Occidental Magazine Fall 25

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Field Reports From Oxy’s Biology “A-Team”

Passion and Promise: Meet the Tigers of ’29

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Growing up in Manhattan Beach after World War II, Ron Hahn ’66 didn’t have a clear path to college. His father died when Ron was 8, and “No one in my immediate family was a college graduate,” he recalls. But he turned out to be a good student, and the UC system was the natural, affordable option. When Occidental Dean of Admission Ben McKendall came to his high school, he says, “the small school liberal arts description of Oxy fit me perfectly, with the added advantage that I was a reasonably successful athlete. In those days, Occidental was a Division I track school with a legacy of great athletes and fantastic coaches.”

Ron and Susan Hahn met in Ben Culley’s statistics class at Oxy. They have been married for 59 years.

oxy.edu/tigersgive

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Photo by Marc Campos

A campus visit, including a dinner with newly selected Rhodes Scholar Richard Hallin ’62, sold him on Oxy. The final hurdle was financial, but the College “simply made it happen,” he says, with a combination of scholarships and loans. That gesture forged a loyalty that has lasted a lifetime. Ron found his intellectual home in Oxy’s integrated curriculum. With its emphasis on philosophy, literature, art, music, and science, “History of Civilization stimulated my curiosity, which has carried through in my life,” he says. He majored in English— not as a career move, but for intellectual enrichment, trusting that the skills of thinking, writing, and speaking would be invaluable for any career. He went on to earn his MBA from UCLA and enjoy a successful career as a venture capital investor and entrepreneur in the life science technology and healthcare industries. After 13 years on the Occidental Board of Trustees, Ron rotated off the board in July—and in his parting remarks, “I emphasized that the key to Occidental is its faculty,” he says, “and supporting faculty and Oxy’s signature programs are the most important elements for the College to not only survive but prosper.” Under a Gift Intention Agreement finalized in 2025 and using the required minimum distributions from their separate IRAs, Ron and his wife, Susan (Cochrane) Hahn ’65, have established endowed funds in three signature programs: media arts and culture, music, and biology. “Susan and I are in a fortunate position to contribute these funds in real time,” he says, and their goal is to ensure these departments have the immediate resources to thrive. “Being on the board allowed me to meet faculty members, and I made a real effort to do that,” Ron adds. “The best of our faculty have options just like the best students we recruit.” To secure the brightest future for Occidental, he concludes, “We need to make sure that our professors and their programs are well supported—providing intellectually curious students with an intimate, faculty-intensive educational experience.”

A SORORITY ENDS: WHAT’S NEXT FOR DELTA HOUSE /// EMMY TALK WITH THREE OXY NOMINEES

Investing in the Future of Faculty

From uplifting inner-city scholars in South L.A. to prison moms in Colorado to a Monterey Park community in need, alumni embrace Occidental’s mission

Volume 47, Number 3 oxy.edu/magazine OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

Isaiah J. Thomas Associate Director of Students Director of Residental Education and Housing Services

Marcus Rodriguez Assistant Dean of Students Director of Student Leadership, Involvement & Community Engagement (SLICE)

Tom Stritikus President Kathryn Leonard Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Vivian Garay Santiago Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Amos Himmelstein Vice President & Chief Operating Officer Perrine Mann Vice President for Marketing & Communications Maricela L. Martinez Vice President of Enrollment Melissa Mount Vice President for Institutional Advancement James Uhrich Vice President & Chief Information Officer Rachael Warecki Senior Director of Communications editorial staff

Dick Anderson Editor Marc Campos College Photographer & Videographer Gail (Schulman) Ginell ’79 Class Notes Editor SanSoucie Design Design DLS Group Printing OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

Published three times a year by Occidental College Main number: 323-259-2500 To contact Occidental magazine By phone: 323-259-2679 By email: oxymag@oxy.edu By mail: Occidental College Office of Communications F-36 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314 Letters and class notes submissions may be edited for length, content, and style. Occidental College online Homepage: oxy.edu Facebook: facebook.com/occidental Instagram: instagram.com/occidentalcollege TikTok: occidentalcollege LinkedIn: linkedin.com/school/ occidental-college/ Isaiah: Orange Hooded Occidental Oswald Sweatshirt by Champion. Sizes S-XXL. $54.98 Marcus: Black Hooded Oxy Tigers Sweatshirt by MV Sport. Sizes S-XXL. $39.98

Occidental College Bookstore oxy.bncollege.com All major credit cards accepted Questions? Call 323-259-2630

Cover illustration by Sean McCabe Oxy Wear photo by Marc Campos

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Features 12 Tales of the Tigers of ’29 Curious, creative, and communityminded, Occidental’s newest class arrives with passion, purpose, and the promise to shape the future.

18 When Emmy Met Oxy From casting to costumes to music direction and composition, three Occidental alumni live out their Hollywood dreams while being honored by their peers.

21 The anterior head region of a deep sea spider—including its feeding appendages, proboscis, and mouth— taken by Professor Shana Goffredi via scanning electron microscopy.

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Departments Oxy Talk Art Peck ’77 brings his leadership acumen to the Board of Trustees at a time when Oxy’s mission —and messaging—are critical to its vitality.

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First Word President Stritikus on how Occidental students and faculty are asking profound questions, conducting rigorous research, and applying critical thinking to our biggest global challenges.

From the Quad A farewell toast to Delta Omicron Tau, a glow-up for Alpha sorority, a fall “three-feat” for athletics, and a talk with first-gen students and scholarship recipients Alyssa Zatarain ’29 and Sunny Tuazon ’29.

Last Page Evan Caulfield ’26 applies his urban and environmental policy education in the service of aiding Athens’ refugees during a 10-week social justice internship in Greece.

Tigerwire Class notes for all years.

26 Catalyzing the Public Good From uplifting inner-city scholars in South Los Angeles to prison moms in Colorado to a Monterey Park community in need, Oxy alumni embrace the College’s mission.

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Lessons in Biology Oxy’s biology program blends exploration and experimentation, empowering students to uncover and explain life’s diverse ecosystems.

Bonus content at oxy.edu/magazine Social Roots in the Rainforest Science, students, and synergy converge at La Selva Research Station. Kemp Lecturer Tim Miller The Bulwark podcaster and former GOP strategist discusses his political evolution and how to survive in an age of doomscrolling.

PHOTO CREDITS: Shana Goffredi Lessons in Biology | Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel When Emmy Met Oxy | Marc Campos First Word | Special Collections From the Quad | Cielito Lindo Tigerwire | Evan Caulfield ’26 Last Page

FIRST WORD » FROM PRESIDENT STRITIKUS

Community, Service, and the Oxy Promise Photo by Marc Campos

President Stritikus with Miracle Messages founder Kevin F. Adler ’07 and his wife, Tajah Tubbs, prior to Adler’s Community Book Program talk in Thorne Hall on October 24. Adler is author of When We Walk By: Forgotten Humanity, Broken Systems, and The Role We Can Play in Ending Homelessness in America.

Community and service are two of Occidental’s core values, and I view them as inseparable. When we belong to a community, we commit to serving it, and as our mission states, service is the ultimate purpose of a liberal arts education. There’s power in the combination of those values, both here on campus and through our network of thousands of alumni. When we work together toward a common goal— bolstered by our academic excellence and rooted in our dedication to the public good —our sheer numbers, diverse skillsets, and shared resources strengthen our efforts to improve the world around us. In recent months, Occidental has demonstrated the power of collaborative action by working with other colleges and universities to advance issues that are central to our educational mission. Last April, we were one of several institutions that signed an amicus brief submitted in the case of AAUP v. Rubio. Collectively, we asserted that the federal government’s targeting of international students for deportation and visa revocation, based on their perceived political views, would 2

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“When we work together toward a common goal—rooted in our dedication to the public good—our shared resources strengthen our efforts to improve the world around us.” chill free expression and discourage international enrollment. On September 30, a federal court ruled that the challenged policy violates the First Amendment. Although there is more work ahead, and we anticipate that future legal decisions will continue to impact our efforts, this ruling was an encouraging development for our collective academic communities as we advocate for our international students and the knowledge and perspectives they bring to our institutions. Earlier this year, I was honored to be elected the new board chair of the American

Council on Education (ACE), an organization that provides a unifying voice for U.S. higher education institutions. This role allows me to discuss and support policies at the national level that will also benefit our Oxy community. In October, the ACE board met to discuss the urgent issues facing higher education, including federal challenges to institutional autonomy and academic freedom. We were clear that these ideals are vital to our collective educational mission. Academic freedom serves the public good. And in service to our college and university communities of students, faculty colleagues, and fellow institutions, I stand steadfast in defense of these concepts and will continue to advocate for effective policies that help us all flourish. Of course, Occidental students and alumni are also devoted to exploring community-focused solutions to urgent, complex problems—on campus, in the Greater Los Angeles region, and all over the world. In this issue, you’ll learn about the sorority members who endowed the new Oxy Delta Scholarship, a handful of alumni whose work exemplifies the concept of “the public good,” and students who interned with organizations serving undocumented migrants newly arrived in Greece. Like those featured in these pages, I know that many of you are already working hard to create a more just, humane society. In our classrooms and in our Los Angeles community, I see our students and faculty engaged in scholarship of the highest quality, asking profound questions, conducting rigorous research, and applying critical thinking to some of our biggest global challenges—just as we’ve always done. As we reflect on the closing year, I hope you’ll join me in thinking about how we can continue our collective service, including here at Oxy.

Tom Stritikus

MIXED MEDIA Just Remember the Happy Hours: A Memoir of Innocence and Experience, by Jim Burns. From the frozen lakes of Wisconsin to the sun-scorched shadows of Paradise Valley, this coming-of-age memoir traces one boy’s fractured journey through the uneven terrain of love, loss, and family collapse. Jim’s childhood unfolds against the backdrop of his father’s unravelling sobriety, his mother’s bravado, and a background cast of socialites and misfits. His life is turned upside down when his father moves a prostitute into their home, sends him alone to buy ammunition, and dies of alcoholism. But the spirit endures, and a new chapter is written into Jim’s life when his mother survives a traumatic brain injury and he finds unexpected mentors, friends, and purpose in the wake of chaos. With both humor and tenderness, Just Remember the Happy Hours explores what it means to survive when the adults around you fail to grow up—and what it takes to reclaim your own story. Burns was adviser to The Occidental Weekly from 2011 to 2016. He retired from teaching in 2022 and lives in Ashland, Ore., with his wife, Barbara. The Literati, by Susan Keselenko Coll ’81 (Harper Muse). Aspirant, bookish, and close to broke, 26-yearold Clemi steps into her dream job at a prestigious literary nonprofit and finds herself in the bull’s-eye of a financial, legal, and existential calamity. The executive director has disappeared, leaving behind an inscrutable cat to which she is highly allergic. Meanwhile, the bank accounts have been overdrawn, the FBI is asking questions, and she has three days to pull off the annual fundraising gala, a glamorous affair filled with famous writers and local literati. Clemi finally gets to meet her literary idol, but awkward encounters with the author, her young son, and the nonprofit’s chaotic board make her wonder if some writers are best admired from afar. Meanwhile, her own life feels just as messy—her poseur boyfriend disappoints, the clock is ticking on her apartment-sitting gig is ending, and she’s unsure how this scandal-prone nonprofit relates to literature at all. In her seventh novel, Coll weaves together a witty and warm comedy of manners

that offers a peek behind the literary curtain—one that anyone who’s ever been a little bit uncertain of what the future might hold can relate to. Coll works at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., and was president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation for five years. Write a Romantasy: 99 Writing Prompts to Craft a Tale of Heart and Heroism, by Erik Patterson ’00 (Simon and Schuster). Master the romantic fantasy genre—romantasy for short—with this ultimate guide full of tips for aspiring authors and seasoned writers alike looking to craft their dream romantasy novel. Patterson guides writers through the tropes and themes in the genre, then offers prompts that will not only engage the

writer’s creativity but will also spark ideas for uncharted possibilities and fresh perspectives. Patterson is an award-winning screenwriter, writing teacher, playwright, and creator of Your Daily Writing Prompt on TikTok. If romantasy is not your thing, check out Write a Dystopian Novel, also by Patterson; he’s currently writing the third book in the series, Write a Horror Novel, which is scheduled for release next May. Khoda Hafez … Goodbye Iran (second edition), by John Doolittle ’66 (JBD Publishing). Together with his wife, Nora ’67, and their two small children, John Doolittle moved to Tehran, Iran, in 1978 to take a job with a subsidiary of AT&T. What was supposed to be just a foreign assignment evolved

into being a witness to a revolution—and the last ruling days of the Shah of Iran. Goodbye Iran tells the story of ordinary daily life, interspersed with demonstrations and riots, through the eyes of John and his family, company security notices, and various news media. Readers will discover that the way Iranians live their lives differs from the Western world; it isn’t wrong—just different. It also becomes clear that when people seek change, they can achieve it even against tremendous odds. Iran is transformed into a new form of government, one that impacts all aspects of everyday life. In the very end, the Shah of Iran and the author leave on the same day, never to return again. Doolittle majored in economics at Oxy and earned his MBA from UC Berkeley. He is retired from SBC Pacific Bell and lives with his wife in Northern California. The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter, by Barbara Carroll Roberts ’78 (Penguin Random House). The first day at E.D. Britt Middle School does not go well for Bunny Baxter, whose social anxiety and flaming red hair make blending in impossible. After a string of embarrassing accidents—including tripping into the cutest boy in school and causing cafeteria chaos—Bunny decides her only option is to get expelled so she can transfer back to her old school. Breaking the rules comes surprisingly easy to Bunny, but as her plan starts to work, she begins to question what she truly wants. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter is a heartfelt coming-of-age story about an insect-loving girl who is learning to grow into herself—quirks and all. Roberts lives in Virginia with her husband, two cats, and a “very goofy” springer spaniel. Waiting for Britney Spears: A True Story, Allegedly, by Jeff Weiss ’03 (Macmillan). Fresh out of Oxy, Weiss hit the streets of L.A. as an aspiring writer. When he wasn’t chasing his literary dreams, he was in hot pursuit of the Princess of Pop, tracking Spears’ every “Yeah” for a tabloid. In Waiting for Britney Spears, a club-friendly mix of fact and fanfic, Weiss documents the excesses of celebrity culture in the early 2000s through the legend of the “last great pop star.” FALL 2024 2025

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FROM THE QUAD Photos by Don Milici and Kevin Burke

Members of Delta Omicron Tau spanning five decades raise a glass at the Delta House one last time on October 19.

Change Comes to Delta House After 124 years, Delta Omicron Tau raises a glass to its history with a farewell toast—but its legacy will continue as a cornerstone of the Oxy community 4

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When Amie Moberg Hammond ’95 was president of Delta Omicron Tau sorority, she had to race back to the Delta House after cross country practice because they were hosting a recruitment event. “Everyone was dressed up, while I showed up in my running clothes and a sweaty ponytail,” she recalls. “I felt out of place but I went ahead as I was.” Afterward, a sister told Hammond that some rushees admired the fact that she came straight from practice unadorned. “I wasn’t just ‘the president’ or ‘a Delta’—I was simply being myself,” she says. “That moment has always stayed with me because it captured what Delta truly stood for: a space where everyone could be their authentic selves and be cared for just as they were.” One year shy of its 125th anniversary, Delta Omicron Tau closed—a decision that reflects an ongoing decline in membership and comes after a year in which only four students lived in the nine-bedroom Delta House. On October 19, alumnae of Occidental’s second-oldest sorority gathered one last time at the house for a farewell toast—a bit-

tersweet moment marking the end of an era defined by sisterhood and campus tradition. But it doesn’t spell the end of the Delta legacy. Through the efforts of Delta alumnae, Delta House has been purchased by the College, which will use the property for student housing for seniors. Proceeds from the sale have been returned to Occidental to support the Delta Sorority Endowed Scholarship. “It only made sense to donate the money back to Oxy and keep the Delta legacy,” says Julie Scheiter Pearson ’87. “We are gratified that Occidental students will continue to share in the spirit of Delta for years to come.” The sorority was struggling two decades ago when a group of Deltas that included Stacey Stefflre ’00, Caroline Van Oosterom Reyes ’00, Susan Leher ’00, Lynn Brotemarkle Dann ’84, and Pearson became involved as alumnae board members. “We went through a lot to get back to being financially stable, and making Delta House a nicer place to live,” Dann says. Under their guidance, Delta House’s roof was replaced, new windows were installed,

FROM THE QUAD

far left: The Delta House, left, and a neighboring house on Armadale Avenue in 1917. left: Deltas on the staircase, circa 1984. below: Front row (l-r): Deborah Salzillo ’00, Samantha Koos Hacker ’01, and Laura Krapa ’97. Back row: Lisa Spencer ’99, Caroline Van Oosterom Reyes ’00, Stacey Stefflre ’00, Amanda Berger Rosen ’98, Ann Marie Clarke ’97, and Natalie Austin ’97.

above: In recent years, the sorority invested significantly in the upkeep of Delta House, but a decline in active membership and corresponding drop in occupancy made it difficult to sustain. right: From left, seniors Maya Christianson, Madison Valiente, and Anna Lisu Beatty are the last class of Deltas.

bathrooms were updated, and kitchen appliances were upgraded. The property resumed housing 11 Deltas nearly year-round. The sorority membership grew, reaching over 100 members during the 2010s. Fundamental to the strong community of sisterhood, Delta House “was just a place where I felt like I belonged,” Dann says. “Even before we lived in the house, we could go down and sit in the living room and watch TV. It always had that sense of community where people could share life experiences. I got engaged in the living room of the Delta House. My maid of honor was a Delta as well. Even though Oxy is such a small campus, we still needed that kind of closer-knit group.” Other memories are stitched from the texture of daily life: “Sitting on a hardwood floor, singing silly songs, eating green food, and making magic out of nothing,” recalls Amanda Berger Rosen ’98. Judy Sternberg Finley ’98 remembers “I-nights, random fun, and finding triangles in your books and clothes for years and decades after graduation.”

For many, nostalgia gravitates toward the house itself—its nooks, architectural quirks, and well-loved furnishings. Carole Johnson Melis ’73 M’74 fondly remembers the sleeping porch with its “precariously balanced bunk beds.” Dorothy Talbert Richardson ’86 still laughs about being known as “Dot the DOT at the DOT House!” “I remember our Stewie contingent camping outside Dean Brig Knauer’s office freshman year to get our applications in,” says Janet Kruse Alcorn ’81. “I remember learning the house songs—especially ‘The Doorbell Song’; polishing the silver for rush events; the yearly surprise Green Nights; passing the candle; and the words we recited to welcome new members after Hell Night was over.” (“‘The Doorbell Song’ was started by our pledge class,” Nancy Anderson Kuechle ’75 notes. “So glad it was part of the Delta tradition!”) For generations of alumnae, the friendships forged in Delta’s rooms transcend their time in the house. “When the pandemic hit, all of us wanted to check in with each other

to make sure we were all OK,” Esther Shin Teodoro ’95 recalls. “From that was born the Pandemic Happy Hour, a monthly Zoom call where we connected and caught up on our lives. We chatted about our jobs, our kids, how we were surviving through the isolation. We sent each other fun gifts that we could all wear during our calls and traded recipes. It was a lifeline during a truly tough time— and since then, that group chat continues.” In 1914, the members of Delta Omicron Tau pulled together the resources to purchase a newly built house on Armadale Avenue that would serve as its permanent home. In the decades to follow as the membership grew, the space remained largely unchanged. “Do I need to remind you of the small kitchen, the wardrobe situation, and the bathroom facilities?” a May 1952 letter to the Delta membership noted. “We are housing 10 girls in four bedrooms, and this same tiny kitchen is used to serve 40 people once a week at least.” Plans called for a larger living room, a new kitchen and service porch, entrance FALL 2025

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FROM THE QUAD

above left: From left, Hannah Baillie Stowe ’14, Grace O’Hara ’14, and Alice Ottoson-McKeen ’14 page through a Delta memory book. above right: From left, Akiko Yonekawa ’99, Allison Hooper ’99, Ruby Grigorians Baghdassarian ’98, Lauren Hawkins ’99, President Tom Stritikus, Amanda Berger Rosen ’98, and April Dreisbach Kelley ’99. right: Delta Alumnae Board officers Julie Scheiter Pearson ’87, Baillie, and Lynn Brotemarkle Dann ’84.

hall, and 10-foot terrace. Upstairs, the project added three bedrooms, a sleeping porch, more wardrobe space, and a new bath. With financial support from Occidental, the $21,000 modernization expanded the home to roughly 4,000 square feet while preserving its badminton court and garage. (Oxy comptroller Fred McLain committed to a $15,000 loan to support the construction—a debt repaid over the next decade with the rent paid by active members.) When Edith Powell, Alice Bond, and Frances Poor founded Delta in 1901, they established seven values: Wisdom, Tolerance, Integrity, Compassion, Peace, Joy, and Love. “Those values guided the organization and its members for over a century,” Hammond says. “I saw them embodied by my sisters in the 1990s. When I attended the closing ceremony and met the final members from the Class of 2026, I saw these values were still embodied by them decades later.” Anna Lisu Beatty ’26 looked at sorority life as an opportunity to meet people outside her spheres of interest. “I was a member of the Occidental Dance Team and one of my teammates, Allison Wilson ’23, belonged to Delta,” she says. 6

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above: Alison Heidergott ’95, Janet McIntyre ’96, Esther Shin Teodoro ’95, Amie Moberg Hammond ’95, and Anh-Luu Huynh Hohnbaum ’95 hold triangles of gladness and other Delta memorabilia on display.

Likewise, Madison Valiente ’26 took an interest in sororities during I-Fair and met her best friend, Bella Flad ’25, through the rush experience. “Bella was an active Delta and we just started chatting,” she recalls. Valiente and Beatty both lived in Delta House their sophomore year along with the third remaining Delta, Maya Christianson ’26, and two older sisters. It was a “great” experience, Valiente says: “We’d do homework sessions, have game nights, and binge-watch shows—we watched a lot of Doctor Who.” At the end of Rush Week, members shared their most memorable Delta moments, Christianson says, and the memory she always shared was a Bingo challenge her sophomore year that turned campus traditions into a playful competition. “We had this Bingo board that we made of things that we wanted to do by the end of the semester,” she says. “Everybody had the same things on their board, but we shuffled them so that everybody had different ways to win.” She and her big sister, Isabella Fernandes ’23, tackled many of the tasks together, but not in a way that would complete the other’s Bingo card. “That was really special and a fun way to experience Oxy. Some of it was Delta House stuff too—like going into the attic,

which we weren’t allowed to do. But we did, and there were some cockroaches up there. It was very scary,” Christianson notes with a laugh. “But we did it because we needed to get our Bingo boards.” Hannah Baillie Stowe ’14 and her fellow actives threw a 100th-anniversary party for Delta House her senior year. “We got new couches, new rugs, a new table, a new end table, and new lamps,” she recalls. “I made some salesman’s day at Ashley Furniture.” For Baillie—who serves as an alumnae board member—Delta House “was a safe space that embodied what I wanted in a community. Even looking back now, I think, ‘Oh yeah, that was my home.’ Delta had that real warmth to it. Or maybe it was the orange couches that got me.” Evie Wasson ’21 concurs: “Two things that can’t be beat about Delta are the people and those couches—I could sleep the rest of my life on those things.” Reflecting the sentiment of many Deltas, Beatty says, “The beautiful part for me is the fact that there’s not one memory in particular that stands out. It’s the culmination of every little moment we spent together that built our sisterhood.”—DICK ANDERSON

Archival photos courtesy Occidental College Special Collections | 2025 photos by Don Milici

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At 125, Alpha Sorority Gets a Glow-up A multigenerational group of dedicated alumnae comes together to renovate their beloved Alpha House and restore governance to the thriving sisterhood

In the late 1920s, Occidental President Remsen Bird announced an ambitious plan to build sorority houses on campus near the newly constructed women’s dormitories, Orr and Erdman halls. “It was to be an elaborate complex, including a swimming pool and tennis courts,” Addie McMenamin ’40 wrote in a history of Alpha Lambda Phi Alpha sorority. “Alphas raised almost enough for a down payment on one of the proposed campus sorority houses —and then the plan was called off.” Two decades later, the Alphas finally bought their own house in 1947. Built in 1931 and located at 4549 Alumni Avenue, the 4,000square-foot structure was financed with loans from individual Alphas, $5,500 in bonds (the product of “many rummage sales” and other benefit events, McMenamin noted), and a mortgage held by the College, which the chapter paid off in seven years. Alpha sorority was founded in 1900 as a literature club for women at Occidental—and for nearly 80 years, the Alpha House has been synonymous with cultivating lifelong friendships and sisterhood. After nearly a decade without alumnae oversight, however, the house was deteriorating rapidly—a situation that accelerated following the pandemic. An upstairs bathroom plumbing problem led to the collapse of the ceiling below. A first-floor room, damaged by a huge sewer leak, was exposed to the elements and had been cordoned off with hazard tape. Mold was spreading, and in the summer of 2022, an inspection of the house revealed asbestos in the vents and problems with the windows.

above & inset: Snapshots from the first 50 years of Alpha Lambda Phi Alpha. left: Alpha sorority held an open house on October 18 during Homecoming & Family Weekend. Attendees spanned eight decades of Alphas— from the current membership (around 40 sisters) to trustee chair emerita Ginny Goss Cushman ’55, seated, center, who lived in the house as a junior and senior.

“We didn’t really know the half of it until we saw 1950 the damage,” recalls Tracy Merritt ’84, who spent more than two years working with Alphas from multiple eras (including ’84 classmates Susan Bradley Krant and Cris Humbaugh Weekes) to shore up the governance structure of the organization and restore the house to livability. They tapped members with fundraising and legal expertise and gathered bids from construction firms. A recent graduate, Carol Beckett ’20, organized a GoFundMe campaign in 2022 that raised nearly $40,000 for emergency repairs. (The total cost of the renovation ran well into six figures.) Now, Merritt says, “We have a mortgage and construction is essentially complete.” Two years after the house was declared uninhabitable, six Alphas moved in at the start of the school year, and twice that number have shown an interest in living there next fall. “I almost cried when I saw a picture of their first meeting back in the house,” she says.

“One of the big reasons why we wanted to live in the Alpha House is that you got to live with your friends,” she adds. “We had 14 to 16 women living there when I was at Oxy, and that experience was incredible.” With their maintenance issues under control, the alumnae leadership hopes to reestablish the sense of community that is as important to young women today as it was to their predecessors—a sentiment to which Ginny Goss Cushman ’55 can relate. “It was a different time and place when I was a student, but I loved my experience as an Alpha,” she says. “We had a houseboy, and the girls had dinner together there every night. We were supposed to make our beds every day —and the house mother checked.” After graduation, Cushman’s pledge class of 15 members started a round robin letter that remains active to this day. “There are still six of us keeping it going,” she says. “I made lasting friendships and that’s what I think a sorority is supposed to be.” —DICK ANDERSON FALL 2025

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FROM THE QUAD

Unlocking the Future For first-generation college students Alyssa Zatarain ’29 and Sunny Tuazon ’29, current-year scholarship support opened the doors to an Oxy education

It was luck of the room draw that brought first-years Sunny Tuazon of San Jose and Alyssa Zatarain of Inglewood together in Chilcott Hall this fall. But they quickly found that they had much in common. Both are first-generation college students, both have pretty much settled on a major, and both are in Eagle Rock thanks in part to the generosity of current-year scholarship support that is making the Oxy experience more accessible. Two $1 million gifts from anonymous donors will create 20 current-year scholarship gifts of $25,000 per year for members of the Class of 2029. “Without real financial support, many talented students can’t afford to attend or graduate without crippling debt,” says one donor, who hopes their gift will inspire others with the capacity to support Oxy. “Scholarships ensure diversity, equity, and a richer academic and residential experience for everyone.” For a second donor couple—one of whom attended Occidental as a “scholarship kid”— they see their contribution as a way to help students step into a world that can be formative, eye-opening, and potentially life-changing. “Giving back means helping someone else have the experience that changed my life,” they say. “It feels meaningful to share those opportunities with others.” In looking at colleges, Tuazon believed she would benefit from the liberal arts experience. “I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity that Occidental has given me,” she says. “I felt like I needed that smaller class size to better connect with my peers and faculty, as well as a diverse, creative, and collaborative environment where I could be my authentic self.” Oxy checked those boxes, she says, and one other non-negotiable: “The website said they meet 100 percent financial need—and coming from a low-income family, I couldn’t afford to settle for less.” In speaking with her professors at office hours, “I feel supported both emotionally and academically,” she adds. Her first English 8

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Photos (pages 8-9) by Marc Campos

Current year scholarship recipients Alyssa Zatarain and Sunny Tuazon are also roommates at Occidental.

class—Shakespeare and Film, taught by Associate Professor Ross Lerner—has been such an “awesome” experience that’s she already declared her major: “I’m excited to see what the rest of the department has to offer.” Outside the classroom, Tuazon is working for Project SAFE, a prevention education and advocacy support program dedicated to ending sexual violence on campus. “The work we do is important,” she says, “and I love seeing people show up to our events.” When Zatarain was visiting prospective colleges, she was looking for “a supportive community, strong resources, and students who were genuinely excited about what they were learning. I loved how Oxy combines a tight-knit community with the creativity and diversity of Los Angeles,” she says. “It felt like the perfect balance for me.” She’s eyeing a major in media arts and culture: “I’ve always been fascinated by how the media shapes the way we see the world

and how it can be used to promote different causes and tell meaningful stories. I’m also excited to explore film production and see if that’s a path I want to pursue further.” As an active member of the Latine Student Union at Oxy, “I always look forward to our meetings and events because they give me a chance to connect with other Latino students and celebrate our shared culture,” Zatarain says. “The group has really helped me find a sense of belonging on campus because it’s a space where I feel understood and supported.” Reflecting the feelings of many first-generation college students, she adds, “It’s not always easy to imagine myself at a place where I can fully explore my passions and learn new things about myself and the world around me. But thanks to this generous scholarship and the people who believed in my potential, I feel even more motivated and inspired to make the most of my time here. I am truly grateful for this opportunity.”

FROM THE QUAD

From left, trustee Bob Johnson ’77, artist Kenturah Davis ’02, and President Harry J. Elam Jr. in the Ahmanson Reading Room.

A Portrait Worth a Thousand Words Harry J. Elam Jr. takes his place among the gallery of Oxy presidents in the Academic Commons—and artist Kenturah Davis ’02 reveals how she captured his dreams on canvas

Writing is a way of drawing for Kenturah Davis ’02, whose art has been exhibited on every continent and is held in more than 25 collections. When she was commissioned to create the official portrait of Occidental’s 16th president, Harry J. Elam Jr., “Without any hesitation I said ‘Yes,’” she recalled. Thus began a collaboration between the artist and her subject that culminated in the unveiling of the finished portrait, fittingly enough, during a Homecoming & Family Weekend ceremony that brought Elam and his wife, Michele, back to campus October 17. “My experience here as a student really shaped the kind of artist I am today,” said Davis, who now shares a studio in Altadena with her art-making professor, Linda Lyke. “I’m really invested in how our lives are shaped by the ways we use language.” After Davis photographed Elam in her studio, she asked him for some texts that had

personal meaning to him. “With my process, I essentially make these text drawings thinking about how we embody language that we absorbed over time,” she says. “And then I incorporate that text into the image.” For Elam’s portrait, a selection of four texts is embedded into the paper. They include two poems—“Dream Street,” by Elam’s sister, Patricia Elam Walker, and “Dreams,” by Langston Hughes; “As Long as a Man Has a Dream in His Heart,” by Howard Thurman; and an excerpt from Fences by August Wilson, the playwright to whom Elam has devoted years of study. (A production of Fences directed by Elam won eight Bay Area “Choice” Awards in 2010.) There’s a dream theme to these texts. “I had big dreams—I still do—for this place,” Elam said at the reception. “I was touched by all that I saw and experienced here. It was an incredible time to be at the College.”

In figuring out how to weave the different texts together, Davis said she wanted to break it up in a way that doesn’t just read in a conventional format. From a distance, she noted, the text is barely visible. But as the viewer gets closer, “There’s this tension going on where the text jumps out at you.” As someone who is “self-critical” of her work, “I’m very happy with this portrait,” Davis said, turning to Elam: “I think it evokes the energy and spirit that we encounter as your colleagues and friends and supporters.” Elam’s portrait will soon take up residence in the Ahmanson Reading Room, where the portraits of many of his predecessors are on display. Gesturing to a portrait of John Brooks Slaughter during the reception, Davis said, “When I entered this school, this fine person sitting just above us was Oxy’s president. So, in a way, this feels like coming ethnically full circle.” FALL 2025

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FROM THE QUAD

left: The men’s soccer team celebrated on Patterson Field on November 8 after their 10 victory over the University of Redlands. With the win, the Tigers earned the SCIAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. below: Utility player Atticus Wahab-Holles ’28, a psychology major from Portland, Ore., during the Tigers’ playoff match vs. Whittier on November 18 at De Mandel Aquatics Center.

Oxy’s Fall Three-Feat Men’s soccer nets its second SCIAC title in three years, while women’s soccer and men’s water polo return to postseason play after sensational seasons

For the second time in three years, the Oxy men’s soccer team punched its ticket to the NCAA National Tournament, securing a 1-0 victory over Redlands on November before a boisterous home crowd at Patterson Field. Following a scoreless first half, the match remained knotted until the 64th minute of play, when Charlie Miller ’27 broke through, assisted by Elijah Edelman ’27, to score what would be the winning goal. Oxy’s defense also played a critical role, with goalkeeper Sammy Gramlich ’27 recording a late save to maintain the shutout. One week later in Minneapolis, the Tigers fell to No. 2 seed Augsburg University, 3-1, in the opening round of the tournament. Oxy finished the season with a 10-6-4 record. Trailing 3-0, the Tigers’ lone goal came in the second half, when Tyler Na-Nakornpanom ’26 finished off his career with an assist from Justin Nishimoto ’26 in the 77th minute to get the Tigers on the scoreboard. In All-SCIAC honors, Oxy forward Devin Bening ’28 was named Offensive Athlete of the Year. Bening led the line for a potent Tigers offense that scored a conference-leading 27 goals. Bening topped the individual conference scoring chart with eight goals in 11 games. Other First Team honorees included 10

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Photos by Sam Leigh

All-SCIAC forward Mia Steadman ’27 fends off a charge from Sagehen Ava Watanabe during Oxy’s September 20 contest at Pomona-Pitzer.

Cooper Gersch ’27 and Vicente Navarro ’26, while Aden Aley ’26 and Ayden Rieke-Wey ’28 were named Second Team. It was a comeback season for women’s soccer, which rode its first win in the SCIAC tournament since 2018 all the way to the conference semifinal. The Tigers fell to No. 1

seed Pomona-Pitzer on November 5, 3-0, to end their season at 8-7-2. The Tigers were sparked by the play of Mia Steadman ’27, an economics major from Palo Alto. The 5'5" forward was named SCIAC Offensive Athlete of the Week on October 6—the first Oxy women’s soccer player so honored since the award’s introduction. In men’s water polo, the Tigers overcame choppy nonconference waters en route to a 6-6 conference finish, earning them the No. 4 seed in the SCIAC Tournament. Oxy’s season ended on November 18 with a 16-11 loss to Whittier at De Mandel Aquatics Center. Seniors Jack Schroeder and Travis Hughes were named Second Team All-SCIAC. It’s the first All-SCIAC honor for Schroeder, who was twice named SCIAC Defensive Athlete of the Week this season. The Tigers keeper led the conference in saves (239), was third in save percentage (.385), and earned nine of the Tigers’ 11 wins in goal, including all six conference victories, helping the Tigers to their first SCIAC Tournament berth since his freshman year in 2022. In repeating as a Second Team All-SCIAC selection, Hughes finished fourth in the conference in assists (50) and fifth in points (102), and ends his Oxy career with 154.

FROM THE QUAD

Meet the 2025 Athletics Hall of Famers Reiner Kolodinski ’81, Rebecca Kopchik Carcamo ’94, Murray Via ’54, Olivia Sabins, and Jacqueline Shimamoto ’14 join a select group of Oxy legends Photo by Marc Campos

The Occidental Athletics Hall of Fame welcomed five new inductees with a spirited ceremony in Cannon Plaza—site of the old Taylor Pool—on October 19, with coaches, family, teammates, and colleagues inducting this year’s honorees. Established in 2012, the Hall of Fame recognizes outstanding achievement in competition, service, dedication, and commitment to Oxy athletics. Murray Via ’54 is Occidental’s all-time batting leader in baseball with a .435 career average and holds the school single-season batting record at .500 (in 1954). Playing center field for Coach Bill Anderson, Via was selected First Team All-Conference for three consecutive years and co-captained the championship 1954 team, which was inducted into the Oxy Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019. Jacqueline Shimamoto ’14 is Oxy’s alltime hits leader in softball. A four-time AllSCIAC selection and two-time First Team pick, she leads the Tigers in a number of performance metrics, including career batting average (.422), career hits (139), and most hits in a single season (50, in 2014). Hitting .455 her senior year, Shimamoto was a second team National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Region selection in 2014. Reiner Kolodinski ’81 M’01, a 5'11" point guard, led the Tigers to the SCIAC men’s basketball championship with an 11-1 confer-

ence mark and advanced to the NCAA Division III Western Regional playoffs. He was selected as All-SCIAC Second Team in 1979, and All-SCIAC First Team and All-District in 1980. After graduating from Oxy, Kolodinski played pro basketball in Germany for two years with ASC Göttingen in the Basketball Bundesliga, and was a member of the 1983 German championship team. A two-time SCIAC champion in cross country (1991 and 1993), Rebecca Kopchik Carcamo ’94 is widely considered Oxy’s best-ever female distance runner. A seventime Division III All-American in cross coun-

left: Left to right, Reiner Kolodinski ’81 M’01, Rebecca Kopchik Carcamo ’94, Murray Via ’54, Olivia Sabins, and Jacqueline Shimamoto ’14 gathered prior to the Oxy Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony at Cannon Plaza on October 19.

try and track and field, she was the 5k national champion in track and field in 1992 (with a time of 17:57.46) and national runner-up in cross country in 1991 (with a personal-best time of 17:33). Department Coordinator Olivia Sabins joined the Occidental Athletics Department in February 1989 and was a mainstay of the department for more than 36 years, retiring in June. She was known as the welcoming face of Oxy athletics, supporting thousands of students and staff and helping foster the department’s family-like culture—which was evident on a morning full of Tiger pride. FALL 2025

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Curious, creative, and community-minded, Occidental’s newest class arrives with passion, purpose, and the promise to shape the future

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ROM ATHLETES AND ACTIVISTS TO artists and enthusiasts, the 437 members of the Occidental Class of 2029 are making their own kind of music. Hailing from 21 countries, 37 states, the District of Columbia, and the North Mariana Islands, each Tiger is eager to make a mark on the world, whether through combating climate change, improving children’s mental health, or building better sports teams. What else can we tell you about the Class of ’29? We reached out to a handful of first-years (and a transfer student from the Class of ’27) to learn all about them. You’ll meet a cellist, a contortionist, and a data analyst, to name but three. Odds are you’ll be hearing more from them in the years to come.

By LAURA FERREIRO Photos by ROBERT MACAISA

Riko Hibino Seattle It’s easy to complain if there’s something you don’t like, but taking action to improve matters is a whole different ball game. Just ask softball player Riko Hibino, who started a petition to improve women’s athletic facilities in public parks in her hometown of Seattle, since their poor condition often resulted in games being canceled when it rained.

Riko’s activism captured the attention of a local news station and The Seattle Times. “I hate public speaking, and the attention was really scary for me,” she recalls. But she gathered more than 1,350 signatures and learned that she can use her voice and passion to rally people behind an important cause. “The support I got made me realize that even if it doesn’t feel like your voice is actually that big, it can help make other people feel more heard, even if it doesn’t succeed.” A two-year captain and MVP of her Lincoln High School softball team with a 4.0 GPA, she also was involved in Lynx, a program that helps ninth-graders navigate high school life. “When I was a freshman, my Lynx crew leader was very helpful, so I wanted to do that for other freshmen,” Riko explains. She ended up mentoring students her sophomore through senior year. “They still reach out to see how college is going,” she says of some of her former mentees. When her older sister was touring colleges several years ago, Occidental made quite an impression—on Riko (her sister wound up enrolling at Bellevue College close to home). The neighborhoods surrounding Occidental give off a small community vibe “that reminds me of Seattle,” Riko says. An avid music lover, “My friends and I go to a lot of concerts,” she adds, naming Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, Rilo Kiley, and Waxahatchee as bands she’s seen since arriving in L.A. Riko hopes to combine her love of sports with data science and turn it into a career. A sports journalist once told her how, by analyzing pitch statistics, someone developed the software to make a good bullpen for pitchers, which she found inspiring. “I’ve always been a more STEM-oriented person,” she says, “and being able to translate that into a sport and a career, possibly as a baseball data analyst, is very interesting to me.”

Rhys has volunteered with NYC Bird Alliance’s Injured Bird Response Team and was drawn to the Moore Lab at Oxy.

Rhys Randlett Brooklyn Good marketing copy can be very effective. Just ask Rhys Randlett, who was drawn to Occidental after reading a pamphlet that boasted the campus has a very high birdto-student ratio. (It’s true: “With 68,000 bird specimens and 1,900 students, our bird-to-student ratio is a whopping 38:1, far above our peer institutions,” says Professor of Biology John McCormack, director and curator of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology.) “That’s what caught my attention initially,” says the bird-loving aspiring biology major, who interned at the Wild Bird Fund animal shelter on New York City’s Upper West Side throughout his time as a student at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn. “I’ve always loved animals,” Rhys adds. “I found an injured pigeon and found a place we could take it to for help, and I inquired if they offered volunteer positions.” They did and Rhys immediately signed on to help.

After starting out cleaning animal cages and preparing food, he graduated to “more glamorous tasks” helping the vets with physical therapy and medication administration. This hands-on experience piqued Rhys’ interest in becoming a veterinarian. “I’d love to be a vet, but I’m a freshman and I don’t have that much direction at this point, which is another thing that attracted me to Oxy. There’s very little pressure on you to figure it out in the first three years.” One thing is certain: He’d like to work at Oxy’s Moore Lab, which gives undergrads the opportunity to study bird diversity, do DNA research, and help protect birds. In his free time, Rhys has been exploring Los Angeles neighborhoods on his bike. “L.A.’s not so different from New York,” he declares. “It’s a lot more sprawled out, obviously, and a little bit more difficult to navigate, but there are a lot of similarities.” FALL 2025

Statistically speaking, the Class of 2029 is 56 percent women, 38 percent men, and 6 percent nonbinary.

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Andres Campuzano Ocampo Medellín, Colombia Andres Campuzano Ocampo is quite literally a student of the world. Hailing from Colombia, he spent a gap year attending United World College (UWC) Mahindra in Pune, India, before enrolling at Occidental. “I loved living in India so much,” says Andres, who attended UWC Mahindra through the Davis UWC Scholars Program—the world’s largest privately funded international scholarship program—after his initial application was rejected. “Over 10,000 people applied and only 16 got selected,” he recalls. Undeterred, he waited another year, applied a second time, and was awarded a scholarship to attend Mahindra. Once Andres was there, he embarked on a yearlong adventure exploring new cultures and languages and meeting people from different backgrounds. “It gave me a new point of view on the world and it was a huge opportunity to grow,” he says.

Studying in India for a year “gave me a new point of view on the world and it was a huge opportunity to grow,” Andres says.

Growing up in Medellín, Andres was acutely aware of its reputation as the home of drug lord Pablo Escobar and the notorious Medellín cartel that operated in the city. “That was impactful for me—I didn’t want my city to be known for that,” he explains. In response, Andres channeled his energies into doing something positive for marginalized groups and became an LGBTQ advocate in his home city, where homophobia and violence against community members is common. “My brother is transgender, so growing up I wasn’t afraid to discover my sexuality,” explains Andres, who identified as gay at an early age. “When I told my family that I was homosexual, it was very normal. But I realize that for some people in my city, that’s not normal. So, I volunteered for an organization that went to schools in rural areas and showed that having a different sexual orientation is normal.” Andres and his fellow volunteers talked to approximately 50,000 people over his four years in the program. A subsequent survey of the residents of that area suggests that people’s perspectives have evolved over time, and now fewer of them view homosexuality as “an illness or a mistake,” he says. “It was incredible the impact that we had, and it felt very good.” After college, Andres aspires to work with the U.N. and in parts of Colombia “where we don’t have enough quality education,” he says. A first-generation college student, he plans to pursue economics and psychology as a double major. “Those subjects are not as different as people might think,” he insists. “Behavioral economics combines people’s decisions and market’s decisions related to money, and psychology explores how the human brain behaves and shapes us throughout our lives. I’m excited to mix both my passions and I think I can get something great from that.”

Sophie Cross Hood River, Oregon As captain of her water polo team at Hood River Valley High School, Sophie Cross had an unforgettable experience of heartbreak and triumph at the state finals her senior year. In the heated final match of her high school career, she got ejected from the game because of the “three kickouts” rule. “It was my last game, and it was really hard to sit on the sidelines,” Sophie says of the experience. “But since I was a leader on the team, my coach told me I needed to stay strong and be supportive for my teammates who were still in the pool. And that was a big lesson for me—to put others before myself and see how powerful a team that’s bonded can be.” All was not lost, and her team ended up winning the match. Sophie ended up being just as excited to support her teammates and provide encouragement from the sidelines as she would have been if she had played out the final game. 14

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María says her experience as a SHE-CAN Scholar— one of four representing Guatemala this year— “has made me realize how powerful a community of driven women can be.”

An outgoing student who enjoys performing, Sophie worked a winter job as an elf on the Mount Hood Railroad Polar Express throughout high school. “It’s a tourist train and it’s really fun,” she explains. “You get to be the opener for Santa and play with the kids and do magic.” Sophie enjoyed participating in theater in middle school, but it conflicted with water polo in high school, so she found another gratifying way to do what she loved. Born and raised in Oregon, Sophie was also captain of her high school swim team; led voter registration drives through Students Demand Action, a national organization that works to end gun violence; and served on the executive council of her school’s Gender-Sexuality Alliance. Impressed by Oxy’s good vibes and sunny weather, she decided to head south for college. “Oxy is close to home in Oregon—but not too close,” she says, adding that the abundance of opportunities and internships that “set you up for real life” was also enticing. With the women’s water polo season just months away, Sophie is settling into academic life at Oxy. She’s interested in studying diplomacy and world affairs and has set her sights on participating in the Kahane Oxy-atthe-U.N. program, which gives students the opportunity to gain firsthand experience through U.N.-affiliated internships in New York. “That would be a dream come true,” she says.

María Martínez Castellanos Guatemala When deciding where to attend college, María Martínez Castellanos knew she wanted to find a school with a close-knit community. “The people here at Oxy are very kind,” says the international student from Guatemala. “Already this first month I have found people who really support me. Professors take care of every one of their students—I was not expecting to have that much support.” As a scholar and participant in SHE-CAN, an organization that identifies high-achieving young women in Guatemala, Cambodia, and Liberia and supports them on their path to leadership, she learned how powerful a community of driven women can be. “The program has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” María says. “I hope to see more Guatemalan girls joining this community. Connecting with amazing women can inspire incredible change.” A member of Oxy’s Latine Student Union, María has also been participating in a program called Comparte, a FALL 2025

Most popular prospective majors for the Class of ’29: economics, biology, psychology, politics, and media arts and culture. (“Undecided” made a strong showing, too.)

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student-led service program that provides free English lessons for Oxy facilities staff. “Back home I used to teach English classes to beginners,” she explains. “I really like to interact with people, and I know it’s difficult to learn a new language, so l want to support them with what they need.” In addition to teaching, María is interested in children’s psychology. “I ran a program back home where I taught psychology workshops to sixth-graders, which helped me further define what I wanted to do with psychology,” says María, who plans to major in psychology with a minor in neuroscience. “In Guatemala, we don’t have a lot of child psychologists, so I’d like to help in the educational system back home and bring new ways to improve the public system there.” Lest you think that it’s all work and no play for María, she’s been exploring local beaches and the diverse cultural activities Los Angeles has to offer. “The Mexican culture is big here,” she says excitedly. “I really like that!”

A graduate of the École Nationale de Cirque in Montreal, Rosalie’s path to Oxy was circuitous: In the eyes of the American school system, she says, “I ran away and joined the circus.”

Rosalie Deglise Moore Los Angeles You’d be hard-pressed to find a student with a more eclectic background than junior transfer Rosalie Deglise Moore. From the age of 4, Rosalie has practiced circus arts, eventually enrolling during high school at the prestigious École Nationale de Cirque in Montreal, where she studied dance trapeze and was a contortionist. “I loved this medium of artistic expression,” she says. “I learned so much about myself; it still informs my work ethic today.” Her college journey began at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Mass., where she completed a two-year degree and took an interest in environmental studies. Rosalie recently spent a semester studying abroad on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, where she took marine conservation and volcanology courses and studied the biodiversity of the island’s coral reefs. Midway through her undergraduate studies, Rosalie is back in her hometown of Los Angeles where her family lives and interning with Jobs to Move America, a strategic policy center rooted in racial and economic justice and community organizing. “It is really meaningful to be able to utilize my urban and environmental policy major in a real-world way in my home city.” Although her route to Oxy was circuitous—her Québécois high school diploma was not easily transferable (“I ran away and joined the circus in the eyes of the American school system,” she says)—it all helped land her on her current path. “When I was getting my A.A. and taking classes in different areas, I discovered I love climate justice and policy,” Rosalie says. “It’s made me into the person I am today.” After completing a summer internship at South Coast Air Quality Management District in Diamond Bar, which gave her a better understanding of how policy and regulation work within a government agency, Rosalie is looking forward to settling back into life in L.A., reconnecting with her friends, and applying what she learns at Oxy to a career shaping climate policy: “With the global climate change disaster, it’s where I want to focus.”

Mason Toevs Lawrence, Kansas Mason Toevs began playing the cello at the age of 10. “It wasn’t difficult for me to pick up,” says Mason, who performed with the Kansas Music Educators Association All-State String Orchestra in high school. “I found it intuitive to learn, so I got a lot more into it as I went.” Their mother is an accomplished violinist to boot, so pursuing music in school seemed like a no-brainer. Mason also founded the Free State Kansas Cello Clinic at their high school, providing free music instruction to students who sought out additional guidance beyond group band instruction. “A lot of students didn’t 16

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Alireza Tofangdar Santa Clarita

have access or ability to have private music lessons,” Mason explains. “So, I set up a program where I could teach people and they could come in with questions after school on Wednesdays.” Seeing the positive impact it was having on the music students, Mason found a schoolmate to keep the clinic going after they graduated, and the experience of running the clinic solidified their desire to become a music educator. At Oxy, Mason plans to major in music with a focus on instrumental performance and is already keeping busy performing with the Occidental Symphony and Chamber orchestras: “The idea is you teach but you never really stop learning.” Already, Mason is taking advantage of all that Los Angeles has to offer; they want to see as much as possible of conductor Gustavo Dudamel during his farewell season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “I’d also like to get into what music education looks like here and explore internship programs that get me out into the community,” Mason adds. “You can’t really get the vibrancy of L.A. anywhere else.” They’re not in Kansas anymore. Laura Ferreiro wrote “How I Spent My Summer Vocation” in the Summer 2025 magazine.

Alireza Tofangdar had never participated in a team sport when his family immigrated to California from Iran in 2014. But he didn’t let that stop him. Seeking a well-rounded high school experience, he decided to try out for the cross country team at Hart High School in Santa Clarita. “My freshman year, I was going into my first cross country practice fully blind,” he says. “I had absolutely no idea what I was doing because I had never competed in a sport in my life, nor did I have any experience in running.” Alireza practiced hard and persevered and went from running a three-mile race with a time of 20:50 to 15:20 by his senior year. “Cross country defined who I am and taught me some of the most important life lessons: working alongside others, overcoming all types of hardships, pushing to my limit and more,” he says. “Running cross country was the most influential decision I’ve ever made.” As someone who’s passionate about math and teaching, Alireza plans to major in mathematics at Oxy and eventually earn a Ph.D. with an eye toward become a college professor. The seeds of his future career were sown, when, following a rigorous workout, he was asked by a friend to help a group study for an upcoming math exam. “Even though it was a daunting task, I decided to go anyway, regardless of how tired I was,” Alireza recalls. “Learning from the math teachers I had in high school, I brought an iPad and streamed my screen onto a TV with everyone gathering around the living room. I will never forget that night. The sheer sense of joy I got from someone finally understanding a topic that I taught them was immeasurable.” Alireza is enamored with Los Angeles, but he says Iran will always be his true home. “I take pride in being Persian, a culture that I hope share with as many people as possible,” he says. As for choosing to attend Occidental and join the cross country team—where he has quickly emerged as one of the Tigers’ top runners—Alireza believes they’re some of the best decisions he’s ever made. “Even though I have been here for barely a semester, I could not imagine what life would have been if I had not chosen Occidental,” he says. “Oxy’s cross country team is the most welcoming and compassionate group of people I’ve ever come across. I have already made friends who I know will be around far past college, making lifelong connections that I won’t forget. Academically, I have been pushed more than I ever have, but that was my own choice. I did not come to Oxy to waste my time. I knew this was a school that was going to push me and allow me to be the best version of myself.”

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WHEN EMMY MET OXY BY DAVID SILVERBERG PHOTOS BY MARC CAMPOS

Additional photos: Agatha (Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel), Emmys (Michael Buckner/Getty Images) Love on the Spectrum (Netflix)

From casting to costumes to music direction and composition, three Occidental alumni live out their Hollywood dreams while being honored by their peers

TOP: Emmy Award-

winning costume designer Daniel Selon ’08 in the Fox Studios costume house in September. above: Kathryn Hahn, center, and castmates from the Disney+ limited series Agatha All Along, with costumes by Selon. 18

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ANIEL SELON ’08 WAS AT A friend’s house on July 15 when his phone started pinging non-stop. One particular text stood out from the rest: “Congratulations, you genius witch!” It came from Jac Schaeffer, creator of Agatha All Along, the Marvel Studios series (streaming on Disney+) starring Kathryn Hahn as the titular witch alongside a coven of costars, including Patti LuPone and Aubrey Plaza. Selon and his team had been nominated for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes in the Creative Arts Emmy Awards competition. “Soon after that text, we had a very emotional FaceTime call with the costuming crew where I got to sob and tell them how much I love them all,” says Selon, an actorturned-costume designer who won a 2021 Emmy in the same category as an assistant costume designer for WandaVision, the predecessor series to Agatha. FALL 2025

When the Creative Arts Emmys were handed out at the Peacock Theater in September, Selon was not the only Tiger in the chase for an Emmy; Emma Choate ’20, a field producer and casting department member for Love on the Spectrum, was vying for her second consecutive win for Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program. And when the Daytime Emmys were presented in Pasadena in October, Kyle Rodriguez ’16 was competing for his first statuette for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for the Apple TV series The Secret Lives of Animals. When Selon considers his trajectory as a costume designer, he points to his father’s own path as an architect. The two professions, he suggests, are closely related: “You’re creating forms that go over bodies; you’re creating negative and positive spaces; and you’re turning something you design from two dimensions into three.”

)

After graduating from Occidental as a theater major, Selon landed bit parts in the occasional commercial and TV show, but what resonated most with him on set were the garments he was given. “I loved how wearing costumes informed and made me feel a certain way as an actor,” he recalls. (Selon learned to sew during his time as workstudy in the Theater Department’s costume shop.) Delving deep into costume design, Selon designed on several shows such as The League on FX, but he found his footing once he began as assistant costume designer under Mayes C. Rubeo on Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder, WandaVision, and DC’s Blue Beetle. In the wake of WandaVision’s Emmy win for costuming, Schaeffer offered him the role of costume designer on Agatha—an opportunity he embraced to the fullest. “With Agatha, it was so intentional about how we told the stories of these witches, with everyone in the costume department breaking out their tarot cards or lighting candles while we worked,” he recalls. “It truly was incredible.” Every costume tells a story, Selon adds. “I have to come to the table with creative ideas and say, ‘I have this real estate on this cape, it’s going to be on screen a lot, so how can we add to a character’s lore by adding something to it?’ ”(“I just think he’s a wizard,” Hahn said of Selon when the show premiered last fall. “He was so invested in the soul of this.”) Compared to its Marvel Cinematic Universe forerunners, “This show is different,” says Selon, who identi-

fies as queer. “It has the most authentic queer representation in any cast within the MCU.” Although Agatha was unable to conjure up an Emmy win for Selon and his team, he’s already deep into a new dream job, designing the costumes for producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s revival of The Muppet Show: “This is going to be a super fun and energetic and playful show, while paying homage to the original.” Were it not for her older brother Kyle, Emma Choate might not have an Emmy sitting atop on her fridge (“I know that sounds bad but it has a nice shelving unit to hold the statue,” she explains). Kyle, who is autistic, found himself gravitating toward the characters on the Australian version of Love on the Spectrum, the unstructured reality series that follows young adults with autism as they navigate the dating world. Emma and Kyle often watched the show together on Netflix, where it first aired in 2020. (The U.S. iteration premiered in May 2022.) “I really saw my family in the stories that were being told, especially with all the humor and laughter on screen,” says Choate, who majored in media arts and culture at Oxy. “The series showed how people on the spectrum can find love and that they deserve to find love.” After working on several documentary films for MSNBC as an associate producer, Choate decided Love

top: Cian O’Clery, Choate, and Sean Bowman with their Emmys at the Peacock Theater September 7. above: Connor Tomlinson and Georgie Harris in season three of Love on the Spectrum.

Two-time Emmy winner Emma Choate ’20 with her dog, George, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois/ Goldendoodle mix.

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continue to work on shows that feel really meaningful to me and that can have a direct impact on people.” And where is her second trophy going? “Right above the fridge,” she says, “next to the other one.”

above: Daytime Emmy nominee Kyle Rodriguez ’16 at his home studio in Los Feliz. below: An old olive baboon looks after his grandchild in the Apple TV series The Secret Lives of Animals.

on the Spectrum was an ideal project for her, and she didn’t hesitate to shoot her shot. She cold-emailed series co-creator and director Cian O’Clery, remarking how she connected so strongly to a show about a family supporting someone with a disability. Choate joined the show at the outset of the second season. She and her fellow producers are responsible for finding potential romantic partners for the cast, securing locations for the dates, and ensuring everyone, including the cast’s families, are comfortable on set. When it came to casting the series, “We look for warmth and authenticity in our principal leads,” she adds, “and they have to have a certain openness to their personality.” While at Oxy, Choate won the Media Arts and Culture Department’s Chick Strand Prize for Innovation and Excellence in Media ProPhoto courtesy Apple TV duction for her senior comps film Note to Self. “The work that Emma does with participants is really interesting and unique—not simply logistical casting and producing, but more holistic life coaching and collaboration,” notes Broderick Fox, the James Irvine Professor of Media Arts and Culture at Oxy. “She is seeking and finding ways to incorporate purpose, meaning, and ethics into an industry not well known for such things.” In 2024, the casting team of O’Clery, Choate, Sean Bowman, and Marina Nieto Ritger won the Emmy—a feat that O’Clery, Choate, and Bowman repeated on September 7. “It is amazing to get that recognition and to feel seen for the work that we do because it’s such a small, unique show,” Choate says. Since wrapping up season three last fall, Choate has her sights set on directing documentaries. “At Oxy, Professor Fox taught us the many sides of the filmmaking process, and I love directing,” she says. “I’m looking to

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In preparation for his composition work on The Secret Lives of Animals, the Apple TV nature series narrated by Hugh Bonneville, Kyle Rodriguez spent many hours crafting unique soundscapes and bespoke themes for each critter, while adhering to a cohesive series sound worthy of the BBC Studios Natural History Unit’s imprimatur. Because each episode centers on a behavior—such as “Finding Food” or “Raising a Family”—and features a wide variety of animals, “The writing challenge was personifying each animal’s distinct personality within that behavior,” he explains. “Scenes with a baboon might have a more action-Western feel, while scenes with a sun bear climbing up five stories into a tree might have a more warm, cuddly atmosphere.” As lead composer on the series, Rodriguez led the music department as well—producing, arranging, and recording the score with a more than 40-piece orchestra. His efforts paid off. “When I read the Emmy nomination list, I freaked out,” Rodriguez admits. His nomination for music direction and composition was one of six for The Secret Lives of Animals, which took home trophies for Outstanding Science and Nature Program, single-camera editing, and sound mixing and sound editing. Rodriguez began his Hollywood career as an assistant to Emmy Award-winning film and TV composer Nathan Barr on shows including The Americans (FX), The Great (Hulu), and Carnival Row (Amazon Prime). He subsequently wrote the score for AFI Directing Fellow April Maxey’s short film Work, which screened at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. For the Apple TV series Jane, which was inspired by the work of conservationist Jane Goodall, Rodriguez spent many hours in studios finding the right instrument and mood for animals as varied as the music he enjoys. “Doing my ethno-musical research on each animal was a lot of fun,” he notes. “It was great to play a sitar one day, for an animal living in India, and then the next day to learn how to play the guzheng, a Chinese zither.” An economics major at Occidental, he credits the College for instilling in him lessons he took to the soundstage. “There was always such a focus on being intellectually curious, forming opinions for yourself and how to be your own teacher,” Rodriguez recalls, “and I truly think if it weren’t for Oxy, I wouldn’t be where I am today.” Reflecting on his Emmy prospects back in September, his tone turns nonchalant. “If I don’t win, that’s fine, because I have a long career ahead of me—I know there will be more opportunities down the road,” Rodriguez says. “It’s an honor to be nominated.” David Silverberg is a freelance writer based in Toronto.

Biology major Hannah Tawadrous ’26 in Professor Gretchen North’s Plant Form and Function class. Inset: North talks to biology majors Maxwell Eve ’27, center, and Kaelen Hoseth ’26.

Lessons in

BIOLOGY BY ANDY FAUGHT | PHOTOS BY MARC CAMPOS

RIGHT: “Occidental provides so many resources,”

says Bianca Dal Bó ’24, shown in the main lab on board the R/V Atlantis. “You work closely with your professors, you’re not competing with grad students, and you get access to really cool projects and equipment.” BELOW: A deep sea spider lumbers around on a carbonate rock. BOTTOM LEFT: Dal Bó’s dissection of a male sea spider. BOTTOM RIGHT: A male Sericosure sea spider may pass methane-fueled bacteria to their hatchlings for food.

Sea spider photos courtesy Shana Goffredi

et’s start with the deep sea spiders. Mere centimeters long, these strange translucent creatures crawl far beneath the California seascape, consuming methane gas emissions and converting the harmful greenhouse gas into sugars and fats that support the inky black netherworld’s ecosystem. And three recently discovered sea spider species —one with ominously spiky legs—would have gone undiscovered even longer were it not for a research team co-led by Occidental Professor of Biology Shana Goffredi. The research was part of a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution research effort, supported by a National Science Foundation grant, to explore the role of large and small deep sea organisms—and the effects of methane—on Pacific continental margins. The 20-member team, which included Oxy biology majors Bianca Dal Bó ’24 and Ruby Siehl ’24 spent two weeks aboard the R/V Atlantis studying the seabed off Del Mar. Using the human-occupied deep sea submersible Alvin, the team collected sea spiders living almost 1,000 meters below the surface. Their study of the spiders’ extraordinary biology—the males carry fertilized eggs with specialized legs—led to the publication of that research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s most 22 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

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cited science journals, with Dal Bó as lead author. Following the study’s publication in June, news of the “methane-powered sea spiders” garnered international attention, from CBC to the BBC. “Not a lot of undergrads get to say that they have a first-author publication, so I feel very blessed and excited to have that under my belt,” says Dal Bó, who is currently a post-baccalaureate trainee at the USC Keck School of Medicine. (In March, she’s starting a master’s program in marine microbiology at the University of Bremen in Germany.) “I learned a lot from the entire process at Occidental. It’s definitely opening doors for me.” When Goffredi came to Oxy in 2005, “I was a career scientist,” she says. “But after I started here, I realized I loved teaching. I can’t imagine my life without students now.” Whether it’s the bottom of the ocean or the Santa Clara River, where Assistant Professor Alex Pivovaroff and her students are studying the impact of invasive species on the water supply, Occidental’s biology program is thriving. Biology ranks consistently among the College’s top three majors, as a growing number of students pursue everything from neuroscience to computational biology. “We have so many premeds, but more and more students are interested in marine biology,”

Goffredi says. “It’s one of those unique offerings that sets us apart from other small liberal arts colleges.” Across multiple disciplines, Occidental’s dual focus on hands-on field study and experimental precision gets to the heart of the liberal arts experience. “It’s not just about the science,” says Associate Professor Amber Stubler. “Students are exposed to philosophy, economics, and politics. They talk about how climate change affects people as well as ecosystems. That makes them better scientists, and better thinkers.” Many of Amanda Zellmer’s students in urban ecology focus not just on protecting the environment but on developing “sustainable approaches that allow both people and the environment to thrive,” she says. “By the time they graduate, they can confidently present their research to an audience, a transformation that’s incredible to witness.” As a newcomer to the College, Assistant Professor Alyssa Rodriguez will launch her lab next semester. Her students will have the opportunity to participate in semester- and summer-long research projects, including experiment design, molecular biology techniques, computational modeling, and AIassisted protein structure prediction. In her administrative capacity as current chair of the Biology Department, Goffredi

talks about her colleagues’ work with an enthusiasm that speaks to the group’s collegiality. “We’re very diverse in our interests,” she says. “There’s one of every flavor of us.” Alex, Amber, Amanda, and Alyssa—to whom Goffredi affectionately refers as Oxy’s “A-Team”—collectively embody the department’s key strengths, including climate change biology, computational marine and urban biology, and molecular biochemistry. In a state overflowing with elite universities, “People don’t always think of a small liberal arts college as a place to do STEM,” she adds. “But our students are doing handson, graduate-level science. They’re creating new knowledge and publishing their results.” Pivovaroff discovered her passion for ecology as an undergraduate at Whittier College. “I had an ‘aha’ moment in a biology lecture about how plants move water,” she recalls. That moment led her to undergraduate research, a transformative experience that ultimately shaped her career. Studying the effects of hurricane-induced saltwater surges on wetlands in Alabama solidified her dedication to understanding ecological systems. “Global change biology intersects with so many fields,” Pivovaroff says. Working with four students each semester, her ongoing research focuses on the Santa Clara River, a vital water source spanning Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The river supports agriculture, fisheries, and recreational activities, but increasing demand—combined with a hotter and drier climate—has put pressure on the ecosystem. By quantifying water savings from managing invasive species—such as the bamboolike Arundo donax, a plant so dense that it can only be removed with bulldozers and herbicides—Pivovaroff ’s research provides critical data for stakeholders and helps restore riparian habitats for birds and insects. In the classroom, she says, “We can roleplay debates on controversial conservation efforts, like restoring the Santa Cruz Island fox population,” which faces ongoing threats such as biosecurity and climate change. “My students approach it from animal rights, conservation, and policy perspectives. It makes the learning incredibly rich.” Occidental’s Los Angeles location affords further learning opportunities. Field trips to local ecosystems, from Arroyo Seco Park to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, provide hands-

Faculty and students work in the Bioscience 106 space, home to Occidental’s new LUMEN Imaging and Analysis Center (LUMEN is an acronym for Life Unveiled by Multiscale Examination).

on encounters with both biodiversity and environmental challenges. “Science doesn’t have to seem inaccessible,” Pivovaroff says. “I love research, and here I get to share it with students. They get to have their own ‘aha’ moments.” For half a century, the name Vantuna has been synonymous with Occidental’s marine biology program. (The iconic research vessel was retired in 2004, but its work lives on in the Vantuna Research Group, which marked its 50th anniversary this year.) Now the College has access to the Southern California Marine Institute’s R/V Yellowfin, a 76-foot research vessel that is optimally outfitted for tasks requiring large or heavy equipment. “The Vantuna focused on observational work such as surveys and species counts,” says Amber Stubler, who joined Oxy as a quantitative marine biologist in 2017. “I design manipulative experiments that test how organisms respond to future ocean conditions, such as changes in temperature or chemistry.” Stubler’s laboratory is home to a 36-tank seawater system that replicates ocean conditions. “At a big university, undergrads are several layers removed from the research,” she adds. “At Oxy, it’s just me and them. They own their projects. They’re not just washing glassware; they’re doing science.” Her students’ work has produced peerreviewed publications, including one study that took shape during the pandemic. While campus labs were shuttered, students turned to Oxy’s Cosman Shell Collection, a trove of

more than 100,000 marine shells donated a decade ago by the family of deepwater diver Dieter Cosman P’72. Measuring specimens collected from the same Hawaiian site over a 30-year span, students found that roughly one-third of the species had developed thinner shells, indicative of rising ocean acidity. “Those tiny snails and bivalves feed other species, which in turn feed others,” Stubler says. “Eventually, that chain leads to the fish we eat. If you start losing strength or size at the bottom, the effects ripple up.” In a world where more than 40 percent of people rely on the ocean for protein, ignoring those signs is not an option. “When shells get thinner, when coral dies off, it all connects back to us,” Stubler says. “It’s not just a science problem. It’s a food problem, a human problem.” Amanda Zellmer’s history with biology can be traced to the northwoods of Wisconsin, where she spent summers at wilderness camps. There, she learned to live off the land, identify edible plants, and appreciate the natural world. “Just spending time in nature made me value it,” says Zellmer, who completed her doctoral studies at the University of Michigan. “It’s about understanding how the land can sustain us and ensuring we keep it healthy for future generations.” Zellmer’s field work lives at the intersection of conservation biology and urban ecology. While the fields overlap, they’re not identical. Conservation biology focuses on protecting vulnerable species, while urban FALL 2025

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ecology studies how species adapt and interact in human-dominated landscapes. “In urban areas, you can get species that you’re trying to conserve but also species that thrive in urban ecosystems, like possums, raccoons, and even rats,” she says. In her 13 years at Oxy, Zellmer has seen the Biology Department evolve. As students participate in research across all levels of biological organization—from molecular studies to ecosystem dynamics—environmental challenges such as climate change, wildfires, and hurricanes have prompted more faculty to align their research toward societal issues, emphasizing real-world applications. Many of Zellmer’s former students have gone into environmental consulting, government research, and nonprofit work focused on conservation and education. A significant focus of her lab is understanding how urbanization affects wildlife. From mountain lions and coyotes to the occasional backyard bear, these species demonstrate resilience in the face of urban development. To study them, Zellmer’s lab combines fieldwork, camera traps, citizen science data, and advanced computational analysis. “We use machine learning to process thousands of photos and to analyze relationships between environmental variables and species distributions,” she notes. One of Zellmer’s primary research goals is to maintain habitat connectivity across Los Angeles, allowing wildlife to move between green spaces and larger natural areas. With her students, she’s helping to guide urban planning that accommodates wildlife, sustains ecosystems, and connects people with nature. 24 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

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ABOVE LEFT: Occidental’s hands-on research provides “a rare opportunity for undergrads,”

says Associate Professor Amber Stubler. “They get to see the full process, from hypothesis to publication.” ABOVE: Oxy’s full-time biology faculty, photographed by Kevin Burke in October. Seated, l-r: Professor Gretchen North, the John W. McMenamin Endowed Chair in Biology; Associate Professor Amanda Zellmer; Professor and Department Chair Shana Goffredi; Assistant Professor Frank Macabenta; Assistant Professor Alex Pivovaroff; and Professor John McCormack, director/curator of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology. Standing: Professor Joseph Schulz, director of the Cosman Shell Collection; Associate Professor Cheryl Okumura; Professor Kerry Thompson; Professor Renee Baran; Assistant Professor Alyssa Rodriguez; and Professor Dan Pondella ’87 M’92, director of the Vantuna Research Group.

Alyssa Rodriguez’s path to scientific discovery began in sixth grade, sparked by a simple experiment: extracting DNA from a strawberry. “I had it on the edge of a toothpick and thought, ‘This is the molecule of life,’ ” says Rodriguez, who joined the College in August. Her sense of wonder eventually evolved into an ongoing quest to understand how molecular mechanisms contribute to disease. Rodriguez’s graduate work at Vanderbilt University and postdoctoral work at UC San

Diego laid the foundation for her current research, which focuses on how DNA repair proteins detect and correct damage caused by environmental factors or normal metabolic processes. “We want to understand how these proteins find damage in the genome, remove it, and replace it with the correct sequence,” she says. At Occidental, Rodriguez teaches Principles of Biochemistry, incorporating healthrelated case studies and patient data to

connect molecular biology to cancer and genetic disorders. She employs both wet lab experiments with biological samples and computational modeling to study these mechanisms, using AI tools to accelerate protein structure prediction. Her research could help lead to personalized cancer treatments, informed by genomics and bioinformatics. “Instead of basing treatments on general symptoms, we can now tailor therapies to an individual’s genetic makeup,” she says.

Even with the current threats to NSF funding, Goffredi continues to mentor students in projects ranging from shallow-water ecosystems to deep-sea symbioses. “I never thought I’d be able to have a deep-sea program at a small college,” she says. “But we have made it work. And all of it depends on undergraduates. Every bit of research in my lab happens because of them.” She eagerly encourages student opportunities for research, no matter how—what’s

the scientific term?—grotesque they sound. Logan Morris ’26 is conducting research in Goffredi’s lab studying the bacterial symbionts in leeches that live in and on the American alligator, even traveling to South Carolina with graduate students from Clemson to collect samples from the reptiles firsthand. As Goffredi explains, “We just love investigating animals with weird diets.” Andy Faught profiled Grant Canary ’05 (“Seeding the Forests”) in the Summer issue. FALL 2025

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Catalyzing the

Public Good From uplifting inner-city scholars in South Los Angeles to prison moms in Colorado to a Monterey Park community in need, Oxy alumni embrace the College’s mission By REBECCA BODENHEIMER & DICK ANDERSON Photo by KEVIN BURKE VER ITS 138-YEAR HISTORY, Occidental has educated generations of students who have pursued lives dedicated to “the public good.” That phrase goes to the heart of Oxy’s mission, which states: “The distinctive interdisciplinary and multicultural focus of the College’s academic program seeks to foster both the fulfillment of individual aspirations and a deeply rooted commitment to the public good.” The stories of Eric P.S. Chen ’05, Tammy Bird ’84, Mike Hoover ’65, and Jenny Dean Schmidt ’86 have a common bond in community. In the face of tragedy, inequity, injustice, and even incarceration, their dedication to the betterment of others rises above the ordinary. Their names are not as recognizable as a Jack Kemp ’57 or Barack Obama ’83, but their contributions are immense. A mass shooting is an unlikely impetus for public service, but Eric P.S. Chen ’05 was spurred into action after a 72-year-old Asian American gunman targeted a ballroom in Monterey Park on January 21, 2023, killing 11 people and wounding nine others. (Chen himself was invited to the Lunar New Year’s party at Star Ballroom Dance Studio that night—but at the suggestion of his girlfriend, they went out for hot pot instead.) Chen, who is a Presbyterian pastor, credits his Occidental education with building his critical thinking skills and teaching him how to ask the right questions to help the 26 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

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Monterey Park survivors, such as “What do the victims need?” Tracking down all of the survivors of the shooting wasn’t easy, he recalls, because many ran away. However, they still needed help managing the bureaucracy of various law enforcement agencies—and that’s where Chen stepped in. Some survivors needed help getting their IDs back and didn’t know which department to contact, while others needed assistance applying for disability, he says. Those who had run away from the scene weren’t documented as victims of a crime, and Chen helped them remedy that so they could access funds from the California Victims Compensation Board. At first, he says, he did a lot of this work by himself, but eventually was able to partner with nonprofits or state agencies that specialize in this type of case work. Chen’s volunteer work with the community also involved his linguistic skills: Some of the survivors were not fluent in English, so he helped translate paperwork for them. In fact, when President Joe Biden visited the survivors on March 14, 2023, “I became the de facto White House liaison,” Chen says, because of his linguistic skills and relationship with the victims. The third component of his work with the Asian American community in the last few years has been raising awareness about mental health, which is still a taboo topic among many immigrants. “In about a oneyear period, there were three older Asian immigrant men that committed these mass

shootings,” he says. “All of them had mental health issues.” Chen felt it was important to speak more openly about the topic in his community—not only because of how it contributed to these tragic events, but to help survivors deal with their trauma. “I started to realize that not everybody’s willing to talk to a counselor,” he says, “but we can always find a lot of different ways to support each other.” Chen helped establish a peer support group that allowed people in the community to gather, particularly on the one-year anniversary of the shooting. “They were able to share,” he says. “It was a breakthrough, just getting it off their chest. They hadn’t talked to anybody.” In this vein, Chen has partnered with a few Christian Chinese-speaking nonprofit organizations in order to launch an initiative focusing on mental health. He says he felt these specific types of organizations were the best way to get through to his community because he had seen their effectiveness firsthand when his own parents were having marital problems and sought out their help. As a student at Oxy, Chen majored in political science and minored in Asian studies, which has also served him in his career as an import-export logistics consultant. “Exporting to each Asian country has its own unique challenges,” he says, noting that the same goes for importing Asian goods. Chen has put his cultural knowledge and research skills to good use for his clients, particularly in navigating recent tariffs.

Eric Chen ’05 outside the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library, where President Joe Biden spoke in March 2023. Opposite page: Chen at the National Speech & Debate Tournament in 2019 (top), and with Biden during his 2023 visit.

Chen’s volunteer work goes beyond helping the survivors of the Monterey Park shooting. He gives back to his high school alma mater in the San Gabriel Valley, helping coach kids on the debate team, which placed fifth in a national competition last year. Gabrielino High School is located in a predominantly immigrant community with a high percentage of socioeconomically disadvantaged students and English language

learners, he explains, adding, “I felt like someone that knows what they went through and I wanted to be someone that can empower them.” (The school’s mock trial team, for which he is the primary coach, recently placed second in a Los Angeles County competition.) Chen cites Occidental’s commitment to public service and focus on giving back as strongly impacting who he is today. “The val-

ues instilled in me at Oxy also aligned with and deepened my Christian values of love, empathy, and compassion,” he adds. (He cofounded a nonprofit, Hope SGV, that formalizes his volunteer work in various parts of his San Gabriel Valley community.) Reflecting on the work he has done to support the Monterey Park survivors, he says, “I was thankful for the opportunity to be kind of the glue that brought all the things together.” FALL 2025

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Top: After 37 years in the classroom, Tammy Bird ’84 retired to Hawai‘i in 2022. Inset: Bird with her late husband Nuu “Tui” Tuimoloau, who worked alongside her as a volunteer at Carson. High School for 12 years. Above: Bird with her students at Carson High in 2018. Bottom: Former Crenshaw High student Willie Harris reunites with Bird during a recent trip to Hawai’i.

Photos (pages 28-29) courtesy Tammy Bird ’84 and Mike Hoover ’65 28 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

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Tammy Bird ’84 never imagined becoming a teacher. She majored in biology at Occidental, worked on the Vantuna (even with a cast on her leg, which she covered with a pair of Levi’s) and played pick-up volleyball at lunchtime with her ichthyology and marine invertebrate professors, John Stephens and Gary Martin. “The way I love to learn is hands-on,” she says. “Oxy gave that to me.” The only education course she took was an independent study, and Bird looked at her first job out of college—teaching science in the L.A. Unified School District—as a detour en route to veterinary school. Instead, she fell in love with the profession and spent the next 37 years in the classroom. “I did not find teaching,” she says. “Teaching found me.” When Bird was placed at Crenshaw High School—an inner-city school with a higher dropout rate than the LAUSD average—she was handed a roll book, a textbook, and not much else. “Here I was, coaching volleyball and teaching on the third floor and feeling claustrophobic,” she recalls. “I’m kind of an outdoor person.” After her second year of teaching, “I was wandering around campus and found the old agriculture center,” Bird says. “I went to the principal and asked, ‘Can I have that space back there?’ And the principal said, ‘Well, the teacher who left that space was getting shot at—do you really want that?’” Bird persisted, saying, “I have to have my doors open.” Overcoming the school’s paucity of resources, Bird came up with new programs, such as Zoo on Wheels (“I had lots of animals and we took them to local elementary schools”). And over time, she revitalized a long-dormant campus garden as a space to grow and sell vegetables while teaching students about agriculture, science, marketing, and business. After the L.A. Uprising in the spring of 1992, Bird says, “There were people coming into the neighborhood who wanted to do something to feel better about themselves.” Among them was advertising executive Melinda McMullen, who embraced Bird’s ideas to turn the garden into a viable studentowned business, which would come to be known as Food From the ’Hood. Bird managed weekly trips to the Santa Monica Farmers Market, where students sold

their produce. McMullen created awareness of the program, from the Los Angeles Times to CBS Morning News, culminating in a 1995 Newsweek cover story and reception at the Kennedy Center honoring “people who made a difference.” Sandwiched in between those milestones was a November 1994 visit from Prince Charles to Crenshaw High, including a lunch for 150 in the school’s expansive garden area. And did we mention the salad dressing? Working with entrepreneur Norris Bernstein and a Hawthorne-based food manufacturer, Bird’s students developed a line of salad dressings called Straight Out the Garden, which eventually were sold in more than 2,000 stores in 28 states. All profits were designated for scholarship aid for students, based on the number of hours they worked. All that activity attracted the notice of Mike Hoover ’65, whose singular career as a war photographer (embedded with the Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan), adventurer, rock climber, and Oscar-winning filmmaker (for his 1984 short Up) preceded another calling as a champion for inner-city youth and the wrongfully incarcerated. In the aftermath of the 1992 riots, Hoover and his wife, Beverly Johnson, took a tour of South Los Angeles with a veteran Blood gang boss, who explained to them which buildings burned and why. “We saw seven young kids hanging on a fence looking at the National Guard trucks passing by,” Hoover recalls, and Beverly said, ‘These are our kids.’” Beverly died less than two years later, in a helicopter crash in Nevada that also took the life of Walt Disney Company President Frank Wells. Hoover miraculously survived the crash, and in the wake of that tragedy, he created a memorial fund in Beverly’s name to create educational opportunities for 13- to 15-year-olds in South L.A. “That’s when a kid starts to become an adult,” he says, “and is usually confused and overloaded.” In 1996, Hoover sent two L.A. teenagers to attend Teton Science Schools in Kelly, Wyoming. Later he was introduced to Bird on a visit to Crenshaw High—the two were unaware of their Oxy connection—and insisted that she meet Teton Science Schools Executive Director Jack Shea. After flying from Salt Lake City over the jagged Tetons in a plane piloted by Hoover, Bird bonded with Shea and they created a program, with funding

Hoover in a 1968 photo. Right: Carson High School students get a taste of winter in Wyoming.

Richard Dor (above, in a 2017 photo) has been serving a life sentence without parole after being found guilty for “a murder he wasn’t at,” says Mike Hoover ’65, right. He met Dor as an 18-year-old and continues to advocate for a resentencing trial that could lead to his release.

from Hoover, that would provide low-income, high-performing students the chance to attend a two-week summer outdoor education program at Teton’s Jackson campus. At first, Bird recalls, “Mike wanted the group to include gang members and at-risk kids, and I said to him, ‘No, it’s going to be the good kid that gets their first good chance.’ ” The program initially included a cohort of 32 students from Crenshaw and Dorsey high schools. Many participants were “kids who had never been in grass over their shoe tops,” recalls Ron Whitney ’64, retired headmaster of the Heritage School in Calistoga and a track and field teammate of Hoover’s at Oxy. “Many of them had never even been to the ocean, and the ocean was right there.” “They all hated being in the mountains at a log cabin science school,” Hoover adds. “After one week, they’re dirty, mosquito-bitten, wild and happy, and never want to leave.” When Bird moved to Carson High School in 2001, the Teton program soon followed— and moved from summer to late fall, “when the environment in Wyoming is different than what they’re used to,” she says. “Working with the Tetons, we developed this amazing curriculum that built leadership, taught a sense of place, and tied into projects that we could do back at school. “We had themes for each day, and the last theme was resiliency—such as hiking to the top of a mountain or a higher elevation and really pushing yourself past what you think you can do. We had these kinds of things going on, and it worked wonderfully.”

Back at Carson, she was busy reshaping the school’s science curriculum to embrace environmental science, engineering, and technology. “We started looking at green energy and how to live more sustainably,” she says. “We put a windmill in the garden, began playing with solar panels, and maintained over 350 fruit trees in the food forestry.” In 2007, an old friend from high school reached out to her via social media. Romance blossomed, and Bird gained a partner in the program as well. Retired college counselor Nuu “Tui” Tuimoloau became a full-time volunteer at Carson, helping out with the garden as well as a nascent robotics program that went toe-to-toe with deeper-pocketed rivals at Long Beach City College’s Marine Advanced Technology Education competition. In his T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, “Tui had this rapport with kids—and he was very technologically advanced,” says Whitney, who witnessed firsthand Carson’s third-place finish at a state robotics meet. “Tammy and Tui had this magic together.” In 2015, Bird and Tuimoloau bought a property in Hawai‘i with plans to eventually retire there. “We were going to build it in a faleo‘o style and grow produce there because that was our passion,” Bird recalls. “I wanted to retire as a teacher while I still loved students and still loved the process.” Bird was more than halfway through her final year in the classroom when the pandemic hit, the lockdown shuttered schools, and the prospects of moving to Hawai‘i anytime soon were dim.

Then, on April 24, 2020, Tuimoloau was run over and killed by a 20-year-old man after a confrontation in San Pedro. Bird suffered another major loss five months later with the death of her father. “When Mike found out Tui had been murdered, he got in his car in Wyoming and drove all the way to my place,” Bird recalls. “We went and sat in his car and talked and cried for two and a half hours. And then he dropped me off and drove back to Wyoming.” Of Tuimoloau, she says, “I am blessed that he was back in my life for 13 years and we got to do the projects that we did. That was awesome. Tui wouldn’t want me to dwell.” Bird retired in June 2020 and moved to Hawai‘i two years later. “From the time I started teaching at 22 until I was 58, I can’t remember having any me time,” she says. “Now, I can go for a hike and watch a volcano erupt. I can go down to the ocean and see the turtles. I can cook for my friends. I’m building my garden. I’m making essential oils and growing herbs, and I’m getting to experiment with things I used to teach in the classroom. I feel safe and at peace here. I have animals again, and I’ll have chickens again soon.” Back on the mainland, Hoover remains as busy as ever. He continues to advocate for the release of two men he met through the Crenshaw after-school program: Roger Douglas, who is serving a life sentence under California’s “three strikes” law for a minor drug offense; and Richard Dor, who was convicted at age 18 (despite eyewitness testimony in his favor) of a murder he didn’t commit. FALL 2025

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left: Dean Schmidt (back row, fourth from left) working “on the inside” with ChannelMom’s Forever Moms program. Over 300 women have gone through the program’s 10-week curriculum.

More happily, in mid-November, more than a dozen Carson High students trekked to the Tetons for a weeklong immersion in science and nature. “Our kids were in eight groups, each representing one of the eight Western states, arguing for water rights—a fun way to learn about something we take for granted,” says Hoover, who plans to continue the program indefinitely. “What could I do that would be better than this?” As a political science major at Occidental, Jenny Dean Schmidt ’86 landed an internship with the BBC in London—and that was the start of her career as a journalist. “I don’t want to have this wrong historically, but I think they said I was their first American intern ever,” she says. After graduating, she leveraged her Oxy connections to get an entry-level job at ABC News. Once she moved on to a position at KMIR, the NBC affiliate in Palm Springs, Dean Schmidt says she was finally able to put her political science major to good use: For a recurring segment called “Jenny Dean’s Political File,” she scored interviews with former President Gerald Ford and sitting Congressman Sonny Bono. In 1995, she moved to WEWS-TV in Cleveland as a political reporter, winning a Local Emmy for her reporting (from both the Democratic and Republican national conventions) on the 1996 presidential race. But after becoming a mom, Dean Schmidt realized she wanted to counteract the negativity that informed TV news. “I was telling people about car wrecks and murders and bank robberies and horrible things, and people wanted my autograph for telling them bad news all day long,” she says. Instead, she wanted to put out constructive media content to “honor the role of motherhood. I wanted to change the con30 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

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versation to say, ‘Do not overlook the importance of this role to our culture at large.’” After relocating to the Denver area with her family, she founded a nonprofit organization and media hub called ChannelMom in 2006. The hub started with YouTube videos about motherhood, and then moved on to a radio show and podcast, where Dean Schmidt interviewed authors and experts on parenting, family issues, and faith. In 2009, she left her role as a TV reporter with a station in Denver to devote herself to being a stay-at-home mom and building up ChannelMom. As the organization grew, Dean Schmidt began doing more public service-oriented work, partnering with Denver Rescue Mission to mentor homeless moms. In 2019, it led her to launch a new initiative, Forever Moms, a prison outreach program for incarcerated moms inside the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. “I want to change the culture in one small way by helping moms in prison and by helping moms who are single and struggling,” she explains. One of the goals of the prison program is to prevent these women’s kids from following in their footsteps. “Children of incarcerated parents are six times more likely to go to prison,” she says. “We are trying to stop a legacy of incarceration.” Although her work was temporarily interrupted when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, over 300 women have gone through the Forever Moms program, which is a 10-week curriculum offering guidance on parenting, relationship building, faith, and finding a job, as well as providing substance abuse resources. The program also aims to counter the shame many incarcerated moms feel about letting their children down, Dean Schmidt says, as well as the mistaken idea that their kids would be better off without them. “The whole world is depending on them to

raise their children well,” she says, “so it’s one of the most important jobs on the planet. I just remind them of their great value.” The program is currently operating at three facilities in two states (Colorado and Arizona), and Dean Schmidt hopes to start in a fourth facility in San Diego in the near future. Forever Moms also has begun supporting moms leaving prison in getting back on their feet, by offering them mentoring and a “success kit” with basic supplies, as well as access to the group’s Compassion Fund,

“I wanted to change the conversation about motherhood when I first started this 19 years ago,” says Jenny Dean Schmidt ’86, ChannelMom founder and executive director, shown outside Denver Correctional Facility in October. Below: With her daughter, Georgia Schmidt ’25, following Occidental’s Commencement ceremony in May.

Above photo by Andy Colwell | Additional photos courtesy Jenny Dean Schmidt ’86

which provides emergency support. Her data shows the program has had great success in reducing recidivism in the women who have graduated, citing a rate of 21 percent as compared to the national average, which is close to 60 percent. After becoming a mother, Dean Schmidt says she was feeling purposeless and embarked on a search for meaning, which she eventually found in the Christian faith. She worried her embrace of religion might alienate her Oxy friends, and she and her hus-

band, Mike Schmidt ’86 (whom she married in 1989, having first met in nursery school), distanced themselves from their college community for many years. “When I came to Jesus and got a little more conservative, I thought, ’Nobody at Oxy is going to understand this,’” she recalls. That all changed when their daughter, Georgia Schmidt ’25, transferred to Occidental in the fall of 2021 to play volleyball for the Tigers. (The day before Georgia’s Commencement ceremony at Oxy, older

brother Otis graduated from the University of Arizona Law School. He recently passed the bar and is clerking with the Arizona Supreme Court.) Despite some misgivings about what she perceives as “the political imbalance” on campus, “We fell back in love with Oxy,” Dean Schmidt says. Since then, she and her husband (superintendent at Platte Canyon School District in Bailey, Colo.) have reconnected with some of their old college friends, and she admits to being surprised at finding them “more accepting of our viewpoints than I thought they’d be.” Today, Georgia is working with her mom as an executive assistant at ChannelMom Media & Outreach, contributing to podcast and media production, event coordination, and social media management. (A new podcast, Prison Moms Set Free, dropped its first episode in October.) And as Dean Schmidt continues in her mission, she hopes to telegraph to fellow moms in all circumstances how fundamental they are. “When I was at Occidental, I never thought that my life’s calling would be in prison,” she says. “I march into these places and I’m not afraid. I realize that I’m just one bad parenting decision away from being in prison myself.” Rebecca Bodenheimer (Mike Chen, Jenny Dean Schmidt) is a freelance writer in Oakland. This is her first article for the magazine. FALL 2025

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OXYTALK Forty-eight years and seven presidents ago, economics major Art Peck ’77 walked across the stage of Remsen Bird Hillside Theater, where he received his diploma from President Richard C. Gilman. When he returned to the stage on April 25 at the inauguration of Occidental’s 17th president, Tom Stritikus, it was as chair-elect of the College’s Board of Trustees—a role he never expected to fill. “As I have become reacquainted with the College, it’s clear—and not surprising—that some things have changed over half a century,” Peck said to the gathering. “But it’s also clear what hasn’t changed—and in my mind, what is of singular importance: Occidental, powered by its amazing faculty, remains committed to teaching students how to think critically.” Having worked with Stritikus since his arrival at Oxy, Peck reaffirmed his support in a recent interview. “Tom is an outstanding president for Occidental,” he says, adding that he looks forward to their continued interaction in Peck’s new role as Board chair, a three-year appointment that began July 1. “It’s a challenging but exciting time in higher education and for the College,” Peck says. “In a time of uncertainty among colleges and universities around the country, higher education is a national asset currently under attack, and we all have a responsibility to help protect that asset. As beneficiaries of the education that we got at Occidental, we need to all think about why this matters, and why we have an obligation to raise our voice.”

Looking at the task ahead, Peck admits, “It’s either a terrible time or a wonderful time to be on the Board. I am an optimist and choose to say it’s a wonderful time because it’s a time of incredible opportunity.” Photo by Grace Peck ’10

The Occidental Imperative

Business veteran Art Peck ’77 brings his leadership acumen to the Board of Trustees at a critical juncture in higher education when the College’s mission— and messaging—are more important than ever

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After graduating from Oxy, Peck enrolled at Harvard Business School, completing his MBA in 1979. He spent 23 years at Boston Consulting Group before joining Gap Inc., the multinational clothing retailer, in 2005. Nine years later, he was named president and CEO, a position he held until 2019. Peck is currently co-founder and executive chair of The Great., a fast-growing women’s apparel and lifestyle brand led by his “amazing” cofounders, Emily Current and Meritt Elliott. Reflecting on his time at Gap, Peck says, “I am proud of the positive change I was able to achieve and to be able to demonstrate that doing good and good business can go hand in hand.” Peck sponsored the founding of the PACE (Personal Achievement & Career En-

OXYTALK

Photos by Jim Block (Gap) and Marc Campos (Inauguration)

hancement) program to invest in the women in the communities where Gap clothes are made, providing life skills education to help them reach their full potential. The program has reached more than 1 million women since its inception. In 2014, Gap was the first Fortune 500 company to announce equal pay for equal work, with its methodology and data independently validated by a leading gender and diversity firm. As CEO, Peck adds, “We rebooted DEI to a very simple commitment, that the composition of our workforce would reflect the communities we lived and worked in—from part-time seasonal sales associate in our stores to the senior leadership team. That seemingly simple commitment provided a focus that many inclusion efforts are often missing and was immediately impactful from the stores all the way up through the company.” Peck joined the Board of Trustees at the invitation of then-President Jonathan Veitch in early 2020—seven years after he was first approached about joining. Soon after, Harry J. Elam, Jr. was selected as president and the pandemic hit. Meeting over Zoom, “It was like Hollywood Squares in terms of getting to know my fellow Board members,” Peck says. “But over the last five years, I have gotten to know Occidental in its modern expression, at a time when what the College does is more important than ever.” When Elam announced in 2023 that he was going to step down after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Peck was asked to lead the presidential search committee—“a process that needed to embrace the whole Oxy community,” he says. “We had 20 people on the committee—trustees, alumni, staff, students, and faculty—but our group came together with a common purpose very quickly and it was an exhilarating example of community collaboration.” From start to finish, the search took a brisk five months: “I don’t know if that’s record time, but we managed to be efficient and very successful in bringing in a stellar new president.” With his business and marketing experience, Peck is looking forward to partnering with Stritikus to address challenges facing liberal arts colleges, such as enrollment. As an institution that relies primarily on tuition, room, and board to meet its annual budget,

LEFT: Peck at Gap’s San Francisco headquarters in

2013. BELOW: Peck and Lisa Link P’18 pose for a selfie with President Tom Stritikus prior to his inauguration on April 25.

“It is critically important that Occidental continue to meet its enrollment goals,” Peck says. As part of this, he sees “an enormous opportunity” to tell the Occidental story to cohorts of high school students in places where awareness of the College is low. “When I ran the Gap brand, my job wasn’t to market this new retailer that sold jeans and T-shirts—pretty much everybody on the planet knows the Gap—but we had to convince people that it was relevant again,” he continues. “The task at Occidental is exactly the opposite: The College is extraordinarily relevant, but it is way less known than it deserves to be—this ‘hidden jewel’ thing.” The good news, he says, is that Occidental “has incredible stories to tell,” citing everything from faculty excellence and postgraduate admission rates to immersive learning opportunities and connections to the Greater Los Angeles community—the second-largest city in the United States in a state that is the fourth-largest economy in the world. As parents of two Oxy graduates, Peck and his wife, Kirsten Frank ’79, can attest to the ongoing benefits of an Oxy education. “Oxy has an academic culture and set of course offerings that have continued to evolve and be relevant for a wide range of careers,” he says. “It is imperative to tell our story with a loud and proud voice.” Peck looks forward to engaging with the Board of Trustees, which oversees the policies, strategies, and finances of the College. In terms of its size and composition, the 36member Board “is wonderfully functional,” Peck says, pointing to the group’s diversity in age, race, gender, and experience, with alumni ranging from the 1960s to the 2000s;

parents spanning four decades; emeriti faculty; and friends of the College. “That combination is really powerful, and the diversity of people that we have is really important.” In addition, Peck says, “Trustees discuss differences respectfully, politely, and constructively. This is a testament to the leadership before me”—namely, past chairs Susan Mallory ’76 M’78, Steve Rountree ’71, and Lisa Link P’18. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t have tough conversations, or that people don’t disagree,” he adds. “But everybody is here to support student outcomes, which is the reason Occidental exists.” At the trustees’ meeting in June, “I said that part of a board’s job is to look around corners and see what’s coming,” Peck recalls. “Another part is to support the president and the senior team in taking risk and going after opportunity. “It might have seemed somewhat of an impertinent conversation,” he admits, “but there is a theory in evolutionary biology called punctuated equilibrium. Basically, it says that evolution is not a smooth, continuous process but rather happens in bursts at times when species are under environmental stress.” (“I’m looking forward to being corrected by our outstanding biology faculty,” he adds with a smile.) “In organizations, change typically happens when there’s stress in the environment,” he continues. “When everything is great, nobody has any incentive to change. But when there is stress, you either adapt or you fail. There’s no doubt that there’s stress in the environment right now. I just see it as a time for Occidental to embrace some positive change that will benefit the entire College community.”—DICK ANDERSON FALL 2025

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Photos courtesy Evan Caulfield ’26

LAST PAGE

left: From left, Oxy seniors and Global Immigrant Rights and Social Justice in Greece interns Baden Baadarani-Feeney, Evan Canfield, and Vadim Fedutinov grab some street food after dark. above: Sightseeing near the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.

Translating Lessons Into Action Evan Caulfield ’26 applies his urban and environmental policy education in the service of aiding refugees during a summer-long internship in Greece Growing up in New England, Houston, and San Diego—three disparate regions impacted by segregation, the oil and gas industries, and the low-wage border economy, respectively—Evan Caulfield ’26 observed the results of “toxic” public policies “everywhere, all the time.” Although he and his family were not personally impacted, he says, “It comes to a point where you just can’t look away.” When Caulfield was applying to colleges, he wanted to study public policy and economics, and Occidental offered the opportunity to engage critically with a variety of public policy issues in a liberal arts setting in a large, politically complex city. “That urban environment, on its own, made Occidental a uniquely great choice for me,” he says. As he took courses on L.A. politics, environmental law, and reimagining public safety, Caulfield’s interest in urban and housing policy impacts only grew. In 2024, the Urban and Environmental Policy (UEP) Department placed him in a three-month summer internship at the Los Angeles Community Action Network, an organization on Skid Row, on the front lines of the city’s housing crisis. Last summer, Caulfield applied his L.A.based academic experiences to a more global context. He was one of six Oxy students to participate in the inaugural Global Immigration Rights and Social Justice internship in Greece, a 10-week program that gives interns the resources to gain hands-on experi56 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

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ence with host organizations that provide refugee support and humanitarian aid. The program is funded anonymously and supervised by Professors Mary Christianakis (critical theory and social justice) and Movindri Reddy (diplomacy and world affairs). In Athens, Greece, Caulfield interned with SolidarityNow, a nonprofit that supports vulnerable populations through free legal and employment services, education, and other resources. The organization works predominantly with Athens’ refugee population, many of whom are unaccompanied minors. Caulfield primarily served as an English teacher, employment services provider, and translator. He worked with a group of francophone refugees, mostly men from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal, who needed to learn English to enter the local job market. He also assisted the organization’s sole French-speaking translator in providing language support for asylum applications, the legal clinic, and employment services. It was difficult work and “emotionally taxing,” Caulfield admits, but he would “absolutely” recommend the internship, which will return next summer, to rising juniors and seniors. “I wanted to globalize my understanding of injustice, and I absolutely achieved that,” he says. “If you have a willingness to listen and a genuine passion for this kind of work, it will be the experience of a lifetime.”

Back at Oxy, Caulfield is interning with the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing, an organization that facilitates affordable housing development. While his current work is more removed from onthe-ground issues, “My experience in Greece serves as my reminder of the human side of what policy failures look like,” he says. “With that reference, my work holds a level of urgency that can’t be overstated.” Caulfield is confident that his UEP major will be applicable to his career interests, which include urban agriculture, community organizing, policy analysis, urban and environmental planning, and now teaching. “I feel privileged to have been able to study here, within an academic model that puts people and community at its forefront,” he says. His biggest takeaway from his Global Immigration Rights and Social Justice internship experience is the idea that collectivism is as much of a human instinct as individualism. “In the United States, we often default to being overly concerned with our own success and prosperity without concern for how that occurs at the expense of other people,” he says. “I found that people in Greece generally do not operate that way, and that it fosters a sense of community in something as simple and general as shared lived experience. In other words, ‘We’re all people, we’re all in this together, so let’s act like it.’” —RACHAEL WARECKI

OXYFARE

A Wild, Woody, and Wonderful Homecoming Weekend With a plethora of panels, presentations, student showcases, and interactive experiences—as well as music, theater, and athletics competitions— Homecoming & Family Weekend offered something for every Tiger. 1. Oswald takes a spin on the Ferris wheel during Oswald’s Homecoming Celebration and Harvest Festival. 2. Emma Patton ’26, a psychology major from Albuquerque, N.M., took in the festivities with her grandma, Patricia Brouillette; and her parents, Renee and Chris Patton. 3. Senior biology majors Andrew Levy of San Francisco and Emma McLaughlin of Albuquerque joined Professor Shana Goffredi, center, for a presentation at Oxy’s Legacy Society Celebration. 4. Jean Meyer ’26, a sociology major from Irvine, center, with her parents, Margaret Coutts and David Meyer. 5. Photographer Don Milici was on the receiving end of the lens by Emma Boysen ’27 and paparazzo Carolina Bueno Silva Arap ’26. 6. Seniors Sam Berger, Caden Zamastil, Levi Snuggerud, and Carson Eckert take a pause from the action for a photo.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Every residence hall finally has air conditioning— much to the relief of current and future Tigers. “Cool Change” is the cover story of the Summer 2025 Occidental magazine, which is exclusively online at oxy.edu/magazine. Other stories include profiles of retiring professors Elmer Griffin, Margi Rusmore, Warren Montag, Peter Dreier, Alexandra Puerto, Stuart Rugg, and Ron Buckmire; a talk with Mast Reforestation CEO Grant Canary ’05; and much more.

Photos by Marc Campos and Don Milici | Cover illustration by Patrick Carlson

De Rycke Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus Woody Studenmund, above right, was honored on October 17 at a reception celebrating the establishment of the Woody Studenmund Endowed Professorship in Economics—a lasting tribute to his extraordinary impact on generations of Oxy students. An expert in free market economics and econometrics, he was the bedrock of the Economics Department for 52 years, retiring in 2022. Thanks to the dedication, generosity, and leadership of the 13-member Economics Committee, more than $3.1 million was raised from more than 80 donors to establish this tenure-track faculty chair, which will be filled by fall 2026. Key supporters of the professorship included Brad Fauvre ’87, Chris Brickman ’86, and trustee Art Peck ’77 and Kirsten Peck ’79 and their children, Grace Peck ’10 and William Peck ’14. On October 18, Studenmund introduced Associate Professor of Economics Andrew Jalil, above left, a 2025 co-recipient of the Linda and Tod White Teaching Prize, who delivered an insightful lecture on Federal Reserve independence.

Join the Io Triumphe Challenge! CALLING ALL TIGERS! Thanks to the generosity of our Board of Trustees and trustees emeriti, the Oxy community has the opportunity to unlock $400,000 (and counting!) in support of the student experience when 1,380 alumni, families, and friends make their gift by December 31. To learn more, visit oxy.edu/tigersgive or scan the QR code on the left. Are you all in for today’s Tigers? O! C! Rah!

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Passion and Promise: Meet the Tigers of ’29

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Growing up in Manhattan Beach after World War II, Ron Hahn ’66 didn’t have a clear path to college. His father died when Ron was 8, and “No one in my immediate family was a college graduate,” he recalls. But he turned out to be a good student, and the UC system was the natural, affordable option. When Occidental Dean of Admission Ben McKendall came to his high school, he says, “the small school liberal arts description of Oxy fit me perfectly, with the added advantage that I was a reasonably successful athlete. In those days, Occidental was a Division I track school with a legacy of great athletes and fantastic coaches.”

Ron and Susan Hahn met in Ben Culley’s statistics class at Oxy. They have been married for 59 years.

oxy.edu/tigersgive

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Public Good

oxy.edu/magazine

Photo by Marc Campos

A campus visit, including a dinner with newly selected Rhodes Scholar Richard Hallin ’62, sold him on Oxy. The final hurdle was financial, but the College “simply made it happen,” he says, with a combination of scholarships and loans. That gesture forged a loyalty that has lasted a lifetime. Ron found his intellectual home in Oxy’s integrated curriculum. With its emphasis on philosophy, literature, art, music, and science, “History of Civilization stimulated my curiosity, which has carried through in my life,” he says. He majored in English— not as a career move, but for intellectual enrichment, trusting that the skills of thinking, writing, and speaking would be invaluable for any career. He went on to earn his MBA from UCLA and enjoy a successful career as a venture capital investor and entrepreneur in the life science technology and healthcare industries. After 13 years on the Occidental Board of Trustees, Ron rotated off the board in July—and in his parting remarks, “I emphasized that the key to Occidental is its faculty,” he says, “and supporting faculty and Oxy’s signature programs are the most important elements for the College to not only survive but prosper.” Under a Gift Intention Agreement finalized in 2025 and using the required minimum distributions from their separate IRAs, Ron and his wife, Susan (Cochrane) Hahn ’65, have established endowed funds in three signature programs: media arts and culture, music, and biology. “Susan and I are in a fortunate position to contribute these funds in real time,” he says, and their goal is to ensure these departments have the immediate resources to thrive. “Being on the board allowed me to meet faculty members, and I made a real effort to do that,” Ron adds. “The best of our faculty have options just like the best students we recruit.” To secure the brightest future for Occidental, he concludes, “We need to make sure that our professors and their programs are well supported—providing intellectually curious students with an intimate, faculty-intensive educational experience.”

A SORORITY ENDS: WHAT’S NEXT FOR DELTA HOUSE /// EMMY TALK WITH THREE OXY NOMINEES

Investing in the Future of Faculty

From uplifting inner-city scholars in South L.A. to prison moms in Colorado to a Monterey Park community in need, alumni embrace Occidental’s mission