In the 1990s, when gang violence in Los Angeles County was at its peak, Cheryl McKnight was a member of the Gang Prevention and Intervention Unit in Long Beach. She helped initiate a truce between the East Side Longos and Insane Crips gangs, resulting in a long-standing peace that remains to this day. She soon became director of the city’s Future Generations Youth Center, where she enabled marginalized youth to take some ownership of the program. In 2007, she joined California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) and used what she learned about empowering to expand experiential learning and service opportunities for students as coordinator for the Center for Service Learning, ... Read More
College of Extended and International Education
Virtual Graduation Celebration Honors Toro Class of 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic may have postponed commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2020, but California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) still found a way to celebrate its graduates with a week-long Virtual Graduation Celebration. Given the task of quickly creating a series of online and virtual events to celebrate Toro grads, several departments teamed up and got to work. The effort was led by the CSUDH Office of Ceremonies and Events, with staff from the Office of Student Life (OSL), communications, alumni, the Academic Affairs Division, and DHTV all pitching in. “None of us had ever done anything like this before,” says Marilyn McPoland, director of Ceremonies and ... Read More
Class of 2020 Shares Fond Memories, Aspirations, and Collective Apprehension
California State University, Dominguez Hills’ Class of 2020 has a lot to offer. The students featured below are a small sample of the 4,633 graduates who will become the next generation of nurses, business professionals, researchers, artists, and leaders. Each graduate shared one of their favorite faculty mentors, a few memorable experiences since joining the Toro Nation, and some trepidation about an uncertain future. Sahara Vilchis, B.S., Anthropology/Biological Concentration, Minor in Geography Sahara Vilchis is a McNair Scholar who serves as president of the Anthropology Club, works on campus as a writing/content tutor in the Toro Learning and Testing Center, and is a volunteer in ... Read More
International Students Help Build Sweat Equity in Watts
A group of international students studying at CSUDH literally helped build walls and figuratively built connections at a Habitat for Humanity build day recently in Watts. Not even the unseasonably warm weather could dampen the students’ enthusiasm for their charitable work, as they worked together to make a house a home for a family in need. As Siba Kattan, a student from Saudi Arabia, put it, “I feel good about helping people who need it. I've never experienced something like that. It's like doing yoga ten times! You feel so good on the inside after you help someone. (Everyone) should do it!” The international group comprised Toro exchange students, as well as students in the ... Read More
Brian Jarrett draws from wealth of experience to help strengthen NCRP program
Whether in the wilds of Alaska, or his new home in urban southern California, becoming part of the local community is crucial to Brian Jarrett’s process for serving others, as well as building comprehensive dispute resolution curricula and programs. Jarrett, professor of negotiation, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding (NCRP) – and the program’s new director – arrived at CSUDH in August 2015 after serving for five years in a similar capacity at the University of Alaska (UOA). There he worked closely with indigenous Alaskan leader Polly Hyslop to generate discourse between villages, the justice system, and the university, and incorporated those real-world techniques into the dispute ... Read More
