Award-winning journalist and television news anchor Soledad O’Brien provided insider insights under the theme Race and Opportunity in America at a lecture on March 8 at California State University, Northridge’s Valley Performing Arts Center.

O’Brien called herself “Afro-Latina,” meaning she is African, Cuban, Australian and Irish. Her background has allowed her to add context to her reporting — something not common in the industry, she said.

“Take a look at diversity in the media, there is no diversity,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien was the anchor for the CNN morning show Starting Point through 2013, and recently she has been a special correspondent for CNN/U.S. as well as other news agencies. During her career, she has reported breaking news from around the globe and produced documentaries. One of her documentaries, Black in America, featured a series of films aired over a four-month period.

During her presentation, O’Brien shared a few video clips from one of her documentaries with CSUN students, faculty and community members. The clips explored a high school where the majority of graduates — African-American students — attended college. The clips focused on Gloria, an African-American high school student with high hopes to attend college.

“I wanted to tell stories about individuals and the community,” O’Brien said.

She explained that the producer wanted to frame Gloria’s story around her parents, who were drug addicts. O’Brien disagreed, however, because she wanted to tell the story from Gloria’s perspective and not reinforce stereotypes.

“The real diversity is in telling original, authentic stories,” O’Brien said.

When California State University, Northridge’s acclaimed a cappella group Acasola decided that it would perform the song Til It Happens to You for a student-made video, little did they know that they would later come face-to-face with the song’s writer: alumna Diane Warren ’78 (Music).

Warren viewed the video online, then told the members of Acasola that their performance had moved her to tears. The group’s video was one of 14 selected to participate in a special vote.

This contest was developed by Warren, who encouraged college singing groups to create their own videos to raise awareness about sexual violence. Krystal Allen, a member of Acasola and a journalism major, said that when the group’s members found out about the video contest, they quickly decided to participate.

“The music really inspired us, and once we found out the song was written by Diane Warren, no question we had to do it,” Allen said. “She’s a product of the school that we’re studying at. We felt so connected to the music because of who created it and the message it was sending.”

As a group, they watched the movie The Hunting Ground, which featured the song, and they formulated a plan to create the video. The theme for the video centered around nighttime walks around campus that can be scary if done alone. The end of the video features a list of campus resources for students who don’t want to walk at night alone.

The performance was also important for some members of Acasola who have been victims of sexual violence.

“We wanted to make sure we shined a light on that,” Allen said. “It was heavy, of course, but we tried to make it as positive as possible so that it was an educational experience for everyone.”

Not long after they submitted their entry, the group was invited to participate in a special fitting and performance at GUESS, a contest sponsor. They made sure their schedule lined up with Warren’s so they could meet the CSUN alumna.

“We were really excited to hear about her experience at CSUN, and to get to talk to her,” Allen said. “We were so focused on being professional, and she ended up being such a down-to-earth person. We felt immediately comfortable with her.”

Warren stressed the importance of completing their degrees and told the group how special it was to hear them perform the song she wrote, which was nominated for Best Original Song and performed by Lady Gaga at the Academy Awards in February.

“To see her moved by our rendition of her music was the most rewarding performance we ever had as a group,” Allen said. “For her to be at least a little bit inspired or a little bit impressed by us is insane.”

Voting for the video contest runs through April 1, and viewers can vote for Acasola once per day. The group invites members of the CSUN community to view the video and cast as many votes as possible.

“It would be the best thing ever,” Allen said of the prospect of finishing first in the vote, but added that is not their sole purpose for participation.

“What we really wanted to do was reach out to the entire CSUN community on something that’s such a prevalent issue on college campuses everywhere. To bring light to the fact that this is something that’s taken lightly sometimes. It’s something that’s way too common. To be able to educate students would mean the world to us, because it’s something that everyone can relate to.”

Twenty teams have been selected to take part in the semifinal round of California State University, Northridge’s “Bull Ring” — CSUN’s version of “Shark Tank” — and to have the chance to compete for part of $50,000 in prize money.

The teams, which include students in disciplines from across the campus, will “fast pitch” their ideas for a new business venture to an audience and a group of judges on Thursday, April 7. The top six teams from the semifinal competition will face off before a panel of judges on Tuesday, April 26. Third place will be awarded $5,000, second place $15,000 and first place $25,000.

The semifinals will take place from 3 to 5:30 p.m. in the Ferman Presentation Room of CSUN’s Delmar T. Oviatt Library, located in the heart of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge. The finals will take place from 3 to 5:30 p.m. in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union on the east side of the campus.

“It will be interesting to see what happens with the competition,” said Ryan Holbrook, director of CSUN’s Entrepreneurship Program in the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. “Regardless of who ends up actually winning, any single one of these business proposals could be the seed of a fantastic business just waiting for a little boost.”

The idea for the Bull Ring New Venture Competition grew out of a lunch meeting between entrepreneur and philanthropist David Nazarian and former CSUN classmate and businessman Jeff Marine. While discussing ways to encourage entrepreneurial thinking among CSUN students, the conversation strayed to 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.

Holbrook said the proposals submitted in this inaugural competition ranged from new digital technologies to retail, food and beverage, and manufacturing.

“We also received a number of applications related to social causes, which was great to see,” he said.

Holbrook, local business leaders, CSUN alumni and business faculty spent much of March 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.

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 were eligible. In order to compete, the “pitch” must be delivered by a current CSUN student.

The teams were 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 ideas were judged on their feasibility, market potential, traction and quality of presentation.

Of the 58 ideas submitted, 20 were selected to take part in the preliminary competition next week and to receive a $250 prize.

“With this being a new venture competition, we weren’t quite sure what the response from the students would be,” Holbrook said. “We were expecting 30 to 35 student teams to submit their business proposals. To have received almost 60 really speaks to the interest and deep-seated entrepreneurial spirit of our students.

“Many of the student teams have done a great job thinking through revenue streams, cost structure and customer segments,” he continued. “Some already have a logo, a website and early prototypes. It’s really exciting to see these students actively moving their ideas from paper into the ‘real world!’”

The competitions are free and open to the public, though registration is required. To reserve a spot for the semifinal or final Bull Ring competition, visit the website https://www.eventbrite.com/e/csun-bull-ring-semi-finals-audience-open-to-public-tickets-21048750379.

Basketball legend and successful entrepreneur Earvin “Magic” Johnson visited California State University, Northridge for the annual Big Lecture, on April 4 at The Matadome.

Johnson — a five-time NBA champion, three-time MVP Award winner and a member of the Hall of Fame — spoke to CSUN students and members of the community about his professional success and how his failures motivated him to overcome challenges throughout his life.

“You have to learn from your mistakes and get better,” Johnson said. “And when the situation comes again, show what you’ve learned.”

The Lakers star retired in 1996, shifting his focus to business, entrepreneurship and philanthropy. He is co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA and Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Football Club. He is also chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises, which fosters underserved communities.

“Yes, be about making money and being successful, but also go back to your community and helping someone else,” he said.

Johnson shared stories from his childhood in Lansing, Mich., where he grew up owning just two pairs of pants and three shirts. But growing up in hardship never discouraged him from striving for success, he said.

“It doesn’t matter where you grow up,” Johnson said. “Quit worrying about what you don’t have, because you can have everything when you work hard.”

During the lecture, his eyes eventually fell on the Matador banner hanging from the ceiling of The Matadome — and Johnson said he embraced its slogan.

“Pride. Determination. Commitment. Excellence,” he read out loud. “That’s what I’m all about.”

He encouraged students to be determined, committed and to take chances — especially in their professional lives.

“Just get into a company and prove that you’re the best,” Johnson said. “Be the first one there, the last one to leave and keep asking if people need anything else. Be professional and become indispensable. That’s what you’re striving for.

“I was never late for practice,” he added, recalling his basketball career. “I was always the first one there and the last one to leave.”

The crowd capped Johnson’s lecture with a standing ovation after he interacted with individual audience members, including singing Happy Birthday to a female student and giving a shout-out to a young boy.

“I enjoyed what he said and how he interacted with students,” said CSUN student Mitchell Granese. “I was excited when he talked about his business ventures, and it was great hearing about his experiences during his basketball and business career.”

Granese, a cinema and television arts junior, said he is a big basketball and Laker fan, and was looking forward to the event.

“I liked that he answered questions with a personal touch,” added cinema and television arts junior Jonathan Suarez. “You could tell he wants to help people to become successful.”

As a senior baseball player at Azusa Pacific University in 2012, Johnathan Erb blasted a two-run homer over the right-field wall in an exhibition game against the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ single-A affiliate.

Little did Erb — now a California State University, Northridge student in the physical therapy doctorate program — know that four years later, he’d have the opportunity to intern with the Dodgers’ medical staff.

CSUN and the Dodgers established a partnership in 2010 which allows one CSUN physical therapy student to intern with the team’s medical staff in Glendale, Ariz., for eight weeks during spring training.

Erb said he found out about the internship after seeing it advertised on the Department of Physical Therapy website.

“The opportunity to work for the Dodgers was very attractive to me because of my experience with baseball growing up,” Erb said. “It felt like a natural fit.”

CSUN physical therapy professor Aimie Kachingwe said Erb prepared himself for the internship by initiating a research project that examined elbow injuries in baseball players, as well as working with the CSUN baseball team.

“Johnathan fit the mold of what we were looking for in a Dodgers intern perfectly,” Kachingwe said. “He has a love and understanding of the game, having played collegiate baseball as well as at the minor league level.”

After he graduated from Azusa Pacific, Erb briefly played for the Washington Wild Things, an independent professional baseball team based in Washington, Penn.

“Playing for the Wild Things was a great experience, and it was eye-opening to see the rigors of life as a professional baseball player,” Erb said. “It gave me a greater appreciation for what players were going through at spring training.”

Erb’s daily tasks at Dodger spring training, which spanned from the beginning of February through the end of March, included meeting with the medical staff to discuss which players needed rehabbing, doing prep work on the field and tending to the medical needs of the players — and there were a lot of them — who were injured.

“The experience was amazing — there’s no other place I would have rather been,” Erb said. “Working in Major League Baseball is something I always wanted to do. When I wasn’t able to as a player, I wanted to stay involved somehow.”

Helping mentor Erb during his internship was Stephen Smith, who became the team’s physical therapist in 2013.

“[Smith] has helped me a lot by pointing out the intricacies of how to treat a high-level athlete,” Erb said. “I was able to learn a lot just by being around him and seeing how he interacts with the players.”

Smith, who originally joined the Dodgers’ medical staff as a rehabilitation coordinator in January 2012, said that Erb showed great training room etiquette and has the right temperament to work in professional sports.

“Johnathan knows how to interact with the staff and the players on a professional and personal level,” Smith said. “He showed a good feel of when to just be seen and when to be heard.”

Erb said he was never nervous being around all-star talent such as Clayton Kershaw or Joc Pederson because the players were always welcoming and professional.

“It wasn’t at all like they were walking around acting like they were the superstar, even though they obviously were,” Erb said. “The guys were amazing — they were a blast to be around.”

Erb did have some memorable conversations with the players, but he made it clear that the majority of his time was spent making sure the players were healthy and ready to play or practice.

“I got to know the guys who came into the training room, but [the medical staff] has things to do — and of course the players do, too — so it’s not like we sit there and talk for an extended period of time,” Erb said.

Whether Erb, who returned to CSUN on March 30, decides to pursue a career in baseball or not, Kachingwe said it’s clear that the 26-year-old has a very bright future ahead of him.

“Upon graduation, there will be multiple physical therapy clinics wanting to hire him, and many experienced therapists will regard him as an expert in baseball rehabilitation,” she said. “If Johnathan should desire to pursue a career working in baseball, he would be prepared and ready. Any professional team would be lucky to have him on the staff.”

The Delmar T. Oviatt Library is the core of California State University, Northridge. Faculty and staff members keep it running smoothly to ensure that students receive the resources and assistance they need. The library is also composed of many student employees that are the backbone for faculty and staff.

On March 30, the 2016 Library Student Employee Scholarship reception was held at the Orange Grove Bistro to award 21 student employees with more than $20,000 in aid to help ease the financial weight of college expenses.

Scholarship recipients and family members of the recipients were afforded a unique opportunity to thank the donors that make the annual awards possible at the reception.

Eva Cohen, a multimedia production major, is one of the six recipients of the Ann and David Perkins Scholarship.

“I felt very happy and blessed that they [donors] enjoyed my letter,” Cohen said. “I am planning to use the money to buy Adobe Creative Cloud, which is important for my major.”

Donors Ann and David Perkins are retired librarians and through their donations they remain connected to the Oviatt Library.

“We both feel that student support is very important, especially with the increase in tuition and other educational expenses,” Ann Perkins said. “We plan to continue our support through scholarships for Oviatt Library student assistants.”

Out of the 21 scholarship recipients, two students were awarded two scholarships each, which means double the financial aid.

“I was incredibly surprised, super happy and completely grateful,” said Anastasia Peck, a third-year physical therapy student and recipient of the scholarship. “I first got one [scholarship] and then the other one came in a little bit later. I am just so grateful for the donations.”

Peck was awarded the Friends of the Library Scholarship and the Dr. Bonita J. Campbell WISE Scholarship.

Librarian Emeritus Virginia Elwood-Akers, donor to the Friends scholarship, said “I think that giving money to people who are trying to get an education is the best thing that people can do with their money.”

California State University, Northridge students Navin Row, Ali Saeed-Alqahtani, Ryan Duckworth and Harout Ter-Papyan approached their entry into the second annual AppJam Showcase — a contest where undergraduate and graduate students competed to create the best mobile app — with the goal of transforming what started out as a simple idea into a service that could help their fellow students.

According to the group, the inspiration for the app Fyndit came when a classmate in their senior design class kept asking them where he could access a variety of campus resources.

“[My classmate] would always ask where on campus he could use a microwave or where he could go to print out papers,” Row said. “Finally he said, ‘You guys should just make an app that shows people where everything is at.’”

Fyndit was born with the goal of helping CSUN students find everything on campus from classrooms to vending machines. To see that idea come to fruition took many hours of work. “There was a lot of communication back and forth, a lot of in-person meetings and a lot of late nights,” Duckworth said.

That hard work received its reward at the March 30 AppJam Showcase, when the creators of Fyndit earned first place and a cash prize of $3,000 for their winning app. Yet theirs was just one of several success stories on an energy-filled afternoon, when 33 teams presented their apps for the campus community to view and in some cases test out the teams’ innovative creations.

Second place and $2,000 went to students Benjamin Villalobos, Edward Villamor and Scott Judge for Bike Tracker. The app is meant to immediately assist students if their bicycle is stolen. The app will alert students that their bike has moved and if someone suspects that a bike has been stolen, the owner will be able to file a police report through the app using the account information they provide when initially signing up.

Armen Arslanian and Saba Janamian received $1,000 for their third-place app, CSUN Easy-Park. The app gives students real-time updates about how many spaces are available in each CSUN parking lot.

“AppJam exemplifies the innovation and forward thinking that leads to student opportunities,” CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison said. “This competition is an opportunity for students to flex their creative muscles, to push their natural skill set and to collaborate with a team. These are all factors in preparing our students for rewarding and impactful careers.”
 
All the winning groups — including the popular-vote winner, SideBySide, a health-and-communication app voted by students on Portfolium, CSUN’s new, digital portfolio and career-readiness network — will receive professional start-up counseling in order to help advance their apps, through expert advice and networking from Bixel Exchange and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI).

“These startup resources will allow each of the winning teams to receive advice and counsel to potentially take their mobile app idea to the next level,” said CSUN Vice President for Information Technology Hilary Baker. “We are thankful to both LACI and Bixel Exchange for offering these services for our winning CSUN AppJam teams, and I look forward to seeing the outcome of the incubation discussions.”

California State University, Northridge’s Institute on Sustainability partnered with Food Forward for the Sixth annual Orange Pick Event on April 3. The event took place at the historic Orange Grove, where students, community members and volunteers gathered together to pick Valencia oranges. Food Forward is a nonprofit organization that collects produce and donates it to food pantries all over the Los Angeles County.

In a day’s work, 12,758 lbs. of oranges were harvested with the help of all the volunteers, which included several members of the CSUN Men’s Volleyball team. The oranges were donated to SOVA Community Food and Resource, a program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles.

On April 7, 20 teams of California State University, Northridge students took part in the semi-finals of the Bull Ring, the entrepreneurial competition that is called CSUN’s version of Shark Tank where these teams “fast pitch” their business ideas to a group of judges made up of business leaders. Created through the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics in partnership with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), this competition originally featured nearly 60 student teams pitching their ideas.

After the semi-finals, five finalists were selected: CTHRU (team members: Narek Zaribian and Ish Hunanyan), EduCode (team members: Arman Aivazian, Jazmin Perez and Ibram Uppal), Take Sessions (team members: Jonathan Saeidian and Joseph Saeidian), ThinkFit (team members: Mark Swanson, Brian Swanson and Rene Sanchez) and Vibe Probiotics (team members: Abed Rahman, Erika Elizalde, Katie Teevin, Jonathan Lopez and Mackenzie Bacalzo).

The Bull Ring finals take place on April 26 at 6 p.m. For more information go to csunbullring.com.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, a steel bridge, a social networking website for gamers, a concrete canoe and a human-powered tricycle — all these incredible creations and more were on display at the Seventh Annual Senior Design Project Showcase at California State University, Northridge on April 15.

Students from every department of the College of Engineering and Computer Science had worked tirelessly on these projects, some since the beginning of the spring 2016 semester and some as part of a three-year plan, while others worked to improve the projects that had been constructed in 2015, such as the CSUN Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge team.

“Last year, the rider actually crashed the bike when we went to competition,” said Rachel Foreman, a mechanical engineering senior. “So, the first thing we looked at when we started work on this tricycle was how we could make it easier for the rider to use, and how we could make sure the brakes would work efficiently. We also looked into the general health and fitness of our riders, as that played a big part in the competition last year as well.”

The event began with teams giving a 10-minute oral presentation on their research to a panel of judges. The panels consisted of professional engineers, who evaluated the teams’ clarity, methodology, project completeness, ability to articulate points and ease with handling the question-and-answer portion of the presentation. The teams that scored the highest overall in these categories were honored at a ceremony at the end of the event.

The second part of the showcase was a gallery, where the teams presented their designs in a more general setting. One group, the CSUN Concrete Canoe Team, already had taken its finished product to a competition, but that didn’t stop them from pulling out all the stops for their booth. They were given a Game of Thrones theme by CSUN on which to base their floor presentation, and not a single detail was overlooked, whether it was the canoe painted with dragon artwork or the rustic jars containing the different materials that made up the canoe. The display was a fantastic opportunity for members of the team to use their creativity to demonstrate how much effort had gone into constructing the canoe.

The CSUN Steel Bridge Team also made an appearance at the showcase. Only weeks away from a competition that will determine if the hard work the team members had dedicated toward the project will pay off, Luis Molina, a civil engineering senior, was hopeful about the team’s chances of winning.

“Last year there were some hiccups with the design, but this year we pulled out all the stops to make sure those same flaws didn’t appear again,” Molina said. “Working on this project and the experience you get from it is great. It really takes the lessons you learn in a class and applies them to a real-life setting. I used to sit in class and say, ‘Oh, that’s just a number or a part of a design.’ But now I get to see where it fits in and how different parts of a design work.”

The end of the day brought an awards ceremony that exemplified the respect that the students and faculty shared for one another. Walking out to the ’80s hit Eye of the Tiger, Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science S.K. Ramesh spoke about how proud he was to see students undertake these kinds of projects, and how grateful he was to everyone who participated. He recognized the teams and individual judges for their commitment to the event.

“It was no accident that this event occurred today,” Ramesh said. “It is the culmination of a lot of hard work from everybody — from students to faculty, to our wonderful judges — and we can all take pride in the work we see today.”

Here is a summary of all the winners from the showcase, with students and faculty advisors from each team listed:

Grand Prize

CSUNSat1: Armen Arslanian, Rosy Davis, Sandra Dheming Lemus (CS), Timothy Friedman (CS), Gary Gamble, Cesar Garcia (CS), Nereida Herrera, Matthew Ingram, Phuoc Ma, Priya Malavia (CS) (Captain), Jobeth Palacio, Clifford Williams

Faculty Advisors: Sharlene Katz, James Flynn, Adam Kaplan, David Schwartz

Oral Presentation First-Place Winners

Civil Engineering & Construction Management Department

ADA-Compliant Accessory Dwelling Unit David Boyajian, Sami Maalouf, Tadeh Zirakian, Michele Glidden (Captain), Razan Khalil, Kevin Liu, Andrew Slusser, Anthony Talebian

Faculty Advisors: David Boyajian, Sami Maalouf, Tadeh Zirakian

Computer Science Department

Learning, Classifying and Recognizing Bot (LCAR Bot): Steve Delgado, Jake Hanvey, Thomas Jentis, Karanvir Panesar (Captain), Edwin Portillo, Hovig Shahbazian, Nathaniel Wilson, Bryan Wong

Faculty Advisor: Nhut Ho

Electrical & Computer Engineering Department

Modular Solar Powered Water Pump System Jose Baez (Captain), Joel Fischetti, Jireh Christine Imperial, Brian Lee, Jong Jin Lee, Edwin Rebollo

Faculty Advisor: George Law

Manufacturing Systems Engineering & Management Department

CSUN Cloudponics Hyunjin Kim, Michael Mora (Captain), Navjeevan Sandhu, Rodrigo Soltero

Faculty Advisor: Bingbing Li

Mechanical Engineering Department

2016 Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge: Brian Albarracin, Alan Alcocer, Benjamin Bell, Daniel Cabrera, Eric Figueroa, Rachel Foreman, Mihran Kechichian, John Kok, Armando Lagunas, Jonathan Lo, Alexis Marquez, Cassandra Mathison, Kevin Matsuno, Steven Molumby, Nancy Nodal, Angel Sevilladiaz, Mark Shipman, William Steed, Nami Taghavi, Robert Timm, Robert Vallet (Captain)

Faculty Advisor: Aram G. Khachatourians

Project Display First-Place Winners Per Department

Civil Engineering & Construction Management Department

Concrete Canoe: Catherine Adrover, Daniel Akmakjian, Gabriel Bonilla, Dannick Castaneda, Phat Duong (Captain), Cristian Duran, Julio Iglesia, Sara Lopez, Joe Medina, Valeria Padilla, Ernesto Pedroza, Jecsan Perez, Joel Plascencia, Sam Potts, Claris Rivera, Paul Rivera, Hani Salhab, Miguel Sanchez, Jose Sanchez, Nicole Thompson, Soledad Tlamasico, Francisco Villalobos, Julie Yin, Nikki Zulueta

Faculty Advisors: Rais Ahmad, David Boyajian, Sami Maalouf, Tadeh Zirakian

Computer Science Department

PartyQ: Frank Addelia, Stefan Eng, Marco Jonker (Captain), Alex Kolesnik, Andrew Maynard, Narbeh Movsesian

Faculty Advisor: Steve Fitzgerald

Electrical & Computer Engineering Department

CSUN SAT1: Armen Arslanian, Rosy Davis, Sandra Dheming Lemus (CS), Timothy Friedman (CS), Gary Gamble, Cesar Garcia (CS), Nereida Herrera, Matthew Ingram, Phuoc Ma, Priya Malavia (CS) (Captain), Jobeth Palacio, Clifford Williams

Faculty Advisors: Sharlene Katz, James Flynn, Adam Kaplan, David Schwartz

Manufacturing Systems Engineering & Management Department

CSUN Cloudponics: Hyunjin Kim, Michael Mora (Captain), Navjeevan Sandhu, Rodrigo Soltero

Faculty Advisor: Bingbing Li

Mechanical Engineering Department

2016 Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge: Brian Albarracin, Alan Alcocer, Benjamin Bell, Daniel Cabrera, Eric Figueroa, Rachel Foreman, Mihran Kechichian, John Kok, Armando Lagunas, Jonathan Lo, Alexis Marquez, Cassandra Mathison, Kevin Matsuno, Steven Molumby, Nancy Nodal, Angel Sevilladiaz, Mark Shipman, William Steed, Nami Taghavi, Robert Timm, Robert Vallet (Captain)

Faculty Advisor: Aram G. Khachatourians

California State University, Northridge has entered into an agreement with DC Solar Freedom to provide solar energy products at its campus, at no cost to the university. The first-of-its-kind initiative by DC Solar Freedom is aimed at institutions of higher education that seek to encourage the use of clean energy, and to educate and empower their communities to discover new and innovative uses for solar.

CSUN, the first Los Angeles-area university to partner with DC Solar, will receive 39 mobile solar products for use in and around campus, including:

• EV charging stations that will allow off-grid car charging
• Light towers to enhance campus safety and security
• Power Stations: outdoor work spaces that come fully equipped to charge electronic devices
• Generators for multiple off-grid applications on and around campus

DC Solar Freedom is able to offer these units at no cost to campuses. Funding for this program is provided through a third-party Power Purchase Agreement, allowing the third-party to utilize vacant space on the unit for additional brand recognition.

DC Solar Freedom’s CEO, Jeff Carpoff: “Colleges and universities are home to some of the foremost thought-leaders on sustainability, yet when it comes to accessing renewable energy for their own use, they are often caught between capital costs and trying to reduce their carbon footprint. DC Solar Freedom offers a solution by placing renewable products on campus at no cost, thereby allowing these communities to integrate clean energy into their daily lives. We are proud to help deliver the tools California State University, Northridge needs to achieve its sustainability goals.”

“CSUN’s partnership with DC Solar will prove to be extremely helpful for the campus not only from an education standpoint for students to realize how solar is being used and the potential applications for it in the future, but they also provide a great source of power in the event the campus experiences a disaster, ultimately building on our resiliency,” said CSUN’s Sustainability Program Manager Austin Eriksson.

CSUN’s partnership with DC Solar Freedom represents the commitment we make to its students and the community – a commitment to fostering sustainability and a clean energy future that will allow them to thrive.

California State University, Northridge’s Associated Students invited the CSUN community to its 25th annual Earth Fair at the Bayramian Lawn on April 21. The event revolves around informing and spreading awareness to students on environmental conservation and current sustainability issues around the world.

Numerous CSUN departments, clubs and outside vendors set up booths with giveaways and informational material on how to maintain a more sustainable lifestyle. This year’s fair also hosted several organizations that promote healthy and organic eating habits.

Students engaged in free activities such as yoga, free massages, crafts and tree planting. The tree planting was part of CSUN’s campus tree program, which just earned the university Tree Campus USA recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation.

“The tree planting was my favorite part for sure,” said Arcelia Martinez, Cinema and Television Arts junior. “It made me feel more connected to the campus. It’s kind of like leaving a legacy behind.”

Martinez, who noticed the fair when passing by, said she immediately wanted to explore what the event was about.

“It is important to have events like this to bring the students together, show them what the campus has to offer and connect them to campus resources,” she said. “I also loved the live music – it really completed the event and made it feel like a festival.”

DC Solar Freedom, a benefit corporation that provides campuses across the nation with free solar products, was one of the outside organizations participating in the fair, raising awareness to renewable solar energy. The organization provided CSUN with 42 different mobile solar products and is one of CSUN’s latest partners in its commitment to foster clean energy and a sustainable campus environment.

John Miranda, Director of Communications for DC Solar Freedom, said the organization wants to educate students  and raise awareness on the efficiency of solar energy and the availability of mobile generators, electric vehicle charging stations and power stations, where students can charge their personal devices with the power of the sun.

“We’re trying to show students that solar energy is coming down from the rooftops and it’s mobile. It can be everywhere and be used off-grid, especially in California – but also in states where it’s not so sunny and this is what a lot of people don’t know,” he explained. “Solar can work in a number of climate conditions, including cloudy weather.”

Miranda said the AS Earth Fair was the perfect occasion to shine a light on solar energy and to inspire students to develop a more sustainable mindset.

“The young generation is going to lead the way,” he said. “[Students] can be inspired by what they are seeing and improve upon it. We want college students to look at [solar products] and say ‘How can we make it better? How can we make it more efficient?’ That’s what we’re here for – we’re hoping to inspire.”

California State University, Northridge’s Associated Students (AS) is encouraging students, faculty and staff to show some “Matatude” every Tuesday by wearing red or any CSUN memorabilia that promotes campus spirit.

Matatude Tuesday, which was originally instituted in 2009, is meant to encourage members of the CSUN community to showcase their Matador pride.

“[AS] really wants to improve school spirit here at CSUN,” said Kevin Mojaradi, AS coordinator of marketing and public relations. “Similar to how it’s a tradition for students to set roses next to the matador statue, we want it to be a tradition for Matador students and staff to wear red every Tuesday.”

AS also came up with the idea for a “street team” to walk around campus and reward those who are wearing Matador gear.

“This summer AS will be looking for student volunteers who want to go around campus every Tuesday during the fall semester and see who is wearing red,” Mojaradi said. “Those who are wearing red will receive a small gift, which will hopefully encourage students to be more spirited.”

AS will also be encouraging the Office of Student Involvement and Development to promote Matatude Tuesdays at new student orientation to all incoming students and explain the tradition and incentives they can earn by participating.

CSUN senior Ron Jaradat said he envisions students  — young and old — really catching on to Matatude Tuesday.

“It’s great to see a movement on campus that encourages people to support their university,” Jaradat said. “It’s definitely refreshing that our student body is getting more excited about being a Matador.”

Students at California State University, Northridge took a break from the late stages of the spring semester to enjoy a fun night out with friends at the Mardi Gras-themed Matador Nights on April 22.

DJ Rhiannon and DJ Ralphey Ralph got students dancing to the latest techno and hip hop songs.

Inside the Northridge Room students traveled to the French Quarter in New Orleans, as they enjoyed a live jazz band and got their fortunes told by a palm reader. Students were able to pose for a portrait drawn by a caricature artist and capture their memories in the photo booth.

Students could also catch a ride on the ferris wheel or go for a bumpy ride as they hopped on the wave of a giant slide.

The night was filled with many activities and delicious food such as jambalaya and powdered donuts, all courtesy of Associated Students. Here are photos from the high-energy evening.

California State University, Northridge is one of the most diverse universities in the United States. A Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), CSUN’s student body is more than 44 percent Latino, as of Fall 2015. It is also an Asian American, Native American, Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI), with a variety of renowned ethnic studies disciplines, helping students become even more connected with their ethnic background. It educates more deaf and hard-of-hearing students than any other U.S. state university. And it has a large population of students from around the world, making CSUN a truly international campus. This rich mix of diversity represents the full spectrum of the human experience for a student body that is more than 40,000 strong.

Into this cultural richness has stepped Dr. Raji Rhys, CSUN’s first chief diversity officer (CDO). Rhys will work with all levels of the university community – primarily students, faculty and staff – so that the university’s operations are equitable, inclusive and use one another’s differences as creative fuel to help CSUN achieve its seven university priorities.

Rhys comes to CSUN with more than 15 years of experience in higher education as a champion for diversity, focusing on how individuals adapt to social groups and how that impacts culture change. Most recently she was a special advisor to the president for diversity and inclusion at the University of Arizona, and she recently consulted on diversity issues in Silicon Valley. Previously, Rhys was the founding director for the first multicultural center at San Jose State University.

“We are so happy to welcome Raji to the Matador family,” said CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison. “With her extensive experience and passionate approach to inclusiveness through diversity, I am confident that she will work with all campus stakeholders to help our university grow and continue to be one of the leaders in providing a high-quality education to an incredible array of students from cultures around the world.”

Growing up in Yuba City as part of an Indian-African household, Rhys had early exposure to social influences that helped guide her to her future calling. Her hometown had a sizable migrant Latino population and a fairly large Indian population, even though Yuba City’s population remained a majority white through her formative years.

Rhys recalled her mother going out to run normal errands, but experiencing different treatment than other people in the area.

“I watched how my mother was treated going to the bank because she had an accent, and knowing that people were not providing her the customer service that they would provide someone else,” Rhys said. “There was some pretty overt prejudice going on. I remember feeling angry that she got treated differently because of her accent and skin color.”

Rhys also recalled a time during her teenage years when she was in a car with friends when they passed by a Sikh man wearing a traditional turban. One of her friends uttered a derogatory term about the man, and Rhys remembered not saying anything at the time.

“These were my friends, and this is what they’re saying about this guy out there. And that’s me. What does that mean for me?” Rhys said. “I thought about what role I played by not saying anything in the car. It got me starting to think about equity, fairness and identity.”

These early influences helped shape Rhys’ life path, as after high school she enrolled at California State University, Chico and majored in psychology. She later earned her Ph.D. in counseling psychology at the University of Maryland, focusing her doctoral work on diversity in complex systems like cultures. Examining how diversity impacts larger groups has been at the core of the work Rhys has done in her years in higher education.

“The part about diversity that’s really exciting to me is about diversity as a force for innovation, for resilience,” Rhys said. “Diversity is our greatest hope to solve the grand challenges of humanity. The only way we’re going to solve them is through diverse teams.

“How do we leverage those differences to come to the innovative solutions that we so badly need to challenges that are beyond any individual? It’s going to be the collective that solves them. But two heads are better than one, only if they’re different heads.”

The makeup of CSUN’s diverse campus population is what made this new opportunity quite intriguing for Rhys. She saw the many different ethnicities represented among the student body, and the ever-rising number of first-generation college students who come to CSUN, many from low-income backgrounds.

“All of those things are important, because to graduate and be successful, students now need to be interdisciplinary thinkers,” Rhys said. “Twenty-first century leadership is about being a diversity thinker. CSUN does that as well. It’s a real-world learning lab.

“CSUN leverages difference, where a lot of colleges stop at making the campus diverse. Creating the opportunities to engage with difference so they get the best education possible, and they become the innovators of the next generation who will solve our problems.”

Rhys pointed out that where she has experienced the greatest success is not in honing in on deficiencies in diversity, but “to focus on what is working and amplify that.” She has reviewed the work of the psychologist and author Angela Duckworth, who has extensively explored how grit and determination positively impact career and personal success for individuals. Rhys especially sees plenty of resilience in the many CSUN students who are the first in their families to attend college.

As CSUN’s new chief diversity officer, Rhys plans to spend the coming days, weeks and months to learn as much as she can about the different cultures that make up the campus community. She said she hopes to build upon the positives to help create a campus culture that is even more welcoming to diversity than it already is – and foster an environment where students from all backgrounds can thrive and launch successful, well-rounded lives.

“Ultimately the ideal is to be an authentic campus of access, opportunity and diversity thinking,” Rhys said, “so that Matadors would be really proud and know what diversity means to them as far as the CSUN way, and they would know how to use diversity in the CSUN way.”

The 100 Citizens organization has a simple but noble goal: to help the community through positive outreach and programs. Members already have made their mark on the San Fernando Valley, and now they’re hoping the organization can impact communities across California.

100 Citizens was started in 2010 by California State University, Northridge professor Steven Loy. The program soon became two separate but related entities — a club and an organization. The club focused on personal development and networking for kinesiology students, while the organization focused on helping improve the health of the community.

The first project the 100 Citizens organization took on was improving the conditions of San Fernando Recreation Park, which had become run down and riddled with gang-related activities. 100 Citizens resolved to help by volunteering their time to inform people about the importance of maintaining health through various exercise programs and personal health education. What started with 10 participants grew dramatically, and today, the park is rejuvenated, with more than 100 participants coming to the park each week, new programs such as Zumba and body sculpting, new roads leading into the park and even a new pool facility. Developers have also gained approval for construction of new apartment complexes close to the park.

As Loy explains, it is even better to see how big of an impact the organization has had on CSUN students,

“What is most rewarding is to see the growth in numbers of students involved and observing the self-empowerment and the personal and professional development occurring while simultaneously seeing the health benefits derived grow from that early group of 20 individuals to over 10 times that number”

With the success of the San Fernando Recreation Park project, 100 Citizens volunteers knew they had tapped into a sense of community that could bring real change. They began expanding to other areas such as South Los Angeles, where they found that dealing with community issues such as crime and lack of resources often caused residents to neglect their health — a different situation from that of San Fernando. So they got to work, doing body-weight exercises with local residents and playing music to attract families’ attention. This meant a lot more attention was focused on the park, causing a cultural shift from gang members to families.

The student members of 100 Citizens have exhausted every resource to promote their program — from producing flyers for local businesses to hand to their customers, to contacting parks to offer their services. The students know they are making a positive change in the community, and they belong to an organization they truly believe in. But there is only so much these students from CSUN can do to increase their reach beyond the Los Angeles region.

Recently, students from the 100 Citizens Organization applied for the Clinton Global Initiative, in hopes of being recognized as a program “helping to change the world.” Each year, the initiative receives thousands of applications from schools across the country and proposes plans on a number of different subjects. 100 Citizens proposed expanding the group’s work to the 20 other CSU’s with kinesiology programs by November 2016. It was the only CSUN organization — and the only health-and-fitness program — recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative.

Now, 100 Citizens aims to raise $140,000 to help grow their program to reach other campuses. The money will be invested in each CSU equally, with $7,000 for each campus covering airfare, lodging, food and equipment for kinesiology students to use at the other campus’ local parks. Fundraising is essential to the program’s expansion, said 100 Citizens member Steven Mendoza.

“Innovation can’t just stay here at CSUN,” said Mendoza, a graduate student in Kinesiology with an emphasis in exercise physiology. “Innovation has to go out through the community. Innovation has to thrive through businesses, through schools, through public sectors. In order for us to thrive, we need the community helping us. We are the community, and we are here to help everyone out.”

In addition to the Clinton Global Initiative, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator or LACI@CSUN has taken note of 100 Citizens, helping turn the organization into a nonprofit in order to expand its outreach and presence across the country.

For families, this is an opportunity for parents to improve their health. 100 Citizens wants to offer people the opportunity to be fit and live longer, healthier lives — from being able to easily climb stairs to running around and playing with their children.

For businesses, this is a chance for real investment. 100 Citizens has helped improve the community’s general fitness — as well as the economic landscape. Areas that had seen gang members loitering in parks are now open to everyone, helping more people feel safe outside their homes and encouraging residents to explore the area with their families.

100 Citizens already has proven that it has a large influence and impact in the community, and now community members are being encouraged to become a part of that impact. By visiting the organization’s fundraising page and making a donation, people could become the catalysts that help transform a park into a thriving hub for communities statewide. For more information about how to help, click here.

As graduation approaches, California State University, Northridge graduate student Vanesa Morales is preparing to hit another milestone in her young career.

Morales will be able to boast two CSUN degrees. In spring of 2013 she received her bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing and a minor in Spanish. This semester, she will receive her master’s degree in educational leadership and policy studies with an emphasis in education.

During her academic years, Morales has received a great deal of help and support from faculty and staff members, who helped guide her throughout her academic journey. She received aid through the Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP), which inspired her to give back and volunteer with their student outreach and recruitment program as an undergraduate.

“I would go to high schools and go through the EOP process, and help [high school seniors] see what documents they needed to submit and encourage them to attend college,” Morales said. “I felt like I needed to give back to my community, and do that work that we need so much of.”

Morales also become an academic mentor for EOP, which expanded her opportunities to help others.

“Becoming a mentor, she was just a natural and really had a passion for giving back to students,” said Sean James, who was the EOP coordinator at the time. “She was a very exceptional mentor for us — she related to diverse populations, she related to everybody.”

EOP made such an impact on Morales that after earning her bachelor’s degree, she decided to return to campus to pursue her master’s degree in educational leadership and policy studies, with an emphasis in education.

“EOP has been so amazing, from the day that I went through the program myself to working for the program,” Morales said. “I want to be able to represent minorities and show people that programs like EOP do work.”

Morales has transitioned from volunteering with EOP to working for TRIO,
a federally funded college opportunity program that supports first-generation, low-income students with resources to help them succeed in college. TRIO is a composite of three original programs established by the U.S Department of Education to increase the presence of first-generation students from low-income communities in higher education.

“She is able to provide them academic advice and guidance to ensure [students] reach their academic goals,” said Frank Muñiz, EOP/TRIO director. “Students are able to relate to her because she is a first-generation student, and she has shared her personal experiences with them.”

The road to success for Morales has not always been so sweet. She had to overcome a language barrier and adjust to a new culture.

“I moved from Bolivia to here [California] when I was 13 years old — I’m an immigrant,” Morales said. “High school was hard, not knowing the language and having to learn on the way. It was intense.”

Her hard work continues to pay off. For the 2015-16 academic year, Morales received CSUN’s First Generation Alumni Scholarship sponsored by CSUN’s Alumni Association and donors.

“This scholarship not only helped me financially, but it also encouraged me to keep moving forward with my academic and professional goals,” Morales said. “I look forward to being able to donate to scholarship funds in the near future, because I know how beneficial these scholarships are to our students.”

After graduation, Morales said she plans to take a year off to explore possible doctorate programs. With her departure, CSUN will say goodbye to an extraordinary Matador who has made a difference, one student at a time.

“I want to keep the doors of education open for minority students, especially for first-generation students that need so much help,” she said.

CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison

Financially strapped students at California State University, Northridge might have funds available to afford interning at deserving local nonprofit organizations under a proposal that earned CSUN a spot among the top five finalists for the prestigious Aspen Institute’s Booz Allen Aspen Ideas Award.

If CSUN’s proposal wins, the university will receive $25,000 in seed money to help fund Let Matadors Learn and Lead, a new pilot program that would provide students with stipends so that they can afford to take otherwise unpaid internships with nonprofits. As CSUN’s proposal notes, a large majority of its students work to support themselves and their families, and often cannot take advantage of valuable experiential-learning opportunities that unpaid internships provide many of their wealthier counterparts at other institutions. This potential funding is complemented by a crowdfunding effort on Generosity.com.

CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison will be presenting the proposal at the Aspen Ideas Festival later this week. The Aspen Ideas Festival is one of the nation’s premier, public gathering places for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to present and discuss ideas and issues that shape our lives and challenge our times. Developed with Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading provider of management and technology consulting services to the U.S. government in defense, intelligence and civil markets, the Booz Allen Aspen Ideas Award is designed to inspire ideas and innovation that will have a lasting impact on communities around the globe.

“I witness firsthand the struggle our students from first-generation, immigrant and and underrepresented populations face — lacking the economic support systems that traditional college students typically enjoy,” Harrison said. “Research shows the positive impact internships have in improving student learning, student retention, graduation rates and closing the achievement gap. At the same time, they foster invaluable connections between the students and the community, and provide valuable human capital to the nonprofits who often suffer from limited resources.

“Many of our students work to support themselves and, often, their families,” she continued. “Hence, they cannot afford to avail themselves of unpaid internships in desirable fields, as many traditional students do. Learn and Lead provides students financial support to work directly with nonprofit leaders, to receive professional mentoring and leadership experience while engaged in their communities.”

Learn and Lead would match CSUN students with local nonprofits. The program would provide funds to support the students financially with a stipend while they do their internship. Students also would receive leadership training and mentoring from the nonprofit executive team and a faculty member in their discipline. Participating nonprofits would be screened for quality and professionalism of the internship and mentoring experiences, as well as their commitment to an ongoing partnership with the university and their meaningful contribution to the community.

CSUN already has strong connections to many local nonprofits through various campus departments and programs, including its Office of Community Engagement. In 2014-15, the most recent year with data available, more than 10,000 CSUN students engaged in some form of community service, totaling more than 450,000 hours. Nearly 6,000 students were enrolled in community service learning courses.

In addition to the potential seed money from the Booz Allen Award, the university also is seeking crowdfunding support. Those interested in helping to finance the program can contribute online at https://www.generosity.com/education-fundraising/let-matadors-learn-and-lead.

Kimberly Rose Madhwani is having a hard time adjusting back to the warmer climate of the San Fernando Valley. For 10 weeks over this summer, the California State University, Northridge student conducted research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as part of a scholarship program hosted by the Amgen Foundation. The program pairs 17 leading educational and research institutions across the United States, Europe and Japan to host scholars in research labs.

Madhwani, a fifth-year biochemistry major and president of CSUN’s Chemistry & Biochemistry Club, first heard about the scholarship when she attended a conference hosted by the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. She was one of about 360 applicants chosen from more than 5,000 applications. Madhwani was thrilled when UCSF selected her for the program, where she conducted research, studying the underlying neural circuits responsible for thermoregulations.

The scholarship application required her to write a diversity statement, where Madhwani explained how her upbringing was perfectly suited to a career in medical research.

“Growing up, and especially in Filipino culture, you work hard for a lot of things,” she said. “I was taught if you didn’t work hard for it initially, then you didn’t deserve it in the first place. That translates to my work ethic in the lab, because it’s a lot of delayed gratification, but you have to be consistent.”

After conducting research during the past three years, Madhwani said she appreciated the opportunities CSUN opened up for her — including this scholarship that allowed her to experience a different city. She encouraged all CSUN students to try to find scholarships, to show others what great scholars the university can produce.

“CSUN is very underrepresented in a lot of ways, and I feel like there are such great minds here,” she said. “It’s only a quick Google search away. I highly recommend these kinds of scholarships to people, because we’re just as competitive as any other school.”

Scholarships like those offered by Amgen can help students discover new opportunities and realize their dreams. Madhwani described how her time at UCSF has prepared her for a career in medical research, as well as helped reaffirm her beliefs in just how much she can accomplish in the field.

“I definitely believe this experience has better prepared me for graduate school,” Madhwani said. “I want to get my Ph.D. and hopefully start a lab of my own, and this experience has brought me one step closer to accomplishing this career goal.”

Photo courtesy of Aishwarya Iyler.

It’s Wednesday night, and Aishwarya Iyer is excited to begin her night shift at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. She has spent a week sitting in front of her computer in a small cubicle, where she has evaluated and analyzed data for several hours a day. She submits the coordinates of this night’s target planet to the 13,802-foot-high summit telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and selects the instrument of choice offered by the telescope facility to study the atmosphere of this planet.

Iyer, a graduate student in California State University, Northridge’s physics program, started working for JPL in summer 2014 as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Over the past year, she had the opportunity to lead an entire study on exoplanets — planets outside Earth’s solar system. She’s passionate about the research she has been conducting at JPL, and one of her favorite parts of the job is the occasional late-night observation run that provides an opportunity to observe planets physically, she said.

“Those are the most fun days of the semester,” Iyer said. “When we’re done with all the legwork, and you can actually get to the science aspect of it.”

Most of Iyer’s work involves days of programming and evaluating huge data sets to obtain quality results from reducing data acquired during the observation runs. Her current work focuses on characterizing the atmospheric properties of 19 “hot Jupiters” previously observed by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Hot Jupiters are 1,500-degree-Fahrenheit exoplanets that have masses similar to that of Jupiter but are much closer to their parent star than our Jupiter to the sun. Iyer’s task was to classify these 19 planets to find common atmospheric features, unique to the class of hot Jupiters.

Iyer explained that a majority of these planets exhibit the presence of water vapor within their atmospheres. Previous studies however have resulted in a variety of analysis and interpretation methods. Iyer’s work was motivated by the need for standardizing this data to look for patterns. The results of the study show that water is ubiquitous in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters and that about half of the atmosphere of any hot Jupiter is blocked by clouds, haze or aerosols, thus preventing scientists from detecting the true water content.

“There’s still so much we don’t know and to know even just a little bit more than yesterday about the universe, is really one of the encouraging reasons to do research.” Iyer said.

Her study was published in the June 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal in the June 1 issue. The results of the study could have implications on future studies of hot Jupiter atmospheres as well as for using the next generation of space observatories such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Iyer graduated from UCSD in 2015 and moved to CSUN to pursue her master’s in physics.

“The generic norm is that people do their undergraduate [in physics] and directly go to the Ph.D. programs,” Iyer explained. “But I thought, it’s best to go through a master’s program to solidify your understanding of the core concepts, which will allow you to become a stronger candidate for a Ph.D program — that’s why I was really inclined toward taking this path.”

Iyer said she particularly values working with professors Wladimir Lyra and Farisa Morales, both faculty in CSUN’s Department of Physics. Lyra and Morales have become key mentors, she said.

“CSUN has such a wonderful physics program, which has been an important part of my whole journey,” she added. “I wouldn’t have had the courage to jump on a Ph.D. program right away, and this program is something I definitely needed.”

Iler also advocates to encourage more female students and under-represented minority students to not shy away from physics or astronomy classes.

“It is our duty as members of the academic community to build one another and provide support whenever necessary,” she said. “We must keep reminding ourselves that it is okay to struggle while solving some physics problems but when it comes to the big picture, we must realize that getting an opportunity to study any part of our magnificent universe is truly a privilege.”

Currently, Iyer is applying to various Ph.D. programs for next year and said she is very excited to get started.

“I believe that it’s very important to do what you love, and I can’t wait to work on more exciting science,” she said.