As the Valley Performing Arts Center (VPAC) gears up for its first full season beginning in September, audiences have already had a chance to savor some of the world’s most exciting musicians, dancers and performers now coming to Northridge from across the country and around the world.
Using words like “elegant,” “soaring,” “world-class” and “state of the art,” the media, performers and leading members of the community have been showering praise on the new Valley Performing Arts Center.
On Saturday night, Jan. 29, 2011, California State University, Northridge threw a red carpet gala to formally celebrate the opening of the Valley Performing Arts Center and the launch of its inaugural season. The university’s most committed friends and supporters, donors and local dignitaries were among 1,700 guests on hand for the star-studded evening that featured a two-hour gala show followed by a black-tie reception.
The opening gala of the Valley Performing Arts Center (VPAC) at California State University, Northridge celebrated the birth of a major new cultural destination. Meanwhile, out of the public eye, a whole other world has stirred to life as faculty, staff and students have taken up residence in new spaces designed specifically to serve their academic needs.
The concept of brain-computer interface—harnessing brainwaves to control external devices, such as a wheelchair, remotely with a computer serving as intermediary—is usually reserved for science fiction. But a team of California State University, Northridge researchers is making it a reality, and in the process hoping to provide a new level of independence to those with physical and cognitive disabilities.
When Edith Castillo ’06 (Communications Studies) took the CSUN women and gender studies class “Women as Agents of Change,” she had no idea she was preparing for her own role as an agent of change. Castillo and hundreds of Northridge alumni have taken what they’ve learned at the university to improve people’s lives around the world as volunteers with the Peace Corps.
Honored as this year’s recipients of Cal State Northridge’s Distinguished Alumni Awards, Hollywood producer Don Hahn ’75 (Music) proved dreams do come true; celebrated opera singer Carol Vaness MA ’76 (Music), Hon. D ’98 (Fine Arts) received rave reviews; and entrepreneur and business executive Irv Zakheim ’71 (Physical Education) attested that teamwork pays.
In August 2011, NASA will launch from Cape Canaveral its long-awaited Juno mission to orbit the massive globe of dense gases in search of new scientific understanding. As NASA Headquarters’ program executive for the science mission directorate, CSUN alumna Adriana Ocampo Uria, MS ’97 (Geology) is responsible for both the Juno and New Horizons missions.
Jolene Koester, president of California State University, Northridge, has announced her plans to retire at the end of December 2011. Koester became Northridge’s fourth president in July 2000.
Spearheaded by Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Harry Hellenbrand, Cal State Northridge’s StoryCube Project aims to preserve the university’s history through oral interviews. Students, faculty, staff and alumni are invited to share their Northridge experience in front of the camera in the StoryCube, a soundproof mobile recording studio.
The Getty Foundation has awarded CSUN’s Institute of Arts and Media $80,000 to cull its rich collection of photographs and create an exhibition as part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980, a regional initiative led by the J. Paul Getty Trust.
The Maurice Amado Foundation has awarded Cal State Northridge’s College of Humanities $500,000 for the creation of an endowed professorship in applied Jewish ethics and civic engagement.
California State University, Northridge has been named an outstanding business school by the Princeton Review for the fourth year in a row. The education services company features the school in the 2011 edition of its book, The Best 300 Business Schools.
Cal State Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science is on a roll. Named the fastest growing undergraduate engineering program by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in 2010, its students recently won two important competitions, one international and one regional.
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Cal State Northridge’s Education Opportunity Program a $1.1 million Student Support Service Program (SSSP) grant.
This summer, 80 K–12 teachers and librarians from across the United States converged at Cal State Northridge and other Southern California sites for a workshop, “The Spanish and Mexican Influences on California, 1769–1884,” funded by a Landmarks Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Ashley Griffith’s passion is track and field. In addition to competing in the sport in high school at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, Calif., she captured the bronze medal in the high jump at the 2005 Deaf Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
Don Strametz had a revelation when a track and field alumnus recently visited him in his office. The alumnus said he was about to retire at the age of 52, and Strametz’s prolific career as head track and field coach at Cal State Northridge was suddenly put into perspective.
CSUN golfer Nick Delio ’11 (Sociology) and water polo goalkeeper Jillian Stapf ’11 (Kinesiology) were honored in March by the Big West Conference along with 16 other Conference Scholar-Athletes of the Year at a breakfast ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Anaheim Resort Hotel. Both graduated in May.
Perusing the list of performers scheduled for the Shanghai Expo’s US Pavilion in May, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton lit up when she saw the name Cal State Northridge. Clinton remembered Northridge from her husband’s speech here in 1995 and her own campaign stop in 2008.
Who are we away from work? Meet a cross-section of Cal State Northridge faculty and staff who are as interesting and involved off-campus as they are during working hours. At CSUN, their ideas and energy are in the mix! Second in a series.
Louis Herrera’s fingers fly over his Braille Sense, a two lb. device with the functionality of a laptop computer, a menu structure similar to Microsoft Windows, a built-in Bluetooth, wireless Internet, a global positioning system, built-in flash memory and an MP3 player.
If you missed the 2010 Thesis Exhibition featuring the works of 15 Cal State Northridge Master of Art and Master of Fine Art degree students, here is your chance to take a tour in our virtual gallery. Encouraged to push their boundaries beyond single disciplines, the artists created works that reflect influences from the environment, architecture, music, politics and more.
Size of grant from The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) preparing CSUN students to work with scientists conducting groundbreaking stem cell research.
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Linked In
Alumni Network
