2018
Summer Faso (B.A., Psychology) is a special education teacher for the Moreland School District in San Jose, California. She is working on obtaining a Moderate-to-Severe Education Specialist Instruction Credential at San Jose State University while working full time. Faso says she cannot wait to change the lives of special education students and teach them the skills they need to become successful citizens. Kelly Galten (B.A., Human Communication) moved to San Luis Opispo, California, wrote a novel for National Novel Writing Month and is working on publishing her poetry. Jordan Leininger (B.A., Social and Behavioral Sciences) went on the trip of a lifetime to Egypt in February 2019. As a historian, Ancient Egypt is one of his favorite historical eras and seeing the amazing sites he had learned about his whole life was the most incredible experience, he said. Leininger is an artifacts specialist for the city of Monterey and manages, catalogues and conserves the city’s
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historical collection. He also helps create new exhibits and curates the city’s museums including Colton Hall, the birthplace of the state of California. In October 2018, he helped create a beer called “Dank & Dusty” with his favorite brewery, Alvarado Street Brewing Company, for the inaugural Monterey Peninsula Archives Crawl, a self-guided tour of at least 19 area archival collections. Leininger says he had a wonderful Service Learning experience at CSUMB and is proud to give back by working with new Service Learning students. Brittany Lopez (B.A., Psychology) earned her RADT(Registered Alcohol and Drug Technician) certification and was promoted to her current position as a substance abuse counselor with Geo Group, Inc.. She counsels recently released probationers and parolees at Monterey County Day Reporting Center. She is currently working on becoming a certified drug and alcohol abuse counselor. In her personal life, Lopez became engaged to a fellow CSUMB alumni. Dinora Martinez (B.A., Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures) served as an AmeriCorps literacy tutor at a Salinas elementary school for one year after graduation. Upon completing her service year in July 2019, Martinez moved
Fa l l / W i n t e r 2 0 19 | C S U M B . E D U / M A G A Z I N E
to Southern California to begin working on her master’s degree in Spanish with a concentration in Chicana and Chicano Studies at Cal State Fullerton. Victor Martinez (Master of Social Work) has started his dream career as a psychiatric social worker providing an array of mental health and substance use services to youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Martinez works for the Monterey County Health Department and has had the opportunity to work alongside members of a multidisciplinary team from local non-profits, the probation department, social services, Monterey County Office of Education, and Natividad Medical Center. The team’s goal is to meet the holistic needs of youth and families, and provide the necessary resources for them to successfully navigate the county’s public systems.
Cristina Zaragoza (B.S., Biology) works as an embryology lab technician at Reproductive Science Center. Zaragoza says she wasn’t always sure about a career in the medical field, but now she loves
her work and the field of reproductive science.
2017 Maddison Burton (B.A., Social and Behavioral Sciences) earned her Master of Science in Human Resource Management from the University of Southern California in August 2018. Since October 2018 she has been working as an HR manager with the University Corporation at Monterey Bay. Iliana Cardosa (B.S., Collaborative Health & Human Services) had a baby boy, Joseph Axel Cardosa, on Feb. 13, 2019. Joseph has one older brother, Xavier.
Michelle Meissner (B.S., Kinesiology) graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in nursing. While at Columbia, she was awarded a Nursing Scholar scholarship for exemplary academia. She is now employed as a registered nurse at New York Presbyterian Hospital and plans to enroll in a doctor of nurse practitioner program.
