Many of the retired or semi-retired members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at California State University, Dominguez Hills will undoubtedly see themselves reflected in “Songs for the Second Half,” by Barry Bortnick. A performance of the one-act musical will take place on Oct. 10 in the Recital Hall, Rm. A-103, in La Corte Hall. “'Songs for the Second Half' deals with themes that OLLI members will find familiar, especially as they look at retirement, other transitions in their lives and the goals they want to set for the 'second half,'” says Jim Bouchard, coordinator of OLLI at CSUDH. “The musical has a very positive message about being productive and happy in the second ... Read More
Service Learning
Brandilynn Villarreal: Alumna Finds Path to Doctorate By Mentoring McNair Scholars
When Brandilynn Villarreal (Class of '09, M.A., clinical psychology) took a job as a grad assistant for the McNair Scholars Program at California State University, Dominguez Hills, she had thought the responsibility of helping underrepresented, first-generation college students prepare for advanced degrees was interesting. So much so, that as a doctoral candidate in social and personality psychology at the University of California, Irvine she decided to analyze how that same student population copes with graduate school. “I had to come here and see that I was really interested in doing that,” says Villarreal, who had earned her bachelor's degree in psychology at UCLA with a focus on ... Read More
Susan Needham: Partnership with CSU Long Beach Continues With Cambodian History Project
For the last two years, students at California State University, Dominguez Hills and CSU Long Beach have been participating in a unique opportunity to gain field work experience through community-based service learning and hands-on research. The institutions, who signed a memo of understanding in 2008, have been creating the Cambodian Community History and Archive Project (CamCHAP). The project is directed by Susan Needham, professor and chair of anthropology at CSU Dominguez Hills, and Karen Quintiliani, assistant professor of anthropology at CSU Long Beach, with support from the Historical Society of Long Beach (HSLB), which has provided space in their offices for the physical archive and ... Read More
CSU Dominguez Hills, Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum Receive National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded California State University, Dominguez Hills and Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum a $171,788 grant through its Landmarks of American History and Culture program to offer two weeklong professional development workshops next summer for high school teachers across the country. The proposal also received a “We the People” designation for its “efforts to strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture,” according to an NEH press release. Professors from CSU Dominguez Hills, along with staff in the university's Service Learning, Internships and Civic Engagement (SLICE) and Archives and Special Collections ... Read More
Anthropology Students Get a Taste of Cacao Farming In Chiapas
Many students at California State University, Dominguez Hills spend their summers in various internships in a diversity of fields. Not that many students at the metropolitan institution, however, can say they had the opportunity to work on a rural chocolate farm in Mexico. In June, associate professor of anthropology Janine Gasco took students in her Introduction to Mesoamerican Ethnoecology class on a two-week excursion to the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico, for a look at local agriculture. In collaboration with a local nonprofit, La Red Maya de Organizaciones Orgánicas (CASFA), Gasco and her students assisted the area's cacao farmers and studied the methods and culture in which ... Read More
