Provost's Message - May 15, 2019

 Message From Provost Jersky

Provost Brian Jersky

Dear Campus Community,

As we complete another semester, I find myself again surprised that the academic year is almost over. Students are feverishly studying as they take their finals. Faculty and staff are feeling the pressure of quickly approaching deadlines. All of these activities make it hard to take a moment to reflect on the year when so much needs to be done. That being said, I do want to take a pause and look back on the year as our campus prepares for the biggest event of the year, commencement. We have two graduating students this year that I want to highlight.

Olivia Silke

 

Olivia Silke
MA student in Psychology Research Program

As we celebrate accolades and achievements on our campus, our students continually remain our greatest legacy as well as a constant reminder of our best at ‘the Beach.’ One such student, Olivia Silke, is a shining example. Silke, an MA student in Psychology Research Program, was awarded the extremely competitive NSF (National Science Foundation) Graduate Research Fellowship.

This $138,000 award was through an NSF-sponsored national program that supports graduate research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This year, 12 NSF fellowship winners came from CSU campuses, two from our very own campus. Silke’s award-winning research aims to understand stress in low-income perinatal mothers and their infants.

Olivia Silke Accomplishments

Silke has also earned a number of CSULB awards this year, including the Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar award and the Graduate Research Fellows award. This past spring she won a University Achievement Award for Outstanding Graduate Research Student. In the fall, she will be a PhD student in Psychological Science at UC Irvine.

We wish her all the best with her future plans. Perhaps we will one day see her back on campus as one of our very own faculty.

Provost Brian Jersky and Rae Jillian Rivera

Rae Jillian Rivera
BS student in Electronic Engineering Technology

It is not every day an aspiring undergraduate engineering student achieves the dream of working on Disney’s most anticipated and newest Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge land, but that is Electronic Engineering Technology major, Rae Jillian Rivera’s reality. Rivera worked on software development for two rides in the newest land at both Disneyland and Disney World, which is set to open at the end of this month to record crowds.

The software behind the new Millennium Falcon ride, where guests can pilot the spaceship, and the future Rides of the Resistance dark ride, was developed, implemented and tested by Rivera.  

Rae Jillian Rivera Accomplishments

Her path leading up to this accomplishment did not start off that easy. Rivera had her share of overcoming bad grades, lack of confidence and some family circumstances. All this led her to seek out necessary support and advice from her mentor Dr. Paul Buonora, chemistry professor and the Program Director for the RISE Program.

“Dr. Bounora explained to me how a growth mindset worked,” explains Rivera. “He said I needed to not only learn from my mistakes but to turn my weaknesses into strengths. This advice came at a critical time in my academic career when I was contemplating dropping out of the major.”

Due to walk this spring, Rivera has never looked back. She took advantage of research and internship opportunities on campus and in industry to build her skill set. She did internships at AstroLabs Enterprise and Walt Disney Imagineering.  In a team environment, she competed in and won the 2018 CSULB Innovation Challenge. She became CEO and founder of the patented invention created during the challenge.

Rivera also credits numerous female mentors at her internships that saw her talent and gave her opportunities. She was recently awarded a Grace Hopper Celebration Student Scholarship to attend the 2019 Grace Hopper Celebration.  The Grace Hopper Celebration is part of the Anita B.ORG program of activities to celebrate accomplishments and bring women into technology fields.

Since she is a first-generation student, Rivera wanted to make her younger self proud – and not quit when life became difficult.  Now Disney is looking to bring her on as an Imagineer this fall. She must be proud of her accomplishments and achievements, I know I am.

Congratulations to all our incredible graduates – you make us proud every day!

Commencement

The end of the school year brings excitement for our campus as students celebrate the milestone of commencement. The ceremonies honor our students and their families, as well as our celebrated faculty. I encourage you all to attend your colleges’ commencement ceremonies to support and applaud all of our students for their amazing achievements. Here is the link to the commencement website for the latest, up-to-date information.

Lastly, I wish you all the best through the remainder of the term. You have worked long and hard to get to this point in the year. I look forward to seeing all of you at the commencement ceremonies and wish you all the best for the summer, whatever your plans.

Brian Jersky
Provost and Senior Vice President

 News

Academic Affairs News

Grants

Martin Herman. Arts Council for Long Beach Community Project: GardenMe. Music. COTA. Arts Council for Long Beach. $1,500. (October 2018 - September 2019)

Margaret Black. Community Project Grant. University Art Museum. COTA. Arts Council for Long Beach. $3,500. (October 2018 - September 2019)

Thomas O'Brien. IANA's Scholarship Program. CCPE. CITT. Intermodal Association of North America. $40,000 (November 2018 - October 2020)

Forouzan Golshani. Energy and Environment R&D Projects. COE Administration. COE. Southern California Gas Company. $50,000 (March 2019 - June 2020)

Ron Mark. POST Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute (PSBSLI) Facilitator Workshop. Center of Criminal Justice Research & Training. CHHS. Commission on POST. $64,494 (March 2019 - June 2019)

Deborah Fraser. Complement Protein C1q in Atherosclerosis. Biological Sciences. CNSM. NIH. $106,208. (March 2019 - February 2020)

Forouzan Golshani. Boeing Projects 2019. COE Administration. COE. Boeing. $5,045 (January 2019 - December 2019)

Joseph Kalman. Development of Solid Propulsion Mix and Characterization Facility. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. COE. Office of Naval Research. $398,400. (June 2019 - December 2019)

Shelley Eriksen. Campus Sexual Assault Program. Human Development. CLA. Cal OES-US DOJ. $200,000. (January 2019 - December 2019)

Thomas O'Brien. Metrans University Transportation Center. CITT. CCPE. USC. $275,000. (November 2016 - September 2019)

Hamid Rahai. CFD Investigations to a NASA High Lift Commons Research Model (HL-CRM) with and without CVG's. COE Administration. COE. Edgewind. $13,000. (September 2018 - June 2019)

Kelly Young. Regulation of Folliculogenesis During Ovarian Recrudescense. NIH NIGMS. Biological Sciences. CNSM. $110,625. (April 2016 - March 2020)
 

The next Provost’s Message will be published on Wednesday, June 19th. Items for the upcoming message should be submitted by Friday, June 14th, to aa-communication@csulb.edu.