COMMENT

Duarte

TUITION HELP THROUGH AMERICORPS SERVICE The state of California and eight universities are partnering on a firstin-the-nation program to help students pay for college through public service. Cal Lutheran will receive about $340,000 in grants for its program. An inaugural cohort of 25 AmeriCorps Fellows will work with local organizations to increase school completion rates for students and literacy rates for adults in lowincome and immigrant communities in Ventura County. Upon completion of their fellowships, the students will receive up to $10,000 in federal and state scholarships and additional money from the university. Cynthia Duarte (above), an assistant professor of sociology and director of Cal Lutheran’s Sarah W. Heath Center for Equality and Justice, will lead the program with the help of a community engagement specialist and community service coordinator Madeline Liberti.

Students will intern at Cal Lutheran’s Rising Scholars Academy partnership with Moorpark College, the Safe Passage program of the Thousand Oaks Police Department and Conejo Recreation and Park District, the Omega Initiative for men of color at Oxnard College, and the Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project. The other participating universities are CSU Los Angeles, CSU Stanislaus, Dominican University of California, San Jose State University, UC Berkeley, UC Merced, and University of the Pacific.

Neilson

PROVOST WINS NATIONAL HONOR The Council of Independent Colleges awarded Cal Lutheran Provost Leanne Neilson its 2019 Chief Academic Officer Award. The annual honor recognizes exemplary contributions in this role at the nation’s private colleges. “You have guided the academic enterprise at California Lutheran University with extraordinary skill since 2008,” said Glenn R. Sharfman of the CIC at the Nov. 2 ceremony in Baltimore. “You also have played a leadership role in the workshops for department and division chairs, helping colleagues who are new to leadership positions strengthen all of our institutions.”

ART WORKSHOPS BRING HEALING An associate therapist with the university’s Community Counseling Services, Adam Neal heard from people affected by local wildfires that they wanted to do something therapeutic, but less clinical than going to therapy. That’s when he got the idea for a series of free art workshops offered early this year at Art Trek in Thousand Oaks.

“We really wanted to create a way for community members to come together to have a different kind of conversation than people are used to having about this type of event, through the arts, in a safe space,” Neal told Spectrum News in February.

Local resident Natasha Kissler, who evacuated with her family, told the cable television channel that children and adults both benefit from using art as an outlet.

“I think sometimes we try to find the right words to say and we don’t really say what we really feel. We just try to calm everybody around and not to panic,” she said. “Maybe our artwork allows us to really tell what we feel.”

LETTER: CAPITALISM MAKES THE PLANET A BETTER PLACE A few comments on your article in the December 2019 issue about Dr. Moe-Lobeda [“Hope in All Climates,” Page 10].

Dr. Moe-Lobeda states in the article that the Earth cannot “support” capitalism. Capitalism is not static. It is developing daily. Capitalism has made the planet a greener place. Electric cars, solar and wind energy, developed under capitalism, are just a few examples of how capitalism has made the planet a better place to live. To say the Earth cannot “support” capitalism is a fallacy.

As for “changing” capitalism to another system, God help us if this happens. Ask the people of Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, how the socialist revolution is going.

Capitalism has taken millions of people out of poverty, including in Mexico, where I live. A systematic economic change would cause worldwide chaos.

Sincerely, Christopher Groff ’88 (Guadalajara, Mexico)

ALUMNI BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Candice (Cerro ’09) Aragon President and Regent Representative Andrew Brown ’09 Vice President, Alumni Involvement & Recognition Julie (Heller ’89) Herder Vice President, University Relations Karsten Lundring ’65 Vice President, Development Jean Helm, MBA ’00 Secretary Erin (Rivers ’97) Rulon, MBA ’06 Immediate Past President VOTING MEMBERS Joanne (Satrum ’67) Cornelius, MA ’74 Sal Sandoval ’78 AT-LARGE MEMBERS Sergio Galvez ’03, MPPA ’09 Irene (Tyrrell ’00) Moyer Reggie Ray ’92, MBA ’04 Brandi Schnathorst, MBA ’10 REPRESENTATIVES John Basmajian ’20 ASCLU-G Jennifer Jones McIntyre ’17, MBA ’20 GASC Angela (Namba ’02) Rowley, MS ’05 Faculty

OFFICE OF ALUMNI & FAMILY RELATIONS Rachel Ronning ’99 Lindgren Senior Director Stephanie Hessemer Associate Director Steven Guetzoian Assistant Director Jana Weber Administrative Assistant

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