had helped shatter university fundraising records through the Campaign for USC that brought in $641 million from 1984 to 1990. Throughout his time at USC, Olson was instrumental in bringing more than $1.6 billion in private gifts to the university, helping to fund the university’s ambitious growth in areas including neuroscience, Alzheimer’s disease research and the expansion of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Olson participated in the USC Master Plan under former USC President Norman Topping, and provided major
leadership in USC’s Toward Century II campaign of the 1970s. He was preceded in death by his wife Barbara. He is survived by his son Dan Olson ’75 (SCJ), daughter-in-law Bonnie, grandson Jordan ’09 (LAS), his wife Courtney, their sons Caleb, Ryder, Oliver and Heath, and daughter Paisley; granddaughter Danielle, her husband Kevin Paine, their son Jackson and daughter Falon; and grandson Bryan and his wife Kim Henry. 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 USC Chan 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
Matt DeGrushe, Phoenix Delgado, James Feigert, Harmony Frederick, Wendy Gragg, Katherine Griffiths, Deanne Grimes, Elizabeth Hedrick, Maya Meinert, Mike McNulty, James Morse, Jane Ong, Kristi Patton and Stacey Wang Rizzo contributed to this section.
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Home-Field Advantage The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: It’s where Zola Budd famously collided with U.S. track and field’s Olympic golden girl, Mary Decker, and where Pope John Paul II held open-air mass for tens of thousands. And this fall the Los Angeles Rams, the city’s prodigal NFL son, will return to the landmark, at least temporarily. But only the Trojans can call the Coliseum their longtime home, with decades’ worth of historic football games played against archrivals UCLA and Notre Dame (like the win over the then-undefeated Fighting Irish in 1938, inset).
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Now with the facility marking its 93rd year and a lease agreement in place through 2111, USC plans a major renovation to update everything from plumbing to signage. Work is slated to start after the 2017 season and finish in time for the 2019 home opener. Do you have a special moment from your life—whether it’s a marriage proposal or first football game—that happened at the Coliseum? Send your memories to magazines@ usc.edu and we’ll include our favorites in a future issue.
Have a photo to share? Send it to 3434 S. Grand Ave., CAL 140, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-2818 or magazines@usc.edu.
Now and Again is inspired by a concept originating from our advertising collaborator, Los Angeles magazine.
spring 2016
PHOTO BY DUSTIN SNIPES
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