The sounds of live music and the scents of local food vendors filled the Sculpture Garden at CSUDH on June 22 as an estimated 500 alumni, faculty, administrators, and their family members marked Homecoming 2024 in an event dubbed The Encore.
Severe storm forecasts earlier in the year preempted a week of festivities originally scheduled in February. The warm June weather could not have been more accommodating as attendees relaxed in the shade, danced to the music of DW3 and the CSUDH Jazz Ensemble, or mingled with fellow alums in the beer and wine garden.
Cedric Hicks, Sr., Carson city councilmember and graduate of CSUDH along with his parents, wife, and daughter, reminded attendees in his introductory remarks of the importance of the university to its students and to the communities it serves.
“To all the alums here today, I urge you to stay in contact with CSUDH,” said Hicks, a past president of the Alumni Advisory Council who regularly supports leadership initiatives on campus including the African American Leaders for Tomorrow. “This university is the foundation for where you are today and where you’ll go next.”
Fellow alums Sen. Steve Bradford (D-Inglewood) and Carson city councilmember Arleen Bocatija Rojas joined Hicks on stage. Bradford, who serves as vice president of the California Legislative Black Caucus and is a frequent visitor to campus, hailed the university for its mission to focus on communities typically overlooked and underserved in higher education.
“California State University, Dominguez Hills has stepped up to fill that gap under tremendous leadership,” Bradford said. “As an alumnus, I’ve been honored to help facilitate its growth by securing state funds to help improve the infrastructure here that is so badly needed.”
Thomas A. Parham, president of CSUDH, urged alumni to commit to helping shape the university’s future. “Our alumni engagement is in the single digits, which means there aren’t enough of you that are involved,” Parham said.
“We have new high school graduates, first-year students, and community college transfers, but they need mentorship. They need your time and treasure. If I can get each of you to be five percent better on one dimension of alumni engagement, we could literally transform that statistic overnight.”
This year’s Homecoming celebration also introduced the Toro Alumni Award, a new initiative to recognize and honor alumni staff and faculty that demonstrate outstanding achievement, service to their community, and support for the mission and values of CSUDH.
Bree Nguyen, a former executive at Facebook and lecturer in the College of Business Administration and Public Policy, was named the inaugural faculty Toro Alumni Award recipient. “I got to experience firsthand the quality of professors, academic support, and access to education that CSUDH provides,” says Nguyen, who graduated with a degree in finance in 2012.
“Now as a faculty member and professor, seeing students learn and thrive is the thrill of a lifetime. So, to be recognized for work that gives me so much already is an indescribable feeling.”
Gayle Ball-Parker was the recipient of the first staff Toro Alumni Award. She’s worked at CSUDH in numerous roles for more than 35 years and currently serves as director of the Presidential Scholars Program.
“It has been a joy for me to work so long and so closely with our student population. As a first-generation student myself, who went on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees, I know better than most just how transformative an institution CSUDH really is,” Ball-Parker said.
“This award is such an honor. Once a Toro, always a Toro. I’m so thankful to be able to say that from the bottom of my heart.”
Rick Young and wife Karen Rivera remember a very different CSUDH—a fledgling campus where each of them were taller than most of the trees. They both graduated in the Class of 1971 and said the mixture of beautiful weather and a general curiosity about recent developments at the university convinced them to attend this year’s Homecoming celebration.
“None of this was here,” said Young, a transfer student from LA Harbor College who graduated with a degree in economics and later worked in the aerospace industry. “Classes were very small, but what I remember well is the caliber of the instructors.”
Rivera studied art history with a minor in theatre. Her career after college took her into the field of costume design for theatre and film. She said that being in the theatre department at such an early stage of the university’s history was a wonderful experience.
“When we were doing Shakespeare, we’d have to go out to the campus and look for anybody that we could find. We just needed people up there for smaller roles, so we got all kinds of folks involved,” she recalled.“Our experience here was truly wonderful,” Rivera added. “Maybe it was because the university was just starting out and everyone knew each other. Students and instructors alike just pitched in no matter what was going on. We just had a great time.”
