His full-time job might be as an engineer and project analyst at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL), but Kenneth Brown has a real passion for education. So when opportunities to make a difference in student learning come along he's happy to take on the extra work. Earlier this month, the adjunct professor in the Department of Physics at California State University, Dominguez Hills was appointed to the El Camino College Board of Trustees to fill the seat vacated by longtime trustee Nathanial Jackson, who had been ill much of 2010 and passed away on Nov. 21 at the age of 80. The board selected Brown from a pool of 11 candidates. He will represent Trustee Area One, which includes ... Read More
Archive
Robert Keel: Graduate Student, Veteran Receives California Sociological Association Award
Graduate student Robert Keel (Class of '09, B.S., applied studies/public administration cum laude) received an Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the California Sociological Association (CAS) at the organization's annual conference in November. He was recommended by sociology lecturer Susan Fellows and professor of criminal justice Theodore Byrne and received a plaque and a $100 monetary award. Keel, a Long Beach native, joined the Army after taking his GED and retired from the Army in 1998 after a military career that included serving as an operations manager for the Battlefield Coordination Detachment in Korea, ROTC instructor at Oregon State University ,and a drill sergeant at ... Read More
Student Employees in Loker Student Union Provide Aid to Homeless on Skid Row
Student employees in the Loker Student Union at California State University, Dominguez Hills provide a variety of services throughout the 120,000-square-foot facility, from greeting visitors at the information desk to overseeing laptop rentals. This semester, they also extended a helping hand to the homeless through a service project by buying and collecting items from the campus community and delivering more than 100 hygiene packs to the homeless on Town and 4th Streets in downtown Los Angeles. The packs were delivered last month to the area by Damesha McKnight, senior, biology, and Lily Guillen, senior, sociology. The two students accompanied Dr. Sophia Momand, a physician in Student ... Read More
Can’t Buy Me Love: Course Examines Consumer Spending
Despite the economic downturn, holiday spending still happens, with shoppers looking for the perfect gift at a good price. As is often the case, the would-be Santas are also buying presents for themselves, many of which will end up in the backs of closets or otherwise never used. This fall, in Anne Choi's class on “American Consumerism,” students were asked to bring items to class that had caused them to feel buyer's remorse. The session, which was recorded by American Public Media's “Marketplace,” aired on NPR on Dec. 13. Choi says that people often think they can buy happiness “because the media tells us that we can.” “It has become easier to buy things than to do things that ... Read More
Film of 1910 Air Meet Shown at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
A film of the 1910 Air Meet was one of 14 works shown as part of a program titled, “A Century Ago: The Films of 1910,” at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last month in Los Angeles. The feature, “Aviation at Los Angeles, Calif.” was a production released by Essanay Films on Feb. 16, 1910. The archival collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills were acknowledged during the program and webpages from the university's site were displayed at the theater as part of the presentation. ”Aviation at Los Angeles, Calif.” shows the 1910 Aviation Meet at Dominguez, which was largely made possible by heirs of Manuel Dominguez, who donated the use of the Rancho San Pedro ... Read More
Mark Waldrep: Professor of Digital Media Arts Shares Vision of Blu-ray Audio
Mark Waldrep is like thousands of people who have moved to California: he came with dreams of stardom. For him, it wasn't the big screen, but the rock arena. Along the way though, he discovered his musical talents were better served in another area that held his interest–audio technology. “I realized my guitar playing skills weren't going to help me break into the Top 40 on the music charts, but I do have a creative musical sensibility, so I thought, why not be on the other side of the glass?” said the professor of digital media arts at California State University, Dominguez Hills who is now an expert at the forefront of three dimension (3D) surround music and video. Waldrep's ... Read More
Tayyeb Shabbir: Professor of Finance Examines U. S. and East Asia in Aftermath of Global Downturn
Associate professor of finance Tayyeb Shabbir recently presented a paper titled “Impact on 'East Asia:' 1997-98 Asian Crisis vs. 2007-09 Global Financial Crisis” at the annual international conference of the Global Academy of Business and Economic Research (GABER) in New York in October. He also served as chair for the session, “Global Financial Crisis: Impact and Policy Response.” The article has been published in GABER's Conference Proceedings. While in New York, Shabbir, an expert on financial crises, was also interviewed by Li Jing, an international reporter and American correspondent for the Xinhua News Agency (XNA), the largest wire and television agency in China. The interview was ... Read More
Kimberly Bohman-Kalaja: Professor of Literature Named Fulbright Scholar
Dr. Kimberly Bohman-Kalaja, associate professor of literature in the Humanities External Master of Arts (HUX) program at California State University, Dominguez Hills, has been named a Fulbright Scholar for 2010-2011. “I feel incredibly lucky and truly grateful,” she said of being selected for the prestigious program. Bohman-Kalaja will spend the spring 2011 semester–from February to August–at the University of Tirana in Tirana, Albania, where she will be lecturing and conducting research on the way in which Albania's writers are shaping the nation's identity. “I am interested in the way in which writers and poets see themselves in relation to their national identity,” said ... Read More
Honda Donation Helps CSU Dominguez Hills Offer College Science Courses to CAMS High School Students
(Carson, CA) - American Honda Motor Co., Inc. has donated $100,000 to California State University, Dominguez Hills to create an endowment fund that will support the university's Science Opportunity Program, which provides college-level science courses to students of the California Academy of Math and Science high school located on the campus. Honda's contribution ensures the program can continue to provide textbooks and course materials to the CAMS students free of charge. In honor of that support, the program will now be called the American Honda Science Opportunity Program (AHSOP). “The American Honda Science Opportunity Program will help CAMS students realize their dreams of ... Read More
Andrew J. Leist: Alumnus Uses Digital Media Arts Skills in Medical Field
There's an art to surgery, and while surgeons orchestrate and perform, technicians in the operating room also make important contributions. California State University, Dominguez Hills alumnus Andrew J. Leist is one such technician, bringing his digital media arts skills to the medical field. After receiving his bachelor's degree in digital media arts in 2008 and while continuing to work in the music industry, Leist landed a job as an audio/visual technician at USC University Hospital Department of Surgery in Los Angeles, where he manages media technology used by surgeons performing endoscopic procedures. “It's fascinating. Before I started [working at USC University Hospital], I ... Read More
