CSUN Athletics has released its 2014-15 Annual Report, which is available on GoMatadors.com. The 55-page document takes a look back at the Matadors’ past year on and off the field and provides season summaries for each of CSUN’s 19 intercollegiate sports, academic achievement and community service highlights and staff advancements and accomplishments.

During the 2014-15 season, the Matadors were named to the Capital One Cup Top 100 list as one of the 100 best Division I Women’s Athletics programs in the country, won three Big West Conference championships and had three coaches honored as Big West Conference Coaches of the Year. Additionally, two programs finished their seasons ranked among the 15 best in the nation and 75 student-athletes were named to their conference’s All-Academic Team. CSUN Athletics also continues to set the bar in the Big West Conference for athletic training, strength and conditioning, video production and the fan experience.

2014-15 ANNUAL REPORT

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Aug. 4, 2015) California State University, Northridge is one of more than 100 universities nationwide who are lauded for their efforts in diversity in engineering education in an American Society for Engineering Education letter released today during the White House’s inaugural Demo Day.

The ASEE letter lists the deans from all 102 universities nationwide, including CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean S.K. Ramesh, and the document calls out the gains in participation in engineering by women, Latinos, African-Americans and Native Americans throughout the most recent decades, but that there is more work to be done.

Ramesh has long sought increased inclusion for underrepresented groups into the STEM fields since he came to CSUN in 2006, and touts the university’s previous involvement in the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program, and the Minority Engineering Program model that was established at CSUN in 1968 before it spread nationally. One recent success story is the Teaching to Increase Diversity in STEM initiative, funded by the Helmsley Trust under the auspices of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the California Career Pathways Trust grant to introduce K-14 students to high-wage, high-growth career fields. Another triumph comes from a partnership with Glendale Community College and College of the Canyons in the Attract, Inspire, Mentor and Support Students program that is a part of a $5.5 million Hispanic Serving Institution STEM grant from the U.S. Department of Education. AIMS² features faculty and peer mentoring, tutoring and advisement, along with social activities and participation in summer research projects.

“The AIMS² program received national recognition from Excelencia in Education in 2014 and has served a total of 187 students to date in five cohorts (approximately 67 percent Latina/o),” Ramesh said. “This includes 100 first-time transfer students at CSUN, 45 students at GCC and 42 students at COC. Students in this program are supported with stipends to motivate and inspire them to succeed and have access to special mentoring and advisement by faculty, tutoring and peer mentoring, social activities, field trips and opportunities to take part in undergraduate research projects. Students in the cohorts have recorded higher per-term units completed, per-term and cumulative GPAs and next-term persistence rates compared to their non-participant student counterparts. As a result program completion rates continue to improve and have exceeded targets for every year of the grant.

“I am confident that CSUN’s efforts through these collaborative programs will lead to larger, more inclusive pool of STEM graduates.”

For more information, please visit about the White House Demo Day.

Freshmen should not let others define who they are, urged author David Levithan, the keynote speaker on Sept. 10 at California State University, Northridge’s Freshman Convocation, an annual event that formally welcomes first-year students to the university.

Levithan, author of the Freshman Common Reading book, Every Day, spoke to one of the largest gatherings of freshmen ever at this annual event. His remarks were inspired by the plot of Every Day, the story of “A,” who wakes up in a different body at the beginning of each day.

Levithan used this premise to explore the idea of identity and the labels that others attach to a person’s physical appearance. He spoke about how people should try to overcome these stereotypes.

“You have to choose how to define yourself,” Levithan said. “It is too easy to fall back on how everybody sees you, or how you think everybody sees the way you look. You have every right to be the human being that you want to be. You have every right to be in whatever body you choose, to identify as whatever gender you choose, to love whomever you choose — and don’t let anybody ever tell you differently.”

Approximately 2,600 students made their way to the Oviatt Lawn to attend the convocation, an event that welcomes students as Matadors and sets the stage for future success. CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison emphasized that students hold the keys to their futures.

“The university’s first priority is your success,” Harrison said. “The faculty, staff and administrators of CSUN are focused on providing programs, resources and services to support you. But this effort must also be a partnership with you, our students, and depends greatly on your commitment to your education and personal success. Have confidence in yourself, but understand the work may not be easy. You are the future. You will innovate. You will do the research. You will solve the problems of our world. I know you can succeed because you are now part of the CSUN family — but to succeed and achieve excellence, you will need to plan well for the journey. And we will be here to help you.”

Former CSU Student Trustee and Associated Students Vice President Talar Alexanian, a 2015 outstanding senior graduate, urged students to take advantage of the wealth of resources the campus has to offer.

“There are endless possibilities, as long as your eyes are open to finding them,” Alexanian said.

President Harrison also presented the 2015 Dianne Harrison Leadership Award to Kenia Lopez, a sophomore majoring in journalism with a 3.51 GPA.

Excitement and energy filled the evening air at California State University, Northridge on Oct. 16 as students and fans took part in Matador Madness, an annual event that signals the start of basketball season.

The free event, which began with a special Fan Fair just outside The Matadome as the sun was setting, provided attendees with fun and entertainment throughout the night.

Free sandwiches, pizza and hot dogs were provided while live music played in the background. Numerous vendors — including Rosie’s BBQ, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt and Mountain Dew — passed out free food and beverages, while Sports Chalet gave out gift cards to the first 500 fans.

While some fans participated in free throw shooting contests, others took pictures with Matty the Matador, who helped pump up the crowd. Fans in attendance had the chance to win free prizes such as a GoPro camera, airline tickets and a CSUN semester parking pass.

“Matador Madness was fun and full of energy,” CSUN senior Alex Griffin said. “There was true CSUN pride flowing through the students and fans, and it’ll be a lasting memory in my college experience.”

Griffin echoed the sentiments of many students, who enjoyed the free food and prizes provided at the event.

As soon as 8 p.m. hit, the doors to The Matadome flew open and fans rushed to take their seats and get their first glimpse of the 2015-16 men’s and women’s basketball teams. Organizers had placed glow sticks on each seat in the gym, where fans waved them during the program.

After both teams were introduced to the packed crowd, women’s head coach Jason Flowers and men’s head coach Reggie Theus addressed the fans.

“The women’s and men’s teams are trying to take it to a whole other level, and we need [the CSUN fans] out here every single game,” Flowers said.

Theus offered similar encouragement to the CSUN faithful.

“We’re going to have an exciting year,” Theus said. “We’re going to play hard, up-tempo basketball and we’re going to get this done.”

The night concluded with a scrimmage for the men’s squad.

For more information on CSUN basketball, visit gomatadors.com.

The Clear the Air campaign has made California State University, Northridge smoke and tobacco free. To help support clean air and healthier lifestyles for our CSUN community, the campus is participating in the Great American Smokeout on Nov. 19.

The Great American Smokeout was developed by the American Cancer Society to encourage smokers not to smoke at least for one day. The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 42 million Americans still smoke cigarettes. The collective hope for all involved is that by not smoking this year Nov. 19, more people will eventually quit smoking altogether.

“The Great American Smokeout gives us a chance to learn more about the health and wellness benefits of quitting smoking and living a smoke-free life,” said Marianne Link, assistant director for health promotion at the Klotz Student Health Center. “To help smokers quit and embrace better health, the Klotz Student Health Center Pharmacy is offering free smoking cessation aids like nicotine patches and gum — for free — to CSUN students, faculty and staff.”

Starting at 10 a.m. (and running through noon) Cleary Walk between the Delmar T. Oviatt Library and the University Student Union will be filled with tables and booths offering information about the health benefits of avoiding smoking and tobacco, as well as fun, interactive activities giving out helpful information ane free prizes. These activities include:

• Students can spin the Great American Smokeout wheel and answer a question about nicotine addiction based on the category the wheel lands on. If they’re correct, they win a prize.
• The Clear the Air table will have advocates answering questions about CSUN’s smoke- and tobacco-free initiative as well as handing out giveaways.
• A resource table will be available with information about the dangers of smoking, smoking cessation and campus resources, and news about hookah and e-cigarettes.
• A pledge table where people can pledge to quit using tobacco for the one day. Non-smokers who want to participate in the Great American Smokeout can educate a friend or family member about one thing from the Smokeout activities on that day.

For more information about smoking cessation or CSUN’s Clear the Air campaign, please visit our website.

For 18-year-old Belicia Cespedes, the 2015 fall semester was the first time she stepped foot on the California State University, Northridge campus. However, she wasn’t an incoming freshman — she was a college graduate who is currently on path to receive her master’s degree in accounting before her 20th birthday.

Cespedes — deemed an “accounting prodigy” and listed as one of the most influential people in accounting by editiondigital.net — finished high school at 13, received her bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State College at 16 and began working toward her master’s degree at CSUN right after turning 18.

On top of that, Cespedes became one of the youngest documented Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in the world after she passed the four-part exam two months after turning 17.

“I’ve never seen this feat before,” CSUN accountancy professor Kiren Dosanjh said about Cespedes passing the CPA exam at 17. “Knowing Belicia now, I am not surprised that she was able to achieve this very impressive accomplishment.”

One thing Cespedes makes perfectly clear is that she wasn’t born knowing her passion would be accounting.

“After I graduated high school at 13, I wasn’t planning to work or go to college anytime soon, so I took a bunch of fun online classes and one of them was bookkeeping and accounting,” Cespedes said. “Once I took that class, I knew [accounting] was what I wanted to do.”

The idea of graduating ahead of schedule isn’t a first in the Cespedes family. Cespedes, like her four sisters, were either homeschooled by their mother, Vicki, or completed classes online.

Cespedes’ oldest sister, 19-year-old Ivana, is pursuing her doctorate degree in nutrigenomics — the study of the effects of foods and food constituents on gene expression, 17-year-old Briana is in law school, 15-year-old Giana is pursuing her bachelor’s degree online in Interpreting American Sign Language and 5-year-old Eliana is in second grade.

In Cespedes’ case, the faster she finished school, the faster she’d be able to look toward her future.

“Once I got the ball rolling, I didn’t want to stop,” Cespedes said. “When I was almost done with high school, I was like ‘wow I’m almost done?’ I just wanted to keep going.”

“It all starts with being thankful,” she continued. “If I saw my education as a burden like a lot of kids do, then [graduating early] would have been very hard to get through.”

​Shortly after receiving her high school diploma ​in 2010, Cespedes enrolled in classes at College of the Canyons. Less than two years later, Cespedes earned her bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State College and began working as a part-time accountant.

CSUN seemed to find Cespedes out of the blue, just like accounting did for her.

“Belicia met [CSUN accounting professor David Primes] at a CPA conference and he told her about the master’s program,” Cespedes’ mother said. “The timing seemed perfect.”

And so far, Cespedes said her experience at CSUN has been very fulfilling and she hasn’t been intimidated by her classmates being mostly five or six years older than her.

“The students at CSUN are great and I really appreciate the diversity of people on campus,” Cespedes said. “I’ve always been around an older crowd, especially when I was taking the CPA exam or going to CPA conferences, so that part doesn’t make a difference to me.”

When Cespedes isn’t working on homework, she’s usually at her internship at the prestigious accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) or speaking at CPA engagements.

Although much of Cespedes’ life has been focused on getting ahead in school or her accounting career, the teen said she always found time to hang out with friends and catch a movie at the theater.

Perhaps Cespedes’ best attribute isn’t that she’s one of the youngest and most decorated up-and-coming accountants in the nation, but her awareness to the fact that she has plenty of time to decide if she wants to do something other than accounting in the future.

“I don’t think you can truly know what you want to do until you actually do it,” she said. “The great thing about being a licensed accountant at a young age is that you have time to make career decisions that might not be the right ones.

“I could side-step and still be on track and I don’t have pressure on providing for anyone but myself right now. I have freedom to try different things like internships while still finding where I fit.”

Three California State University, Northridge students were recently honored as winners of an online portfolio challenge to showcase their academic, professional and extracurricular work.

CSUN launched Portfolium, an electronic, collaborative eportfolio system for students and alumni in September 2014, joining more than 2,000 universities using the product.

More than 500 CSUN students submitted their profiles to the Portfolium Fall Challenge. A committee of CSUN students and staff evaluated the entries of participants on the completeness of their profiles and the quality of their entries.

Scott Judge, a senior in mechanical engineering, won first prize and $300 cash in the Portfolium Fall Challenge. Judge worked as a biomedical research assistant for the Attract Inspire Mentor Support Students (AIMS^2) Program, served as president of CSUN’s student chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and as director of corporate relations for the student chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. He used Portfolium to showcase his own work, as well as to benefit others.

“I have spent some time using the job search function in Portfolium to find internship opportunities for club members,” he said. “I found multiple internship opportunities I shared on our club’s Facebook page.”

Ben Villalobos, a ​​junior majoring in computer science scored $200 for second place in the competition. He said he uses Portfolium as a networking opportunity and connects to companies and people with common interests.

“Portfolium actually helped me land a job at CSUN, developing IOS apps for faculty and students,” the ​junior said.

Nutrition and dietetics graduate student Alexandria Pack was one of the Portfolium Challenge winners, scoring third place and a $100 cash prize.

“I use Portfolium to showcase my work, projects, volunteer experiences and professional experiences,” Pack said. “I also network with companies that may not normally see my work. Portfolium is an incredible way to show not only my accomplishments, but also my personality. It is more than just a resume — it is a living and personalized resume.”

Hilary Baker, vice president of information technology and chief information officer, acknowledged the new tool.

“We are so pleased to be able to bring Portfolium to CSUN,” Baker said. “The service provides a powerful way to help our students succeed, not only at CSUN, but beyond in their careers.”

Students can benefit from Portfolium’s networking possibilities and the interactive design, said Mayra Solano, CSUN director of IT communications. She added that one way for instructors to incorporate Portfolium into their curriculum is to encourage students to upload their class projects.

“Suppose you’re using portals like LinkedIn — you can share that you’re a student at CSUN, but Portfolium allows you to actually showcase your best presentations, writing samples, internships, volunteer work, or anything else that you would normally just list as part of your resume,” Solano said. “It’s an interactive and fun tool compared to LinkedIn. LinkedIn lets you link to different items, but it won’t necessarily allow you to share them digitally like Portfolium does.”

So far, 26 percent of CSUN students have logged in to the service, a number that CSUN hopes will continue to grow.

Major companies such as Disney, Google and Microsoft actively look for interns utilizing Portfolium.

“These companies have realized the hotbed of talent that exists in college students and new grads, and they are eager to reach them through a professional platform,” said Deone Zell, associate vice president of academic technology.

Portfolium will launch more challenges during the spring semester, covering a variety of different themes, Baker said. The themes will be based on a student’s college, career or community — and ideally, will motivate more students to use Portfolium, she said.

“All of our students are very creative and innovative, and they should really share what they’re doing,” Solano said. “Whether you’re a freshman or a senior, we really want all of our students to begin to document all of the amazing work they’re doing at CSUN.”

The Games Room at the University Student Union will provide California State University, Northridge students with a full day of free activities on Jan. 25 — the first Monday of the spring 2016 semester.

The Games Room, which typically charges students $3 an hour for table tennis and console gaming and $4.20 an hour for billiards, will provide students with these services for free from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The free activities include billiards, table tennis, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Wii and Kinect.

For more information, visit the University Student Union website.

On Jan. 20, California State University, Northridge debuted the inaugural student edition of CSUN Weekly. This e-newsletter is a complement to the Alumni/Community and Faculty/Staff versions of CSUN Weekly, which launched in October 2013.

CSUN Weekly provides a weekly update of the latest news and events at CSUN. The e-newsletter highlights information about CSUN’s diverse academic programs; student, faculty and staff achievements; available services; important announcements; and a calendar of events that enrich campus life.

This new edition for students is funded by Campus Quality Fees (CQF) and CSUN’s University Advancement. A team of CSUN students will curate and generate content, create dedicated social media messaging and produce unique multimedia spotlights. Students will also be informed about important deadlines, as well as upcoming CSUN Athletics, Valley Performing Arts Center, Associated Students, University Student Union and other campus events.

The student edition of CSUN Weekly will be sent to CSUN students via email each week during the academic year and will go on hiatus during the summer and winter breaks.

California State University, Northridge’s BUILD PODER program is offering students a unique opportunity to become immersed and gain experience in biomedical research.

BUILD PODER stands for Building Infrastructure to Diversity (BUILD) and Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research (PODER). The undergraduate research training program received a $22 million grant over five years in fall 2014 from the National Institutes of Health, with the goal of increasing diversity in biomedical research fields. The first cohort of BUILD PODER students attended CSUN’s Summer JumpStart Program in mid-July, 2015.

CSUN students must apply for the second cohort, set to begin in fall 2016, by Feb. 5. If accepted to the program, students will receive 60 percent of their tuition paid, faculty mentorship and a paid research experience. The mentorship is one of the program’s highlights, as many participants are first-generation college students and may lack academic role models.

“Students get assigned a mentor so they have someone they can connect to and help them develop as a scholar and a student,” said Gabriela Chavira, the student training core director for BUILD PODER. “They will get involved in research projects that their mentors are working on. The mentor is already an expert in the field and they are teaching their students how to get grounded in research.”

Working alongside their mentors, the students receive funding to travel and present at national and regional conferences. This can open up opportunities for students to network with potential doctoral mentors and summer research mentors.

During the summer, BUILD PODER offers a four-week JumpStart Program to give students firsthand experience in research. Focusing on community support, students meet and work with other peers and their mentors. The program gives students the necessary tools to help them develop skill sets to apply for future intensive doctoral programs. The current BUILD PODER cohort includes 37 CSUN students and 16 students from local community colleges, with 75 more participants expected to join them in the fall.

“We are trying to grow as a program, we are hiring new staff to give students more support,” said Chavira. “Next year, everyone is going in together. I want them to be a whole family and I want them to be connected with one another.”

Students also have the opportunity to conduct research over the summer with their five research partner universities: UCLA, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and Claremont Graduate university. This opportunity is completely funded by BUILD PODER for the summer.

Students interested in applying to BUILD PODER can do so before the Feb. 5 deadline at http://www.csun.edu/build-poder.

Officials at California State University, Northridge are teaming up with their counterparts at the University of Pennsylvania to launch an unprecedented program to increase the number of Latino professors working in the humanities.

The program, Pathways to the Professoriate, is supported by a $5.1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the University of Pennsylvania for its Graduate School of Education’s Center for Minority Serving Institutions. Over a five-year period, the program will prepare 90 students from Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) across the United States, including CSUN, to move forward and get doctorates in humanities-related fields.

The program comes as colleges and universities across the country struggle to develop faculty that reflect the nation’s growing ethnic and cultural diversity.

“Cal State Northridge was honored to be selected to participate in the Pathways to the Professoriate initiative,” said Elizabeth Say, dean of CSUN’s College of Humanities. “We know well the quality of our students — what they sometimes lack is opportunity. This partnership with the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions and the Mellon Foundation will provide unparalleled opportunity for our students to achieve their educational goals. Together with our other institutional partners, we can begin to transform the professoriate to better reflect and serve the next generation of university students.”

Elizabeth Say, dean of the College of Humanities.

The problem of not having enough minorities in the professor pipeline cannot be fixed overnight Marybeth Gasman, director of the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, which will oversee the project.

“We see this program as a way to begin a fundamental change,” Gasman said. “We hope this creates a strong pathway to graduate school for Latino students that will grow over time, with these students supporting one another, and one day becoming mentors themselves.”

Mariët Westermann, vice president at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, said that as the demographic profile of the United States changes, the country has a compelling interest to obtain the full participation of previously underrepresented communities.

“The past decade has seen considerable gains in doctoral attainment for Latinos, yet these gains have not kept up with the growth in the U.S. Hispanic population,” she noted.

Over the course of the five-year program, the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions will partner with CSUN, Florida International University and the University of Texas, El Paso — all Hispanic Serving Institutions — and five research institutions — New York University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Pennsylvania; Northwestern University; and the University of California, Davis.

As part of Pathways to the Professoriate, selected CSUN undergraduates in the humanities, social sciences and related fields will take part in intensive summer research programs and cross-institutional conferences, while also receiving mentoring and support for applying to and enrolling in graduate school.

CSUN faculty mentors will work closely with each student beginning in the second semester of his or her junior year, and the relationship will continue as the student matriculates into Ph.D. programs. The summer research programs at CSUN will focus on an exploration of humanities-based methodological approaches, as well as professional skills, including academic writing, graduate school application writing and preparation for taking the GRE. The standardized admissions test is required by most graduate schools in the United States.

Say noted that in the academic year 2012-13, CSUN awarded 1,143 bachelor’s degrees in the humanities and social sciences. Thirty-three percent of those went to Latinos.

“We have the students, and now we have a way to help them go on to Ph.D. programs that they may have only dreamed about,” she said. “The fact that CSUN faculty mentors will work intensively with each student beginning in the second semester of junior yea — and they will be there as the student goes on into Ph.D. programs — is critical. This investment of time and resources is a game-changer for our students.”

The Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions brings together practitioners from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions and Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions. Based in the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, the center’s goals include elevating the educational contributions of minority-serving institutions; ensuring they are part of national conversations; bringing awareness to the vital role such institutions play in the nation’s economic development; increasing the rigorous scholarship of the institutions; connecting the institutions’ academic and administrative leadership to promote reform initiatives; and strengthening efforts to close educational achievement gaps among disadvantaged communities.

Founded in 1969, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation endeavors to strengthen, promote and, wherever necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies by supporting exemplary institutions of higher education and culture as they renew and provide access to an invaluable heritage of ambitious, path-breaking work.

Serving more than 41,000 students each year, CSUN is one of the largest universities in the United States, and it has an impact to match its size. CSUN is a national leader in awarding bachelor’s degrees to underrepresented minority students and master’s degrees to Hispanic students. It also enrolls the largest number of deaf and hard-of-hearing students of any U.S. state university. CSUN’s 171 academic programs and engaged centers enjoy international recognition for excellence. CSUN currently partners with more than 100 institutions of higher education in 22 countries around the globe and attracts the largest international student population of any U.S. master’s-level institution. Situated on a 356-acre park-like setting in the heart of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, the campus features modern educational buildings and world-class LEED Gold-certified performing arts and recreational facilities recognized as among the best in the country. CSUN is a welcoming university that champions accessibility, academic excellence and student success.

The idea of helping others is something that hits home for California State University, Northridge physical therapy student Ashley Peña.

In her second year in the university’s renowned doctorate in physical therapy program, Peña already has been able to help make a difference in the lives of so many people through the many clinical hours and volunteer work that she and her fellow classmates put in as part of their postgraduate work. Yet for Peña, there is more. Her mother is fighting a battle with multiple sclerosis, and her sister is receiving treatment for cancer.

Her family lives in central California, so Peña keeps up with their respective treatment protocols as best as she can while keeping her pace in such a demanding program. Yet, when joining them for medical appointments, Peña has seen “how people can treat you differently, either pity you or ignore you just because there’s something going on, because it’s easier,” she said. “So I think just going through that with them and helping them along with their rehab process has influenced me.”

Peña is one of 15 physical therapy students who recently were honored at a luncheon to commemorate a partnership between CSUN’s Physical Therapy doctoral program, the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and the Roy and Roxie Campanella Foundation. The Dodgers and the Campanella Foundations have donated scholarships to CSUN physical therapy students like Peña who are on track to help people rehabilitate their bodies and, in some cases, their lives.

“It’s such a rare association to have with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Campanella family and their foundation, who have been such strong supporters of our program,” said Aimie Kachingwe, a physical therapy faculty member who was at the initial meetings to discuss this partnership more than six years ago. Kachingwe noted that the number of scholarships awarded by this partnership has grown from one to 15, and it will increase to 25 by fall 2017.

Helping these CSUN students is a way of giving back for the Campanella Foundation, as physical therapists played such a major part in the life of Roy Campanella, who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. From 1948 to 1957, Campanella built one of the most decorated careers of any catcher in baseball history, earning the National League MVP award three times and leading the Brooklyn Dodgers to the World Series five times — winning it all in 1955. He was also one of the first African-American players in baseball history, debuting just a year after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

Campanella’s career came to a tragic halt when he was involved in a car accident during the offseason preceding the 1958 season, the Dodgers’ first in Los Angeles. The accident left him a quadriplegic, and his life changed forever at age 36.

His life began to change for the better when he started physical therapy. Though he would be wheelchair bound until his death in 1993, the work he did with physical therapy led him to become an active member of the Dodgers’ community relations department and part-time instructor of young catchers. Two of his prized pupils were Mike Scioscia and Mike Piazza, the latter joining Campanella in Cooperstown this summer.

“It’s wonderful to know that we’ve got great physical therapists who are going to be going out and helping people who have disabilities, who will be working with people like my father, and how they made such a difference in his life in terms of the immediate relationship of helping him find his spirit again and wanting to live,” said Roy’s daughter Joni Campanella-Roan, who attended the luncheon at CSUN’s Orange Grove Bistro and helped present the scholars with gifts. “It’s always inspiring to hear their stories and how much us giving them this wonderful scholarship impacts their lives, so that they can get out there and make a difference within the community, help to bring back people’s independence and make themselves self-sufficient. That was a major part of what made my father reenter society and reenter baseball — the independence he gained from the physical therapists.”

Though she never got the opportunity to see Campanella play, Peña and her classmates want to carry on his legacy in hopes of being able to help other patients who might be facing similar circumstances.

“It’s devastating to somebody — especially if they’re an athlete — to have a major injury like a car accident, like Roy Campanella, and their life is going to change,” Peña said. “But just being able to help them either adapt to those changes and get back to their life or form a new one, I think that’s definitely one of the biggest reasons why I love physical therapy. Just being able to help people on those journeys, help people adapt to a new way of life or get them back to what they were before if that’s possible. [Campanella] is an inspiring person in general.”

With Campanella having been such a prominent part of Dodger history both on and off the field, it seemed natural for the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation to become involved in the partnership to award these scholarships. In addition to the scholarships, the Dodgers have hosted a physical therapy intern during every Spring Training since 2011, with the intern getting real-world experience alongside the athletic trainers for the Major and Minor Leagues.

“We are proud to be supporters of such a special group of individuals,” said Nichol Whiteman, executive director of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. “It is our hope that the scholarship recipients will exemplify the proud legacy of Dodger great Roy Campanella.”

During the luncheon on campus, the scholars expressed their thanks for the scholarship, and how the funds will help them realize their dreams. They talked about the scarcity of scholarships that are dedicated to physical therapy students, and how they are able to volunteer as a result of the scholarships. Peña pointed out an event that is for recent amputees to help them adapt to their new lives.

“We were able to help out at that point, and if we had to find part-time jobs, we wouldn’t be able to do a lot of the volunteer things that CSUN brings to our attention,” Peña said.

“The more we have them out there in the community helping others, the prouder we are,” Campanella-Roan said. “My father’s dream was to be able to give opportunities so physical therapists could go out there and help so many people. Through the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, this has been one of the partnerships that has allowed us as the Campanella Foundation to provide more scholarships, so there are more kids out there helping everybody.”

Through the CSUN physical therapy program, which only in recent years became a doctoral program, these students are thoroughly prepared to impact patients’ lives in the future. Their enthusiasm and passion was very evident, and those who are there to foster that drive look forward to the increase in scholarships — to help others grow their dreams through this unique association between CSUN, the Dodgers and the Campanella Foundation.

“It’s not about the job, it’s not about the money. It’s because they want to help people,” Kachingwe said. “It really becomes evident when you’re at something like this, and you hear them speak those words. They’re great PTs. If you ask anybody who works with CSUN physical therapy students, they will say these are some of the best physical therapists that are out there. Not only are they educationally prepared, but they’re just really good people.”

David Nazarian, a CSUN alum and one of the people behind the idea for the Bull Ring, talking to students. Photo by Lee Choo.

Entrepreneur and philanthropist David Nazarian is teaming up with former California State University, Northridge classmate and businessman Jeff Marine to create CSUN’s own version of “Shark Tank,” called “The Bull Ring,” in which students will compete for $50,000 in prize money by pitching their innovative ideas for new business ventures.

Organizers are hoping the competition will attract students from across the campus — from English and the arts to engineering, the sciences and, of course, business — who are interested in exploring their entrepreneurial sides.

“Above all, what we’re really trying to encourage in our students is the entrepreneurial mindset,” said Ryan Holbrook, director of CSUN’s Entrepreneurship Program in the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. “To me, this means being willing to experiment, step outside of your comfort zone and follow through on what inspires you.”

“For ‘The Bull Ring,’ all ideas are fair game — whether it’s in retail, mobile apps, sustainability, new technology, food and beverage, the nonprofit sector, or anything in between,” Holbrook continued. “It literally could be anything, as long as it’s a good idea, has some way to monetize and there’s a potential market for it.”

The Bull Ring New Venture Competition will take place in April. On April 7, the top 20 teams will be awarded $250 and asked to “fast pitch” their ideas to an audience and a group of judges who will be circulating in a room set up like a trade show. The final contest will take place April 26, when six teams will face off before a panel of judges. Third place will be awarded $5,000, second place $15,000 and first place $25,000.

From left, businessman Jeff Marine, who, with Nazarian came up with the idea for The Bull Ring, and Ryan Holbrook, director of CSUN’s Entrepreneurship Program. Photo by Lee Choo.

The idea for the competition grew out of a lunch meeting between Nazarian and Marine. While discussing ways to encourage entrepreneurial thinking among CSUN students, the conversation strayed into a discussion about “Shark Tank” — a reality television show that has aspiring entrepreneur contestants make business presentations to a panel of “shark” investors — and the idea for “The Bull Ring” was born.

“Startups and small businesses are the backbone of our community and the future of our nation,” said Nazarian, who graduated from CSUN in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Nazarian’s career as an investor and business builder began with his active involvement in his family’s early identification of the potential for wireless communications technology that ultimately became part of Qualcomm, Inc. As founder and CEO of Nimes Capital, Nazarian has established a consistent track record of identifying opportunities ahead of the pack, actively managing investments in the real estate, manufacturing, water and solar infrastructure, technology and hospitality industries. Two years ago, Nazarian announced his commitment to lead a $25-million fundraising drive for his alma mater, and he launched the campaign by personally pledging $10 million toward the effort.

“We need to encourage and educate the future generation to strive to innovate and to create new models for business,” he said. “I see ‘The Bull Ring’ as one of many new initiatives at CSUN that provide our entrepreneurial-minded students with the resources and skill base to do just that.”

Marine, who attended CSUN in the late 1970s, is currently CEO and president of JEM Sportswear and Awake Inc., headquartered in San Fernando. JEM Sportswear manufactures apparel for men and boys. It is distributed to many well-known stores, including Walmart, Macy’s, Sears, JC Penney and Target. The company produces private labels for many of those stores and also manufactures for Disney, Ford, DreamWorks, Sony and Universal.

“What excited me is being able to support these fantastic college students as they pursue their new venture ideas,” he said. “I think ‘The Bill Ring’ competition will give them exposure to great resources, and ultimately give them a head start on becoming an entrepreneur. My hope is that this competition will create opportunities that weren’t there before for students to realistically start the process of building a successful business that could one day change the world.”

Holbrook, local business leaders, CSUN alumni and business faculty are spending this month meeting with potential contestants and hosting a series of workshops designed to give the competitors an idea of what they need to launch a startup.

While attending the workshops is not required, Holbrook said it is recommended, “because we are effectively laying the foundation on the nuts and bolts of how to launch a new venture.”

Competing teams must have a minimum of two members, and at least half of the team must be comprised of current CSUN students as of the academic year 2015-16. Fall 2015 graduates are eligible. In order to compete, the “pitch” must be delivered by a current CSUN student.

The teams will be asked to submit a five- to seven-page written executive summary or a 10- to 25-page slide deck and a two-minute video about their idea. The deadline for submissions is March 6. The 20 semifinalists will be selected shortly thereafter. For more information about “The Bull Ring,: visit its website at http://www.csunbullring.com.

Entries will be judged on their feasibility, market potential, traction and quality of presentation.

“We want to see something that once it leaves the room, still has legs,” Holbrook said, adding that the winners will be required to use their prize money to make their proposal a reality. “We are serious about seeing CSUN students turn their ideas into reality. It’s exciting to think about the potential that’s out there, just waiting for a little boost. There could be someone walking on the CSUN campus right now whose idea could someday change the world.”

The California State University, Northridge Joint Advocates on Disordered Eating (JADE) team is helping college students cultivate a positive body image. In honor of National Eating Disorder week, restroom mirrors on campus are covered with green paper on Feb. 22 to remind students that they are more than their physical appearance.

For those struggling with their body image, looking in the mirror can trigger negative responses, said Samir M. Hamawe, JADE’s peer program specialist.

“We take a day to acknowledge that experience and write affirmations on a covered mirror,” Hamawe said.

JADE is composed of CSUN student-peer educators. The program helps spread awareness about eating disorders and body image to the CSUN community.

Mirrorless Monday will take place in restrooms across campus, and both men and women can participate by writing positive affirmations on the green paper covering the mirrors.

“It creates mindfulness around that experience, and maybe one step that you can take to ultimately not being so critical about your body image for a day,” Hamawe said.

“We do our best to be inclusive of all genders,” said Francisco Perez, a peer educator. “We really strive to make it known that males do have eating disorders.”

Workshops, keynote lectures and workshops addressing eating disorders and body image will take place on campus from Feb. 22 to Feb. 24.

On the Saturday before the 2016 Los Angeles Marathon, California State University, Northridge kinesiology students experienced what it is like to perform under pressure.

Sharing the stage with top Los Angeles-area fitness leaders, 10 CSUN Department of Kinesiology majors demonstrated the benefits of their wellness program, Commit to be Fit, to marathoners the day before the big race at the Skechers Performance LA Marathon Expo. Presenting at a fitness convention was a first for many of the students.

“The pressure of having hundreds of random people walk by and check out what we were doing was different, compared to our controlled room up in Redwood Hall,” said Kyle Cook, a senior kinesiology major and intern with the Commit to be Fit program.

Commit to be Fit is a free community wellness program for all fitness levels, designed and led by CSUN kinesiology students. Offered Monday through Thursday evenings on campus, the class provides one-on-one and group cardiovascular and resistance training to CSUN faculty, staff, students and community members.

Focusing on mobility, flexibility and warm-ups, the students showed the runners at the expo how training in Commit to be Fit could help them achieve their goals. The students had to use their enthusiasm for fitness and motivating others to encourage interaction, learning valuable lessons about appealing to a different type of crowd in a new setting.

The audience was less likely to want to participate in the demonstration, since they were running 26.2 miles the next morning — which presented a new kind of challenge for the students.

“Usually at a presentation, you have a group of people sitting there waiting to hear what you have to say, whereas [at the expo] you had to do it yourself,” said Teal Geyer, a senior kinesiology major and program intern. “You have to have an intro ready, and you are going to participate and present whether someone is watching or not.”

The presentation sparked some curiosity from onlookers and family members. By raising awareness about the program at outside events like the expo, the group hopes to increase awareness of the program’s benefits to the community while giving students experience outside the classroom.

“These kinesiology students get a hands-on, practical approach to training, and they are getting real-world professional knowledge,” said Shabnam Islam, the kinesiology instructor overseeing the Commit to be Fit program. “It’s our job as teachers to provide them as much exposure to the world as possible within our field, and it would be limiting if we kept that in the classroom.”

To learn more about the Commit to be Fit program, visit http://www.csun.edu/development/training/events/commit-be-fit-spring.

The Mayor’s Youth Council provided high school students with valuable information about their college future from several California State University, Northridge leaders on Feb. 20 at the University Student Union Northridge Center.

The council, a group developed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and made up of high school students from across the city, is a one-year fellowship program for students who are looking to gain leadership skills in politics and community engagement.

“We try to [take the youth council] out to different college campuses so they can experience the college admissions process, and so they can network with other students and leaders,” said Gabrielle Horton, a staff member in the mayor’s office.

CSUN representatives who spoke to the council included Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students William Watkins, Domestic and International Outreach Counselor Jesus Flores, Financial Aid Counselor Gregorio Alcantar and Associated Students President Jorge Reyes. After the morning session, the students took a tour of CSUN.

Reyes emphasized to the teens that in college, they should get involved on campus as much as possible to enrich their experience.

“My first year at college, I would just go to class and then go to work — I didn’t get very involved,” Reyes said. “By my second year, I joined the New Student Orientation program, rushed a fraternity and was more outgoing. I can’t stress enough how important it is to make college your second home.”

Council members were then able to ask questions of the four CSUN leaders, which included queries on overcoming moments in college when they felt defeated, tips on getting a doctorate and how to balance school life with social life.

“You ought to welcome and embrace any challenges that arise because they are experiences that build character,” Watkins said. “You just need to stand tall and have confidence in yourself.”

For more information on the Mayor’s Youth Council, visit http://www.lamayor.org

Months of planning, deliberating and discussion led to the 20th annual Student Research and Creative Works Symposium, showing off some of the best and brightest work that California State University, Northridge has to offer.

Students from every college and background came together in the University Student Union’s Northridge Center to present their research on a number of topics, ranging from solutions to the obesity epidemic and ways to help those living with autism, to the relationship between the Los Angeles River and the federal government.

The event began with students presenting their research to a panel of judges, faculty members and representatives from other organizations. The judges evaluated the content and delivery skills of the students, and the top entries were honored at a ceremony later in the day.

The second part of the symposium was a gallery with posters lining the walls, produced by students participating in various research programs. Visitors were free to walk around and admire the students’ hard work, as well as interact with the students presenting on a more personal level. There was a huge crowd, and the room was packed as students, faculty, and guests walked through the aisles. Assistant Vice President of Graduate Studies Maggie Shiffrar spoke in admiration after talking to each of the presenters.

“There was a young man, and his presentation was impeccable,” Shiffrar said. “Afterward, I asked him what doctoral program he intended to go to, because he was a doctoral-caliber student. It turned out that he was an undergraduate junior. It’s just phenomenal. You have faculty talking about how much they’re learning — these students are upping the bar for all of us. If I could do a cartwheel, I would.”

The accessibility of the symposium allowed other students to learn from one another and become inspired by their peers, Shiffrar said.

“Students can see people with whom they can relate, who look like them, talk like them, from the same background, and they see them doing world-class research,” Shiffrar said. “That changes conversations, because a conversation is no longer, ‘Some people can do cutting-edge research, but I’m not one of those people.’ That’s the beauty of this event. It turns that entire framework on its head, and the conversation becomes, ‘Wow. Look at what my peers are doing. I can do this.’”

Hedy Carpenter, associate director for research programs at CSUN, said she was impressed by how much the symposium had grown since it began.

“This symposium has come a long way,” Carpenter said. “When it first started 20 years ago, we had about 70 participants in total, and today we have 192. We’re even thinking about renting more space and spreading it over two days to accommodate all the projects.”

As Shiffrar took a moment to absorb the talent of the CSUN students on display at the symposium, she was overcome with excitement.

“These are all people who are using their smarts to make the world a better place, and that’s the best thing there is,” she said.

Here is a summary of all the honorees at the symposium:
10-Minute Presentations

Session 1

College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

First Place

Holly Gover, Graduate, Department of Psychology

“Teaching Functional Play Skills to Preschoolers with Developmental Disabilities”

Second Place

Michele Zamora, Undergraduate, Department of Political Science

“Federalism and the LA River: National Government and Local Water Resource Management”

Session 2

College of Science and Mathematics

First Place

Kevin Kossick and Alex Schultz, Undergraduate, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

“N,N-diarylbenzimidazolium Compounds”

Second Place

Eric McDonald, Graduate, Department of Geological Sciences

“Basin Analysis and Detrital Zircon Geochronology of the El Paso Mountains: Permian Stratigraphic Sequence”

Session 3

College of Health and Human Development/Michael D. Eisner College of Education

First Place

Amy Edwards, Graduate, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

“Gender in Higher Educational Leadership”

Second Place

Eugenne Rivas, Undergraduate, Department of Health Sciences

“Text You Later: Preliminary Results of a Texting and Driving Health Education Program”

Session 4

Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication/College of Humanities

First Place

David Stamps, Graduate, Department of Journalism

“Entertainment Media’s Perception of SNS Use Among Teenagers”

Second Place

Hsiao-Hsien Shen, Graduate, Department of Music

“Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in e minor, Op. 11”

Mrinalini Watson, Graduate, Department of Linguistics

“An Examination of Inter-Generational Language Transfer in the Marwari Speech Community of India”

Session 5 

College of Science and Mathematics

First Place

Sarah Merolla, Graduate, Department of Biology

“Effects of Ocean Acidification and Water Flow on Calcification for Different Morphologies of Coralline Algae”

Second Place

Barbara Weiser, Graduate, Department of Biology

“Estuary Opening Effects on Population Connectivity of California Killifish”

Session 6

College of Science and Mathematics

First Place

Andrea Haberkern, Graduate, Department of Biology

“Spider Form and Function: Foraging Guild, Morphology and Performance”

Second Place

Nickie Cammisa, Graduate, Department of Biology

“Genotypic Variation in Response to Mutualists and Drought in an Invasive Plant”

Session 7

College of Science and Mathematics

First Place (tie)

Malachia Hoover, Graduate, Department of Biology

“Identification of a Novel Cripto/MyosinII Interaction that Promotes Stem Cell Mediated Tissue Regeneration”

Justin Molnar, Graduate, Department of Biology

“Quantification of the Metastatic Potential of HER2 Positive Breast Cancer Using the Chorioallantoic Membrane Assay”

Second Place

Sa La Kim, Undergraduate, Department of Biology

“The Role of ITGA1 in Pancreatic Cancer”

Session 8

College of Science and Mathematics

First Place

Eliana Ochoa-Bolton, Undergraduate, Department of Biology

“BMP Signaling Patterns Dorsal Interneuron Populations Throughout Spinal Cord Development”

Second Place

Stephanie Kennedy, Undergraduate, Department of Biology

“Regulation of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha-induced Protein 8 and Its Association with B-Cell Lymphomas”

Session 9

College of Science and Mathematics

First Place 

Bobby Teng, Undergraduate, Department of Biology

“Characterization of TBX5 Cardiac Progenitor Cells Derived from Human Embryonic Stem Cells”

Second Place 

Osvaldo Miranda, Undergraduate, Department of Biology

“Developmental Genes Regulate Stress-Induced Sleep in C. elegans“

When creative director David Reichelt ’13 (Theatre) worked on the development of his popular game application Color Switch, he had no background in coding. With a 4.5-star rating on iTunes and more than 5 million downloads, the addictive app has made it to the No. 2 game spot in the AppStore. As the title notes, the game revolves around colors, which is ironic — besides having no programming experience, Reichelt is colorblind.

On March 3, Reichelt spoke at the AppJam Kickoff event at California State University, Northridge about turning weaknesses and disabilities into advantages. He encouraged students from all majors to participate in this month’s AppJam competition.

“Having a passion for what you do is the key,” he said. “Passion drives you past all your failures and doubts.”

The kickoff marked the beginning of the month-long AppJam competition, in which more than 40 teams will develop a variety of apps for the community. The three winning teams will receive a cash prize and professional startup consulting from the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator at CSUN (LACI@CSUN) and Bixel Exchange.

“We did it last year, and it was so much fun to put something together in a short time frame,” said computer science graduate student Kyle Shaver.

Shaver and three of his friends won second prize in the 2015 AppJam with their CSUN internal social networking app, Ole. This year he teamed up with one of his old teammates, Vladimir Jimenez, also a computer science major, aiming for the grand prize of $3,000. Although Jimenez and Shaver only have each other to rely on in this year’s competition, they are confident in their new idea and plan to use campus resources such as the creative media studio in the Oviatt Library.

“If you can dream it, you can do it,” Shaver said.

The teams will publish video demonstrations of their apps on Portfolium from March 28-30, allowing the CSUN community to vote for the most innovative and creative project. The final AppJam showcase and award ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. on March 30 in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union.

It’s fitting that music filled the earliest childhood memories for Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stewart Copeland, who shared some of those recollections on March 7 on the main stage at California State University, Northridge’s Valley Performing Arts Center.

Participating in a question-and-answer session on the same stage where he will perform his score for the classic 1925 silent film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ on March 16, Copeland early on spoke about the conflict that he experienced.

His father was a jazz trumpeter, and passed along the genre to his son, “which really cured me of the stuff,” Copeland quipped, laughter ringing from the VPAC audience.

His mother surrounded him with classical music, especially Ravel and Stravinsky. Then he discovered one of the early drumming legends, Buddy Rich. “I can say that I’m classically trained on the drums, which is a ridiculous statement,” Copeland said.

Then he joined the revolution that was 1960s rock ’n roll, which set the young drummer on that path that would end up with his becoming the founding member of The Police, the iconic trio with fellow bandmates Sting and CSUN alumnus Andy Summers ’72 (Music). While the band set a musical course on its way to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, its musical roots were an incredible combination of punk and classical influences.

“Along came punk, which is a whole new hairdo,” Copeland said. “Louder, faster music, for a louder, faster person. We were a fake punk band, because we were very proficient on our instruments.”

 That “fake punk band” set the world ablaze from the time the single “Roxanne” began lighting up the radio airwaves in 1978, through the multi-platinum success of the album Synchronicity in 1983. Even before the band members went their separate ways in 1985, Copeland discovered a new musical passion, almost by accident.

Copeland was asked by Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola to compose the score for the movie Rumble Fish in 1983. Although he’d never done anything like that before, he took on the challenge and eventually hit the right notes.

“It’s kind of a cool thing,” Copeland said. “If you don’t know what you’re doing and you have to make it up, chances are you’re going to end up inventing the wheel very differently from all the professionals.”

Several years ago he looked into adding the score for the original Ben-Hur, which inspired the 1959 classic that received 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Copeland recalled for the audience how at first he didn’t know who to speak with at MGM – the studio that released the original film – to gain the rights to add the score to the movie and eventually create the orchestral production that will grace the VPAC stage, accompanied by the Pacific Symphony and conducted by CSUN alumnus Richard Kaufman ’77 (Music).

Copeland talked about how adding music to this silent film added so many elements for the audience, even though it was cut down from a run time of 140 minutes to 90 minutes. The music was created to blend with the facial expressions and the extreme action throughout the Fred Niblo-directed film, which at the time set the record for the highest budget for a film at $4 million.

“It’s the story of Jesus Christ, hence the title of the book, Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ,” Copeland added. “It’s the Bible, but with a really cool pirate ship, with a really cool chariot race, with all kinds of swords and sandals, but all the message and mission of the Christ.”

Copeland talked about how he wrote the score for the movie using a computer program that created the sounds from the multitude of instruments. The entire score ended up filling 500 pages of music.  “When I carry it I feel like a musician,” Copeland said.

The Police drummer described the difference between the man who sat at the drum kit behind one of the biggest bands in the world in the eye of storm of a stadium packed with 50,000 people, and the composer who writes music to be performed by an orchestra of virtuoso performers acting simultaneously in its own form of synchronicity.

“There are two kinds of musicians,” Copeland explained. “There’s the musician of the eye and musician of the ear. The musician of the ear, they stare off into space and get into that groove, that’s rock bands. Musicians of the eye, the orchestra players, they connect with the music not with their ear, but with their eye. Every note they play, they read from left to right on the page. It’s a very different part of the brain that’s processing music.”

Copeland will embody both types of musician during the VPAC Ben-Hurperformance, as he will pound the drums in time with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. All the while the movie will add to the spectacle, creating a unique feast for the senses.

“This is a concert, and it’s billed as a concert. But it turns into the movie,” Copeland said.

 For more information about the performance, please visit the VPAC website at valleyperformingartscenter.org. Discounts are available for CSUN students.