After over a year of struggles and delays, the CSUDH Asian & Pacific Cultural Center (APCC) finally has a space to call its own. Located on the second floor of Welch Hall, in the offices formerly occupied by Financial Aid, the center is open to all Toro students, although its primary focus is on supporting the success of Asian and Pacific Islander students at the university. The APCC was established in Fall 2021, in response to student requests for an API-focused resource center. Inaugural program director Nathan Nguyen was hired in October 2021, and spent over a year working with administrators to secure a home for the center. “When I came on board, I assumed it would maybe take a ... Read More
Staff
Toro Women’s Basketball Squad Earns Top Seed, Will Host NCAA Regionals
After a record-setting season that found the team rolling to a 28-2 record, the CSUDH women’s basketball team has earned a number one seed in the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship for the first time in the program’s history. As the top seed, the Toros will host the eight-team West Regional tournament on campus at the Torodome on March 10-13. The Toros' strong regular season was enough to convince the selection committee to give them a number one seed, despite a tough loss in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Tournament final. CSUDH’s loss to second seeded Cal State San Marcos wasn’t enough to bump them from the top spot. The Toros will kick off their ... Read More
Staff Spotlight: Ricardo Magallanes
As the Chemical Hygiene Officer for the CSUDH Environmental Health and Safety Department, Ricardo Magallanes is responsible for making sure that students, faculty, and staff are safe while on campus and working with chemicals. This can mean everything from working with administrators to develop good hygiene policies to maintaining accurate inventories of the chemicals that are stored here. To that end, he says he spends most of his days “going through emails, conducting lab inspections, leading a variety of safety training events, reviewing CSUDH safety programs—and going to lots of meetings.” Magallanes has been at CSUDH for three years, and is proud of the work he’s done building up and ... Read More
Toro Alumna Named California Teacher of the Year
CSUDH alumna Bridgette Donald-Blue never intended to have a career in teaching. When the Florida native completed her bachelor’s degree in English at Howard University in Washington, DC, she planned to go on to law school. The words of a favorite professor echoed in her ears, though. “I remember he said, ‘I know all of you are going to do amazing things, but I don’t want you to just write a check. I want you to be involved and affect change.’” Taking those words to heart, Donald-Blue decided to postpone law school for two years and committed to spend that time in the Teach for America program. The nationwide program fights educational inequality, signing up engaged citizens from across ... Read More
Homecoming Is Every Day for These Toro Alums
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 ... Read More
