SoCal Minds

So broke he lived in music school, student now honored

From CSULB

Stop whining out there, young folks. Sure, university study costs a lot these days. It may require a job or even two or three. The academics are never easy. Student life likely is more complicated than its ever been, especially in multicultural, multi-ethnic Southern California. But how much does that education matter? If it meant seeing any and all scholarships evaporate, would that be the time to dig in? If it meant going hungry and losing a place to live, how much fortitude would go on display? And if it came to the private spectacle, a desperation so great that the only shelter available would be the practice rooms in the music building, how much tenacity would remain? For Brian K. Smith, a senior studying Spanish translation and music and carrying a 3.65 GPA, those dire circumstances all came true -- and with his own perseverance, determination, grit and the grace of some supportive friends and faculty, they're over. He's just won a trustee's award that will let him escape homelessness and advance toward his goals of becoming the first in his family to earn a degree and even maybe the Ph. D. he covets.

A once homeless scholar hopes trustees' award will boost him toward a dream Ph. D.

Let's do video, dance, discuss Panama Canal and honor

From UCLA, ALOUD, CSULB & MOCA

Just because it's a gray, drizzly Monday morning in Southern California, here's a few items to look ahead to for a brighter week, especially among the region's chattering classes.

On Tuesday, the folks in Westwood return to the scene of what's the state of the art in Do It Yourself video, examining the viral cultural phenomenon, some of its prime examples, and, yes, even bringing in some of its suddenly well-known practitioners, such as Matt Harding, that guy who danced around the planet and into his 15 minutes of fame. If Harding's hoofing gets those feet itchy, head downtown Thursday night to join Heffington and the Eastsiders in an 'enagement party,' an 'environment' designed to get participants to get up dance and, yes, maybe even be videotaped.

For the more serious minded, on Wednesday night the folks in Long Beach look farther south than usual to examine the point-counterpoint on what the planned expansion of the Panama Canal will mean to local ports. Will the 2014 opening of the bigger, deeper, better waterway cut into business at the multibillion-dollar facilities in Los Angeles and Long Beach? The session's free and open to the public. And on Thursday night, the always wonderful Jack Miles, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and thinker now resident in Irvine, will chat with philosopher and author Kawme Anthony Appiah about honor codes and moral revolutions in a free session downtown (reservations required).

What campuses are most friendly to veterans as scholars?

From CSULB

To scholars and Ph.D.-wannabes scouring for potential, intriguing and socially relevant topics for study, here's a suggestion: How will the nation be forever altered by its decision to let several major wars be fought by volunteer forces, brave men and women who suffered dreadful casualties and paid a high personal price so, in part, much of America could ignore the dire consequences of incursions of places like Iraq and Afghanistan because it did not directly affect their sons and daughters via a draft? And just how well will the nation really treat its returning fighting forces, many of whom are seeking part of the payback for the valorous service with tuition assistance at institutions of higher education? And which of those welcome vets best? A publication aimed at helping vets with civilian life, jobs and education says that folks in Long Beach and Exposition Park merit praise and attention among 7,000 schools examined for their military friendliness.

Broncos get a salute for friendliness to military folk wishing to be students

Click here for website on 'military friendly' schools nationwide

For the weekend, 3 turns at matters Japanese, sort of

From the Japanese American National Museum, Pacific Asia Museum & CSULB

Let's take a Japanese turn for things to do to get out in a promised warming break from the persistent July gray. In Little Tokyo, there will be a Saturday afternoon screening of a Sansei son's discoveries about what exactly his daddy and some other unsung Japanese Americans did during the Great War, a film about how, while their own families were incarcerated and under suspicion by authorities, a group of skilled linguists and soon-to-be broadcasters beamed U.S. propaganda, 'Calling on Tokyo' to undermine the morale of the then-Japanese enemy. In Pasadena, this could be a perfect weekend to catch up on a just-opened photographic exhibit, 'One Hundred Not so Famous Views of LA,'  artist Barbara Thomason's take on Hiroshige's famed woodblock collection, 'One Hundred Famous Views of Edo' (now Tokyo, of course). And on Sunday, especially if the weather turns fine, how about a day in the Earl Miller Long Beach Japanese gardens, where 40 local experts will demonstrate the art of origami (paper folding) and there will be calligraphy lessons as part of the weekend celebration of Tanabata, the 'Star Festival.' 

Photo: 'Broadway Train Tracks' by Barbara Thomason, on exhibit in Pasadena

For Latinos, 2 attacks on HIV-AIDS, Type-2 diabetes

From CSULB & UCI

There's some good health news for Latinos and other people of color, particularly those who are poorer, possibly heavier and maybe less informed than they need to be about two health scourges of their communities: HIV-AIDS and diabetes.

• In Long Beach, researchers plan to employ a $500,000 federal grant to pilot a program aimed at educating young Latinas with 'Hablando Clara' ('Straight Talk) about their lives, health and sexual health and the risks of HIV-AIDS. Advocates note that Latinas make up 16% of all new, recorded HIV infections -- four times the rate of white women; while Latinos made up 15% of the U.S. population in 2006, they were 19% of those diagnosed with AIDS and 18% of those newly found to be infected with the virus. Working in English and Spanish, the Long Beach experts will reach out to 630 Latinas, 450 teens and 180 adults in their pilot, which will work with 25 families to offer HIV-AIDS prevention measures, as well as sexual and reproductive health information targeted at Latinos, Latinas and especially the young.

Pilot program aims to curb HIV-AIDS among young Latinas, Latinos

• In Irvine, experts report favorable results from their push to lower obesity and other risk factors for Type 2 diabetes among poorer minority students in Long Beach, as part of a nationwide effort that emphasized for kids healthier cafeteria food choices, more intense physical activity and robust in-school health education. The three-year national study, which included teens in five Long Beach middle schools, tracked youngsters in participating and control groups for two years. While both groups, in interesting fashion, showed improvements, those who undertook the diet, exercise and education regimen, by study's end were in better shape. The overweight or obese sixth-graders, re-tested as eighth-graders, had a 21% lower rate of obesity; students who went through the program also showed lower average fasting insulin rates and smaller average waist sizes.  

3 keys to cutting poorer, minority kids' diabetes Type-2 rises: diet, exercise, education

Life-changing summer underway for science-, tech-talented teens

From CSULB, CSUN, Cal State Fullerton & Caltech

Send up a celebratory rocket or two this weekend to take note of programs across the Southland to keep this nation at the fore of science, technology and the changing 21st Century, all through some forward-thinking investment in a crucial commodity of American society: our smart and diverse kids. The programs go by some different names: in Northridge, one effort is called MARC U*GRAD or MARC U-STAR. In Long Beach, it's an effort aimed at 'Engineering Girls.' In Fullerton, advocates call it TEST: UP. And in Pasadena, it's known as YESS. These programs vary in their exact content and focus; they all are getting funding support. They aim to give teens a memorable summer, learning and working in science, technical and technological fields where some groups are traditionally underrepresented and good folks hope to ease these disparities.

How parental income carries lifelong effect on kids

From UCI & the Cal States

As politicians and policy-makers slash and burn social programs in their effort to stanch the flow of government red-ink, especially in Sacramento, an education professor in Irvine has some noteworthy research they might consider. He has examined the deep, sweeping data from a study that has followed more than 9,000 U.S. families and individuals for more than four decades. And, with colleagues, the researcher asked what would happen to kids younger than 5 if their parents got more annual income but nothing else changed in the picture -- mom and dad don't get more education, they don't alter their parenting practices, the family structure remains the same and genetic factors don't shift a whit. Well, look down the road and those youngsters show higher incomes and less use of food stamps (social programs) when they become adults, the researchers found, arguing for the importance of governmental efforts, if necessary, to supplement the incomes of families with youngsters to break a long cycle of potential poverty.

A key insight into breaking the cycle of poverty

And speaking of funding arguments, the Cal State system, like its powerful siblings in the UC network, has been lobbying furiously to try to stem the budgetary bloodletting now under way in public higher education in California. Part of the latest campaign aims to show the economic impact of the various CSU campuses, and, finally, there are detailed, online break-outs on the hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs that can be linked to each of the institutions.

Click here for online look at Cal States' economic impact

Aspiring Latino journalist masters Chinese -- via Braille

From CSULB

The flow of amazing human interest stories continues unabated as this commencement and graduation season rolls on in the region, with the latest coming out of Long Beach and concerning the remarkable Anthony Vasquez. He's from an immigrant family, who, he modestly says, 'never really got a good handle on English.' He did, along with Spanish, Chinese and collegiate academics. Vasquez finished a double major in journalism and Asian studies, racking up a 3.895 GPA and garnering honors as the school's Outstanding Graduate among the more than 9,000 students who will pick up degrees in ceremonies this week. Vasquez was born with glaucoma in both eyes and is blind. He mastered Chinese, a notably difficult language, in part by studying it and other topics in Braille. Vasquez, who also worked on the school paper's online operations and hosted a show on the campus radio station while also traveling overseas to study in China, heads to Stanford to pursue graduate work in East Asian Studies.

Anthony Vasquez, Outstanding Graduate, didn't let blindness impair remarkable college career 

Kudos for more graduates, more engineers

From CSULB & CSUN

Oh, sure, certain academic institutions thrive by taking exceedingly bright youngsters from affluent, great families who have excelled at superb public and private schools and taken advantage of the myriad opportunities presented to them. Nothing wrong with that. But here's kudos, official recognition and proof for the workings of the continuing California dream of educational access to all who have the moxie to scratch through lesser circumstance to first earn a high school degree, then to struggle on to pursue and receive that university diploma that puts them on to a higher path in life. The folks in Long Beach garner academic attention for their successful push to boost their students' graduation rates as a priority, even as the crowd in Northridge have something to crow about in the increasing number of engineers their institution is producing.

In Long Beach, praise for successful push to increase graduation rates

In Northridge, engineering program termed fastest growing in nation

In comic, picture books, glimpses of other worlds

From CSULB & the Skirball

Sometimes it takes a little more than a visualization to really see someone else's point of view. Maybe a picture needs to be drawn. From comics, illustrations, depictions a lot can be learned, as happens with a Long Beach undergrad who won a national essay competition with her scrutiny of superheroes as seen through the eyes of white versus black creators. Heard of the 'Black Panther' or 'Luke Cage,' creations of white comic book artists? Seems these superheroes talk more jive, act more violent and they're focused on serving the white community, observes prize-winning essayist Elise McCutchen. As for 'Icon' and 'Status,' well, these black superheroes created by black comic artists offer a more diverse picture, incorporating African American history, literature and experiences into their existence, even while perpetuating some stereotypes with their bulging bods and angry expressions, she says. Her observations won her $350, a trip to New Orleans and honors from the National Council for Black Studies. Meantime, in Brentwood, just catching up with an eclectic illumination of illustrated texts from the 16th Century to the present, an exhibit of Jewish picture books that rounds up the Haggadot, Art Spiegelman, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Marc Chagall, Maurice Sendak and Lemony Snicket. 

Photo: (left) Lisa Brown, 'The Latke Was Suffering So Much That It Leapt Out of the Hot Pan and Out the Window of the Cottage, and Began to Run Screaming Down The Boulevard,' illustration from Lemony Snicket, 'The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming;' (right) Icon, DC Comics

Even for colorful superheroes, a world of difference in black and white

'Monsters and Miracles,' an exhibit of Jewish picture books