Chapman Magazine Fall 2015

Fall 2015

MAGAZINE

Executive Editor: Sheryl Bourgeois, Ph.D. Executive Vice President for University Advancement

Managing Editor: Mary A. Platt, APR Director of Communications platt@chapman.edu

Editor: Dennis Arp arp@chapman.edu

Staff Writer: Dawn Bonker bonker@chapman.edu

Design: Hayden Design

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ON THE COVER: For the coaches and athletes of the Chapman University rowing program, workouts begin in predawn darkness. But when the light arrives on Newport Harbor, “the reflection of the sunrise in the water makes each morning grand,” says Sarah Van Zanten ’11, who captured our cover image with her iPhone 6. Even as Van Zanten focuses on coaching the Chapman men’s team, she takes a moment for spiritual reflection each time the sun clears the mountains and begins painting the sky with brilliant colors. “In this transitional year, I am reminded every day of what I believe in and what I want to do to make a difference in this life,” she says. In May, Van Zanten will leave for Jerusalem to attend Hebrew Union College, following a calling to become a rabbi. As Van Zanten draws inspiration from light and reflects it back on the world, so too do others in the Chapman community. A collection of stories advancing the theme of light begins on page 16.

THESE PAGES: Nicholas Bradford ’16 also knows a thing or two about the power of illumination. Growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, he came to respect and appreciate the velvety northern light of a summer sunset. Bradford, a film production major, took this photo of an outdoor performance piece as a member of an artists’ collaborative called the Light Brigade. Swinging across the outside of the Anchorage Museum is a dancer from the Momentum Dance Collective whose gracefulness is reflected in the glass façade. “Seeing this photo syncs my memory to the moment,” Bradford says.

“I can feel the sunset behind me and I’m reminded of just how precious that light can be.”

UP FRONT 2 President’s Message 3 First Person: A Research Trip to Italy Yields Historical Insights Cast in Bronze CHAPMAN NOW 5 After a Transformational 25 Years, President Doti Is Heading ‘Back with the Students’ 6 ‘Big Brother’ Has a Huge Influence on the Chapman University Survey of American Fears 8 A $3 Million Gift Establishes the Thompson Policy Institute on Disability and Autism 10 Chapman People Pitch in to Make the Special Olympics World Games Extraordinary 11 Gregory Daddis Brings a Deep Knowledge of Conflict to a New Program on War and Society

DEPARTMENTS 12 Voices & Verities 13 Campus Improvement 30 Sports: Brian Rauh (Class of ’13) Bucks the Back-Road Odds, Chasing Big-League Dreams 34 Bookshelf: Big Thoughts Are Free; In It to Win: Electing Madam President FEATURES 14 Are GMOs the World’s Best Hope Against Hunger, a Looming Danger, or Is It a PR Problem?

16 From the Sciences to the Performing Arts, Light Inspires the Work of Chapman People 20 The New School Design Developed by Jonathan Johnson ’10 Just Might Reshape Education 26 Sharing a Home and a Commitment, Four Chapman Friends Advocate on Transgender Issues ALUMNI NEWS 32 Conducting Change: Kalena Bovell ’09 Earns a Chance to Help Diversify Orchestral Leadership 36 Wishing Upon a Career, Chapman Graduates Alight in Roles They Consider the Happiest on Earth 38 Class Notes

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE More coverage of President Doti’s announcement is on page 5.

It’s Time for a Change You may have heard the recent news that I announced my intention to step down as president of Chapman University, effective Aug. 31, 2016. While I still love my job, I think it’s time for a change.

I’m delighted that Chancellor Daniele Struppa will become Chapman’s 13th president. I have great confidence in Daniele’s vision and his leadership skills, which have been recognized by the faculty and the Board of Trustees, who formally endorsed him as presidentdesignate early last year.

Daniele possesses the kind of ethical values that tend to be inherent in successful leaders. He treats all people with respect and dignity, a value that is essential to Chapman’s identity. I know these things because Daniele and I have worked as full partners together over the last 10 years. Many of Chapman’s most significant accomplishments were done not by me alone but rather by Daniele and me working as a team with an incredibly talented senior staff. That team will stay in place.

Finding Daniele’s successor as chancellor will not be an easy task.

A campus committee will be assisted by a professional search firm in identifying candidates who understand Chapman’s ethos and are as excited as we are about what our learning community can become.

During this last year of my presidency, I am particularly excited about opening the Marybelle and Sebastian P. Musco Center for the Arts as well as completing the critically important initial phase of our Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus. We also will

Board of Trustees OFFICERS David A. Janes, Sr. Chair Wylie A. Aitken Vice Chair Joann Leatherby Vice Chair David E.I. Pyott Vice Chair Scott Chapman Secretary Zelma M. Allred Assistant Secretary TRUSTEES Donna Ford Attallah ’61 Raj S. Bhathal James P. Burra Michael J. Carver Phillip H. Case Akin Ceylan ’90 Irving M. Chase Hazem H. Chehabi Stephen J. Cloobeck Jerome W. Cwiertnia Zeinab H. Dabbah (JD ’12) Kristina Dodge James Emmi Dale E. Fowler ’58 Barry Goldfarb Stan Harrelson Roger C. Hobbs

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William K. Hood Mark Chapin Johnson ’05 Jennifer L. Keller Parker S. Kennedy Joe E. Kiani Charles D. Martin James V. Mazzo Ann D. Moskowitz Sebastian Paul Musco Frank O’Bryan Harry S. Rinker James B. Roszak The Honorable Loretta Sanchez ’82 Mohindar S. Sandhu James Ronald Sechrist Ronald M. Simon Ronald E. Soderling Emily Crean Vogler Karen R. Wilkinson ’69 David W. Wilson EMERITUS CHAIRS The Honorable George L. Argyros ’59 Doy B. Henley Donald E. Sodaro EMERITUS TRUSTEES Richard Bertea Lynn Hirsch Booth Arlene R. Craig J. Ben Crowell

be planning our new Center for Science and Technology, with its groundbreaking scheduled for next April. Our progress with these transformational projects, along with our important advances in scholarship and research, illuminates the remarkable momentum taking place everywhere at Chapman.

Following the transition, I look forward to returning to teaching and research as well as helping Daniele and serving the University I cherish in any way I can.

It hardly seems possible that almost 25 years have passed since the Board of Trustees invited me to serve as Chapman’s president.

We have accomplished much working together, and we have laid a strong foundation for even more significant accomplishments under a great new leader.

We must, and I am confident we will, continue to make our University’s intellectual environment ever more vibrant, exciting and innovative.

Regards,

Jim Doti

Leslie N. Duryea Robert A. Elliott David C. Henley Jack B. Lindquist Randall R. McCardle ’58 (M.A.’66) Cecilia Presley Barry Rodgers Richard R. Schmid R. David Threshie EX OFFICIO TRUSTEES James E. Blalock (JD ’09) Barbara Eidson Reverend LaTaunya Bynum ’76 Reverend Don Dewey James L. Doti Kelsey C. Flewellen ’05 Judith A. Garfi-Partridge Reverend Dayna Kinkade Linda D. Ruth Reverend Felix Villanueva Reverend Denny Williams

Board of Governors OFFICERS Judith A. Garfi-Partridge Chair Melinda M. Masson Executive Vice Chair Thomas E. Malloy Vice Chair Douglas E. Willits ’72 Secretary

GOVERNORS George Adams, Jr. Marilyn Alexander Lula F. Halfacre Andre Lisa Argyros ’07 Margaret Baldwin Deborah Bridges Brenda Carver Eva Chen Paul A. Cook Ronn C. Cornelius Suzanne Ellingson Kathleen M. Gardarian W. Gregory Geiger Steve Greinke Galen Grillo (EMBA ’13) Rebecca A. Hall ’96 Sinan Kanatsiz ’97 (M.A. ’00) Elim Kay ’09 Scott A. Kisting John L. Kokulis Dennis Kuhl Suki McCardle Michael Penn (JD ’04) Betty Mower Potalivo James F. Wilson EMERITUS GOVERNORS Marta S. Bhathal Kathleen A. Bronstein Gary E. Liebl Jean H. Macino

Richard D. Marconi Jerrel T. Richards EX OFFICIO GOVERNORS Sheryl A. Bourgeois James L. Doti

President’s Cabinet Nicolaos G. Alexopoulos George L. Argyros, Jr. ’89, (JD ’01) Julianne Argyros Joyce Brandman Heidi Cortese Sherman Lawrence K. Dodge Onnolee B. Elliott (M.A. ’64) Paul Folino Douglas K. Freeman Marie Gray Frank P. Greinke Gavin S. Herbert Shelley Hoss Steeve Kay General William Lyon The Honorable Milan Panic Lord Swarj Paul James H. Randall The Honorable Ed Royce Susan Samueli Ralph Stern David Stone Alan L. True

FIRST PERSON

History Lessons Cast in Bronze

By Shira Klein

Metal can’t tell a story.

Or can it?

As a historian, I’ve been trained to look for stories in diaries and letters, memoirs and government documents — in short, textual sources. Not in shiny metal. But last fall, on a research trip to Italy to complete my book on Italian Jewish history, I looked at another kind of source: bronze monuments.

Monuments in Italy come in just about every size and style. Some are in the central piazzas, others in parks. Still, if they date from the Fascist period, they are likely to have one thing in common — a focus on war.

Take the World War I memorial in Piazza Castello in Turin. It features larger-than-life soldiers, one with clenched fists and a determined look, the other grasping a gas mask. Both are ready to trudge back into battle.

In some respects, Italy is not unusual. All European countries commemorated World War I, then called “The Great War,” which claimed 16 million lives. Americans visiting Europe are immediately struck by the abundance of memorials. From grandiose statues in the capitals — akin to those in Washington, D.C. — to modest plaques in the remotest villages, Europe has many more war monuments than does the United States. The French alone built more than 30,000 memorials. In each country, the war left different kinds of scars, and the monuments played a different role.

Monuments raise questions about the lasting impact of war. In what ways does war transform society? How does it affect soldiers and civilians? Do the effects of war continue for years, indeed decades and centuries? These questions are at the heart of Chapman University’s new War and Society master’s degree program, launched this fall by the Department of History. Courses examine war’s connection to issues such as race, gender, empire and migration, to mention just a few.

Italian monuments reveal a great deal about that nation’s society between the two world wars. During that period, nationalists resented the terms set by the victors of World War I. They claimed that Italy deserved more territory than it received. Benito Mussolini, who installed a Fascist regime in 1922, vowed to fix this. He promised to make Italy one of the strongest powers in Europe by militarizing Italian society.

Fascist leaders revered war and everything related to it. They invented the motto “Believe, Obey, Fight.” In the words of one Fascist official, war-making came as naturally to the regime as eating a plate of macaroni. The regime glorified World War I especially. That was the moment, Mussolini believed, in which Italy began to show its true military force.

And that is why, all throughout interwar Italy, municipalities built lavish statues of heroic-looking, muscular men eager to fight.

In 1926, no fewer than 40 celebrations in Verona alone inaugurated monuments to the war’s fallen soldiers. Alongside these monuments, Italians produced postcards idealizing soldiers. They created paramilitary youth movements replete with uniforms, toy weapons and a ranking system. Army generals visited schools to teach military culture.

Today, the monuments make great photo-ops for tourists, or convenient stops at which to rest and eat a gelato. They also tell a story about the Italian past.

Shira Klein, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of history at Chapman University.

Chapman’s new War and Society master’s degree is directed by Gregory Daddis, a retired Army colonel who taught at West Point and brings an informed — and informative — perspective to the program.

Read more on page 11.

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Handmade History Thinking Caps We’re not sure if the creativity that imbues Chapman University students starts in their toes, but we know that it extends to the tops of their heads. As evidence we cite these Class of 2015 mortarboard messages, found on Instagram: “Each edge of the compass represents a part of my collegiate journey, from the Disney and Darwin class that inspired my passions, to my dance minor, Semester at Sea and my BFA. Now I’m thrilled to have a full-time job reporting for KMTR (NBC affiliate in Eugene, Oregon).”

The oldest building on campus has carved out a new place in Chapman history.

Actually, University President Jim Doti did the carving, using a section of a 4-by-4 removed from the foundation of Wilkinson Hall during an earthquake retrofit of the 1903 building. And the result is a handcrafted gavel of Douglas fir, presented to Board of Governors Chairwoman Judith Garfi-Partridge during a recent board meeting.

Doti’s artistry was inspired by the story of another handmade Chapman gavel, crafted out of wood from a building on the old Berkeley campus and presented in 1912 to the chairman of the Board of Trustees.

“If he can do it, I can do it,” Doti said of the previous gavel-maker, and so he did, bringing shape and sheen to century-old lumber. From the controlled chaos of a retrofit will come countless calls to order.

The floor and gavel are yours, madam chairwoman.

— Megan Shinn, BFA television broadcast journalism “I chose this Dr. Seuss quote because after graduation is a pivotal point in people’s lives, when they can go anywhere and accomplish anything.

For me, I’d known for a long time that place was Washington, D.C.”

New Chapman Trustee and Governor NEW TRUSTEE: Ann D. Moskowitz Supporting the students of Chapman University in myriad ways, Ann D. Moskowitz and her husband, the late Chapman trustee Joel Moskowitz, have given generously to the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education, American Celebration and the Chapman Fund. Joel co-founded Ceradyne Inc., whose lightweight ceramic inserts for body armor protected thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ann is a past president of the Friends of Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter and is a member of the Women of Temple Bat Yahm. She earned a B.S. in economics from Wellesley College and an M.A. in economics from CSU Northridge. Early in her career, she was a software developer for IBM.

— Samantha Summers, B.A. political science “This verse from Proverbs 31 really describes how I felt about leaving Chapman.

Instead of being fearful of the future, I’m choosing to look forward to all the good things ahead.”

NEW GOVERNOR: Suki McCardle A deep belief in the power of education helps drive the philanthropy of Suki McCardle and her husband, Randy McCardle ’58 (M.A. ’66) Ph.D., an emeritus trustee of Chapman University. Suki came to the United States in 1975 from Korea, where she was an elementary school teacher.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from CSU Long Beach and became an educator in the Santa Ana Unified School District. Suki has been a member of Women of Chapman since 2002, and for years the McCardles have been strong supporters of Chapman. In 2013, they were honored during American Celebration as Citizens of the Year.

— Devon Hillard, B.A. public relations & advertising

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

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In the Next Chapman Magazine The excitement is building as the spring opening of the Marybelle and Sebastian P. Musco Center for the Arts fast approaches. We offer a sneak peek at the venue and consider its potential as a catalyst for artistic growth at Chapman.

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President Doti Headed ‘Back with the Students’ After a transformational 25 years, he’ll return to teaching next August. hortly after Jim Doti announced that he will step down as Chapman University president next August, he joked with alumni about his motivation during the Chapman Family Homecoming Celebration. He said he’s eager to move from occasional guest appearances on CBS’s The Bold & the Beautiful to being a regular on the series.

In truth, Doti will return to the classroom to teach economics.

“For the past 25 years, it was a big-picture thing,” he said during the impromptu discussion of his quarter-century as president.

“I really miss the trees in the forest. I started my career here as an assistant professor in ’74, and I want to end my career back with the students.”

Doti’s tenure places him among the nation’s longest-serving university presidents.

A succession plan was adopted last year by the University’s Board of Trustees and the Chapman Faculty Senate. It calls for the presidency to be conferred on Chancellor Daniele Struppa, a key figure in Chapman’s progress during his decade as chancellor.

Doti, 69, noted that he has much to look forward to during his final year as president, including the grand opening of the $78 million Marybelle and Sebastian P. Musco Center for the Arts, the opening of the Hilbert Museum of California Art and groundbreaking for the $137 million Center for Science and Technology.

The president is best known for leading Chapman’s growth from a liberal arts college of 2,200 students to a university of more than 7,000 students, now ranked by U.S. News & World Report as seventh among all master’s-level institutions in 15 western states. In student selectivity, Chapman’s position has risen from No. 92 in 1991 to a ranking that has varied slightly over the past decade from No. 3 to No. 1.

Other milestones of his presidency include the founding of Chapman’s School of Law (now the Dale E. Fowler School of Law),

Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, College of Performing Arts, Schmid College of Science and Technology, Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, and the School of Pharmacy.

Under his watch, the nation’s oldest graduate program in physical therapy came to Chapman from Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Then there are his athletic accomplishments.

He has completed the Boston Marathon nine times and climbed many of the world’s highest mountains, including just recently the Carstensz Pyramid on the island of New Guinea and Mount Kosciuszko in Australia.

In pondering post-retirement plans in a recent Orange County Register interview, Doti said he wants to explore woodworking and plans to write three books — the third installment in his children’s book trilogy, a book on statistics and a novel based on the history of his Italian family’s immigration to the United States. He will continue to serve on the board of Santa Ana-based First American Financial Corp., and he aims to learn Spanish.

“It’s no secret that Jim Doti’s tenure at Chapman has been the most dynamic era in the 155-year history of the University,” said David Janes, chairman of the Chapman Board of Trustees. “Jim is a visionary who has the gift of making impossible-seeming ideas come true. It’s been a joy for me and everyone on the board to work with him and watch his transformational dreams take shape for the campus and our students.”

Sol Power

President Jim Doti, center, enjoys a moment in the sun with Chapman members of Team Orange County at the Solar Decathlon in Irvine. From left, Chapman students Clayton Heard ’16, Lotus Thai ’17, Kristina Lamb ’17 and Kyoko Nakatsui ’17, as well as faculty mentors Fred Smoller, Ph.D., and Geraldine McNenny, Ph.D., pose in front of the Orange County team’s entry, Casa del Sol. The team, also featuring students from UC Irvine, Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College, captured second place in the “Best Engineered Home” category of the competition, which challenges college teams from all over the world to design, build and operate an efficient solar-powered house.

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Biggest Fear Factor:

Illustrations: Ryan Tolentino ’02

Big Brother Government corruption and cyberterrorism are what scare Americans most, the Chapman survey finds.

The way Americans see it, the bogeyman is not hiding under the bed. The real monsters are in the halls of government across the land, according to the second annual Chapman University Survey of American Fears, released in October.

Corruption of government officials topped the survey’s list of the 10 things Americans fear most. Close on the heels is cyber-terrorism and corporate tracking of personal information.

Those top three fears are connected in a kind of handwringing trifecta, said Christopher Bader, Ph.D., who leads the Team Fear research effort at Chapman.

“Top fears are heavily based in economic and Big Brother type issues,” Bader said. “People

often fear what they cannot control, and technology and the future of our economy are two aspects of life that Americans find very unpredictable at the moment.”

The survey digs deep into Americans’ fears and their potential causes as well as the consequences on daily life. More than 1,500 adults were asked about 88 fears across a broad range of categories, including crime, the environment, the future, technology, aging, sickness and health, natural and man-made disasters, claustrophobia and clowns. Chapman undergraduate students contribute greatly to the development of survey questions.

The researchers say a key finding this year is that Americans need a “disaster reality check.”

Top 10 Fears of 2015

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While more than half of respondents fear that they will experience a natural or man-made disaster — and a whopping 86 percent believe an emergency supply kit would improve their chances of survival — the vast majority have made no effort to prepare such a kit because they expect that first responders will come to their rescue. In fact, the Red Cross warns that Americans may need to survive on their own for at least 72 hours.

Another provocative finding is that nearly one-fourth of Americans reported having voted for a particular candidate based on their fears about the government, and more than 15 percent of Americans have purchased a gun due to their fear of crime, noted Associate Professor Edward Day, Ph.D., one of the authors of the survey.

Another finding compiled by Day, Bader and Professor Ann Gordon, Ph.D., shows that more than onefourth of Americans believe that the living and dead can communicate with each other, and nearly one-fifth believe that dreams can foretell the future and that aliens have visited Earth in the ancient past.

As it did a year ago, the Chapman Survey of American Fears is generating considerable media attention. Last year’s survey received coverage in 318 media outlets, and this year’s report is on track to surpass that figure.

A comprehensive breakdown of the survey results is at chapman.edu/ fearsurvey.

State of the Academy

nnovative classroom programs are under way, donor generosity is growing, academic reputation is rising and new facilities — led by the nearly complete Musco Center for the Arts — are making Chapman University “a national model for a learning community,” Chancellor Daniele Struppa said in his 2015 State of the Academy Address.

Such advancements are impressive, but more significant is that they create a place where students thrive, Struppa noted in his annual talk, delivered in Memorial Hall on Oct. 2 as a kickoff to the Chapman Family Homecoming Celebration.

“Everything we do is designed to improve the experience of our students — to make sure that there is something special that they can bring with them as they move into the real world,” Struppa said.

To illustrate, Struppa highlighted a variety

Elder Power: We humans get old — really old when compared with our fellow primates and other mammals. Research published by Eric Schniter, Ph.D., assistant professor in Chapman’s Economic Science Institute in the Argyros School of Business and Economics, suggests there’s good reason for that. In Schniter’s field studies of the Tsimane communities of Amazonian Bolivia researchers found that when it comes to music, storytelling and essential crafts, Grandma and Grandpa are the rock stars. And along with the knack for crafts specific to their culture, the seniors also excelled and continued to improve at planning, conflict negotiation and delegation. Those are prized talents in any economy and take more than a few years to master.

Photo: Dennis Arp

Chancellor Highlights Steps Enhancing Student Experience Full-time faculty positons have grown by 57 percent since 2006, reflecting a focus on student-based programs, Chancellor Daniele Struppa said in his annual State of the Academy Address.

of new projects, from plans for a new minor in business analytics to the development of the Hilbert Museum of California Art, which will incorporate students into its management and operation. The addition of full-time faculty has more than kept pace with the overall expansion of student programs, growing 57 percent since 2006, he noted.

In addition, Struppa underscored the University’s renewed focus on community programs and outreach to at-risk youths.

Among the highlights: • Chapman students serve as mentors at Higher Ground, a program aimed at sparking young children’s interest in planning for

college before the lure of gangs takes hold.

• Ecological Research Experiences engage students from Orange High School in faculty field research.

• Nicholas Academic Center talks and workshops led by Chapman faculty target at-risk Orange County teens.

The address was Struppa’s last as chancellor.

When Jim Doti steps down as president in August 2016, Struppa will become the 13th president in Chapman’s history.

Video of the Chancellor’s complete address is posted on the Web page for the Chancellor’s Office. A link is at chapman.edu/magazine.

RESEARCH ROUNDUP

Happiness Is the Truth: If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

Seriously. As life satisfaction increases among adults older than 50, their risk of dying drops by 18 percent, according to research by Julia Boehm, Ph.D., assistant professor in Chapman University’s Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences. The study, the first of its kind to consider how the effects of life satisfaction may be related to longevity, was published in the journal Psychological Science.

Height Matters, But Only a Little: The popular notion that tall men are more attractive to women was partially debunked by the research of David Frederick, Ph.D., assistant professor in Crean College. Only men 5-foot-4 or shorter reported fewer sexual partners than men of average or tall height.

A total of 60,058 participants with a mean age of 37 completed the online survey. The study examined height, education, age and body mass index as predictors of sexual history among heterosexual men and women.

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A New Voice on Autism $3 million gift establishes the Thompson Policy Institute to aid those addressing disability issues. hapman University has received a $3 million gift from the William S. and Nancy E. Thompson Foundation to establish the Thompson Policy Institute (TPI) on Disability and Autism. The Institute is a new think tank that will gather data and develop its own independent research to study and advocate on topics surrounding the issues of disability and autism.

The institute’s goal is to educate decisionmakers on these topics and improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities and their families.

“In areas like autism, there is new information to consider almost daily,” said Don Cardinal, Ph.D., the Chapman professor of education who will lead the Thompson Policy Institute as principal investigator.

“Thanks to this generous gift from Bill and Nancy Thompson, we will gather findings on these critical issues and present them in a way that can be clearly understood by both the professional and the layperson.”

Bill Thompson, retired chairman of Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), noted that policies in schools, agencies and government at all levels impact nearly every issue within the disability community.

“But good policy requires quality, impartial data presented in an understandable way,” he said. “Nancy and I are confident that

Dean Campbell Plans a Return to Teaching

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Chapman, through this new policy institute, can make a significant positive impact on the lives of people we care so much about.”

Cardinal explained that the TPI’s stakeholders at first will be legislators, school officials, teachers, direct service agencies and professional organizations, as well as people with disabilities and their families.

“Our goal is to expand from local and regional to national influence over the next few years as we continue to disseminate clear, unbiased information and, when the data are overwhelming in one direction, to advocate for that policy change,” he said.

The debate over childhood immunizations is an example of an issue the TPI might examine.

From left, Chapman Chancellor Daniele Struppa and Thompson Policy Institute principal investigator Don Cardinal accept the first installment of a $3 million gift from Nancy and Bill Thompson.

When Tom Campbell steps down as dean of the Dale E. Fowler School of Law at the end of the academic year, he will leave a legacy of growth and outreach. He’ll also return to two academic loves — research and teaching.

Campbell, JD, Ph.D., will continue to serve the Chapman University community as a full-time faculty member in law and economics, teaching courses in anti-trust, separation of powers and legislation.

During his five years as dean, Campbell not only has developed programs to make students more practice-ready, but he has also better integrated the school with the undergraduate

community at Chapman, with more law school professors teaching undergraduate courses.

As the only law school dean in the country who was formerly a business school dean, Campbell applied that expertise to enhance the business law emphasis, preparing students who wish to pursue a career in corporate law.

Calling Campbell “an invaluable partner, a wonderful colleague and a trusted friend,” Chapman Chancellor Daniele Struppa added that he respects the dean’s desire “to enjoy his research and share his passion for teaching.”

A search committee has been formed to seek a new dean for Fowler Law.

“Current medical data strongly suggest that immunizations don’t ‘cause’ autism,” Cardinal said. “Nevertheless, we intend to avoid the assumption that anyone countering these studies is misinformed or ignorant. We will survey stakeholders, conduct interviews and study the data so we can provide an unbiased report. In this manner, such a complex issue can be understood, and decision-makers — including families — can make informed decisions based on facts.”

‘Authenticity Is a Magnet’ at TEDxChapmanU A crowd of 900 laughed, teared up and even meditated a bit at Chapman University’s fourth independently organized TEDxChapmanU. And that was all before the mid-afternoon break.

A variety of speakers, from Chapman faculty to physicians, technology entrepreneurs to a meditation instructor, spread their “ideas worth sharing” in a unique series of talks delivered on the stage of Memorial Hall in August.

Among the speakers was Ryan Gattis ’01, formerly a lecturer in creative writing in the Department of English. Gattis held the audience spellbound with the story of his meeting with a Los Angeles gang lord while researching his latest book, All Involved, a novel set amid the turmoil of the 1992 L.A. riots.

Gattis said that many people ask him how he gained the trust of those he interviewed in researching the book. “Authenticity is a magnet,” he said. “It might seem small and simple, but it commands an invisible power.”

Understanding superoscillations “poses deep challenges for mathematicians and physicists,” says Sir Michael Berry, a member of the Institute for Quantum Studies at Chapman University.

Inside the Wavy World of Superoscillations

Ahmed Younis, Ph.D.

“Authenticity ... might seem small and simple, but it commands an invisible power.”

In his talk, Younis regaled the audience with the adventures of Muslim comic book superheroes, including Marvel’s Kamala Khan, who are helping to dispel stereotypes about Muslims. While some readers may consider them just “cute,” Younis said that studying them has been a profound experience for him.

The acclaimed Wimberley Bluegrass Band, a family of siblings who are all Chapman University students, performed at TEDxChapmanU. The presentation by Mandy Len Catron, the writer who famously tested a theory that strangers could use a set of 36 questions to fall in love, was even selected by the TED organization as the Talk of the Day and was showcased on its main website.

As is the tradition with TED talks, the TEDx presentations are available for online viewing and sharing. Find them at tedxchapmanu.com.

Photo: David May

iny wiggles and wobbles that crisscross the physical and quantum worlds could carry us into realms we’ve never seen before, says Sir Michael Berry, one of the world’s leading experts on superoscillations.

Berry, Ph.D., gave a series of lectures at Chapman in early October as a member of the University’s Institute for Quantum Studies. The acclaimed physicist explained that superoscillations occur everywhere in the universe ­­— in light, in sound, in radio waves, and also in the quantum world beyond normal human perception.

“It was thought that you can’t see things smaller than the light you use to see them,” said Jeff Tollaksen, Ph.D., director of the Institute. “But superoscillations are a potential — and increasingly an actual — way to go below the wavelength limit and to achieve ‘superresolution’ to see even smaller things.”

The research’s practical applications may include microscopy.

These tiny oscillations in very weak waves escaped notice for many years because they are so subtle, said Berry, an emeritus professor at the University of Bristol, U.K. “Understanding them poses deep challenges for mathematicians and physicists,” he added.

Tollaksen is partnering with Chapman Chancellor Daniele Struppa, Ph.D., and Professor Yakir Aharonov, Ph.D., as well as professors Irene Sabadini, Ph.D., and Fabrizio Colombo, Ph.D., of the Politecnico di Milano, on the forthcoming book The Mathematics of Superoscillations (Springer, Milan).

Another Chapman professor who spoke was attorney Ahmed Younis, an adjunct assistant professor and Ph.D. candidate in the College of Educational Studies at Chapman. Younis has written extensively on social change, Arab youth and Muslim American history, among other topics.

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CHAPMAN NOW

Spirit of the Games From athletic trainers to hearing testers, Chapman people pitch in to make the Special Olympics world event an extraordinary experience.

Story by Dawn Bonker Photos by Dennis Arp

During a hot and steamy July day, athletes hopped and zigzagged through an obstacle course on Chapman University’s Wilson Field, navigating a tough assemblage of hurdles and cones. A Canadian training for the 2015 Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles was undaunted.

She conquered the course set up by Chapman’s athletic training students and was ready for more.

“My legs are like burning up,” said Kara Summer, a bowler with the Canadian delegation.

Then she caught her breath, laughed and trooped off to yoga.

That was just one of many moments that defined Chapman University’s experience with the 2015 Special Olympics World Games Los Angeles this summer. Students, faculty, alumni and staff rolled up their sleeves and helped the Games come to life before and during the international event, which attracted athletes from 165 nations.

A small army of volunteers contributed to the Olympic 10 | CHAPMAN MAGAZINE

spirit that permeated Chapman this summer.

David Armendariz (M.A. ’03), director of the Orange County Region of Special Olympics Southern California, helped coordinate Host Towns where the 7,000 athletes were housed.

The University’s student housing and athletic facilities were opened to the delegations from Canada and Senegal during pre-Games training, while students and faculty from Athletic Training provided daily fitness programs.

When it was time for athletes to board their buses for the Los Angeles Games, staff from throughout campus poured out of their offices to cheer the participants during their victory lap around Attallah Piazza and as they posed for photos in Global Citizens Plaza.

A team of Chapman speech language pathology students volunteered in the Healthy Athletes program at the Games, testing the hearing of athletes from around the world.

It seemed to surprise everyone how many lives changed because of their work with Special Olympics, which was founded to advance the values of respect, inclusion and opportunity for adults and children with intellectual disabilities.

“You really help people. I’ve been hearing stories of people we’ve screened and identified with hearing loss then going on and getting hearing aids,”

said Khanh Vu (M.S. ’16), a speech student who helped conduct the athletes’ hearing screenings.

Helping the athletes and coaches with their pre-Games training was a crew of M.S. students and faculty from Chapman’s Athletic Training Education. The team set up and staffed workout stations ranging from yoga to dynamic stretching.

Chapman undergraduates also were closely involved, despite the summer timing of the games.

Scott Lee ’16 helped plan the morning’s activities and organized the cadre of Chapman volunteers needed to run the program.

“It looked pretty hectic earlier this morning.

Now it’s looking really good,” he said as music, laughter and activities unfolded around him.

Then when the World Games opened in Los Angeles, 17 graduate students from Chapman’s Communication Sciences and Disorders Program from Crean College volunteered with the Special Olympics Healthy Hearing Program. The students were led by Professor Judy Montgomery, Ph.D., director of Chapman’s program, and the global clinical coordinator of the Special Olympics Healthy Hearing Program.

“They love it and they recognize what a difference it makes in athletes’ lives,” Montgomery said of the student volunteers.

Although she has led Healthy Hearing screenings at nine World Games over the years, the experience never grows old for Montgomery.

In Los Angeles, she watched a Samoan athlete get fitted with a new pair of hearing aids that made him beam as he nodded that yes, he could hear again.

Montgomery’s eyes welled up.

“That’s terrific,” she said.

“Look how happy he is.”

Chapman students, faculty and staff contributed to the Special Olympics World Games in many ways this summer.

Above right, Valencia Hamilton (M.S. athletic training ’17) helps a Canadian competitor navigate a training run.

Above left, Monica Ko (M.S. communications sciences and disorders ’17) checks the ears of an athlete as part of the Healthy Hearing program. Below, members of the team from Senegal take a warmup lap around the track during their stay on campus.

Gregory Daddis brings a deep knowledge of armed conflict to a new Chapman program considering the impact of war on society.

Photo: Nathan Worden ’13 (MBA ’15)

The Toll of War

This is a time of change for Gregory Daddis.

He has moved from New York to Southern California, from a career in the Army to civilian life, from teaching at West Point to directing the new War and Society master’s degree program at Chapman University. So what does it all mean?

“It means I’ll have longer hair,” Daddis said with a smile not long after moving into his new office in Roosevelt Hall.

For Chapman, it means that the Department of History and the broader University community have an important new voice to enrich the conversation. Before moving to Chapman, Daddis, Ph.D., was an Army colonel and professor at the U.S. Military Academy. A 1989 West Point graduate, he has served in many Army command and staff positions and is a veteran of Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, earning the Bronze Star.

The author of three books, including Westmoreland’s War: Reassessing American Strategy in Vietnam (2014), Daddis launched the Chapman program this fall excited to collaborate with Chapman’s nationally recognized program in Holocaust Studies as well as Peace Studies and the Center for American War Letters, among other research and study centers. He hopes to attract as students military officers, policymakers, secondary-school teachers and others eager to explore “how societies think about war, go to war, deal with war,” he explained.

In that spirit of exploration, we sat down with Daddis to ask about the new program and how research and experience inform his perspective on war in the 21st century.

How has your military background prepared you to lead this program?

CHAPMAN MAGAZINE:

“What if peace never comes? What if war only engenders new enemies and new threats?”

Gregory Daddis asked those questions in a Los Angeles Times op-ed a year ago, when he was an Army colonel. Now he leads

I think you have to understand the problems associated with war itself before you can think more broadly about the consequences of war on society. The longer I’ve been doing this, the more I’ve been interested in the relationship between war and society, and the less about military tactics, per se. Vietnam was a way for me to see the implications of war. The Vietnam War had huge social consequences for the United States that lasted much longer than the war itself. I think we’re still talking about overseas operations through the lens of Vietnam. For me, that helps with understanding the consequences of war.

If you think about the narrative in the United States, when we talk casualties it’s always how many Americans have died. We never talk about how many Iraqi civilians were killed or how many Afghan civilians were killed. So for this program to try to get at the issue of the social dislocation, disruption and death caused by war is important.

Because as a society, we’re just not comfortable talking about it, for whatever reason.

CM: So your research and scholarship color your thinking about war?

CM: What do you want students to take away from the program?

DADDIS: Without a doubt. I’ve become much more of a pacifist. I mean, I think I’m a realist.

The myth of war is useful on so many levels, for so many reasons — politically, socially. I’m not so naïve as to think that we are going to be able to do away with war. At the same time, over the last 15 to 20 years I’ve questioned the efficacy of military force overseas in terms of achieving political objectives, in large part because the consequences of achieving those objectives through the use of force is so high. That’s one of the problems this program will address. We don’t talk about the social implications (of war).

DADDIS: I want them to have the capacity to view war holistically as a human phenomenon.

To see that war is not simply about tactics and strategy, that it’s not simply about political decisions. War is a very unfortunate but integral part of who we are as human beings and how societies relate to one another. I want students to have that appreciation leaving here and then enter into the national conversation about the problems of war. That would mean this program has more than just academic merit, and that’s clearly what we’re striving for.

DADDIS:

a new Chapman master’s degree program in War and Society.

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CHAPMAN NOW

“Orson is the director who inspired more people to become directors than anyone since D.W. Griffith.”

STRAYED

PETER BOGDANOVICH,

“If you go out there and you look at the sky, there’s always the most magnificent sunrises and sunsets.

It’s a sight to behold. There’s an accumulation, and pretty soon it’s actually changed your life because you realize, wow, here I am.

writer-director of The Last Picture Show, among many other films, and a close friend of Orson Welles.

Bogdanovich joined in a panel discussion that followed a screening of the documentary This Is Orson

I’m here for this.”

Welles at the Folino Theater.

Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, speaking in Memorial Hall as part of Wilkinson College’s INTERSTICES: ReWILDing event, considering the benefits of wilderness experiences.

BOGDANOVICH

— A— Literary Double Double

Not one but two members of Chapman University’s writing community have been shortlisted for the Grand American Literature Prize, an award given by Festival America, a three-day cultural celebration held every two years in Vincennes, France.

Just nine authors and their books were selected for the honor, including Department of English Professor Richard Bausch, author of Before, During, After, and former faculty lecturer Ryan Gattis ’01, author of All Involved.

The award pays tribute to literature that lends insight into the American experience.

The author of 11 novels and eight collections of stories, Bausch

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won the prestigious REA Award in 2013. Before, During, After explores the lives of characters searching for love and meaning in the days surrounding 9/11.

Gattis’ 2015 novel All Involved unfolds over the six days of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, after

bisque. And it was cold.”

Laraine Newman, actor and Chapman parent, telling Dodge College students in the Prime Time TV Club about what she actually drank in the classic Super Bass-o-Matic sketch from the early days of Saturday Night Live.

Newman and Dan Aykroyd re-created the sketch for the 40th-anniversary SNL special earlier this year. This time it was a strawberry shake.

THE ‘GOTCHA’ THAT WASN’T

BAUSCH

GATTIS

“That was lobster

Rodney King’s LAPD assailants were acquitted. It follows 17 people caught up in the chaos.

HBO recently acquired the TV rights to the book.

The novel has sparked widespread praise, including on Twitter from Sir Patrick Stewart.

@Ryan_Gattis Dear Mr Gattis, when I tweeted about All Involved I confess I’d not finished it.

Now I have - been a crazy month - it’s great.

Dale E. Fowler School of Law professor Hugh Hewitt, JD, caused quite a stir this fall with his radio interview of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

On The Hugh Hewitt Show, the host asked Trump about Quds in Iran. The candidate started talking about Kurds, and when he realized his misunderstanding he criticized Hewitt for ambushing him with a “gotcha” question. The brief dust-up made headlines and raised questions about Trump’s knowledge of world affairs. Hewitt soon diffused it with an apology.

“I framed the question wrong,” Hewitt said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show, even joking with host Joe Scarborough about Trump calling him “a third-rate radio announcer.”

“I’ve been called much worse,” Hewitt said. “I’ve had three teenagers who I’ve turned down when they asked for the car, Joe, so it’s not really a big deal.”

CAMPUS IMPROVEMENT Chapman University continues to make strides to meet the growing needs of students and the greater community. Thanks to planning help from the City of Orange and the Old Towne Preservation Association, four key projects are progressing. Here’s a closer look.

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Internationally renowned baritone Placido Domingo caused social-media excitement recently when he gave an impromptu performance during a hard-hat tour of the $78 million Marybelle and Sebastian P. Musco Center for the Arts. A cell phone video of the performance has generated more than 50,000 views. The opera star will officially christen the Center during its gala grand opening event March 19, 2016.

An open house and arts showcase on April 2 will offer community members free performances, tours and festivities.

While meeting a critical need for increased performance space on campus, the 72,000-square-foot facility — one of the region’s largest university arts centers — will allow Chapman to present world-class performances of opera, musical theatre, symphony, theatre and dance. Features include the 1,044-seat Julianne Argyros Orchestra Hall, with cutting-edge acoustics.

The Women of Chapman Stage will accommodate the changing needs of each discipline and a large wrap-around mezzanine will allow for receptions and additional seating. Two webcams track construction progress, and several videos of key construction phases are on the Chapman campus planning website.

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Chapman’s new tennis center is made possible by the Lastinger family — from left, Brady, Parker, Gary, Erin, Morgan and Austin.

The site has been leveled and construction is ongoing for the Erin J. Lastinger Tennis Center, located just across Cypress Street from Marion Knott Studios. The Center is supported by a $3.2 million gift from Lastinger ’88, who has indelible ties to Chapman Athletics. The Center will feature seven NCAA-rated tennis courts, including one champion court. In addition, a sand volleyball court and a basketball half-court are already in place and will be part of a new recreation complex utilizing the site’s existing historic façade.

The Hilbert Museum of California Art, made possible by Mark and Janet Hilbert, will showcase their singular collection of artworks depicting urban and industrial scenes, coastal views, farms, ranches and landscapes of everyday life in the Golden State. The museum is on track to open in February next to the Partridge Dance Center.

Plans for Chapman’s transformational $137 million Center for Science and Technology are being finalized, with groundbreaking set for April 27, 2016, at the former site of the tennis courts, just east of Wilson Field. The 140,000-squarefoot Center will be the largest facility ever constructed on the Chapman campus.

As the new home of Schmid College of Science and Technology as well as Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, it will provide space for specialized teaching and research in the life and environmental sciences; chemistry, biochemistry and food science; math, physics and computation; psychology and undergraduate health sciences. The grand opening of the Center is projected for fall 2018.

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THE SPIN ON

FRANKENFOODS ARE GMOs THE WORLD’S BEST HOPE, A LOOMING DANGER, OR IS IT A PR PROBLEM?

By Mary Platt ring up the phrase “genetically modified organism” and emotions run high. “GMO” means “frankenfood” to many people: It’s yet another scary thing that science and technology have foisted upon us, in this case making us consume fish genes that somehow have been jimmied into our haricots verts.

It isn’t right. It isn’t natural.

Or so runs the popular belief.

Yet it’s a truth only randomly acknowledged that many so-called “natural” foods are not in the pristine, primitive form our ancestors knew. Even if you shop at your local natural foods grocer, you can’t escape foods that have been manipulated by man since the dawn of agriculture.

Food and dairy animals have been selectively bred and hybridized for many centuries to be plumper, heavier, give more milk, yield more meat. The same goes for food crops.

The apples in grocery stores today are much larger and sweeter than the little tart cider apples of old Europe and colonial America. As recently as the 1960s, common wheat

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was crossbred by Norman Borlaug to achieve the shorter stalks, heavier seedheads and hardier constitution of modern bread wheat. (Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize and was known as “the man who saved a billion lives” for this contribution to the world food supply.)

But now there are genetically modified organisms, and suddenly we’ve moved from farmers cross-pollinating the best apples to scientists in labs injecting genes into foods.

The newness of it — GM foods burst into the public consciousness only in the 1990s — disconcerted people, and the media attention frightened much of the public. Was that early negativity justified, and does it continue to be?

Should we continue to be wary of all GMO foods? Or are GMO foods the best hope to save the planet’s food-starved population, much as Borlaug did in the mid-20th century?

Science professionals have varying opinions. Many scientists say that GMO foods are the most obvious option to feed an increasingly hungry world beset by overpopulation and worsening climate change.

“People tend to be suspicious of anything with a long scientific name or that science has developed.” said. “People mistrust Big Agribusiness, its ties to the government “I talk about this in my classes a lot,” says Fred Caporaso, and its internecine dealings. They read things like the fact that Ph.D., professor of food science at Chapman University. “The Philip Morris, the tobacco company, once owned a big chunk of world doesn’t really have a choice — we have 7 billion people on Kraft, for example.” the planet now; we’ll have 9 billion by 2050 and 11 billion by Sparks says the recent run of popular documentary films 2100. We have to feed them all somehow. There is a huge demand about Big Food — Forks Over Knives, Supersize Me, etc. — is an for food already, in increasingly challenging growing conditions indication of how concerned people are. “I wouldn’t say these are around the globe, and it’s only looming larger. We have to pursue grounded in research; they’re advocacy films, guided by the the study and development of GMO foods.” directors’ intent. But they’re a response to the public’s level of All the key scientific organizations support the safety of GMO discomfort and the kind of mistrust we’re seeing.” foods, Caporaso said, listing the National Academy of Science, the Adding to the level of fear, said Were, is the on-again, off-again American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American demonizing of foods and ingredients, a game media outlets play Medical Association and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with glee as they report each new study “proving” that coffee is bad among them. for you … no, scratch that, coffee is good for you! Eggs are the “The objections from the press and public to GMO foods are villains in your diet … but no, now they’re the heroes! mostly emotional — they have nothing to do with science,” “Trans fats were once touted as the healthy alternative to Caporaso said. “The safety record of these foods is very good.” butter,” Were said. “Except as of last summer, they are no longer Chapman food science professor Lilian Were, Ph.D., agrees, considered safe. All of that scares people. There’s a feeling that although she also recognizes the emotional impetus behind people’s every day could be April Fool’s Day with nutrition.” mistrust of GMOs, food additives, preservatives and other Were agrees that the mistrust of institutions plays non-“natural” ingredients. into the public’s fears. “People don’t trust “People tend to be suspicious of government, they don’t trust the FDA, anything with a long scientific name or How They’re Made: Genes from one they don’t trust scientists. In the that science has developed,” she species’ DNA are artificially inserted into case of food additives and GMOs, said. “A lot of this is driven by the genes of another animal or plant. In food they wonder who exactly the popular journalists and crops often the aim is to create better resistance is benefiting most: the bloggers people follow, even to pests, diseases or environmental conditions, consumers or Big Food?” though they are usually reduce spoilage or add nutritional value.

The big factor not scientists.” contributing to the How can scientists Introduced into the Food Supply: In the mid-1990s. public’s mistrust is compete? Go where the media coverage, said conversations are, to In Today’s Crops: 93% of soybeans, 90% of corn, Caporaso. “To me, the engage people in the 82% of cotton. word ‘balanced’ — blogosphere, on social as in ‘balanced story’ media, Were said.

Impact on Yield: The Union of Concerned Scientists — is a problem. The “But there are a reviewed 12 academic studies covering 20 years and media always want to lot more followers of found an increased yield for only one GMO crop, Bt corn. ‘balance’ the scientific the fear-mongers than Consumer Reception: 57% of Americans say they view with opposing of the scientists,” she are less likely to buy foods labeled “GMO.” views, even if that means acknowledges. it’s uninformed activists vs.

Health communications Six Companies Predominate: Monsanto, scientists. There is no ‘balance’ expert Lisa Sparks, Ph.D., BASF, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow Agrosciences, on scientific issues, and the chair of Chapman’s Department Pioneer (DuPont). media need to realize that.” of Communication Studies, says The debate is not going away, said that a lack of transparency in large Sparks, who believes that all the media corporations and even in the government and Internet coverage is a good thing. People contributes to the public’s feelings of mistrust. are more informed on these issues than ever before and People are becoming more discerning about what they will vote with their pocketbooks, she added. “Consumers are read and believe, she added. becoming a lot more mindful, a lot more critical in their “The reason for a lot of the discomfort is that people feel their consumption of food — and of information.” food decisions are being made for them, by big companies,” she

GMO FOODS IN A NUTSHELL

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“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

— Albert Schweitzer, known as the guiding spirit of Chapman University

ome particles are little more than dust, others the size of marbles. Yet the Perseid meteor shower makes a big impression, sizzling across the night sky in luminous arcs before disappearing into the darkness. • The atmospheric display isn’t what the United Nations had in mind when it proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light. Or maybe it is, because even as the UN focuses on the powerful potential of light-based technologies, we are reminded that for eons humans have found the roots of creative thought in so much as the smallest flashes of illumination. From the sciences to the humanities to the performing arts, life begins with light. • “Jesus lived and taught in an age where light during the night was very precious and spare, much like nighttime on the outskirts of Sedona,” says Rev. Nancy Brink, the director of church relations at Chapman University who each August travels to Arizona to view the Perseid show. “When I am in the dark in the desert and I see the blazing journey of a piece of space ice, I am reminded of my own tiny life and the call to shine brightly during the brief, brilliant moment in time that I am given.” • Let there be brilliance. Let there be inspiration.

Let there be those who bring light to our lives.

Stories by Dennis Arp on Guy knows light the way Freud knew phobias, the way Streep knows accents.

Like a scientist, he understands the physical properties of light and can accentuate its intensity. Like an artist, he gives it shape and color, makes it dance and tell a story.

In his hands, it’s as if light can perform magic.

Prestidigitation, meet the master of illumination.

Building on a career as an in-demand lighting designer for theatrical productions and arena concerts, this assistant professor in Chapman’s College of Performing Arts has become the go-to Guy for producers of high-profile magic shows.

In March, Guy designed the lighting and directed Masters of Illusion Live – Believe the Impossible! The show enjoyed a sold-out run at the Palacio De Los Desportes in the Dominican Republic before touring the world during summer. Closer to home, he lighted shows for Magic Weekends at the Mission Bay Theatre in Sea World San Diego, working with

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award-winning magicians Kalin and Jinger.

Then there’s the lighting he designed for the Illusionarium theatre in the Norwegian Cruise Line’s ship Norwegian Getaway, which highlights his all-out commitment to his craft.

Guy invested two years of planning and consulting with everyone from the shipbuilders and architects to the show’s illusionists. Then he spent nine weeks in Germany melding his design with the room’s aesthetics, poring over spreadsheets, adjusting lighting boosters and attending to dozens of other details. At one time or another, he sat in each of the theatre’s 275 seats.

“There were four full days of me in a room by myself,” Guy says.

The result is a show that brings audiences to their feet. Of course, part of that could be because the seats shake and tables rise at various times during the performance. It seems everyone was all-in on this theatre design.

“It’s not a case of just dialing it in,” he says. “I don’t want to be where we’re just dialing it in.”

With magic, sometimes the lighting distracts, so Guy diverts light into the audience’s eyes.

Other times he trains it to shine on every side of an illusion.

“Magic keeps me sharp,” he says.

It also keeps him coming back for more. When his Chapman students ask which is his favorite project, he’s always ready with an answer: The next one.

Don Guy

“There are dead stars that still shine because their light is trapped in time.

Where do I stand in this light, which does not strictly exist?”

— Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis

o matter how far afield his scholarship and research take him, Chapman University physicist Ali Nayeri still finds his attention getting pulled back into the vortex of an early fascination with black holes.

“When I was a teenager, I was mesmerized by the concept of black holes — particularly their most amazing feature, that light cannot escape,” said Nayeri, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Schmid College of Science and Technology as well as a member of the University’s Institute for Quantum Studies.

So when Nayeri thinks of light, his mind toggles to where none is revealed. He embraces that revelation, but he also reminds us that visible light is really just a tiny window in the electromagnetic spectrum. “For physicists, essentially there’s no difference between visible light and, for instance, gamma rays or radio waves,” he says. “The only difference is the sensitivity of our eyes to this particular wavelength.”

Then again, slivers of light on a spectrum can’t hold a candle to considerations of super massive black holes, some of which have enough gravitational pull to hold galaxies together.

“In a way, we can say that these black holes are the engine of the galaxy,” he says.

“Without them, you couldn’t hold all these stars in a complex system.”

ULTIMATE DARKNESS The life span of black holes depends on their mass, and in the end they transform into pure radiation. Despite their existence in utter darkness, much is now known about black holes, but mysteries remain. For instance, physicists still have many questions about how black holes meld with the quantum world.

“One of the champions is Stephen Hawking,” Nayeri says of the renowned British physicist. “In the ’70s, he was able to combine classic gravity with quantum physics.

Partially anyway.”

It was Hawking who posited that black holes emit radiation because of quantum effects.

“We haven’t been able to observe these Hawking Radiations,” Nayeri notes, adding that the best testing of Hawking’s prediction has come from creating mini black holes with the CERN European research center’s Large Hadron Collider. This particle accelerator produces light so intense as to illuminate an atomic world that’s otherwise inaccessible, but it still pales next to the

immense forces at work in the cosmos.

“In our lifetimes, we probably won’t discover any Hawking Radiation coming from the sky,” Nayeri says, perhaps a bit wistfully.

The night sky first beamed inspiration to Nayeri when he was a child growing up in Shiraz, Iran.

His father was a pilot in the Iranian Air Force, so it seemed natural to look up and start identifying the constellations. Nayeri has found creative stimulation there ever since.

These days when he scans the heavens it’s often with an eye toward sophisticated discovery and the search for echoes Ali Nayeri, Ph.D. of the Big Bang, from which to capture insights about the very origins of the universe.

However, his mind’s eye can’t help but flash to his elemental fascination with the ultimate dark place.

As he immerses himself in the celestial void that is a black hole, he smiles. For Nayeri, the gravitational attraction of dying stars remains as powerful as ever.

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Last the Night

By Claudia Emerson

Sickness kept her house the way winter kept the garden, a betrothal; what had been forgotten at its outset remained so — what little it did recall uneasy, the birdbath’s surface like milk-glass, the pansies in bright collapse. The mail collected like leaves windgathered in corners; books she had abandoned facedown, every one somewhere near a beginning. But the sundial remained fluent in light —

RUSH JOB Claudine Jaenichen

Photo: Nathan Worden ’13 (MBA ’15)

in time — and afternoons slowly returned to her, tempting the window open wide as though for milder air, her elbow on the sill, a cusp, where she learned to trick birds into mistaking her cupped hand for the feeder she had hung next to it, her arm like the thin column of a candle, and she had perfected its going away with night, the way it did not tremble beneath the flame.

Claudine Jaenichen finds exhilaration in a radiantly risky project. ears ago, graphic designer Claudine Jaenichen dived into the swift water of the Kern River in headlong pursuit of a career transformation. When she came up, she knew that the life of a search-andrescue first-responder wasn’t for her.

“They had to rescue me,” Jaenichen says of the training exercise. “I completely panicked.”

So Jaenichen returned to graphic design but adopted a new specialty: information design to help in crisis situations. Now Jaenichen, co-chair of the Department of Art at Chapman University, is recognized widely for bringing a singular vision to evacuation maps and disaster-preparedness materials.

It’s important work that makes people’s lives more secure.

Funny, then, that some of her most creative work springs not from playing it safe but from diving into the design equivalent of icy whitewater.

Jaenichen partners with Chapman English Professor Anna Leahy, Ph.D., to produce the

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poetry journal TAB, and the two aren’t afraid to push the boundaries of expression.

For instance, when Leahy and her MFA student colleagues decided on the theme “light” for Volume 2 of the journal, Jaenichen let the spark of her imagination run wild.

“This is where the visual doesn’t frame content, it actually participates in it,” Jaenichen says of the TAB philosophy.

“Graphic design has a reputation of being quiet and well-behaved. I made all the design elements behave badly.”

For the light issue, she tailored her design and images to convey the passage of time, from soft morning illumination to dusk and then night. What’s more, the spine of the printed volume bends and twists in unexpected directions, creating vertical and horizontal movement in the reading experience.

The journal’s pages are “unwilling to be turned passively,” the light issue’s design

This poem appeared in volume 2 of TAB, the journal of poetry at Chapman University. The work also is in Impossible Bottle (LSU Press, 2015), a posthumous collection of poems by Emerson, a Pulitzer Prize winner.

statement says. “The space in this issue challenges readers to take in more than merely text and image but also a full-body experience of holding and disorientation.”

“Until this project I would never have thought of light as a visual variable,” Jaenichen says. “It was like this gave me a whole new toolbox.”

But then TAB, the signature journal of poetry at Chapman, was founded on a spirit of adventure.

“Once Anna and I met, it was a creative explosion, because she’s a risk-taker,” Jaenichen says of the director of Tabula Poetica, the center for poetry at Chapman.

“She said, ‘I want to try something crazy — something that really engages the reader.’”

The light issue is “the scariest project of my life,” Jaenichen says. “The naughtiness of it — I mean we have Pulitzer Prize winners in here and we’re trying these experimental things. But we really committed to this issue.”

The designer need not have worried.

Readers eagerly joined in the journey.

And what’s Jaenichen’s takeaway from the without-a-net design experience of the issue?

“It’s like that time I entered the water and got swept away, except it’s a good feeling,” she says, laughing. “TAB work is exhilarating — a rush I don’t get from the information design stuff. But I need both things to operate as a creative person.”

A WHOLE NEW SPECTRUM n our everyday lives, we experience infrared light in the warmth of the sun or the heat from a flame. But seeing the effects of this invisible illumination takes specialized equipment — along with the creative vision of someone like Rick Ferncase.

As a cinematographer and associate professor at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Ferncase wrote the book on lighting for the movies and TV. Several books, in fact, including Basic Lighting Worktext for Film and Video.

His photography takes him — and us — into another world entirely.

Using a digital Nikon camera equipped to allow only infrared light to reach its sensor, Ferncase captures black-and-white images rich with surrealistic qualities. Dark foliage transforms into white puffs of cotton candy; sun-dappled skies pulse with sinister overtones.

“It’s so hard to photograph anything original these days,” Ferncase says. “This allows me to explore in a way that’s unique and personal.”

Ferncase’s infrared artistry was on display in the recent Made in California all-media exhibition at the Brea Gallery. There he won the Director’s Choice Award for his image Colonnade (shown at left).

The photograph is part of a series he calls his “weird transitory stuff,” shot in and around Irvine, which isn’t exactly known for its nonconformity. But with Ferncase as a guide, we happily enter a world free of visible light, where the wonders of a whole new spectrum are revealed.

“I like it because it puts you in a metaphysical space,” he says.

Thanks, Rick. We might just stay a while.

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Story and photos

by Dennis Arp Reporting from New Orleans

t begins on a mid-August Monday in a neighborhood of this revitalized city that’s mostly sleeping out the heat. Fifteen high school students — nine girls and six boys, all African Americans — signed up for this educational experiment, and now they’re chattering nervously as they file into a nondescript block-walled room at Algiers Technical Academy, host to a pilot project two years in the making.

One by one, the uniformed students select seats at wheeled metal tables arranged something like settlers used to position their wagons, bunched for protection or a sense of community or maybe for both. The chatter stops and the students open their shiny new laptops as the man they will call Mr. Johnson for the rest of the school year — heck, for the rest of their lives — launches into the inaugural lesson of Rooted School.

Jonathan Maurice Johnson ’10 asks the class to read his two-page introduction to Rooted called “It’s Our Turn.” It offers some backstory on their new teacher, explaining that many days during his childhood he and his sisters got by on peanut butter sandwiches and cereal because that’s all his family could afford, and how he bucked the statistics that said there was about a 10 percent chance he would even attend college, let alone graduate.

“But I never viewed my life through the lens of research,” he writes.

Then, under the heading “Mr. Johnson’s ‘Why,’” there is this:

20 | CHAPMAN MAGAZINE

“I’m building a new school because I believe my students live in a society designed to see them fail.

Our government uses fifth-grade test scores from our communities to know how many prisons to build for the future. Evidence enough that they don’t expect many of us to change our lives for the better.”

The time for reading is done, and Johnson’s sharp voice instantly shifts things to discussion. He moves briskly from the student tables to the room’s white board and back, filling the space with a focused confidence that doesn’t give apathy a chance.

“Do you agree that our country wants to see you fail?” Johnson asks the students, who all qualify for free or reduced-price lunch at school. “Drum roll if you say no” — and there is silence. “Drum roll if you say yes” — and there’s a steady rumble as the students tap their fingers on the tables.

After a pause, one student breaks from the group, saying over the reverberation that she’s convinced some people are working to help them succeed.

“Hold up, hold up — Airies, would you please explain?”

Johnson says excitedly, quieting the rest of the class.

After Airies Brown shares her thoughts, Johnson responds with gratitude. “I appreciate you stepping out and saying that you think people do care,” he says. “Two snaps for Airies and everyone else who spoke up.”

Fifteen students snap their fingers in unison, the sound echoing with the precision of a new beginning.

THE NEW SCHOOL DESIGN DEVELOPED BY JONATHAN JOHNSON ’10 JUST MIGHT RESHAPE THE LANDSCAPE OF INNER-CITY EDUCATION. BUT FIRST THE ‘WARRIOR TEACHER’ IS WORKING TO MAKE SURE HIS PILOT PROJECT FLIES.

onathan Johnson never intended to be a teacher. And he certainly didn’t envision himself just five years out of college developing an innovative new model of school that’s gaining national attention.

Rooted mixes a digital curriculum with industry-focused lessons based in the real world, with real jobs attached.

“We project that over the next 10 years, more than 7,000 digital jobs will become available in New Orleans,” Johnson said in a recent interview on National Public Radio. “Yet no school locally — and I would argue nationally – is placing within its mission the goal to connect kids to these opportunities that are right in front of them.”

Johnson knows a thing or two about career planning at an early age. As a high school student

in Riverside, Calif., he focused on the ministry and was a licensed pastor by the 10th grade. Then at Chapman he explored many academic options, from business to political science to philosophy to religious studies, and he took on more and more positions of leadership. The Black Student Union chose him as president when he was a sophomore, and the Student Government Association provided an opportunity to “bridge divides between the administration and students,” he says. His SGA presidency opened doors to insights from Chapman President Jim Doti, Chancellor Daniele Struppa, Dean of Students Jerry Price, Trustee Paul Musco and then-Mayor of Orange Carolyn Cavecche, each of whom he lauds as a mentor.

“I recognized very early that to achieve my full potential I had to be coached by those who are at the top of their game,” he says.

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Struppa remembers Johnson showing great maturity and pursuing positions that were thoroughly nuanced. “He understood that true power comes from solving real problems,” the chancellor says.

Johnson’s experience with leadership and government seemed to nudge him toward law school, but as things progressed he targeted education instead, “because it had radically redefined the trajectory of my own life,” he says. Teach for America recruited him, and he considered options in New York and Chicago. Then he looked harder at New Orleans, deciding it was where he was needed most.

Before Hurricane Katrina, the city’s public schools were widely recognized as among the worst in the nation, and the storm’s devastation pretty much wiped out the “among.” Many local officials viewed the disaster as a chance to start over. The school board and civic leaders hungered for new ideas.

“They were rebuilding from scratch,” Johnson says. “It was like a big green field, with opportunities to lead and serve.”

But the curious thing about ambition is that it tends to humble before it lifts up.

“I never failed at anything as badly as I did that first year of teaching,” Johnson says.

f you think launching his own public charter school at 27 means that Johnson is in a powerful hurry, just try to keep up as he transports his students to meet with Rooted School’s industry partners.

It’s still not even lunch time on the first day of lessons and he’s piloting a passenger van through the Central Business District on the way to three different tech startups in less than four hours. These business partners —12 companies have signed on so far — are a linchpin of the Rooted School plan, and Johnson is eager to show his charges the possibilities that await.

By the end of October, seven Rooted students already had landed internships, earning $16 an hour as 3D print specialists, photographers’ assistants and business development interns.

Lucid, the first stop on launch day’s whirlwind tour, is the kind of tech-industry partner Johnson envisioned when he pioneered the Rooted model. In just five years, the company has built a global platform for market research on a massive scale, doubling the size of its two business units last year alone and this fall opening a second office in London. Employees wear Converse Chuck Taylors, toss a football between their desks, work exceedingly long hours and, when there’s a birthday, cut the cake with the office samurai sword.

BUT THE CURIOUS THING ABOUT AMBITION IS THAT IT TENDS TO HUMBLE BEFORE IT LIFTS UP.

Besides the students visiting from across the river this day, there are decidedly few people of color in the office. But that’s about to change, says Lucid Founder and CEO Patrick Comer.

“There are 15,000 opportunity youth in the city, and if we expect the entire community to rise with the technology tide, we have to support that process directly,” he says. “To broaden the pool of those who are educated and actively engaged in technology is good for every tech business in New Orleans.”

Impressed with what she hears, Rooted School student Shakeria Jackson raises her hand and asks a simple question: “I just want to know how much y’all make in a year.”

Comer is far from offended.

“How much do you want to make?” he asks in return. “We hire people who are ambitious — people who want my desk someday. The hardest thing is to believe that our audacious goals are possible.”

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‘I AM RICKY’ Moments of trial and revelation pepper the young teaching career of Jonathan Johnson ’10. But nothing has touched him quite so deeply as the death of Ricky Summers.

“I am Ricky,” Johnson says of his student at KIPP Central City Academy in New Orleans. “Ricky’s story is my story.”

A street kid with a gang background, Summers came to Johnson’s class four grade levels behind. Slowly, steadily he bought into the teacher’s message of possibility and he ive years ago Johnson arrived in New Orleans to teach eighth-grade social science at KIPP Central City Academy eager to begin preparing his students for the transformative college experience he enjoyed.

Almost immediately he added new priorities, including survival.

“I looked like the kids in my class, but I realized that my recent cultural experiences had been very different,” Johnson says. “Central City New Orleans has the highest murder rate in what happens to be the murder capital of the country.”

On his way home one day, Johnson heard gunfire, and from nowhere a man ran to his car asking for a ride to the hospital. He’d been shot. So Johnson sped him to Tulane Medical Center as blood pooled on his floor mat and the passenger pleaded for help with his hospital costs.

“I had to tell the cops, ‘I don’t know this guy; I just want him to get the care he needs,’” Johnson says.

Amid the violence, Johnson realized he was losing the fight. Even the students who resisted the pull of the streets weren’t inspired to achieve academically. “That first year I literally got run over by the kids,” he says.

He needed a new teaching strategy — and a new mentor, which he found in the classroom next door.

“He was known across the city for being a sage — a math guru,” Johnson says of Jamie Irish. “I became his shadow. I saw how he was able to get his students to invest in something bigger than themselves.”

committed to catching up. By the end of his high school journey, Summers qualified for college tuition assistance.

“It’s remarkable how hard he worked,” Johnson says.

“He would say in a raspy voice that sounded a little like Louie Armstrong, ‘I’m going to college!’ His friends would laugh because they knew where he’d come from.”

Johnson was at a teaching conference in Houston when he learned that Summers had been found dead about a half-mile from his school, a bullet in his back. Johnson sobbed as he hadn’t in years. “Probably ever,” he says.

“My life changed in a moment. I was thinking about which law school to apply to, but in that moment I decided to focus on kids like Ricky, those who are navigating between two galaxies.”

Johnson re-upped for warrior teaching, and he still calls on Summers’ memory as a source of inspiration.

“Every day it’s ‘What am I doing to capture the attention of the kids who need me most.’”

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FA L L 2 015 | 23

Johnson built a new approach around a war metaphor — fighting every day against the prevailing narrative of low expectations and the relentless impact of street life. He incorporated his own story into his message, constantly battling to get student buy-in. Along the way he earned the moniker “Warrior Teacher.”

By his third year, his students’ pass rate was 30 percent above the district average. In year four, Johnson was a finalist for the prestigious Fishman Prize, which honors the best public school teachers in the nation.

His teaching methodology continues to grow and evolve, but now as then he anchors his class around the poem The Rose That Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur. It ends with these lines: “Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, It learned to breathe fresh air.

Long live the rose that grew from concrete When no one else ever cared.”

The system has good intentions, Johnson says, “but it has been executed unfavorably for people who look like them and me and who share our story.

That’s the bias I paint for the kids. By design, I’m teaching that this is us against the system.”

Then Johnson empowers the students to take their turn, telling them they can’t afford to wait any longer.

The lesson is “the single best thing that has made them trust me more,” he says. ransforming a classroom is one thing.

Reshaping the landscape of inner-city education is quite another. This pilot phase of Rooted School will help Johnson fine-tune his plan to get maximum results. If the pilot succeeds as he and others expect, he’ll launch his own 240-student public charter school in fall 2016.

The Orleans Parish School Board already has signed off on his plan, and he’s also securing private funding.

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He’ll search out nontraditional school space in downtown New Orleans to be near Rooted’s business partners.

The planning doesn’t stop there, however.

Rooted’s five-year blueprint includes a build-out to three similarly-sized schools in and around the city, with support also developing for Rooted Schools in Kansas City, Seattle and the New York metropolitan area. There have been talks with 10 cities in all.

At the same time, Johnson and his mentor, Rooted board chair Matt Candler, are focusing on the pilot first. “We’re trying not to think about scale in the short term, while we’re still trying to get our model more solid,” Johnson says.

Candler is the founder and CEO of 4.0 Schools, a nonprofit incubator of education startups and new school designs. He’s among the leaders of New Orleans school reform, a post-Katrina process manifested most directly in the charter movement. Public charter schools are credited with dramatically improving the quality of education in the city.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and there’s no question that New Orleans has the most potential to reimagine what public schools look like,” he says.

The city has made huge strides, he allows. Now it needs leaps-and-bounds thinkers.

“If we were grading our schools, we’d say we’re at a solid C,” Candler says. “But what took us from an F to a C won’t get us to an A.” Candler is convinced that Johnson and Rooted are sharpening the point of this revolutionary spear.

“What I love about Jonathan is that his vision is realistic,” he says. “He knows that it takes to teach kids in this town. These are kids who have spent the bulk of their lives in a time of crisis. Jonathan says, let’s not throw everything out, but let’s connect kids to careers that are exciting and engaging — technology and game design can get them to those levels of engagement, in a medium they understand.

“People have been asking him to build a school based on designs we already have. He knew it would be better to go out and build a school we don’t have yet.”

Like Candler, Indrina Kanth of the nonprofit New Schools for New Orleans supports the launch and expansion of high-performing public schools.

“I’m in awe of Jonathan,” Kanth says, praising his mix of humility, adaptability and drive.

“Launching a program like this can be a lonely and isolating thing,” she says. “Oh my gosh, there are so many obstacles. He wants his students to be exposed to a rigorous program for college readiness while also having industry partners help shape their professional success. All of that at once takes a crazy amount of work.”

Good thing, then, that Johnson is crazy enough to take on the challenge — to want to follow “his deep desire to be the best leader possible,” Kanth adds. “We’re lucky to work with such an incredibly talented person.”

ack in the classroom at Algiers Academy, an incredibly full launch day is winding down. The students have been introduced to Rooted School, met Johnson and school co-director Ashley Bowen, logged in to online lectures and lessons, scarfed Jimmy John’s sandwiches in a transit van to keep the day on schedule, toured three super cool companies that might be future employers, and now they’re joining the hallway crush headed to bus rides home.

“ONE OF THE BIGGEST CONTRIBUTORS TO MY SUCCESS IS LEARNING TO INFLUENCE THE INFLUENCERS,”

Savoring the quiet for just a moment, Johnson and Bowen briefly deconstruct the day, then finalize plans for the rest of the week. By Friday, the students will have leaped into computer coding, enjoying three uninterrupted hours with four professional software developers. In the days ahead, they’ll also get hands-on training in computer languages and 3D printing.

Many charter schools have proved effective in building pathways to college. Rooted adds a more direct route to good jobs in a targeted growth industry so its students can get a leg up on financial independence. Nationally, low-income teenagers of color have one-fourth the employment rate enjoyed by their white, middle-class peers.

“The sooner we can loop them in and root them to the world of work, the better,” Johnson says.

The role of capital as a game-changer is a concept Johnson embraces. In addition to teacher and administrator, he wears the hat of Rooted School fund-raiser.

“One of the biggest contributors to my success is learning to influence the influencers — earning their trust so they invest in me and my ideas,” he says.

Recently Johnson found himself inside the Indianapolis offices of the Lumina Foundation, the nation’s largest private foundation investing in educational ventures. Its leaders oversee a billiondollar endowment. “That’s billion, with a B,” Johnson emphasizes.

“Everyone was joking that I was probably the youngest person ever to pitch their executive team,” he adds. “It’s another experience that’s affirming for me — that I’m enough as I am, that I don’t have to come from a family with lots of laurels.”

Though these are not yet salad days for Johnson and his educational creation, he no longer has to root himself in childhood memories of peanut butter dinners. And yet he does, so his students get a taste of shared beginnings as well as a sense of where their journeys might take them.

“This is what I believe about my students,” Johnson writes in his Rooted School introduction.

“Somewhere their destiny has been written by our country, but they can choose to write their own. The catch is that they need to be shown the path. They need to be motivated that the path is for them — that their dream is their destiny, not what society dreams for them. It’s my job to show them the path and unlock their motivation to achieve their dreams.”

Two snaps for Mr. Johnson and all his students who are taking their turn.

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During a year of alarming violence nationally against transgender individuals, four Chapman roommates work to expand understanding as they also strengthen their community connections.

By Anna Rose Warren ’16

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WE’RE

sprawled on the floor in the living room, sweating out the end-of-September Orange County heat.

I’ve arrived late on a Sunday night after the roommates’ first house meeting, nearly a month into Chapman’s fall term, and I’m told it’s a rare thing for all four students to be home at the same time. Everyone is busy, involved.

Addison Vincent ’15, a peace and conflict studies graduate, works as an entertainment host at Disneyland while continuing to advocate for transgender and queer individuals. Vincent identifies as transfeminine genderqueer, and like many who find themselves represented inauthentically by the gender binary, uses they/them as singular pronouns.

“You should try a man bun,” Vincent says, imitating the low voice of someone who had approached them earlier that day at Disneyland. We lean in to hear the anticipated response.

“I say, ‘First of all, I’m not a man.’ He goes, ‘Oh, sh**.’” Vincent flips their hair over their shoulder and we all laugh, but Vincent’s drama is without attitude. Instead, their closing comment to the stranger is educational, straightforward: “I’m not a woman either.”

Though less than 1 percent of Chapman students identify as transgender or otherwise outside the gender binary, that minority community is strong. When I sat down with Vincent earlier in the week, they were adamant that this article should not focus solely on their own personal journey.

Tonight, Vincent introduces me to Alina Ambrosino, Luis Casavantes and Julia White — all members of the Class of ’16 who are involved with on-campus diversity initiatives.

All of them also happen to share a home with Vincent. As Chapman students, these four have come together naturally to build a home environment that supports their growth.

Except for White, the roommates all identify on the transgender spectrum.

IT

has been a record few years for the trans community. Popular celebrities

such as Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner lend a platform to the growing visibility of trans issues, and more radical activists provide representation and educational discourse beyond a media image.

But with increased visibility comes increased risk: Trans and genderqueer individuals are more easily identified as targets for violence. By July, there were 11 reported murders of transgender women in

TERMINOLOGY the U.S. this year, and by the end of the summer that number had already doubled.

The numbers of violent acts against trans women of color are particularly staggering.

In 2012, the National Coalition of AntiViolence Programs found that 73 percent of LGBTQ+ homicide victims were people of color, and in 2013 that proportion had risen to 90 percent. Of all LGBTQ+ homicides, 72 percent were transgender women and 67 percent were trans women of color.

Then there’s this eye-opener: In the U.S. today, trans women of color have a life expectancy of 35 years.

eleventh trans death of 2015 stood out to Vincent, who read online

about the Fresno stabbing of K.C. Haggard and learned that Haggard, an African American woman, had graduated from Chapman in 1977. In an email to faculty and staff of the University on July 24, Vincent outlined a desire to hold a vigil for Haggard and other trans women. Vincent writes: “K.C.’s death stands out to me in particular not just because she had recently come out at the age of 66 or because the attack appears to be planned, but because she was also a member of the Chapman community.”

Vincent says there was overwhelming support from the University community, and with the help of Nancy Brink, Chapman’s director of church relations, a vigil was held at Fish Interfaith Center on July 29. Vincent also helped change Haggard’s gender in Chapman’s records and wrote an article for The Huffington Post that summarized the vigil experience.

“The space prioritized the voices of trans women of color, and included prominent activists, speakers and musicians,” Vincent writes. “As I read the names of the (slain) women aloud with a moment of silence and the lighting of a candle following each name, the violence facing the trans community hit home for Chapman students, faculty and staff. And after reading the last name, a single candle remained unlit with the hope that there wouldn’t be another murder of a trans woman. Unfortunately, that candle was lit just one week later.”

While the tragedy of violence continues to surround the conversation on gender identity, advocates at Chapman are working toward creating safe and educational spaces for groups that are targeted disproportionately.

Transgender: People whose gender identity, expression or behavior is different from those typically associated with their assigned sex at birth. “Trans” for short.

Transfeminine: Transgender people who were assigned male at birth but identify with femininity more than masculinity.

Genderqueer: Individuals who identify as neither male nor female.

He/She/They: Many transgender individuals identify as “they” even in singular references because the pronoun is gender-neutral.

Queer: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and often also transgender people. Many have sought to reclaim the term that was once widely used to deride.

Genderfluid: Having different gender identities at different times.

Cisgender: People who are not transgender.

Gender Dysphoria: Psychiatric term replacing the outdated “gender identity disorder.”

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FA L L 2 015 | 27

Photo: Nathan Worden ’13 (MBA ’15)

From left, Luis Casavantes ’16, Alina Ambrosino ’16, Julia White ’16 and Addison Vincent ’15 share a home and a commitment to broader understanding of transgender issues.

Rev. Brink summarizes Chapman’s developing relationship with the trans community: “Some might argue that this is such a small issue in relation to global crises, but Chapman’s personalized approach to education suggests that we are to solidly stand with those on the margins. We are getting a larger number of students who are openly sharing their trans identity, and we are actively exploring ways to make their experience here both safe and meaningful.”

Vincent’s own focus on trans women of color strikes a note with what their peers and housemates are carrying on at Chapman this year.

Casavantes, self-described as genderfluid, began a Queer Trans People of Color (QTPoC) organization on campus this fall and hopes to leave a sustainable and ongoing safe space with QTPoC after graduating in 2016 with a degree in creative writing. Casavantes grew up near the southern Texas border and struggled with sexual orientation in high school, while also understanding that no single component of identity is wholly defining. During a semester studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa, Casavantes had a chance for serious self-reflection.

“I had a lot of time to think. I had to ask, ‘What am I to myself?’” Casavantes says. “If I’m all these things to other people, if people read me as gay, people read me as 28 | CHAPMAN MAGAZINE

white, what am I to myself? There was one night I was reading about Frida Kahlo and a lot of Latina badass women and activists, and I started crying because I was so overwhelmed by their power. I was crying so much and I realized, ‘Oh my God, I identify with them.’ Since then I’ve understood myself as transfeminine. I just knew in that moment.”

Casavantes’ moment of clarity unfortunately is not representative for many trans individuals who struggle lifetimes with their identity, lacking positive representation in their communities and the media.

K.C. Haggard was slain only months after she came out as transgender, and though we cannot know how long Haggard was closeted, her silenced voice reminds us of how much work there is to be done.

increases in trans visibility and awareness bring hope

for a future where there is representation for all individuals who question their position on the gender binary, where safe spaces are not confined to the living rooms of college apartments.

Ambrosino (they/them), a genderqueer political science major with a minor in LGBTQ studies, is the lone student voice on a curriculum task force working to improve the LGBTQ studies program at Chapman and add more relevant courses to a curriculum

that currently draws classes from other disciplines. Ambrosino notes frustration with the minor’s lack of an inclusive “+” sign in the name, and though nomenclature is not the task force’s primary focus, Ambrosino’s attention to detail reinforces the importance of representation for all those whose voices remain silent. From pronouns to plus signs, descriptions define individual experiences and build vital support communities.

Ambrosino believes diversity in education is critical to supporting marginalized communities within the academy, and that such growth comes from individual effort and active pursuit of goals. Though they plan to graduate in May, by the following winter the task force hopes to have made significant progress on ensuring that Chapman’s classroom environments reflect the University’s values on diversity.

White (she/her), the house’s lone cisgender voice, works as a program assistant with Chapman’s Cross Cultural Engagement (CCE) program with all of the passion of her more personally affected peers. White became involved with the Chapman Feminists student organization early in her University career, and her interest in diversity equality manifested as new connections and friendships broadened her perspective as a feminist. White worked alongside CCE to develop seven campus events in October for

this year’s LGBTQ+ History Month, from trans-inclusive writers’ workshops and film screenings to Gender-Inclusive Restroom Day. The goal is to open discourse on the experience of gendered spaces and to discuss the potential for inclusive alternatives. Though White does not undergo the discomfort and risk posed by such gendered spaces — risk her roommates deal with on a daily basis — it does not make sense for me to ask her why she chooses to advocate for equality.

As a true ally, she cannot espouse rhetoric without also acting on her beliefs.

At Chapman, the current reality mixes progress with opportunities for improvement.

In 2012, Casavantes’ mother dropped Casavantes off at the dorms for orientation and noticed that most of the students she saw didn’t look like her child. “Are you

“After reading the last name, a single candle remained unlit with the hope that there wouldn’t be another murder of a trans woman. Unfortunately, that candle was lit just one week later.”

SAFE SPACE Chapman University has a long tradition of welcoming people who at various times have faced exclusion from society because of race, creed or gender. Those values endure in many campus forums today, including through a program called Breaking Ground: Safe Space.

The program takes its name from the safe space movement that advocates for both real places of refuge, as well as supportive forums of free expression for marginalized and stereotyped groups.

Chapman’s Safe Space provides education, intervention and support to anyone on campus who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer/questioning, intersex or asexual.

It also applies to identified allies who stand up for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.

Programs range from art exhibitions to training for anyone on campus who is an identified ally and is available to listen, meet in confidence or offer support to campus members of the LGBTQ+ community. After completing the training, allies may post a rainbow Chapman Safe Space logo at their workspace.

To learn more, visit the Breaking Ground Web page. A link is at chapman.edu/magazine.

going to be all right?” she asked. In 2013, Vincent came out as transgender, competed in the Delta Queen student pageant and received national coverage for winning Miss Congeniality, then was unsuccessful fundraising for a “fra-rority” chapter on campus. Ambrosino struggled with gender dysphoria as well as professors altogether unfamiliar with the gender binary.

the end of September 2015, it is clear the roommates are going to be more than all right. “I think of our house as a safe space,” Vincent says after our late-night meeting has broken up. Ambrosino sits at the table in the dining room and deadpans, “I think of our house as a very aggressive war zone.”

The statement is funny, as intended, but all the students are fighting a battle that is profoundly real. When we discuss a follow-up photo shoot, I suggest a shot of the roommates in front of their home, and the tone of the conversation changes. It’s not a great idea, we decide, because Vincent, Casavantes and Ambrosino can’t be sure they won’t be targeted for speaking to me tonight. They’ve all experienced aggressions before, and it is possible that highlighting their experiences will draw negative attention.

Though the war-zone comment reminds me that the day-to-day concerns faced by Vincent, Casavantes and Ambrosino are real,

there is a reason it sparks a laugh rather than sinister conversation. At the end of the day, the roommates’ friendships easily transcend their advocacy.

“We were all excited to move in together because we’ve been friends for years,” Ambrosino says. “We knew we wouldn’t just accept one another, we’d all understand and appreciate each other because of our involvement in social justice circles.”

White adds, “We’re at a point where we can be upfront and vulnerable with each other. It’s the best living arrangement I can imagine where we’re always learning from each other. I wouldn’t want to live with anyone else.”

The Chapman students, role models and activists who live under this roof are and will continue to be influential wherever they lend their energy — for their articulation, their commitment and their tacit refusal to apologize for who they are. If my admiration for my peers denies them any humility, let Vincent sum up: “You have to look at yourself, and sometimes I forget to. With activism, with life, too, the learning process doesn’t end with high school, with college graduation.

It’s about understanding other people’s needs and voices and amplifying them, especially the ones that are never heard.”

Tonight, I’m happy to have heard theirs.

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SPORTS

Pitcher Brian Rauh (Class of ’13) bucks the back-road odds, chasing

his MLB dream

By David Driver t’s a rare feat for a Division III college player to get drafted by a Major League Baseball team. But the Washington Nationals selected Brian Rauh (Class of ’13) after his junior season in 2012, and now he’s traveling the long, hard road to the big leagues.

“I had quite a few people that I watched go through the professional ranks,” says Rauh, 24, a three-time Division III All-American pitcher at Chapman University who was taken in the 11th round by the Nationals. “But nothing quite prepares you for it until you do it.”

That was certainly the case when he advanced to the Hagerstown (Md.) Suns, the Single-A minor-league affiliate of the Nationals in the South Atlantic League, which stretches from New Jersey to Georgia. Once Rauh and his teammates made a bus ride from Hagerstown in western Maryland to Rome, Ga., that lasted 14 hours and ended right before a road series began.

“It was brutal,” Rauh recalls.

Such are the dues to be paid by a minor-league prospect, but after four seasons Rauh has shown signs of major-league promise as a 6-foot-2 right-handed pitcher. He has also endured his share of challenges, which include spending six months away from his family and girlfriend on the West Coast.

He made it to the Double-A level for the first time for one game in 2013 — that alone beats the odds of the select few Division III players who even get drafted. In 2015, only 11 players were taken from Division III schools, which don’t offer athletic scholarships. Just a handful of former Division III players are now in the major leagues.

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Rauh benefits from a great work ethic, said Mark Scialabba, the director of player development for the Nationals. “He is very competitive,” the team executive adds. “He has certainly done a good job from the background he has. It is a tough transition from Division III to professional baseball, but he has handled it well.”

Rauh made four starts this year for Harrisburg in Double-A but then had to have surgery to remove bone chips out of his left knee in late May. After several weeks off he was sent to Florida to rehabilitate from his injury and pitch for Washington’s affiliate in the Gulf Coast League in July.

Then came another step up the ladder to Hagerstown, and Rauh had a tidy earned-run average of 2.00 in two starts with the Suns and was then sent to high Single-A Potomac. In his

“I am not a first-round pick, so I don’t have the luxury of a slow progression,” says Brian Rauh, a three-time All American during his Division III career at Chapman. “I can’t really afford to pitch badly and (still) be given an opportunity.”

sixth start of the year with Potomac on Aug. 11 he pitched seven innings and allowed just one run and five hits with nine strikeouts — an impressive outing.

That left him with a record of 2–1 with an ERA of 2.21 with Potomac in 2015 and an overall mark of 3–4 with an ERA of 3.03 in his first 15 games, with 13 starts, during the season at several levels.

“He’s 100 percent healthy now and he’s pitching well,” said Franklin Bravo, the pitching coach for Potomac.

“He’s still not afraid to throw the ball over the plate, and I think that’s one of the biggest points that has made him successful since returning from the injury.”

Rauh has already come a long way since high school, when he was about 5-feet-7 as a junior. Going to a big Division I school wasn’t an option, he recalls. His Laguna Hills High coach suggested Chapman.

“I loved the campus, and they had one of the top Division III programs in the nation. They were losing a lot of senior pitchers so I would step in. I just wanted to pitch in college, with no intention of being drafted,” notes Rauh, a solid student working toward a degree in business administration with an emphasis on marketing and entrepreneurship.

At Chapman, Rauh grew as a player and started throwing better than 90 mph, thanks in part to instruction from Chapman pitching coach Dave Edwards.

“You have to go out and compete every day. I am not a first-round pick so I don’t have the luxury of a slow progression. I can’t really afford to pitch badly and (still) be given an opportunity,” he says.

Rauh knows he’s bucking the odds as he chases his big-league dream. But so far he’s making the most of his opportunity.

Terry Boesel takes over a Chapman athletic program that has won two national championships and 18 regional titles during the University’s 21 years in Division III.

Boesel

Named AD ollowing a nationwide search, Chapman University found that the best person to lead its Department of Athletics was already on campus. Terry Boesel, previously associate director of athletics, has been named the Panthers’ ninth athletic director in the 90-year history of intercollegiate sports at Chapman.

Boesel becomes the first to hold the title of David Currey Endowed Director of Athletics — a designation that honors his predecessor, who retired in May after a transformational 25-year tenure leading Panther Athletics.

“Terry played a big role in the University’s invitation to join the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) in 2011,” said Chapman Chancellor Daniele Struppa. “He will continue and build on the successes achieved by our student-athletes.”

Boesel, 53, takes over a program that has thrived in its 21 years since moving to NCAA Division III. The Panthers have won a pair of Division III national championships, in softball (1995) and baseball (2003), to go with 18 regional championships. Chapman has also won three conference championships in the past two years, including its first-ever NCAA postseason berth in football in 2014.

Boesel earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology from Oregon State University in 1986 and went on to get his master’s in sports management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1991.

Several assistant coaching and administration positions led him to Chapman, where he served as an assistant men’s basketball coach from 1992–95 under current head coach Mike Bokosky, and also was part of the Panthers’ football coaching staff in 1994. After coaching stints at the University of La Verne and UC Irvine, Boesel returned to Chapman as associate director of athletics in 2006.

“I have big shoes to fill with the retirement of Coach Currey,” Boesel said. “I take on this challenge having had the advantage of his mentoring for the past nine years and welcome this opportunity to build on the foundation of his 25 years of experience.”

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C O N D U C T I N G

By Brittany Hanson

Kalena Bovell ’09 earns a select opportunity to help diversify orchestral leadership.

Kalena Bovell ’09

alena Bovell ’09 is settling into her new role as director of orchestral studies at the Loomis Chaffee School In Hartford, Conn. She has her hands full with teaching music, tutoring and, when time permits, playing the violin. The bustle of each day is the percussion and melody of her life, making what comes next something of a solo.

This summer Bovell was selected to receive a prestigious one-year conducting fellowship with the Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra. Called Project Inclusion, the fellowship is designed to help break down institutional biases about ethnicity, race, gender and socio-economic status, opening doors to all musicians.

Bovell first started in the fellowship this fall, when she began studying under the leadership of the Sinfonietta’s female music director, Mei-Ann Chen.

The Chicago Sinfonietta, founded in 1987 by Maestro Paul Freeman, was built around the idea that America’s orchestras should reflect its communities.

“Project Inclusion — that’s a huge thing…reaching out to people who wouldn’t normally get to participate,” Bovell says.

As a mostly self-taught musician, Bovell went into her college auditions thinking she was “pretty awesome at this violin thing,” she says. While sitting in the hall for her Chapman audition appointment, she could hear other students playing and suddenly began to feel slightly self-conscious.

Chapman helped her escape her self-described violin bubble as it also provided her first experiences with conducting. Learning from Maestro Daniel Alfred Wachs, director of orchestral activities at Chapman, she felt the pull of the podium.

“I really like (conducting). There’s something fun, and it’s easy in the way that it feels natural to me,” Bovell says.

Sinfonietta Executive Director Jim Hirsch says Bovell was chosen as one of two fellowship recipients from a pool of more than 60 applicants not just because of her inherent skill but because of her spark.

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“In her conducting footage we thought she showed real promise,” Hirsch says. “She showed really sound conducting technique.”

When she conducts, Bovell exudes a quiet confidence. She can be quite expressive, but there’s never a movement that’s frenzied or dramatic. She seems at home in the role of orchestra leader.

“You can’t be afraid to be who you are on the podium,” she says.

During Bovell’s year with the Sinfonietta, she will learn not just about conducting but the management and publicity tasks of the job — the behind-the-scenes work that keeps the professional orchestra machine in motion.

On top of being a published poet, a fellowship recipient and landing a teaching job right out of graduate school, Bovell is a semifinalist in The American Prize competition, which recognizes outstanding work in musical performance.

But ask her how people identify her as a classical musician, and she says matter-of-factly that it’s first by race, then by gender, and after that by talent.

“Something my dad taught me very early on is that the first thing people are going to see is my skin color,” Bovell says.

Growing up, she faced stereotypes that leeched into her music: People would automatically assume she was a jazz musician, and classical violin was usually not their second guess. Dealing with other people’s preconceptions can get old, she says. She remembers being made to feel she wasn’t good enough because she hadn’t had private lessons.

“You do have to work three times as hard as a minority in classical,” Bovell says.

All of these experiences have built the trajectory of her career. But even though she has added her name to the roster of women with conducting degrees, the battle still goes uphill. League of American Orchestras (LAO) statistics show that the conducting world remains predominantly male and white. Among the findings from the group’s latest survey:

“You can’t be afraid to be who you are on the podium,” Kalena Bovell ’09 says of her growing comfort as a conductor.

• Only 19 percent of all U.S. conductors are women.

• At the 22 largest U.S. orchestras (measured by budget), there is one female music director (principal conductor).

• Just 10 percent of the music directors at the 106 largest U.S. orchestras are women.

The numbers on racial and ethnic diversity are also lopsided. Among general symphony orchestra members nationally, 7 percent are Latino and 2 percent African American.

On the gender side, Wachs does see some progress, pointing to the 2007 appointment of Marin Alsop as music director of the Baltimore Symphony as a watershed moment.

“Thankfully, largely due to the social changes of the 1960s, this misogynistic attitude began to shift, albeit slowly,” Wachs says. “Chapman’s undergraduate conducting program, one of only two in the nation, has a long and proud history of inclusion and diversity.”

Maestra Kate Tamarkin ’78 continues to enjoy a successful career as the music director of the Charlottesville Symphony in Virginia, Wachs notes.

And a current Chapman conducting student, Alexandra Jones ’18, carries on this tradition, he adds.

For her part, Bovell counts herself proud to be part of a project that’s “working to close that diversity gap.”

“I want to be an example for others — I can do this, so you can too,” she says. “That representation does exist.”

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BOOKSHELF

Stories by Dawn Bonker

Big Thoughts Are Free: Heeding the Call to Lead Chapman University professor and multiple-Fulbright scholar Mark Axelrod, Ph.D., has an abundance of novels, short stories, poetry, articles, reviews, translations and screenplays to his credit.

And this year he added another genre to his publications — biography.

Big Thoughts Are Free: The Authorized Biography of Milan Panic (Peter Lang, 2015), chronicles the life of the Hon. Milan Panic, a member of President Jim Doti’s Cabinet at Chapman University and the former prime minister of Yugoslavia. Panic is a highly regarded entrepreneur and founder and owner of MP Global Enterprises and Associates LLC, headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif.

“I’ve never seen anybody with that much energy,” Axelrod says.

In 1992, Panic accepted the call to become prime minister of Yugoslavia, from which he emigrated in the 1950s. He was the first American to hold a high-ranking political office in a foreign nation.

As prime minister, Panic became well-known for his “Speech of Peace” address to the United Nations General Assembly and was named one of the “Europeans of the Year” by the Wall Street Journal in December 1992.

The University honored Panic in October at a reception and panel discussion where the Axelrod biography and Panic’s own memoir, Prime Minister of Peace; My Struggle for Serbian Democracy, were celebrated.

California Gov. Jerry Brown attended.

Electing Madam President: Campaign Already Is Historic Political scholars, voters and the media are keen to talk about the history that would be made if presidential candidate Hillary Clinton becomes the first female president of the United States in 2016.

But a significant milestone has already been made in the run-up to the election, says Lori Cox Han, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Political Science. After her strong performance in September’s Republican candidate debate, Carly Fiorina climbed on the polls and for the first time each party had a viable female candidate in the presidential running.

“Political history has already been made in this campaign with a woman running on each side. We’ve never had that before,” said Cox Han, who is a regular contributor at the blog Presidential-Power.com.

Cox Han is the author of the new book In It to Win: Electing Madam President (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015) and a widely published scholar on the American presidency. She attributes much of Fiorina’s popularity to the same anti-establishment trend that has fueled Donald Trump’s campaign.

“She has elevated herself to the point where she will be in the discussion when it comes time to picking a running mate, whoever the Republican nominee is,” Cox Han says.

Meanwhile, Clinton is still the leading Democratic candidate, according to polls. A Clinton win in 2016 would be profoundly historic, but wouldn’t necessarily bust the so-called glass ceiling the former secretary of State, U.S. senator and first lady often references, Cox Han says. Indeed, if there’s a ceiling at all.

“Some women-in-politics scholars are moving away from the idea of a glass ceiling. When we’re talking about the White House, it’s not a good analogy,” she says. In her most recent book Cox Han explains that while advancement in the business world might be about “moving up the ladder,” the paths to the White House — and other top elective offices — are more complicated.

And those complications are less about gender bias and fundraising than they are about the complex American presidential election process shaped by the Constitution, candidate recruitment into politics and the shortage of women governors in large states, she says.

“There aren’t enough women in the presidential and vice-presidential on-deck circle,” she says.

Mark Axelrod, Ph.D.

Lori Cox Han, Ph.D.

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ALUMNI NEWS

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Homecoming Fun The Chapman Family Homecoming Celebration welcomed more than 3,500 guests Oct. 2 – 4, with alumni spanning 60 graduation years.

One of the weekend’s most popular events was the 6th annual Chapman Chili Cook-Off, which spiced up Saturday evening in Attallah Piaza. Later that day, the Panther football team lost a heartbreaker, falling to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 33 – 30, in double overtime.

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MASTER CLASSES TAUGHT

BY CHAPMAN FACULTY.

TOTAL EVENTS OVER THE THREE DAYS.

5

FORMAL REUNIONS HOSTED, WITH ALUMNI FROM AT LEAST 14 CLASS YEARS INVOLVED.

Buoyant Memories Golden moments abound at the 50th-anniversary reunion of Semester at Sea.

By Brittany Hanson The pineapple upside-down cake supply is running low. Everyone wears leis over warmweather business casual. One shipmate approaches another, politely tapping a shoulder to interrupt a conversation.

“Excuse me, but were you on my ship?”

Emma Salahuddin ’71 asks Jim Van Arsdel ’76.

“I might have been — tell me who you are,” Van Arsdel responds.

“I was the one tap-dancing on the deck,” Salahuddin replies. “I was in all the plays, all the entertainment.”

At this point, laughs and hugs ensue. It’s been 40 years since Salahuddin and Van Arsdel last saw each other, but they remember the shipboard good times like it was yesterday — bell bottoms, big hair and all.

It’s the Chapman Family Homecoming Celebration, and Chapman University alumni of Semester at Sea/World Campus Afloat gather to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the global study program. Multiple generations swap stories and share memories from their voyages.

Marcia Salway ’71 sailed in 1967 but had her ship rerouted from the Suez Canal all the way around Africa because of the Six-Day War. Salway compares notes with Nicole Goehring ’15, whose 2013 journey was similarly altered due to uprisings in Instanbul and Egypt.

Stories of life-changing experiences flowed during the golden-anniversary reunion of Semester at Sea, which highlighted the recent Chapman Family Homecoming Celebration.

Semester at Sea’s roots trace back to 1965, when it was called World Campus Afloat and students sailed on the SS Ryndam. The program was also known as University of the Seven Seas on the voyage to its current moniker of Semester at Sea. Whatever the name, shipboard life takes students to far off places such as Casablanca, Morocco; Cape Town, South Africa; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Students attend classes aboard ship and in-country, amassing a boatload of memories as well as class credit.

Chapman was the first college to sponsor the program, with that role lasting from 1965 to 1975.

Alumni from the ’60s and ’70s joked that the ship was less than luxurious in those days, especially compared with more recent vessels.

Fancy ship or not, Semester at Sea is a program that many veterans say was life-changing.

One alumna was so taken with her experience that she has been sailing just about ever since.

Karyn Planett ’71 built a career traveling the world with Crystal Cruises, taking photos and writing about destinations as she compiled decades of memories. She and her husband, Geoff Thompson, shared slides and stories with Chapman students and alumni at several events over the weekend. Their latest book, How to Capture Your Travel Stories in Words & Pictures, was released this year.

Planett credits her love of travel to her experiences during Semester at Sea. “I’ve spent 21 years at sea, and I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of this great world,” she says. “I loved it…we knew we had to give back to the world, and we were global citizens.”

Planett says she would encourage all students to go.

“I should just have a tattoo that says ‘Semester at Sea’ across my back,” Planett jokes.

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Many Chapman alumni wish upon a career and alight in roles they consider the happiest on earth.

Stories by Dawn Bonker ill Kellogg ’14 did not choose to attend Chapman University just so he could launch his career five miles down the road at Disneyland. But it didn’t take long for the connection to click.

By Kellogg’s sophomore year at Chapman, the music performance major had decided that the world-famous theme park was where he wanted to put his skills to work. Now he’s a full-time guest talent coordinator, working closely with visiting arts groups that perform in the park.

“I’m living the dream,” he says. “I’m working with some of the smartest and most creative people on the planet.”

It’s a dream and tradition shared by many Chapman alumni, who through the years have found “The Happiest Place on Earth” to also be one of the world’s best employers.

By the Light of the

Silvery Memories

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As Disneyland marks its 60th anniversary this year, it counts numerous Chapman graduates among its top management, from human resources to government relations.

Lest you think the fun disappears once a paycheck is involved, don’t worry. The same kind of energy that goes into making visitors happy also fuels a dynamic work setting, alumni say.

“I love knowing that I get to go to work every day and be with my friends and be challenged together and grow together.

It makes the environment and culture just incredible,” says Jessica Torrico ’09.

A history major, Torrico started as a parttime employee and served in a variety of roles.

Now she is a public affairs representative,

t first, the college boys thought it was a once-only performance.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to tell my grandchildren that I sang at Disneyland one time,’” says Jim Schamp ’62.

But the call-backs kept coming, and eventually contracts were signed and the gig lasted years. That’s right, Schamp and Perry Carter ’65 were Dapper Dans, those wholesome gents who balance harmonies and bicycle skills while cruising Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A. “It was just wonderful,” Carter says.

The careers of Schamp and Carter were always about sharing the joy of music. Schamp taught music in junior highs and high schools; Carter directed high school choral programs and taught voice for 22 years at Saddleback

helping coordinate logistics for special events in the park. Recently she was also selected to participate in Emerging Leaders, a Disney management training program.

Indeed, Disneyland is not the land of dead-end careers, says Matt Gray (MBA ’12).

Gray began there as a skipper on the Jungle Cruise, the gentle water ride famous for dousing guests with cornball jokes. Today he is general manager of merchandise for Disneyland, managing the business of

Community College. But many of their most heartfelt tunes were belted out in their Chapman days, when they donned straw hats, hopped on a custom four-seater bicycle and rode through Disneyland, entertaining millions of guests with four-part a cappella harmonies.

The Dapper Dans are a Disneyland institution, planned into the entertainment lineup by Walt Disney himself. Singing sentimental classics like Sweet Adeline, the male quartet has been a mainstay of the Americana motif Disney envisioned for Main Street, created as an homage to his own childhood hometown.

Many male vocalists have filled the roles over the years. But Schamp and Carter, along with Doug Earl ’61, Robert Maher ’62, Ron Browne ’63 and Gene Morford, who attended

Among the many Chapman University alumni leading the way at Disneyland are, from left, Jessica Torrico ’09 (’10 teaching credential), Will Kellogg ’14, Nola Jackson ’88 and Matt Gray (MBA ’12).

As Disneyland marks its 60th anniversary this year, it counts numerous Chapman graduates among its top management, from human resources to government relations.

Photo: Victor Lee ’10

endears Disneyland to Nola Jackson ’88, a stage technician in Disney California Adventure.

Jackson went to work at Disneyland after graduating with a communications degree with an emphasis in theatre, a course of study now part of the production management program in the College of Performing Arts. Most recently Jackson has staged the popular World of Color water show and manages the Hyperion Theatre in Disney California Adventure, home of the Broadway-style show Aladdin — A Musical Spectacular.

“We know that our technology and how things are presented on the stage has a wow factor,” Jackson says. “That’s why I got into this industry.”

Chapman in the early 1960s, were among the earliest Dans, thanks to music instructor Sheldon Disrud, director of Chapman’s Cardinal Quartet. Disrud directed the candlelight procession at Disneyland and recommended the Chapman students to the park’s entertainment bookers.

The Dans’ presence expanded — they routinely sang a couple of numbers with the big bands in Carnation Plaza Gardens and at Disney special events beyond the park.

Looking back, Schamp and Carter say that singing along Main Street amid park guests was the best gig of their lives.

“It was personal,” says Carter. “We could give someone an individual experience that they may have never had in their whole life.”

Photo: Nathan Worden ’13 (MBA ’15)

everything from all those mouse ear hats to every souvenir T-shirt.

“There are extraordinary opportunities here at Disneyland,” he says.

For Gray the opportunities expanded after he completed the executive MBA program at the Argyros School of Business and Economics. The graduate program helped him take his practical experience logged at Disneyland and apply it at a deeper level.

That brand of creative spirit is what

Even to relatively new hires like Kellogg, opportunities to connect with creative people present themselves daily. Among his responsibilities is stage-managing guest performers, from high school marching bands to youth ballet folklorico groups. At the end of their performances, he reminds them that as community performers they are a beloved park tradition, one that Walt Disney himself envisioned for Disneyland.

“I tell them that this Guest Talent Programs department wouldn’t exist if Walt Disney didn’t believe that the talent of the future isn’t in the future, it’s happening now,” he says.

Their eyes widen every time. Kellogg loves those moments.

“That’s the best part of my day,” Kellogg says. “That’s when I know I’ve made a difference.”

Perry Carter ’65, left, and Jim Schamp ’62 enjoy a recent visit to their old stomping grounds in Disneyland. The 1963 photo at the right shows them in their college days, when they were among the park’s early Dapper Dans, a barbershop quartet that continues to entertain park visitors today.

Schamp, second from left, and Carter, right, are shown with Gene Morford and Rob Browne ’63. “Coming back this way and after all this time, I felt the magic again,” Carter said.

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CLASS NOTES 1960s

Email your news and photos to alumni@chapman.edu or mail to: Alumni Engagement, One University Drive, Orange, Calif. 92866. Any pictures received by mail will be scanned and returned. Class notes are subject

William “Bruce” Borden, B.A. mathematics ’62, retired about 20 years ago after a career in aerospace with Bertea Corp./Parker Hannifin Corp. He volunteers for Stanford University and enjoys traveling the world.

to editing due to space.

To post class notes and photos online, visit alumni.chapman.edu.

1950s Dick Immel, B.A. philosophy ’56, authored a memoir, Damn Californians, published last year.

The book covers the 10 years his family lived in the backwoods of Down East Maine to escape from the drug dealers who had invaded his children’s elementary school.

His second book, written for second-grade children, is being edited. Dick has begun the research process for his third book, which is about animals. He has attended the Santa Barbara Writers Conference for the last three years. Dick has started his role as “resident Grandpa” with his daughter’s family in Tucson.

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1 Rich Grimes, B.A. history ’68,

has authored four published books: Classroom Under Construction, Angel In My Backpack, Old: Stories of Aging and Reflections on Caregiving, and his first children’s book, Animal Friends. Each book is available in the alumni section of Chapman University’s Leatherby Libraries.

Rich also volunteers with Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care in Santa Barbara. He received his M.A. in education from California State University, Northridge, in 1977.

Rich has two daughters, three grandchildren, an older brother and a mother who is vibrant and active at 96.

2 William “Bill” Theriault,

B.A. history and physical education ’69, (M.A. education ’73), was a massage therapist on the medical staff for the 2015 IAAF World Championships in August. This was his 25th time being involved

with the championship. Bill has also been selected as a massage therapist for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. He is an avid runner and has participated in dozens of marathons and other races, including the Chapman University Toyota of Orange 5K Run/Walk.

1970s Larry Collier, (M.A. education ’72), is on the alumni board at Chapman University and is a member of the Charles C. Chapman Heritage Society. He and his wife, Sandee, toured Ireland in July with the Orange County Master Chorale and the Saddleback Master Chorale. Larry also performed at the First United Methodist Church of Orange during the summer and performs internationally every two years. He will perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2017.

3 Paul Crumby, B.A. political science ’70, has retired after decades of teaching political science, most recently at Metro State University of Denver. He now works through Big Fish Talent in Denver, acting in commercials and other projects.

He also wrote an op-ed piece published in The Denver Post and Fort Collins Coloradoan.

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Dorothy “Dottie” Harris, B.A. physical education ’78, accepted a position as assistant principal in Shishmaref, Alaska. Previously, she taught special education at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma, Wash. Dottie is a professional umpire for NSA, USSSA, ASA and other leagues. She will take hiatus from umpiring in Alaska.

Eileen (Gilson) Mols, B.A. communicative disorders ’73, (M.A. special education ’76), and her husband, Ole, celebrated 25 years of marriage on June 30. They love traveling together, including recent trips to South Africa, the Galapagos, Ecuador and Peru, where they visited Machu Picchu, Cuzco and Lake Titicaca.

4 Paula Trimble-Familettie, B.A. religion ’76, won a gold medal at the 2015 Illumination Book Awards in the Bible Study category for her book Prostitutes, Virgins and Mothers: Questioning Teachings About Biblical Women (2014).

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Warren Crowther ’61

Working a Lifetime to Affect and Serve 7

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1990s

Mamie (Yong) Maywhort, B.A. economics and business administration ’74, was honored with the Community Champions Award at the “Stardust Nights” gala celebration that was hosted

by PBS SoCal as part of its Community Champions project.

Mamie co-founded Homefront America, a San Juan Capistranobased nonprofit that provides services for military families.

1980s Myron Feinstein, (MBA ’84), is an independent executive consultant and graduate faculty lecturer at the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University.

Ken Lineberger, B.S. computer information systems ’87, and his wife, Angela, opened their sixth Waters Edge Winery and will own 10 wineries before the end of the year. They also enjoy rescuing wayward dogs.

5 Doug Aiken, BFA broadcast journalism ’99 (M.A. organizational leadership ’09), and wife Ashley welcomed their son, Elias Philip Aiken, on June 6.

Doug is the associate director of athletics for the Donald P. Kennedy Intercollegiate Athletics Program at Chapman. The family lives in Orange.

6 Marwa (Morsi) Cabell, B.A. communications ’95, is the chief human resources and compliance officer for Aki-Home, a home furnishing and furniture retail chain in Southern California. She works in the Nitori USA Division. She and her husband have four children.

Marwa earned her M.S. in leadership and management with a concentration in human resources in 2001 from University of La Verne.

7 Gabe Serrato-Buelna, B.A. English ’97, owner and founder of Serrato+Co., a public relations, marketing and branding agency, signed actress Lilimar Hernandez of Nickelodeon’s Bella and the Bulldogs. Gabe will handle public relations and branding for the second season of the show.

2000s Angela Armstrong, B.A. public relations and advertising ’08, was named one of the top 100 women in Computer Reseller News (CRN) Magazine’s Women of the Channel 2015: Power 50 Solution Providers list for Dasher Technologies, a technology firm under The Channel Company.

8 Brandon Avery, B.A. political science ’02, was promoted to vice president and managing director of Liberty Mutual’s National Insurance operation for the West Division.

9 Laina Babb, BFA theatre ’04, was promoted to head of tailoring for the Los Angeles Opera’s Costume Shop. Her first show was the 2015–16 season opener, Gianni Schicci, directed by Woody Allen.

Hillary Branman, B.A. French and BFA creative writing ’06, launched UncontainedLife.com, a travel and lifestyle website devoted to socially responsible travel.

By Dennis Arp hen Warren Crowther ’61 looks back, there’s a lot to see. For 45 years, he was an international consultant for the United Nations; he has taught at 22 universities in 11 countries; his research interests have ranged from dementia to ecological economics to disaster preparedness.

But what energizes him, what drives him, is still what he sees when he looks ahead.

“I’m 76 years old and I have 200 years of projects planned,” he says with a smile.

Even his short list of to-do’s stretches to more than a dozen items, including joint and comparative research with Chapman University students, faculty and alumni. He shared that list during a recent visit to Chapman after traveling from his home in Costa Rica.

“One of my priorities is helping students see where they’re needed with their interests and their competencies,” Crowther says.

The concept of applying varied interests to affect lives hits home for Crowther, who has served eight UN agencies in 39 nations, working to end wars, defend human rights, develop communities and reform education.

Now he’s eager to help the next generation discover the rewards of global citizenship and service.

“As a Chapman student, I had no idea what my future would afford,” he says. “And I see in these facets of my life, much by trial and error I’ve gained knowledge of how to evolve them to be as fruitful as possible.”

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Penni McRoberts ’71

Finding Joy in Life’s ‘Beautiful Tapestry’

By Melissa Grace Hoon enni McRoberts ’71 is the quintessential global Panther. As a student and staff member, she traversed the world three times with the Semester at Sea/World Campus Afloat program.

McRoberts’ Semester at Sea journeys allowed her to experience “the beautiful tapestry of human beings around the world,” she said. “Chapman had a colossal influence on teaching me about tolerance, acceptance and how to embrace ethnicities, religions and cultural customs different than my own.”

She felt the meaning of gratitude in Tanzania, where she met Massai warriors who lived without running water. She was also moved by encounters with residents of cardboard homes in Brazil, as well as with disfigured, begging children in India’s slums.

McRoberts earned her teaching credential at sea, returning to Orange County to teach at a juvenile hall and continuation school. Later she traveled the U.S. in a marketing training program before volunteering at the Signing Exact English Center for deaf children in Los Alamitos, Calif.

Remaining in the nonprofit world, McRoberts began work at St. Joseph Hospital Foundation as director of major gifts in 2008. That same year, she joined the board of Town & Gown, which supports Chapman students through scholarships.

McRoberts’ two-year stint as T&G president ended earlier this year.

“I loved being a student at Chapman,” McRoberts said. “To give students today the opportunity to attend my favorite institution of higher education is very rewarding.”

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Brandon R. Creel, (JD ’07) was appointed an attorney with State Compensation Insurance Fund in Monterey Park, Calif.

10 Eric Dang, B.S. chemistry and biology ’03, is a commissioned officer on active duty with the Navy’s Medical Service Corps. He was recognized for the comprehensive industrial hygiene field surveys he conducted aboard the USS Whidbey Island. His work ensures the health and safety of the crew and allows the ship to be fully mission-capable.

Stephen Dao, B.S. business administration ’07, started Just Réchauffé (“reheat”), a small business in Orange County that delivers cooked organic gourmet food.

Shannon David, B.A. English ’08, heads up development efforts at McSweeny’s Publishing, an independent publisher transitioning to a nonprofit organization. She organized a successful Kickstarter campaign for the company, which made media headlines. Dillon Morris, BFA film production ’09, of John McNeil Studio in Berkeley edited the video for the campaign.

Ben Dynice (Class of ’03) was the lighting console programmer on Snoop Dogg’s California Roll music video, featuring Stevie Wonder and Pharrell Williams.

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Byron Werner, BFA film production ’98, was the cinematographer on the video, and Raffi Adlan (Class of ’02) was the producer.

Megan Glynn, B.A. dance ’03, is a professor and director of the dance program at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colo., where she lives with her partner, Andrew Zollinger. She received her MFA in dance from the University of California, Irvine, in 2009.

Jessica Grangier, B.S. business administration ’07, married Robert Charles Rozzi II on May 2 at the country estate of Countess von Furstenberg in Southampton, N.Y. Jessica is the marketing administrator for the Hamptons’ luxury real estate firm Saunders & Associates. Jessica and Robert plan to honeymoon in French Polynesia this fall.

Keith Hancock, B.M. music education and performance ’02, (M.A. education ’04), is the choral director at Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. The school’s music program was one of five out of 25,000 high schools across the nation to receive a 2015 GRAMMY Signature Schools Award. Keith was a Chapman faculty member from 2007 to 2010.

11 Blythe Harris, B.A. political science ’07, (JD ’11), married Mark McLane in a wedding officiated by Jane Taylor Kacer, associate dean for student affairs and administration of Dale E. Fowler School of Law. Many Fowler Law School alumni from the ’10 and ’11 graduating classes attended.

12 Elizabeth (Mack) Hofeldt, B.A. history ’08, (M.A. leadership development ’14), and her husband welcomed a daughter, Genevieve Anne Hofeldt, on March 12.

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Nicolle Halbur ’94

Curing Cancer’s Painful Life Effects

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Jason Krotts, B.A. communications ’00, lives in Newport Beach with his wife, Kim (Pralle) Krotts, and daughters Olivia, Charli and Brooklyn.

Kim is the daughter of Helga Pralle and the late Bob Pralle, who served as a Chapman trustee for 18 years.

13 Matthew Ladensack, BFA film production ’09, married Benjamin Arnold on Aug. 1 in Saugatuck, Mich. Matthew launched Heirloomology.com, a private social network for families that digitizes family memories.

Justin Leo, (MFA screenwriting ’06), was promoted from coding team leader to an associate of the film client service operations team at Nielsen Content of the energy company NRG. Justin also holds a B.A. in communications from La Salle University.

14 Molly (Lepisto) Moore, B.A. political science ’03, married Aaron Moore in Glendale, Ariz., on March 28.

Molly’s sister, Logan Gulley, B.A. liberal studies ’03, was a bridesmaid, and Wendy Moeller DiSalvo, B.A. sociology ’02, was the matron of honor.

15 Mark Miller, BFA film production ’05, won a Saturn Award for producing Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut. Lauren Myers, BFA theatre performance ’08, wrapped her second season in the recurring guest star role of Jeannie on WGN’s Manhattan TV series.

Eric Player, (MFA film and television producing ’08), is producing his film Academic Malfeasance: College Funding with One Simple Felony this year through his production company, Panther Pictures.

Rachel Reynolds, (JD ’05), made partner at the international law firm Sedgwick Law, LLP. 16 Michelle (Kischber) Rogers, B.S. kinesiology ’01, and her husband, Josh, welcomed triplets on May 24.

They also have a daughter.

Michelle holds a doctor of physical therapy degree.

Andrew Scheppmann, (MFA screenwriting ’09), co-wrote The Chosen, a horror film that premiered this summer at VidCon in Anaheim. The film stars YouTube celebrity Kian

Lawley and is produced by Terror Films and Supergravity Pictures. The Chosen played in select theaters and is available by video on demand.

17 Justin Schulte, B.S. business administration ’09, and Jessica (Price) Schulte, B.A. political science ’11, (MBA ’14), were married on Nov. 15, 2014, at St. Edwards the Confessor Catholic Church in Dana Point, Calif. Chapman alumni in the wedding party and in attendance included Marlys Woods, B.A. music therapy ’13, May Cao, B.S. biological sciences ’09, Lauren Kurashige, B.A. business administration ’11, Manal Shehadi, B.A. psychology ’11, Emily Brandenburg, B.S. business administration ’09, Chaz Kekipi, B.S. athletic training ’08, Marisa Conner, B.A. psychology ’10, Courtney Hamlin, B.S. business administration ’11, Natalie Manning, B.A. public relations and advertising ’09, and Mike Harrison, B.A. leadership and organization ’10.

By Melissa Grace Hoon hen Nicolle Halbur ’94 and her friend Jennifer Gregston sat on the board of directors for a pediatric cancer foundation, they noticed that many charities help children with cancer, but hardly any resources are available for adults. So the two founded TruthLoveChange (TLC).

The nonprofit provides financial assistance to improve the lives of adult cancer patients in Arizona, where Halbur lives. TLC pays monthly bills, buys groceries, underwrites travel costs to doctor appointments, helps with home repairs and does much more to aid patients in need.

To ensure transparency, all of TLC’s financial data are posted on its website. “Foundations with nothing to hide, hide nothing,” Halbur said.

The Chapman University alumna has many favorite TLC life-improvement stories. Among them: • Buying a plane ticket so a homeless patient could go live with his daughter in Wisconsin.

• Repairing the water and sewer lines for a man who had lived without running water for more than a year.

• Paying for a patient’s son to fly home for a family member’s funeral.

More information on the organization is at TruthLoveChange.org.

Halbur’s background is in supply-chain management — skills she used to help create and market a product called Adult Chocolate Milk. Within six months of launch in 2009, the beverage was being sold in 40 states.

Halbur cites Chapman for her determination to dream big. “If your dream doesn’t scare you,” Halbur said, “it isn’t big enough.”

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Dhia Rebii (MFA film production and MBA ’14), center, with his brothers Firas, left, and Ahmed (MBA ’15).

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A Place Where Artistry Is Honored

By Mary Platt hia Rebii (MFA film production and MBA ’14) and his brother Firas have partnered to open Kamsah, a new décor store featuring handmade goods from around the globe, on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

Their brother Ahmed (MBA ’15) is also an integral member of the store team. Firas has been accepted into Fowler School of Law, making it a real Chapman brothers triple-play coalition.

The brothers chose the name Kamsah for the store to honor the traditional five-fingered hand symbol (also called hamsah) used throughout the Mediterranean region as a sign of protection, peace and happiness.

The first collection of beautifully handcrafted lamps, baskets, carpets, linens, ceramics, glassware and other goods comes from their native Tunisia, where they traveled extensively to locate the finest-quality items for their store.

They plan to source handmade products from other countries soon.

“The origin of our goods really matters to us, and to our customers,” says Dhia. “The lives and artistry of those who make these items are as important to us as the products themselves.”

In keeping with their Chapman education as global citizens, and in an effort to give back to the artists they represent, the brothers donate 10 percent of all proceeds to philanthropic programs that empower women and youth in developing countries.

Check out kamsah.com for more information and to learn the stories of the artifacts and their makers.

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Sha Wang, B.M. piano performance ’02, was signed to the Yamaha Artist Roster.

Other notable Yamaha Artists include Sir Elton John, Alicia Keys, Tony Bennett and Justin Timberlake.

Tim Weiner, (JD ’00), was commissioned as a captain in the California State Military Reserve (CSMR) and now serves with the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps based at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, Calif. He also works as a state prosecutor.

18 Stacey Wheeler, B.A. communications ’03, authored his second book, Stepdad 101: What to Know Before You Marry a Single Mom, which was released in August. The book aims to reduce the divorce rate in step-parent families.

Brian Wilcox, (JD ’04), director of technology and corporate counsel at Feit Electric, helped the company release its first “Smart LED” product, a lighting system available in-store and online through Home Depot.

2010s 19 Elizabeth Berrigan, B.S. biochemistry and physics ’14, was selected to receive a 2015 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which will support Elizabeth’s graduate studies in physics.

20 Christopher Boyd, BFA digital arts ’11, married Kristin Flowers, B.A. psychology ’13, on May 1, 2015. Their wedding was officiated by Samuel Fazzari, BFA film production ’10.

21 Nicolette Camacho, (M.A. marriage and family therapy ’12), works as a therapist in private practice, aiding underprivileged children who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

22 Chelsea Chaves, B.M. vocal performance ’13, in May received a Master of Music degree in vocal arts/opera from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. She also was a finalist in the prestigious Loren L. Zachary Competition and was featured in the Astoria Music Festival, where she starred as Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She is currently applying for young artist programs with professional opera companies.

More information is at chelseachaves.com.

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Louis Ehwerhemuepha (M.S. ’13, Ph.D. ’15)

An Unlikely Climb to Science Success 23

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By Melissa Grace Hoon

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23 Kirby Franzese, B.A. public relations and advertising ’14, was named social media manager at Teak Media + Communication, a New England firm that promotes nonprofits.

24 Charles Goff, B.S. business administration ’14, married Katherine Keeney on Oct. 18, 2014, in Palm Springs. The wedding party included James Marria, B.S. business administration ’14, Dylan Cox, B.A. economics and B.S. business administration ’14, Sam Kakuni, B.S. business administration ’14, and Blaine Kress, B.A. political science ’14.

25 Alex Griffin, (MFA film production ’13), is the director of photography for the feature film Yamasong: March of the Hollows.

Elizabeth Iverson, BFA film production ’13, transitioned from her previous position as development coordinator at Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment to story analyst at Creative Artists Agency.

Ari Jogiel, B.S. business administration ’12, in March launched LEOPARDET (www. leopardet.com), a Los Angeles-based clothing company that focuses on domestic manufacturing to promote brand integrity. He employs Chapman students and launched his Kickstarter campaign this fall.

26 Trevor Mayer, B.S. business administration ’12, and his brother, Noah Mayer (Class of 2016), founded Drunk Stoned Stupid, LLC, and created a party game of the same name that is now available in Kitson, Urban Outfitters and Spencer’s Gifts.

Lauren Mitchell, BFA screen acting and B.A. public relations and advertising ’11, married Tyson Call, BFA television broadcast ’12, on Feb. 21 in Coronado, Calif. The wedding party included Kevin Cassil, B.A. communications ’10, Megan Stoner, B.A. public relations and advertising ’12, Matt Katsaros, B.S. business administration ’10, Annapurna Kennedy, B.S. business administration ’10, Luke Johnson, B.S. biology ’10, and Tori Dumke, B.A. public relations and advertising ’10.

Justin Poulsen, BFA film production ’14, was promoted to digital coordinator in the content operation department at Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Al Raitt, BFA television broadcast journalism ’10, graduated from California State University, Long Beach, with an M.A. in sports management and now works for the Seattle Sounders Major League Soccer team as director of game presentation.

rowing up in Nigeria, Louis Ehwerhemuepha (M.S. ’13, Ph.D. ’15) was the second-to-bottom student in his class for much of his primary-school career, which included failing the equivalent of fifth grade.

Yet today he is a data scientist at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) as he also teaches Computer Science and Introduction to Statistics at Chapman University.

He believes everyone can learn if they have the will — and the right teachers.

Before earning his two post-graduate degrees in computational and data sciences at Chapman, Ehwerhemuepha developed a love of physics that motivated him to meet new challenges. He excelled even though his professors in Nigeria weren’t always supportive. One “was the type of teacher who screamed when you got an answer wrong,” he says.

The experience helped fuel a commitment to “making a difference in students’ lives,” perhaps even by creating a graduate computational science program in Nigeria someday.

“There are many talented people (in Nigeria), but there are not many opportunities for them to express their talent,” Ehwerhemuepha says.

“We just need to give them tools.”

After transforming his own educational journey, Ehwerhemuepha is now working to improve medical care. His job at CHOC includes predicting patient outcomes and determining steps to prevent readmissions.

Ehwerhemuepha calls his Chapman experience “extremely positive” and credits the University for his success at CHOC. He is new to clinical research but is embracing it as he did his studies — with faith and determination.

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PA N T H E R S

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P R O W L

Tom Elliot, B.S. economics and business administration ’60, and his wife, Pat, B.A. education ’60 (M.A. education ’74), enjoyed a cruise from Singapore to Tokyo, then took the bullet train from Tokyo to Fujinomiya to see Mount Fuji and this Shinto shrine, Fujisan Hongu- Sengen Taisha. A World Heritage Site, the ancient shrine was built to appease the spirit of the mountain during a time of intense volcanic activity. Luckily Tom, Pat and their Chapman pennant were never in danger.

Laura Miller, B.M. music education ’14, took a safari through Zimbabwe and hiked Table Mountain in South Africa with her family in June as part of a trip to explore their heritage.

Her grandparents are from Palestine and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and her mother was born in Southern Rhodesia and later settled in South Africa before moving to Los Angeles.

“My 14-year-old sister and I wore our Chapman shirts almost the whole time!” Laura said. We love your dedication, Laura.

FRIENDS WE WILL MISS Marvin W. Decker, B.A. physical education ’59, passed away June 27 at age 84. He was inducted into Chapman’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994.

Marv was a key member of Chapman’s highly successful basketball teams in the late ’50s, helping the Panthers to the NCAA regionals as a junior and to the national tournament in ’58 as a senior. Before retiring, Marv taught at McPherson Magnet School in the Orange Unified School District. He is survived by his

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daughter, Carol Sue Adams; son, Craig Smithson; five grandchildren; eight great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

Larry W. Hixon, B.A. psychology and religion ’55, passed away May 17 after experiencing a heart attack while hiking with his wife, Sheryn. Larry was the director of the Eastmont Community Center at its founding in the ’60s and a champion for peace and justice throughout his ministry. He pastored many

congregations, including All Peoples Christian Church and Community Center. At Chapman, he was ASB president, a junior varsity basketball player and a Madrigal Singer. In addition to his wife, Larry is survived by two sons and a daughter, plus his grandchildren.

Sidney Pasternack, B.A. music ’50, passed away Jan. 22. He and his wife, Marian, B.A. education ’52, began teaching for the Los Angeles Unified

School District in the early 1950s. Sidney earned an M.S. in mathematics from Cal State Los Angeles in 1965 and taught mathematics at Granada Hills High School until he retired in 1982. As a student at Chapman, Sidney studied music, was editor of the school newspaper and played viola in the orchestra. He and Marian attended the 50-year reunion in 2002. They enjoyed time together with their children and granddaughters. Sidney is remembered for his love of life and sense of humor.

ALUMNI NEWS AND CAMPUS EVENTS Dancers Land Roles With Cirque du Soleil

Boldly Stepping Into the Spotlight

After participating in the Cirque du Soleil Entertainment and Technology Symposium as students, two Chapman University alumni have landed roles with the internationally renowned entertainment company. Allison Burke ’14, and Christopher Babcock ’14 were hired as dancers for The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil.

Both Burke and Babcock first participated in the symposium as freshmen.

Through the University’s partnership with Cirque du Soleil, professionals donate their time, knowledge and experience by teaching master classes to Chapman students and those from select performing arts high schools.

“The symposium was groundbreaking for the Chapman community and I felt lucky to be educated by some of the best artists in the world,” Babcock says. “It was at that moment when Cirque du Soleil was introduced to me in a more intimate setting that I fell in love with the company.”

Casey Kasprzyk ’01, producer for The Bold and the Beautiful, got the star treatment in a recent issue of Soaps in Depth magazine. Two feature spreads and 11 photos showcase Casey’s rise from intern to Emmy winner, including his efforts to provide the big break for an acting newcomer: President Doti.

Our favorite story covers Casey’s mad scramble to turn carpets and bamboo into a canopy for a wedding scene shot in Abu Dhabi.

“Sometimes you just have to be there to see how crazy these location shoots can be,” he says. WEB

Dancers Allison Burke ’14, second from left, and Christopher Babcock ’14, second from right, share an opening-night moment backstage in Las Vegas with Kim Scott, left, company manager for The Beatles LOVE, and Chapman professors Alicia Guy and Don Guy.

Economic Forecast Wednesday, Dec. 9 2 p.m. reception and networking 3 p.m. conference Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Costa Mesa, Calif.

Spend an afternoon with President Jim Doti and Professor Esmael Adibi as they present their 38th annual Economic Forecast. This is a great opportunity to network with leaders in the Southern California business community, gain valuable insight on the economic trends of the past six months and learn what’s in store for the economy in 2016.

Individual tickets are regularly $185, but Chapman University alumni are eligible for a discounted rate of just $50 per ticket (plus a $1 ticketing fee). This special rate is good for one ticket per alumna/alumnus. Use the code ALUMNI15 during checkout. Register and learn more at chapman.edu/economic-forecast.

Update: ‘The Peace of Shared Purpose’ The fall 2014 issue of Chapman Magazine featured a story on the lab partnership of Lena Haddad ’15 and Dor Shoshan ’15 as they conducted undergraduate research. Shoshan is Israeli and Haddad Palestinian, but their friendship was built on their passion for cancer research as well as their shared desire for peace in their homelands.

We checked in recently with Lena and Dor to find out where their post-Chapman lives have taken them. Lena is pursuing a doctorate at the USC School of Pharmacy while Dor is attending medical school at University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. They still keep in touch and plan to provide mutual support throughout their doctoral experiences. WEB

Lena Haddad ’15 and Dor Shoshan ’15

Stay Connected Whether you live close to campus or across the country, there are opportunities throughout the year to stay connected.

• Connect with fellow alumni and Chapman Family members to build your professional network.

• Attend alumni events like Chappy Hour, Greek Skit Night, the Chapman Family Homecoming Celebration, reunions and more.

• Interact with and mentor current students.

• Take advantage of exclusive alumni discounts on shopping, dining, entertainment and more.

But we can’t let you know about these events and opportunities if we can’t reach you. Update your contact information using our quick and easy online form at chapman.edu/alumni-update.

Find Us Online Web: Blog: Facebook: Twitter: LinkedIn:

chapman.edu/alumni blogs.chapman.edu/alumni facebook.com/chapmanuniversityalumni @ChapmanAlum Search for Chapman University Alumni Association

flying-saucer-shaped house atop a cinder-cone volcano is preparing to exit the University’s galaxy.

The unique home in the Mojave Desert attracted loads of attention after it was donated to Chapman in 2012 by broadcasting legend Huell Howser, who hoped that it would be used by students of astronomy, environmental studies and other disciplines. But the structure’s remote location proved a huge barrier to use, so Chapman finally put the house on the market in early September. • There was spirited interest, including from potential buyers in Europe and Australia, says Brady Sandahl of HOM Sotheby’s International Realty. In two weeks, the midcentury modern home sold at or above its asking price of $650,000. • “I’ve had the pleasure of representing some amazing properties,” says Sandahl, based in Palm Springs. “This is the most exhilarating.” • We at Chapman Magazine were certainly smitten by the quirky charms of Volcano House — so much so that we featured it on the cover of our winter 2012 issue. But the good news is that the proceeds from house’s sale will support the educational mission of the California’s Gold Exhibit in Leatherby Libraries and the Huell Howser Archives, which showcase the TV legacy of the producer and host. • Howser’s PBS shows can be viewed for free at huellhowserarchive.com. What’s more, his legacy gift to Chapman supports the California’s Gold Scholarship, which is awarded to Chapman students who share his sense of adventure.

Photos: Lance Gerber

Chapman’s