USC Trojan Family Magazine Winter 2019

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T R A N S FO R M AT I O N Our issue on metamorphosis, from recycling refuse to rebuilding lives

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scene Students were such a central component of the September 20 inauguration of President Carol L. Folt that Folt ran over to take selfies with them in the student section in front of the stage. Here she stops for a few snapshots during the celebration.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

The quarterly magazine of the University of Southern California —————————————

E DI TO R-I N- CHI EF

Alicia Di Rado CRE AT I VE DI RE CTOR

Jane Frey M ANAGI NG E DI TOR

Elisa Huang PRO DUCT I O N M ANAG ER

Mary Modina I NT E RACT I VE CO NT E NT MANAG ER

Diana Molleda VI SUALS E DI TOR

Susanica Tam STAF F PHOTO GRAPH ER

Gus Ruelas I NT E RACT I VE M ARKE T I NG MANAG ER

Rod Yabut —————————————

DE SI GN AND PRO DUCTION

Pentagram —————————————

CO NT RI BUTO RS

Leigh Hopper Eric Lindberg

We’re in the midst of a transformation at USC. At the University Park Campus, we recently saw our first presidential inauguration in nine years. Of course, the September ceremony was marked by USC traditions: Robed faculty members processed across Alumni Park as academic banners waved, and cardinal-colored canopies shaded the stage at Doheny Memorial Library. But there was a new spirit, too. As the crowd cheered President Carol L. Folt and her vision for the university, optimism was palpable.

Afterward, alumni, educators, staff, students, parents and neighbors celebrated at a lunch on McCarthy Quad that signaled USC’s new era. The event diverted 97% of waste away from local landfills. Plastic water bottles were nowhere to be found, and guests nibbled using compostable utensils. It was part of Folt’s commitment to sustainability. (We’ve included a glimpse of some of USC’s sustainability efforts on p. 5.)

Transformation is the watchword as USC strives to be a leading urban university that cares for the health of our people and the planet, so we’re embracing transformation as the theme of this issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine. We hope the stories of change and growth on the pages within provoke discussion—and a few ideas, too.

Judith Lipsett Russ Ono ————————————— USC Trojan Family Magazine 3434 S. Grand Ave., CAL 140 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818 magazines@usc.edu | (213) 740-2684

COVER IMAGE BY DARREN BRAUN; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY DIGITAL FUSION

A USC Transformed

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

MOVING? Submit your updated mailing address at trojanfamily.usc.edu/subscribe

ADVERTISING: Visit trojanfamily.usc.edu/advertise for information.

Alicia Di Rado Editor-in-Chief USC Trojan Family Magazine

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INSIDE

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Seen and Heard Stories of Trojan life from mail, email and social media.

Writing can be a tool for transformation.

Five Things You Need to Know See how we’re going greener— and staying hydrated, too.

T R O J A N

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News Iovine and Young Hall opens its doors; Robin Coste Lewis brings poetry to the people of L.A.; and stem cell studies get a big boost.

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In the Footsteps of History

By Eric Lindberg Archaeology students trek to the “birthplace of the gods.”

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College Life 101 USC’s new head of student affairs shares three secrets of college success.

FA M I LY

ILLUSTRATION BY EDEL RODRIGUEZ; PHOTO COURTESY OF DING QIN AND LITTLE FIR FOUNDATION

F E AT U R E S

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In It to Win It Good news, weekend warriors: USC’s sports medicine specialists can help you stay in the game. By Kristin Baird Rattini

43 Alumni News An opera singer finds a home on the Met’s stage; an alumna brings learning opportunities to rural Chinese children; and Trojans celebrate D-Day with veterans who lived through it.

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When it comes to language, the only constant is change. By Rachel B. Levin

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49 Class Notes 60 Now and Again

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(Re)New and Improved From decommissioned airplanes to used cooking oil, discarded waste stays out of landfills and gets a second chance at life. By Sarah Nightingale

Who’s doing what and where?

For nearly 90 years, Trojans have started their academic and research explorations at Doheny Memorial Library.

Speak for Yourself

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Tales of Redemption USC students and men transitioning out of incarceration come to know themselves better—and understand each other—through writing. By Joanna Clay usc trojan family

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Musings about Trojan life and USC Trojan Family Magazine from mail, email and the online world.

SEEN AND HEARD

Meet the Shutes The Shute siblings are no strangers to sticking together. Long before triplets Ireland, Kala and Smith and older brother Cole started together at USC this fall, they had already built a unique family of their own.

In high school, the siblings faced an uncertain future after losing their mom, a single parent, to cancer. Neighbors in their Southern California community of La Cañada Flintridge helped the siblings cover daily expenses. Eventually, a family friend took them in, providing not only a roof over their heads but also the warmth and support of a new family. Southern California media outlets shared their story as Ireland, Kala and Smith started as freshmen and Cole transferred in as a sophomore. All have eagerly embraced the Trojan Family.

“We were raised on the notion that your friends and the people around you can be as close as family,” Smith Shute says. “We get to keep that same mentality with the Trojan Family. We won’t have to deviate too much from what we know.” Read more about their journey online at bit.ly/ShutesUSC.

Well-wishers gathered to celebrate USC President Carol L. Folt’s inauguration in September, but the party didn’t stop at the University Park Campus. Rallying around the hashtag #TrojansTogether, USC students, alumni, faculty, staff and supporters worldwide took to social media to flash their best Fight On! signs and welcome the 12th president with messages of encouragement. Here are two of our favorites.

“DRAGON” DISCOVERY Paleontologists and other Cretaceous era enthusiasts were abuzz on social media with the news: Turns out that prehistoric bones found in Canada belonged to a previously unknown, 75-million-year-old giant flying reptile. Named Cryodrakon boreas, or “frozen dragon of the north,” the beast was similar to the largest known pterosaurs—500-pound flying reptiles with wingspans of 30 feet or more.

Michael Habib, assistant professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and research associate at the Dinosaur Institute of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, helped identify the creature. He believes that the pterosaur—which once dominated the skies above North America—might even inspire modern aviation. “Their anatomy holds important clues about the limits of animal flight and may be important in the future for biologically inspired mechanical design for flight.”

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Wrigley Marine Science Center divers (above) and drum major India Anderson and friends (below) were among those welcoming Carol Folt on social media.

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SHUTES PHOTO BY ERIC LINDBERG; USC WRIGLEY PHOTO BY MAURICE ROPER; DRUM MAJOR PHOTO BY LING LUO; CRYODRAKON ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID MAAS

CELEBRATE #TROJANSTOGETHER

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FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

A Smaller Trojan Footprint

3 FLIES! The USC Wrigley Institute uses the larvae of black soldier flies to compost food scraps that would otherwise go to waste. Scientists are testing technology that could use the flies to create fertilizer, animal feed or even biodiesel.

There’s a lot happening at USC. We know our readers are just as busy as our students, so we’ve culled our news into essential nuggets for you.

Our winter topic: an update on some of the Earth-friendly efforts on our campuses.

1 FLY IMAGE BY JAVIER TORRENT, VW PICS/ SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

HYDRATION STATIONS Billions of plastic bottles end up in U.S. landfills every year. So, thanks in part to students’ efforts, today USC hosts 15 water refilling stations across the University Park Campus and 82 in residence halls. (Visit bit.ly/USCwatermap to find them.)

2 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION INCENTIVES Faculty and staff can now buy subsidized transit passes. That’s expected to take thousands of cars off the roads, reducing the university’s carbon footprint (and traffic).

4 ZERO-WASTE GAME DAYS During football games at the Coliseum, fans recycled and composted cups, trays and other trash.

Last season, that kept more than 244 tons of garbage out of local landfills.

5 SMART ENERGY This past summer, USC joined Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s program to reduce energy use on hot days. This helps L.A.’s goal of a 30% drop in energy use in buildings by 2035.

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Our values define us – family, integrity, and tradition.

Let our Trojan family be there for yours. Fight on!

Bob Renken Noreen Jenkins Brian Bissell Bucky Burge Mason Carpenter

1998 MBTAX 2005 2013 MBA 2009 2013 MBA

Brian Flynn Ashley Fontanetta Caleb Silsby Pegine Grayson

1971 BS & 1985 MFA 2004 2011 MBA 1987 LAW

David Dahl Riley Mathies Rosa Lee Jim Parks*

1992 MBA 2015 2007 1972 BS & 1975 MBTAX

[Listed from top left - right] *Board Member

These are the tenets that shape us. From our roots as a single family office in 1935, through our position today as the largest multi-family office headquartered in the West, we remain committed to excellence in all we do – and to taking care of our clients like family. We take pride in our USC Trojan alumni who play an integral role in helping manage the financial lives and maximize the legacy of individuals, families and leaders whose ingenuity and principles shape our world through positive impact and inspire future generations. To learn more about our exclusive, customized Wealth Management and Family Office services, call Tim McCarthy at 626.463.2545 or visit us at WhittierTrust.com.

Your Legacy is Our Business.

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winter 2019 $10 M I L L I O N M A R K E T A Busc L E S E Ctrojan U R I T I E S A Nfamily D/ O R L I Q U I D A S S E T S R E Q U I R E D. Investment and Wealth Management Services are provided by Whittier Trust Company and The Whittier Trust Company of Nevada, Inc. (referred to herein individually and collectively as “Whittier Trust”), state-chartered trust companies wholly owned by Whittier Holdings, Inc. (“WHI”), a closely held holding company. This document is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as investment, tax or legal advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results and no investment or financial planning strategy can guarantee profit or protection against losses. All names, characters, and incidents, except for certain incidental references, are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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TROJAN

FLYING HIGH

PHOTO BY STEVE COHN

From left, Army ROTC cadets James Dawson, Christopher Sparkes and Brian Femminella and Air Force ROTC cadet Joseph Lee are among the officers in training who served as the color guard for USC’s presidential inauguration.

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trojan news

LANDMARK LEGACIES An architectural hotspot, downtown L.A. is filled with historically significant buildings—many designed by Trojans.

From the striking curves of Walt Disney Concert Hall to the futuristic mechanical skin of Caltrans District 7 Headquarters, countless Southern California landmarks got their start in the sketchbooks of USC School of Architecture alumni.

Since its founding in 1919, the architecture school has graduated more than 4,000 alumni — and they’ve shaped Los Angeles as the city has grown. In celebration of the School of Architecture’s 100th anniversary, come along as we take a tour of some of downtown L.A.’s singular sites designed by Trojans and their partners.

ERIC LINDBERG

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UNION OIL CENTER Now known as Los Angeles Center Studios, the minimalist 12-story hexagonal building was successfully adapted for use as a full-service film studio in 1998. Elevated pedestrian bridges and a recessed first floor give it the uncanny appearance of floating. address: 1201 W. Fifth St. year built: 1958 architect: Gin D. Wong ’50, Pereira and Luckman

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WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL This building rises behind an untold number of L.A. tourist selfies. Just as the silver sails of its edifice attract sightseers, its intimate performance space inside features acoustics that draw music lovers. address: 111 S. Grand Ave. year built: 2003 architect: Frank Gehry ’54, Gehry Partners

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WILSHIRE GRAND CENTER Rising 1,100 feet above the heart of downtown, this fin-like structure is topped with a spire and holds the record as the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Its 73 stories boast floorto-ceiling windows that offer miles of unobstructed panoramic views. address: 900 Wilshire Blvd. year built: 2017 architects: David Martin ’66 and Chris Martin ’74, AC Martin

UNION OIL CENTER PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

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trojan news

Changing Patterns

PHOOLSOMBAT PHOTO BY JULES K. NASH; MITCHELL PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PATRICIA W. MITCHELL TRUSTS; LLUSTRATION BY JACLYN PITTMAN

Future entertainment industry executives and agents will take issues of ethics and diversity to heart at USC. Donors have given generously to the USC School of Cinematic Arts to support ethics and diversity in entertainment—but a recent gift has a new spin.

It addresses the business side of the industry rather than the creative one.

USC is one of three universities to share a $50 million gift from the Patricia W. Mitchell Trusts focusing on ethics and diversity. The gift was conceived by the late Patricia W. Mitchell to honor the legacy of her husband, television pioneer John H. Mitchell, who died in 1988.

The $20 million allocated to USC establishes The John H. Mitchell Endowed Fund for the Business of Entertainment, as well as The John H. Mitchell Endowed Chair in the Business of Entertainment. As part of the effort, the School of Cinematic Arts’ business programs, which are jointly administered with the USC Marshall School of Business, have been renamed after John H. Mitchell. These programs train students interested in entertainment business management or who may want to become executives or agents. The fund will also provide financial support to a diverse community of students, known as Mitchell Scholars, who are enrolled in programs funded by the trust.

Other universities receiving funding through the gift are the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Michigan.

John H. Mitchell and Patricia W. Mitchell

QUOTED

“From an immigrant perspective, I see the value of language. It’s the ultimate anthropological record, and it lasts forever if you can document it.”

—PRIM PHOOLSOMBAT, a junior majoring in computational linguistics, who is helping to preserve Ladin, an endangered language spoken in the Italian Alps

The scientists’ machine sucks water from mud at the bottom of the ocean so they can test its chemistry.

The Secrets of Ocean Mud Earth sciences doctoral student Jaclyn Pittman goes under the sea to illuminate climate change. Here’s a peek at her work.

What are we studying?

We’re looking at how, when and where the mineral calcium carbonate dissolves in the ocean.

What’s the impact?

This affects organisms like corals, which use carbonate to make their skeletons.

When carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, the ocean absorbs about a third of the excess carbon dioxide. This causes chemical reactions that make the ocean more acidic, which is happening today. More-acidic oceans mean more carbonate dissolves—including in the shells of sea life.

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What’s cool about my work?

We made a device (shown above) that uses syringes to suck water from the sticky mud at the bottom of the ocean. This porewater can tell us if carbonate is dissolving in that area, how acidic the water is and how much carbon dioxide can be neutralized by reactions that occur in the sediment. By dropping the device to the sea bottom and getting water out of the mud directly, we can protect its chemistry and get more pristine samples. Then we have a better idea of what is going on in the mud, and ultimately how sediments are impacting climate change.

Pittman is working with Professor William M. Berelson. She conducted the research out of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, thanks to the support of Norma and Jerol Sonosky ’48, MS ’49.

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trojan news

In the Footsteps of History In Mexico, USC students find connections to civilizations lost to time.

Kirby Farah loves Mexico—especially its rich history. A lecturer in anthropology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Farah first visited the country more than a decade ago as a graduate student, and now she shares her passion with USC undergrads. Each summer, she takes a group to explore the region’s culture and centuries-old artifacts.

ILLUSTRATION BY RUSSELL SHAW; PÉREZ PHOTO BY KIRBY FARAH

MEXICO

A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME Students Maria Camasmie, Lilah Mehri and Katya Pérez perched atop the massive Pyramid of the Sun and stared out across the ancient city of Teotihuacán.

Gazing at the remnants of intricate temples and underground passages, it was easy to see why the Aztecs who rediscovered the abandoned city called it “the birthplace of the gods.”

“I tried to imagine what the site would have looked like 2,000 years ago, with people bustling along the Avenue of the Dead, and fires lighting up homes,” Pérez says. “Being in the rain and looking at the clouds surrounding the landscape felt ethereal and spiritual.”

It was one of many unforgettable moments from the USC trio’s whirlwind two-week trip across central Mexico in June. Follow along on their travels from Mexico City to Puebla, Cholula and beyond. ERIC LINDBERG

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trojan news Mexico is one of several destinations students have visited through USC’s archaeology program. Go to bit.ly/ USCMexico2019 to learn more about the students’ experiences and see a photo blog.

1 MEXICO CITY Once an Aztec capital, Mexico City was razed and rebuilt by the Spanish in the 16th century. USC students had a taste of its former glory at Templo Mayor, the remains of the Aztecs’ main temple. “It was this little square of ruins surrounded by all these newer buildings,” Pérez says.

“But you could picture what the whole city once looked like.” Another notable site on the agenda: el Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico’s largest museum.

2 XALTOCÁN This small village dates to 1000 A.D. and was built on a man-made island in a now-dry lake of the same name. Farah helped Camasmie, Mehri and Pérez interview lifelong residents about their heritage and how archaeological studies in the area impact their lives.

3 PUEBLA AND CHOLULA The world’s largest known pyramid by volume stands in Cholula, a city established in about 500 B.C. USC students learned about the city’s original inhabitants, who remained independent from the Aztec empire.

They also visited nearby Puebla, a Spanish colonial town known as the home of Cinco de Mayo, which celebrates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France.

4 TEOTIHUACÁN This famed archaeological site served as one of the most important cities in the pre-Hispanic Americas. It reached its heyday by 600 A.D., and relics with its iconography have been found as far away as present-day Guatemala and Yucatán. The site’s original name is unknown; when the Aztecs came across it, the city had long been deserted.

MEMORIES FOUND When sophomore Katya Pérez joined Farah’s research trip to Mexico, she was looking forward to learning about the region’s ancient history.

But the environmental studies major found herself unexpectedly reconnecting with her own past, too. Pérez shares how she made new memories—and rediscovered ones she thought she had lost.

My family moved from Tijuana when I was 4 years old. Because of that, I have always felt detached from my heritage, like I had lost my early childhood. For years, I have wanted to experience Mexican culture in greater depth, and this study abroad trip helped me reconnect with my roots.

Being immersed in a Mexican lifestyle, I suddenly could remember moments from my upbringing that had been lost to time.

Xaltocán, in particular, brought vivid memories flooding back, because it felt like my father’s neighborhood in Tijuana.

When I walked into the small, stuffy convenience store across from the town’s Casa de la Cultura, the distinct scents of Mexican snacks and treats reminded me of a similar store close to our old house. As I inhaled the sweet aroma of pan dulce, I could picture my father bringing me conchas and other treats every morning.

Later, the pungent odor of blue Fabuloso cleaner conjured images of my aunt in her kitchen, a memory that especially affected me because I couldn’t picture what she looked like until that moment.

The many stray dogs of Xaltocán also stirred up visual recollections of my early life. Gazing at a group of dogs lying in the shade, I remembered playing with a few stray dachshund puppies on the road outside my childhood home. I had raced outside as soon as I saw them, and my father rushed out right after me to pull me out of the street. Always having dogs around was one of my favorite parts of living in Tijuana, but I hadn’t thought about it until I saw them roaming the streets of Xaltocán.

Thanks to my experiences in Mexico, I feel significantly more connected with my father and other relatives from Tijuana and San Luis Potosí. This amazing trip not only helped me learn more about the Mexican lifestyle and history, it also became a bridge to a special part of my past that I had long forgotten. usc trojan family

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trojan news HE A LT H FILES Most seniors who were trained in a study to use the ride-sharing service Lyft—and were offered free rides— used the service to see their doctors and go to social activities.

The results may encourage funding of ride-sharing programs for the elderly to boost health.

USC Iovine and Young Academy students have a new home where design, technology and business converge.

These students create startups and design apps. They shoot photos and build prototypes. Drop by the newly opened Iovine and Young Hall on the University Park Campus, and the students are buzzing.

They’re hard at work in the home of the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.

The USC Iovine and Young Academy opened in 2013 as a training ground for innovative creators, thinkers and leaders.

Six years later, its 40,000-square-foot hall is equipped with studio and workshop classrooms as well as makerspaces and fabrication labs for metal, wood, plastic, electronics and large-scale 3D printing.

Students can use multimedia labs for photo, video, audio capture and editing, an alumni incubator lab and an evolving materials library with offerings ranging from ceramics to plastics. Even the building itself is a tool for the creative process: Its walls and surfaces invite writing and sketching as students come up with ideas.

ELISA HUANG

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MAKING THEIR MARK From filmmaking to launching startups, USC Iovine and Young Academy students have brought critical thinking and experimentation to a host of industries and projects. Here are a few.

Sustainability Solutions Ben Stanfield ’19, Landon Brand ’19 and senior Mimi Tran Zambetti launched Project Wren, a Y Combinator-backed startup. It lets users calculate their carbon footprints and offset them through real-world projects such as reforestation programs.

Senior Services For seniors with limited mobility, staying active can be a challenge. A virtual reality-based startup led by graduate student Max Orozco uses 360-degree video to offer immersive experiences—like surfing—to help seniors feel engaged and stimulated.

Fashion Forward ► Macki Alvarez-Mena ’18 designed the Macki x USC Bookstores collection this year. Its USC– themed clothing, decals and accessories are sold through the university’s bookstores.

Fancy Footwork A team of eight students won a global Adidas competition to design the Los Angeles launch of the best-selling Copa shoe. Their project’s interactive digital displays, mini soccer pitch and more were inspired by L.A.’s passionate soccer communities.

Teens who abuse prescription painkillers are far more likely than other teens to start using heroin by the time they graduate from high school, according to USC research. That might be because prescription opioids and heroin produce a similar high.

Knee trouble? USC scientists are working on a potential solution: new cartilage grown from stem cells. They hope to launch clinical trials for the cartilage implants in late 2020.

Among adolescents of color, the more videos of police shootings and immigrant detainment they watched online, the worse their symptoms of depression and PTSD, USC research shows.

Women and Latinos appear to be especially vulnerable.

CLASSROOM PHOTO BY CHRIS SHINN; ALVAREZ-MENA PHOTO COURTESY OF USC BOOKSTORES

Think, Do, Innovate, Repeat

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trojan news

Life Aquatic In algal blooms on the rise across the country, tiny organisms create big problems.

When dying birds and sea lions wash up by the dozens on Southern California beaches, David Caron’s phone starts ringing. Like a detective at a crime scene, the expert in microbial ecology pieces the clues together in his lab to determine what happened.

“These events, which we call unusual marine mortality events, can be caused by harmful algal blooms,” says Caron, the USC Associates Captain Allan Hancock Chair in Marine Science and professor of biological sciences. The USC Dornsife faculty member talked to writer Sarah Nightingale about these blooms, why they’re on the rise and what it means for us.

Why are people concerned about algal blooms?

In balanced ecosystems, tiny aquatic plants called algae play a beneficial role as the foundation of the food web. When they grow quickly, dense populations—called blooms—form.

These are visible as a green, yellow-brown or red pigment in the water, or as a foamy layer at the surface. Some blooms are so large they can be seen from space.

Algal blooms not only stifle the growth of

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other marine species, but some also produce harmful toxins. In California, the toxin we’re most concerned with is domoic acid, which disrupts normal nerve signaling in the brain, causing disorientation and seizures. In high doses, it can be a death sentence for fish, seabirds, marine mammals—and even for people.

Should I ditch my surfboard?

The good news is domoic acid and other toxins produced by oceanic blooms don’t appear to cause harm when you swim or bathe. The bad news is that some fish, such as anchovies and sardines, and shellfish feed on the algae and concentrate toxins in the food web.

Eating tainted seafood has sickened people in many states and put many others off ordering clams and oysters when they dine out. To reduce the risk of illness, state public health departments monitor the levels of toxins closely. If they get too high, they close the shellfish beds to harvesting and restrict fish sales, which has a huge economic impact.

That doesn’t help marine mammals—I’ve confirmed domoic acid poisoning in several sea lions recently.

Why are harmful algal blooms on the increase?

Climate change is exacerbating freshwater blooms, since warmer, stagnant water stimulates bacterial growth. Blooms are also thriving because of an increase in nutrients deposited into rivers, lakes and oceans from agricultural and urban runoff and other human activities. In the L.A. area, the discharge of treated sewage increases naturally available nutrients in the vicinity by 50%. That’s likely one reason for the steady increase in domoic acid levels that my research group has seen over the past 15 years.

What can be done?

Increasing awareness—even through simple steps like better signage—can save lives around our lakes and rivers. On a broader scale, we need to clean up our water by reducing runoff and removing nutrients from wastewater discharge. In some cases, we already have the technologies to do this. As we become more concerned with protecting our water supply, we’ll see them being implemented more widely.

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trojan news

College 101 USC’s new student affairs leader offers his advice for success in and out of the classroom.

Winston Crisp TITLE USC vice president of student affairs

Look at USC’s 20,000 undergraduates and nearly 30,000 graduate and professional students, and you’ll find no shortage of impressive academic credentials, leadership experiences and athletic feats. But Winston Crisp sees more than their achievements.

“Every student we have is somebody’s hope, somebody’s pride and joy,” says Crisp, who joined USC as vice president for student affairs in August. “Every student is riding the hopes and dreams of a family, whether the student is first-generation or fifth-generation, and every one of them deserves the best that we’ve got.”

Crisp has shaped services for university students for three decades. So he knows what weighs on their minds and what they care about. Here are a few of his tips for students so they can reap rewards from college. (It doesn’t hurt for parents to pass them along, too.) ERIC LINDBERG Believe in Yourself “You’re here because you’re supposed to be here. Don’t doubt it. One of the things that happens to very smart, very successful young people like the students we get here is that for the first time in their lives, they’re surrounded by people who are every bit as smart and talented as they are. And that can lead to doubt about whether they belong here and whether they’re doing the right thing. You belong. If you’re here, it’s because you have what it takes to be here, and you have to believe that.”

MOST RECENT STINT Vice chancellor for student affairs, University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill

EDUCATION Bachelor of Arts (history), Johnson C. Smith University; Juris Doctorate, UNC-Chapel Hill

FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @ViceCrispy

Accept Help “One of the blessings of being at a world-class university with the size and breadth of USC is the sheer number of services, people and resources set up to support and assist students.

The most successful people I ever meet are the people who accept help whenever they can. We wouldn’t have math labs and chemistry labs and writing labs and counseling services and career centers if we didn’t think it was a benefit to our students. Let people help you.”

Make Connections “Get to know people. Most of the people here—whether they be faculty, staff, campus police or fire, or other professionals—they do these jobs because they care about students and the community. They are as invested in our students’ success as anybody. The true wealth of a place like this is its people.

“College is not just about going to class and thinking about a future career. It’s also about figuring out who you are and what you care about. It’s about expanding horizons and exploring new things and meeting new people and opening yourself to experiences you’ve never had before. All of that is supposed to happen in a university environment.”

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A Well-Versed Writer Get to know award-winning poet Robin Coste Lewis.

When she was a doctoral student at USC, Robin Coste Lewis blew away the literary world with her debut collection of poetry, which The New York Times and The Paris Review named one of the best reads of the year. Here are five things to know about the USC writer in residence.

SHE ALMOST LOST HER ABILITY TO READ AND WRITE Seventeen years ago, Lewis suffered a traumatic brain injury after a fall. Doctors limited her to reading and writing one sentence per day to reduce brain stress. “If I could read and write only a single line, I decided, it would have to be the best line I could come up with, the finest I could find, which is how I found my way to poetry.”

SHE MADE A STUNNING PREMIERE In 2015, Lewis won the National Book Award for Poetry for Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems, an exploration of the black female form through history. It was the first time in 40 years that a debut work won the prestigious prize.

SHE WAS A POETRY AMBASSADOR In 2017, Lewis was named Los Angeles poet laureate by Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Lewis, who was raised in Compton, took on the two-year stint with two goals: “First, to celebrate and curate an ever-widening

cross-city appreciation for poetry of all kinds, from all cultures and nations; second, to celebrate the rich and diverse history of Los Angeles poetry.”

SHE IS AN ARTS LEADER Lewis has garnered honors, including a Woman of the Year award from Los Angeles County and an Art of Change fellowship from the Ford Foundation. Earlier this year, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which grants advanced professionals the freedom to tackle creative work.

SHE IS A TRAINED THEOLOGIAN Drawn to Sanskrit epic poems and their themes of karma and reincarnation, Lewis earned a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School, focusing on Sanskrit and comparative religious literature. Before becoming a writer in residence at USC, she studied creative writing and literature and was a Provost’s Fellow in poetry and visual studies at the university.

SMART SURROUNDINGS In the 1960s cartoon The Jetsons, the space-age family’s efficient machines took care of everyday tasks like cooking, getting dressed and flying through space. While our world is still waiting for flying cars and sassy robot maids, it’s been getting closer to smart buildings that keep us safe and comfortable.

The USC Viterbi School of Engineering launched the Center for Intelligent Environments to advance the design of buildings that interact with the people within them. Here are three futuristic projects funded by the National Science Foundation now underway at the center: SMART DESK

Sensors in an office analyze how a worker feels by scanning everything from her heart rate to her arm position.

Over time, the high-tech desk could adjust room temperature and lighting according to the worker’s preferences and make suggestions on posture to avoid ergonomic problems. The workstation aims to improve comfort and personalize well-being in the workplace.

WORKER-ROBOT TEAMWORK

While robots could potentially solve inefficiencies and safety concerns in the construction industry, skepticism about automation tends to create barriers.

This virtual reality program looks to improve human-robot teamwork on construction sites and train human workers for new kinds of work experiences.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE LEWIS PHOTO BY KELLY MIROIRE

The center is building an immersive virtual environment to understand how people act when an active shooter enters a building. USC Viterbi and USC Price researchers will study whether a building’s features could influence behavior and increase security.

Reporting by Avni Shah trojanfamily.usc.edu

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Visit bit.ly/USCWalkDoc online to listen to an audio story that follows Greg Harlan and L.A. neighbors on an evening walk.

Step by Step A walking program brings physicians in stride with the communities they serve.

Doctors have long touted diet and exercise as cornerstones of good health. And once a month, pediatrician Greg Harlan MD ’00 has a chance to show patients that he practices what he preaches.

The associate professor spends most of his days teaching at the Keck School of Medicine of USC or treating sick children. But earlier this year, he joined the Walk with a Doc program and started swapping his white coat for workout clothes.

The program brings physicians together with residents who live near USC’s Health Sciences Campus. The evening walks encourage friendly chats while people get moving to reduce stress or alleviate high blood pressure. They also connect physicians with the communities they serve.

“I think it’s important for us as medical professionals to be accessible and try to give a little bit of information, but also to just answer questions,” Harlan says.

“Last time, people asked, ‘How long does it take to become a doctor, why do you like being a doctor or what’s the hardest thing?’

They wouldn’t necessarily ask that on a clinic visit, but when you’re walking side by side, it seems more natural. It creates a new space to engage with people.” JOANNA CL AY

“If you’re a poor person working in McDowell County, West Virginia, you are dealing with some of the same issues as a working poor person on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. But because they talk about it differently, and they differ racially, [you] may not feel a connection to the other person.”

—SYMONE SANDERS, a fellow at USC’s Center for the Political Future, explaining how language and semantics can deter Americans from coming together

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WALK WITH A DOC PHOTO BY SAUL GARCIA

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First-Year Facts Demand for a USC education is stronger than ever: More than 66,000 high school students applied for the 2019 entering class. That places USC among the nation’s most popular private university destinations for undergraduates.

More than 11% of applicants were admitted. Among those admitted, a greater proportion than ever decided to enroll at USC. These first-year students are academic achievers. Their average SAT and ACT scores ranked in the 96th percentile. One-quarter of the class earned perfect grades in high school, and the typical freshman completed eight Advanced Placement courses.

They’re also from diverse backgrounds: More than a quarter of first-year students identify as a traditionally underrepresented minority and more than 15% are in the first generation of their family to attend college.

RON MACKOVICH

A sampling of lessons in the Lost LA Curriculum Project:

HISTORY, REVISITED New lesson plans spotlight history’s overlooked voices.

Los Angeles saw unprecedented expansion in the 1920s as its population and prosperity boomed. But as freeways cut through Southern California neighborhoods, which Angelenos benefited— and which bore the cost of the city’s rapid rise?

This is just one of the discussion questions in a new lesson plan initiated by USC Libraries that challenges K-12 students to reexamine Los Angeles’ rich and complex history. Using extensive archival materials from library collections including USC Libraries and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, the Lost LA Curriculum Project brings forward voices that history books have often ignored. Students get a fresh look at Southern California’s transformation while bringing diverse communities to light.

The project is based on the Emmy Award-winning documentary series Lost LA, a co-production of USC Libraries and KCET, which uses archival materials to recount the city’s fascinating past.

The Tongva Before and After Spanish Arrival History of Dodger Stadium African Americans and Hollywood Toypurina: Indigenous Woman The Anti-Chinese Massacre of 1871 To learn more and download free lessons, visit kcet.org/ lostlacurriculum online.

ACADEMIC ALL-STARS

1 IN 4 USC first-year students got straight A’s in high school.

96 TH P E RC E N T IL E is the average rank on the SAT and ACT earned by entering students.

PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

STUDENT SUPPORT

$ 3 75 M I LLIO N

2 OUT OF 3

in financial aid from university sources is set aside for undergrads.

USC has one of the largest financial aid pools in the country.

USC undergrads receive some form of financial aid.

DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS M OR E TH A N

ABO U T

15%

27%

of freshmen are in the first generation of their family to attend college.

of freshmen are members of traditionally underrepresented minorities.

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The project includes figures such as former L.A. Mayor Antonio Francisco Coronel, shown here with his daughter.

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learn more about tVisit rstemcell.usc.edu o cellj research a nto and news USC’s stem initiatives.

Aging Well Stem cell scientists have a major ally In their quest to fight age-related diseases such as macular degeneration, arthritis and dementia.

WHAT ARE STEM CELLS? Stem cells are different from other cells in the body because they can develop into many different kinds of cells. They can be derived from embryos or fashioned by reprogramming adult cells so they “rewind” to an embryo-like state.

Because they can regenerate and turn into specialized cells, stem cells have the potential to treat diseases ranging from diabetes to cancer. Scientists are just beginning to tap their potential, and much work remains to be done in the laboratory and the clinic to understand how to identify and advance stem cellbased therapies.

These are just a few of the stem cell projects underway across the university.

Restoring Vision A stem cell-based retinal implant now in clinical trials shows promise in reversing dry age-related macular degeneration. This condition is the leading cause of vision loss in people over age 60, affecting 30 million to 50 million people worldwide.

Avoiding Arthritis In arthritis, cartilage between joints breaks down and doesn’t grow back.

USC researchers are studying whether a gene linked to cartilage generation can be harnessed to prevent arthritis.

$30 million the Broad Foundation contributed earlier this year toward its three namesake research centers at USC, UCLA and the University of California, San Francisco.

USC’s $10 million portion of the funding will bolster research, training and faculty recruitment at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. The center strives to apply stem cellbased technologies to diseases of aging. This work is especially critical because the number of Americans age 65 or older is expected to increase from 46 million today to more than 98 million by 2060. Most adults in this age group have a chronic disease, and many live with several health conditions.

Smarter Screening Scientists can screen thousands of potential drugs against ALS, dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases by testing the drugs on neurons reprogrammed from the skin and blood cells of patients.

Better Healing A USC lab is investigating why stem cells get worse at repairing damaged tissue as they age, which will give scientists insight about healing in the elderly.

ELI AND EDYTHE BROAD PHOTO BY SAM COMEN

After more than a decade of rigorous research, therapies based on stem cells are starting to reach clinical trials. And much of the science that laid the groundwork for these trials grew out of California.

That’s where the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation has invested $110 million to support stem cell research. The support includes

Tissue Regeneration Scientists are testing a gel that could potentially treat urinary incontinence, a common complication of childbirth. The gel would use stem cells to rebuild the urethra.

Building Bones Stem cells might one day grow into a special kind of cartilage that could help heal severe bone fractures.

Eli and Edythe Broad have championed stem cell research.

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THE KECK EFFECT

Sports Injury?

Get treated like a King.

Whether you are an all-star or a student athlete or a weekend warrior, the physicians from the USC Epstein Family Center for Sports Medicine now offer urgent orthopaedic care in El Segundo, conveniently located inside the Toyota Sports Performance Center. Our orthopaedic experts treat all types of sports injuries, from the simple to complex. Get treated by the same trusted orthopaedic physicians of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and USC Intercollegiate Athletics.

USC Epstein Family Center for Sports Medicine KeckMedicine.org/likeaking | (310) 340-1405

TKTK CREDIT

in partnership with

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Š 2019 Keck Medicine of USC

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In It to Win It Good news, weekend warriors: USC sports medicine specialists offer help to stay active for longer.

BY KRIS TIN BAIRD R AT TINI

Call them recreational athletes. Couch-to-5K joggers.

Weekend warriors. Whichever name you use, they’re the ones who wait all week to hit the soccer field, basketball court or running trail on Saturday morning. They’re up at 5 a.m. for a long run before work or playing softball until the lights switch off at night.

They might not have fancy endorsements or lucrative contracts like the professionals, but they bring just as much heart to their sport.

Juggling work and family while still leaving it all on the field every week can take its toll on the body, though. The sporadic activity that defines these intermittent athletes makes them prone to injury. “Weekend warriors represent a large number of the patients that we see,” says Keck Medicine of USC orthopaedic surgeon Frank Petrigliano, chief of the USC Epstein Family Center for Sports Medicine.

Petrigliano is the new head team physician for the L.A. Kings hockey team and a team physician for USC Athletics. Before he crossed town to join Keck Medicine in August, he served as a team physician for UCLA’s student-athletes. But he gives the same quality care to the first-time marathoner as he does to the college quarterback.

That’s part of the philosophy of USC’s sports medicine specialists, says Jay R. Lieberman, director of orthopaedic surgery at Keck Medicine. “Whether it is a professional athlete, a USC athlete or a weekend warrior, the goal is the same: We will use cutting-edge technologies to help patients attain their athletic goals,” says Lieberman, chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Across USC, disciplines like orthopaedics, physical therapy and stem cell science are uniting to support people who are active—and want to stay that way.

TRAIN AND TREAT The L.A. Kings’ practice facility, the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo, is a sports mecca in the ice hockey hotbed of Los Angeles County’s South Bay. The center, which opened in 2000, has now branched out to offer specialty services in sports medicine through the newly opened USC Epstein Family Center for Sports Medicine. This development brings USC’s sports medicine care not just to the L.A. Kings, but also to athletes of all ages and across all sports in the South Bay, including children on youth teams. “There aren’t many institutions in the United States that combine a sports medicine program, sports performance facility and care for a pro team all under one roof,” Petrigliano says.

As head of the new facility, Petrigliano oversees a staff of trojanfamily.usc.edu

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physicians and other health care providers who listen to and evaluate patients—and then customize their treatments for each one.

These treatments are multifaceted. Staff members work with athletes to prevent reinjury and stay healthy by teaching them to embrace proper conditioning and strengthening. “At a certain point in your life, your athletic career is not about intensity, but longevity,” Petrigliano says.

But USC faculty members even go beyond surgery and prevention. Some of them are working in the laboratory to use science for the benefit of future patients.

BACK IN THE GAME One of the biggest challenges to athletes in sports like soccer or skiing is knee injuries. When people damage their cartilage—the lining between bones—it grows back slowly, if at all. USC scientists want to give cartilage a boost using the power of stem cells.

Denis Evseenko, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and director of skeletal regeneration at the Keck School of Medicine, aims to go to the heart of the problem. “Drugs like ibuprofen reduce pain and inflammation, but they do not induce regeneration of tissue. Stem cell therapies are designed to regenerate the tissues, to restore them to as close to normal as possible,” he says.

After years of painstaking research, he and Petrigliano have pioneered a stem cell therapy for what are called focal cartilage lesions.

These usually happen in young people who suffer a traumatic knee injury. The knee is a common site of such lesions because injuries to that joint are often associated with ligament or meniscal tears. “The lesions usually involve an area a few square centimeters where the cartilage at the joint has been damaged and does not regenerate,” Evseenko explains. Unfortunately, the lesions also put patients at risk for osteoarthritis later.

The team developed a patch infused with stem cells. Called Plurocart, it’s nearing the clinical trial stage. Surgeons place the patch on a lesion where the stem cells are intended to create new cartilage cells. “What this preventive therapy will do, we hope,” Evseenko says, “is delay the onset of osteoarthritis and perhaps completely eliminate the need for total joint replacement.”

He and Petrigliano have also pioneered a new drug that aims to promote cartilage development while tamping down inflammation.

They’re now laying the groundwork to take this drug into clinical trials.

Patients seeking care at Keck Medicine of USC have access to new treatments spurred by academic research, Petrigliano says.

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trojan health get them back in the game is something unique to what the USC Epstein Family Center has to offer.”

This approach to athletic injuries not only touches on advances driven by science—it also ventures into fields some might not immediately identify with traditional sports medicine.

VICTORY IN SIGHT Vision probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of sports medicine, but eyesight is critical to most types of athletic performance. “Eighty percent of the information you take in about the environment comes in through your eyes,” says Charles Flowers Jr., associate professor of clinical ophthalmology. He leads the USC Roski Eye Institute Sports Vision Training Center of Excellence.

As you learn a new activity, the brain rewires itself, a process called neuroplasticity. New neural connections ease repetition of that task. “Just like you can go to the gym and lift weights to get bigger muscles,” Flowers says, “you can actually train the brain’s visual system to increase the number of connections to certain areas to enhance your visual processing and your visual performance.”

To help keep players in peak condition, a growing number of professional sports teams incorporate vision training into their practice regimen. Flowers anticipates that athletes soon will use augmented reality to simulate gameday conditions, and this will strengthen their peripheral vision and enhance visual processing speed, which are critical for detecting motion.

But weekend warriors already can benefit from exercises that Flowers prescribes for training at home.

Flowers teaches patients to fix their vision on a central point, then consciously notice everything on the periphery. “When you engage in your sport, that instinct will kick in to be more aware of your peripheral setting,” he says.

He also has patients place sticky notes on a wall at eye level.

While facing the wall, athletes can quickly look from one note to the other. These rapid eye movements, called saccades, are crucial in sports like tennis and basketball.

In another exercise, athletes can practice watching a car drive away and out of sight. These smooth-pursuit exercises sharpen the ability to track a ball or puck’s trajectory. Finally, Flowers recommends that athletes put away their cellphones before competition. “It shuts down your peripheral vision,” he says, “which can throw off your performance.”

Devices can help athletes in other ways, though—and USC faculty members have expertise there, as well.

READY TO WEAR Track coaches still use stopwatches, but the universe of modern sports technology can make them seem quaint. Today’s tracking devices and wearables help even recreational athletes monitor their fitness and look for signs of overtraining and imbalances. That awareness can prevent injury.

“With the advances in wearable technology, fitness tracking devices are becoming feasible, practical and affordable for people to use to keep themselves healthy and exercising,” says E. Todd Schroeder, associate professor of clinical physical therapy and director of the Clinical Exercise Research Center at the USC

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Need help with a sports injury? Visit ortho. keckmedicine.org or call (800) 872-2273 to learn more.

Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy.

Runners should look for a device that measures both heart rate and distance, while soccer players need to track sport-specific measures like peak speed and time spent running backward, he says.

But don’t get too complicated.

“Review a device’s user-friendly features and make sure it’s something you’re comfortable using,” Schroeder says. Otherwise, you’re likely to stop using it.

With these devices, athletes may know more about every workout—down to the number of breaths they’re taking—but how can they make sense of all the data? That’s the problem being tackled by the new master’s program with a sports science emphasis at the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy. “The new program focuses on training our students to take the data from this new technology, apply it and make it actionable,” Schroeder says. Graduates will have the skills to translate the data into training recommendations to help athletes perform at their peak.

Wearable devices that can help with injury recovery also have grown popular as athletes look for ways to bounce back faster.

Some gizmos, known as neuromuscular electrical stimulation devices, trigger muscles to contract. When athletes attach the electrical leads over their calf muscles, the device causes the muscles to contract, which increases blood flow to the leg. That may reduce fatigue and accelerate recovery. And hand-held vibrating massage devices use high-speed oscillation to reduce soreness and loosen tight muscles.

Not all advances in sports therapy require a high-tech wearable device, though. Restricting blood flow during exercise training is one of the latest techniques to help athletes recover from ACL surgery and other lower-leg injuries. A cuff tightly wrapped around an athlete’s upper thigh reduces blood flow to the lower leg. “It allows an individual to work out with a very light weight on the leg and get the same benefits of using heavy weight resistance training,” Schroeder explains. “You can start someone on an exercise protocol much faster after surgery, so they recover faster.

It’s really taking off among physical therapists as a modality for recovery and rehabilitation.”

IN IT FOR THE LONG RUN When brainstorming how to best serve patients at the Keck Medicine treatment center at the Toyota Sports Performance Center, Petrigliano and his fellow specialists placed a high priority on offering extended hours and walk-in appointments. “If someone has an acute injury, we want to get them seen as soon as possible,” Petrigliano says. But he also has long-term recovery in mind.

“In Southern California, a lot of people are going to stay very active into their older age,” Petrigliano explains. “We want to make sure they are able to do that. So we try to provide them as much information as we can so they can avoid having to see us for preventable injuries in the future.” That sets up runners, tennis players and the occasional kickboxer with more knowledge and more time to safely and passionately pursue the sports that they love.

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From gender-neutral words to textspeak, language often has undergone controversial change—and no amount of grumbling can stop it.

BY R ACHEL B . L EVI N I L LUST R AT I ON S A N D L ET T ER I N G BY M A R I ON DEUCHA R S

—G EO FFR E Y CHAUC E R

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When USC established El Centro Chicano in 1972 as a resource center for Mexican American students, organizers deliberately chose the word “Chicano” as a point of pride. The term was born out of student protests in the late 1960s during the civil rights movement.

But the center recently made one of the biggest shifts in its 47-year history: It changed its name.

Now called the Latinx Chicanx Center for Advocacy and Student Affairs (or La CASA, for short), the center made the change to move toward inclusion. It wanted to emphasize that while many of its students are of Mexican descent (Chicano/ Chicana), it also embraces those who trace their heritage to other Latin American countries (Latino/Latina).

So, what about the “x” in Latinx and Chicanx? As it turns out, there’s a lot riding on that one little letter.

Swapping out “x” for the final “o” and “a” (which in Spanish signify masculine and feminine forms, respectively) renders these terms gender neutral. “Students wanted us to recognize communities that do not fall within the gender binary of masculinity or femininity,” says Billy Vela, La CASA’s director.

The term Latinx has gained popularity on the U.S. stage in the last four years, according to Google Trends data. The x is showing up elsewhere, too. You may have noticed that newspapers like The New York Times use “Mx.” as a substitute for “Mr.” and “Mrs.” in stories about transgender people. The pronoun “they” is often used as a gender-neutral swap for “he” or “she,” as well.

While many applaud these variations as ways to address gender biases baked into language, others lament what they see as a chipping away of right and wrong in speech.

But as it turns out, bending—and occasionally breaking—traditional rules of communication has a long precedent. The evolution of language, some argue, may signal that our society is alive, well and thriving. So why is it that we get so upset when language changes? And why can’t it ever seem to just stay put?

Criticism aimed at the word Latinx includes charges of linguistic imperialism, because the word is pronounceable in English but not in Spanish. Some call it elitist for trying to erase traditional gender roles and history. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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But according to Andrew Simpson, chair of the Department of Linguistics in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, this evolution of words is nothing new. Nor is the fierce backlash. “At various points in time, different bodies have tried to standardize languages and ‘fix’ them,” Simpson says. He’s referring to entities like la Real Academia Española and l’Académie française, which seek to protect Spanish and French, respectively.

But languages have evolved anyway, he says. “It’s inevitable that language is going to continue to change, and you can’t stop it.”

As Simpson details in his book Language and Society: An Introduction, linguists see the process of language change through two different lenses: historical and sociolinguistic.

Historical changes are those that happen over long periods of time. For example, the English we use today is dramatically—and grammatically—different from Old English and Middle English.

If you’ve ever tried to read, say, Beowulf or The Canterbury Tales, you know that these earlier iterations of the language seem almost like foreign tongues. Over the course of centuries, “English lost its case system and changed its word-order patterns,” Simpson explains, likely due to early English speakers’ interactions with groups such as Vikings and Germanic Anglo-Saxons.

On the other hand, sociolinguistic changes are incremental tweaks that happen from year to year as new words, meanings and pronunciations gain traction. And if you’ve ever been exasperated by a teenager saying “like” every other word, you already know that such changes often surface first among the younger generation.

“Young people initiate change, particularly in high school,” Simpson says. “You’re moving away from your family. You’re forming a new tribe. And you need a new language for your tribe.”

Adolescence is also a period of trying on various identities as a means of self-expression. “Young people may feel a need to distinguish themselves,” Simpson says. Language, just like fashion and music taste, is another means to do so.

Simpson points to the fairly new phenomenon of vocal fry (a style in which speakers end sentences in a low-pitched, creaky voice) as an example of how young people align themselves with desirable identities. Popularized by pop-culture figures like Britney Spears and Kim Kardashian, vocal fry has been adopted mostly by female speakers to communicate the image of a successful, “California-cool” woman.

Yet the maelstrom of negative reactions to vocal fry reveals how such twists in the use of language can feel particularly alienating to an older generation. “You get used to a system of words and word patterns that’s established, and then younger-generation speakers come along and change that, so it seems like a threat to what you’re used to,” Simpson says. “Any kind of threat to an established order is something you might react to.”

When older generations see younger people turning away from traditional norms, Simpson says, their reaction may be, “Our society is breaking down.” That resistance to language change demonstrates the close relationship between language and power that exists across cultures. “Most societies have a power structure,” Simpson says. “There’s a pressure to reflect that in the language.”

When marginalized groups modify language conventions to assert equality—as in the case of Latinx or gender-neutral pronouns—it’s not surprising that some people get upset. usc trojan family

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History is rife with examples of how language becomes a battleground during social shakeups. Margaret Rosenthal, chair of the Department of French and Italian at USC Dornsife, studies female writers in early modern Italy, where anxieties about gender norms ran high. In the 15th century, the rise of the printing press allowed for publication and distribution of books beyond the male elite, she says.

“Women had more access to learning, and more women were writing and reading than ever before,” Rosenthal says. Yet, “women were still very much the property of their husbands. Generally speaking, there was a lot of fear related to what would happen with all of that knowledge.”

Sixteenth-century male poets turned to vulgar language—“misogynist, filthy, obscene poetry,” Rosenthal says—to publicly denounce female writers and condemn their entry into a sphere previously reserved only for men.

Rosenthal, whose book The Honest Courtesan about the writer and courtesan Veronica Franco was adapted into the 1998 film Dangerous Beauty, has found many instances where female poets responded to these attacks through writing.

One example is the poet Vittoria Colonna, who was a close friend of the artist Michelangelo. In some of her poems, she used a typically male qualifier to speak about herself. The pointed wording shows that she viewed her gender and her strength as not solely limited to a binary system, Rosenthal says. Additionally, Colonna flips the gender of “pronouns, nouns, and adjectives to talk about the ways she conceives of herself as not wholly—according to society’s views—feminine or masculine, but as a blurring and slippage between them.” By playing with the gendering of certain words, poets like Colonna could make a point about female power and the ambiguity of gender identity.

Much like the printing press did during the Renaissance, smartphones and social media are upending the ways we communicate and share knowledge today. And that has important implications for the spread of new words and speech patterns, since language travels at warp speed in cyberspace.

In his book Language and Society, Simpson discusses how language variations typically catch on by being passed through several channels: interpersonal relationships, geographical ties and mass media. But the internet is transforming all of these factors. Social networks have gone digital. Remote connections create shortcuts around geographical barriers, and users can now bypass traditional

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media gatekeepers—such as TV networks and book publishers— to create content that might be seen by millions.

Given that young people’s expressions of personal and group identity are a major driver of language change, it’s worth noting that this is the first generation in history that holds the power of mass media literally in its hands. The smartphone gives youth access to the same digital platforms as adults and affords them the ability to disseminate content previously reserved for media companies, allowing them to spread new ideas more quickly and widely than ever before, says Alison Trope MA ’94, PhD ’99, a professor in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Depending on your perspective, the impact that smartphones—and the influencers who wield them—are having on the dissemination of language may seem either Gucci or wack (translation: good or bad).

On the positive side, digital platforms allow for a greater diversity of voices to be heard—more than are typically represented in traditional media. Marginalized groups may increasingly define their identity on their own terms. Trope, founder of Critical Media Project, a free online media literacy resource for educators and youth to explore identity politics, says that posting thoughtful content on platforms like Instagram and YouTube can be powerful.

It enables youth of color, LGBTQ people and others to challenge stereotyped representations “through their own narratives, their own voice, their own kind of counter-storytelling.”

Such portrayals can push society toward more inclusive language. Sharing new vocabularies of identity can go viral: Just think back to Latinx, which got a boost toward the mainstream lexicon through sites like Tumblr and Twitter.

But on the negative side, some may fear that youthful textspeak is poised to topple artful, subtle and meaningful language as we know it. With all of the LOLing and OMGing going on, digital messaging has been demonized as ushering in the demise of grammar, punctuation and the integrity of structured written expression. Some lament that the visual language of emoji may at some point replace traditional words entirely and return us to an age of pictographs.

Simpson notes that, so far, there’s no hard evidence of what one language expert dubbed “linguistic Armageddon.” But there’s no doubt that visual accoutrements like emoji and gifs could potentially cause trouble by adding another layer of complexity to language. Conveying your intended meaning “is hard enough when you’re texting,” Trope says. “We have a lot of crossed wires because everything is shorthand. Communicating like that can have unintended consequences, revealing implicit biases and problematic cultural appropriation.”

It may be tempting to view the unique complications of the digital age as signs that language is simply on its way down the drain.

But Simpson cautions against such a judgment. From a linguistics perspective, any evolution in a language is just part of its natural life cycle as it adapts to social shifts. “I think what every linguist would say is that it’s neither progress nor decay. It just happens.

“So, get used to it,” he says with a smile. winter 2019

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(RE)NEW

WHETHER S A LV A G E D F R O M DUMPSTERS OR AIRPLANE G R A V E YA R D S , DISCARDED WA STE GETS A CHANCE FOR A USEFUL A N D S U S TA I N A B L E SECOND LIFE.

BY SARAH NIGHTINGALE PHOTOGRAPHS BY DARREN BRAUN

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s a chemistry professor, Travis Williams doesn’t usually hang out in alleyways. But that’s where he and fellow scientist Zhiyao Lu PhD ’16 have found themselves on a scorching summer day in Austin, Texas.

Holding their breath, Williams and Lu skirt around a row of bins bulging with chewed chicken wings and wilted French fries.

Their guide on this behind-thescenes tour, a local restaurant owner, points to what they’ve been looking for: a grease-splattered metal container filled with used cooking oil.

“Bingo,” Williams mouths to his colleague.

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Trying not to draw unwanted attention—they’re not there to steal anything, and questions would just slow them down— he snaps a few pictures of the grease traps.

He is careful to capture the contact information for the company that promises to empty them.

You might ask why two USC researchers care where greasy spoons dump the contents of their deep-fat fryers. The simple answer lies in the power of chemistry. They’re finding ways to transform that waste product into a much-needed renewable fuel— and make the world a cleaner place.

Scientists like Williams and Lu, a postdoctoral scholar in Williams’ research lab at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, are part of a growing group. They’re members of a USC community that uses science to advance environmental sustainability. These researchers are giving a second life to byproducts and discarded materials, employing recycling and upcycling to keep waste out of landfills. Oftentimes these processes reduce the need to manufacture materials from scratch, cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution. Ultimately, their work has a modest but increasingly important goal: to get the most out of resources with the minimum amount of waste.

BIOFUEL AND BEYOND The world has a trash problem. People toss out more than 2 billion tons of garbage each year, according to a World Bank report. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that the U.S. share of that pile is 262 million tons per year. Paper makes up most of it, followed by food, yard trimmings and plastic.

The recycling of discarded plastic— which can take 1,000 years to decompose— peaked at about 9% in 2018, with the rest diverted to landfills and incinerators or simply left on the ground. That unimpressive figure nose-dived a year ago when China, long the world’s biggest importer of recyclable waste, opted out of the plastics recycling business.

It feared being overwhelmed by other countries’ trash. While scientists and policymakers have contemplated creative solutions to disposing of humanity’s garbage, including launching it into space, the down-to-earth

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solution likely involves creating fewer single-use products and reusing the materials in the goods we do make.

For Williams and Lu, that means giving a new lease on life to the grease in our deep-fat fryers.

Before they hit the back alleys of Austin, Williams and Lu had been studying how to upcycle used cooking oil into biofuel at USC’s Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. They knew of the potential of biofuels, which burn cleaner than their petroleum-based counterparts and may reduce our dependence on foreign oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. One problem is the cost of

atoms, three oxygen atoms and eight hydrogen atoms, doesn’t sit well with Williams.

“As a chemist, I was trained to not waste molecular complexity,” he says. “Glycerol has a lot of molecular complexity, which isn’t reflected by its low price. I knew if we could tap into that value, we’d be able to make biofuel production pay off.”

Williams assigned the chemical puzzle to Lu, who earned his doctorate at USC. Lu returned from industry to the university to focus on pressing environmental problems— like reducing the almost 140 million tons of waste dumped into U.S. landfills each year.

At USC Loker, Lu discovered a way to convert glycerol into something valuable:

YOU MIGHT ASK WHY TWO USC RESEARCHERS CARE WHERE GREASY SPOONS DUMP THE CONTENTS OF THEIR D E E P - FAT F RY E R S . T H E S I M P L E A N S W E R L I E S I N T H E P O W E R O F C H E M I S T RY. making biofuel—an issue that has thwarted the biodiesel industry for decades. While soybeans are the biggest source of oils for the industry, the combined energy needed to grow them, extract their oils and use the oils to make biodiesel is too expensive to compete with the petroleum industry.

Starting with waste cooking oil reduces the cost, but not enough to make it profitable.

“Unfortunately, the unfavorable economics mean the industry’s expansion has relied on taxes and government subsidies that are designed to drive consumers toward cleaner, more sustainable fuel sources,” Williams says.

So the USC duo searched for ways to make biodiesel turn a profit, and they found it in glycerol.

As Williams explains, the most common way to turn vegetable oil into biodiesel is a chemical reaction that produces glycerol as a byproduct. But glycerol has little use, so it’s cheap. If they’re lucky, biofuel manufacturers can sell it for a few cents per pound to livestock producers, who spray it on the ground to keep dust down. In Southeast Asia, many producers dump it into rivers.

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sodium lactate. Used in the food processing industry, the market for this non-toxic, environmentally friendly chemical is $1.5 billion and growing. Lu patented a catalyst for the reaction, and he and Williams licensed the technology through the USC Stevens Center for Innovation. They launched Catapower Inc., and their business model earned them the 2018 USC Wrigley Sustainability Prize, which supports environmental ideas from within the USC community that have market potential. That win spurred their successful application to the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps, or I-Corps, an incubator that helps researchers turn their ideas into businesses. They worked on the technology for two months at I-Corps’ Southwest site in Texas.

“In Austin, we were encouraged to talk to real people in our market space and find out if there is a need for our product,” Williams says.

“For us, the supply chain begins when restaurant owners discard their used cooking oil, so we started at fast food restaurants.” As a Texas native, Williams knew where to find them.

Williams and Lu got lucky at Fat Sal’s Deli, where the owner took them out back and proudly showed them his new grease trap. After they hopped a few fences, that

WA STE NOT USC students, faculty and staff are embracing the mantra of “reduce, reuse and recycle.”

Here are a few ways they’re reducing and diverting waste from landfills:

SO LONG, STRAWS In 2018, the Environmental Student Assembly, the Undergraduate Student Government and Environmental Core, a campus club, successfully petitioned to remove plastic straws from all USC dining halls.

BIN THERE, DONE THAT USC installed 120 new bins with separate waste and recycling sections in buildings on the University Park Campus.

An additional 60 recycling bins were installed at USC Village and in outdoor locations across campus.

TRAY MAGNIFIQUE If you’re looking for food trays in student dining halls, you won’t find them. USC Hospitality removed them to discourage overloading, and that pays off in less wasted food. And at Parkside, food waste goes into compost bins managed by USC students’ Garden Club.

ZEROING IN ON WASTE USC earned L.A. County’s Green Leadership Award in recognition of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum’s zero-waste efforts.

During home football games— for both the USC Trojans and Los Angeles Rams—stadium staff members sort every piece of trash to divert more than 90 percent of garbage from the landfill, the industry standard for zero waste.

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encounter led the duo to the local dump.

That led them to the guy who collects oil from the dump, followed by the guy who filters out the by-now unidentifiable bits of fried food, and, eventually, to the companies that buy the oil and make biofuel.

All this trash may become Catapower’s treasure. The venture aims to open a biofuel plant by 2024. But the technology is already in use at the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies on Santa Catalina Island. A demonstration program turns used cooking oil from the center’s cafeteria into biodiesel that powers the institute’s passenger boat.

LIGHTENING THE LOAD Williams said his approach to research changed when he realized the importance of getting out of the lab and doing chemistry “not on reagents, but on real-world things.”

He aimed for the skies in another project, which gives a second life to the materials used to build light, fast airplanes, like carbon fiber.

Increasingly used by commercial aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus, carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites consist of long woven strands of carbon fibers combined with a matrix, or resin. The material’s structural marriage offers exceptional strength without substantial weight, making the composites popular for airplanes and other vehicles. Composites account for half of the weight of the world’s best-selling passenger plane, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, and the carbon composite chassis of BMW’s popular i3 electric car is so light it can easily be lifted by two people. Compared with traditional manufacturing materials—even lightweight metals like aluminum—the weight savings offered by composites make a tangible difference in fuel efficiency.

But there are downsides to composites: their cost, the wasteful manufacturing process and their resistance to traditional recycling.

“Planes made of composites are not like their aluminum counterparts, which can essentially be recycled like big soda cans,” Williams says. “Right now, we burn them or bury them, neither of which is good for the environment.”

In 2018, Williams challenged Katelyn Michael ’19, then an undergrad doing research in his lab, with figuring out how to

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recycle carbon fibers from retired airplanes. Michael, who is now pursuing a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, jumped at the chance to tackle a sustainability-related project. The cross-disciplinary research was done with Carlos Navarro, a doctoral student in the lab, and Yijia Ma MS ’17, PhD ’19, who worked in USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s M.C. Gill Composites Center.

“The resin in these composites is chemically engineered.

Our thought process was that if these chemicals are purposefully linked together, maybe we can take them apart,” Michael says. “The catalyst we designed specifically targets and breaks the “ S T U D E N T S key bond made while curing the material. J O I N M Y L A B So, as the resin dissolves away, the woven B E C A U S E T H E Y fibers are left intact and can be collect- A R E I N S P I R E D ed and reused.” The idea earned Michael B Y S U S TA I N A B L E and Navarro the 2019 USC Wrigley I N N O V AT I O N .

Sustainability Prize.

Engineer Bo Jin PhD ’17 is another re- F O R T H E M , T H E searcher at the M.C. Gill Composites Center P O S S I B I L I T I E S working to reclaim composite waste from A R E E N D L E S S .” the commercial aircraft industry. Rather than focusing on scraps from decommissioned planes, though, Jin upcycles composite waste created in the production process.

“When you think about the parts in an aircraft, most of the shapes are irregular,” Jin says. “So when you make parts like the fuselage, wings and tail, you end up with a lot of production waste.”

Jin’s research takes advantage of the fact that many composites are manufactured as sheets. Their carbon fibers are treated with a resin but remain flexible until they are cut to size and cured with heat and high pressure. Some estimates suggest that 50-60% of composite sheets end up as scraps on the factory floor at some point in the production line.

“I couldn’t believe there was no way to recycle these valuable composites, so when I came to USC, this problem became the focus of my PhD research,” he says. Today, he continues the work as director of USC’s Advanced Composites Simulation Lab. The process Jin and his team developed involves cutting scraps of composite sheets into thin strips of various shapes and sizes, pressing them in molds and heating them to form new composite parts. It’s a L E A R N concept he likens to the production of plywood or fiberboard.

MORE “Once we’ve formed them, we characterize them internally A B O UT and externally to measure their strength and stiffness,” Jin says.

While the new sheets won’t be used as major load-bearing struc- U S C ’ S tures in airplanes in the near future, the reclaimed composites can S U S TA I N be crafted into structures in planes that bear less of a load, like A B I L I T Y dividers, seats and luggage compartments. They can be used for E F F O RTS cars and buildings, too.

Jin says his students are constantly striving to expand the ap- AT G R E E N . plications for their upcycled composites. Through the students’ cre- U S C . E D U . ativity, today’s airplanes might take on new life as bicycle frames, skateboards and cellphone cases. Some might be used as oil pipes, or even the grease traps restaurant owners use to dispose of their used cooking oil.

“Students join my lab because they are inspired by sustainable innovation,” Jin says. “For them, the possibilities are endless.”

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Ta l e s o f

REDEMPTION K

Released prisoners SHARE THEIR STORIES while USC students WRITE THEIR OWN in an unusual partnership that has CHANGED LIVES.

By J O A N N A C L AY

Illustrations by EDEL RODRIGUEZ

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M V V BOLD INK Men who are transitioning back into society after years of incarceration have long been participating in a writers’ workshop at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences’ Writing Program. Thanks to a $7,300 grant through the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, their work was finally published.

After their collection—48th Street Anthology: Stories from the Truly Free—debuted last year, they celebrated with a night of readings at a café near the University Park Campus.

The stories, essays and poems that fill the anthology’s pages touch on themes such as liberation, joy, forgiveness and loss. They describe painful childhoods and the inescapable burden of regret.

Their text is available upon request by contacting Stephanie Bower, USC Dornsife associate professor of writing, at sbower@usc.edu.

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Mike taps and pokes at the keys of a small black laptop for about 10 minutes, maybe 12, before he lifts his fingers. His clicks go silent.

The words on his screen hold memories.

They’re about a love who was lost long ago.

He reads his story aloud to the men and women sitting around him, taking them back in time. The storyteller spins his tale of Vicky, her old station wagon and their dates at the drive-in.

“Guess we always knew it wouldn’t last forever, but then again, now some nights I wonder how far off she may be,” he says, a slight crack in his voice. “A tune from the late ’60s comes to mind, and I’m transported to the happiness and the warmth—far more enduring than when the lightning first struck.”

Bespectacled and clad in denim, Mike won’t share his age. But with his head of gray hair, you can do the math.

Mike got out of prison in 2018; he went away nearly 36 years ago at age 31. It was his last of four stints in prison. He has served a total of 45 years behind bars over the course of his life.

Now, Mike spends his Thursday nights doing something different.

He writes.

¶ Mike has company on these evenings: USC students and instructors and his fellow residents at Francisco Homes.

Francisco Homes is a nonprofit that offers housing and support to help formerly incarcerated men transitioning back into society. Stephanie Bower and John Murray, both associate professors of writing at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, have worked closely with the Francisco Homes transition program for more than a decade.

They launched a writing workshop for men there in 2016 in collaboration with Emily Artiano and Ben Pack MPW ’12, both USC Dornsife assistant professors.

The effort grew, and now it includes USC students. As part of a class, these students and their instructors travel to one of the transition homes, a stately Craftsman less than a mile from the University Park Campus, once a week.

The students connect to people who have stories to tell, while the men get to try their hand at creative writing.

The USC course is a version of Writing 150, “Writing and Critical Reasoning: Thematic Approaches.” All USC firstyear students must take some form of the course, regardless of their major. Some of the Writing 150 class offerings focus on economics and international relations, while others tackle aesthetics. Artiano and Pack put a different spin on their Writing 150 class: community engagement.

For this iteration of the course, students pick among three local organizations that address either education inequity, homelessness or restorative justice to dispel assumptions and think critically when writing about societal issues. Working with Francisco Homes gives students insight into the criminal justice system.

Its seven homes across Los Angeles provide housing and support for about 80 men who have left prison behind. Most residents are former lifers. During the class, men don’t delve into the specifics when talking about their crimes, but life sentences are invoked for serious offenses—so some of the men carry burdens of regret from their past.

Until recently, none of the men would have expected to be released—but due to an effort to reduce the prison population, California has allowed the release on parole of hundreds of prisoners who were serving long sentences. After their release, many of these men stay in transitional housing like Francisco Homes, where they may live for six months or longer.

¶ After Mike shares his story about Vicky, instructors Artiano and Pack chime in with some observations. (Francisco Homes asked USC Trojan Family Magazine to only use residents’ first names winter 2019

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to protect the men as they attempt to rebuild their lives.)

“I love the way that you said that,” says Artiano, who holds a doctorate in early American literature. “That’s such a nice way of saying sometimes our memories can be stronger and more powerful than our feelings in [the actual] moment.”

Mike plans to keep working on the piece and submit it to the Francisco Homes newsletter, which the class helps put together. It features essays about reintegrating into society, along with creative writing.

For many of the men, the workshop has ignited creativity that had been dormant for a long time.

“I look forward to it every day,” Ed, 76, says of writing. Ed had been in prison for 37 years before getting out about two years ago and moving to Francisco Homes. He became the house manager, then moved out—but he still returns to the workshop.

He admits that when the classes first started, he avoided them. He didn’t want to do it, he says. He felt that he lacked the skills.

“It got so unbearable, I hid,” he says, with a laugh. At first, he went to his room and then to his car down the street.

“One day, they trapped me,” he says. “[My writing] wasn’t that good, but they kept talking about it and kept talking about it.”

And that felt good, he says. Writing in a group has offered some side benefits, too: Ed used to get stage fright talking in front of others, and now he doesn’t.

For many, it’s also a chance to socialize and learn new skills, like how to use apps to share written work. Many of the residents went to prison in the 1970s and 1980s, before smartphones and laptops were ubiquitous.

The class has made an impact on the USC students, too, challenging their assumptions about people who have served time in prison.

“I never had this interaction with this group of people before,” says 19-year-old Oussa Bun, who took the class and wrote a report on voting rights for citizens with felony convictions. “All I knew was what people told me and from movies and TV shows.

“I didn’t feel like I was sitting with people who had been to prison. I felt like I was sitting with writers, painters.”

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his experience with the men of Francisco Homes, who taught him the preciousness of time.

“Seeing them do what they love—pursuing art—made me rethink what my passion is and what I want to do,” he says. He switched his studies from civil engineering to photography.

¶

When USC students share their own writing during the group sessions, the process can lead them toward forgotten memories or reinforce values.

During one session, Xiomara Neri Hidalgo, a math major, talks about the time she didn’t have enough money to buy her mother a birthday gift, so she made one. It was a shadow box full of old photos from her mom’s life, decorated with hand-cut paper and flowers.

It’s her first time sharing in the workshop, and the residents offer her some feedback.

“That’s a beautiful effort you put into it,” says Doc, a senior Francisco Homes resident who eventually transitioned from the house.

Mike chimes in with words of support: “It made my day, really.”

While the course is intended to give USC students a new perspective on social issues as they compose class papers, none of the writing done in the course’s nighttime workshops at Francisco Homes is graded or turned in. But it undoubtedly influences other assignments, the instructors say. Just as it is for the residents, the work the students share is often personal. It’s an opportunity for both groups to be vulnerable.

If students are going to write about incarceration or criminal justice, “we believe they should talk to people affected by those issues,” Pack says. “But it’s also lovely to see them write about their cats or their friends or high school experiences, because we don’t necessarily see that work in the course.” Hearing work written without grades at stake feels special, he adds.

The class sticks with students after the semester is over. Bun and former classmate Sabrina Panfil want to continue volunteering with Francisco Homes.

Maybe they’ll take some of the guys to the beach, they suggest.

Many haven’t been there in decades.

v v

SECOND CHANCES

Inmates at the maximum-security Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California came together and sat in a circle in an enormous gym. Most had spent at least half their lives in prison.

They were expected to eventually die there for crimes they committed as juveniles or young adults.

But on this day, they started to consider second chances. Several USC law students, advocates and human rights and legal professionals had traveled to Pelican Bay to talk with the prisoners about new laws that could lead to their freedom.

Leading the group was Heidi Rummel, a co-director of the USC Gould School of Law’s Post-Conviction Justice Project, which has co-sponsored or written nearly every juvenile justice bill in California since 2012.

One of its major achievements was working with legislators to change state law so that juveniles sentenced to life without parole now have a meaningful opportunity for release.

Over the last year, Rummel and her Post-Conviction Justice Project students teamed with Elizabeth Calvin, senior advocate at Human Rights Watch, who also teaches at USC Gould.

Their mission is to hold parole workshops at every prison in California that has juveniles sentenced to life without parole.

They offer guidance, one-on-one legal sessions and step-by-step preparation for parole hearings. The group asks the men to consider their crimes and search within themselves for how they’ve reformed. They present the three main questions that will be asked: What did you do? Why did you do it? How have you changed?

“The questions are simple, but the answers are difficult,” Rummel cautions prisoners, who otherwise might be unprepared for the hearings. “And your answer to the change question must reflect real change.”

Participation also motivates USC students like Peraya Siriwong ’14, JD ’19, who now works in a public defender’s office. Says Siriwong: “The project has given me an opportunity to meet many inspiring individuals who have maintained hope when it seemed impossible.” GILIEN SIL SBY

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Volunteer with USC. Saturday, March 14, 2020 Each year, the USC Alumni Day of SCervice provides a chance for thousands of Trojans to gather and make a difference in their communities—by participating in local service projects organized

by USC alumni and affiliated groups worldwide.

Visit alumni.usc.edu/scervice now to volunteer to host a project, and visit after January 15 to sign up for a project near you.

ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300

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FA M I LY TROJAN LEGACY

PHOTO BY JOHN MCGILLEN

Wide receiver John Jackson III greets young fans on a day USC upset Utah, 30-23. Jackson is the son of former USC wide receiver John Jackson Jr. ’90 and grandson of the late John Jackson, former running backs coach and offensive coordinator for the Trojans.

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family news

Center Stage A seasoned veteran of the stage reflects on the glamour—and hard work—of life as a New York opera star.

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graduated from USC. I’ve been very fortunate to have literally not stopped working since right out of college.”

He credits his longevity in one of the world’s premier opera houses to his training at the USC Thornton School of Music, where mentors like conductors Rodney Eichenberger and Randall Behr drilled into him the preparation and sacrifice it takes to be among the best. Behind every glittering gala or glamorous opening night are untold hours of rigorous study, memorization and rehearsal.

“It’s all about preparation,” Bernstein says. “Imagine holding an encyclopedia that’s 2 inches thick. That’s about how much music I’m constantly going over.”

After studying ancient Egyptian, Bernstein recently played the role of Aye in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten.

It’s one of four productions the 53-year-old appears in this season, and he’s an understudy in two others.

“From September to May, it’s a marathon for me,” he says. Healthful food and exercise, with only the occasional glass of wine, help him stay in prime shape for the demanding schedule.

Bernstein also draws strength from his family— wife, Jaimie, and children, Josh, Sophie and Zach.

Because he has been a full-time company member with the Met for more than a decade, he spends most nights at home rather than on the road, a rare luxury in the opera world. Most singers travel the globe as freelancers, but Bernstein’s dependable and steady presence since his debut in 1995 has earned him a reputation as the Met’s go-to guy. He is ready to step in for challenging parts or unexpected jams, like when a singer backs out of a role at the last minute.

“I strive for consistency, doing my best and letting the results be what they may,” he says.

When not poring over lines in other languages— from French to Sanskrit—Bernstein offers private voice lessons and mentors young singers striving for their big break. He can see himself doing more of that in the coming years. Perhaps one day he’ll become a full-time teacher for the next generation of opera performers.

But for now, he is not quite ready to give up the bright lights of New York City.

“I’m not done yet,” he says. “I love what I’m doing.” ERIC LINDBERG

“In some ways, it feels like I’ve been doing it a long time.

In other ways, it feels like it was yesterday that it all began, that I just graduated from USC.” —RICHARD BERNSTEIN

Richard Bernstein has appeared in Carmen, among other productions, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

PHOTO BY MARTY SOHL/COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA

On the eve of graduating from USC, Richard Bernstein ’89 told the Daily Trojan that he dreamed of singing with the famed Metropolitan Opera within 10 years.

He made it in six.

His unwavering dedication to each role and a deep, dynamic voice—The New York Times has praised it as robust, with “an especially rich lower range”—have kept him there ever since.

The operatic bass is in his 25th season with the New York institution, his resume brimming with nearly 450 performances.

“In some ways, it feels like I’ve been doing it a long time,” Bernstein says. “In other ways, it feels like it was yesterday that it all began, that I just

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Seeds of Change

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DING QIN AND THE LITTLE FIR FOUNDATION

A USC alumna gives rural Chinese students a window to a wider world.

For generations, farmers in the countryside of Shouxian, China, have been subject to the whims of the Huai River. Agriculture flourishes in the landlocked county, but farms are prone to devastating periodic flooding.

Education is often the only way for families to find better opportunities and escape poverty.

Jingying Wu MPL ’99 has seen firsthand the power of education for rural students. She is co-founder and president of the Little Fir Foundation, which has helped more than 100 Shouxian high school students enter college. “The foundation encourages students to pursue their dreams and offers them guidance,” she says.

Wu, who owns Sagewood Equity, a real estate investment company in New York, created the nonprofit in 2009. The foundation offers scholarships and mentorship for promising high school students in Shouxian. In 2018, about 40 college and 60 high school students were part of the program.

Since 2015, Little Fir has also hosted a two-week summer camp in Nantong, China (a city about 80 miles northwest of Shanghai), for 200 elementary- and middle-school students. “We teach English in the camps to give these kids from rural areas a global perspective,” she says.

During the camp’s first year, she remembers when eighth-grade students asked about her childhood.

“I told them about going to the United States, and also that I spent the first five years of my life at my grandma’s house 20 minutes away. All their jaws dropped,” Wu says. “The next year, I met a girl who, before going to the camp, had been at the bottom of her class. She said my story had opened her eyes, and she realized she could have a life that was more rewarding than working on a farm with her parents.” The girl became a top student and now attends one of the best high schools in the area and plans on going to college.

Wu was born in Beijing to two college professors and went to live with her grandmother in Nantong when she was 6 months old. She graduated from Tsinghua University and studied urban planning and real estate economics at USC. She later earned an MBA from New York University.

The idea for Little Fir germinated during a Thanksgiving dinner when Wu and her college roommate, Li Chang, talked about their journey from China and how to help those without the same opportunities.

“Suddenly, I said, ‘Why don’t we do something? We can impact people’s lives and do something meaningful on our own,’¢” Wu says. Chang’s uncle worked on poverty initiatives in Shouxiang, and he helped them establish a partnership with three area schools.

The foundation’s name comes from a song Wu sang as a child about how sun and rain help little fir trees grow tall, after she has helped so many students grow and thrive. The song is even more special to her now.

She credits her mother, a professor of mechanical engineering, for inspiring her. “She taught me to be independent and listen to my heart,” she says. “One time I snuck into her class and saw how she was teaching. She was never afraid of taking a leap of faith and always encouraged me to stay curious.”

The Little Fir Foundation offers scholarships and mentoring for promising students in Shouxian, a heavily agricultural area of China. The foundation, co-founded by alumna Jingying Wu (pictured right, wearing cap in middle), also hosts a summer camp where children learn English.

BEN JAMIN GLEIS SER

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Honoring History A trip of a lifetime gives Trojans new insight into the past—and the future.

Shirley and Basil Christopoulos ’84 still get a little emotional remembering a man they met in France earlier this year.

The couple and their friends met him by chance at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France, the final resting place for more than 9,000 American soldiers who fought in World War II. They struck up a conversation and soon noticed he was standing next to a grave marker that had a pebble at its base. “I brought the stone from my garden at home,” the man explained. “This is my dad. I was 5 months in my mother’s womb when he died.”

The man’s story has stayed with the couple, even months later. “It really got me,” Shirley Christopoulos says. “I got choked up. This man had never met his father and finally got to stand at his grave for the first time. We shared that moment with him.”

Paying their respects and visiting places they had only seen in history books were just some of the unforgettable experiences for the couple. They had joined a 10-day Trojan Travel trip planned in collaboration with the National World War II Museum that followed the Allied Forces’ path from Rotterdam to Normandy, retracing the journey from ear- —BASIL CHRISTOPOULOS ly defeat to defining victory.

“Trojan Travel looks to provide unique, engaging experiences that are tucked into the itineraries during our tours,” says Linda Ball, associate director at the USC Alumni Association. The trip was planned so that on June 6, the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, the group was on hand in Normandy to take part in an international celebration that drew leaders and visitors from around the world.

“This was not a CliffsNotes version of a trip,” Basil Christopoulos says. “This was a full immersion. We were out all day, every day

with expert guides at every location.” An after-dinner speaker series would recap everything they saw that day. Not only did they meet and get to know other Trojans, but the tour also brought together first-person voices from history: World War II veterans traveled with the group as special guests and quickly became travel buddies.

“Some were 95, but you would not believe how in shape and sharp and amazing they were,” Basil Christopoulos says.

Everywhere they went, Shirley Christopoulos remembers, “locals would walk right up to these veterans and hug and kiss them. People would thank them and cry. ... I can’t describe the feeling of seeing those emotional moments.”

Those poignant, unplanned connections are the ones that have left a lasting imprint on them, the couple says. They tell their friends that the journey wasn’t just a vacation, but more like a discovery of the past—“a trip of learning, seeing and remembering history.” Before parting ways with their new veteran friends, the couple had asked how to best honor their generation’s sacrifices.

“One said, ‘Tell your children what happened here. So many [of us] didn’t want to talk about war when we went home. Tell our story so people still know,’ ” Shirley Christopoulos says. The couple has taken those words to heart.

“Next time, we want to go back with our kids and share what we learned and experienced on this trip,” she says. “I want to honor their stories.” ELISA HUANG

“We joke that it’s been months since coming home, but every time people ask about the trip, we still get goosebumps talking about it.”

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Above: Shirley and Basil Christopoulos stop for a snapshot. Opposite page, clockwise from top: The French village Étretat is famed for its cliffs; jets flying over the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day; a returning American veteran shares his memories.

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CEMETERY PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA BALL; ALL OTHER PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CHRISTOPOULOS FAMILY

Each year, Trojan Travel offers more than 50 trips throughout the world. To learn more, visit trojantravel.usc.edu.

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Save the Date!

THRIVE TOGETHER: SEATTLE March 6-7, 2020 Seattle, Washington Join us in Seattle as USC women of all ages and backgrounds gather to inspire one another to create positive change in their personal lives, their communities and the world. womensconference.usc.edu

TKTK

ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300

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Paul R. Ignatius ’42 (LAS), who served as secretary of the U.S. Navy during Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration, received the honor of having a Navy guided missile destroyer named after him. The USS Paul Ignatius is the 67th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and will conduct a variety of missions, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Lyle Webb Buffington DDS ’43 (DEN) turned 100 on Nov. 17, 2019.

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Anthony Di Marco ’50 (SCJ) published TriviLA, the third of his series of trivia books. The first two were The Movie Game and The Illustrated Book of Sports Firsts.

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Richard Byyny ’61 (LAS), MD ’64 (MED), chancellor emeritus at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been executive director of Alpha Omega Alpha honor medical society since 2010. He is also editor of The Pharos, the organization’s medical humanities journal.

George Lucas ’66 (SCA) received the 2019 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in recognition of the George Lucas Educational Foundation’s support for learning initiatives, teacher development and technological innovation in K-12 schools.

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Larry J. Coe MAOM ’71 (ENG), MPA ’77 (SPP) is an executive partner at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary, where he provides mentoring, career advice and training for students and consulting support for faculty. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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Beverly J. Quail ’71 (LAS) is serving a threeyear term on the American Bar Association’s Board of Governors representing District 11. She serves on the finance committee and is a liaison to the association’s Commission on Women in the Profession and Commission on Disability Rights.

Bobbi Tillmon ’74 (LAS), JD ’77 (LAW), a judge for the Los Angeles Superior Court, was appointed to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Judicial Selection Advisory Committee, which promotes a diverse and inclusive nomination process for California’s judiciary.

Virginia Kennedy MS ’75 (EDU) is an associate professor of special education at California State University, Northridge, and president of the California Council on Teacher Education, a statewide organization of teacher education professionals in higher education and K-12 programs.

Doug Piper MS ’75 (ENG) retired from the United Services Automobile Association after 30 years. He previously served four years as a U.S. Air Force officer, received the Air Force Commendation Medal twice and was a distinguished graduate of Squadron Officer School. He taught accounting for 19 years at the University of Texas at San Antonio and at the University of the Incarnate Word.

Paul Schwartz ’76 (ENG) retired after 42 years as chief engineer at the USC Foundation for Cross-Connection Control and Hydraulic Research.

Charles Joseph Greaves ’78 (LAS) published Church of the Graveyard Saints, which launched the “Four Corners/One Book” series, an annual community-wide reading program focused on the American Southwest.

Billy Childs ’79 (MUS), a five-time Grammy Awardwinning pianist, is a 201920 visiting scholar at the Berklee College of Music, where he teaches jazz composition, coaches a student ensemble and leads master classes.

1 9 8 0 s

Kelly J. Johansen MS ’80 (ENG) was inducted into Omaha’s Benson High School Hall of Fame for his career as a computer engineer and missile scientist. He retired in 2018 after 44 years working in the defense industry at companies including the Hughes Aircraft Company, XonTech Inc. and Northrop Grumman.

Larry D. Reiner MPA ’80 (SPP) retired after a 38-year career as a court administrator in California, Maryland and Idaho.

Linda Romero Soles MPA ’80 (SPP) retired as court executive officer for the Merced Superior Court. She also worked at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and the Stanislaus Superior Court. She was the first court executive officer from California to receive the Institute for Court Management Fellow Star Award.

Frank Rexach ’81 (LAS) is the executive director of Asia Society Southern California, a leading educational organization dedicated to strengthening partnerships between Asia and the United States. He is also a board member of the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association.

Dale Bailes MFA ’82 (LAS) published a nonfiction story in the June issue of Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.

Roger Gray ’82 (LAS/SCJ), a retired attorney and middle school teacher, is the principal of QwertyVox, a voice-over, broadcast and internet advertising production service.

Mark R. Henschke PharmD ’83 (PHM) was honored by the Maine Osteopathic Association for 30 years of service as an osteopathic physician in Maine.

James D. Williams PhD ’83 (LAS) published his 17th book, The Decline in Educational Standards: From a Public Good to a Quasi-Monopoly.

Michael Abels ’84 (MUS) was profiled on NPR for his work on the score of Jordan Peele’s horror movie Us. usc trojan family

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Trojans Together

We invite all alumni to join the USC Career Network, USC’s online mentorship and networking platform, to offer their expertise to a student or fellow alum.

Go to alumni.usc.edu/career today to help deliver on the promise of the Trojan Family—lifelong and worldwide.

TKTK

ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300 | LIFELONG AND WORLDWIDE

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B A C K

I N

T I M E

1 9 9 0

R O S E

B O W L

C H A M P I O N S

Coming Up Roses

Thirty years ago, the Trojans celebrated one of their most memorable turnarounds.

PHOTO BY MIKE POWELL/GETTY IMAGES

USC’s legendary 1990 Rose Bowl victory crowned a dramatic season that got off to a grim start.

For many USC fans, the 1989 college football season was over before it even began.

That’s what it felt like, at least, when quarterback Pat O’Hara went down with a season-ending knee injury only 10 days before the first game. His backup—an untested freshman—stepped in, and fans were worried. But magic moments often come from surprising places. By season’s end, the Trojans were Pac-10 and Rose Bowl champions, handing the faithful a satisfying fairy tale ending.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Todd Marinovich had an impressive pedigree—his father, Marv, was a USC captain who played in the NFL—but he wasn’t expected to start that year. Yet he rose to the challenge and the team went undefeated in the Pac10. Wins included a dramatic comeback against Washington State that ended on a

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miraculous 91-yard touchdown march known as “The Drive”—a play that cemented the 1989 team in Trojan lore.

When the 1990 Rose Bowl rolled around, it was déjà vu: USC had faced the Michigan Wolverines in Pasadena the previous year.

The Trojans were still smarting from a bitter 22-14 defeat and ready to even the score.

But with Michigan legend Bo Schembechler coaching his final game, the Wolverines would likely come out swinging to send off their beloved leader.

USC had other ideas for Schembechler’s finale. In the second quarter, defensive lineman Dan Owens blocked a Michigan punt and future NFL superstar Junior Seau returned it to the Wolverine 11-yard line. A touchdown soon followed.

After a successful fourth-quarter Michigan fake punt was called back due to a penalty,

the Trojans made a move with a minute of play left. Running back Ricky Ervins took off on a 14-yard touchdown run that crystallized USC’s 17-10 victory. Ervins was named MVP, the Trojans had their payback and Schembechler refused all interview requests as he stalked off the field. The win was especially sweet for USC Coach Larry Smith, who had served as a Schembechler assistant for six years.

“I’m sorry that [Schembechler] is leaving the game,” Smith told the Los Angeles Times.

“But you never apologize for winning.”

The win helped the Trojans shake off four consecutive bowl game losses. And though the team didn’t make the championship leap everyone hoped for the following year, Trojan fans will never forget the thrilling end to a season that began as one of the most uncertain in USC football. S TE VE CIMINO

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Lisa Kloppenberg ’84 (LAS/SCJ), JD ’87 (LAW), dean and professor of law at Santa Clara University, has served as the school’s interim provost since April. An expert in dispute resolution and constitutional law, she co-authored a popular text for law students about advocating during negotiation, mediation and arbitration.

George Santa Anna ’84 (LAS), an attorney at GMSA Legal, is a member of the Los Angeles Education Partnership’s board of directors. He is also on the board of directors for the Friends of the Los Angeles Law Library.

Paulette Singley ’85 (ARC) published How to Read Architecture, a guide to the fundamentals of interpreting the built environment.

Language interpreters who relay information during disasters.

Joel Roessner JD ’89 (LAW) is chief counsel of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and delivers all legal services required to support ATF strategic goals and objectives. He previously served as ATF’s deputy chief counsel, deputy assistant director and associate chief counsel.

Philip Song ’89 (BUS), founder of Philip Song and Associates, was included in the Orange County Business Journal’s list of top 100 private companies. Established in 1994, the business and real estate investment company is located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.

Lisa Hatton Harrington JD ’93 (LAW) joined the Los Angeles office of Cooley LLP as outside general counsel.

Karen Grant-Selma JD ’94 (LAW) is senior vice president of business and legal affairs at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, where she oversees standards and practices, international sales, union administration, rights management and risk assessment.

Kelly Smith Parker ’94 (SCJ) celebrated five years since she founded Good In Deed, a nonprofit online portal that supports charities and community action.

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Wayne Kamemoto ’87 (ACC), a senior partner at DWA, was named one of Billboard’s 2019 top business managers in the music industry.

Brian Thomas Pallasch ’87 (LAS) is CEO of the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants.

John B. Parkinson Jr. MS ’87 (ENG) is a lecturer in discipline at the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University, where he teaches construction administration for the master’s program.

Michael Bolus ’87 (SCA) published Aesthetics and the Cinematic Narrative: An Introduction.

Cynthia DeCure ’88 (SDA) is assistant professor adjunct of acting at the Yale School of Drama, teaching speech and dialect and coaching at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Tracy Lehr MA ’89 (SCJ), a weekend anchor at KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara, California, won a Pacific Southwest Chapter Emmy Award for her story about American Sign

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MaryBeth Heydt MPL ’91 (SPP) is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Lewis Brisbois and has more than 25 years of experience in litigation, transactional and business advisory matters.

Joe Della Santina ’91 (LAS), MBA ’97 (BUS) competed in the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Championships in Whistler, British Columbia, during his first full season on the international skeleton circuit.

Barry Gribbons MS ’92, PhD ’95 (EDU) is president of Los Angeles Valley College.

Millicent Borges Accardi MPW ’93 (LAS) published her poetry in Blue Collar Review, The Bosphorus Review of Books, The Laurel Review and Tinfish Press. She also served as poetry judge for the Hampton Roads Writers Conference in Norfolk, Virginia.

Elizabeth Atlee JD ’93 (LAW), senior vice president and deputy general counsel at CBRE, was named one of the 50 Most Powerful Latinas in Corporate America by the Association of Latino Professionals for America and Fortune magazine.

T R O J A N

T R I B U T E

Jim Hardy Before his death on Aug. 16, Jim Hardy ’46 was the oldest living USC and Los Angeles Rams football player.

A lifelong USC football fan who saw his first Trojan game in 1931, Hardy attended nearly every home game since then (except when he was in the NFL). He was so devoted that, until two years ago, he would drive himself two hours from the desert to USC once a week in the fall to watch the Trojans practice. He also attended more than 80 Rose Bowl games, including all but the first two of USC’s 34 Rose Bowl appearances.

At USC, Hardy served as quarterback and defensive back. He was team captain in 1944, setting school season passing records for completions, yardage and touchdowns and earning All-Pacific Coast Conference honors.

He also played third base for the USC baseball team for three years, earning All-California Intercollegiate Baseball Association honors and helping the Trojans to the league title in 1946.

He played quarterback in the NFL for seven seasons, including stints for the inaugural Los Angeles Rams team in 1946 and the NFL champion Lions in 1952. Later, he was the general manager of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, including during the 1984 Summer Olympics.

He is survived by his wife of 74 years, Henrietta ’47; daughters Cindy, Ellen and K. Maria; son Danny; and a grandson.

HARDY PHOTO COURTESY OF USC ATHLETICS

Liz Steblay ’86, MBA ’95 (BUS) launched the Professional Independent Consultants of America, a national organization that helps people set up, run and grow their own consulting businesses.

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A LU M N A

P R O F I L E

J E S S I C A

D AV I S

’ 1 4

The Fast Track

PHOTO BY JOHN MCGILLEN

A top-ranked runner takes on a new challenge: bobsledding.

In high school, Jessica Davis ’14 joined the track and field team to spend more time with a cute boy. But before she knew it, she was beating boys like him in races.

The Palmdale, California, teen’s natural talent and work ethic took her all the way to the 2009 Pan Am Junior Championships, where she won a gold medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay.

Davis accepted a scholarship to USC, following in her father’s footsteps—Jesse Davis played football from 1993 to 1996—and she burst onto the scene at Troy. She raced past a USC freshman record in the 200-meter dash previously set by Olympian Angela Williams ’02. “That record hadn’t been touched in over a decade, so that meant a lot to me and made me feel special,” Davis says.

By the time she graduated with a degree in human development and aging from the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, Davis had served as team captain and was a fourtime All-American. She also etched her name

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into USC’s record books, ranking in the top 10 in school history for the 100 meters, 200 meters and 800-meter relay.

But after two years as a pro, she started to question her career. “I was so focused on trying to win and trying to make good marks that I didn’t have time to sit back and enjoy it,” she says. “It stopped being fun for me.”

When she told her coach she was calling it quits, his response took her by surprise: “Why don’t you try bobsled?”

She didn’t know anything about the sport and laughed it off. But unbeknownst to her, speed was exactly what bobsled coaches were looking for.

Encouraged to give it a shot, she found herself that same month at the USA Bobsled Combine to test her skills and strength. Her scores were good enough to land a spot at a rookie training camp and, shortly afterward, a place at team trials with bobsled veterans.

“It happened so fast,” Davis says. “Each week was something new and I kept making

Former track and field team captain Jessica Davis is the first Trojan on the U.S. bobsled team.

it, kept making it, kept making it.” She made it all the way to Team USA, and just a few months after catching wind of the sport, she was bobsled racing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In March, she helped her six-person team earn a bronze medal at the world championships in Whistler, British Columbia—the fastest track in the world.

Despite the toll these international bobsled races have taken on her body—she’s got plenty of bruises and she’s suffered ice burns and a concussion—Davis credits her time at USC for building the mental toughness to persevere. And she is proud to be the first Trojan on Team USA’s bobsled team.

“It’s cool to me to be the first woman to do that, and on top of that to be black,” Davis says. “A lot of times as an African American, it’s hard to make history in certain sports.

And being a female as well, I have little girls who look up to me. I’ve had people message me, excited that I made history at USC.” AUBRE Y KR AGEN

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Brandon Shamim ’94 (LAS) serves on the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Foundation Board and the Executive Board of the L.A. Chamber of Commerce.

Anthony Sparks ’94 (SDA), MA ’09 (LAS), PhD ’12 (LAS) is showrunner, executive producer and head writer of the critically acclaimed drama Queen Sugar. He has also signed a pilot script development deal with Warner Horizon Television Studio.

Garo Setian MFA ’95 (SCA) premiered his first film, Automation, at the Hollywood Horrorfest, where it won six awards including best horror feature and best feature director.

Phil Kubel ’96 (LAS) is director of the Hollywood Professional Association, a trade association that strives to advance the arts, science and business of the media and entertainment industry.

Christina Linhardt ’97 (MUS) co-directed and scored the documentary film Guantanamo Circus, which won a Hollywood F.A.M.E. Award. Released on Amazon Prime, the documentary chronicles a circus troupe performing at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

2 0 0 0 s

Brooke (Beare) Stjerne ’00 (SCJ), an evening anchor and investigative journalist for the ABC and CBS stations in Palm Springs, California, won a Pacific Southwest Chapter Emmy Award in the Human Interest– Single Story or Series category.

Bear McCreary ’02 (MUS) won the 2019 British Academy Games Awards in the Music category for his score for God of War. Andrew Norman ’02, MM ’04 (MUS) was one of three finalists for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Sustain, an orchestral work commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to launch its 100th anniversary season.

Dara Purvis ’03 (LAS) is associate dean for diversity and inclusion, associate dean for research and partnerships and a

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tenured professor of law at Pennsylvania State University.

Marcelo Vazquez EdD ’08 (EDU) is dean of students at Ventura College in California.

Amanda Sigafoos ’03 (BUS) joined Fuscoe Engineering Inc. as Los Angeles regional marketing manager.

Kimberly Briggs ’09 (LAS/SCJ) is a communications coordinator for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s 2020 Census Initiative.

Michael Werwie ’03 (BUS) is the writer and executive producer of Netflix’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, starring Zac Efron and Lily Collins.

Carolyn Kangavari ’09 (BUS), ’13 (LAS), MSW ’14 (SSW) is Los Angeles executive director of Friends of United Hatzalah, the largest volunteer-based medical service in Israel.

Ashley Hinson ’04 (SCJ) is serving her second term in the Iowa House of Representatives, where she chairs the transportation committee.

Jennifer Martin JD ’04 (LAW) joined Winstead in the real estate development and investments practice group in its Austin, Texas, office.

Yetta Howard MA ’05, PhD ’10 (LAS) published her book Ugly Differences: Queer Female Sexuality in the Underground.

Mandale “Rob” White MPL ’05, DPPD ’17 (SPP) is vice president for planned communities for Lewis Management Corp.’s Northern California region.

Téa Obreht ’06 (LAS), New York Times best-selling author of The Tiger’s Wife, published her second novel, Inland, about a mythic journey across the American West.

Elise Blaha Cripe ’07 (BUS) published Big Dreams, Daily Joys, a book about setting goals to make time for what matters.

Attilio Mazzili LLM ’07 (LAW) is head of the Italian technology department at Orrick, a global law firm that focuses on the technology, energy and finance sectors.

Heath Pennington ’07 (LAS) is a PhD candidate in theater studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, after graduating with distinction from the master’s program in gender studies at Central European University, Budapest, in 2018.

Chantal Blakeney ’08 (BUS) launched Fine Print Funding Inc., a nonprofit that helps low-income high school students pay for the costs of applying to college.

Josie Noah MPA ’09, MPL ’09 (SPP) is chief global officer at SightLife, a health organization dedicated to eliminating corneal blindness by 2040. She was named to Puget Sound Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list.

2 0 1 0 s

Eric Cheng JD ’10 (LAW) is assistant United States attorney in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.

David Freedman MFA ’10 (SCA) started a platform and springboard diving program in Hilo, Hawaii, where he serves as head coach. He also runs a film and television production company.

Kelly Oki ’10 (LAS), an employment litigator, is now an associate with Fisher Phillips.

Phillip Smith ’10 (LAS) retired after 31 years in public service and law enforcement.

He serves on the USC Trojan Baseball Alumni Association’s board of directors.

Kine Paulsen ’11 (BUS) celebrated the fiveyear anniversary of launching Los Angelesbased management consulting company kinfizz, which works with companies worldwide after mergers and acquisitions.

Lizette Salas ’11 (LAS), a four-time AllAmerican golfer at USC, participated in the LPGA’s Drive On campaign, which celebrates resilience and excellence in sports and life.

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A LU M N A

P R O F I L E

S T E P H A N I E

W I G G I N S

E M B A

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On the Move

PHOTO BY BRIAN MORRI

L.A. Metrolink CEO Stephanie Wiggins wants to put public transportation in the fast lane.

Getting people out of their cars and into public transportation is a tough sell in any sprawling city. In car-obsessed Los Angeles, it can feel like an impossible task.

But Stephanie Wiggins EMBA ’07 thinks the time is right. “This region’s population is forecast to increase by a million in the next 15 years, and there is very little space or funds to expand existing freeways,” she says. “Public transportation will have to play a bigger part in the future, but that means we have to change this region’s car-loving culture.”

Wiggins is wrapping up her first year as CEO of Metrolink, L.A.’s 26-year-old commuter railway. Its seven lines covered 400 million passenger miles across six counties in Southern California last year. She believes the agency has an enormous role—and opportunity—to make commuters’ lives better.

“We’re taking people out of traffic congestion and giving them a better option,” she says.

Pushing public transit is not without its challenges. Metrolink needs to grow ridership while also dealing with an aging fleet of trains. The population is increasing,

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and the Olympics—and its millions of visitors—will arrive in eight years. “It’s a humbling experience,” says Wiggins, the first African American and first woman to run the agency.

A native of Oakland, California, Wiggins got started in transportation by chance. After graduating from Whittier College, she took a temporary job with a transportation commission in San Bernardino County while she studied for graduate school entrance exams.

“I’d never heard of a transportation agency,” she admits, but she quickly came to see its value.

“They dealt with hundreds of millions of dollars and set transportation policies that impacted people’s lives,” she says. “When I thought of my friends and family and the opportunities they’d been connected to because of public transportation, it was fundamental.”

She went on to earn an Executive MBA at the USC Marshall School of Business. After graduation, she took on a project that was in essence a startup in the public sector: launching toll-based express lanes on the 110

and 10 freeways in Los Angeles County. “I had to leverage everything I learned at USC,” she says, “not only to turn that project around, but also to get it deployed and operational and marketed.”

After successfully convincing Angelenos to pay for using the fast lane, Wiggins is now ready to coax them out of their cars entirely.

Metrolink has embarked on a 10-year, $10 billion program called the Southern California Optimized Rail Expansion, which gives a substantial boost to the regional rail system by improving grade crossings, adding tracks and enhancing signal coordination. “Studies on new technologies that will guide us toward a zero-emissions fleet in the future are already underway,” she adds.

She knows that reducing the use of cars in L.A. won’t happen overnight, but she looks at her job through a long-term lens. “The investments being made now will long outlive the 2028 Olympics,” she says, “and generations of Southern California residents will benefit from them for decades.”

J ULIE TIL SNER

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family class notes

Dale Trumbore MM ’11 (MUS) published Staying Composed: Overcoming Anxiety and Self-Doubt Within a Creative Life, a book to help creatives overcome career obstacles.

Andrea Evans ’12 (SCJ) is director of digital and social media strategy at the U.S. Equestrian Federation in Lexington, Kentucky.

Scott Hardie MFA ’12 (SCA) won the 2019 Catalina Film Festival’s Deb Bauer Unsung Hero Award for his feature documentary Father of the Flying Car. He was a semifinalist for the 2018 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for his feature screenplay Arcadian, which is now in development under the title Original Life.

Josh Rosenbaum ’12 (BUS) is vice president of development and production at Waypoint Entertainment, where he has produced films including The Outsider, Lost in London and The Favourite, which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and 12 British Academy Film and Television Awards.

Sherlock Ho MSW ’13 (SSW) is a commissioned naval officer stationed at Beaufort, South Carolina, where he works with military populations. Previously he was a clinical social worker for AspenPointe, a community mental health services and treatment center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Divya Goel ’14 (SCJ) is head of marketing for the Premier Lacrosse League.

Dani Haberman ’14 (SDA) and her band, the Crown City Bombers, released the album Here Comes the Night and performed at Viva Las Vegas, the world’s largest rockabilly festival.

Emy Flores EdD ’15 (EDU) is superintendent of the Evergreen School District in San Jose, California.

Janise Anaya ’16 (SCJ) is marketing manager at Live Nation Entertainment.

Shane Paul McGhie ’16 (SDA) plays series regular Deputy Joseph Blair on FOX’s Deputy and Connor on Netflix’s Unbelievable. He recently appeared in the film What Men Want.

Thomas Marshall ’17 (BUS) published No More Dead Kids, a young adult novel about mass shootings in America.

T R O J A N

Spencer Vicente MSW ’17 (SSW) is an Air Force officer serving as a clinical social worker.

Former USC athletic director Mike McGee led the Trojans for nine seasons. Under his watch, more than 50 teams finished in the top 10 in their NCAA championships, including four that won NCAA titles. In his first season, the football and men’s basketball teams both won Pac-10 crowns. USC football teams played in four Rose Bowls during his time.

From 1984 to 1993, McGee guided major increases in fundraising, ticket sales and television revenues; strengthened academic programming; added marketing and recruiting departments; developed a community relations program; renovated facilities; and established a drug testing and education program. He also founded USC’s Sports Management Institute to train future sports administrators.

Before his career as an athletic director, McGee was the head football coach at East Carolina University in 1970 and then at his alma mater, Duke University, for eight seasons.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Ginger; their four children, Kathy, Michael Jr., Matthew and Jerry; and 19 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Teddy A. Gyamfi MLIS ’18 (BUS) is the evening access services manager at the Milne Library at the State University of New York, Geneseo.

Kelsey Siepser MFA ’13 (SDA) played Diane on Guess I’m A Ghost, a comedy series that premiered at DC Webfest and online in April.

Vivian Ekchian EdD ’19 (EDU) is the first female and first Armenian superintendent of the Glendale Unified School District in California.

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Marium Qureshi MSW ’19 (SSW) is a diversity, equity and inclusion specialist at Twitter in San Francisco.

Déron Marques ’15 (SCJ) is manager of communications for Viacom’s MTV, VH1, CMT and LOGO channels.

Nicholas Barr PhD ’19 (SSW) is a postdoctoral fellow conducting research on mindfulness-based interventions for veterans and other at-risk populations at the USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families.

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Ashley Long ’19 (SDA) joined the 2019 company for the Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater Training Program.

Jay Lee ’15 (SDA/LAS) plays series regular Takumi on the Hulu series Looking for Alaska.

Julia Manis ’13 (SDA) produced and starred in Mel and Ruby, a short film featured on the indie streaming platform Seed&Spark.

She also starred in the play Cowboy Mouth for the 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival.

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Michael Karagozian LLM ’19 (LAW) and Greg Luden MDR ’19 (LAW) are Hollinger Program Mediation Fellows and successfully mediated a year-long dispute involving the Los Angeles Fire Department.

T R I B U T E

Mike McGee

MCGEE PHOTO COURTESY OF USC ATHLETICS

Jonathan Sauder MS ’11, PhD ’13 (ENG) works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and is a part-time lecturer at USC. He received the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for demonstrating innovative technologies to enable a new class of space missions.

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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.

Elizabeth Sanchez MSW ’19 (SSW) is a mental health clinician at Alma Family Services in Los Angeles.

M A R R I A G E S

Susan Montgomery JD ’85 (LAW) and Michael Bordy JD ’86 (LAW).

Nicole (Hughes) Zillman ’09 (BUS/LAS) and Jason Zillman, a daughter, Xena Katherine.

Jake Saroyan ’10 (BUS) and Katherine Koehler Saroyan ’13 (LAS/SCJ), a daughter, Zoe Russell.

Elizabeth Farina MAT ’11 (EDU) and Anthony Farina, a daughter, Helen Frances Cecilia.

William Randall Morton ’88 (SCA) and Laura Danforth Shute ’91 (BUS).

I N

Daniel Shlomi ’07 (BUS), JD ’11 (LAW) and Marissa Gabrielle Krupen.

James G. Smith ’40 (BUS) of Palos Verdes Estates, California; Nov. 15, 2018, at the age of 99.

Scott Sternberg ’07, MA ’07 (LAS), MPA ’09 (SPP) and Katie Hong.

Alexandra Hollihan ’10 (SCJ), MPH ’14 (MED) and Justin Crawford ’10, MS ’14 (ENG).

Justin L. Segal ’12 (BUS) and Yael Chastny.

Christy Mora ’13 (LAS) and Jasmine Torres ’14 (LAS).

Cesar Magdaleno ’17 (BUS) and Adriana Marie Aguilar.

M E M O R I A M

Rene Bernard “Barney” Watts ’43 (LAS), ’47 (EDU), MS ’49 (EDU) of Torrance, California; June 4, 2019, at the age of 97.

Edward Hynes ’08 (LAS) and Laura Lefkow-Hynes, a son, Edward Michael.

Jonathan Nash MBA ’08 (BUS) and Kerin Nash, a son, Benjamin Ari. Shabnam Shalizi MA ’08, MA ’16, PhD ’18 (SCJ) and Dany Saade, a son, Anthony. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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Peter Klassen MA ’58 (LAS), PhD ’62 (LAS) of Fresno, California; March 25, 2019, at the age of 88.

Nicholas “Miklos” Martin ’59 (LAS) of Pasadena, California; March 25, 2019, at the age of 87.

John von Aspen ’60 (BUS/ENG) of Glendale, Arizona; April 29, 2019, at the age of 84.

Julian Bates Tunnell ’46 (ART) of San Antonio, Texas; June 29, 2019, at the age of 94.

Erwin Dale Carter MS ’63, PhD ’66 (LAS) of Mission Hills, California; May 14, 2019, at the age of 84.

Mary Ellen King ’47 (LAS) of Honolulu, Hawaii; Feb. 21, 2019, at the age of 93.

Robert Hideo Takeuchi LLB ’63 (LAW) of Lodi, California; June 17, 2019, at the age of 82.

Erin Richey ’99 (LAS), a son, Thomas James.

Sarah Wilson Hienton ’08 (LAS) and Matt Hienton, a son, Owen Matthew.

Owen J. Haggerty ’57 (BUS) of Glendale, California; June 28, 2019, at the age of 83.

Thomas Patrick Hodgkiss ’61 (LAS) of Los Angeles; March 26, 2019, at the age of 80.

G. Ray Arnett ’48 (LAS) of Stockton, California; June 20, 2019, at the age of 95.

Kristen Wong Abergas ’06 (LAS), ’11 (DEN) and Rob Abergas ’06 (ENG) a son, Blake Wong.

Virginia Ochsner ’56 (EDU) of Newport Beach, California; June 7, 2019, at the age of 95.

Lucile Peterson Sandri MA ’44 (MUS) of Falls Church, Virginia; March 29, 2019, at the age of 99.

B I R T H S

Bonnie (Northon) Taylor ’05 (SCJ) and Frank Taylor, a daughter, Claire Elizabeth.

William L. Ingram ’56 (LAS) of San Clemente, California; June 14, 2019, at the age of 97.

William Johnston ’49 (LAS), MS ’51 (EDU) of Rancho Palos Verdes, California; Feb. 21, 2019, at the age of 92.

David R. Nisall JD ’52 (LAW) of Alhambra, California; April 14, 2019, at the age of 93.

Gordon M. Anderson ’54 (ENG) of Corona del Mar, California; April 21, 2019, at the age of 87.

Joseph R. Brown Jr. ’54, PhD ’64 (LAS) of Laguna Niguel, California; June 29, 2019, at the age of 92.

Donald W. Higbee ’56 (LAS), LLB ’62 (LAW) of Fallbrook, California; July 31, 2019, at the age of 88.

Raymond E. Plummer ’65 (BUS), LLB ’69 (LAW) of Anchorage, Alaska; Nov. 28, 2018, at the age of 75.

Ron Elkin ’67, MBA ’68 (BUS) of Billings, Montana; May 31, 2019, at the age of 73.

David P. Bergland JD ’69 (LAW) of Kennewick, Washington; June 3, 2019, at the age of 83.` Douglas Joseph Ford MA ’69 (LAS) of Dixon, California; Feb. 14, 2019, at the age of 87.

Onyekwere Akwari MD ’70 (MED) of Durham, North Carolina; April 14, 2019, at the age of 76.

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Scholarships change lives.

“Thanks to my scholarship, I have been able to participate in internships at Qualcomm, Amazon, Google and an L.A.-based startup called Honey.

I’ve also been able to serve as mentor to three lowerclassmen in the USC Viterbi Center for Engineering Diversity. Plus, I’ve had time to pursue a minor at the USC Kaufman School of Dance.”

Kourtney Chima Donald Mullen Scholar USC Viterbi School of Engineering Class of 2019

Every gift counts. giveto.usc.edu

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Andreas K. Waldraff MBA ’72 (BUS) of Berlin, Germany; March 3, 2019, at the age of 74.

Kerri Rene (Foss) Barton JD ’11 (LAW) of Aliso Viejo, California; June 18, 2019, at the age of 33.

Jim Bunyard MS ’74 (LAS) of Torrance, California; May 4, 2019, at the age of 87.

L E G E N D

Clifford Goon Shiu Lum ’74 (LAS) of Garden Grove, California; Feb. 23, 2019, at the age of 67.

LAS

Judith Beale PhD ’75 (LAS) of Elkin, North Carolina; May 15, 2019, at the age of 78.

ACC ARC BUS SCA SCJ

Eugene D. Legaspi ’76 (BUS) of Burbank, California; March 27, 2019, at the age of 66.

Hubert Darnell Glove ’78 (SCJ) of Washington, D.C.; May 2019, at age 62.

Robert Martin Osberger ’79 (BUS) of Washington, D.C.; July 26, 2018, at the age of 61.

Wendy Lapidus-Saltz MS ’82 (LAS) of Northbrook, Illinois; March 25, 2019, at the age of 61.

Guy Jansen DMA ’84 (MUS) of Auckland, New Zealand; May 27, 2019, at the age of 84.

Natalie Gail Murray MD ’85 (MED) of Fort Worth, Texas; May 24, 2019, at the age of 69.

Deborah Joy DeMirjian ’86 (BUS) of Sherman Oaks, California; June 29, 2018, at the age of 61.

Michael Teilhard Birtel ’92 (LAS/SCA) of New Orleans; March 1, 2019, at the age of 50.

Hunter Graham Goodman ’92 (LAS) of Newcastle, Washington; April 16, 2019, at the age of 49.

Susan P. Abdeen ’97 (ENG) of Westminster, California; March 13, 2019, at the age of 44.

Matthew Gasparich ’04 (LAS) of Seattle, Washington; Feb. 23, 2019, at the age of 36.

John Jackson Alexandre Smith MBA ’07 (BUS) of Los Angeles; April 3, 2019, at the age of 42. trojanfamily.usc.edu

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DNC DEN DRA EDU ENG ART GRN GRD LAW 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 Herman 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 Leonard Davis School of Gerontology USC Graduate School USC Gould School of Law 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 Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

Jill Barone, Matt DeGrushe, Edmundo Diaz, Michelle Dumas, Harmony Frederick, Leticia Lozoya, Maya Meinert, Jane Ong, Alex Rast, Stacey Wang Rizzo, Julie Tilsner and Deann Webb contributed to this section.

Obituaries of Trojan Family members appear online at news.usc.edu/tributes. Please submit obituaries to classnotes@usc.edu.

University of Southern California Thornton School of Music Robert Cutietta, Dean Los Angeles Philharmonic Gustavo Dudamel, Music & Artistic Director Present

Piatigorsky International Cello Festival March 13-22, 2020

Ralph Kirshbaum Artistic Director piatigorskyfestival.usc.edu

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PHOTO BY DUSTIN SNIPES; ARCHIVAL PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

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

Search Query Before the days of Google, the internet and personal computers, there was one tried-and-true place to begin a search: the library card catalog room. Capturing an unfamiliar scene for most of today’s students, this 1950s-era photo of the USC Doheny Memorial Library’s card catalog room shows a typical busy day of academic pursuit.

While the card catalog room is now filled with study chairs and tables, the USC Libraries network continues to be at the forefront of scholarly discovery and the heart of the university’s research community. Comprising 23 libraries and information centers across USC’s campuses, its extensive services include lending and preservation for nearly 6 million

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books and rare manuscripts. Students can also find a vast digital repository of media, book and journal archives, free computer loans and a calendar filled with academic workshops and special exhibits. A recent USC Libraries website redesign improved search functions and added two new medical libraries.

But even with these advances, the card catalogs haven’t disappeared entirely. They are now gifted to library supporters, who receive a name plaque and gold key for their own drawer. One donor leaves notes for her USC grandchildren to find—the start of a new tradition of discovery.

ELISA HUANG

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THE KECK EFFECT

Completely committed to beating lung cancer.

With internationally renowned physicians dedicated to lung cancer treatment, the USC Lung Cancer Program works tirelessly to help more patients overcome lung cancer. At our convenient multidisciplinary clinic, we provide specialized treatment based on the latest research, so our patients can combat lung cancer early and effectively. And our physicians are from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center — a top cancer care provider in Southern California.

USC Lung Cancer Program KeckMedicine.org/lung | (213) 444-5211

Š 2019 Keck Medicine of USC

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USC Trojan Family Magazine University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818

N ON -PROFIT ORGAN IZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID UN IVERSIT Y OF

Change Service Requested

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This year’s Expo Ventures fund is now open to new investors.

LEARN MORE Visit www.expo-ventures.com/alumni Email invest@expo-ventures.com Call 877-299-4538 Important Disclosure: The manager of Expo Ventures 1 is Alumni Ventures Group (AVG), a venture capital firm. AVG and the fund are not sponsored by, affiliated with or otherwise endorsed by The University of Southern California. For informational purposes only; offers of securities are made only to accredited investors pursuant to the fund’s offering documents, which describe the risks, fees and other information that should be considered before investing. AVG’s funds are very long-term investments that involve substantial risk of loss, including loss of all capital invested. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Contact Scott Armanini at Scott@Expo-Ventures.com or info@avgfunds.com for additional information.

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