California State University, Northridge students and faculty next week are presenting Napa Street Elementary School students with a musical designed to help them learn about nutrition and healthy life choices

Third and fourth graders at the school will be starring in the “My Plate! The New Food Guide” musical, as part of CSUN’s Let’s Cook and Move in Schools! program, in conjunction with the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. The performance is scheduled to take place from 11 to 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, April 28, at Napa Street Elementary school located at 19010 Napa St. in Northridge.

“Our preliminary research results indicate at least a 50 percent increase in nutrition and physical activity knowledge in children participating in the musical,” said Annette Besnilian, executive director of the Marilyn Magaram Center. “We are also working on implementing a parent component to the show. It is important to educate the children and their families. Using music, arts and dance are great ways to help children and their families learn about the importance of eating right and being active each day.”

Let’s Cook and Move in Schools! engages children learning behaviors for health and wellbeing. Besnilian co-directs the program with kinesiology faculty Mary Jo Sariscsany.

“MyPlate! The New Food Guide” musical is a creative nutrition education initiative designed to promote healthy eating and physical fitness for children and to inspire them to share the information with family and friends.

The show has been recognized by the Michele Obama’s Let’s Move! Nutrition Initiative and the USDA. The creator of the show, Helen Butleroff-Leahy, is a registered dietitian and former Rockette, Broadway dancer, director and choreographer. She is expected to attend the performance along with actor Jonathan Butts, who is a widely known performer in the New York theatre scene having performed in “Chicago,” “Hairspray” and “Sister Act.”

Butleroff-Leahy has worked with students and faculty in CSUN’s nutrition program to produce a musical that would convey the importance of healthy life choices to the elementary school students.

California State University, Northridge presented the 37th-annual TRENDS fashion show, themed A Designer’s Cut, before more than 400 enthusiastic fashion fans May 7 at the Northridge Center of the University Student Union.

The annual event was organized by the student-run CSUN organization TRENDS, which has been involving students with the apparel industry for more than 20 years. In collaboration with professor Shirley Warren’s fashion show production class and graduating student designers, TRENDS enabled the apparel design and merchandising seniors to show off their work.

“This showcase gives students the experience they need to succeed in a very competitive multi billion dollar industry,” Warren said. “I am very proud of all of our students. They executed the show with true commitment and dedication. Each year they thrive to raise the bar and I think they did that with a seamless production.”

Twelve senior designers and seven pattern-making students presented their work, involving more than 60 models. Sponsors such as Fashion Supplies Inc., Saks Fifth Avenue and Milani Cosmetics supported this year’s show.

“It’s really important for designers to have the opportunity to showcase their collections, just so they have the experience of preparing for a runway show,” said Samantha Gullikson, a spokesperson for the fashion show committee. “It was really nice to see all the hard work everyone put in come to fruition.”

Ron Sorenson said he believes there are three things that anyone can give: “Their time, their treasure and their talent.” His commitment to California State University, Northridge is a showcase of all three.

A San Fernando Valley native, Sorenson ’88 (Health Administration), M.S. ’93 (Health Administration) worked part-time at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank during his undergraduate years — a job that would continue to benefit him throughout his career. Sorenson recalled that his CSUN education placed a great deal of emphasis on strategic-thinking skills, which put him in a great position to enter the health-administration field.

After completing his bachelor’s degree, Sorenson began working at a health insurance company. He appreciated the experience he gained there, but he preferred working for a care provider and applied for a role in the finance department of Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys.

The health administration world is a very small one, Sorenson said. While interviewing for the position, he found two fellow CSUN alumni working in the hospital: one, his future boss, and the other vacating the position for which Sorenson had applied (to move on to a better job).

A few years into working in the hospital’s finance department, Sorenson decided to return to CSUN to pursue his master’s degree in health administration. He remembered how well he got along with the professors, and he saw CSUN as a natural choice to continue his academic pursuits.

As part of the graduate program, Sorenson was required to complete an internship. Unfortunately, he could not use his current work in finance to fulfill the requirement. This inspired him to reach out to other departments that interested him, which led him to Valley Presbyterian’s planning department. He had thoroughly enjoyed the strategic planning classes he had taken during his undergraduate years, Sorenson said, and he knew that it was the perfect fit. His supervisor in finance was more than happy to give him a few hours off each week to complete the internship hours, and Sorenson never looked back.

While visiting a friend at St. Joseph’s one day, he saw there was a full-time position open in the planning department, which was now headed by his former supervisor from his undergraduate days. Sorenson applied and quickly landed the job. He knew he had found his calling in strategic planning.

Other employers around the Valley took note of his work, and before he knew it, Sorenson’s career took off. He has worked in strategic planning departments at multiple hospitals, and today he serves as the director of community health partnerships at Providence Health Services. His team works to serve community interests and find new ways to reach out to patients.

A few years after completing his master’s degree in 1993, Sorenson found an opportunity to share his talent with his alma mater. One of his former professors, impressed by his work, approached Sorenson and asked if he would take on a role as a part-time lecturer for the Department of Health Sciences at CSUN.

Sorenson welcomed the challenge, and he began sharing lecture responsibilities with the professor. After a few years, he took over the class when the professor became chair of the department. Since that time, Sorenson has taught a number of other classes, and 2016 marks his 15th year as a part-time faculty member.

While teaching, Sorenson was approached about donating to one of the many scholarships that CSUN had set up to help students. He was happy to oblige, and he chose to give in the form of scholarship funds. During his time working for hospitals, Sorenson had noticed a direct correlation between a person’s financial security and his or her quality of life. This inspired him to donate $1,500 to a scholarship that helps students pay for textbooks and tuition fees, to get them on solid financial ground. Later, he learned that he was one of the first health administration alumni to do so.

When asked if he’d like to help judge the applicants for the scholarship, he had only two conditions.

“I said that I don’t mind if they don’t have the best GPA — just as long as they showed promise and had a strong commitment to the community,” Sorenson said. “Many students are struggling to put themselves through college, and they work one or two jobs while going to class. If they’re that committed to going to school, then they deserve a reward.”

Sorenson realized that he could contribute in other ways to CSUN, so he began volunteering and serving as a mentor and resource for his students — a move that proved extremely beneficial.

“There was a young man in one of my classes who needed an internship, and I was able to get him one at the hospital where I worked,” he said. “My staff fell in love with him, and when the internship was over, we were able to offer him a job within the organization. It’s moments like these that show how much CSUN students have to offer us and how we can learn from them.”

Sorenson’s dedication to CSUN students and San Fernando Valley residents reflects his love for the community. From his annual commitment to the health administration scholarship to his passion for education and sharing knowledge, Sorenson is an example of how a single individual can make a difference for up-and-coming Matadors. It’s an example that he hopes will inspire others.

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 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.

It takes hard work, determination and long hours in the library to master the art of juggling an often capricious schedule amidst the demands of midterms, multi-page papers and final projects. It pays off in the end, as thousands of family members, friends and fellow classmates will cheer as California State University, Northridge’s class of 2016, more than 11,120 strong, walks across the stage at graduation ceremonies beginning May 20.

Some of the graduates are the first in their families to get a college education. Others set out on a path forged by a desire to learn more about the world or through the determination of loved ones who believed that education would open doors to new opportunities.

Here are some of those students’ stories:

Charles Etienne, B.S. in Physics, with an emphasis in Astrophysics

Charles Etienne

“I have an astrophysics degree,” said Charles Etienne, 35, of North Hills. “I work as an engineer in industrial design. And I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for CSUN.”

Etienne was born in Canada and grew up in New Jersey. He had dreams of being a musician, so after high school he moved to New York City, where he got a job as a sound engineer and played in a band. After six years, the band members moved to Los Angeles because of its thriving music scene and a lower cost of living. They settled in Van Nuys in 2001.

“I would work as a sound engineer during the day, temporary jobs here and there, and play shows at night,” Etienne said. “Wherever I worked, as things broke I would repair them. That sparked a curiosity about the principles behind why things work and why they don’t.”

After he got a job in technical support for the music equipment company Line 6, he started taking classes in 2009 at Pierce College to see if he could find the answers to his questions about how things worked. Eager to learn all he could, he decided to take a class at CSUN the following year.

While on campus, he stumbled upon CSUN’s Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Formula One car design project. Learning that the student team needed members, he volunteered.

“There was chemistry on the team and, lo and behold, a couple of months later, I was the project manager,” Etienne said. “That really was an experience. It exposed me to engineering, and I fell in love with math all over again — in the relationships between math and how things work in the world.”

He enrolled at CSUN that year as a physics major. Inspired by his time with the Formula One team, Etienne decided in his sophomore year to look for a similar experience in CSUN’s physics department.

“I was willing to sweep the floors somewhere — perhaps someone needed help cleaning up,” he said. “I knew how to solder, and I thought that might be of use. Dr. [Hendrick] Postma was ‘Welcome. Come in. You can help out.’”

In his spare time, Etienne would wander around CSUN, hoping to learn as much as he could about the “interesting things that were happening all over campus.”

“I would go into buildings,” he said. “If the door was locked, I wouldn’t go in. But if the door was open, I would go in and talk to whoever was there. I think I have been to part of every building on campus, and I have had interesting interactions with other students and professors. I felt there was a willingness and openness in the people in the different departments to say ‘This is what we’re working on.’ Those, for me, are the moments that I remember, that I treasure, from being at CSUN.”

In spring 2015, in the third week before the end of his last semester, Etienne, who had just landed a full-time job as a mechanical designer at the music technology company Strymon, was diagnosed with testicular cancer. His professors suspended his studies while he sought treatment. Etienne had surgery and is now cancer free. A few months after taking a health leave from CSUN, Etienne returned to the campus, finished his assignments and completed the requirements for his bachelor’s degree in physics, with an emphasis in astrophysics.

Etienne has been invited to take part in the commencement ceremony for the College of Science and Mathematics at 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 22.

“There is a tremendous sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and pride when I’m around the Valley or wherever, and I see a Matador sticker or a CSUN T-shirt, I think ‘Yep, me too,’” Etienne said.

He will be touring this summer with his band, The Alpine Camp.

Tamus Glunz, B.S. in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Real Estate and a minor in Business Law

Tamus Glunz

Tamus Glunz’s world imploded in 2009, during the worst of the recession. She lost her home and investment properties, and was left homeless.

“Life changed dramatically,” she said. “It was a matter of reinventing myself. I’ve been as low as the darkest of the dark, and I’ve been back in the sunshine. I’ve learned in my 50s that it’s not about ‘you,’ and you can’t accomplish it all on your own. You have to surround yourself with positive people and move forward.”

Glunz said she found those positive people at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria and at CSUN.
The 58-year-old Northridge resident spent much of her childhood in Europe, living in Germany, Spain and Majorca and traveling. Her father was a pilot and her mother a stewardess for Pan American World Airways. The family moved back to the United States when Glunz was in fourth grade and settled on a ranch in Madera, Calif.

Glunz’s longtime passion for photography turned into photojournalism in high school and college, which led to a job as a concert photographer. Her first black-and-white images were for the musical group KC and the Sunshine Band. Over the years, Glunz has held a number of jobs, including postal worker.

All that time, she flirted with the idea of returning to college to finish her degree, but never felt comfortable in the classroom. But as the physical demands of her postal worker job began to take a toll on her mobility and issues concerning her investment properties came up, Glunz decided to give college another try.

In 2006, Glunz enrolled at Hancock College — her sixth attempt at completing her college degree — before transferring to CSUN in 2013. It was during her time a community college in Santa Barbara in the 1980s that an attentive professor realized that Glunz had a learning disability and made accommodations. When her world imploded during the recession, Gluntz was determined not to give up.

Despite being homeless — sometimes living on friends’ couches, housesitting or helping those in need of in-home healthcare assistance, or occasionally living out of her car — Glunz dedicated herself to her education. She said she owes her bachelor’s degree in part to the staff at Hancock College and CSUN’s Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP)and Disability Resources and Educational Services, who helped her when she needed it most with words of encouragement, guidance or accommodations for her disabilities.

Singling out CSUN TRIO Director Frank Muñiz and late EOP Director Jose Luis Vargas, Glunz teared up. “I am so lucky,” she said. “I am a lucky girl to have found such amazing people.”

In 201 4, realizing that there were other students like her — homeless or unsure where their next meal would come from — Glunz started what is now the Matador Food Bank, with the help of Justin Weiss, former director of CSUN’s student volunteer service program Unified We Serve. The food bank fed more than 300 students this past year. Glunz has met with CSUN and California State University system leaders about food insecurity and homelessness among CSU students.

At 8 a.m. on Sunday, May 22, Glunz will take part in the commencement ceremony for the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. As for what comes next, Glunz said she is going to take a minute to breathe and take care of some long overdue health issues.

“I have a lot of opportunities, an abundance of opportunities, and I need a minute to think,” she said. “It’s been a decade-long journey, but we made it.”

Nazanin Keynejad, M.A. in English

Nazanin Keynejad

Nearly 23 years have passed since the first time Nazanin Keynejad stepped onto the CSUN campus. At that time, she was here to get a degree, and nothing else. Her employer at the time had promised her a promotion if she had a college degree. She applied to CSUN to finish a bachelor’s degree in English, which she had started a few years earlier at UCLA.

“I was here during the [1994 Northridge] earthquake,” said Keynejad, of Oak Park. “I went to classes in the trailers. It was a very wet winter that year. They had these wooden planks between the trailers and the mud. People would walk outside on the planks, the trailers would shake and literally, spiders would fall on you. It was a very interesting experience.”

Keynejad, who immigrated from Iran as a teenager with her mother, said she finished her degree and she was able to take advantage of the job promotion. She eventually got married, had a son and started her own event marketing company. Then the recession hit in 2008, and work became scarce.

One day, while cleaning, she found a journal dating back to 1989 in which she had written her dreams of getting a master’s and doctorate in English.

“I talked to my husband,” Keynejad said. “He said, ‘You’ve been thinking about this for 20 years. You don’t have a steady job right now. Maybe it’s time to do it.’ It was the spring of 2012. I just opened up the [CSUN] catalog. Unbeknownst to me, I signed up for one of the toughest undergrad classes with one of the toughest professors in the department. I took the class and loved every minute.”

Keynejad hadn’t given much thought to her grades when she first attended CSUN, and she had to make up for that. She spent a year taking classes through the Tseng College’s Open University program to spruce up her academic credentials before formally applying to the Department of English’s graduate program.

She said CSUN’s English faculty have fueled her passion for English literature and encouraged her interest in studying the rise and progression of the strong female literary characters in the 18th century. Her efforts earned her the CSU’s prestigious 2015-16 Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral scholarship. The scholarship is designed to give historically underrepresented students more access to doctoral-level study. It places a special emphasis on increasing the number of CSU students who enter a doctoral program at a University of California institution.

In addition to her studies, Keynejad is the graduate student representative on CSUN’s Community Engagement Advisory Board and a graduate assistant in CSUN’s Learning Resource Center.

“What I want to do is get my Ph.D., come back and teach here at CSUN,” she said. “I love CSUN. As a good friend of mine once said, ‘CSUN is the school of second chances.’

“I have had the opportunity during the past couple of years to be a supplemental instructor in freshman composition,” she continued. “I am so humbled by these students. I had students who would take the bus at five in the morning to make it to class. Some are the first people in their families to go to college. If I can help just one of those students get to where they want to be, that would be the only reward I would need in my life.”

Keynejad is scheduled to take part in the commencement ceremony for the College of Humanties at 6 p.m. on Monday, May 23.

Laura Ontiveros, B.S. in Public Health

Laura Ontiveros

When Laura Ontiveros walks across the stage in front of the Oviatt Library later this month as part of commencement, the loudest cheers will be coming from her parents, Jose and Hermalinda Ontiveros. They made the decision more than 26 years ago to immigrate to the United States from Mexico, in hopes of creating a better life for their children.

Laura Ontiveros, the fourth of their five children and the first in the family to be born in the U.S., watched as her parents, who spoke limited English, struggled to make ends meet. She knew education was important, but it was the unwavering support of a counselor at Arleta High School that convinced her that college was possible.

Ontiveros, 25, of Pacoima, was the first in her family to go to college. Her sister, Yesenia, who will be finishing her degree in psychology this summer, is the second to get a college education.

An honors student in high school, Laura Ontiveros chose biology as her major freshman year at CSUN because she thought a career in healthcare would be interesting. She admitted to struggling that first year to find her foothold at the university, and being disappointed when she discovered biology just wasn’t her forte.

During her sophomore year, Ontiveros joined a sorority, Sigma Alpha Zeta, to become more involved on campus and find a way to give back to the community. The sorority is involved in several community projects, from working with survivors of domestic violence to feeding and clothing the homeless and helping organize the campus’ annual Relay For Life, which raises money for cancer research.

Aware that Ontiveros was looking for a new major, one of her sorority sisters suggested she explore public health.

“I ended up taking a class with professor Carla Valdez, and that first day of class, I knew it,” Ontiveros said. “She showed us the big picture of what it means to be a public health educator and I was like, ‘This is it!’ I remember, that same day I went back to my sorority sister and told her, ‘I found what I want to do for the rest of my life.’”

Ontiveros said she treasured her time at CSUN and the lessons, beyond the classroom, that it taught her.
“Sometimes, as a Latina woman, you don’t know how far you can go. You don’t know your worth,” she said. “Coming to college gave me a sense of who I am and how powerful I can be, and what I can do in the world. It gave me confidence in myself — that I am smart. I have reached goals that I never thought I could reach back in middle school. I never knew I’d graduate from college.”

Ontiveros will take part in the commencement ceremony for the College of Health and Human Development scheduled for 8 a.m. on Monday, May 23. She said she hopes to find a job as a public health educator after graduation, but eventually wants to return to CSUN to get a graduate degree in public health.

David Stamps, M.A. in Mass Communication

David Stamps

David Stamps, 35, of Simi Valley, is passionate about taking his thesis, the We Matter Project, to the next level when he graduates from CSUN later this month.

“It’s about how we use social media to change the narrative,” Stamps said. “I grew up in Ferguson, [Mo.]. That’s my community. But everyone is telling a story, and each one paints a different picture. I am Mike Brown. I am a black male from Ferguson, Missouri. Everything else that is created is painted and told by someone else outside of my control.

“People don’t understand that you don’t have to fit into a box just because someone has created a box for you,” he continued. “We have to be equipped to understand that no one can tell our story but ourselves.”
Stamps’ parents were hard-working people who never had been to college, but were determined that their son have opportunities they never had. He was voluntarily bused to a predominantly white school district so he could have the best public-school education possible. In his junior year of high school, a college counselor pulled him aside and told him she was going to do everything she could to help him get into college.

“I had never thought of going to college before,” he said. “It never seemed like an option.”

In 1999, he enrolled at St. Louis University to study communications and theater. Two years later, he transferred to Columbia College Chicago, where, in 2003, he earned his bachelor’s degree, with honors, in media studies with an emphasis in nonprofit administration.

After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles not exactly sure what he was going to do, but eager to spread his wings.

His love of dance led to teaching jobs and unexpected offers to dance and act professionally. He often would tap into his academic experience to help the small theater and dance companies with which he worked to write their grant applications.

One day, a student in one of his dance classes who worked at NBCUniversal mentioned he was looking for an assistant. Stamps gave him his resume and was hired. He worked for NBCUniversal’s marketing department for about six years, handling talent and arranging media events for more than than 80 films, from “Despicable Me” to the “Fast and Furious” and “Bourne” franchises. He also managed the internship program, which included working with CSUN students.

When Stamps married in 2010, he and his wife talked about starting a family. They knew the long hours his job demanded weren’t conducive to family life.

“I loved my job,” he said. “I knew that I was really good at it, but I realized that I loved working with college students more. I thought I could be a good teacher. In order to do that, I would have to go back to school and earn not only my master’s degree, but also my doctorate if I wanted to become a tenure-track professor.”

Shortly after the birth of his first child in 2012, Stamps quit his job and enrolled at CSUN. He became a stay-at-home dad who juggled three part-time jobs — as a dance instructor, a graduate assistant in CSUN’s Department of Management and a fitness instructor at the Student Recreation Center — and a full course load. He said his wife, Monique, an elementary school teacher, has been his biggest supporter. She offered him words of support when times got tough and has been steadfast in her faith that he will succeed.

Now a father of two, Stamps will take part of the commencement ceremony for the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 20. He will be pursuing his doctorate in communication studies at UC Santa Barbara in the fall.

Ford is vehicles. Campbell’s is soup. And Vargo, in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, is physical therapy.

It’s one of those companies whose name is more synonymous with its product or service than the person who started the company. California State University, Northridge alumnus Jeff Vargo ’92 (Physical Therapy) has become a brand name.

“I never expected to have more than one location,” Vargo said. “That wasn’t my intention.”

What started as a 1,200-square-foot clinic in Canyon Country has ballooned into Vargo Physical Therapy, a company with nine locations.

Vargo credits CSUN and its Department of Physical Therapy with giving him some of the tools he needed to build a brand.

“It sounds like a punch line, but CSUN opened every door in the world,” Vargo said. “You just have to take advantage of it.”

Vargo grew up in a military family in Lodi, Calif., and eventually joined the U.S. Air Force. Though CSUN played a significant part in his future, so did one seemingly small incident that happened when he joined the Air Force: He broke his hand and received physical therapy for it. That experience was the spark that led him to study and pursue physical therapy as a profession.

Vargo said he developed confidence at CSUN by putting the things he learned into practice. The program also gave him a sense of responsibility.

“It gave me the confidence as a therapist you need for [building] a company — to take charge of a clinic and be confident with your education and clinical ability,” Vargo said. “By nature, I’m easy to talk to. I learned marketing and business along the way [and combined that] with the confidence the school gave me in my clinical skills.

“At CSUN, you had to be accountable and responsible,” he said. “That was solidified here. It helped quite a bit.”

After graduating from CSUN, completing a series of internships, and then working for eight years as a physical therapist and later as vice president of business development for a private practice in Santa Clarita, Vargo decided it was time he worked for himself. He opened Vargo Physical Therapy in Canyon Country on May 1, 2001. Then, he expanded across the Santa Clarita Valley to Valencia.

There, Vargo Physical Therapy is widely known for its successful work with young athletes.

“It’s huge,” said CSUN alumnus Rich Gutierrez, head football coach of Santa Clarita’s Canyon High School and formerly its athletic director, on Vargo’s impact in that valley. “It’s not even a guy’s name anymore. When you say ‘Vargo,’ everybody knows you’re talking about physical therapy.”

Gutierrez said that whenever he has an athlete who needs treatment, he sends him to the Canyon Country Vargo location to see physical therapist and CSUN alumnus Andy del Rio. del Rio is now a partner in the company and runs the Canyon Country clinic.

“I owe everything to Jeff,” del Rio said. “It’s kind of funny. I had a phone call from Jeff [when I was treating a patient recently], and I told the patient, ‘Hold on. It’s my boss.’ Then I was getting off the phone, and usually when he says bye, he says, ‘I love you, man.’ And so I said, ‘I love you, man, [back].’ The patient said, ‘You told your boss you love him?’ He’s more like a brother to me than anything and has been more influential [in my life] than I realize.’”

Of the 24 physical therapists listed on the company’s website, 13 are CSUN alumni, including his business partner, David Feely — who was his roommate at CSUN — and his nephew James Vargo, who runs the company’s Moorpark office.

“We know what we’re getting,” Vargo said of CSUN graduates. “One of the huge areas I look at is situational adaptability. How do they adapt to something they’re uncomfortable with? Is there pushback? Or do they take some of [the challenge] and use it? And I look at communication, which is huge for me. And being able to accept constructive criticism and work from it.”

Vargo said he hires based on qualifications, but he admits there’s a bond he feels with fellow CSUN graduates, which helps. del Rio sees the bond.

“Jeff always gives back, whether people know it or not,” he said. “CSUN is one of those places he’ll always support. When students need a place to go, he encourages us to help them out. CSUN always has a special place in our hearts.”

For five years, Vargo served at CSUN on the Dean’s Circle for the College of Health and Human Development. And he has a permanent place in the physical therapy department.

If you walk through Jacaranda Hall, you’ll find the Physical Therapy Wall of Fame. Behind the glass of two display cases are 55 photos that show the annual graduates of the program. Class 35, Vargo’s class of 1992, is one of only two photos that doesn’t have names on the picture. He’s on the bottom row, last person on the right side.

The photo doesn’t really need his name. Eventually, it became pretty well known in this area.

Virginia Huynh

We knew in high school who had money to burn and who didn’t. It shouldn’t have made difference in how we saw ourselves, but in the back of our minds, we always wondered.

That wondering, that perception of our social status in school, may have had an adverse effect on our health, according to a new study by California State University, Northridge child and adolescent development professor Virginia Huynh.

Huynh and her colleague, UCLA researcher Jessica Chiang, looked at how teenagers’ perceptions of their social status in society and at school affected their health.

“The results suggest that subjective social status may be more important to adolescent health than objective social status,” said Huynh, who teaches in CSUN’s College of Health and Human Development. “Specifically, independent of objective socioeconomic status (parents’ income and education), lower school subjective social status was associated with higher diastolic blood pressure. Lower societal subjective social status was associated with more somatic symptoms, such as headaches and stomachaches. Furthermore, lower perceived societal subjective social status is associated with more sleep disruptions and stress, which in turn contribute to somatic symptoms.”

Their study was published online last month by SAGE Journals.

Huynh and Chiang surveyed 360 Latino and Asian-American 11^th and 12^th graders at two Los Angeles-area public high schools. The duo chose to focus on these two enthic minority groups because there has been limited research on the psychosocial contributions to health in Latinos and Asian Americans, despite being the two fastest-growing minority populations in the United States.

In addition to gathering information about their parents’ education and the family’s household income, the researchers asked the students about their perceived stress, sleep duration, sleep disruption and health issues such as headaches and stomachaches. They also measured their blood pressure.

Regardless of household income, most of the participants reported that their families were middle class and saw themselves as having a slightly higher status in their school. The problems arose for students who had questions about their social status, at school and in society in general.

“What we found was that independent of the parents’ income and education, kids’ perceptions of their own social status was a good indicator of whether they were more likely to report feeling sick or ill, to report more stress and poorer sleep quality,” Huynh said. “To put it simply, kids who feel they are in a lower status compared to other Americans are more stressed out, more likely to sleep poorly and more likely to feel sick.

“Being in high school is tough enough,” she continued. “The kids are going through so many transitions, learning so many new tasks and skills, while at the same time having to navigate the social aspects that are so inherent in high school. They can’t help but compare themselves to other students.”

Huynh and Chiang found that students who had concerns about their social status in school had higher blood pressure, while those who worried about their social status in American society complained more about feeling ill, with headaches and stomachaches.

There is no easy answer for helping the students overcome their concerns about their social status at school or in society, Huynh said.

“I wish there was a chicken-soup answer, but it’s such a huge issue: How do you change a person’s perception of where they stand in society?” she asked. “Right now, the key thing is that the adults in the kids’ lives — their parents, teachers and other caregivers — are aware that these issues exist and may impact their children. It might be more fruitful to figure out how to manage stress or better sleep quality than how to increase status.”

Huynh called it another piece of data that may help those who work with teenagers.

“There is no quick solution or easy answer because adolescent development is complicated, and the world is complicated,” she said. “We can answer a question a little bit at a time and slowly put the pieces of the puzzle together, to ensure the health of our kids.”

Nearly 100 children and their families will pitch tents and make waves at the annual Stansport Family and Friends Campout at the Aquatic Center at Castaic Lake, supported by California State University, Northridge, from Saturday, June 25, to Sunday, June 26.

Those attending participate in the Los Angeles Police Department, Devonshire Station’s Police Activity League Supporters (PALS) program, which works with children in underserved communities. Camping gear company and event host Stansport will provide tents, sleeping bags and lanterns to the participating families at no cost. CSUN’s Aquatic Center at Castaic Lake staff will provide free Aqua Smart classes, where children from third to fifth grade and sixth to eighth grade can learn to canoe, kayak and more. The free classes are funded by an Aquatic Center grant from the California Division of Boating and Waterways.

Nathan Martin, executive director of the Aquatic Center at Castaic Lake, which is overseen by CSUN’s Department of Recreation and Tourism Management, said the campout serves the mission of PALS, Stansport and CSUN — to connect to the community and serve those who are often underserved.

Children kayak at the Aquatic Center at Castaic Lake. Photo by Josh Hernandez.

“Our mission at the Aquatic Center is in large part to do outreach to groups in underserved communities,” he said. “When I found out what [Stansport’s] mission was, and what they were doing with the equipment to give the opportunity to camp to kids who don’t generally have that access — who don’t have the resources to even consider it — the alignment was there.”

Martin added that working with the PALS program and Stansport provides CSUN a stronger connection to the community and supports the university’s seven planning priorities, as outlined by CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison, which include using athletics as a tool for engagement.

“We extend the notion of using CSUN athletics as a tool for engagement by offering recreation and sport activities that connect us to the community,” he said. “Furthermore, by doing so we also help extend the visibility and reputation of CSUN, and we are able to do more with less University funding by the grant we secured from the California Division of Boating and Waterways.”

The center’s community outreach is vital to its success at providing opportunities to at-risk students and children, said Erin Eiholzer, an Aquatic Center professional, employee of Associated Students and a 2014 alumna of CSUN’s Department of Recreation and Tourism Management.

“Our partnerships are really what allow us to do our programming, and [having] a good relationship with them is what draws us forward,” she said. “We hope to reach more groups in the future, especially in the surrounding community.”

The Aquatic Center at Castaic Lake has been providing boating and water safety classes and experiences for 40 years through the expertise of CSUN’s lifeguards and recreation and tourism management staff. Located in Los Angeles County, the center is minutes from Six Flags Magic Mountain. For more information on the Aquatic Center, visit its website or call (818) 677-4652.

Farrell Webb

Farrell J. Webb, currently associate dean in the College of Health and Human Services at Cal State L.A., has been appointed dean of the College of Health and Human Development at California State University, Northridge.

Webb brings more than 21 years of public and academic administrative experience to the position, including the past two years as an associate dean at Cal State L.A. He begins his appointment at CSUN on July 1.

“Dr. Webb’s areas of academic interest dovetail nicely with those within the College of Health and Human Development,” said Yi Li, CSUN’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, in announcing Webb’s appointment. “He focuses on health disparities, race and ethnic relations, poverty, inequality and HIV/AIDS and their overall effects on well-being. Dr. Webb will be a wonderful addition to the CSUN community.”

Webb said he is excited to be joining the CSUN community, and in particular the College of Health and Human Development.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be able to join the faculty at CSUN,” he said. “It is very exciting for me because the university has a great reputation and fantastic people. I am looking forward to working with the people in the College of Health and Human Development and to continue our journey of improving student success and closing the achievement gap. I am proud to be part of the college’s successful profile on campus, in the state and the nation.”

Webb said he feels lucky to have been appointed dean.

“I get to inherit a lot of good stuff and work collaboratively with some amazing faculty,” he said. “I am looking forward to it.”

Prior to Cal State L.A., Webb spent more than 19 years at Kansas State University, where he was an associate professor of family studies and human services, and director of the Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program. He also spent three years in the Office of the Provost as Kansas State University’s ombudsman.

Webb holds bachelor’s degrees in sociology/political science and communication arts, with an emphasis in film and television production, from Loyola Marymount University. He has master’s degrees in sociology from Cal State Long Beach and New York University. He earned his Ph.D. in family social sciences from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Webb has been a post-doctoral scholar and visiting associate professor at Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Human Development and Family Research in Diverse Contexts, where he studies ethnography, geostatistics and epidemiology. He also has received academic certificates from the University of Texas at Austin in hierarchical linear modeling and advanced structural equation modeling.

Webb has taught at NYU, City University of New York, Bloomfield College and the University of Minnesota. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles in professional journals and, numerous book chapters, as well as made more than 50 conference and other academic presentations. He has or has held membership in the American Psychological Association, American Sociological Association, National Council on Family Relations, National Association of Ethnic Studies and the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues.

CSUN’s College of Health and Human Development has more than 7,900 undergraduate and graduate students in 11 undergraduate degree, 10 graduate degree and three credential programs. Its mission is to prepare competent and caring professionals with a commitment to enhance and promote the health and well-being of the diverse communities CSUN serves.

The college includes the Departments of Child and Adolescent Development, Communication Disorders and Sciences, Environmental and Occupational Health, Family and Consumer Sciences, Health Sciences, Kinesiology, Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Recreation and Tourism Management. It serves as home to several centers and institutes, including the Aquatic Center at Castaic Lake; Center of Achievement through Adapted Physical Activity; Child and Family Studies Center; Consumer Resource Center; Center for Recreation and Tourism; Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics; the Physical Therapy Center for Advanced Clinical Practice; and the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing.

Mark and Terri LIsagor

California State University, Northridge nutrition professor Terri Lisagor and her husband, Mark, will celebrate their 48th wedding anniversary this year. Their marriage is filled with respect and admiration for each other and is marked by a mutual commitment, forged while they were college sweethearts five decades ago, to leave the world a better place than they found it.

To that end, the pair has arranged a planned gift to CSUN that will ultimately leave $1 million to establish an endowed scholarship for students in the Resilient Scholars Program, which serves students who were formerly in the foster youth system, and another endowment that will support faculty research, travel, and professional development in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.  The endowments will provide future students and faculty members opportunities the Lisagors only dreamed of during their undergraduate days.

“Back when we were undergraduates, tuition was only $80 per quarter. The costs students have to bear are so much more today,” Terri Lisagor said. “Mark and I believe that cost shouldn’t be an insurmountable barrier to higher education for students, and we hope that this will help a few resilient scholars who have overcome extraordinary circumstances.”

As a long-time member of the faculty, Lisagor has seen the lasting ripple effects of her colleagues, and also understands the importance of research, service and preparation. “Scholarship takes time,” Lisagor said. “I feel that I was born to teach, and service is just a natural extension of what we do. But finding time to do serious scholarship, particularly with everything else we do as faculty, can be challenging. It would be great if this helps make it easier for future colleagues.”

Lisagor grew up in the San Fernando Valley. She graduated from high school in 1966, determined to go to college despite her family’s lack of support for her higher education aspirations. She enrolled at UCLA with dreams of becoming a teacher. Terri worked full time to pay for her education, taking a full load of courses each quarter to ensure that she graduated in the prescribed four years.

She met Mark Lisagor in a freshman math class. He too was working full time to pay for his education.

“We went out for a few dates whenever we both could get time off from work,” she said. “It had only been a couple months when Mark said, ‘I think we should get married.’ I said ‘Okay. So, how do you pronounce your last name?’ Fortunately for us, it worked out.”

Lisagor is pronounced “Liss’-uh-Gor.”

Terri Lisagor giving a demonstration on dental hygiene in Guatemala in 2013. Photo courtesy of Terri Lisagor.

Among the things that drew the couple together was their shared passion for making the world a better place. While in college, they were actively involved in the anti-war movement, as well as other social causes. They lived on an American Indian reservation in the Southwest for two years, while Mark served as a dentist in the Indian Health Service. Their daughter, Kimberly, now an environmental activist and journalist, was born on the Navajo reservation. Their son, Adam, is a filmmaker in Los Angeles. Mark and Terri have two grandsons, and a granddaughter on the way.

Mark established a pediatric dental practice in Camarillo and Oxnard. Terri, using her background in elementary education, established an innovative preventative dental health education program for the families in his practice.

Motivated by an increased curiosity about nutrition, she enrolled at CSUN, eventually earning a master’s in food science and nutrition in 1990, and a doctorate in education from Pepperdine University in 2004.

While completing her master’s, Lisagor was invited to join the faculty in CSUN’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences as a lecturer in food science and nutrition. Once she earned her doctorate, she was hired as a tenure-track faculty member. Now a full professor and past chair of the department, she said she is delighted to continue to work with students, faculty, administration and staff throughout CSUN.

Despite their professional obligations, the Lisagors continue to carve out time to volunteer. For the past several decades, Mark has worked with Global Dental Relief, leading teams of volunteers to provide free dental care for impoverished children around the world, including in Nepal, India and Guatemala. Lisagor often joins him on these trips, and frequently has included CSUN nutrition students on their teams to Guatemala to teach about nutrition and oral hygiene.

“We love giving back,” she said. “That’s part of why we decided to make this planned gift — it just seems natural. CSUN has been so important in my life, and this gift is a good fit for us. It matches our philosophy of giving back.”

Below is a video of one of a trip Lisagor took with CSUN students in 2013 to teach rural Guatemala families about oral hygiene:

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that new mothers, whenever possible, breastfeed their babies exclusively for the first six months of life. But that’s easier said than done for a lot of women.

Associate professor Merav Efrat (right) working with one of her lactation education students. Photo courtesy of Merav Efrat.

Societal norms and cultural misconceptions still make breastfeeding uncomfortable for some new mothers. While other women struggle to figure out how to successfully breastfeed, education can help. California State University, Northridge is now one of the few universities in the United States that offers lactation education courses to its undergraduate and graduate students.

“Breastfeeding is not normal for us as a society anymore,” said Merav Efrat, an associate professor in CSUN’s Department of Health Sciences who developed the curriculum for the undergraduate and graduate lactation educator training courses. “Women are embarrassed. They are worried they won’t make enough milk. Bottle feeding can seem easier and more acceptable. There are a lot of barriers, and knowledgeable healthcare professionals can help by answering questions and easing concerns. The problem is that  there’s also a lot of misinformation and general lack of knowledge, even among healthcare professionals. That’s where our course comes in.”

Efrat said the course was the first course worldwide to earn the designation of a Recognized Breastfeeding Course by the Lactation Education Accreditation and Approval Review Committee (LEAARC).  The course  is open to any CSUN junior, senior or graduate student is interested in getting trained as a lactation educator, as well as to members of the community, space permitting.

“One strategy for improving breastfeeding rates is to increase the number of healthcare professionals who posses basic breastfeeding knowledge,” she said, adding that the professionals do not necessarily have to work as a lactation educator.

“New mothers come into contact with all sorts of healthcare professionals, from public health educators, dieticians and nurses to pretty much anyone who works in the health care industry,” she said. “It would be nice if whoever the healthcare professional the new mom comes in contact with had the knowledge to answer her questions about breastfeeding, and the skills to offer her the appropriate support, if she chooses to breastfeed.”

Efrat, who worked as a lactation educator and lactation consultant before coming to CSUN, has received more than $1 million in federal grants to develop the lactation educator training course at the university, as well as opportunities for students  completing the course  to participate in research and community engagement experiences in the area of lactation education.

“In fall of 2010, we launched an experimental undergraduate lactation education training course,” she said. “The course was well received, and now CSUN offers both an undergraduate and graduate lactation educator course that is part of the Department of Health Sciences’ permanent curriculum.”

Efrat said she has been “pleasantly surprised” by the reactions of the students who have taken the undergraduate course.

“We have students who are interested in pursuing a variety of careers in health care, women and men,” she said. “One of the first things I do in the class is ask the students what they know about breastfeeding. They come with all sorts of different ideas and perceptions that are shaped by social norms, cultural influences or just plain misconceptions. It is amazing how much misinformation exists about something that mothers have been doing for centuries. It is very exciting for me to hear students share with me the personal and career-related benefits that they have gained as a result of taking this course.”

Nursing student Ian De Asis, who first earned a bachelor’s degree in public health from CSUN in 2011, said the class has given her the tools to be a better advocate for breastfeeding.

“My background is in public health and I am pursuing a second bachelor’s in nursing,” said De Asis, who expects to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in nursing this December. “As a health educator and nurse, I would be encountering people who have concerns and questions about breastfeeding such as, ‘is it really the best? Won’t my baby have any deficiencies, after all breastmilk isn’t ‘fortified’?’ Now, I am able to confidently address these concerns and provide information, resources and even support which would allow individuals and families to make the best choices and decisions for their infant.”

Efrat and colleagues recently conducted a study to assess the efficacy of CSUN-trained lactation educators implementing phone-based breastfeeding education to low-income Latina mothers from their third trimester of pregnancy until their babies turned six months old.  They found that the moms who received the phone-based education breastfed longer and were significantly less likely to supplement their breastfeeding with formula compared to a control group who did not receive the education.  In addition to Efrat, the study was conducted by CSUN health sciences professor Salvador Esparza and colleagues from Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, and the Department of Preventative Medicine in the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

“The lactation educators in this study were all undergraduate students who had completed the CSUN lactation education training course,” Efrat said. “We found evidence that newly trained lactation educators can make a difference in the lives of new mothers and their babies.”

For more information about CSUN’s lactation education program, visit its website at http://www.csun.edu/health-human-development/lactation-education.

The Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics at California State University, Northridge will celebrate 25 years of educating people on the value of eating healthy and living well with an anniversary event on Thursday, Sept. 15, at the university.

The celebration will spotlight advances in nutrition and health with a jam-packed evening hosted by Daytime Emmy Award-winning actor Obba Babatunde. The festivities will include a tour of the center’s state-of-the-art facilities, including its new Wellness Garden; a nutrition musical by Helen Butleroff-Leahy, a former Rockette and registered dietitian; an appearance by Barbara Fairchild, a CSUN alumna and former editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit Magazine; and cooking demonstrations in the center’s Wellness Kitchen.

The evening is designed to show off the breadth and depth of the center’s efforts to provide CSUN students and members of the community hands-on opportunities to utilize and understand health and nutrition.

“For the past 25 years, the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics has championed health and wellness at CSUN and for thousands in the community we serve,” CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison said. “The Marilyn Magaram Center uses education as a powerful tool to teach healthy lifelong eating habits, fighting against a rising tide of obesity that often begins in childhood.”

The celebration is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in Sequoia Hall, located near the center of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

“Through the Marilyn Magaram Center, students have a variety of opportunities to learn about the benefits of better nutrition and how it affects health — and to share what they learn with their communities,” said Annette Besnilian, executive director of the Marilyn Magaram Center. “Together, students, faculty, staff and community partners engage in projects and research and conduct health-promotion activities in some of our region’s most underserved areas. The center also is a resource for food-oriented businesses, providing food product evaluations, sensory testing, nutritional evaluations, facilities for food demonstrations, knowledgeable and talented student interns, and training for the future workforce of the industry.”

The mission of the Marilyn Magaram Center is to enhance and promote health and well-being through research, education and services in food science, nutrition and dietetics, and to improve the quality of life and enhance the knowledge of students, professionals, families, and communities through education, nutrition promotion, scientific research and disease prevention. Programs and services offered include nutrition assessment, as well as the state-of-the-art Bod Pod, which uses air displacement to determine the amount of lean muscle tissue and the percent of body fat a person has.

The center is named for Marilyn Magaram, a physical therapist who developed a passion for nutrition. Determined to learn more, Magaram enrolled at CSUN in the early 1980s. Under the mentorship of professor Tung Shan “Tom” Chen, Magaram researched the role that B-vitamin folic acid played in overall health. In 1984, she received her master’s degree in nutrition, dietetics and food science. She became a registered dietitian and taught at CSUN and UCLA. Unfortunately, her life was too short. To honor her memory, Phil Magaram, his family and close friends established the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics at CSUN. Through its community outreach, student activities and research, the center serves as a reminder of Magaram’s enthusiastic approach to life and health.

To learn more about the Magaram Center’s 25^th anniversary celebration, visit www.csun.edu/magaram25.

There are times, California State University, Northridge alumna and speech-language pathologist Stacy Payne said, when her work gets extremely emotional. That’s what comes when you witness breakthroughs with young children on a regular basis.

“You truly pour your heart and soul, and you give everything you have to your little client,” Payne said. “You kind of deposit a piece of you in every session with your client.”

Payne ’91, M.S. ’94 (Communication Disorders and Sciences), with one pocket full of experience and the other full of ambition, in 2007 opened her own practice in Los Angeles called Bright Beginnings Pediatric Services. With all the impact she has made in her years of work, she also has continuously kept CSUN a part of her life and business.

Payne has a long history of hiring Matadors at Bright Beginnings. She also serves on the CSUN College of Health and Human Development’s Language, Speech and Hearing Center’s Advisory Board, and she delivered a guest lecture as professor for a day last year.

This giving back, she said, is her way of expressing gratitude for what CSUN did for her. Payne said she built up a lot of confidence through real-world training in the speech-language pathology program.

“By the time I graduated, I felt more than capable to handle the jobs in my fellowship year,” she said.

Payne pointed to former CSUN lecturer Ruth Harris, who was the first full-time coordinator of the Language, Speech and Hearing Center, as a major influence.

“She was just very genuine and authentic, and very strong clinically,” Payne said. “That compassion and humanity would show when she worked with a child. That’s what I modeled my clinical style after.”

Harris returned the compliments.

“From the beginning, she had a special way with young and very young children,” Harris said of Payne. “A keen observer, she would follow their lead, engaging them at their level of interest and then expanding and extending their repertoires of communication and play behaviors. Efficient, kind and an excellent clinician would be a good way to describe her, someone we were very proud to say was a graduate of our program.”

After working at large medical centers, including The Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Va., and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Payne decided it was time to take the next step in her career and open her own practice. Since she opened her doors, Payne said, she has had fellow Matadors working for her.

“I’m just drawn to CSUN clinicians,” she said. “I have clinicians from other parts of the country who are very good, but this is [true for me]: The students from CSUN, I believe, are the most well-rounded and the most prepared clinically. And I have a small practice, so this is by no means a big, sweeping statement. But in my little environment, there’s a noticeable difference in confidence because of their training and clinical practicum. And you don’t find that everywhere, and I didn’t realize that until I became an employer looking to hire a staff.”

It’s very rewarding for Payne to have a successful business, but she doesn’t measure rewards in days she has been open or her number of clients. Her measurement is different.

“There are times you come home and say, ‘I’ve really made a difference,’” she said. “There’s nothing like the feeling when a child starts talking or eating and the family says, ‘Thank God for you.’”

The College of Health and Human Development hosted a celebration for potential future doctors of physical therapy, as the newest class received its official white coats, representing the start of the students’ three-year journey through the Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) program at California State University, Northridge.

CSUN Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program members stand and read the doctor’s oath at their White Coat ceremony in August 2016. Photo by Luis Garcia.

CSUN’s DPT program graduates more than 90 percent of its students, and 100 percent gain employment in the field upon completion — a rewarding statistic, since physical therapy is a nationally competitive field, according to Program Director and Department Chair Janna Beling.

“The ritual of the white coat started in medicine in the early 1990s [and] oftentimes, it is offered after the first didactic year,” she said. “It’s supposed to signify the transition from classroom learning to the clinic. We do such a good job here at CSUN of weaving experiential learning, clinical learning and service learning into the curriculum that we offer [the ceremony] in the beginning.”

The students will have three internship opportunities in the program, with options such as serving in a hospital in Malawi in June, working with the Los Angeles Dodgers through spring training, and assisting in local trauma, outpatient, pediatric and rehabilitation facilities. Out of 850 applicants, 32 were accepted into the DPT program.

Tara O’Rourke, a first-year student in the DPT program, explained that her passion for physical therapy had been strong since she was young, but suffering through a severe accident in 2014 and building a relationship with her physical therapists while she recovered increased her drive to work with others who have experienced similar injuries.

“I got hit by a car,” O’Rourke said. “I broke my tibia, fibula, tore my ACL and meniscus, dislocated my elbow. I was interested in physical therapy and athletic training, but being in the accident made me want to work with more severe cases. It was just so rewarding seeing what’s possible through physical therapy. I want to be an example of that.”

A new DPT student receives her white coat, symbolizing the beginning of her doctoral path, August 2016. Photo by Luis Garcia.

Doctoral students selected for the program met a high threshold of criteria, including experiential hours of work in the field, which Beling said are vital to the students’ success.

“Physical therapy is a very hands-on profession,” she said. “It’s the type of job in medicine where you’re working one on one with patients, you’re working with them for a long period of time and you’re able to build a relationship with them.”

For more information on CSUN’s DPT program, visit http://www.csun.edu/health-human-development/physical-therapy.

Virginia Huynh

More and more research is being conducted on the well-being of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) — also known as sexual minority — teenagers, but very few of those studies focus on the health of LGB youth who are also ethnic minorities.

That omission can lead to wide gaps in understanding the lives of and issues that affect LGB teenagers, particularly teenagers of color, according to California State University, Northridge child and adolescent development professor Virginia Huynh.

“None of us live as just a woman, just a lesbian or just a Latina,” Huynh said. “Those identities don’t live in isolation. We each have multiple identities, and our experiences are affected by the integration of those identities. For example, the experience of coming out as a Latina teenager in a first-generation American family is likely very different than coming out as a teenager in a white, middle-class American family. And if researchers don’t take those differences into account and make an effort to understand those different experiences, then they are missing a big piece about what it means to be a sexual minority youth of color.”

Huynh and her colleagues — University of Arizona professor Russell B. Toomey, University of Missouri researcher Samantha K. Jones, San Diego State University graduate student and CSUN alumnus Sophia Lee and CSUN graduate student Michelle Revels-Macalinao — recently reviewed 125 publications since 1990 that examined the health and well-being of sexual minority youth of color. Their report appears in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health.

“What we found is that in the past 25 years, there have been very few studies on sexual minority youth of color,” Huynh said. “The studies that do exist don’t take into account how one identity (sexual identity) might be affected by another (ethnic identity).

“We really are interested in the normal, positive processes of being a LGB teenager of color,” she said. “For the longest time, the studies all focused on teens who are at risk. There is very little talking about what’s happening in their day-to-day lives. The bottom line is they’re kids, and they’re experiencing the ups and downs that all teenagers go through. In addition to being an ethnic minority, which is something that you can see visually, they also are a sexual minority. We need to still interpret their experiences based on that perspective.”

Huynh said the team focused on the teen years because that is when many young people begin to share their sexual identity with others.

“Things like family relationships, love, school achievement and sense of identity are so important during the teen years, but our review documents that we know so little about how sexual minority youth of color experience family, love, relationships or school,” she said.

Huynh, who works in CSUN’s College of Health and Human Development, said she was surprised to discover that few people had asked those questions, pointing out that future studies need to appreciate the differences that exist between ethnic communities.

“The fact of the matter is, when you have multiple oppressed identities, you might have negative experiences based on each one or a combination,” she said. “The problem is, at the moment, there is very little research out there to provide people with enough information to make generalizations about what it is like to be an LGB youth of color.

“We need more studies,” she said.

Dayna Middleton, a food science intern at California State University, Northridge’s Marilyn Magaram Center (MMC) for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics, spent her entire summer drying rosemary, sage, basil and cilantro, and mixing it with chili powder, cayenne pepper and various other spices in order to find the perfect mixture for an all-purpose seasoning blend.

After more than three months of drying, mixing and researching, the food science senior presented a prototype of the Spicy Matador blend at the MMC’s 25th anniversary celebration on Sept. 15.

“My goal was to make a seasoning for everything,” Middleton said. “We also want to have something available to CSUN students at an affordable price. We’re all college students on a budget. Spices are very expensive, so this can be an all-in-one solution.”

Middleton used herbs provided by the MMC’s new Wellness Garden, located in the interior courtyard in Sequoia Hall. The garden is funded by the Campus Quality Fee and is part of the College of Health and Human Development.

One of the center’s dietetic interns, graduate student Danielle Adler, is working on a marketing and distribution plan to bring Spicy Matador to the CSUN community as a product grown locally and made by the CSUN food science lab.

“[When] you’re grocery shopping, I think the last thing on your list is a $9 spice — most students just go for salt and pepper and call it a day,” said Danielle Adler, a graduate student and dietetic intern. “We wanted to make something that can have a health benefit of not having to add so much salt, and is also affordable for the community.”

Supervised by staff in the MMC, the Spicy Matador project was supported by a CSUN Instructionally Related Activities grant. MMC students, staff and dietetic interns have been involved in the planting, growing, harvesting, drying, packaging and labeling of these products.

Another highlight of the MMC’s anniversary event was the debut of Matador Marmalade, a vision of the MMC leadership and initially developed by food science students in a family and consumer sciences product development course.

“Matador Marmalade was created out of the idea that a product made by students, for students, could generate school spirit and add to the university’s great legacy,” said MMC director Annette Besnilian.

Food science seniors Jennifer Raj and Julie Jordan worked on a low-sugar version over the summer as part of their food science internships at the center.

“Sometimes it would be too clumpy, and we needed to figure out the right ratio for pectin [to fruit],” Jordan said. “[It was a challenge] trying to formulate the recipe to have the right ratios.”

CSUN’s historic Orange Grove provided the Valencia oranges for the zesty marmalade, which makes the product a sustainable food. MMC interns, staff and members of CSUN’s Food Science Association and Student Dietetic Food Science Association hand-picked 130 pounds of oranges from the grove in April.

“Our food science students have made exciting strides in product development,” said Cassie Berger, MMC’s food science internship coordinator.  “Our main goal is to offer a quality product created by CSUN students for our community.”

The MMC’s next goal is to sell Spicy Matador and Matador Marmalade at CSUN’s weekly Farmers Market, where the center has been providing frequent food demonstrations.

“We are working with LACI@CSUN to write a business plan and have it on the shelves of the university, the Farmers Market and local supermarkets,” Besnilian said.

Farrell J. Webb, dean of the College of Health and Human Development, said he was particularly impressed with the students’ inventiveness and dedication.

“The students are engaging in a high-impact practice for learning,” he said. “They are involved in every step of the product development process. And the samples were certainly a success with our guests.”

The aspiring food scientists said they were encouraged by the positive response from guests at the center’s anniversary event who tasted both products.

Besnilian added that the students’ work “will support CSUN’s efforts to move closer towards a sustainable campus by sourcing locally.”

Marina Forain admits she can get emotional when she thinks about the progress her 6-year-old daughter Isabella has made in the two years she has taken part in the children’s programs at California State University, Northridge’s Center of Achievement Through Adapted Physical Activity.

Isabella, who has a rare genetic disorder that leaves her nonambulatory, has learned to float in the center’s pool, and the center’s land-based program has helped her motor development to the point where she can move more and more on her own.

“I am so grateful for the program,” Forain said. “To see her progress is just amazing. She loves to be here. She loves to be around other kids. It’s like physical therapy for her, but having fun.”

When CSUN’s Center of Achievement Through Adapted Physical Activity opened more than 40 years ago, it was a land-based program and most of its clients were adults. The center expanded in 2003 to include a water-based program with the opening of the Abbott and Linda Brown Western Center for Adaptive Aquatic Therapy.

Over the past few years, CSUN’s Center of Achievement Through Adapted Physical Activity has expanded its offerings with programs — land-based and aquatic — designed specifically to meet the needs of children. Photo by Richard Chambers.

Over the past few years, the center has expanded its offerings with programs — land-based and aquatic — designed specifically to meet the needs of children.

“The center was primarily designed for adults, and we are now growing the children’s programs,” said Teri Todd, an associate professor of kinesiology and director of children’s services in the Center of Achievement.

The Adapted Aquatics for Children program is geared toward children with special needs. Each child is paired with a CSUN undergraduate kinesiology student. The CSUN students work with the children on basic swimming skills, as well as gait and balance. The water’s buoyancy provides the children with an ability to in ways they aren’t able to outside of the pool, Todd said.

The land-based Sensory Motor Program is an inclusive program for children with and without disabilities. That program focuses on fundamental motor skills. Undergraduate kinesiology students develop games and other play scenarios to encourage the development of motor skills in the children they work with. Todd noted that for many of the children with disabilities in the land-based program, the class may be first time they have played with typical developing children outside of their families.

Todd works with the CSUN students in both programs to develop the goals they want to achieve with their young clients.

“This is a natural progression of taking what they are learning in the classroom and putting it into practical application,” she said. “We have about two weeks to prepare for the children, and that first week of the program every ounce of effort on the [CSUN] students’ part is focused on getting their plans right and making sure no one gets hurt.

“About three weeks out — and those three weeks go by pretty fast — I tell my students to look back to week one, and they all laugh,” Todd said. “They’ve gotten their rhythm and their confidence by the third week, and they know they are making a difference. They’ll tell me that a highlight of their week is to see the smiles from the children they are working with and knowing that the children are happy to see them.”

Sherman Oaks resident Ana Sandler’s 9-year-old daughter, Isabella, takes part in the aquatic program. Sandler called the program the highlight of her daughter’s week.

“Bella has a lot of sensory issues and very limited verbal skills, but she can say ‘I love to swim,’” Sandler said. “We were very lucky to have found this program. I wish I could replicate it all the time. We’ve been in the program for a year, but I still get teary eyed when I think about the progress she has made because of it.”

CSUN kinesiology senior Daniela Ruvalcaba said her time at the Center of Achievement has inspired her to become an occupational therapist specializing in children with disabilities. She works with children in the land-based program, developing games and modifying play activities so that all the children can participate.

“To see the big smiles on their faces, it’s such a great feeling,” she said. “We’re able to teach them different movement patterns, different movement skills. For us [the CSUN students], it’s a very good learning experience because we are able to modify the activities and not limit a child who thinks (he or she) can’t do this because of a disability. We get all the children involved.

“Right now, I am working with child who has a very rare genetic disease,” Ruvalcaba said. “She gets very, very excited when she sees all the kids running around her. To be able to involve her in the activities and to see how happy she is is very fulfilling.

For more information about the programs at CSUN’s Center of Achievement Through Adapted Physical Activity, visit its website at http://www.csun.edu/center-of-achievement. The center is housed in CSUN’s College of Health and Human Development.

Alexis Heredia appears to have been born to be a Matador. And a physical therapist. Her parents met at California State University, Northridge, where her mother was finishing up her training to become a physical therapist.

Running cross country through high school and college, Heredia watched many teammates recover from injuries with the help of physical therapy — and it inspired her to pursue the discipline. This winter, she was one of 20 aspiring physical therapists helped toward their own academic finish line with the help of a special partnership.

The CSUN Department of Physical Therapy has a longstanding partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and the Roy and Roxie Campanella Foundation. The foundations have joined together for the past four years to provide Roy and Roxie Campanella Scholarship to CSUN physical therapy students in the renowned doctorate program, which started with five scholarships at its inception before growing to its present number of 20 for the 2016-17 academic year.

On Feb. 3, the current scholarship cohort gathered for a luncheon at CSUN, where they met members of the Dodgers Foundation and Joni Campanella-Roan, who represented her parents’ foundation.

Heredia, like her fellow scholars, expressed their gratitude, as well as shared their personal stories and what led them to pursue careers as physical therapists.

Campanella’s personal journey from Major League All-Star catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers to life in a wheelchair following a tragic car accident in 1958 was top of mind for the CSUN students.

“Seeing Roy Campanella’s story many years ago, it’s just so inspiring to see how his life was turned upside down because of [the car accident], and the power that physical therapists have to impact somebody’s life,” Heredia said. “Not only through physical rehab, but the emotional aspect and making [clients] want to pursue their passions again. Those are the big reasons why I wanted to pursue this career. Receiving this scholarship is a tremendous honor.”

After Campanella was paralyze he started physical therapy, and his diligent work helped him return to the Dodgers as a spring training instructor, where he tutored catchers such as Steve Yeager, Mike Scioscia and Mike Piazza. He also dove into work with the organization’s community relations department, devoting himself to local causes until his death in 1993.

The strong partnership between the Campanella Foundation and the Dodgers, to benefit future physical therapists, inspires Campanella-Roan every year.

“To see so many outstanding physical therapy [students], right now being a part of this program and all through the help of the Dodgers Foundation, it makes me very proud and makes my whole family proud,” Campanella-Roan said. “I just wish my father and mother were here to see this day, because it’s really grown a lot.”

Campanella’s place in baseball history is indelible. After Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, Campanella started his remarkable career a year later. Many Civil Rights activists pay homage to those first African-American baseball players for integrating the national pastime and paving the road for people of color. The CSUN scholarship advances the legacy of Campanella and his contemporaries. That this luncheon happened during Black History Month continued to shed a light on Campanella’s honored role in the Civil Rights movement.

“We support so many organizations,” said Dodgers Foundation Executive Director Nichol Whiteman. “But for this one to come together with Roy Campanella, the first black catcher in Major League Baseball history, the invitation to the Dodgers Foundation to be a part of this partnership that falls so far in line with our education focus and our health focus, it really is a home run.”

CSUN faculty members concurred.

“The Roy and Roxie Campanella Scholarship highlights a very important relationship between the CSUN Department of Physical Therapy, the Campanella Foundation and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation,” said Aimie Kachingwe, a physical therapy faculty member who has seen this association from the outset. “We are grateful that the Dodgers Foundation stepped forward four years ago to help fund and continue the Campanella scholarship. Given the exorbitant expenses associated with being in a doctorate program, the scholarship greatly assists these students to achieve their dreams of being physical therapists so that they can make a difference in the lives of their future patients.”

The Dodgers also have hosted a physical therapy intern during Arizona spring training since 2010. The ball club hired 2016 intern Johnathan Erb DPT ’16 (Physical Therapy), as a physical therapist for the team’s minor league players in its Glendale, Ariz., facility.

The passion for rehabilitation and healing was evident at the Feb. 3 luncheon as the scholars spoke about their lives.

“We’re taught this skill set, and the technical skills [for] the clinic,” Heredia said. “It goes beyond that in how we connect with our patients emotionally and build that trust with them. As physical therapy students and future physical therapists, we have this sense of empathy and compassion. And our patients feel that we truly care for them. It’s a very special career and bond that you share with your patient. They’ll remember us for the rest of their lives.”

Heredia’s class is the 60th to matriculate through CSUN’s physical therapy program. Her mother was in the 25th.

“I get this sense of family with the Dodgers Foundation and the Campanella Foundation that they’ve built with CSUN,” Heredia said. “We’re just truly grateful to have had this. I’m eager to see what’s going to happen in the future and how we can give back to future students as practitioners, give back to the community through volunteer work, philanthropic work, anything we can do to carry on his legacy and impact the lives of others.”

Carol S. Kelly, a professor emeritus at California State University, Northridge’s Department of Child and Adolescent Development (CADV), passed away on Feb. 17 following a brief illness. On Feb. 25, CSUN’s CADV Alumni Chapter hosted a remembrance gathering in honor of Kelly’s life and accomplishments in the Lake View Terrace at the University Student Union.

Kelly brought CSUN its first Peace Expo in 1989, laid the foundation for what the CADV department is today, re-established the CADV department’s alumni chapter in 2005 and established the Carol S. Kelly Endowment Scholarship in 2006.

She also received numerous awards: the CSUN Alumni Association’s Dean Ed Peckham Award in 2009, the Don Dorsey Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2014 and the Lifetime Professional Achievement Award from the Association for Child and Youth Care Practice in 2016.

At the memorial service, scheduled guest speakers such as Kelly’s former student, Vivian Tamkin, and David Wakefield, chair of the CADV department, both said they would not be where they are today if it weren’t for Kelly.

“Dr. Kelly and I would meet regularly and talk about how to get me into a rigorous and well-established Ph.D. program,” Tamkin said. “She helped me shape a legacy for myself.”

Wakefield shared similar sentiments. He said Kelly was the reason he chose to work at CSUN, and that she was always working on something significant.

“I remember coming to interview at CSUN,” Wakefield said. “From the moment I met Carol, I realized ‘this is the place I want to be.’ We joked in the department that Carol would never retire. There was always something she was working on – and it was always something meaningful and impactful.” 

Kelly had a long, meaningful life and will be dearly missed. Kelly once said that her passion was to make the world a better place for children, youth and families – and according to her colleagues, friends and mentees, she did just that.

An attendee of her memorial said: “Dr. Kelly is the warmest, most intelligent person I have ever met. I say ‘is’ because she will always live in my heart.”