The College - Fall/Winter 2019

fall/winter 2019 CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY’S PUBLICATION FOR THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES

LOS ANGELES AS A LEARNING LAB

COLUMBINE-INSPIRED THEATRE PRODUCTION BRINGS CATHARSIS AND WINS NATIONAL AWARDS ON NOVEMBER 7, 2018, EIGHT STUDENT ACTORS FINISHED THEIR FINAL DRESS REHEARSAL OF COLUMBINUS, A PLAY ABOUT THE 1999 COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL MASSACRE IN LITTLETON, CO. THEIR DIRECTOR, BRETT ELLIOTT, GAVE FINAL NOTES BEFORE THE SHOW OPENED THE NEXT DAY. SUDDENLY CELL PHONES BEGAN TO PING WITH LATE-BREAKING NEWS: A GUNMAN HAD OPENED FIRE IN THE BORDERLINE BAR & GRILL, A POPULAR COLLEGE HANGOUT LOCATED JUST A 10-MINUTE DRIVE FROM CAMPUS. TWELVE PEOPLE DIED, INCLUDING ONE RECENT CAL LUTHERAN GRADUATE. THAT NIGHT, THE CAST AND CREW WOULD NOT GO HOME AND SHAKE OFF THE COLUMBINE-REALITY. In light of the tragedy, the University canceled the play’s performances, however, the cast pushed to stage columbinus on November 17 before an invited audience. “In the wake of the Borderline shootings, we very much wanted to perform the play which we felt had, sadly, become more relevant than ever,” said Elliott, who is also associate artistic director of California Lutheran’s Kingsmen Shakespeare Company.

Although the play had only one performance in 2018, it was enough to merit an invitation to stage columbinus at the Region VIII Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Los Angeles. Acclaim followed. The production won two national awards: a Distinguished Performance and Production Ensembles Award and a Citizen Artist Award.

The cast and crew performed the play again on February 10, followed by post-performance audience discussions. “I learned just how powerful art and theatre can be, especially in the wake of a tragedy,” cast member Gabrielle Reublin ’19 said. “Many people from the Thousand Oaks community spoke to us about how the show helped them process their grief.”

I learned just how powerful art and theatre can be, especially in the wake of a tragedy.

COMMITMENT TO SOCIALLY RELEVANT THEATRE For millennia, theatre has been a way for people to publicly debate, discuss and reflect upon issues that directly affect contemporary society, explains department chair Michael Arndt. “Because theatre can reach beyond the intellect and move people in deep ways, it is a powerful force for change.”

The Theatre Arts & Dance Department is hardly new to socially relevant productions. Recent plays include Michael Arndt’s Under Fire: Stories of Combat Veterans Across Generations, a piece he assembled from interviews with veterans from World War II,

02 ENGAGEMENT. EXPLORATION. INNOVATION. RELEVANCE.

Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. In Mr. Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn set after a worldwide apocalyptic event, and presented by students in 2016, a group of survivors tries to recall an episode from The Simpsons in a dangerous world.

This show... has motivated me to look for more ways to make sure my work matters.

“I think columbinus is an important play to be presented across the country,” said cast member Jordan Erickson ’20.

“The abstract idea of gun violence becomes a reality on a stage that is mere feet away from its audience. It leaves no room for dissociation from mass shootings, and it holds the audience accountable for everything they feel and see throughout the show.” columbinus changed the lives of the cast and crew. “This show has reminded me why I do theatre.” Elliott said. “It has motivated me to look for more ways to make sure my work matters.”

“This play and the experiences around it were the most challenging, yet memorable part of my studies here at California Lutheran University,” said Reublin. “I plan on pursuing my Master’s in theatre, and this has just furthered my love of the craft and belief in the power of art in times of hardship.”

SUPPORT GIVE A LIFT TO THEATRE ARTS A lift is an important piece of equipment that enables students to build sets and design lighting.

Donate toward the $60,000 cost and heighten the entire program! Contact Edgar Aguirre: EdgarAguirre@CalLutheran.edu

THEATRE ARTS PROGRAM Concentrations: Musical Theatre, Performance, Technical Theatre, Minor in Dance Where Alumni Study (partial list): California Institute of the Arts, New York University, Neighborhood Playhouse NYC, Yale, UC San Diego Where Alumni Work (partial list): Disney Studios, Cabrillo Music Theater, NBCUniversal, Oracle Films

In addition to being awarded for distinguished performances and production, Cal Lutheran’s production of columbinus was awarded one of 10 Citizen Artist Awards for a theatrical production “central to urgent community, national and international conversations on the campuses of higher education.”

THE COLLEGE FALL/WINTER 2019 03

Ventura County

THOUSAND OAKS

L.A. County

LOS ANGELES

LOS ANGELES AS A LEARNING LAB FACULTY FROM THE COLLEGE ARE CONSTANTLY INTERACTING WITH THIS DYNAMIC CITY — ENHANCING THEIR PEDAGOGY BY UTILIZING L.A.’S RICH HISTORY AND RESOURCES. HERE ARE JUST A FEW RECENT EXAMPLES OF HOW THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE’S PROGRAMS HAS BEEN EXPANDED BY THE CAMPUS’ PROXIMITY TO LOS ANGELES.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS: UNDERSTANDING TRADITION

TUJUNGA WASH: CONNECTING COMMUNITY

DR. CYNTHIA V. DUARTE

DR. COLLEEN WINDHAM-HUGHES

Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology

Associate Professor of Religion

Director of the Sarah W. Heath Center for Equality and Justice Professor Cynthia Duarte takes her classes to community events that honor Dia de los Muertos. Her favorite is held in downtown L.A., where artists from dozens of community groups create altars throughout Grand Park. Many of them portray social justice themes, such as deaths along the border, gang violence or police brutality. Others honor celebrities and lost loved ones.

“We look at the art and media created by Latinos, for Latinos, and how it differs from how mainstream media has historically portrayed Latinos,” said Duarte. “Students learn about the history of Dia de Los Muertos in the U.S. Rather than seeing it simply as the Mexican Halloween, they learn that when the tradition was brought to Los Angeles from Mexico in the 1970s, it became more of a public celebration of identity, politics and social concerns, alongside the personal and religious traditions to honor those who have passed.”

04 ENGAGEMENT. EXPLORATION. INNOVATION. RELEVANCE.

Every fall, Professor Colleen Windham-Hughes takes students to Los Angeles to grapple with issues surrounding poverty, homelessness and the struggle for civil rights. This past year, she partnered with English Professor Carlos Castellanos to take students to the Great Wall, a half-mile long mural painted in North Hollywood’s Tujunga Wash. Designed by Judy Baca, it was painted by 400 young people in the 1970s and 1980s and places emphasis on the often overlooked history of California.

Two weeks later, Baca came to campus to talk about connections the young artists made while they worked together, and showed photos of their process with the art and the community. “Baca encouraged us in our dream of creating campus murals, which reflect our community values and tell the stories of the people who are Cal Lutheran,” Windham-Hughes said.

In the future, she would like to spend a full week visiting multiple L.A. spots. “That kind of plunge would energize our classroom work by making questions about religion, identity and society real and related to people we’ve met.”

MARIACHI: ALIVE AND GROWING AT CAL LUTHERAN ROCIO MARRON Mariachi Ensemble Director Music Department Started as a student club in the spring of 2018, the Mariachi Ensemble inspired a music class, taught by Los Angelesbased musician Rocio Marron, solo violinist featured in the animated film Coco. The 15-member ensemble, under Marron’s direction, performed winter and spring concerts on campus to enthusiastic audiences.

A virtuosic violinist and violist, Marron has had an active career performing live with such major artists as Marc Anthony, Los Lobos, Randy Newman, Usher and Jennifer Hudson. Her television appearances include the GRAMMY Awards, Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show.

Marron will be tapping her L.A. music network to enrich the ensemble. “I plan to bring professional musicians to campus as guest artists and coaches in the fall.”

The ensemble was founded by Valeria Garcia ’19, a passionate Mariachi musician for more than 10 years. “I created the group so that I could continue learning and performing mariachi, which is part of my Mexican heritage and identity,” she said.

MUSIC INDUSTRY: FOCUS ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP Recognizing the shifts in the music industry, Cal Lutheran is establishing a Music Industry Entrepreneurship program that leverages its L.A. location. “Cal Lutheran’s geographical proximity to Los Angeles is a strategic advantage for our students,” said Peter Gordon, Director of New Initiatives for the Music Industry. “It gives us access to a deep roster of inspiring guest artists and masterclass speakers.”

Two new initiatives, a Women in Music Forum and a Summer Songwriting workshop, were established last year to enhance the program. The “Women in Music” event brought together a renowned panel of eight female music industry professionals to discuss career opportunities and challenges. Panelists included a senior VP of music for ABC, an Emmy award-winning songwriter, an award-winning music supervisor, a VP of creative licensing, and other singer-songwriters and recording artists.

The Summer Songwriting Workshop featured a roster of award-winning L.A. songwriters and producers as mentors and guest speakers.

The Fall 2019 semester will feature the second annual Women in Music event and an interfaith concert with the renowned Los Angeles-based Yuval Ron Ensemble.

SUPPORT YOU’RE IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT Help students in The College access important field work sites in Los Angeles.

Donate toward the $15,000 annual cost of providing student transportation assistance.

Contact Edgar Aguirre: EdgarAguirre@CalLutheran.edu

THE COLLEGE FALL/WINTER 2019 05

MEET THE PROFESSOR DR. SEBASTIAN CARRON MONTERO Joined Cal Lutheran: 2016 Before Cal Lutheran: C ontributed to research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois that helped pave the way for the landmark 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson in the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN. orked at SLAC National W Accelerator Laboratory.

Each student is involved in important aspects of our research, which by its nature is too large for one or even a small group of researchers to tackle, and so shares the responsibility for its overall success. This greatly empowers and motivates them into high levels of achievement.

SUPPORT BE A MAGNET FOR PHYSICS A “clean lab” provides the necessary space for the well-published work of Dr. Sebastian Carron Montero and the students who study with him in The College’s Physics Department.

Donate toward the $20k cost and you’ll be the catalyst to attract more students to study the sciences!

Contact Edgar Aguirre: EdgarAguirre@CalLutheran.edu

06 ENGAGEMENT. EXPLORATION. INNOVATION. RELEVANCE.

PHYSICS PROFESSOR AND STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN HISTORIC EXPERIMENT DURING THE SUMMER OF 2018, THREE CAL LUTHERAN PHYSICS UNDERGRADUATES ACCOMPANIED THEIR PROFESSOR TO CERN—THE EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH LOCATED IN GENEVA, SWITZERLAND. THERE, THEY TOOK PART IN THE PARTICLE PHYSICS EXPERIMENT CALLED THE COMPACT MUON* SOLEOID (CMS)— ONE OF THE LARGEST INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIONS IN HISTORY. “We are looking for yet-undetected ‘supersymmetric particles,’” said Sebastian Carron Montero, assistant professor of physics at Cal Lutheran, “predicted by so-called Grand Unification Theories, which seek to unify the known fundamental forces into a single theory.” This is one of the central questions in physics, and physicists have been searching for evidence for these particles for decades.

The best chances to find evidence currently lie at the CMS and ATLAS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the largest and most powerful energy particle accelerator in the world.

Carron Montero and his students are working collaboratively with University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and other research institutions around the world on detector improvements, which will position the CMS to answer questions that have stumped and divided physicists, including what elementary particles make up dark matter. The group’s current goal is a multi-institution project, known as the High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCal) upgrade, to improve a section of the onion-layered CMS by replacing its light-sensitive components with a series of silicon-based detectors to enable more precise particle energy measurements.

Cal Lutheran students William Parquette, Johan Dias and Hend Kordy (left image from left) conducted research with the world’s most renowned physicists at CERN.

BREADTH OF CAL LUTHERAN RESEARCH

BENEFITS FOR STUDENT RESEARCHERS

For the past three years, Carron Montero and his students have been centrally involved in electronic design, manufacture and testing of prototypes. The HGCal upgrade will be the first silicon-based particle calorimeter for High Energy Physics designed in the world.

The students are not only learning about fundamental particle physics. They are also being trained in a number of technical skills: precision measurements, software development, electronics development, data acquisition systems, data analysis statistical techniques and artificial intelligence algorithms for sorting large volumes of data.

Cal Lutheran students prepared for their time at CERN by taking courses on quantum mechanics and particle physics. They also worked with Carron Montero and the High Energy Physics Group at UCSB to manufacture and test detector prototypes.

The students have been instrumental in the testing phase, helping uncover a few early design flaws. During the summer of 2018 at CERN, they tested the latest version modules under real beam conditions. They exposed the detector to calibrated electron, muon and pion (a hadron composed of two quarks**) beams.

Hend Kordy’s ’20 group tested the performance of the siliconbased detectors by measuring real particles in energetic accelerator conditions. “We collected runs for different energy levels for electrons and muons, while observing environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity level,” she said.

“We were delighted to see our modules responding as expected, yielding beautiful reconstructions of particle showers,” explained Carron Montero. “This was a remarkable result for a project in such an early stage in development.”

Johann Dias ’20 helped work on the data analysis of test beam results and is currently involved in creating a prototype silicon photo-multiplier scintillator. *A muon is an unstable subatomic particle, with a mass 200 times greater than an electron, which makes up much of the cosmic radiation reaching the Earth’s surface. **A quark is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter.

Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei.

“This is quite an advanced training that should give them a significant competitive advantage when applying to graduate school or technology-related industry jobs,” Carron Montero said.

“Our students learn to work as a team, and are in frequent contact with professors, postdocs, and graduate and undergraduate students from leading institutions around the world. They are creating a network of contacts that should be very beneficial for their futures.”

Being at CMS opened my eyes to endless possibilities of scientific achievements through human collaboration.

The CERN experience affected Kordy’s career goal. “A huge part of the research is based on programming. And since that was the part I enjoyed the most, it encouraged me to double major in physics and computer science.”

Sitting in on team meetings was a defining moment in Dias’ physics career. “I was humbled sitting alongside some of the brightest minds in the world. Being at CMS opened my eyes to endless possibilities of scientific achievements through human collaboration.”

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GRADUATES MAKE THEIR MARK IN FILM AND TELEVISION CAL LUTHERAN’S PROXIMITY TO THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY ALLOWS STUDENTS ACCESS TO VALUABLE CAREER RESOURCES, INCLUDING INTERNSHIPS IN FILM AND TELEVISION WHERE THEY GAIN EXPERIENCE AND MAKE CONNECTIONS. MEET FIVE RECENT GRADUATES FOR WHOM THE FILM & TELEVISION AND MULTIMEDIA PROGRAMS HAVE PAVED THE WAY TO A REWARDING CAREER.

Cal Lutheran alumni are finding success in many industry-related career paths, including as camera operators, cinematographers, directors, editors, executives, managers, producers and writers.

FERNANDO RAIGOZA JR. ’12

KRISTIANN JONES ’17

JESSICA AMZOLL ’07

Senior Cutting Assistant at Arcade Edit

Post-production Assistant/Assistant Editor, E! News’ Snapchat Show, The Rundown

Visual Effects Artist at Zoic Studios

“I’m passionate about finding the stories in the edits. Finding where the thread is—that’s the fun part. It’s like solving a puzzle.”

At Cal Lutheran, Raigoza—a multimedia major—interned at the up-and-coming production company Bandito Brothers.

It became a baptism by fire! He did everything from offline editing to the finishing processes of online, mix, color and conforming. By the end of his senior year, he’d worked on his first major motion picture, Act of Valor.

Over the next five years, Raigoza worked as a compositor on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Parts 1 and 2, a VFX artist on Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, and more. He now works for a prominent commercial house and recently finished editing a global Adidas campaign in Amsterdam.

08 ENGAGEMENT. EXPLORATION. INNOVATION. RELEVANCE.

“My current job allows me to work as a producer, production assistant, editor, graphic artist, writer or anywhere in between. Cal Lutheran prepared me for this by structuring the classes and projects to make me wear all those hats.”

“You have to love it because it’s a very demanding industry. You have to be able to see yourself in front of the computer at 4 AM throwing practical elements onto CG (computer graphics) because you’ve got to ‘make something work’ by 9 AM the next day.”

During her senior year, communication/ film & television major Jones worked as a digital video intern for E! Online and Digital. She decided she would act more as a production assistant than an intern, working with the digital video team and the Snapchat Rundown team, editing bits and pieces, and making captions for the show. This led to a job offer as a production assistant for The Rundown right after graduation. Lately, she has been diving into editing and recently edited her first Rundown segment.

Cal Lutheran helped place Amzoll, a multimedia/visual effects major, at Mechnology after graduation. She worked as a digital compositor—the last step on the VFX pipeline—for about 18 months, and then moved on to Zoic Studios as a roto/paint artist. Amzoll joined True Blood as a digital compositor and stayed with the show for 52 episodes. She also became a sequence lead on Once Upon a Time for several seasons, and worked on Homeland, The Get Down and Hand of God.

NEW FILM AND TV MAJOR OFFERED Interdisciplinary Program: The major incorporates classes offered by the communication, English, languages and cultures, music, multimedia, political science, and theater arts and dance departments. Majors take research methods and capstone classes.

STEPHEN WARDLE ’13

BIANCA RAY ’14

Script Coordinator, Why Women Kill

Post Production Coordinator, Blackish (ABC)

“Nothing can prepare you for what an actual production feels like—that hurley-whirley monstrosity must be experienced to be understood. Working on campus films, though, taught me a lot about the different jobs on a set and gave an understanding of how they work.”

“At Cal Lutheran I gained a solid understanding of the filmmaking process, from writing to editing. Knowing my way around a camera, lighting equipment and editing software allowed me to lend a hand on smaller projects when looking for my next film or television job.”

After graduating with a communication/ film & television major, Wardle did a three-month unpaid internship at a tiny production company in Silverlake called Imaginaut, where he did a great deal of editing and production assistant (PA) work.

The company hired him for quite a few gigs following the internship. Wardle did a lot of networking, as well, and one of his meetings turned into a four-year job as a PA, and later as a script coordinator (SC) for Major Crimes, until it was cancelled. His contacts at Major Crimes hired him as an SC for Tell Me Your Secrets and Why Women Kill.

While a student, Ray, a communication/film & television major, completed a research project with faculty mentor David Grannis to track the prevalence of exclusionary practices in casting films and to find contributing factors. They viewed top grossing films between the 1930s and the 2000s, charted characters with a distinguishable speaking role, and noted their importance in the film, their race and their sex. Film industry professionals and scholars were also interviewed. Findings suggested changes in marketing strategies and evolving culture will allow for more minority representation.

Internships and Independent Study: Experiential learning is required of all majors. Cal Lutheran has developed internships with ABC, CBS, Disney, Fox Sports, KTLA and other companies based in Hollywood. A strong alumni base working in the industry for companies including Bunim-Murray Productions, ESPN, Netflix, the NFL and Participant Media provide valuable networking opportunities.

Festivals and Competitions: Film and TV majors organize the Cal Lutheran Annual Film Festival, now in its 24th year. Many students produce films for a screening festival and a 48-hour competition on campus.

I’m excited to be able to offer this new major at a time when the industry is creating so many new opportunities with companies like Netflix and Amazon. It will provide students the opportunity to learn from faculty who have worked in the industry and train in Cal Lutheran’s on-campus television studio and on locations using equipment with the same highquality production value as those used by industry professionals.

DAVID GRANNIS Associate Professor of Communication

SUPPORT BE A STAR FOR THE FILM & TELEVISION MAJOR AND VISUAL ARTS DEPARTMENT! A lot of equipment goes into filmmaking before, during and after the action.

Film and TV students work on state of the art equipment in class and through participation in the University’s TV and Cinema Production Club and Digital Cinema Guild.

Donate toward the $25k software to inventory The College’s equipment.

Contact Edgar Aguirre: EdgarAguirre@CalLutheran.edu THE COLLEGE FALL/WINTER 2019 09

FROM THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES PROFESSORS

DR. SEBASTIAN CARRON MONTERO Physics “Relativistic and resonant effects in the ionization of heavy atoms by ultra- intense hard X- rays.”

Co-authored article in Nature Communications Volume 9, Article number: 4200 (2018).

PUBLISHED DR. JEAN KELSO SANDLIN Communication

“Coming Home: The Los Angeles Rams Connect to Past to Build Future.” Book Chapter published in Case Studies in Sports Communication: You Make the Call edited by Terry Rentner and David Burnes (2019). “ All Your Clothes are Made with Exploited Labor.” Case analyzing Patagonia’s corporate social responsibility efforts published in Cases in Public Relations: Translating Ethics into Action edited by Brigitta R. Brunner and Corey A. Hickerson and published by Oxford University Press (2019).

DR. JEAN KELSO SANDLIN and DR. MONICA GRACYALNY Communication

“Free-Electron Laser Data for Multiple Particle Fluctuation Scattering Analysis.” Co-authored article in Scientific Data 5 (180201), 1-7 (2018). “ Ultrafast Self-Induced X-Ray Transparency and Loss of Magnetic Diffraction.” Co-authored article in Physical Review Letters, 121.

1370403 (2018). “ Femtosecond X-ray Fourier holography imaging of free-flying nanoparticles.” Co-authored article In Nature Photonics 12, 150–153 (2018). Möller, Janos Hajdu, Christoph Bostedt. “ Considerations for three-dimensional image reconstruction from experimental data in coherent diffractive imaging.”

Co-authored article in International Union of Crystallography Journal 5 (Pt 5): 531-541 (2018). HN, Möller T, Bostedt C, Hajdu J, Gorkhover T. Maia F.

“ Seeking sincerity, finding forgiveness: YouTube apologies as image repair.” Article published in Public Relations Review and featured in the Institute for Public Relations’ Digital Media Research Center.

DR. JESSICA L. LAVARIEGA MONFORTI Political Science “ Latinos in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia of Latinos as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders” published

by ABC-CLIO.

DR. SHERIDAN WIGGINTON Spanish “ The interconnected challenges and dangers faced by Haitian and Haitian-descended youth in the Dominican Republic.” Co-authored a book chapter in R.T. Middleton, IV (Ed.) Unequal protection of the law: The rights of citizens and non-citizens in comparative perspective, 195-217. St. Paul, MN: West Academic.

AWARDED

“ Intersecting campaigns: candidate race, ethnicity, gender and voter evaluations.” Article co-authored with Sarah Allen Gershon and published in Politics, Groups, and Identities. “ Building Our Communities: Women of Color Workshops in Political Science.” Article co-authored with Melissa Michelson and published in PS: Political Science

PARTICIPATED DR. WALTER STEWART German Won Best Original Screenplay Feature at the London Independent Film Festival for his screenplay The Winged Avenger, June 2018.

First-Runner-Up at the Beverly Hills Film Festival for his screenplay Tesla, April 2018.

10 ENGAGEMENT. EXPLORATION. INNOVATION. RELEVANCE.

DR. MARY OKSALA Physics S cience advisor for St. John’s Seminary as a part of the Science for Seminaries Phase II Project, funded through the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program within the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

ALUMNI WINNING AWARDS MORGAN MANTILL ’18 Communication

60

RESEARCH TALKS SHE’S GIVEN IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD

16

YEARS SHE HAS BEEN A POLITICAL SCIENTIST

3.7

GRANT FUNDED DOLLARS RECEIVED FOR PROJECTS

Awarded a Silver Addy in the 2019 American Advertising Awards Coastal California Competition for her project, “The Iceberg Campaign,” which advocates media literacy.

CHRISTOPHER JELLOIAN ’16 Physics R eceived a prestigious NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship for his project Non-Equilibrium Heat Transfer During Mars Entry. He is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCLA.

JEFF MOELLER ’95

Communication Moeller, Senior Director of Communications and Heritage for the Los Angeles Kings, hosted the Public Relations Student Society of America at Staples Center. He treated students to a tour, a Q&A session with commentator Daryl Evans, and passes to watch the game from the press box.

STUDENTS WINNING AWARDS THE ECHO 1st Place College Media Awards Breaking news coverage of the Borderline shooting (Editor in Chief Dakota Allen, News Editor Olivia Schouten and Sports Editor Brooke Stanley) Non-breaking news reporting for “Prof’s ‘Problems In Philosophy’” (Features Editor Ellie Long) Best Headline Portfolio (Opinion Editor Carly Aronson)

JAVIER BERJON DE LA PARRA

$

MILLION

FOR WHICH SHE HAS SERVED AS PRINCIPAL OR CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

51 4 3

PUBLISHED WORKS BASED ON HER SCHOLARSHIP

14 JOURNAL ARTICLES 19 BOOK CHAPTERS 5 BOOKS 12 TRADE ARTICLES AND 1 ENCYCLOPEDIA

UNIVERSITIES WHERE SHE’S TAUGHT OR HELD ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS MERCER TEXAS CHRISTIAN PACE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS – PAN AMERICAN

INSTITUTION-WIDE TEACHING AWARDS RECEIVED INCLUDING

THE BOARD OF REGENTS’ AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING TEACHING FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM

DR. JESSICA L. LAVARIEGA MONFORTI The faculty who work with me will tell you, I’m a data person. I like to measure things. I quantify The College’s progress and needs with statistics, charts and numbers. However, I also appreciate stories. Stories help illustrate The College’s values and demonstrate its relevance in our ever-changing society. The stories in this publication highlight faculty, students and alumni engaging with community, exploring issues and innovating new ways to solve problems. They offer a glimpse of the dynamic campus environment we provide our students.

This is a time of significant growth in the life of The College. We’ve experienced increases in the number of students, faculty, program offerings, and facilities. Since I joined Cal Lutheran in the fall of 2017, I’ve gained an appreciation for the varied ways students, alumni, donors, faculty and staff foster and sustain this growth. Each play a unique role in making college a transformative experience for our students.

As we strive to move The College forward, I plan to continue to use my expertise in research and policy development, along with my passion for undergraduate teaching, to support all the good that has transpired throughout Cal Lutheran’s history, and to reinvigorate The College’s commitment to engage, explore, innovate and remain relevant. Because, even for a self-confessed “numbers person” like me, the rewards for helping students enhance their lives and their communities through a strong liberal arts education are immeasurable.

Photo by Inga Parke, published with permission from The Echo.

CONTACT INFORMATION College of Arts & Sciences 805.493.3015 coas@callutheran.edu Soiland Humanities Building

warded a $10,000 Rossing Physics A Scholarship for 2019-20 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Foundation.

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NON PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA PERMIT NO. 68

Soiland Humanities Building 60 West Olsen Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 CalLutheran.edu/college-arts-science

STUDENTS TAKE THE LEAD IN ADVANCING CAMPUS CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING JASMINE PALAFOX

CARLOS GONZALEZ Latin American Student Organization (LASO) Co-Vice President Major: Exercise Science LASO sponsors events to educate and spread the Latin culture, such as hosting Día de los Muertos and Las Posadas activities. Our club is very family-oriented and everyone feels at home during our events.

People tell me they never really knew the meaning behind the events until they were part of the experience themselves.

Kupa’a Hawai’i Club President Major: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Hawai’i is a blending of all cultures, races, religions—a true ‘melting pot’ where people just enjoy spending time with one another, whether they are family, longtime friends or have just met for the first time. Every spring, the Kupa’a Hawai’i Club hosts an annual lu’au to share Hawaiian culture and the aloha spirit with the Cal Lutheran community. The Club greets and honors over 350 guests with leis!

COURTNEY EDUKUGHO ’19

SANA SHAH

Black Student Union President Major: Psychology with Biology Emphasis + Pre-Med

Muslim Student Alliance (MSA) President | Major: Chemistry

Our weekly meetings are the best place to catch a thoughtprovoking discussion on current issues. We focus on positivity and Black excellence in today’s society, as well as racial concerns in our nation, most notably microaggressions.

The Muslim Students Alliance is open to all identities. We promote an educational and informative approach to Islam to address and eliminate misconceptions of the religion. We’re committed to collaborating with other faith-based groups on campus and spreading unity throughout Cal Lutheran.