Chapman Magazine Fall 2019 by Chapman University

CHAPMAN U N I V E R S I T Y

M A G A Z I N E

STOLEN JUSTICE

18 Genocide and the fight to restore looted legacies

S E P T E M B E R

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Students build a substantive dialogue from a posterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s painful implications.

Comebacks propel CU to its third baseball national title.

IN THIS ISSUE

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2019 DANIELE STRUPPA, PH.D.

UP FRONT 2

Message from the President: Recent experiences highlight the importance of open and constructive dialogue. 4

First Person: Scott Stedman ’14 reflects on his CU experience as he makes a bold change in his professional life.

President

SHERYL A. BOURGEOIS, PH.D.

Executive Vice President of University Advancement

JAMIE S. CEMAN

Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Communications

PAMELA EZELL, PH.D.

Assistant Vice President of Communications

JEFF BROUWER

Assistant Vice President of Creative Services

EDITOR

SENIOR WRITER

Dennis Arp arp@chapman.edu

Dawn Bonker bonker@chapman.edu

DESIGN Ivy Montoya Viado

HEERA KANG

Director of Content Strategy

JUSTIN SWINDLE

30 CHAPMAN NOW 36

A business background aids Ron Jordan as he guides the School of Pharmacy toward industry leadership.

42 By addressing cyber threats, a student team models the goals of the Grand Challenges Initiative. 46

Paying tribute to the female narrative, CoPA plans a season of shows written and directed by women.

Director of Visual Content

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Stace Dumoski, Brittany Hanson, Stephanie House, Bethanie Le (M.S. ‘19), Aaron Singh

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Catie Kovelman ’19 Editorial Office: One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866-9911 Main: ( 714) 997- 6607 Delivery issues/change of address: email magazine@chapman.edu

Chapman Magazine (USPS #007643) is published quarterly by Chapman University. © 2019 Chapman University. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Periodicals postage paid at Orange, Calif., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Chapman Magazine One University Drive • Orange, Calif. 92866-9911

The mission of Chapman University is to provide personalized education of distinction that leads to inquiring, ethical and productive lives as global citizens. Chapman.edu

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D E PA R T M E N T S 6 In Memoriam: We remember 5 David Janes, Frank Greinke and Ramona Kemp - Blair ’52. 58 Five Questions: Professor Jeff Goad offers insights regarding fears that prevent vaccination. 59

How’d You Get that Job? For Rick White ’75, a life in pro baseball runs through league offices.

F E AT U R E S 6 Students’ concerns about a poster prompt substantive discussions and rally a supportive community. 12 Eye to Eye mentors help middle-schoolers find success managing diverse learning abilities. 14 A Youth Cinema partnership ensures first-gen filmmakers are both camera- and college-ready. 18 The son of Holocaust survivors, Professor Michael Bazyler now seeks to restore looted legacies. 22 For members of Chapman’s KEG Lab, “beam time” provides a special research opportunity.

ALUMNI NEWS 60 High school counselor Beau Menchaca (M.A. ’02) helps transform an educational culture. 64

Landing an engagement in Europe, Brett Sprague ’10 makes good on “a very scary dream.”

66 Class Notes

ON THE COVER: A U.S. soldier discovers a painting looted by the Nazis and stored in an

underground vault. Every genocide is not just about mass killing but mass theft, notes Chapman law professor Michael Bazyler. As he champions restitution for those whose property was stolen during the Holocaust, Bazyler is also inspiring a new generation of advocates for justice. To read more about Bazyler’s work, turn to page 18. Photo credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park AT RIGHT: Shortstop Jarod Penniman ’19 and catcher Joe Jimenez ’20 couldn’t pass up a chance to grab a selfie with the national championship trophy as the Panthers wrapped up their postgame celebrations June 4 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Both players were key contributors as Chapman won its third NCAA baseball title; Penniman was a four-year starter, and Jimenez homered in the first game of the Championship Series on the way to earning All-Tournament recognition. For more on the Panthers’ record-setting season, turn to page 30.

SEPTEMBER 2019

faculty, administration and alumni are working hard to let all voices be heard, and I couldn’t be prouder. From the College of Performing Arts presenting an entire theatrical season around plays and musicals written or directed by women (see page 46), to Chapman’s Thompson Policy Institute where Ph.D. student Stephen Hinkle, who is on the autism spectrum, shares research and training to improve policies and programs for people with disabilities (see page 32).

PHOTO BY TROY NIKOLIC

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

HERE TO GIVE VOICE T

hose who know me, are aware of my passion for dialogue across ideological divide. This is something I learned from my parents and the long discussions we used to have every Sunday at our dinner table. My dad, agnostic, and my mom, fervent Catholic, would engage in deep conversations regarding the meaning of the scriptures of the day, drawing me and my sister into the discussion. To this day, my sister and I have vivid memories of those constructive dialogues. Those discussions returned to my mind recently, when some of our students gave me an opportunity to reflect on and practice what I believe to be constructive dialogue, the type of dialogue that can only happen when all parties in a conversation are given a voice. (See “Birth of a Dialogue” on page 6.) Those voices can often find their power through stories, in ways that can move hearts and minds. When this happens, it makes a difference who is telling those stories, and whose perspectives and opinions are given a stage. You’ll see in the pages of this magazine the exceptional work being done here by our entire Chapman family. Our students,

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

In the law school, Michael Bazyler and a team of students represent the voices of Holocaust survivors and families seeking property restitution (see page 18). And STEM students across the campus are researching new tools and technology to serve and solve problems in their communities and in the world (see page 45). Through it all, our visionary supporters make it possible for any promising student, of any background, to join the Chapman family through robust scholarship funding (see page 38). There is so much more to say about how dialogue happens, but I leave you with one more thought — that dialogue requires the willingness to truly listen, and the humility to know that even when we think we are right, there is still a possibility that we are not. And for that to happen, it is necessary that we quiet our own voice long enough to listen for the truth in what the other person has to say. My parents’ voices were not the only ones heard within our household. They could have been, but they chose not to be. And for that lesson I am eternally grateful.

Daniele Struppa President, Chapman University

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Film production graduate Tara Steward ’16 shared stories about working in the music department at Nickelodeon as well as her experiences at Viacom and MTV. “I love talking about my journey from campus to career,” she says.

Health sciences alumna Katelyn Dykhuis ’19 chronicled her internship with CHOC Children’s Hospital, where she shadowed leaders at the Medical Intelligence and Innovation Institute. “My passion for pediatrics is stronger than ever,” she notes.

Chapman Magazine Online Don’t forget to check out Chapman Magazine online, with Web-only stories, links to video, slideshows and more. Find it all at chapman.edu/magazine.

#ICYMI FOWLER SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING TO LAUNCH CYBERSECURITY MINOR BY AARON SINGH

You’ve probably heard a lot of tech buzzwords in the last year. Quantum computing. Machine learning. Big data. Or at least saw something, somewhere about giant data breaches at Facebook, Marriott and Capital One. If so, then you’ve also heard of cybersecurity. Possibly as soon as fall 2020, the Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler School of Engineering will offer a new minor in cybersecurity.

But cybersecurity existed way before data breaches ever got mainstream media attention. “Now that it’s getting a lot of the limelight in the media, people are more aware of it,” says instructor Rene German of the Fowler School of Engineering. German leads the effort to create the new minor. “Companies are saying, ‘We need people who are proficient in cybersecurity,’” he adds. Before joining Chapman, German was a network security engineer in the cybersecurity industry. “When I came to Chapman full time, I went to Dr. Erik Linstead, and he agreed that we needed to offer classes in cybersecurity,” German says. German and Linstead met with their industry advisory board, comprised of CIOs and CTOs

GRAND CHALLENGES: A student team develops Cyber Smart Panthers, helping the University community stay safe on the Web. See story on page 42.

from companies in the Orange County area. They asked board members which skills were most important to companies looking to hire new graduates. The one topic that everyone had in common was the need for students proficient in cybersecurity, German says.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU We welcome comments on Chapman Magazine or any aspect of the University experience. Send submissions to magazine@ chapman.edu. Please include your full name, class year (if alumna or alumnus) and the city in which you live. We reserve the right to edit submissions for style and length. For the last issue of the magazine, many of you received duplicate copies due to a problem with our mailing system. We want to assure you that we’re rectifying the problem and we appreciate you staying in touch with us.

SEPTEMBER 2019

PHOTO BY SCOTT STEDMAN ’14

“For me, college was not about finding a career – it was about finding myself. I’m not sure exactly how I acquired the confidence to take these steps in a completely new direction, but I know I didn’t get to this place on my own.” SCOTT STEDMAN ’14 4

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

FIRST PERSON

SCRUBBING INTO A NEW JOURNEY OF FULFILLMENT BY SCOTT STEDMAN ’14

To a great extent, music has been my life. Since earning a degree in music composition from Chapman University in 2014, I’ve written scores for independent film and TV while moonlighting at a mountain bike shop to get sweet discounts that feed my trail-riding addiction. It’s been a great life. I’ve spent tons of time outdoors near my home in Seattle, created lots of new music, and even saved enough money to buy a house. But for a couple of years, I’ve had a nagging notion that writing music for projects other than my own was not my passion. Everything I was doing in life was good for me and me alone. It didn’t feel like it would leave a lasting impact if I died the next day. So I had a long talk with family members and close friends – several of them firefighters who talked about the rewards of their careers. I thought long and hard before deciding to pursue firefighting and ultimately paramedicine, the career path my dad had followed. As I made plans to enroll at the fire academy, I also harbored fleeting thoughts about medical school – thoughts I dismissed because, at age 23, it was just too late to become a doctor. At least that’s what I told myself and friends, who eventually called me out. “Why do you think it’s too late?” they asked. I really didn’t have a good answer. The more I thought about it, age didn’t seem like a barrier to a career change – even one as profound as I was considering. Days later, I called a family friend who’s a doctor and said, “I’m thinking of doing something rather rash. Do you have any advice?” She told me to buy a plane ticket to Denver and spend a week shadowing her and other physicians. She said that by the end of the week I would know if it was something I wanted. Within 15 minutes of touching down and arriving at the hospital, I was rushed into an operating room, where I scrubbed in and spent the next four hours watching cardiothoracic surgeons perform open-heart surgery on a 3-week-old infant. Minutes after the surgery, I realized this was the “something more” I was missing in my life. The rest of the week included observing 10 other procedures and surgeries, which only reinforced my new resolve. I was ready to make a radical new commitment in my life. Now I’m two years into this new and challenging adventure. I’m charting patients for a physician who practices internal medicine as I also take premed courses in preparation for starting medical school. I’ve navigated the initial excitement of such a huge transition in my life, and still no self-doubt has crept in. Instead, I get almost daily confirmation that I made the right choice.

Not long ago, during the height of cold season, a patient presented to our hospital clinic with symptoms similar to those of so many others. As the doctor asked questions, I started pulling in another diagnosis for sinusitis. But this time the doctor heard something different in the patient’s wheezing, and a chest X-ray was ordered to see if it might be pneumonia. The X-ray revealed a 6-centimeter mass in the left lung that turned out to be malignant. In such moments I learn that with medicine, there’s no room for complacency. I’m also reminded that the opportunity for life-changing impact is as close as the next diagnosis. As I think about my new academic and professional journey, it’s hard to compare what lies ahead to the professional path I’m leaving behind. I’ve certainly faced challenges before, such as when I was composing and orchestrating my senior thesis at Chapman. More than a year of planning and writing went into that concert, for which I wrote and performed a concerto for piano and orchestra. I learned so much working with my faculty mentors in the College of Performing Arts – professors Sean Heim, Janice Park, Amy Graziano and the late Shaun Naidoo. I also developed indispensable friendships with fellow students who helped me realize my vision. The process was so creative and collaborative – it felt like I was juggling a thousand things, and all were critical. Now my goal is to become a surgeon. Balancing 28 units of coursework with working in a hospital and studying for the MCAT is just the beginning. I’m looking wide-eyed down a road of medical education, residency, testing, etc., that stretches more than a decade into the future. It’s premature to think about residency. However, in my classes so far, I’ve been obsessed with neuroanatomy. It will be interesting to see where that obsession leads as I move into clinical rotations and start thinking about choosing a subspecialty. For me, college was not about finding a career. It was about finding myself. I’m not sure exactly how I acquired the confidence to take these steps in a completely new direction, but I know I didn’t get to this place on my own. I will lean on countless people – old friends and new mentors – during the journey ahead. As I think about it, I’ve always been naturally good at music. From this leap, I’ve learned that I love science and medicine precisely because there is nothing easy about them. There’s just something extra fulfilling about choosing a life rather than letting it choose you.

SEPTEMBER 2019

PHOTOS BY JUSTIN SWINDLE

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

BIRTH OF A DIALOGUE S t u d e n t s’ c o n c e r n s a b o u t a p o s t e r ’s p a i n f u l i m p l i c a t i o n s p r o m p t s u b s t a nt i v e d i s c u s s i o n s a n d r a l l y a s u p p o r t i v e c o m mu n i t y. BY DAWN BO NKE R

n her first year at Chapman University, Arianna Ngnomire noticed a certain old film poster displayed in a long hallway leading to class. She stopped in her tracks.

“I thought, ‘Am I going nuts? Is that… ?’ I had to check in with my friends, who said yeah, that’s not right,” Ngnomire recalls. What caught her attention that day in the halls of Dodge College of Film & Media Arts was a vintage poster promoting D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation,” a vicious drama that portrays the Ku Klux Klan as the heroic saviors of an Old South oppressed by post-Civil War Reconstruction. Alongside the poster was an original newspaper advertisement for the movie, framed in poster style. Historians and film scholars alike note the silent film’s complicated history. They admire its artistic techniques, but also say its hateful message revived the Klan and unleashed generations of violence against blacks. But none of that contextual information was provided with the display, part of a larger collection of vintage movie posters, ranging from “Casablanca” to “The Ten Commandments,” that adorn the hallways leading to the classrooms, sound stages and editing bays in Marion Knott Studios, home to Dodge College at Chapman.

First-year students are busy, though, so Ngnomire ’19 moved on. But she wasn’t the only one who noticed – and remembered. So this spring, buoyed by the camaraderie they found in the Black Student Union and moved by a photo of the posters tweeted out by a grad student, several students decided it was time to speak up. They called for a re-evaluation of the display, organized a peaceful protest and asked the administration to take action, perhaps even create a museum-like display that would paint a fuller picture of the film’s legacy. Chapman President Daniele Struppa requested Dodge College faculty to weigh in. The faculty voted to return the two items to their donor, the granddaughter of legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille. Students and faculty from across campus cheered the decision and the posters’ removal. If the story ended there, it would be little more than a footnote now. But something more was sparked, say the three key student leaders behind the effort – Ngnomire, Naidine Conde ’20 and Jae Staten ’20. The University’s response opened a door to real discussions about the concerns students of color have on a majoritywhite campus. And that, the students say, can only build a better Chapman for everyone. “Now it feels like we have a path to walk on and we can do it together,” Ngnomire says.

SEPTEMBER 2019

STRENGTH AND MATURITY To be sure, there were uncomfortable moments. But just as a pearl grows from a gritty bit of sand in an oyster, the players in this cause all say something valuable evolved from the frank conversations, long meetings and student forums. President Struppa credits the students. “Our students turned their encounter with the poster into a moment of learning,” he wrote in an editorial published in The Panther, the student newspaper. They performed a fair amount of teaching, too, by role-modeling a constructive style of activism that belied their youth, says Jerry Price, Ph.D., vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

“NOW IT FEELS LIKE WE HAVE A PATH TO WALK ON AND WE CAN DO IT TOGETHER.” – ARIANNA NGNOMIRE ’19

“It was the strength and maturity of their argument and the maturity of their approach that led to their success. They should be proud of that, and we respect them for that. They made a really good argument, and with enough time to discuss and reflect we agreed with them,” he says. Indeed, the University was thankful. Price shared the students’ view that having the movie poster and ad displayed without explanation made them appear to be novel collectibles rather than artifacts from a troubled history. “What I regret most is that we needed students to bring this to our attention,” Price says. “That was a real oversight on our part.” The students agree. The old poster and newspaper ad caused genuine pain they’ll never forget, but they are also proud that they were able to shine a light on the challenges for black students who attend a university where they are a small demographic. That’s special, says Conde, president of the Black Student Union. Because while they, like all students, will connect

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with all sorts of classmates through shared majors and other interests, it’s important to still not be swallowed up by the crowd, Conde says. “Diversity and inclusion often feels more like diversity and assimilation,” she says. “It was nice during this process to feel like we have our own voice.” The bumpy experiences they describe run a spectrum, from being the only black student in a history class and feeling like they have to speak for the entirety of the black experience, to not being able to find a nearby hair stylist to suit them.

SUPPORT SYSTEMS Efforts are underway to ease transitions and meet needs, Dean Price says. He is assembling a task force to study the experience of black students on campus, and he plans to use that information to create programs and support systems that help. On the flip side, Price wants to identify situations that exacerbate the sense of isolation some say they feel. In addition, he plans to invite students to review the campus for other displays that may potentially benefit from better, contextualized presentations. The students are encouraged by the momentum. After a busy finals week, the three who led the poster response gathered on campus to reflect on the experience. When the removal of the poster comes up, they smile and snap-snap-snap their fingers in the popular style of respectful applause.

“DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION OFTEN FEELS MORE LIKE DIVERSITY AND ASSIMILATION. IT WAS NICE DURING THIS PROCESS TO FEEL LIKE WE HAVE OUR OWN VOICE.” – NAIDINE CONDE ’20

More important, they are energized by what they describe as a labor of love.

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“Chapman is going to be our legacy. We want to be part of a University that stands by what we so strongly believe in,” says Staten, who was one of the more impassioned speakers during the open forums of spring. “So yeah, I love it here. I wouldn’t be fighting for it if I did not love it.” They acknowledge that more work remains, but they take heart that they aren’t alone in the cause – a realization that surprised them this spring. Their small demographic multiplied when it came time to speak up, as other students joined them, lining the hallway in a protest march to the poster, standing chockablock in the Cross Cultural Center for a student forum and filling the steps of Memorial Hall for a peaceful demonstration. That was something they’ll also never forget.

“CHAPMAN IS GOING TO BE OUR LEGACY. WE WANT TO BE PART OF A UNIVERSITY THAT STANDS BY WHAT WE SO STRONGLY BELIEVE IN. SO YEAH, I LOVE IT HERE. I WOULDN’T BE FIGHTING FOR IT IF I DID NOT LOVE IT.” – JAE STATEN ’20

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“My takeaway is to have a little bit more faith. I was surprised to see the people who spoke up, people who weren’t as affected as the black students,” Conde says. Friendship makes every challenge easier, she says. And as she looks ahead to her senior year, she trusts there will be more of that to go around, helping pave the way forward. “It took the help of our allies to get a little bit more recognition. It took a lot of effort,” Conde says. “We’re a community. And you can’t support community without unity.”

L E S S O N S O F S T O R Y A N D I M PA C T Legendary director D.W. Griffith is credited with numerous filmmaking innovations, from close-up shots to parallel action sequences that helped transform “the flickers” into a sophisticated art form capable of dramatic and compelling storytelling. Many of those artistic inventions made their debut in “The Birth of a Nation.” On April 18, students organized a peaceful protest on the steps of Memorial Hall. President Daniele Struppa attended the event, where students and faculty shared their personal accounts and points of view.

But when Ronald McCants, a lecturer at Chapman’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, discusses the film in a First-Year Foundations Course on American storytelling, the technical breakthroughs are secondary. In 1915, the advances were notable, but today they are mostly footnotes in the pantheon of innovations brought forward by numerous directors, writers, cinematographers and others who have advanced the art form, he says. That’s the approach McCants, who is black, takes in his course and which he reiterated at a spring student forum to discuss the “Birth of a Nation” posters on campus.

“We talk about propaganda and how it can be destructive,” he says. More significant than its artistic achievement is the film’s story and its impact, says McCants, a screenwriter who writes for film and television, including several episodes of the ABC sitcom “Speechless.” In his course, students learn how “The Birth of a Nation,” a film adaptation of the novel “The Clansman,” contributed to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the hate and violence that was experienced by generations of black Americans. The film’s depictions of racial violence and blacks as immoral savages are essential to any discussion of the film, he says. “If you’re going to be a responsible educator, you’re going to talk about the story and the impact of it,” McCants says.

SEPTEMBER 2019

PHOTOS BY JUSTIN SWINDLE

SIMILAR DIFFERENCES

Paleontologist Jack Horner, who helps Chapman students turn learning differences into creative strengths, joins in an Eye to Eye discussion with Rumi, a middle-school student, and University mentor Ellie Hood ‘21.

STORY BY ROBYN NORWOOD

Chapman mentors guide middle-schoolers to “the success part” of managing diverse learning abilities. They are on the brink of college degrees, jobs and graduate school. But the Chapman University students who gather on Fridays to create art with middle - school students see their younger selves in those they mentor. Many of these college students know what it’s like to get C’s, D’s or even F’s on their report cards despite being bright, even gifted. Like the middle-schoolers, they have struggled to make friends, heard a teacher call them lazy or listened to their parents beg them to please, please just try harder. “Everyone who’s in this organization has an LD (learning difference) or ADHD. That’s why it’s so amazing,” said Hayley Ratzan-Wank ’21.

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This is the Chapman chapter of Eye to Eye, an innovative national mentoring program that pairs college or high school students with middle-school students with similar diagnoses. To these college students who have learned to manage their academic work, LD no longer means learning disability but simply learning difference, cognitive difference or their favorite term, diverse ability. They hope their influence can help younger students find their way. “At this point, they’re kind of struggling with the success part,” said Audrey Lane ’19, who teamed with Ratzan-Wank to lead 10 to 15 Chapman students in mentoring seven youngsters during Chapman’s first year bringing the groups together. “They’re

not 100% sure of themselves, because they’re middle-schoolers. So we’ve all been there.” The art activities are really just a hook for conversations. Chapman students talk with mentees about things like extended study time or test-taking time as a classroom accommodation, or coping methods like using computer features that read text aloud. All of it is guided by an Eye to Eye curriculum that student leaders from around the country learn during a weeklong Eye to Eye training session each summer. Those concepts spring to life for an hour in Beckman Hall each Friday afternoon during the school year. A college student might

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also has dyslexia. Seated at the table working on the day’s art project is their daughter Lila, a middle-schooler who seems more mature than her age but struggles at school with the same issue. Cupolo and Horner had been working for a few years to try to create on campus a community of students with learning differences. They offered free pizza, trying to attract students. Nothing caught on until they presented the opportunity to help younger students. “This is a new model,” Cupolo said. “The key was the mentorship.”

An art project becomes an opportunity for supportive conversation between Chapman student Kate Churukian ‘19 and her mentee, Amelie. mention offhand that they fidget a lot. “One of the kids said, ‘I do that too!’” Ratzan-Wank recalled. Another time, a college student diagnosed with dyslexia told a story about struggling to order from a menu. “One kid was just immediately like, ‘That happens to me. I have to have my mom read it to me,’” Lane remembered. “It lights up their eyes.” Sitting quietly to the side most Fridays is Jack Horner, the renowned paleontologist who was the technical advisor for the “Jurassic Park” movies and is now a Chapman lecturer and Presidential Fellow. Also on hand is Lisa Cupolo, a lecturer in English and director of Chapman’s Cognitive Diversity Project. Their excitement about the project is palpable. “I wish I’d had something like this,” said Horner, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at 30 after he had repeatedly flunked out of college. He went on to win a MacArthur Fellowship, and his discoveries support the theory that dinosaurs cared for their young. “I got one A and one B in my entire school career,” Horner said. “The A was in swimming in college, and the B was in geometry in high school, because it’s spatial. Everything else was C’s, D’s and lots of F’s.” Yet all the while, he kept winning the science fair. “It was project-based, and I could take the whole year to do it,” he said. “I won those science fairs but at the same time was flunking science.”

Their goals are bigger than this program, and they guide the Chapman students to make their own formal proposals to the administration with a light hand. “We want to try to attract more students who have an LD or ADHD to Chapman and to really strike out the stigma of having an LD on campus,” Horner said.

beginning a Ph.D. program in mathematics at Texas Tech. “A lot of people in this group actually are what is known as twice exceptional,” said Francese, whose grades suffered badly before he was diagnosed with attention issues at 16. “I was in gifted programs but also later in special education programs. It’s a confusing experience if you don’t really have a clear identity assigned to you. “The reason why programs like this will succeed at Chapman coincides with the reasons why I came here,” he said. Francese praised the University as a place “where the faculty members have a very direct connection to undergrads.” Now some of those undergrads have a very direct connection to young students much like themselves.

The proof that these students can succeed in college is in plain view. Ratzan-Wank, a psychology major with two minors, and Lane, who earned dual degrees in political science and psychology, have dyslexia. James Francese ’19, another of the mentors, earned a dual degree in mathematics and philosophy despite his ADHD. All three have made the Provost List with GPAs of 3.6 or higher. And this fall, Francese is

Middle-school students Sam and Nathan share a laugh with their Chapman mentor, James Francese ‘19, who earned degrees in math and philosophy despite being diagnosed with ADHD.

“I won those science fairs but at the same time was ﬂunking science.” – Jack Horner Paleontologist and technical advisor for “Jurassic Park”

Cupolo is married to the accomplished writer and Chapman professor, Richard Bausch, who

SEPTEMBER 2019

PHOTO BY JUSTIN SWINDLE

Miguel Mendoza â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;23, first scholarship recipient from the Youth Cinema Project, paves the way for future filmmakers from his hometown.

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CHAPMAN NOW

CAMERA-READY AND COLLEGE-BOUND BY AARON SINGH

CU partners with Santa Ana schools to prepare young filmmakers for success on the set and in the classroom. The lights dim. The room grows quiet. The director yells, “Quiet on the set,” as actors take their positions and the camera operator sets up for a medium shot. The scene could be straight from a Hollywood sound stage. Except that in this case, the eyes looking through the lens belong to a 9-yearold student. This production is part of the curriculum offered at Heninger Elementary School and nearby Santa Ana High through the Latino Film Institute’s Youth Cinema Project. Students as young as fourth-graders are eligible to participate. The Youth Cinema Project was founded in 2014 by actor Edward James Olmos (“Stand and Deliver,” “Miami Vice”). Chapman University supports the Santa Ana program with equipment, sound stage space at Marion Knott Studios and mentorship from faculty and students at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. “Teaching cinema allows the students to be able to (learn) communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity,” Olmos told The Orange County Register when he spoke at the Santa Ana High graduation in May. “Selfesteem, self-respect and self-worth has been gained by every person in it.” Students learn from industry professionals in a real-world setting. They even get to screen their creations in Chapman’s Folino Theater at the end of the school year. Joe Slowensky, vice provost for institutional effectiveness and faculty affairs at Chapman, and a group of Dodge College administrators were immediately impressed when they visited the Youth Cinema fourth-grade class.

“The students were creating storyboards and shot lists, running the set collaboratively and editing films on their computers. They were incredibly organized,” says Slowensky, also a professor of film and media arts at Chapman. “We were blown away. If these kids are starting to make movies in the fourth grade, imagine their potential if they continued that education through high school — not just in film, but in any discipline.” Slowensky wanted to start the students on a journey toward continuing their education at Chapman, launching a special partnership between the University and the Santa Ana Unified School District. Now, in addition to industry-standard tools at Dodge’s working production studio, Chapman is providing up to 10 scholarships a year to Santa Ana High students in the Youth Cinema Project. The first scholarship recipient is Miguel Mendoza ’23, who will start at Chapman this fall. “Chapman is a great place to learn,” says Mendoza. “All the students (in the project) would be a great fit. I’m looking forward to next year, when someone else from the program will also come.” Sofia Cuevas, lead curriculum designer in the program and a teacher at Santa Ana High, reflects on her time instructing Mendoza and other students. “Miguel would pull up a chair every day for three months to talk shop about his films,” she says. “Over the summer, I still get emails from students asking me for writing workshops on their scripts and ideas. It’s a good problem to have,” Cuevas adds. The benefits of the program extend beyond creativity and filmmaking. Youth Cinema students consistently earn higher overall test scores than the district average.

Students in the Youth Cinema Project earn test scores that consistently surpass the district average.

In addition, the students “are no longer fearful of the writing and reading required for college,” Cuevas says. “They’ve started defining themselves in such a positive way. They have a better sense of self – and they have even begun to find ways to open doors and advocate for themselves.” The Youth Cinema partnership between Chapman and Santa Ana Unified will continue to evolve and grow. “We’re still figuring it all out. It’s new to so many people, especially in our school district,” Cuevas says. “As educators, if we aren’t willing to stumble, we won’t be able to find treasure.” Even now, the quality of the students’ work shines through as their films are shown on the big screen. “When you give students a space to create, they’re going to surprise a lot of people,” Cuevas says.

SEPTEMBER 2019

CHAPMAN NOW

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING MANGROVES BY BRITTANY HANSON

Mixing artificial intelligence with old-fashioned ingenuity, Professor El-Askary and his team put a coastal forest back on the map. What do you do when an intricate ecosystem of trees and roots disappears? This was the mystery presented to researcher Hesham El-Askary, Ph.D., a professor in Chapman University’s Center of Excellence in Earth Systems Modeling & Observations. He was alerted to the missing mangroves by NASA and U.S. Geological Survey joint program Landsat satellite images of the Arabian Gulf’s Jubail conservation area. They showed startling discrepancies as to how much of the coastline was covered in native mangroves — trees that support diverse ecosystems and thrive in salty conditions. From 2000 to 2014, it looked like the entire forest had disappeared. It turns out that while Landsat images make it easy to recognize variations in topography, they are far less effective at revealing differences in vegetation. As researchers studied bird’s-eye views of the mangrove distribution area, the submerged mangroves were being confused with salt marshes and macro algae. This is where the artificial intelligence comes in. El-Askary and his team used programs known as the Submerged Mangrove Recognition Index (SMRI), the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) to gain some clarity. The programs allowed researchers to sort through the visual density in satellite images and determine which part of the Jubail coastline was mangroves and which part was marsh, El-Askary says.

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CART was 95% accurate in identifying mangroves, while the other programs achieved 90% accuracy. With this honor-roll-worthy lineup of programs, El-Askary and his team were able to “find” the forest through its trees. The team’s findings directly support conservation efforts by the Environmental Protection Department of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company. The research will also be used by the Center for Environment and Water of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran. “Both are working closely with us on the preservation of these marine ecosystems,” says El-Askary. “Our mapping techniques will be key in establishing a better understanding of how they are affected.” Going forward, the Chapman team’s findings are likely to be applied wherever Mangrove forests are studied – especially to validate USGS datasets, since that information is generally considered a baseline for mangrove mapping and monitoring. The team’s approach of combining traditional AI algorithms with knowledge-based expertise may also be applied to solve satellite-data issues in other areas of research, such as analyzing crop growth, planning cities and monitoring traffic patterns. And for the time being, mangrove forests of the world remain safely in sight.

Computer technology allowed Chapman researchers to “ﬁnd” mangrove forests that had been mysteriously missing from satellite images.

Disappearing Trees You can find mangrove forests in 123 countries – most of them in tropical latitudes. The arid Middle East accounts for about 0.4% of global mangroves. These coastal trees and shrubs play an important part in regulating climate by sequestering atmospheric carbon. They also help moderate extreme weather events such as cyclones and tsunamis. About 90% of global mangroves are critically endangered. They are nearing extinction in as many as 26 countries.

CHAPMAN NOW

PHOTO BY DENNIS ARP

Using artificial intelligence to interpret satellite data is a technique with widespread applications, says Professor Hesham El-Askary, shown with Krista Rasmussen â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;15, who partnered on a previous environmental research project.

SEPTEMBER 2019

STOLEN JUSTICE T

wenty years after World War II ended, the shadow of atrocity still shrouded the young life of Michael Bazyler. The son of Polish and Russian Holocaust survivors who as teenagers fled the Nazis to Uzbekistan, Bazyler was 11 when his family immigrated to the United States as political refugees. For a spirited youngster starting over in a foreign land, the grip of history squeezed a bit too tightly. The Holocaust was “something I tried to stay away from when I was growing up,” Bazyler says. “It was like the air you breathe. When I saw someone with a tattoo on their arm, it was like everyone had one.” Over time, however, Bazyler came to embrace his connections to family and community. He found that the more he sought to apply his talents for persuasion, research and scholarship, the more he was drawn to international human rights law. As he saw new examples of genocide and mass theft in places like Rwanda, Syria and Iraq, how could he not take up the challenge of so much unfinished work?

In the 1990s, Bazyler began researching and writing about the mass theft of Jewish property in Nazi-occupied Europe. He also became vice president of The 1939 Society, an organization of Holocaust survivors, their children and supporters that promotes Holocaust education in partnership with the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education at Chapman. These days, Bazyler, JD, is a professor at Chapman’s Fowler School of Law who has testified before Congress on Holocaust restitution and has had his work cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. His book “Holocaust, Genocide, and the Law” won the National Jewish Book Award, and his new work, “Searching for Justice After the Holocaust,” chronicles a comprehensive research project he led, examining legislation passed by the 47 endorsing states of the 2009 Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues. The research project was commissioned by the European Shoah Legacy Institute and was presented in 2018 to the European Union.

BY DENNIS ARP PHOTOS BY JUSTIN SWINDLE

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The son of Holocaust survivors, law professor Michael Bazyler champions restitution for those whose legacies were looted.

Professor Michael Bazyler inspires young advocates such as Jade Stocks (JD ‘19), left, and Kaylee K. Sauvey (JD ‘18) to seek justice for victims of genocidal regimes. “I think it’s a goal of anyone who pursues higher education to try to make positive change in the world,” Sauvey says. SEPTEMBER 2019

“Every genocide is not just about mass killing but mass theft. And the Nazis stole mercilessly from the Jews of Europe.” PRoFessoR MIcHaeL BaZYLeR Bazyler’s scholarship reveals that a significant amount of the property stolen during the Holocaust has yet to be returned to its rightful owners, who are seeing the clock tick away on their chances for justice. Estimates are that almost half of the 200,000 remaining Holocaust survivors live in poverty. Evidence of the need for Bazyler’s research is all around. Recent news reports detail a high-profile case in which a Southern California federal judge allowed a Spanish museum to keep a $30 million Camille Pissarro painting looted by the Nazis, prolonging the 20-year bid for restitution by heirs of the Jewish woman originally victimized by the theft. Bazyler filed an amicus brief in the case. “Here we are 70 years later, and it’s astounding that these cases are not being resolved,” Bazyler says. “I always preface remarks about restitution by saying that the Holocaust was not about money or property – the Jews were not murdered because they had art. But every genocide is not just about mass killing but mass theft. And the Nazis stole mercilessly from the Jews of Europe.” Perhaps no one knows better than Bazyler the difficulty of achieving justice in decades-old cases where the trail of property ownership was trampled by regimes exercising untrammeled power. He was co-counsel in the precedentsetting 1990s case “Siderman v. Republic of Argentina,” involving a Jewish businessman who was tortured and had property seized during the “Dirty War” years. The case was mired in the Argentine courts when Bazyler and his legal team had a breakthrough. Because Argentina did business in the U.S., Bazyler proved that the U.S. courts had jurisdiction. Just before the case came to trial, it was settled. “The U.S. legal system is the main reason the possessors came to take this seriously,” Bazyler says. “The hero of this story is the U.S. legal system.”

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The precedent set by the case has helped other genocide victims achieve justice. One case involved an Austrian Jewish emigre living in California who sought return of five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis and subsequently acquired by an Austrian state museum. The case became the basis of the 2015 film “Woman in Gold,” starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. After years of legal wrangling, the woman, Maria Altmann, ultimately won return of the paintings, valued at tens of millions of dollars. Though such rulings are hard-won and rare, the work continues, encouraging young advocates to fight for justice. Kaylee K. Sauvey (JD ’18) was in her first year at the Fowler School of Law when she took a class with Bazyler, who then recruited her as a research assistant. Even now as she practices probate, trust and estate law, Sauvey does pro bono restitution work. She combs through lists released by the City of Warsaw, showing Holocaust-era properties eligible for restitution. She posts the information to a database maintained by the World Jewish Restitution Organization. The Warsaw bureaucracy mechanically follows the letter of Polish law, which says the dispossessed have six months after a posting to file a claim. But city officials actually hope their postings will go unnoticed, Bazyler says “They want the six months to expire so they can keep the property,” Bazyler laments. As a Fowler Law student, Sauvey would spend hours in the library, filling binders with restitution-related information for follow-up by Bazyler and others. “I came to law school fascinated with the subject, and then my professor happened to be this great expert,” Sauvey says. “I think it’s a goal of anyone who pursues higher education to try to make positive change in the world – to seek a measure of justice.” For Jade Stocks (JD ’19), the catalyst for involvement was a comparative law class taught by Bazyler. She found he was eager to support her research interest in Middle East restitution cases and their connection to foreign policy. Professor and student now share a research interest in a huge Jewish Iraqi archive recovered from Saddam Hussein’s palace during the Iraq War. The archive documents a time when Baghdad had a thriving Jewish population. “Over the years, almost all were killed or left,” Stocks says. “It’s important research, from a

historical, moral and legal point of view. It raises a lot of questions.” In addition to legal procedures and research techniques, Bazyler taught Stocks about resolve and resiliency, she says. And she isn’t the only one. “Professor Bazyler has inspired a lot of people who were probably already interested in social justice but now look at these issues in such a meaningful way that it really deepens that connection,” Stocks says. Across Bazyler’s 30 years of scholarship and research, the rewards are as voluminous as the dusty archives and case files he still scours. “I tell my students, ‘Look, if you want to go to a big firm and make lots of money, that opportunity is there. I started there. But you can also do pro bono work that can make your career as a lawyer so much more satisfying,’” Bazyler says. “I want my students to be fighters for justice.”

Opposite page: Art treasures looted by the Nazis during World War II were discovered in salt mines and hidden vaults, but many of the works have yet to be returned to victims or their heirs. Here, paintings are examined by a U.S. soldier as well as generals Omar Bradley, George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“Professor Bazyler has inspired a lot of people who were probably already interested in social justice but now look at these issues in such a meaningful way that it really deepens that connection.”

Photos: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

Jade Stocks (JD ’19) SEPTEMBER 2019

KEG Lab researchers Manny Vejar, left, and Fernando Silva â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;19 load a sample for analysis by the synchrotron, which uses the brightest, most powerful X-rays on earth to provide a view of structures at the atomic level.

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

BEAM Story & Photos By Dennis Arp

TIME

ur story starts with college students running

hour continuous research window that’s rarely available to grad

sophisticated sample analysis at 3 in the morning

students, let alone undergrads. After all, this is a facility three

using beams of the brightest, most intense X-rays

scientists have used for testing that led to Nobel Prize-winning

on earth. What could go wrong, right?

breakthroughs.

“Oh yeah, they could totally kill you,” Jessika Valenciano

“With the synchrotron, we can probe the structure of our

says of the waves of energy she and her Chapman University

samples at the atomic level,” Kim explains. “We can identify trace

colleagues use for investigating environmental

samples

national laboratory operated by Stanford University. But

don’t

worry,

the

smile

Valenciano radiates tells us that

concentrations of elements we’re

The testing is more than scientific for Chapman KEG Lab students whose environmental research takes them where few undergrads go.

Geochemistry (KEG) Lab at Chapman, where she’s recounting one of her first experiences with “beam time” at one of only four synchrotron radiation facilities funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Valenciano’s mentor is Professor Christopher Kim,

at our samples in pretty much their native state. There’s no other instrument that can do what the synchrotron can, with this degree of resolution and detail.”

this tale has a happy ending. The senior research assistant helps manage the Kim Environmental

interested in, and we can look

Among other things, the KEG Lab’s work helps those who clean up contaminated sites better understand how scientific tools can best be used for environmental remediation. For Kim and the lab’s student researchers, the synchrotron is a critical tool in exploring both fundamental and applied science.

Ph.D., the principal investigator who leads the KEG Lab. He’s

“You’re a student, and you’re at this national lab with other

an internationally recognized environmental geochemist who

scientists, doing research and collecting data,” Valenciano says.

studies the impact of metal contamination in natural settings.

“It’s the kind of opportunity that sets the Chapman research

Valenciano and the students on the KEG team learn quickly that

experience apart.”

beam time is precious. They ready their samples weeks before flying to the Northern California lab so they can optimize a 72-

(Continued next page)

SEPTEMBER 2019

TESTS AND TAKEAWAYS Because beam time at the facility is so coveted, sample analysis takes place almost around the clock, including on weekends at 3 a.m. That’s when Valenciano loaded a particular environmental sample and, after following the facility’s painstaking safety procedures, prepared to collect about six hours worth of data. “I was waiting for what we call the edge jump – a place where the graph that’s plotting results shoots up, and we know we’re going to get meaningful data,” Valenciano recalls. That hurdle cleared, she was planning to get a few hours of sleep, but first she stopped to chat with a lab teammate working on her own experiments a nearby beamline. She decided to stop back by her beamline to check the progress of her sample. That’s when her heart took an edge jump of its own. She saw immediately that a component had crashed and she was getting no data. Her first reaction was to “freak out a bit.” “I had just wasted an hour and a half of beam time and almost went to bed and wasted six hours,” she says.

“rite of

It’s a

passage

– like they’re signing into the big leagues of scientific research.

”

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Then Valenciano remembered that a wiki is posted near each beamline to help scientists troubleshoot system problems. Following the instructions, she got the sample back up and running without having to wake anyone up for help. She even squeezed in a few hours of sleep after all. “I know now that if it ever happens again, I can skip the freak-out and go right to the fixing,” Valenciano says. “In the moment, I wanted someone to fix things for me. But now I know it’s better to build the confidence that I could do it myself.” It’s common for KEG Lab newcomers to be intimidated when they first use the synchrotron. Trepidation pretty much comes with the territory. “There’s certainly reason to be cautious, and you need the guidance and training

Professor Christopher Kim is principal investigator for the Kim Environmental Geochemistry (KEG) Lab, and tradition calls for lab members to add their names to a list on the team’s locker door when they make their first trip to the synchrotron.

that get you certified to use the equipment,” Valenciano says. “But sometimes the only way to confirm you can do the testing is for you to be tested yourself. It’s very empowering to have that opportunity to prove yourself.”

BIG LEAGUES OF RESEARCH Professor Kim knows what it’s like to be a newbie student researcher who’s a bit overwhelmed by the synchrotron experience. After earning an environmental studies degree at Princeton, he performed research toward his Ph.D. in geological and environmental sciences at Stanford University, which is home to the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL). Before graduating in 2002, Kim even snagged a lab-based locker that has since become a hub for Chapman student researchers. Each time new team members arrive at the site, they use a Sharpie to add their names to a list of KEG Lab researchers that now runs nearly the length of the locker door. It’s a rite of passage – like they’re signing into the big leagues of scientific research. “I think they sense and then realize they’re part of a wider community,” Kim says. Never mind that the storage locker contains things like a nonfunctioning alarm clock, a long-expired can of off-brand chili and similarly outdated caffeine tablets. “I bet that chili’s still good,” Kim says, grinning. “But I am not willing to be the one to take that bet.”

“

I didn’t expect to enjoy

research, but now

I love it because you get to pursue your curiosity. Fernando Silva ’19

(Photo by Christopher Kim)

Top photo: Beamline research veterans Tim Le, left, Fernando Silva and Maddie Milla prepare a sample for analysis. At right: Le refills a liquid nitrogen tank that keeps the equipment from overheating. Above: Ryly Yee, left, and Jessika Valenciano evaluate research images generated by the synchrotron.

LEGACY OF THE GOLD RUSH Clearly, the KEG Lab team focuses on things beyond cleaning out lockers – things like advancing the understanding of environmental science. Kim’s research focuses on abandoned mines in California, where the same processes that concentrated gold and other precious metals for miners to collect also concentrated arsenic, lead and other hazardous metals. “It turns out these mine wastes left over from the Gold Rush have created a large

environmental legacy that we’re having to deal with as potential health issues,” Kim says. In one branch of KEG Lab research, Kim and his students test the efficiency of a technique used to clean bodies of water that are contaminated with heavy metals. Lab researchers synthesize nanoparticles, then modify them to simulate environmental effects like freezing and drying. “You may have a pond that’s contaminated with heavy metals, and that pond may freeze over or eventually dry up,” says Fernando Silva ’19, a KEG Lab researcher. “If you’re going to remediate, you need to know how the process will be affected by environmental conditions.” By exposing their test samples to the highpowered X-rays of the synchrotron, they get a next-level look at possible changes in metal absorption and retention to the nanoparticles over time. The results might help to predict the effectiveness of remediation efforts and allow researchers to suggest improvements to techniques.

”

In support of its mine waste research, the KEG Lab has received funding from the Bureau of Land Management, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation, which has presented Kim with a CAREER award – the NSF’s most prestigious recognition in support of earlycareer faculty.

STUDENT IMPACT For his part, Kim says that Chapman students have long played a vital role in the success of KEG Lab research. “The research we do allows students from different disciplines to approach it from their point of interest,” says the professor, who is also associate dean for academic programs in Chapman’s Schmid College of Science and Technology. “I benefit because they’re coming at these complex environmental geochemistry issues from different angles. They benefit because they (Continued next page)

SEPTEMBER 2019

The synchrotron experience tends to follow a pattern – stressful prep work to ensure that sample analysis generates meaningful data, followed by hours of waiting for and then wading through those results. Above: Ryly Yee, Jessika Valenciano and Manny Vejar spend some down time checking out the contents of the KEG Lab locker. At left: Fernando Silva logs some cot time next to the beamline running his analysis, while Michaela Montgomery adjusts equipment to prepare for upcoming testing. Bottom left: The Chapman beam team – clockwise from front – Vejar, Valenciano, Maddie Milla, Tim Le, Silva, Montgomery, Yee and Sarah Hester.

get the opportunity to own their research – to develop an intuition that shows they’re becoming real scientists, and that serves them as they pursue their own careers in the sciences.” Silva was studying art when he took one of Kim’s physical geology classes, and it wasn’t long before he was lobbying to join the KEG Lab team. He recently graduated with a degree in environmental science and policy. “Being in the lab warmed me up to chemistry in a way that the classroom experience didn’t,” he says. “I didn’t expect to enjoy research, but now I love it because you get to pursue your curiosity.” That love for inquiry is evident at the synchrotron, as Silva meticulously loads samples in the beamline hutch and trades insights with lab colleagues interpreting data. He even likes to sneak a nap on a cot next to the beamline as his samples run.

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

“The machine gives off a hum – it’s almost peaceful,” he says. “You hear vacuums and actuators going off. It kind of lulls you to sleep.” For members of the KEG Lab team, the bulk of beam time is anything but peaceful. The hum typically comes from the scramble to make sure tests go right, to gather and make sense of data – in general to make the most of every moment on the beamline. Sleep is for the plane ride home. “It can be intense,” Silva says of the synchrotron experience. “But the best part is seeing everyone come together and contribute to a bigger body of knowledge.”

CONGRATULATIONS,

CHAPMAN BASEBALL! Division III National Champions!

Celebrate with Us at

Chapman Family Night Join us for a pregame tailgate party, watch the Angels take on the Tampa Bay Rays, and cheer on our menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s baseball team as they are recognized on the field before the game.

September 13, 2019

Angel Stadium Tailgate starts at 4:30 p.m. To purchase tickets visit: www.chapman.edu/familynight

Chapman.edu

LESSONS IN

LEADERSHIP Seek out mentors, embrace risk and value the ideas of others, President Struppa advises.

“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves,” said Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s and a member of Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century. By that measure, Chapman University President Daniele Struppa is among the best. His personal leadership rules guide every aspect of his life, and each decision he makes as the University’s leader is informed by a set of principles that were established by his parents.

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Passion and humility are critical leadership traits, says Chapman President Daniele Struppa, shown here with Class of 2019 California’s Gold Scholars, from left, Vidal Arroyo, Erica Green, Darliene Zepeda-Field, Morgan Thomas and Melanie Rutledge. The California’s Gold Scholarship is endowed by the late TV legend Huell Howser, recognizing select students who lead by displaying a positive outlook and pursuing ways to improve society.

Struppa touched upon the importance of personal standards and many other qualities essential for effective leadership in a recent discussion with Adam Mendler, CEO of The Veloz Group, at thriveglobal.com. Following are excerpts from that conversation.

What were the essential people and events that formed your character and leadership philosophy? The most important reason for my success is my parents – incredibly supportive, loving, warm, affectionate. Most important, both of them were great role models. I come from a family of lawyers for several generations, but I fell in love with math when I was a little kid, and my parents always encouraged me. I believe the strong connection with my family and their constant support are the fundamental reasons why I have been successful.

What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? Many years ago, I was a young assistant professor in Italy, making very little money. I was feeling very frustrated because I thought I was bright and hard-working, and felt it was unfair that I was being paid so little. One night, I was having dinner at the home of a very good friend of mine, whose father was a very successful and fairly wealthy man. He knew me very well because I had visited his home many times and I had been the recipient of his hospitality more times than I could remember. Over dinner, I began my usual litany, and he looked at me with affection, and simply told me: “Daniele, you are a very intelligent young man, and a very hard-working one. Stop thinking about how much money you are making and I promise you that you will naturally succeed beyond your expectations.” As it turns out, he was absolutely right, and I have never forgotten that moment.

What did you learn from your early failures and setbacks?

leading, without realizing that my restructuring was going to eliminate a program that was directed by a faculty member who was very well liked and respected across campus. I made, in her, an unintentional adversary. My lack of attention to academic politics could have impacted the success of the needed reorganization, plus my career. I have learned, mostly by making mistakes, that only very rarely logic wins the day; most people make decisions on irrational and emotional grounds, and my love for logic and clarity are a poor substitute for the effectiveness of the emotional pull.

In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? Passion, humility, ability to listen. I want to elaborate on this last point, because to me it is one that everybody mentions but few really follow. We all learn the basic rules: Look at people in their eyes when they talk, listen quietly, do not raise your voice, etc. But in my view these behaviors are only the surface. They indicate that we are polite, but they have no influence over whether we are listening with true respect for our interlocutor. What I believe is very important in an effective leader is the ability to truly become convinced of the worthiness of the person we are talking with, so that we can accept the possibility that they will convince us even though we may not agree to begin with. Listening alone is not enough, unless it is accompanied by the recognition that we are not the only depositories of truth.

How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? I think the best teachers are experience and example. So, I would advise aspiring leaders to seek supervisors whom they admire and whose standards they can try to emulate. I also would suggest that aspiring leaders take risks and accept failure as the natural consequence of trying something new. If you don’t have the courage of pushing and risking loss, you probably will never be a true leader.

I learned a bit in every job I had. I have plenty of examples, but I will share one that stands out in my mind. Early in my administrative career, I engaged in a sweeping reorganization of the unit I was

SEPTEMBER 2019

COMEBACK KINGS BY STEPHANIE HOUSE | PHOTOS BY LARRY NEWMAN

Late rallies punctuate the Panthers’ drive to a third NCAA baseball national championship. Culminating a season full of hard work and mythic comebacks, the Panthers captured the greatest prize a college baseball team can claim – a national championship. Chapman University earned the title by sweeping the best-of-three Championship Series against Birmingham-Southern College on June 4 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

methodically scoring late-inning runs, often surprising their opponents as well as their fans.

The NCAA Division III College World Series title gives the Panthers their third national championship, after victories in 1968 and 2003. They were runners-up in 2011.

The NCAA West Regional and Super Regional were a different story as the Panthers rallied in the ninth inning to score clutch runs in decisive games, earning their ticket to the College World Series. In the CWS, Chapman had to fight its way out of the elimination bracket to advance to the Division III Championship Series by beating the University of Massachusetts,

Nicknamed “The Comeback Kings,” the Panthers demonstrated grit throughout the season by keeping their cool while

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No one, however, was surprised when the Panthers won the 2019 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Postseason Tournament. They were the defending champions and favored to repeat.

The team’s 44 victories is a school record. In addition, the pitching staff set a Division III mark with 523 strikeouts.

CHAPMAN NOW Boston, twice in one day. The second victory came by an 8-4 score and sent the Panthers to the finals. True to form, Chapman made key plays in later innings of their 8-4 win, supporting senior pitcher Jonathan Hernandez, who threw eight strong innings. A breakthrough moment came in the fourth, when junior Aaron Wong tripled to center field, driving in two runs and giving Chapman the lead for good.

CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES In game one of the Championship Series against Birmingham-Southern, senior AllAmerican Tyler Peck pitched an impressive seven innings, not long before he was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the Major League Baseball draft. On offense for Chapman, junior Joe Jimenez hit a solo home run to help power the Panthers to a 6-4 victory.

Even days after the Panthers secured the title, “It still hasn’t sunk in,” said Chapman head coach Scott Laverty, named D3baseball.com 2019 National Coach of the Year. “The fact that we were the last team standing is humbling and reflects that we have so many great people. This was a never-give-up comeback team.” Sophomore pitcher and All-American Nick Garcia reflected on the role of the Panthers’ senior leadership. “There is no better way to see this group of seniors leave. They put their hearts into this program,” he said.

THE ROAD AHEAD What’s next for the Panthers? The pursuit of another national title, of course. “We know we can achieve a national championship. It’s a program where that’s what’s played for,” Laverty said. “Fifteen minutes after we won, Shimabuku says, ‘OK, Coach, we’re coming back next year.’ That’s the mindset.” “Winning a national championship was the goal from day one, and I don’t think we’ll change that goal.” Shimabuku says. “We’ve got a young core and experience going forward. We’re going to be prepared for next year.”

In game two, senior Mason Collins threw the best game of his life, pitching nine scoreless innings. Despite an injury, freshman Brad Shimabuku boosted the team with a tworun homer that put Chapman up 3-0 in the seventh inning. Then an eight-run outburst in the eighth sealed the deal for the Panthers. The final out of their 11-0 win triggered a wild championship celebration on the field. “We were all just fired up. In the eighth inning, everything fell into place,” Shimabuku said.

CARTER’S LEGACY Chapman baseball coach Scott Laverty credits the team’s resilience to a young man who inspired the Panthers while battling leukemia. The team befriended Carter Ankeny and his family through a mentorship program called Teen Impact. “If someone struck out, Carter would still be there to give you a high five,” Laverty said. “Our mindset is a direct reflection of the things we’ve learned from Carter being a part of our program: Win or lose, it’s gonna be OK.” After working with the team for close to two years, Ankeny passed away in fall 2017 shortly before his seventh birthday. The team honors Ankeny by raising his jersey high in team pictures – including those taken after the Panthers’ national championship victory in June.

Determination led to celebration as Chapman captured the Division III baseball national championship in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Senior pitcher Mason Collins, above, threw nine scoreless innings in the title-clinching game.

“The family still comes to practices and flew to Iowa (for the College World Series),” Laverty said. “Carter is a huge inspiration to us still.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

Motivational speaker Stephen Hinkle brings teaching skills and a mission of inclusion to Chapman’s Thompson Policy Institute (TPI), where he is a graduate research assistant.

WHERE SPECIAL NEEDS BECOME DISTINCT POSSIBILITIES BY DAWN BONKER

At the Thompson Policy Institute, research drives inclusive strategies that help all kinds of learners. Stephen Hinkle didn’t always love a good joke or pun. Humor and its indirect meanings eluded the Chapman University Ph.D. student, who has autism. But these days he’s a bit of a jokester himself. In a quiet campus meeting room, he flips open his laptop to share a cartoon of a man lamenting the “monkey on his back.” Scrolling to a new image, Hinkle reveals a cartoon of a man with … a monkey literally on his back. Hinkle bursts into laughter. Yes, that second image is an example of how he used to think about idioms, puns and playful jests. He smiles now, but imagine him as a 5-yearold whose mother was told to institutionalize him. See him as a schoolboy who recoiled in a noisy cafeteria and thought that when he was told to avoid strangers it meant to retreat from anyone his parents hadn’t introduced him to

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already, including classmates. Childhood for him was a lonely slog, compounded by the constant struggle to decode metaphorical language and nuanced meanings. Still, he learned, although extra help would have eased the way. Today, the opportunity to provide the help he once needed is at the heart of Hinkle’s work as a highly sought-after motivational speaker and advocate for people with disabilities, special needs and different learning styles. People with disabilities have more potential than most educational systems provide, he says. Hinkle aims to show that with awareness and support, they can flourish and lead full lives. “Let their own talents guide them to what they become. Don’t put low expectations on people,” says Hinkle, who has spoken on the topics of autism, inclusive education and disability policy in 24 states and Australia.

Now he brings that teaching skill set and mission of inclusion to Chapman’s Thompson Policy Institute (TPI), where he works as a graduate research assistant as he earns a Ph.D. in the Attallah College of Educational Studies. Founded in 2015 with support from the William & Nancy Thompson Family Foundation, the institute conducts research and training aimed at improving policies and programs serving children and adults with disabilities.

DISABILITY SUMMIT Like Hinkle, TPI advocates on students’ behalf, but chief among the institute’s tools is research. TPI researchers present many of their findings at their annual Disability Summit, a signature event held each spring on the Orange campus. The event brings together scholars, educators and policymakers for a daylong consideration of inclusive education.

CHAPMAN NOW Among the findings presented at this year’s summit was a report by TPI researchers that revealed problems of equity in special education. In an analysis of data from California school districts, researchers found that black students with disabilities had lower rates of inclusion in regular classroom settings than their white peers with similar learning challenges.

clap or stay quiet. And there was the time in high school when he mistook talk of prom for a discussion about PROM – programmable read-only memory, a digital storage device. The process was so enlightening to him that he is considering making it the topic of his Ph.D. dissertation. Hinkle believes teaching behavioral and social skills is achievable and can expand opportunities for people who might otherwise be relegated to unskilled employment, despite intellectual strengths. He hopes to develop specific strategies to help teachers accomplish those goals.

Additionally, they saw that services vary greatly by location. In essence, the bigger the district, the less likely students are included in generaleducation classrooms. TPI shares such insights with policymakers, educators and families with the ultimate goal of creating schools that are more inclusive so that people like Hinkle can thrive. The rewards are far-reaching, says Don Cardinal, Ph.D., professor and director of TPI and one of the study’ s authors. “Sameness is comfortable for most of us. So we seek those who look like us and talk like us. The entire diversity movement is rooted in the notion that each of us can be greater when we have regular access to those who are different from us, broadening our thinking and increasing our range of possibilities. Disability is no exception,” Cardinal says.

“I would like to see more people with disabilities not miss the boat,” he says.

“Let their own talents guide them to what they become.” – Stephen Hinkle, Chapman Ph.D. candidate

Hinkle, 40, speaks to that theme as well – “If we were all the same it would make the world really boring.” And he points out distressing statistics, such as the 73 percent unemployment rate among people with disabilities.

“I went back through my life, analyzing all of the activities, from elementary school to grad school. If you were a beginner, what would you need to know, step by step?” he explains.

TPI also aims to expand opportunity, using research, training and partnerships with a variety of community groups that work with people with autism and other disabilities. Welcoming Ph.D. students like Hinkle into the fold is part of that mission as well, Cardinal says. In fact, TPI is the main reason Hinkle enrolled at Chapman. He was the keynote speaker at the Disability Summit in 2017 and in passing mentioned that he wanted to pursue a doctorate someday. Go for it and apply to Chapman, Cardinal said. So Hinkle did, and ultimately he received a full Presidential Fellowship. Hinkle was not the only winner the day that acceptance notice went out, Cardinal says. “Many of us have been denied regular access to the Stephens of the world. We lived absent of this diversity. We lived a lie, thinking those around us represented the whole. Clearly, we lived a false reality, as many are still doing today,” Cardinal says. “Chapman students in the Ph.D. program, as well as faculty, have the opportunity to live the truth – to more deeply understand difference and thus themselves. Chapman will clearly be better having known Stephen and all those who will follow him.”

A PERSONAL JOURNEY Hinkle’s personal experience through the educational system as an autistic individual shapes many of his talks. One of his favorite stories is how he developed his social skills, a challenge for many autistic individuals. His method makes particular sense for someone who earned a bachelor’s in computer science from San Diego State University and a master’s in special education from Northern Arizona University. He developed a novel social-skill strategy. It was like he was a Mac operating system learning to operate in Windows.

RESEARCH AND TRAINING

We all benefit from “broadening our thinking and increasing our range of possibilities,” says Don Cardinal, Ph.D., director of TPI.

With Hinkle as a role model, that time draws closer every day.

Understandably, the list was long. There was the frustration he felt at a grade school assembly when he didn’t know when to laugh,

SEPTEMBER 2019

CHAPMAN NOW

CONGRATULATIONS,

MISS CALIFORNIA! From Your Chapman Family

Chapman alumna Eileen Kim â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;17, the model of perseverance, was crowned Miss California on June 29, 2019. Her fourth time competing for the coveted title, she credits her tenacity to faith and a desire to make a difference in her community. Kim received a $20,000 scholarship, which will help support her studies in law.

Chapman.edu

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THESE KIDS MEAN BUSINESS BY STEPHANIE HOUSE

Girls Inc. summer camps change lives one “Smart-Up” at a time.

t’s never too early to gain the confidence and knowledge needed to run a business. Girls Inc. of Orange County agrees.

Each summer, girls in third through fifth grade kickstart their futures by participating in a monthlong Girls Inc. Smart-Up program that teaches leadership, economic literacy and business skills. It all happens at Chapman University’s Ralph W. Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics. Hosted by the Leatherby Center and Argyros School of Business and Economics, Girls Inc. challenges girls to launch their own businesses from the ground up. The energetic elementary students design a product or service, develop a business plan, elect officers, create marketing materials, learn about profit margins and even execute customer-service strategies. One of the program’s biggest goals is for the girls to try new things with confidence, says Sarah Hernandez, lead literacy program coordinator and Smart-Ups program associate. “We have our Girls Inc. Bill of Rights, and one of them is that girls have the right to discover economic independence,” Hernandez adds. “So we want them to explore more financial opportunities — find a line of work that’s interesting to them, and not just because that’s what a female typically does.”

Chapman and Girls Inc. partner up to train young female entrepreneurs to turn ideas into solid business opportunities. The program culminates with an open house, during which supporters shop for products and services at the girls’ stores.Whether it’s smoothies or hand-painted rocks, value is always in store for the discerning consumer. “We’ve had a cafe, we’ve had salons, we’ve had a pet supplies store,” Hernandez said. “This year we have a girl who is selling her calligraphy. The girls really get to express themselves with originality and enthusiasm.”

More than 45 young entrepreneurs participated in this year’s Girls Inc. Smart-Up program hosted at Chapman.

SEPTEMBER 2019

CHAPMAN NOW

PRESCRIPTION FOR EXCELLENCE BY DAWN BONKER

It’s hard to resist becoming a looky-loo when you visit the office of Ron Jordan, dean of the Chapman University School of Pharmacy (CUSP). Vintage apothecary and pharmaceutical bottles with glass stoppers sit next to mortars and pestles, antique pill rollers and colorful antique jars, lining shelves and his office window. “Pharmacists tend to be collectors,” Jordan says with a laugh. “I think we just find it interesting to look at how much the profession has changed.” It’s a particularly relevant perspective at CUSP, where change and progress are ongoing themes. In the five years since the school opened its doors as the first pharmacy school in Orange County, its faculty have received 67 research grants — nearly two-thirds of them funded by federal agencies. This year the school landed its first RO1-level grant, a $1.6 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (see story on page 53). Within its first five years, CUSP not only achieved full accreditation but also earned a national ranking among the top pharmacy schools in research funding. Then there are the new pharmacists. CUSP has celebrated two graduating classes and welcomed 60 graduates to its new chapter of Rho Chi, the academic honor society in pharmacy.

Such experience equipped Jordan for the unique job of building a School of Pharmacy at Chapman’s growing Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine.

Q. You have a lot of entrepreneurial background in businesses, ranging from health benefits software to hospice and pain management. How much has that guided your work at CUSP? A. Business requires an ability to express a vision and get people headed toward that goal. It’s the same in academia. Most faculty here are far more qualified than I am, in terms of intellect and ability to teach. I’m not a teacher; I’m just an administrator kind of business guy. I was able to use the business expertise to do the hiring — to recruit people and structure and manage a budget.

Q. A lot of people outside academia might be surprised to learn that a dean doesn’t necessarily teach. A. I think my role is mainly to guide and support people. So I tell everyone here that I’m here to make you successful — to get anything out of your way that’s going to hinder your success, and to get you whatever you need to make you successful. If I make the staff and faculty successful, then the students will be successful. Q. What were some of the challenges to building a new school of pharmacy?

All that happened under the leadership of a pharmacist who came of age before advanced pharmacy degrees were offered and who describes himself as “just an administrator kind of business guy.” Of course, there’s more to Jordan’s resume. He previously served as dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Rhode Island, where he oversaw completion of construction on his college’s $75 million research and teaching facility. He is a former president of the American Pharmacists Association and serves on the United States Pharmacopeia Expert Panel on Safety and Labeling Standards, Medicare Guidelines Subcommittee.

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A. When I graduated from pharmacy school in 1976, there were probably 75 schools of pharmacy (in the nation). When I came out here to California, I think there were 130. Now there are 149. So it’s been a very rapid growth, and you can see why. The population is aging, people are taking a lot of prescription medications. Drug therapy is the most common form of medical therapy — more than visiting the doctor, more than dentistry. The challenge is always to find faculty and be sure that you’re competitive. And so I made sure that Chapman was going to make the kind of investment I thought we needed to make in the kind of School of Pharmacy we wanted to build.

Q. How would you describe the CUSP model? A. It’s strong research underpinning instruction

in the basic sciences. Our scientists conduct funded research, while on the clinical side we teach students to become pharmacists and practitioners. As the students get further and further into the curriculum, the focus is on therapeutics and pathology-related pharmacology and the students start to practice. At the very end, 30 percent of the curriculum is experiential.

Q. How is CUSP different from other pharmacy schools? A. We use an integrated exam system in which we test the students on all subjects every three weeks. Our approach not only requires that students understand the kind of board exam they’re going to face, but it compels them to study every day and keep up with classes so that when they get to the exam, it won’t be a big panic-andcram situation. Another thing we did is design our Freshman Early Assurance Program. We want to capture bright students who know they want pharmacy right out of high school, give them two years of preparation and prerequisites for the pharmacy program, and then bring them to CUSP. So they graduate from Chapman with their Pharm.D. degrees in four and two-thirds years.

Q. One of your new initiatives is patient safety. CUSP hosts a patient safety conference every spring, is planning an M.S. degree in patient safety, and works with the medical technology company Masimo on its Patient Safety Movement Foundation. Why is this effort important? A. Today, adverse drug events are the third leading cause of death in the country. That tells me that we haven’t really done the job we need to do in health care. The system is complex, and there are many challenges with transitions of care. Our faculty helped write patient safety solutions that are part of a new curriculum the foundation developed to help educate healthcare professionals. Q. Are pharmacists on the front line of care? A. We’re often the first line. And we can do a lot better at it. Our graduates will help make that happen.

Building on his entrepreneurial background, Dean Ron Jordan guides the School of Pharmacy toward industry leadership.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN SWINDLE

SEPTEMBER 2019

CHAPMAN NOW

PUTTING STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS FRONT AND CENTER BY STEPHANIE HOUSE

Chapman Celebrates returns in force for its 39th season. Picture the white glare of stage lights, dazzling sets, students dancing in sync. Imagine the thrum of music as Broadway scenes and blockbuster scores erupt on stage. Now in its 39th year, the University’s largest fundraising production again opens its doors to the entire Chapman community. Chapman Celebrates returns to Musco Center for the Arts for two nights: Friday, Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 2. This year’s production honors “The Female Voice,” highlighting groundbreaking contributions of women across time. The annual scholarship fundraising event puts a spotlight on the student potential that’s supported and cultivated at Chapman through generous sponsorship. “With 83 percent of Chapman students receiving financial aid, the funds generated from this celebration will be crucial to opening doors to future generations of talented and extraordinary students,” says Sheryl Bourgeois, Ph.D., executive vice president of University Advancement. “Chapman Celebrates is a vital tradition that is supported and embraced by nearly 700 guests annually. It’s a unique opportunity for current students, faculty, administration and the entire Chapman Family to rally in support of future students.” Scholarships have changed the lives of countless Chapman students over the years. Most notably, the university’s first-ever Rhodes Scholar, Vidal Arroyo ’19, a first-

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The centerpiece of the University's largest fundraising event benefiting student scholarships is a performance produced in large part by student performers and stage staff. generation college student who now goes on to Oxford University to continue his research to cure cancer. Among the eager and promising current scholarship recipients, Nico Scordakis ’20 has the opportunity to pursue his passion for dentistry. Maithu Koppolu ’20, a double major in creative writing and public relations, says: “The scholarship I received has made all the difference for me. Not only did it provide significant aid for my family, but it also showed me that the University believed in me, which made it easier to start believing in myself as well.” The momentous event also provides an opportunity to recognize some exceptional members of the Chapman Family. This year, notable Southern California philanthropists Sandi and Ron Simon will be honored as 2019 Citizens of the Year. Award-winning actress and singer (also Chapman parent) Vanessa Williams receives the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award. And the award-winning producer Brenda Brkusic ’04, now director of programming and development at NBCUniversal, accepts the Alumni Achievement Award.

Ron and Sandi Simon will receive the Citizens of the Year Award. Ron, a Chapman University trustee, is founder of the Simon Scholars Program and founder and chairman of Simon Foundation for Education and Housing.

“The funds generated from this celebration will be crucial to opening doors to future generations of talented and extraordinary students.”

All are welcome to join the celebration! Purchase tickets for this signature event online at Chapman.edu/chapman-celebrates.

– Sheryl Bourgeois, Ph.D. Executive Vice President of University Advancement

CELEBRATING THE FEMALE VOICE Chapman Celebrates returns to Musco Center for the Arts. Don’t miss this spectacular Broadway-caliber show benefiting student scholarships. This year’s show pays homage to women’s contributions in music, the arts and the world. Come enjoy the show and help us empower all students toward excellence.

Emmy-winning TV executive Brenda Brkusic Milinkovic ’04 receives the Alumni Achievement Award.

OPENING NIGHT

Award-winning performer and Chapman parent Vanessa Williams joins the show on Nov. 2.

GALA NIGHT

November 1, 2019

November 2, 2019

Pre-show Reception – 6:00 p.m. Stage Show – 7:30 p.m.

Cocktail Reception – 5:00 p.m. Stage Show – 6:30 p.m. Gala Dinner – 8:00 p.m.

Tickets for opening night start at $60. For tickets and sponsorship, please contact Kelsey Alcantra at (714) 628-2750 or alcantra@chapman.edu

For tickets and sponsorship, please contact Tami R. Thompson at (714) 744-7031 or tthompso@chapman.edu

Chapman.edu/chapman-celebrates SEPTEMBER 2019

1999

Anniversary Celebration

RISING STAR The Argyros School celebrates 20 years of expanding influence.

In October, Chapman’s Argyros School of Business and Economics will celebrate the 20th anniversary of taking the name and embracing the vision of The Honorable George L. Argyros ‘59. Over the past 20 years, the Argyros School has tripled its enrollment numbers, research publishing has nonupled (grown 9x) and more than 7,000 graduates now have degrees that carry the Argyros name. Recently, the school announced the addition of another strategic degree program, the M.S. in Real Estate, to launch in 2020.

Chapman business school (founded in 1974) officially becomes the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics, thanks to a transformational gift made by Julianne and George Argyros.

2000

Full-time MBA program launches. Now offers eight different specializations including finance, marketing, entertainment and more.

20012004

George Argyros is appointed by President George H.W. Bush to serve as U.S. ambassador to Spain and Andorra.

2008 Professor Vernon Smith, Ph.D., winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, accepts a joint appointment at the Argyros School and the Fowler School of Law. Smith founds the Economic Science Institute, making Chapman a hub of experimental economics.

50 FOR 50 To ensure that the school continues its upward trajectory, the Argyros School has launched a bold campaign to raise $50 million in order to double its endowment to $100 million. This visionary goal will allow for unprecedented academic growth and enhancement in areas critical to the local economy, and will ultimately help propel the school into the ranks of the nation’s top 50 business schools. To be a part of the Argyros School legacy, join the 50 for 50 campaign. Contact Chris Pagel at (714) 336-1749 or cpagel@chapman.edu.

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2012

Janes Financial Center is established, thanks to the generous support of David A. Janes, giving students access to 12 Bloomberg terminals, which they use to oversee Chapman’s Student Managed Investment Fund.

BIG DREAMS | BOLD VISION 20 YEARS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE Join us for the 20th Anniversary of the Argyros School of Business and Economics as we honor Julianne and George Argyros, with featured guest President George W. Bush

2013

Launch of Chapman’s Launch Labs, equipping student and alumni entrepreneurs in turning their innovations into successful small businesses. George W. Bush

2014

2016

2019

Now offering an M.S. in Accounting, a 10-month career-advancing program

Argyros ranks in Top 40 Best Undergraduate Business Schools in the nation and No. 1 in California by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Argyros ranks among the World’s Top 100 Best Business Schools in U.S. News & World Report rankings.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019 6:30 p.m. Dinner and conversation with President George W. Bush, moderated by Julianne Argyros Lisa Argyros ’07, Dinner Chair

Julianne and George Argyros

Julianne and George Argyros transformed the educational landscape at Chapman University through their visionary leadership and generosity in naming the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics.

Reserve your seat or become a sponsor at

Chapman.edu/asbe20

SEPTEMBER 2019

PHOTO BY ERICA DE GUZMAN

Sanika Pandit ‘21, left, and Alex Jones ‘21 collaborate in the Grand Challenges Makerspace as they and their student teammates develop a wearable heart health monitor.

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

By Bethanie Le (M.S. ‘19)

G R A ND C H A LLENGES Cybercrime Solutions By providing answers to online threats, a Chapman student team models the ambitious goals of the Grand Challenges Initiative. From computer hackers to identity thieves to phishing emails, cyber attacks are becoming more and more common – and complex. Such cybercrimes cost the U.S. economy about $100 billion annually, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, threatening millions of people and hundreds of organizations. It’s a quickly evolving issue, and scientists are struggling to address an elemental question: “What can be done to secure people from cyber attacks?” At Chapman University, such questions are the launching pad for an ambitious effort to solve complex global problems. Known as the Grand Challenges Initiative (GCI), the program inspires teams of Chapman undergraduates to take on issues that demand breakthroughs in science and technology. Working in small interdisciplinary teams over the first two years of their Chapman experience, students engage in grand challenges ranging from realizing unlimited renewable energy to explaining how the brain functions. Throughout the program, students build a sophisticated intellectual foundation for the rest of their academic journeys and their professional careers. “The GCI looks totally different from many classroom experiences in that there are no lectures,” said Gregory Goldsmith, Ph.D., assistant professor of biological sciences and director of the Grand Challenges Initiative. “We are empowering students to come together to understand and solve big problems that they find to be of personal interest.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

For the team taking on the grand challenge of developing protections from cyber attacks, the problem “looked impossible at first glance,” said Rae Ross ’21, a computer science major and one of the students working on the project. “But our goal was to come up with a feasible project and a plan to organize how to realize a solution.”

The Cyber Smart Panthers team includes, from left, Tristan Chilvers, Kristina Nguyen, Jonathan Burns, Kiara Cardona, Jonathan Bahm and Rae Ross.

STAY SAFE WITH THESE TIPS FROM CYBER SMART PANTHERS By Rae Ross ‘21

Cybercrime cost Americans more than $1.4 billion last year, the FBI reports. In fact, the chances of being hacked are far greater than those of having a home or car burglarized. So, what are you doing to be cyber smart? Here are tips developed by Chapman’s Cyber Smart Panthers team from the Grand Challenges Initiative.

SPOT A SCAM “Phishing” emails are the most common way for cyber criminals to access your computer or online accounts. Beware of these signs that a message might contain damaging malware: • Generic salutations (“Dear Customer”) • A sense of urgency (“Must reply now!”) • Links to fishy websites (FedExxx.com) • Requests for sensitive information (password, Social Security number, etc.) When in doubt, don’t open the message or click on links.

KEEP IT FRESH We’ve all seen those pesky patch updates for computers, phones and tablets. While they can be annoying, they play a huge role in protecting devices, credit cards and online identity. Keep all your devices current with patches and updates.

PASSWORD-PROTECT Use a passcode for access on every computer and smartphone. Also, be sure to have anti-virus software with “remote wipe” capabilities (Find My Phone, Lookout, etc.).

KEEP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TIGHT Use two-factor authentication to secure your social media accounts. That way, a message will be sent to your phone to confirm you’re not a hacker. Turn on two-factor settings in Twitter or Snapchat using “Login Verification,” and Facebook or Instagram using “Two-factor Authentication.”

USE TRUSTED NETWORKS Take care using public Wi-Fi at coffee shops, hotel lobbies or airports. Cyber criminals can get access to your device or accounts via spoofed Wi-Fi hotspots. If you’re unsure about the public Wi-Fi, steer clear.

STRENGTHEN YOUR PASSWORDS A common way that hackers get your data is by guessing or stealing passwords. Take your passwords to the gym – make them strong! • The longer the better – at least 12 characters. • Make it complex – use upper- and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. • Keep it impersonal – nothing that can be discovered online. • For extra security, use password manager software.

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In addition to Ross, the team features computer science majors Jonathan Burns ’21, Jonathan Bahm ’21, Kiara Cardona ’21 and Tristan Chilvers ’21, as well as biochemistry major Kristina Nguyen ’21. They were not left to take on the challenge alone. Goldsmith provided faculty mentorship, helping the students dive into an extensive body of research on cybersecurity and getting them acquainted with college-level courses and expectations. They were able to take the broad grand challenge of cybersecurity and frame it around the needs of the Chapman University community, in an atmosphere that was familiar and relatable to them all. The end result was Cyber Smart Panthers, a campaign to help students and others at Chapman understand and embrace positive cyber habits. The campaign included a comprehensive project plan that would deliver on more than 60 tasks designed to make Chapman’s Internet-based communications more secure. “We all know about in-person crimes -- nobody wants to be robbed, nobody wants their car stolen, but people may be less aware of how big of a threat cybercrimes are,” said Ross. “No solution is perfect, but by raising awareness and enforcing good practices at Chapman, we can reduce the number of cybercrimes that would affect us directly.”

“The Grand Challenges Initiative is preparing me for my future career.” – Rae Ross ’21 After participating for a year in the GCI program, Ross and Burns organized and led a cyber self-defense workshop during Chapman’s orientation week, with FBI Special Agent Bryan Willett as the guest speaker. The audience was incoming first-year students and their parents, who gained insights on topics such as online credit-card security, password management and smart social media habits. There wasn’t an empty seat in the room. By the end of their sophomore year, team members formed a partnership with the University’s Information Systems and Technology Office to evaluate Chapman’s wired and wireless networking capabilities. They also developed a Cyber Smart Panthers website, with a host of tips and resources, including a public-service announcement video that the students directed, produced, edited and starred in. The Cyber Smart Panthers project put Ross and her team at the front lines of defending Chapman’s digital networks. Along the way, GCI team members amassed real-world skills ranging from project management to team-building to public speaking. “The Grand Challenges Initiative is preparing me for my future career,” Ross said as she reflected on the two years of growth. “It gives a lot more hands-on experience -- it’s one of the best ways that we can learn because it is comparable to what we’ll do in the workplace.”

From Makerspace to Marketplace Chapman’s Grand Challenges Initiative (GCI) began in fall 2017 and has grown to include more than 500 students working on as many as 90 projects. All undergraduates in the Schmid College of Science and Technology and the Fowler School of Engineering are required to participate, but students from other schools and colleges are also taking up the challenge. From climate change to curing neurodegenerative diseases, plastics in the oceans to food accessibility, the issues being addressed are among the planet’s most important and most vexing. Student teams do much of their work in the GCI Makerspace. There, they have access to sophisticated equipment ranging from 3D printers to virtual reality headsets, as well as advanced microscopes and analytical balances. From this creative space GCI students have produced, among other things, a working drone and a VR simulation of what it would be like to land on Mars. “I have been amazed at how far students can go when one challenges them with seemingly unattainable goals in the context of a nurturing, mentored experience,” said Andrew Lyon, Ph.D., dean of the Fowler School of Engineering. “The GCI translates this approach by providing our students with an exciting and differentiated educational experience.”

Here’s a brief look at two Grand Challenges projects already yielding results. Reverse-Engineering the Brain This student effort is inspired by the work of biologists and chemists pursuing alternative approaches to cognitive health, including Alzheimer’s detection and prevention. The Chapman students took up the challenge of improving long-term focus using the amino acid tyrosine as a possible natural alternative to drugs like Adderall. They found evidence that adding tyrosine to cells stimulates the release of ATP – the primary carrier of energy in organisms. The increase in ATP shows the potential of tyrosine to improve cognition and increase attention span. To carry out their work, the students used specialized instrumentation in the lab of Rennolds Ostrom, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacology based at Chapman’s Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine.

Developing a Wearable Heart Health Monitor From learning the science of computer hardware right through to marketing a product, students working on this challenge have come a long way in a short time. The result is a prototype of a wearable monitor that can give patients a means for recognizing their own heart health symptoms. “The students, who are all biology majors, have developed a wide range of skills that took them beyond their comfort zones,” says José Raúl González Alonso, Ph.D., the postdoctoral fellow who mentored the team.

Grand Challenges director Gregory Goldsmith, right, assists student team members in the GCI Makerspace, a creative area with state-ofthe-art tools to take on issues of global importance.

Participants even 3D-printed the box in which the monitor would be sold. “They are dedicated to further developing the product,” González Alonso said. “We are excited to help them realize their goals.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

#HERSTORIES B Y D AW N B O N K E R

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

CHAPMAN NOW

PARITY’S THE THING College of Performing Arts pays tribute to the female narrative, planning a season full of shows written and directed by women. Hollywood is working to bring gender parity to movies. The League of Professional Theatre Women launched an effort pushing for 50/50 gender parity in American theatres by 2020, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women’s right to vote. And if you’re a “Toy Story 4” fan, you’ll know that even beribboned Bo Peep is taking charge these days. So what could be more topical than an entire theatrical season planned around plays and musicals written or directed by women? That’s the motivation behind the upcoming 2019-20 theatrical season lined up by CoPA. When the planning committee met to discuss the theme and choices for the academic year, an overarching idea came into focus – women’s stories. The result is #HERSTORIES, an eclectic, entertaining and provocative selection of plays, including a Broadway-style musical – think Dolly Parton with a lasso, if you catch our drift – all written or directed by women. “I’m excited about each and every one of these shows,” says John Benitz, chair of the Department of Theatre, which is staging the productions. From “9 to 5: The Musical” to Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure,” each production offers challenging roles for students. Collectively, the plays also give voice to women’s stories and opportunity to women directors and stage designers. “Everybody in the industry is saying it’s time for equal representation. We took that challenge and think this is something that actually we can do in our own small way,” Benitz says. Just as important is that all the productions deliver good stories exploring the human condition, but just through a slightly different lens, says Jocelyn Buckner, Ph.D., assistant professor of theatre. Even the season opener, Aristophanes’ classic play “Lysistrata,” which has the women of Greece launching a sex strike as a protest of war, will be staged with a script adapted by a female playwright. “One of the misperceptions about stories written or directed by women is ‘Oh, it’s a woman’s story. It’s not applicable to me.’ Yes, it may affect women in personal ways, but there are things in these stories we all can learn from and identify with,” Buckner says. “That’s something else that I think this season is attempting to do – rewrite the narrative that women’s stories are not universal.”

MORE FEMALE VOICES The Department of Dance and the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music also will highlight works composed and choreographed by women throughout the 2019-20 season. What’s more, the theme for the Chapman Celebrates scholarship gala will be “Celebrating the Female Voice,” as proud Chapman parent Vanessa Williams receives the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award (see story on page 38). For tickets and details, visit www.Chapman.edu/voices.

The exception is the Shakespeare plays, which benefit from the direction of Chapman Professor Thomas F. Bradac, past president of the Shakespeare Theatre Assn. of America and the former artistic director for Shakespeare Orange County. However, a female co-director for the fall production of Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” will join Bradac. Together they are planning a new approach for the tragicomedy set in a Vienna rife with moral corruption. “I don’t want to give anything away, but they are going to make it very current,” Benitz says. The spring semester half of the season will open with a fully staged production of “9 to 5: The Musical” on the main stage at Chapman Musco Center for the Arts. The musical written by Patricia Resnick follows the plot of the 1980 film comedy starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as harassed office workers who craft vengeance against their lecherous boss. Other spring offerings include “The Wolves” by Sarah DeLappe, a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which explores the adolescent girl power at play on a high school girls’ soccer team. The season closes with “In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play.” And yes, the play is about what the title implies. But it’s set in the 1880s, at the dawn of electricity and at a time when doctors imagined such devices as a cure for “hysteria.” “It’s about how it was used by male doctors as a control over women,” Benitz says. “And how women pushed back and found their own power.”

As is tradition, the department will hire mostly outside directors and stage designers for the shows, a practice that exposes students to a variety of professionals and working styles, Benitz says.

And isn’t that what #HERSTORIES is all about?

SEPTEMBER 2019

107

# OF STAFF AND FACULTY DONORS

04 30

1,000+

19 IT’S OFFICIAL. THE CHAPMAN FAMILY IS GENEROUS. During Chapman University’s first Giving Day on April 30, more than 1,000 donations poured in from alumni, parents, students, staff and faculty, raising $213,000.

THAT’S A LOT OF PANTHER PRIDE. And all that generosity directly benefits the Chapman Fund, which supports scholarships, faculty programs and a variety of student services.

IT WAS DEFINITELY A TEAM EFFORT.

DONATIONS

# OF STATES REPRESENTED IN GIVING DAY

$27,700 ALUMNI BOARD CHALLENGE

$76,900 THE PARENT CHALLENGE

$213,000 TOTAL RAISED

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

COMMENCEMENT SEEN & HEARD

“Success doesn’t amplify anything. It doesn’t make you happier, it doesn’t make you more conﬁdent. The process of doing the thing you love to do is what makes you happy. Working with your collaborators, sharing experiences with your friends, that feeling of making something good together – that’s what really matters.” MATT DUFFER ’07

“The ﬁrst act is over; you’re just now moving into the second act. The second act – that’s the best part. You’re Marty McFly and you just went back in time. You’re Indiana Jones and you’ve just headed out in search of the Lost Ark. Things are about to get really tricky and really cool.” ROSS DUFFER ’07 The Duffer Brothers, creators of the Netflix hit “Stranger Things,” spoke to the Class of 2019 during Closing Convocation in May.

“Just as light cannot be simply defined as the absence of darkness, love cannot be simply defined as the absence of hate. Rather, it can only be defined as an active, relentless pursuit to give others the very treatment you desire. Let us overcome hate with love. Let us overcome relativism with truth. And let us overcome darkness with light.” VIDAL ARROYO ’19 The winner of Chapman’s highest student honor, the Cheverton Award, addressed his fellow graduates.

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLASS OF 2019 A COM MUNIT Y OF ACHIEVERS

Chapman awarded degrees to some

1,700 UNDERGRADUATE and more than

900

GRADUATE STUDENTS

during its

158

COMMENCEMENT WEEKEND, with more than

2,200

PEOPLE

participating in total.

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

PANTHER PRIDE Every year, Chapman University is pleased to honor outstanding achievements by those in the graduating class. Here are just a few of the distinguished award winners in 2019.

RONALD M. HUNTINGTON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SCHOLARSHIP The Huntington Award is presented to the graduating senior judged to have exhibited the most distinguished record of scholarly accomplishments while a student at Chapman. Chemistry major and computational science minor Daniel Chang was this year’s recipient. As a freshman, two months after starting his first day at Chapman, Daniel began research in Professor Warren de Bruyn’s analytical chemistry research laboratory, which led him to serve as de Bruyn’s laboratory manager. In addition to working in the lab of de Bruyn, Ph.D., Chang has worked in five other research laboratories on campus and has one peer-reviewed publication published, with others in preparation. He was awarded four research grants and presented at a national American Chemical Society meeting.

PAUL S. DELP OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD The Delp Award recognizes a graduating senior who has made the greatest contribution of voluntary service to the Chapman community and the community at large. Alejandra Solis, a biochemistry and molecular biology major and economics minor, was this year’s winner. Solis is the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. During her time at Chapman, she has been a student researcher in molecular genetics and a member of the Schmid College Student Leadership Council. In addition, she was part of a Chapman Global Medical Brigades team that traveled to Nicaragua, where she translated for doctors working with clinic patients. She also served as a COPE Health Scholar at St. Joseph Hospital, where she performed more than 200 hours of service.

A Rhodes Scholar heads to Oxford University. A Fulbright recipient embarks on innovative teaching and research projects in Taiwan. A 19-year-old is on track to become California’s youngest pharmacist. These are just a few of the high-achieving graduates celebrated during Chapman University’s 2019 Commencement ceremonies.

CALIFORNIA’S GOLD SCHOLARSHIP Established by the late TV legend Huell Howser before his death in 2013, the California’s Gold Scholarship recognizes select students who display a positive outlook and who are actively pursuing ways to improve society as altruistic change agents. This year’s recipients include:

Vidal Arroyo

Erica Green

biochemistry and molecular biology, Schmid College of Science and Technology

psychology, Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences

Melanie Rutledge

Morgan Thomas

sociology, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

psychology, Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences

Darliene Zepeda-Field

Nathaniel Fernandez

integrated educational studies, Attallah College of Educational Studies

sociology, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Hannah Fozkos dance and kinesiology, College of Performing Arts and Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLASS OF 2019 A C O M M I TM E N T T O T H E F U T U R E

CHILD ACTRESS TO ENTERTAINMENT LAWYER Alexa Dectis (JD ‘19) Alexa Dectis is shy away from Diagnosed as a type 2 spinal muscular atrophy, Alexa has pursued despite her personal health challenge.

not one to a challenge. toddler with a law degree

WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE Flor Gonzalez (JD ‘19) While growing up, Fowler School of Law’s 2019 Dean’s Award recipient Flor Gonzalez would spend her summers visiting her hometown in Mexico in an off-the-grid, rural community that didn’t seem like a priority for its government. There, she witnessed a community devastated through violence.

“I became interested in law because I knew that I’d never be able to exercise my body, so I decided to exercise my brain,” Dectis says. “I thought that law would be a really exciting way to use my brain and to challenge myself. Being a child actress, I was always interested in what happened on the other side of the camera, which is what drew me to talent agreements and the regulations for minors in the entertainment industry. Kids in the entertainment industry need to be protected.”

“That’s why I want to work for the district attorney’s office,” Gonzalez says. “Because I know how much destruction can happen, and I want other communities to have their kids be out past 7 p.m. and not have to worry about them.”

It’s no coincidence that Dectis has found the intersection of law and entertainment so compelling. Because sports weren’t accommodating to her needs, she started acting “for fun” at a young age. This led to a string of acting gigs throughout her childhood and adolescence, including appearances in several television shows, movies and commercials, such as “Sesame Street,” “The Guiding Light” and the Tina Fey-Paul Rudd comedy, “Admission.”

“My experience is very different from what my parents had. They weren’t aware of what rights they have,” she says. “For me, it’s my job to help spread the message that people are important and their rights matter. I want to give people a voice through the legal system.”

Dectis’ internship with the Discovery Channel and experience in the Chapman Entertainment Law Clinic has allowed her to pursue her interests. After she graduates, Dectis plans to take the bar exam and work on talent agreements for a television network or production company. There are still challenges, but Dectis is made of tough stuff. She reflects: “Law school is way harder than you can ever imagine, but if you put your mind to it and don’t ever allow quitting to be an option, you can really get through anything. Anything imaginable, it’s true.”

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

At age 5, Gonzalez and her family emigrated to Orange County. Growing up, she saw firsthand the challenges her parents faced after coming to the United States. Law and equitable access to legal representation have very personal roots for her.

A first-generation college student, Gonzalez graduated from UCLA with a double major in political science and international development studies and a minor in Latin American studies. She interned for a sole practitioner who specialized in employment law, which reaffirmed her interest in law and put her on the path to specifically “working for the people.” By working in various departments at the Orange County District Attorney’s office, Gonzalez gained vital practical experience – and she already has a law clerk position at the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office lined up for when she passes the California bar exam. “For me, criminal law is public interest law,” she says. “I see it as an opportunity to create change within a community and have a positive impact on the lives of others.”

If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that Chapman grads are going to make a lasting impact on the world. Here are just a few stories of new leaders ready to make a difference in their communities and beyond.

A FULBRIGHT FUTURE

CHAPMAN COMMUNITY LEADERS

Ansley Wong (IES ‘18, MACI ‘19)

assistant emphasis, with a minor in dance.

Ansley Wong, graduating from Chapman’s Attallah College of Educational Studies, was recently named a Fulbright Scholar and awarded an English Teaching Assistantship grant in Taiwan. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering research, study and teaching opportunities in more than 140 countries to students and young professionals. The pool of Fulbright alumni boasts ambassadors, members of Congress, judges, CEOs, university presidents, journalists and artists. Wong will be assisting in English development at both a junior high school in Taipei and at an elementary school in Taiwan. Wong will also collaborate with local teachers and provide English instruction, while incorporating cultural perspectives to expand student learning. “I am excited for this new experience,” Wong says. “I have always been interested in working with emergent bilinguals, so this will be a great opportunity for me to work with this population for the whole year in a different country.”

Katelyn Dykhuis, B.S. in health science, pre-physician Dykhuis was named Scholar of the Year by her sorority and has appeared on every Provost List during her Chapman Career. The Phoenix native is the first in her immediate family to earn a university degree. Fascinated with education, she has served as a supplemental instructor for an upper division physiology course. Dykhuis’ passionate belief in Chapman’s values resulted in a cherished honor: the Spirit of Chapman Award, which she received in Fall 2018.

Mitchell Rosenberg, B.A. in political science, BFA in television writing and production. For two terms, Rosenberg served as president of the Student Government Association, advocating for stronger mental health services and aid for students who are struggling economically. Inspired by his father’s experience with cancer, he founded a Chapman chapter of Camp Kesem, which provides free summer camp for children whose parents are battling the disease. Also while at Chapman, he interned with the U.S. Senate, the California State Assembly and the Office of the Lieutenant Governor.

Alejandra Cortes, B.S. in mathematics. A strong believer in social justice and community service, Cortes has been a major volunteer for The Nicholas Academic Centers in Santa Ana, helping first-generation students from underprivileged backgrounds to graduate from high school. Cortes also interns for Girls Inc. of Orange County (see page 35), and she is president of the Chapman Feminist club. In addition, Cortes volunteers for the Summer Bridge Program, helping students transition into their first semester at Chapman.

SEPTEMBER 2019

CHAPMAN NOW

Slowdown, But No Recession, Chapman Economists Say BY DAWN BONKER

he trade war will slow the U.S. economy and hit California sharply, according to the 2019 Economic Forecast Update from the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University.

The Anderson Center’s Economic Forecast Update, presented by lead economist Jim Doti, predicts that U.S. GDP will grow by 2.4 percent in 2019, a slower rate

than a year ago. “Our estimate is that for 2019 the impact of the tariffs, worst case scenario, will be $40 billion, which is an impact of minus .2 percent in real GDP,” said Jim Doti, Ph.D., lead economist on the update, presented June 19 at Chapman’s Musco Center for the Arts.

The midyear research report predicts that the nation’s GDP will grow at a rate of just 2.4 percent in 2019, a slower rate than last year. But it’s too soon to predict recession, Doti said. “Despite the slowed growth rate, an expected 2.4 percent GDP increase by year-end will mark the longest expansion in the history of the United States. However, the slowing rate is something to watch closely,” said Doti, Chapman President Emeritus and economics professor. In California, the economic pain will be sharper, in part because the state’s extensive port, transportation and warehousing sectors rely heavily on trade with China. This scenario reverses California’s economic trend of outpacing the rest of the nation. Additionally, construction and technology are also slowing, Doti said. Imports from China fell at double-digit rates in the first quarter of this year, a trend likely to continue. Lack of a new trade agreement will have a strong negative impact on the critical transportation and

“Information services is the most important job sector for California’s future.” – Jim Doti, Ph.D.

warehousing sector, resulting in an estimated loss of 40,000 jobs in California by the end of 2019, with further decline expected into 2020 and beyond.

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

“A trade war impacts the California economy more profoundly than the rest of the nation, as the majority of goods, approximately 90 percent, pass through the state’s airports and harbors,” Doti said. The Chapman University econometric model predicts California’s overall employment growth will decline from 2 percent in 2018 to 1.5 percent by the end of 2019. This prediction spurs from sharp drops seen across key industries from 2018 to 2019: • Construction job growth (6.1 percent down to .9 percent); • Transportation and warehousing (5.7 percent down to 3.2 percent); and • Technology/Information services (2.6 percent down to 1 percent). In another area of importance, the information services sector has slowed because California has not been able to foster the right environment for specialized tech jobs to flourish, according to the report. Viable talent is moving to burgeoning technology hubs in states with more manageable costs of living and lower tax rates. The sector saw double digit growth from 2016-2018 but stalled in 2019, resting close to zero outside of Silicon Valley. “Information services is the most important job sector for California’s future,” Doti said. “These jobs support the growing technology industry and on average offer higher wages than other industries. The lack of jobs is leading to a net population loss for the state.”

CHAPMAN NOW

Professor Jennifer E. Totonchy is studying how Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus is transmitted.

$1.6M Grant Funds Study of Cancer - Related Virus BY DAWN BONKER

professor at the Chapman University School of Pharmacy has received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, which can cause cancer and other diseases, particularly in transplant recipients and people with HIV infections. Jennifer E. Totonchy, Ph.D., will use the RO1 grant to better understand how the virus is transmitted, interacts with the human immune system and is affected by other factors. RO1-level grants are one of the NIH’s largest funding mechanisms, and they support significant health-related research for up to five years. This is the first RO1-level grant for the School of Pharmacy, which opened its doors to students just five years ago. “This is a testament to Jennifer’s scientific prowess and the incredible, dedicated work of her and her laboratory team and collaborators,” said Ron Jordan, Pharm.D., dean of the School of Pharmacy. The National Cancer Institute at the NIH is interested in the virus’ transmission paths because scientists do not yet understand how the virus causes cancer. So prevention is paramount, Totonchy says. “We’ve known about the virus for about 25 years, and we still do not know how it moves around in the human population. This research is based on the idea that if we know how this virus gets from person to person, we might be able to rationally design strategies to prevent that from happening and therefore prevent cancer from happening in the first place.” “Limiting the spread is the easier way of getting rid of the cancers that are associated with this virus,” she says. With this new grant, Totonchy will use a variety of cell types collected from human tonsils to identify factors that influence transmission of the virus. It also will build on her ongoing research into how the virus influences B cells in tonsil tissue. The research potentially holds other implications, too. Many scientists who study viruses suspect inflammation may help organisms gain a foothold, so the findings may add pieces to the inflammation puzzle, she says.

The “My Favorite Professor” award is determined by a vote of Chapman students, who this year honored Presidential Fellow Mark Skousen, shown with his wife, Jo Ann.

My Favorite Professor BY CATIE KOVELMAN ‘19

residential Fellow Mark Skousen smiles cheek to cheek, surrounded by a group of gleeful Chapman University business students as they pose for a photograph on campus. The students proudly display American Silver Eagle coins, gifted to them by Skousen. Later, the students join the professor and his wife, Jo Ann, for an evening of fun and homemade food to celebrate the end of a successful semester. It’s this love for his students that won Skousen the “My Favorite Professor” award, the highest honor given at the Faculty Appreciation Awards, which the Office of Residence Life and First Year Experience hosts annually. “Over the years, I’ve received a variety of awards, including the Triple Crown in Economics presented to me by Steve Forbes last year. But this is the first time I’ve been blessed by some kind of popularity contest among college students. I’m honored,” Skousen said. Skousen, Ph.D., editor of the “Forecasts & Strategies” newsletter, is a nationally known investment expert, economist and author of more than 25 books. Since 2014, he has lectured during spring semesters in the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics. In addition to teaching his students how to think like an economist, Skousen prepares them for life. “I try to teach several lessons – first, try to avoid the ‘big mistake’ in life, such as getting involved in drugs or bad relationships. Second, maintain good friendships and avoid grudges. I point them to the four pillars in the Attallah Piazza and encourage them to develop all four aspects of life – the physical, the mental, the spiritual and the social,” Skousen said.

“Inflamed tissue is probably pretty relevant to transmission,” Totonchy says. “There are epidemiological studies suggesting that for some reason this virus really does better in an inflamed context, which seems like it would have implications for the study of inflammation in general.” SEPTEMBER 2019

IN MEMORIAM

JANES’ COMMITMENT TO CHAPMAN IS EVIDENT THROUGHOUT THE CAMPUS.

Donna and David Janes

DAVID JANES

avid A. Janes, an entrepreneur and champion of education who served Chapman University as Board of Trustees chairman and later as chairman emeritus, passed away April 7. Janes’ commitment to Chapman is evident throughout the campus. Areas of support include the College of Performing Arts and the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics, which is home to the Janes Financial Center. The state-of-the-art facility is equipped with 12 Bloomberg terminals, providing students with real-time financial data. In addition to being a champion of education, Janes was a Naval reservist for 36 years, retiring in 1994 as a two-star admiral. He was an outstanding sailor who once set a race record in the 1,150-mile International Yacht Race from Marina del Rey, California, to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. During the late 1990s, he formed Janes Capital Partners, an investment banking firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions in aerospace and defense, serving as chairman until his death. In addition, Janes was chairman of the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America, playing an instrumental role in rebuilding the Newport Beach Boy Scout Sea Base and the Scouts’ Outdoor Education Camp. Janes is survived by his wife of nearly 25 years, Donna; a daughter, Kathy Harian; sons David Janes, Tim Janes and Robert Davis; and 18 grandchildren.

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

DEPARTMENTS

Henry ‘51 and Ramona Kemp-Blair ‘52, shown at her graduation on the Vermont Avenue campus in Los Angeles.

FRANK GREINKE

RAMONA KEMP-BLAIR ’52

Greinke became president of Southern Counties Oil Co., his father’s company, in 1987 at age 33. In 1991, he purchased the company, now known as SC Fuels. It is one of the nation’s oldest, largest familyowned fuel distributors.

While at Chapman, Kemp-Blair met her future husband, Henry ’51. After their marriage, Henry and Ramona moved to Orange, where he chaired what would become Chapman’s Communications Department and she taught elementary school.

rank Greinke, a Chapman University friend, supporter and President’s Cabinet member, passed away May 7. One of Orange County’s most successful business leaders, he was the model of an active and caring community member, and made it his personal mission to look for ways to bring young people opportunities.

SC Fuels also has the distinction of being the first company from the U.S. to do business in the Republic of Georgia. In 1992, just after Georgia became the first former Soviet Republic to become independent, Southern Counties Oil opened the first Western-style gas station in the capital city of Tbilisi. Greinke had many roles: he was appointed the Republic of Georgia’s honorary consul for the West Coast in the United States; served as chairman of the Southern California Chapter of the Young President Organization; was a founding director of The New Majority Committee; and was former finance chair of the Orange County Republican Party. Greinke wanted the City of Orange to prosper and viewed Chapman as an integral part of it. Through SC Fuels, he supported Chapman’s Digital Media Arts Center, Musco Center for the Arts, and, most recently, the Keck Center for Science and Engineering. As a family, the Greinkes contribute to a number of local charities, including Mary’s Kitchen, Queen of Hearts Foundation, Taller San Jose Hope Builders and Fuel Relief Fund. Greinke was an invaluable advisor with a wealth of experience. His knowledge, hearty spirit and joy in serving will be greatly missed by the entire Chapman community.

amona (Lawyer) Kemp-Blair ’52, a graduate of Chapman when the campus was on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, and later a familiar presence on campus in Orange for many years, passed away Sept. 3, 2018. She was 88.

Kemp-Blair was active in various Chapman support groups, including Town & Gown. She earned her master’s degree, was an active member of First United Methodist Church in Orange and found time to host cast parties at her home after Henry’s theatrical productions. She even appeared in his film, “Rumpelstiltskin.” Together, Ramona and Henry raised three daughters, Gilia (Humrich); Iris (Gerbasi) ’80 (M.A. ’90), who serves as assistant provost at Chapman; and Cynthia (Wilson) ’82. Grandson Dennis Gerbasi ’10 is also a Chapman Panther.

GREINKE MADE IT HIS PERSONAL MISSION TO LOOK FOR WAYS TO BRING YOUNG PEOPLE OPPORTUNITIES.

SEPTEMBER 2019

DEPARTMENTS

5 QUESTIONS

QUELLING THE FEARS THAT PREVENT VACCINATION BY DAWN BONKER

Scientists, decades of authoritative research, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, generations of physicians and more than a few grandparents who remember the dangers of childhood diseases all agree on this fact — immunizations save lives.

becomes just one more voice. The cycle is so quick, the legitimate media sometimes get outpaced. People don’t know the difference between a CNN story and a parent blog.

And yet, a U.S. measles outbreak that began this winter endures and is linked to a growing number of parents who reject vaccinations for their children. This fall, seasonal flu shots again will be offered at multiple locations, from supermarkets to work places, and yet only an estimated 37 percent of American adults will roll up their sleeves, despite the vaccine’s proven ability to prevent flu.

We think about it on a spectrum. You have the vaccine-compliant, who come in asking for vaccines and follow recommended guidelines. At the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the anti-vaccination groups. You’re going to make little to no headway with them. We actually try not to engage them. But what gets wrapped in the middle is what we call the vaccine-hesitant. That’s the group we need to work with. The vaccine-hesitant are moms and dads who’ve heard something on a talk show or read something on the Internet that makes them hesitant to vaccinate their child. But when you meet them where they are and present them with the facts, they usually choose vaccination. Fortunately, there are more people who get vaccinations for their children than not.

What’s going on here? In a nutshell, it’s more about social science than medical science, says Jeff Goad, Pharm.D., professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the Chapman University School of Pharmacy. Goad is past president of the California Immunization Coalition, winner of 2019 APhA Immunization Champion Award for Outstanding Career Achievement and a frequent lecturer on vaccination awareness and education.

Why do people think they know better than what research has proved? We’ve had a mistrust of government that’s been percolating from the 1960s and on for a range of things, from supposed conspiracy theories to government cover-ups. It used to be that the media would investigate those kinds of stories and they’d be vetted, filtered and examined through a much more objective lens. Today there is no filter and there is no lens. The Internet can send you five different takes on the same story. It’s information overload for many people. The Centers for Disease Control

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

How do health educators combat this trend?

If most are vaccinated, why are unvaccinated children a problem? Since measles is highly contagious, even a small number of unvaccinated kids can set off an outbreak. For example, a child with measles will infect around 12 to 18 non-immune people, who can then infect 12 to 18 more, and on it goes. If you increase the number of vaccinated (considered immune), that child with measles just has less people to pass it on to, and eventually the disease runs its course before they can infect anyone else.

Since measles is highly contagious, even a small number of unvaccinated children can trigger an outbreak, says Chapman Professor Jeff Goad, Pharm.D., an immunization expert.

What educational approaches work well? I’ve worked with many different groups on this, from the Centers for Disease Control to the Immunization Action Coalition and lots of community-based groups. The universal theme is “fight fire with fire.” For example, since the anti-vaccine group uses personal stories to distort the facts, our immunization coalition created a series of videos of parents whose kids and other loved ones have been injured by the diseases that could have been prevented through immunization.

What makes this approach effective? It’s difficult to relate to just numbers. Anytime you’re talking numbers, you must have a story with it – something they can contextualize, otherwise the message is not going to stick. Telling people that the flu killed almost 80,000 people in the U.S. last year, as amazing as that sounds, is not as powerful as showing a story of a mom recalling when she lost her little girl to what she thought was a cold but turned out to be influenza.

DEPARTMENTS

HOW’D YOU GET THAT JOB?

GEARED UP FOR A LIFE IN THE GAME HE LOVES BY DENNIS ARP

As a walk-on catcher at Chapman, Rick White ’75 chased the dream of a life in professional baseball. He was smart enough to realize that life wouldn’t be as a player. “I knew I wasn’t good enough to make it to the major leagues,” he says. After earning a degree in psychology from Chapman, White was prescient enough to base his MBA thesis at Purdue University on his affinity for baseball. He designed a progression analysis that explored the degree to which good hitters outearn those who excel primarily on defense. Analytics was an emerging field, and his research caught the attention of Major League Baseball. He accepted an offer to work in the American League office. “It was a tremendous opportunity to pursue my passion,” White recalls. He has seldom been far from that pursuit ever since. During a career of steadily expanding positions, he served every commissioner of baseball from Bowie Kuhn in the early ‘80s through Bud Selig in the mid ‘90s. His mind for strategic analysis and creative ideas allowed him to break new ground in sports marketing. In 1983, he founded Major League Baseball Properties, the sport’s trademark licensing, corporate marketing and publishing organization. During a six-year period when he was CEO, MLB Properties went from gross retail sales of $200 million a year to more than $2 billion. Among other things, his group pioneered sales of authentic team products, throwback gear and fan festivals. “Much of what you’re seeing with pro and college sports marketing today, that was the origin point,” White says.

After later serving in other sports marketing leadership positions, including with Nike, White returned to his first love in 2014. He became the inaugural president of the Atlantic League, which he calls “the most innovative league in professional baseball.” He’s having a ball helping to drive those innovations. “I missed baseball,” he says. “It gets into your blood.” The Atlantic League is an independent minor league with eight teams sporting names like the Sugar Land Skeeters and the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. It’s miles from the major

“I missed baseball. It gets into your blood.” Rick White ‘75 leagues, but the Atlantic League’s advances are on the minds of MLB officials, who are eager to speed up play and otherwise court the attention of younger fans. “The impression that baseball is boring is geting more profound,” he says. The league has generated lots of buzz lately by experimenting with “robot umpires.” It’s the first pro baseball league to let radar-tracking technology call balls and strikes. “We’re very excited about what this portends not only for our league but for the future of baseball,” White told ESPN.

After playing catcher at Chapman, Rick White ‘75 went on to found Major League Baseball Properties, the sport’s trademark licensing and corporate marketing organization. Among its other innovations, the Atlantic League allows batters to “steal first base” in certain circumstances. It’s trying to shorten the length of games by speeding up changeovers between innings and restricting on-field conferences. “I think I’m known both as a strategic marketeer – someone who sees opportunities that might not otherwise exist – and someone who leaves a lasting legacy where I’ve been,” White says. As he considers his journey, White notes that Chapman continues to exert a lasting impact on his life. “Going to Chapman was a life-changing experience,” he says. “While I can’t say it led directly to my vocation, the opportunities I had on the field, in student government and in the classroom – the incredibly accessible Board of Trustees and faculty – had a powerful effect on me. I will always be grateful.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

“They had somebody for the students to talk to, for the parents to talk to, to help them through the process,” he says. “I thought, that’s something I’d love to do.” This is a common experience among professional school counselors, says Kelly Kennedy, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the School Counseling and School Psychology graduate programs at Chapman University’s Attallah College of Educational Studies. “People become school counselors for two reasons: They had a counselor in school they loved, who supported and mentored them, or like Beau they had no guidance at all,” she says. “Schools counselors are a passionate bunch who want to help students thrive. They want to model a fantastic mentor or be a mentor in a way that no one was for them.”

PHOTO BY DENNIS ARP

CHAMPION OF CHANGE BY CHERYL BALTES

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

Most impressive of all, on Menchaca’s watch the proportion of Century students attending college skyrocketed from 21% to a whopping 92%. What’s the secret of his success?

High school counselor Beau Menchaca (M.A. ’02) leads a transformation of culture, multiplying the number of students who attend college. By his own account, Beau Menchaca (M.A. ’02) grew up a bit of a gypsy, bouncing back and forth between Texas and Mexico. By middle school, his family settled in Mexico, where he completed high school and college. Like so many before him, Menchaca struggled to find his path during his formative years.

Now that Menchaca is an award-winning school counselor at Century High School in Santa Ana, it’s hard to overstate his impact. From 2013-18, when Menchaca was a higher-education coordinator, the number of Century High students completing the federal Free Application for Federal Student Aid submission jumped by 78%. In addition, Menchaca raised nearly $100,000 in grants for scholarships and support for highereducation programs, and he organized Century’s first-ever College Signing Day.

“In Mexico, there was no such thing as a school counselor. We had to figure things out on our own,” he said. After moving to the United States as an adult, Menchaca worked in a clerical position at Carr Intermediate School in Santa Ana. There, he first saw school counselors in action.

“It didn’t happen overnight,” Menchaca said simply. “It’s coming up with a plan and building upon it every year.”

Insight and Financial Aid For students like Yaribel Aguila Kumar, who graduated from Century in 2018, access to financial aid is a game-changer. “I feel so incredibly blessed that I was able to work one on one with him because I gained so much insight on how to finance school,” said Aguila Kumar, now a second-year student at UCLA who plans to major in mathematics. “I learned that there are people who root for your success and are aware of the potential

ALUMNI NEWS

Most impressive of all, on Menchaca’s watch the proportion of Century students attending college skyrocketed from 21% to a whopping 92%.

that you have. Having that reassurance is comforting, especially when things get rough.” The focus on college and careers starts at Century even before the students reach high school. The earlier the better, Menchaca believes. This long-tail approach is especially valuable for first-generation college students like Litzi Ocampo, who graduated from Century in 2018 and is now majoring in education at the UC Irvine. “I did not have the resources at home to maneuver the whole college process,” Ocampo said. “Mr. Menchaca was there to guide me and support me in any way I needed throughout that process.” It’s important to meet the students where they are and nudge them to reach the next step, Menchaca said. The first goal is to create a culture of thinking about the future. “Moving the pendulum a little bit forward, we can make huge strides,” he said.

A Team Effort Although he’s known for seeking out and publicizing scholarships and even driving students to college interviews, Menchaca is the first to say he doesn’t do anything alone.

A parent support group makes phone calls and personally invites the parents of seniors to attend college and career events. “It’s parents helping parents,” he said.

The Right Fit When Menchaca thinks back on the help he got at Chapman, he returns to what he calls his “Dr. Hass Story.” Menchaca started a school counseling graduate program at another university, where the classes were large and the interaction with faculty was limited. Exploring his options, he ended up at Chapman one afternoon where he shared his story with Michael Hass, Ph.D., now a professor of scholarly practice in Attallah College’s School Counseling and School Psychology programs. Weeks later, Menchaca returned to Chapman without an appointment. From down the hall, he heard someone call out, “Santa Ana.” “I kept talking to the receptionist,” Menchaca recalled, “and Dr. Hass again said, ‘Santa Ana.’ I thought, ‘Me? My name is not Santa Ana.’ He said, ‘You worked for Santa Ana Unified School District,’ and he listed what we had talked about.”

Beau Menchaca (M.A. ‘02) is joined by Chapman M.A. in Leadership Development student Basti Lopez De La Luz during the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce’s Difference Maker Educator of the Year award luncheon. A New Challenge Menchaca recently transitioned from his higher-ed position back into a traditional school counseling role. He missed the dayto-day interaction with students. After 19 years at Century, he is turning his focus to the school’s Career Technical Education Pathways program, hoping to apply his signature strategic planning to create more opportunities for students. With a 400-student case load, he admits the job is a challenge. But it is one he relishes. “You can truly make a difference,” he said.

“It really does take an army,” he said. In his first year as Century’s higher-education coordinator, Menchaca transformed the school’s Cash for College information night, increasing attendance among students and parents from just five to nearly 600. He brought in dozens of people to work the event – school staff, teachers and university partners as well as local business and alumni volunteers.

Menchaca thought, “At the other school, I was a number. Here, maybe today I am ‘Santa Ana,’ but I knew that eventually I’d became Beau.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

ALUMNI NEWS

CELEBRATING CHAPMAN’S GROWING PROFESSIONAL NETWORK BY STEPHANIE HOUSE

More than 500 Chapman University alumni proved that networking can be fun and functional as they gathered at the twinklelit outdoor patios of the entertainment industry leader Lionsgate in Santa Monica to share drinks, stories and appetizers. Oh, and business cards, of course. Hosted by Career and Professional Development, this annual springtime event has become a must-attend for Chapman Family members. Each year, the mixer boasts record-breaking numbers of alumni and students, who come to reconnect with old friends, meet new ones, and network. “The alumni mixer is a staple. It’s great to see what other people are doing, and it has opened up opportunities for me too,” says William Schoenfeld ’13. “This event says a lot about the Chapman Family. Every year this gets bigger and bigger. Everyone is so excited not just to network but to share their experience. It’s an extraordinarily positive amalgamation of so many people from so many different walks of life, yet Chapman unites them all.”

Record-breaking numbers of alumni and students attended the annual Chapman mixer hosted by Career and Professional Development at Lionsgate in Santa Monica.

In addition to alumni, the mixer attracts Chapman undergraduates seeking professional opportunities. “It was great to connect with people and see if I can get involved in their projects,” says Arianna Ngnomire ’19. “Seeing my peers and people I look up to doing amazing things was awesome.” The event offers a window to “what a Chapman education can get me,” she adds. “This is a reminder of what you can create yourself and be a part of.”

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

“Seeing my peers and people I look up to doing amazing things was awesome.” – Arianna Ngnomire ’19

ALUMNI NEWS

HOT OFF THE PRESS BY STEPHANIE HOUSE

Pop-Up Chapman Magazine mixers in San Francisco and New York are a major success. As issues of Chapman Magazine travel through the Postal Service to destinations far and wide, a new Pop-Up Magazine Mixer is also hitting the road. The magazine-themed gatherings, featuring President Daniele Struppa, noted professors and all the latest news delivered in-person, are coming to hometowns all across the nation. This past spring, the Office of University Advancement hosted the first two traveling Pop-Up Chapman Magazine Mixers, in San Francisco and New York - cities that boast the largest number of Chapman Family members. At the events, alumni gathered to share Chapman stories, enjoy drinks and explore different stations, covering topics such as Chapman’s strategic plan and new campus spaces. For those with news to share, there was a chance to submit Class Notes for the magazine. Professors Gregory Goldsmith, from Schmid College of Science and Technology, and Bill Kroyer, director of the Digital Arts Program at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, provided insights from their academic worlds.

Pop-Up events, people learn about Chapman in an interactive way, and we hope they leave feeling more connected to the University.” Building on the success of the first two traveling mixers, plans are in place to expand the event to reach more regions in 2020. Look for more information on a Pop-Up Chapman Magazine Mixer coming to a city near you.

Posing for a Chapman Magazine cover photo are, from left, Michelle Chang ‘09, Westly Richards ‘06, Holly Miller ’06, Devin Chang ‘05 and Kellen Brenner ‘05.

“At our regional Pop-Up events, people learn about Chapman in an interactive way, and we hope they leave feeling more connected to the University.” Deanna Blanchet ‘12

Attendees even had a chance to pose as Chapman Magazine cover models. “Chapman Magazine has always resonated with our alumni. It’s a great theme for our events because it features stories that highlight why our students, alumni and faculty are special,” says event organizer Deanna Blanchet ’12, assistant director of the Chapman Fund. “At our regional

Joining President Daniele Struppa at the Pop-Up Magazine Mixer are, from left, Sarah Landon ‘05 and Chapman parents Nola Bonis and Michelle DeFossett.

SEPTEMBER 2019

ALUMNI NEWS

TENOR OF CONFIDENCE BY BRITTANY HANSON

Brett Sprague ’10 embarks on a two-season engagement in Germany, advancing an opera career he once viewed as “a very scary dream.” Tenor Brett Sprague ’10 took a big leap this year in his opera career, moving across nine time zones to Munich, Germany, and launching a two-season engagement at the Theater Erfurt. The College of Performing Arts graduate credits his commitment to music performance to William Hall, a professor of music at Chapman University since 1963 and now dean and artistic director of Musco Center for the Arts.

We will always have the classics, produced in big glitzy theatres with period sets and costumes, but there is a lot of modern innovation of the art form. There is a new movement in production — one I love — of taking operas of all eras and sizes and producing them in site-specific locations.

What are the biggest misconceptions about what you do?

“Dr. Hall’s belief in me and my talent gave me the confidence I needed to chase a very scary dream when I was only 17 years old,” said Sprague. “I do not know where I would be today without Dr. Hall — he’s an incredible mentor and artistic inspiration.”

The most difficult misconception to counter is this idea that opera is a dying art and nobody cares about it. That is so far from the truth. It is not boring, or only for rich or older audiences. We are telling very real human stories. (Opera) can be enjoyed by everyone.

Sprague says that, contrary to common perception, opera is thriving in today’s culture. We asked him to tell us more about his musical journey.

Your move to Munich is a huge step in your career. Was this something you saw yourself doing when you were a student?

What experiences at Chapman helped you in your career path? The campus community experience taught me about respectful interaction, making connections and how to respectfully, and effectively, converse with donors and benefactors. I learned how to work in a team — which is every production — how to adapt to new ideas and styles and how to communicate clearly. In short, I learned how to be an adult, because that was the expectation. I always felt respected, and in turn I always try to show respect — that is not always the case in music training programs.

What’s opera like in 2019, and how is it changing?

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

Actually, it was my time at Chapman that inspired me to perform in Germany. When I chose to go to Chapman, I didn’t know if I would focus on performing, but my experiences and mentors at Chapman developed my dream of being an opera singer. I studied German throughout my undergraduate work and traveled to Munich for a summer language course. During that summer I decided someday I was going to perform in Germany.

“The campus community experience taught me about respectful interaction,” says Brett Sprague ’10, a College of Performing Arts graduate. “In short, I learned how to be an adult.”

What differences do you notice between European and American theatrical work? The music is the same, the general idea is the same, but from a business perspective it is much different. German theatres are subsidized by the government, whereas American arts funding relies almost entirely on donors and grants. From a personal perspective, I am able to work as a guest artist in theatres all over while having a fixed position in one theatre, starting next season. This type of fixed position is incredibly rare in the U.S. I can make a regular income without having to constantly freelance, which provides me more security. Also, here I can get high-quality health care and pension plans through my work, unlike back home.

“We are telling very real human stories. (Opera) can be enjoyed by everyone.”

SOMEWHERE

EXTRAORDINARY. At Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, you’re not just a film student. You’re a filmmaker. The Hollywood Reporter names Chapman University No. 7 in the nation of top film schools. Congratulations to our Dodge College of Film and Media Arts faculty, students and alumni. We put a camera in your hands on day one. The rest is cinematic history.

Chapman.edu/dodge

CLASS NOTES

1958

Robert Schomp ’58 now resides in the Juliette Fowler Communities in Dallas, where he celebrated the 56th anniversary of his ordination into the ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

1982

Alison Aubert ’82 M.S. ’88 is a 2019 inductee into the California Community College Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame. She is the Solano Community College director of sports medicine and has been the college’s head athletic trainer since 1993.

1999 2002

Jennifer Sepull JD ’99 was appointed chief digital officer at Air New Zealand. Lori Griffin M.A. ’02 was named to the Pierce College Distinguished Alumni.

2008

Nathan Lammers ’08 and Derek Bruner ’08 were married in San Juan Capistrano on June 8. Derek and Nathan met at Chapman in the University Choir. Included among their groomspeople were Javiera Cartagena ’08, Lindsey (Schumacher) Goggin ’08, Kyle LaBahn ’08 and Sara Mouser ’08. 4 (photo on opposite page)

2004

Amanda Zarr ’04 made her directing debut with a production of “The Crucible” for the Long Beach Community College Performing Arts Department, where she is also an adjunct faculty member.

2008

1995

2005

2008

1995

2005

2009

1996

2008

Kathryn Koepf Davis M.A. ’95 has been named CEO at Valley First Credit Union. Frank Mento MBA ’95 was named commissioner of the Onondaga County (New York) Department of Water Environment Protection. Tom Hoegerman M.A. ’96 received the Legacy Award when he retired as the Apple Valley Unified School District superintendent in San Bernardino County.

1998

Shawn Bransky MHA ’98 has been appointed director of veterans’ affairs for the Illiana Health Care System, which serves more than 150,000 veterans in 30 counties in Illinois and Indiana.

1998

Scott ’98 & Carrie Van Diest ’98 celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary this past spring. 1

Joseph Ledoux M.A. ’05 was named principal of Clarence Ruth Elementary School in the Lompoc Unified School District. Diana Gaffney ’05 works for CBS in current programming on non-broadcast network scripted series, based out of Studio City. 2

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

Kyle Higgins ’08 is signed to write and direct “Hadrian’s Wall,” a feature film adaptation of his creator-owned series. Erika Gonzalez ’09 is working as a police officer in Stockton, being “the change I wish to see in the world,” she says. “I didn’t need an education to be a police officer, but having it has helped me empathize and understand the problems at a deeper level. I thank my Chapman family for making me a better human, which makes me a better police officer.”

Brig. Gen. Laura Yeager M.A. ’08 in June became the first woman to lead a U.S. Army infantry division, assuming command of the California National Guard’s storied 40th Infantry Division during a ceremony at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. Since October 2017, she has commanded the Joint Task Force North, U.S. Northern Command, at Fort Bliss in Texas and was the first female commander in that organization’s 28-year history.

2009

2008

2010

Tanya Stuckey M.A. ’08 is working for the Department of the Navy, helping military families practice healthy lifestyle behaviors. 3

Jack Scholz ’08 has joined Hart Wagner, a law firm based in the Pacific Northwest, as an associate attorney.

Kacie Wills ’09 has earned a Ph.D. in English from UC Riverside and will begin a tenure-track position at Illinois College in the fall as assistant professor of British literature. 5 (photo on opposite page) Alexandra Nakelski M.A. ’10 runs the Manifesto Film Festival from Amsterdam and is earning her Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam.

CLASS NOTES

2010

2012

2014

2011

2012

2014

Kelly Konoske MBA ’10 is the 2019 Detroit Home Design Awards Rising Star. Tyler Hadzinsky ’11 graduated from Washington University of St. Louis with a master’s in statistics, Summa Cum Laude, and an MBA. He was named the Charles F. Knight Scholar, the highest academic achievement in the MBA program, and given the Professional Achievement Award, presented to the graduating MBA student who best exemplifies the qualities of integrity, loyalty, intelligence and high moral character, as judged by the faculty. 6

2011

Brian Rogers M.S. ’11 and Kelly Rogers MBA ’09, Ph.D. ’17 recently celebrated 13 years of marriage. 7

Hillary Cunin ’12 works as a staff writer on “Home Before Dark” for Apple TV+. Her first credited episode is scheduled to premiere in the fall. Sarah Faulkner ’12 was named one of the University of Washington’s Husky 100, a recognition granted to 100 graduate students, seniors and juniors who are applying what they learn to make a difference on campus and in their communities. 8

2012

Anna Soliman LL.M. ’12 has joined the Los Angeles office of Fiduciary Trust Company International as trust counsel.

2012

Dr. Lauren Dolan DPT ’12 was inducted into the Nevada Union Athletics Hall of Fame in April.

Christopher Lorenzana MBA ’14 was appointed regional deputy administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Kelsey Maxwell JD ’14 was recognized as a 2019 Southern California Rising Star. The list of honorees is made up of no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in Southern California.

2015

Olivia Silke ’15 won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship with an award of $138,000 over three years. Silke completed her master’s degree in psychology research in May at Cal State Long Beach and was accepted into the UC Irvine psychological science Ph.D. program. 9

6 4

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLASS NOTES

2015

Michael Wong ’15, Alex Comfortes ’15 and Hunter Stutsman ’15 are co-founders of the virtual-reality company Peeka, a Seattle-based company that takes children’s picture books and turns them into immersive virtual-reality experiences.

2015

Avery Rouda ’15 made her directorial debut at the Newport Beach Film Festival showing “Dream Catcher,” an animated short film she also wrote and co-produced.

2016

2018

2016

2018

Gina Yull MFA ’16 is producer on the upcoming indie short film “The Scroll of Morlok.”

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks MBA ’16 received the EurekaFest’s Eureka Award for her influential role in green science and corporate sustainability as the president and CEO of Earth Friendly Products, the maker of ECOS® environmentally friendly cleaning products.

2015

2017

2016

2017

Ingrid EskelandAdetuyi ’15 wrote the script for “Twin Blades,” which has begun film production in mainland China and Hong Kong. Brett Melnick ’16 is the creator of “What’s Up North,” a satirical news show on Instagram and BuzzFeed.

Tonica Williams ’17 represented the University of West Indies at the Harvard National Model United Nations, which this year represented 90 countries.

Simmons’ $60,000 gift establishes the William Brinker Simmons ’18 Endowed Film Scholarship.

WILLIAM SIMMONS

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

Jackeline Cohen ’18 has joined a cohort of MasaHillel Fellows.

2019

Mehana Lee ’19 joined Gilbert & Associates Advertising, a Maui-based agency for which Lee previously worked as a part-time social media strategist.

Laura Roosevelt ’17 has moved to Colorado and is working at Vail Resorts as a senior specialist in paid media strategy.

A graduate of Dodge College of Film & Media Arts, Simmons has a lot to give, specifically to education. The creative producing graduate is continuing a family legacy of supporting students by reinvesting his own scholarship funds. Simmons is the youngest person in the history of Chapman to endow a scholarship to aid underserved students studying the film arts.

’18

Makena Morgan ’18 was awarded honorable mention at the San Diego Public Library’s annual short story contest.

While at Chapman, Simmons was a standout student. He received a 2017 Center for Undergraduate Excellence grant and was accepted to Chapman on

a President’s Scholarship that supported his studies for all four years. With the encouragement of late Dodge College professor Harry Ufland, Simmons landed an internship his junior year at Creative Artists Agency, one of the most influential agencies in Hollywood. Simmons says it was an amazing experience that helped steer him toward his career. Upon Simmons’ graduation, CAA did something the agency rarely does: It offered him a job right out of college. Simmons is the second in his family to give back as a recent graduate, following the example set by his mother, who also established an endowment after receiving scholarship support.

CLASS NOTES

After graduating with her Master of Science in Global Health and Population from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Mukherjee is working as a health services consultant for John Snow, Inc. The Boston-based firm provides technical and managerial assistance to public health programs worldwide.

’16 S O H I N I

MUKHERJEE

At Chapman, Mukherjee majored in English literature and psychology. As an undergraduate, she worked in the research program of Professor Laura Glynn, Ph.D., studying the links between maternal psychological and physical health. During her Chapman experience, Mukherjee interviewed women in a rural area of India called Sundarbans, asking if they felt supported within their

community by husbands and friends. She was looking to see if there was a link between perception of social support and health issues with the children of women in the region. The women who reported more social support also had children with lower rates of gastrointestinal diseases. These women also reported higher rates of handwashing with soap and lived in brick homes that had toilets, as opposed to living in mud dwellings, where inhabitants often lacked handwashing practices. Those experiences led Mukherjee to Harvard, where she learned how to address health problems by taking into account factors such as climate, economics, politics and social conditions.

“I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD, AND TO BE CREATIVE WHILE DOING IT.” Those are the words of Sally Rubin, award-winning, Emmy®-nominated documentary filmmaker and professor at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts here at Chapman. Through grant support, Rubin releases her forthcoming documentary, “Mama Has a Mustache,” exploring the intersection of pregnancy and gender-nonconformity. With over $189,000 raised last year, the Chapman Fund is committed to supporting faculty excellence, innovative teaching and creative research.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

SUPPORT THE CHAPMAN FUND. chapman.edu/chapmanfund

(714) 628-2834 SEPTEMBER 2019

One University Drive Orange, California 92866 Chapman.edu

CELEBRATE LIKE FAMILY SAVE THE DATE OCTOBER 4 - 5, 2019 Chapman Homecoming is a weekend-long celebration filled with events and entertainment. Join us for the Homecoming Hoedown and the Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony. Kick back and cheer on the Panthers at the Homecoming Football Game vs. Whittier College.

WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;LL BE WAITING FOR YOU! Get your tickets now at chapman.edu/homecoming (714) 997-6681 alumni@chapman.edu

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS

Friday, October 4 | Bert C. Williams Mall 70

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

Kick off Homecoming weekend with the Distinguished Alumni Awards. Help us recognize fellow alumni who have made incredible accomplishments in various industries, working with organizations and in communities. Enjoy delicious drinks and decadent food at this upscale affair.

Chapman Magazine Fall 2019

Articles inside

CAMERA-READY AND COLLEGE-BOUND

BIRTH OF A DIALOGUE