California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) undergraduate Berenice Rojas is no stranger to hard work. Its value was instilled in her at a young age, as her Mexican immigrant parents toiled in the Yuma, Arizona sun as farmworkers to provide for Berenice and her two brothers. “They would start working at five or six in the morning,” says Rojas. “They would work all day, then come home at about eight at night.” Today, the third-year Toro student is doing plenty of hard work of her own, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at CSUDH. She wants to use the knowledge she gains at the university to help mitigate the effects of climate change in the Arizona fields where her parents ... Read More
Features
New Student Convocation Welcomes Toros to Campus
New Student Convocation has become an annual tradition at CSUDH—and it took place in person for the first time in two years on Friday, Aug. 27. Several hundred first-year, transfer, and graduate students turned out for the afternoon to learn more about the many student resources available to them during their time at CSUDH, and get to know each other and their new academic family. The event was also a chance for President Thomas A. Parham, senior leadership, faculty, and alumni to welcome these new students into the Toro community. After a DJ and the CSUDH Dance and Cheer teams pumped up the crowd, new students were introduced to the various Toro sports teams that will represent the ... Read More
CSUDH Graduate Student Awarded CSUPERB Research Grant
In March 2020, much of the laboratory work conducted at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) and many other CSU campuses came to a grinding halt. Now, as campuses repopulate and researchers head back to their labs, the CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) has awarded 25 grants to graduate students to restart and reengage in the research activities put on hold due to COVID-19. Stacy Zamora, a graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in biology at CSUDH, has earned one of the coveted grants for her research into the neurobiological factors of drug addiction. Zamora has always been fascinated by the complex inner workings of the brain. At ... Read More
Two CSUDH Students Named Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholars
Jennifer Correa and Cesar Ovando have taken slightly different paths on their journey to CSUDH, but they have both ended up at the same place: the two Toro students were recently named recipients of the prestigious 2021 CSU Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholarship. The scholarship program is designed to increase diversity within the pool of university faculty by supporting the doctoral aspirations of students in the CSU. Jennifer Correa Correa was born and raised in the historically underserved area of Wilmington, Calif., and started her college journey at local Los Angeles Harbor College. She then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology and social behavior at the ... Read More
CSUDH Biology Professor Making Big Waves With Her Shark Studies
Sitting offshore in a small boat in the Florida Keys, CSUDH Assistant Professor of Biology Samantha Leigh tosses chum into the shallow water. The pungent slurry of chopped-up fish parts is the best way to attract her targets, so she keeps a close eye on the long gillnets she has laid perpendicular to the shoreline. When Leigh spots a disturbance in a net, she jumps in and makes her way to a snared bonnethead shark, which she untangles and places in a live tank inside the boat. After netting a couple more, Leigh takes her catches to a lab facility, where the bonnetheads are released into tanks with ocean water flow-through systems. These allow the sharks to acclimate to their new ... Read More
