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CSUDH Celebrates 16th Annual Earth Day Festival

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Students speak to an exhibiter at the 16th annual Earth Day Festival on April 18.

Officially, International Earth Day is commemorated on April 22 this year, and its theme is “Invest in Our Planet.” CSUDH held its 16th annual Earth Day Festival on April 18, and the message that sustainable practices can create prosperity for people and businesses alike was clearly on display.

Organized by the university’s Office of Sustainability, the festival included exhibits by nearly two dozen campus and statewide organizations. Southern California Edison displayed their electric Ford F-150 Lightning to show the company’s commitment to growing their electric fleet, from pickup trucks to larger service vehicles. Other events included a Farmer’s Market with locally and sustainably grown produce, free recycling of e-waste, batteries, and shoes, and a talk by environmentalist and artist Kim Abeles.

Lionel Moreno is an energy advisor at SCE and part of the company’s Mobile Education Program that sets up information exhibits at various community events. “I’m here to promote our Pathway 25 program, which is aligning our carbon and climate goals with those of the State of California,” he says.

Moreno adds that students are interested in more than just the company’s green initiatives. “I would say half the questions are about how to get a job at Edison,” he says. “We have a corporate communications department, so we need writers and graphic designers. There are a lot of different kinds of jobs and internships available.”

Irene Kurata has worked with the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium for about 10 years–first as a volunteer and for the last few years in educational outreach and advancing the messaging of the aquarium. “I grew up in Los Angeles, and I knew almost nothing about the ocean,” Kurata says. “It provides more than 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe. The ocean’s kelp forests are as important to biodiversity as our rain forests.”

Crowds of students were drawn by the skull of a bottlenose dolphin and the jars of live grunion, but they learned an important lesson about the fragility of our marine ecosystems. “These little fish live their lives pretty much as prey, and they keep living as long as there are sandy beaches,” Kurata says. “Global warming is making oceans rise. What happens when our beaches are underwater? The grunion will suffer, as well as all the other organisms that rely on them for food. It’s all connected.”

In its sixth year, the Office of Sustainability’s Green Hero Awards honor amazing students, faculty, and staff members who have gone above and beyond to champion CSUDH’s sustainability efforts. Dr. Lissa McCullough, a lecturer in philosophy was this year’s Faculty Green Hero Award winner. Jasmine Jackson, a member of CSUDH’s first College Corps Program cohort, earned the Student Green Hero Award. The Staff Green Hero Award this year went to Nathaniel Notti, formerly a program coordinator in Facilities Services.

The campus has become a sustainability leader in higher education for innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across campus with new rooftop solar panel installations and other energy-saving measures. Just last month, the university earned STARS Gold under the AASHE sustainability ranking system. No other campus in the CSU system has progressed from Bronze through Gold in a shorter time.

Each year, the Office of Sustainability hosts the Earth Day Festival to highlight the university’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and to supporting environmental justice. Communities of color are inordinately burdened by the effects of climate change. Sustainability is one of CSUDH’s core values and one of the critical ways we support our South Bay neighbors.

Education is the Key for Black Resource Center Interim Director

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Black Resource Center Interim Director Trimaine Davis
CSUDH Black Resource Center Interim Director Trimaine Davis.

For Trimaine Davis, the new interim director of the CSUDH Black Resource Center (BRC), education was his way out of a generational cycle of addiction and depression. Now, he dedicates himself to helping others find the same opportunities. “I really take this seriously and do what I can to make sure that the doors that were opened for me remain open for those who are falling behind,” he says.

Davis has traveled a long, hard road to get to his current position at CSUDH. Born to a drug-addicted mother and absentee father, he was placed into foster care at birth. When he was five years old, Davis’ paternal grandmother became his legal guardian, and he grew up with her in the hardscrabble East Bay city of Pittsburg, California.

His mother eventually conquered her addiction, but passed away when Davis was just 14 years old. “Thankfully, my mother was able to surpass her demons and became a functioning person in society,” says Davis. “So I had a small window of time to be with her and build a relationship.”

Soon afterwards, Davis discovered that his father had been diagnosed with AIDS. Davis and his grandmother served as his caregivers as the disease sapped his strength over the next two years.

“I hated it at first,” he recalls. “But it turned out to be a great blessing in disguise, because I had no other choice but to get to know my dad. We had some conversations where I asked him how he ended up on this path. I needed to know and understand why he was not there for me.”

“Thankfully, he was very open and honest with me about his struggles with depression, self-esteem, and what we will now call imposter syndrome. My father suffered from that, and by talking to him, I was able to understand where he was coming from. My anger definitely dialed back a lot.”

In speaking with his parents and grandmother, one common theme emerged: a lack of education. “My grandmother stopped going to school in the seventh grade. My grandpa stopped going in the fifth grade. My parents didn’t finish high school,” he says. “I thought there had to be a correlation between that and the realities of my parent’s dysfunction and addiction. Education became something I became very serious and very passionate about.”

Black Resource Center Interim Director Trimaine Davis

After graduating from high school, Davis’ 6’8” size and athleticism landed him a scholarship to play basketball at San Diego State University. As he immersed himself in academia, he saw himself developing an interest in being an educator himself. His interest in becoming a high school teacher waned, however, as he felt the profession was being forced to “teach to the standardized tests” during the time of No Child Left Behind policies.

He started doing nonprofit work, and soon got the opportunity to get back into higher education–this time as an outreach and recruitment officer for San Diego State. “That was back in 2007, and I haven’t looked back since!” he says.

Before coming to CSUDH, Davis spent years working in a variety of outreach positions at California universities. From CSU Northridge to Fullerton State to UCLA, he has strived to improve educational access and equity. “Working in education, I’ve noticed that often I’ll be in spaces where I’m the only one who looks like me,” he says. “I’m here to reach out to those like me and make sure they get the chances they deserve.”

Davis is excited to be working at CSUDH. “There’s a special kind of synergy here at CSUDH. Its historical roots are very deep, but it’s also an institution that’s looking in the future and asking how can we add to that legacy? That was a big draw to me.”

In fact, Davis says, he’s always seen himself eventually coming to CSUDH. “In my previous jobs, we came to a lot of different events here on campus,” he says. “Every time, I thought that one day I’m going to get here. It just felt right. That’s why folks say you should never you should never give up on a dream. I was fortunate enough to land this opportunity. I think this campus has a resilience of a spirit that each student, staff, and faculty member can relate to.”

His immediate plans are to update the Black Resource Center, getting new furniture and generally sprucing up the space, which has been worn down from years of student activity. In the long term, Davis says his work will largely revolve around student development. “I think I came along at the right time,” he says. “There seems to be a lot of energy in aligning the overall strategic plan of our campus with student development. I’m looking forward to seeing how the BRC plays into that.”

“I think the one of the biggest challenges is to make sure that we really understand what our students need, and then seeing how we can address those things,” he adds. “I look forward to tackling those challenges, because I think it’s something that’s very possible. It’s just a matter of us coming together and doing it–which I feel like this campus is doing.”

Fun Facts About Trimaine Davis

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
Spending time with my beautiful family

Favorite movie?
Above The Rim

Favorite book?
I Came As A Shadow: An Autobiography by John Thompson

Favorite song:
A toss-up between: “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke and “White Man’z World” by 2Pac

Favorite food?
“Everything my spouse makes!”

Least food?
I can’t stand fish dishes.

What’s your favorite place to spend time?
On a basketball court, playing basketball

Cats or dogs?
Dogs!!!

What’s a place you’ve never been to that you’d like to travel to?
I would love to go to Dakar, Senegal to see the African Renaissance Monument one day.

If a movie was made about your life, who would you want to play you? 
Being that I’m so tall, someone like Winston Duke or Aldis Hodge.

What’s something interesting about yourself that others may not know? 
I only have one kidney. (I donated my right kidney to my son.)

What inspires you to get up in the morning? 
My family, my passion, and my purpose.

What’s one thing you couldn’t live without?
My Family!!!!

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
The superpower to end racism.  

Describe yourself in three words:
“Passionate, Conscious, Humbled”

Toros Educate West Carson on Pollution Risks

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CSUDH student Armando Garcia at a recent DAAC open house.
CSUDH graduate student Armando Garcia shares air quality research at an open house event at the Del Amo Action Committee office last month.

Cynthia Babich, founder of the Del Amo Action Committee (DAAC), doesn’t mince words when assessing the environmental hazards that have put residents of West Carson–predominantly low-income residents of color–at significant risk for decades.

“We’re choking here. We’re absolutely choking,” Babich said during a recent community open house, referring to the findings of a DAAC health report on airborne contaminants. In fact, air pollution is just one of many environmental risks that residents face.

The DAAC office stands just a few blocks south of the Del Amo Superfund Site. The office was founded in 1994 to inform residents about the high levels of soil and groundwater contamination–the sad legacy of decades of neglect by a synthetic rubber plant that operated at the Del Amo site from 1943 to 1972.

West Carson has a second Superfund site on land owned by Montrose Chemicals near the junction of Del Amo Boulevard and Normandie Avenue. Montrose was once the largest producer of DDT in the United States.

The improper disposal of toxic chemicals in unlined waste pits and evaporation pools–benzene, chlorobenzene, and DDT, among others–created widespread contamination of the soil and groundwater supply in West Carson and adjacent areas of the South Bay.

“We’re facing a 5,000-year cleanup here,” Babich said. “It’s really longer than that, but that’s how long it’ll take just to make the groundwater safe. Not everyone understands this. That’s why we need to continue our work.”

New partnerships and a new generation of researchers are vital to advancing the work of the DAAC, says Margaret Manning, a longtime consultant who supervises the organization’s internship program. In recent years, students from CSUDH have increasingly stepped in to fill that need.

“We’re so close to CSUDH, and the environmental issues we address are so complex. Students really ought to be here,” said Manning, a former adjunct assistant professor at CSUDH who received her master’s degree in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding from the university.

Armando Garcia, a second-year graduate student in environmental science, interned at DAAC before joining the staff as a research consultant. He specializes in the collection and analysis of air pollution data, and his research was included in the DAAC’s recent health report.

“I grew up in Lennox, next to LAX. That’s what made me interested in the subject of airborne contaminants,” Garcia said. “My ultimate goal is to apply what I’ve learned to communities like this, communities like my own. People just don’t know how bad it is here.”

DAAC Director Cynthia Babich speaks with a West Carson resident at last month's community open house.
DAAC Director Cynthia Babich, right, talks to a West Carson resident during last month’s community open house.

Tianjun Lu, an assistant professor of Earth Sciences at CSUDH, mentored Garcia and introduced him to the DAAC. “The university is not only a partner but a hub for community action and engagement,” Lu said. “I encourage all my students to apply their coursework to resolving local problems.”

CSUDH students from several disciplines have found ways to contribute their expertise to the DAAC’s work. Bryan Castro graduated in 2019 with a degree in history. His internship at the Gerth Archives and Special Collections under its director Greg Williams introduced him to the work of the DAAC.

“I’m currently in the process of digitizing VHS recordings that date back to the mid-1990s,” said Castro, who is also a member of the DAAC board. “These tapes contain important footage of soil excavations and contamination testing, EPA meetings, and other documentary evidence of health risks facing residents of West Carson.”

Archiving empirical data provides an important resource for scholars, says Williams, who has had discussions with a few environmental groups about their digital collections. “Access to this data allows students to track how local environments have improved or degraded over time, while also offering them interesting ideas for future research projects.”

Orji Ulu Ezieme completed his M.Sc. in environmental science at CSUDH in 2021. He interned with DAAC in 2019 and has since joined the organization as a research consultant. His recent work includes a grant-funded truck count to assess the impact of commercial truck traffic on air pollution in West Carson.

“West Carson is already overly congested with traffic, and it’s only getting worse,” Ezieme said. “And yet, we’re getting more and more commercial warehouses. Our truck research found nine hotspots in the area where airborne particulate consistently registers higher than the acceptable level.”

The collection of truck traffic data is critical, says Babich. Companies operating in West Carson do so based on conditional permits. Only a certain amount of truck traffic is allowed. Collecting traffic data helps document violations that could prevent the renewal of these permits.

“When a permit comes up for renewal and we have a record of violations, then maybe that company gets replaced by something else,” Babich said, adding that the stakes are higher than most people fully understand.

“The Boys and Girls Club in West Carson is located right next to the Montrose Superfund Site and Jones Chemical, which is a chlorine transfer station. We’re just one accident away from people dying.”

Babich adds that environmental risks are not just a West Carson problem. “The chances of a member of our community moving into another contaminated area are very high. We’re not just teaching residents about specific examples of environmental abuse. We’re teaching them to question authority and be engaged.”

Africana Studies Professor Puts Students First

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Africana Studies Professor Puts Students First
Meryah Fisher, CSUDH Africana Studies adjunct professor.

Everyone who attended the Black History Month opening celebration at CSUDH in early February was struck by the passion and energy of the woman who kicked off the proceedings. As she recited two poems and performed an original song, it was clear that Africana Studies Adjunct Professor Meryah Fisher had a palpable connection to the students in attendance, who enthusiastically cheered and danced along.

Such connections are by design. A large part of Fisher’s teaching is formulated to center her students as people before delving into the coursework. “We start out every single day with the question ‘How are you?’,” she says. “I didn’t even bother going over the syllabus during the first week this semester, because it was more important for us to do the relationship building.”

Fisher believes that too many professors get caught up in the amount of information they’re teaching, losing sight of those they’re teaching. “We start off by shoving work down people’s throats,” she says. “I say, let’s let people be people first. Let’s find out who everyone is. Let’s give them a second to meet each other. That has really helped to expand their participation in class, because they want to participate. It’s not forced on them.”

“I don’t count attendance,” she continues. “They paid for this. I tell them flat out, you can waste your money and not show up. That’s on you. I’m not going to tell you what to do and I’m not going to babysit you. But if you want to be here and you want to engage, great, let’s do that!”

Born and raised in a small New Jersey borough, Fisher says that she chose CSUDH because she was trying to explore life as far away from her hometown as possible. “I was definitely running away,” she says. “It was just that time in your teenage life when you’re asking what else is out there. Because my high school was in a failing district, it didn’t have expectations for us students. Nobody was talking to me about college.”

“I had a GPA over 4.0, and I had high SAT scores, and I could have gone anywhere,” she recalls. “But since it wasn’t a conversation we were having in school, I had no confidence in that. CSUDH was the only college I applied to, because I knew I could get in.”

Fisher’s transition to college life away from home led to more pain than the typical culture shock. She was a victim of sexual assault during her first semester, and wanted to leave school and return home. Her mother helped convince her to stick it out, and as Fisher says, “I’ve literally spent my entire life surviving. I buried myself in my work and graduated with two majors and a minor in four years.”

One of the reasons students connect with Fisher so strongly is her willingness to be open with them about her own struggles. “I’ve managed some pretty severe depression and anxiety since childhood, plus complex PTSD from domestic violence, and I’m very new to the self-love journey,” she says. “I’m only about two years in, actually.”

Meryah Fisher, CSUDH Africana Studies adjunct professor.

“I think when folks see me, their biases build more assumptions than truths… most folks would never imagine the life I’ve lived. I know this sounds dark, but it’s important. Others needs to know they can make it, too. So I’ve embedded activism around self-love and ending domestic violence into my platform as an intellectual artist.”

Fisher didn’t plan on getting into teaching after graduating from CSUDH. She was working at a nonprofit homeless services organization when she got a call from one of her former professors, Miguel Gutierrez of the Chicana/o Studies program, who thought she would be a good choice to lead an Africana Studies course for a local high school through the College of Extended Education (now the College of Continuing & Professional Education).

“I said, ‘Okay, cool,’ and got called in to start the next day,” she says. “I’ve been teaching here for seven and a half years since. This is where I found a love. I love what I do. I love the students, I love being an alum, I love all those things. Recently, I’ve come to understand that my position here is really about being the representation for students that I needed to see myself, but wasn’t there when I was in school. I’m here for them.”

The professor is always open and honest about her opinions, and has been known to ruffle a few feathers on campus, as she puts it. “When things are wrong, I’m going to call that out,” she says. “Because I love the students here and what we are building, I hate when things are wrong. I love the space and what it can do.”

One of Fisher’s most popular courses is Africana Studies 205: Introduction to Hip-Hop. “I have the impression that the class came to me because I’m the youngest,” she laughs. “I’m no expert on hip-hop. I think that’s a misconception about being a professor. We’re not always experts. We’re learning a lot of the content as we go. A lot of teaching is just knowing how to teach material, whether or not you are an expert in it.”

“I’ve definitely learned more over the years, but I still don’t consider myself an expert,” she adds. “I spend a lot of time learning with my students, offering them questions to consider that I don’t have the answers to. I want to see what their development is, what their thought process is. Many professors are not willing to admit that they’re not experts, and won’t admit that they need to learn things, too. You have to be willing to learn.”

When Fisher took over the Intro to Hip-Hop class, it was primarily dry theory, she recalls. Students didn’t listen to music or watch videos. In order to get accepted as an academic discipline, the study of hip-hop originally had to go overboard with scholarship and theoretical discussions. “When I took it over, it was already in the university,” she says. “So I started making some changes.”

While there’s still plenty of heavy reading, “We also do a lot of examination of pop culture,” Fisher says. “We look at the news and what’s happening in the world around us. We make it more of an immersive experience. Hip-hop is not just the music or the dances, it’s a movement. It’s a method of us as a community finding out what’s happening, sharing information, and resolving problems.”

“We have this this idea about who hip-hop is for and what it is that has permeated the culture, especially in mainstream hip-hop,” she adds. “It’s very repetitive. The drugs, the violence, the sex, the quick fame, the money. But hip-hop has humble beginnings, solid community beginnings. It was really a space that was challenging a lot of our social and economic and political understandings around race.

“That was dangerous at the time, and it’s still considered dangerous. There’s an understanding of race being really about the social expectations and experiences, as opposed to the anthropological, the genetic, or the biological. Developing that understanding in the community was dangerous, and was one of the reasons that hip-hop was co-opted in the way that it was, and why we hear what we hear on the radio today–just different voices saying the same words over and over again.”

As Black History Month 2023 comes to a conclusion, Fisher believes that hip-hop should be more universally acknowledged as Black history. “It started on the backs and breath of Black people. I don’t know how much more ‘Black history’ you can get than that. I’m just trying to keep it real.”

As her students can attest, Professor Fisher is definitely succeeding in that respect.

Fun Facts About Meryah Fisher

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
Music, art, poetry, open mics… anything creative!

Favorite movie?
A very juxtaposed tie between Bamboozled (a Spike Lee Joint) and Jurassic Park!

Favorite book?
Jurassic Park! by Michael Crichton

Favorite song:
Currently it’s “Love Again“ by Alex Isley

First concert/Last concert/Best concert:
First: The Moody Blues; Last: Alex Isley; Best: either Ozzfest or Afropunk

What’s your favorite place to spend time?
In the community… local small cafés and gatherings

What’s a place you’ve never been to that you’d like to travel to?
Paris

Cats or dogs?
Both!! All the animals!!!

What inspires you to get up in the morning?
Every day is a fresh slate for creating my best life… I get up every morning at the excitement of what life can look like with me finally being its author.

What’s one thing you couldn’t live without?
Coffee – my mom still sends me Wawa coffee from home!

Describe yourself in three words:
“Authentic. Intellectual. Creative.”

Homecoming Is Every Day for These Toro Alums

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engagement photo
A newly engaged Mark Kerr and Paola Carbajal at CSUDH.

What do Dance Dance Revolution, Dungeons & Dragons, and theatre arts have in common? For alumni Mark Kerr and Paola Carbajal, these were just a few of the building blocks for their deep commitment to each other and their devotion to the Toro community.

Perhaps no previous (or future) Toro alums have had as close a relationship with the campus as Kerr and Carbajal. CSUDH is their alma mater and employer. They were married on campus, and they’ve lived in student housing for the last eight years.

“It’s quite a legacy story,” says Carbajal. “It’s not always ideal to live where you work. Some day we would like to have a house of our own. But we’ve made a good life here for us and for our two cats, Freyja and Gutz.”

Kerr and Carbajal met on campus in 2008, though each tells the story a little differently. “We met in the old game room at Loker Student Union, where we would play Dance Dance Revolution,” Kerr says. “Paola was in between relationships, and I was single. We just vibed.”

Visit our DH Stories page to read more about those special people that Toro alums found on campus-lifelong friends, academic mentors, and even the loves of their lives!

As Carbajal tells it, she was singing Karaoke during a session of Rock Band when Kerr introduced himself. “Mark thought he would be funny by coming up during my song and asking what was dying,” she says, laughing. “I knew it was a joke, but my friends were really angry.”

Both are local South Bay kids. Kerr grew up in Lawndale and attended El Camino College before transferring to CSUDH in 2005. Carbajal was raised in nearby Wilmington and started at CSUDH right after graduation from Bishop Montgomery High School in 2007.

Walks along the Pike in Long Beach, a shared passion for music and theatre–they both majored in theatre arts at CSUDH–and of course, Dungeons & Dragons, convinced them that they had found something special.

Onstage image from She Kills Monsters
Paola Carbajal, left, and Mark Kerr, lying at her feet, in a CSUDH production of She Kills Monsters.

Kerr says it wasn’t just one thing but an accumulation of things that convinced him he’d found true love. “She’s 100% down for Dungeons & Dragons. She even wanted her own dice. When she took on different creative projects and theatre roles, she told me she’d be happier if I was a part of those projects with her,” Kerr said. “Over time, I was just, like, I don’t ever want to leave this person.”

Kerr had completed his bachelor’s degree when he met Carbajal. He was working as a student counselor for the College of Health, Human Services and Nursing while starting on his Master of Education degree. Carbajal’s path to graduation took a more circuitous route.

“Mark got to see me go through many different majors. I even transferred to Harbor College for a time, but I came back and finally settled on a degree in theatre arts,” Carbajal says. “I was fortunate to have my own personal student counselor to help me through some difficult times.”

The two also worked together in campus theatrical productions of Biloxi Blues, a modern retelling of MacBeth, set among Mexican drug cartels, and She Kills Monsters–a comedic take on, you guessed it, Dungeons & Dragons.

“There’s a photo of the first time we both appeared together on stage in She Kills Monsters. You wouldn’t know it because I’m on a platform, and he’s lying on the ground dead,” says Carbajal.

Bulletin wedding photo
Kerr and Carbajal make the front page of CSUDH’s The Bulletin.

Carbajal graduated in 2013 and accepted a job with student housing as a residential life coordinator. A year later, she and Kerr were married during a ceremony in the sculpture garden, followed by a reception in the student union. “We were still young professionals. I had just graduated, and money was tight,” says Carbajal. 

November 2024 will mark Kerr and Carbajal’s 10th wedding anniversary, and Kerr says he hopes to have some kind of celebration on campus. “We’re not thinking of anything massive, but it would be nice to do something in the sculpture garden again.”

Carbajal, who has one year left to finish her master’s degree in educational administration, says they’re still talking about options, including a vow renewal ceremony. “We were so young when we got married. 25-year-old me is different in some ways from who I am now. Renewing our vows would be a good way to solidify this new chapter in our lives.”

As for life on campus, it has its advantage and disadvantages, says Kerr. “I love being here. Most of our students have a really great vibe. But it can be stressful. When you’re an advisor, or a residential life coordinator like Paola, the job doesn’t just end at 5 p.m.,” Kerr says.

“I might come across a student in the commons area who’s dealing with a family loss,” Kerr adds. “I can’t just turn my counselor mode off. It might be 7 p.m., I might be hungry or have a headache. But the student needs me. That’s what we do. That’s why we’re here.”