When Rear Adm. Pamela Schweitzer graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, she wasn’t exactly sure where her career path would take her.

Schweitzer’s time at CSUF laid the foundation for a nearly 30-year career in federal service that included regional and national positions within Indian Health Service and a four-year term as the assistant surgeon general and 10th chief pharmacist officer of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

Her service to our country, along with her continued commitment to the Titan community, has earned Schweitzer a selection as a 2024 CSUF Vision & Visionaries Distinguished Alumni award winner.

A Placentia native and one of five children, Schweitzer attended Troy High School in Fullerton and applied to CSUF because it was the most affordable college option for her family. She lived at home during her undergraduate years but spent time on campus whenever she could, participating in various clubs and activities.

One of Schweitzer’s most influential professors was the late Miles D. McCarthy, a CSUF founding faculty member and founding chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. McCarthy’s impact fostered a love for her chosen field.

“The light bulb turned on, and I really loved that college was so different than high school,” Schweitzer said. “McCarthy had this health professions group that I participated in, and he introduced us to all the different career options that were out there for health professionals. He was so excited that we were interested in going into the health profession.”

Once she earned her bachelor’s degree, Schweitzer stayed at CSUF to pursue a master’s degree in immunology but left for UC San Francisco after being accepted into the university’s School of Pharmacy. After earning her doctorate in pharmacy, she completed her residency in ambulatory care/administration at UC Irvine Medical Center, eventually working as an outpatient pharmacy supervisor.

Her next career steps took Schweitzer to the Black Hills of South Dakota, where she worked for Indian Health Service, the federal health program for American Indians and Alaska Natives within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She spent time at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and then relocated to Northern Arizona, where she worked in Tuba City and on the Gila River Indian Reservation, helping to ensure access to public health services.

“I love helping people, and so it was an adventure being able to go and work on the Indian reservations and help there,” Schweitzer said.

After advancing to national positions within IHS, she headed to Washington D.C. to work with the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies on regulatory and policy matters. While there, Schweitzer was appointed assistant surgeon general and 10th chief pharmacist officer, the first female to hold this position, serving under former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, and current U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy.

During her term, which ran from 2014 – 2018, Schweitzer provided leadership and oversight to more than 1,300 Public Health Service pharmacy officers across the country and focused on emergency response initiatives that included Ebola, H1N1 and the opioid crisis. The role was a 24/7 commitment, but she loved every minute.

“I worked with absolutely amazing people,” Schweitzer said. “I felt like I was really fortunate to be around a lot of people that were very committed.”

Although currently retired, Schweitzer is still active in the health care space, serving on advisory boards to help with strategic planning on several public health initiatives, splitting her time between Washington, D.C.; South Dakota and Arizona. She is also a member of CSUF’s Philanthropic Foundation Board of Governors and enjoys sharing her story with the next generation of Titans.

Her years at CSUF set the stage for a career path that captured both her interest in science and her heart for others while instilling a love for learning that remains with her to this day.

“When I was there (at CSUF), I learned to love learning,” Schweitzer said. “I had this great attitude, and I acquired it from the professors because they loved their subjects so much. I’ve kept that attitude my whole career, and I’m grateful that I had those experiences at Cal State Fullerton where people really, genuinely wanted to help me learn.”

Schweitzer and her family will join the other five 2024 Vision and Visionaries honorees at an awards dinner on Feb. 24 where their accomplishments will be celebrated. She is grateful for the recognition and credits those who have provided unwavering support throughout her career.

“This is not about me, it’s about the team, the people that have been around me,” Schweitzer said. “I’ve had amazing people to work with. This is not something I did. None of us can do anything without our wonderful support systems.”

This year’s motto: consistency

“That’s just what we wanted to be all season long,” Titan Dance Coach Jennie Volkert said.

The Titans were indeed consistent, and at the highest level.

The CSUF Dance Team won its 18th National Championship in the Division 1 Jazz competition at the Universal Dance Team Championships, held Jan. 12-14 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla.

CSUF also placed 3rd in the nation for its routine in the Division 1 Pom category.

“We were just so excited,” said Volkert, who has served as head coach since 1997 and has been the coach for all 18 national championship teams. “The competition is really tough, and all the teams are good. And everybody kind of has their own style, and dance is very subjective, so you never know what the judges are going to want. We just stayed focused.”

The competition was tougher in this year’s championship, with the UDA adding a preliminary round for the D1 Jazz category.

More than 30 teams competed in the first round, 20 teams advanced to the semifinal round, and then 10 teams advanced to the final round, which was won by the Titans.

“It was scary going into it knowing we were going to do it three times,” senior co-captain Carissa Hobbs said. “Normally we do it twice. But honestly, going through it three times, when we got to finals, I know we were way more confident stepping on that stage, and we knew what we needed to do because we had already done it two times.”

The road to the championships begins in April when tryouts are held.

This year’s group of potential dancers was the largest and most talented ever, said Volkert, who was herself a Titan cheerleader, performing on the sidelines for CSUF’s last football team in 1992.

Even members of the previous year’s team are required to try out again to make the team.

Once the final cuts are made — never an easy decision — Volkert said, the 21 Titans who make the team attend a few camps over the summer.

The day after Labor Day, practices for the season get underway and are held three days a week.

After Christmas, practices are every day in preparation for the national championships.

Having been part of a national championship team as a sophomore, winning is always special, Hobbs said, but her motivation to be part of the team each year hasn’t only been to win another title.

“We just love each other, and it’s like a family here,” Hobbs said. “So that’s why we keep coming back. Not necessarily because of the winning, but because of the people on the team, our coaches, the environment.”

Balancing practices, academics and a job took some getting used to, freshman dance team member Kennedi Sandidge said.

To be part of a winning team, Sandidge was willing to make the commitment, and support from her teammates and the coaches made the adjustment period easier, she said.

“It was definitely something I haven’t experienced before,” Sandidge said. “I knew that when I wanted to go to college, I wanted to be on a really strong team that had a good reputation and seemed to just be well-rounded. I had looked at old videos of Cal State Fullerton, and they had everything I was looking for. I knew a few girls going into it that are also freshmen, and so it already made it feel like home.”

Senior co-captain Jordan Takai, who was also part of the Titans’ national championship team as a sophomore, said winning a second national title is a great way to cap off her senior year, especially coming off a disappointing team showing during her junior season.

“Because when you feel so defeated last year, and just to come back as a new team, it felt really good,” Takai said.

Titans’ assistant coach Krysten Dorado was also a member of the dance team, from 2010 to 2013, and part of three national championship teams before being asked to come back as a coach.

“It was an incredible opportunity, and especially being a part of the program before, I definitely couldn’t pass it up,” Dorado said. “Jennie has done an amazing job with the dance team, and so to be a part of this is awesome.”

Aside from competing and performing at basketball games, the Titans are also active in the community, reading to children in local elementary schools and participating in toy drives during the holiday season.

Upcoming performances

Thursday, Feb. 29 – Women’s Basketball vs. Long Beach State at 7 p.m.

• Halftime – 3rd Place Pom Routine

Saturday, March 2 – Men’s Basketball vs. UC Santa Barbara at 6 p.m.

• Halftime – National Championship Jazz Routine and Trophy Presentation

But Cutspec realized that marketing pet food and then running her own marketing and design company wasn’t going to give her the voice or the fulfillment she wanted in her life. You don’t get back to the other side of the fence plugging pet food or designing websites.

Which is where the Voice comes in. The Voice — her Voice — could get Cutspec back to the field. She’d literally talk her way back to the Santiago Canyon College softball field, back to the other side of the fence.

“I literally got to the point where I realized I needed softball back in my life,” she said. “I realized I do love it more than anything else and kept asking myself, ‘How do I get it back?’ Well, they needed an announcer, so I went back as an announcer. It’s me. Done. I would have gone back as a volunteer coach. I didn’t care how I got back to the field. I needed to be back on the field.”

And that’s how SCC found its next softball coach. Only the second one in school history.

One year after announcing lineups, Cutspec is making out lineups. One year after announcing who’s coming to bat, Cutspec is figuratively — if not literally —back in the batter’s box. She’s back on the field, back on the other side of the fence.

The first-year SCC coach has a big act to follow. She took over from her mentor, former coach and former boss, Lisa Camarco, who built the SCC program from scratch when it began in 2007. Camarco retired as coach after leading SCC to state championship appearances in 2014 and 2016. The 2016 team won SCC’s first state title, becoming the first team since 1996 to lose the first game in the double-elimination tournament and come back to win the title. That team also became the first team since 2005 to mercy-rule its final opponent, when it dismissed Sacramento City College, 8-0, after five innings.

During her initial four-season stint as an assistant coach (2014-17), Cutspec was a part of both teams. In fact, all four of those teams would reach the state Super Regionals and the 2016 team would earn National Fastpitch Coaches Association California Junior College National Coaching Staff of the Year honors.

Before then, Cutspec was an all-conference first baseman for the Hawks, who helped SCC make its first regional appearance in 2011. And before that, she was an all-league first baseman for Ocean View High, who powered the Seahawks to the 2008 CIF Division 4 championship via a fifth-inning grand slam off Bishop Amat’s Amy Lwin — one of the best pitchers in the division.

So yes, the bona-fides now established, Cutspec looks around her new digs and still finds reasons to pinch herself. Her voice now carries louder than the PA system that reopened the door to the other side of the fence.

“Honestly, of all the jobs I had, that was the hardest. I couldn’t be on the other side of the lines. It was tough for me,” she said. “I’ve been the athlete. I’ve been the coach. But when you don’t know what’s going on, and when you’re not on that side of the field, it’s hard. But had I not taken that job and done that, I don’t think I would be in the position I’m in today.”

And yet, even Cutspec’s infectious confidence, outgoing presence and electric personality that pulsates with every word found doubts. She left the sport in 2017 because of that pesky meager paycheck. Cutspec decided it was time to turn her natural curiosity, love of writing and designing everything from websites to brochures loose in the corporate world. After spending nearly every waking moment on a softball field since she was 4, Cutspec felt a different tug, one that included picking up an MBA at Chapman University and starting up her own marketing company.

But after flexing her voice and talking to Camarco, who recruited her out of Ocean View, then brought her into the coaching ranks, could Cutspec reinvent herself again?

“To be honest, I was nervous. Being away from it for a lot of years — five or six years — the game’s the same. But it’s been a while,” she said. “I felt nervous that I’d been away from it for so long that maybe I wouldn’t be as effective as I could be if I stayed in it the whole time. But I trust Lisa so much. She wouldn’t have handed the program she built over to me if she didn’t believe in me. There’s a big confidence factor that she believed in my ability to continue the legacy she built.

“I think I feel more pressure to continue the culture she built and continue what she’s turned Santiago Canyon College softball into. Being an athlete and a coach, I have a strong understanding of it and know how important it is to help the girls who come through our program.”

Cutspec’s outgoing personality helped the transition. So did the journals she’s kept since she was 7. For as long as she can remember, Cutspec embraced writing, using a journal. It provided power, release and growth when she was trying to figure out who she was as a person. Not only did it help Cutspec make sense of the world around her and build her writing voice, but it provided another side gig.

Cutspec sells her Daily Journal templates to “give people an opportunity to be able to do that and to find the same pleasure and growth from it that I’ve had.” These templates are brought to you by Cutspec.

But her journals? They’re more than a sidelight. They’re a guiding light.

“To this day, I haven’t told very many people this, but when I would feel lost in the mix of things, if I felt lonely or I didn’t feel like I belonged, I would take my favorite TV show and write myself my own character, so I could make myself feel like I belonged somewhere,” she said. “I could create myself wherever I wanted to be and throw myself into my favorite TV shows and oh my God, I felt perfectly safe there. That would make other parts of my life feel better.”

Those parts are feeling better these days. Cutspec found the other side of the gate, the side that allows her to mentor young girls, provide them those oft-told life lessons and navigate some of the trickiest, most stressful times of their lives. Her voice has the same passion, the same caring intensity it had before she picked up — and put down — the PA microphone.

“I see myself doing this for the foreseeable future. Right now, I only coach here, but I would love to teach at the college and be a professor,” she said. “I definitely want to grow in my role. And I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.”

If you’ll be in college next year, don’t expect financial aid offers anytime soon. Colleges won’t begin receiving processed FAFSAs — Free Applications for Federal Student Aid — until mid-March, the U.S. Education Department said on Tuesday.

“We will email students when their information has been shared with their schools and when they can access official aid calculations on their StudentAid.gov account,” U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary James Kvaal said in a press call after the announcement.

Once colleges receive processed FAFSAs, they can start building financial aid packages, which may include loan eligibility, grants, scholarships and estimated cost of attendance. That process takes another few weeks. The earliest students could get financial aid offers is the first week of April. Colleges will likely rethink the typical May 1 decision date to allow students and families enough time to consider their aid packages, says Karen McCarthy, vice president of public policy and federal relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

“It’s reasonable to think that many more states and institutions will be having those conversations about their deadlines, how far they can push those and still be able to get all their work done,” McCarthy says. “It really affects all of their timelines leading up to the beginning of the next school year.”

Biggest makeover in decades

The mid-March processing delay is the latest in a long string of missteps for the new 2024-25 financial aid form, which has undergone its biggest makeover since the 1980s. The FAFSA usually launches on Oct. 1 for the following academic year; this year, it “soft launched” three months late, on Dec. 30.

FAFSA users faced myriad glitches during the soft launch when the form was available for as little as 30 minutes per day. The online form is now available 24/7, and most technical issues have been resolved. However, some students — like those with undocumented parents — remain unable to complete the form.

In late January, after the form had already been live for nearly a month, the Education Department acknowledged a major math error that would have left $1.8 billion worth of aid on the table.

Until the Education Department’s announcement on Tuesday, colleges were still working under the assumption that they would begin receiving processed FAFSAs by the end of January, McCarthy says.

“Schools had already restructured their timelines in terms of awarding and when things would happen with regards to aid offers, and so now they’ve thrown that all into disarray again,” McCarthy says.

On Jan. 24, a group of lawmakers led by two Republicans — Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina — sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office calling for an investigation of the Education Department’s rocky FAFSA rollout.

“The Department of Education had three years to prepare the rollout of the updated FAFSA. Their inability to do their job has real consequences for students and families,” Sen. Cassidy said in a statement Tuesday. “These unacceptable delays from the Biden administration creates the real likelihood that many students will forgo college because they cannot choose a school without knowing their eligibility for student aid.”

Students and parents: Here’s what you can do

Despite the FAFSA delay and confusion, it’s still important to fill out the form. Otherwise, students won’t be able to qualify for federal student loans, grants, work-study and some scholarships. There’s no income limit to qualify for aid, and you might get more than you expect.

Submit the FAFSA as soon as possible. Even with the major processing delay, your FAFSA will record a time stamp when you submit it. Since some types of financial aid have priority deadlines or are first-come, first-serve, submit the form soon to qualify for the most aid.

Remember the paper FAFSA is an option. If your parents are undocumented and can’t complete their portion of the FAFSA, you may want to wait a few weeks until the online process opens. But if you have any upcoming priority financial aid deadlines, you can complete the PDF version of the FAFSA. It’s available in English and Spanish on StudentAid.gov. You’ll need to mail the completed paper form to the Federal Student Aid office.

Confirm your financial aid deadlines. If you’re a prospective student, reach out to your potential schools to see if they’ve moved their FAFSA and college decision deadlines. If you’re a current student, confirm the financial aid timeline at your school. All students should check financial aid deadlines for their state and any scholarships to which they’re applying.

Ask for assistance. Free FAFSA help is available. Reach out to your high school’s college counselor or the financial aid offices at your school (or potential schools), search for college access nonprofits in your community or call the Federal Student Aid office at 800-4-FED-AID.

Here’s the bright spot: the new FAFSA is easier and quicker to complete for many students. Some will need to answer only 18 questions, down from 103 possible questions in previous years. With a new financial aid eligibility formula, at least 1.5 million students from low-income backgrounds are expected to qualify for the maximum Pell Grant award — $7,395 per year.

The article More FAFSA Delays Likely to Slow Aid and College Decisions originally appeared on NerdWallet.

When outreach worker Leah Marks shows up at homes in Sanford, Maine — a small manufacturing city 18 miles inland and a world away from tony Kennebunkport — the kids know it’s time to walk with her to the school bus.

Her walks often involve snow and ice this time of year. But what they really involve is connection.

Marks, outreach coordinator for the Sanford schools, said a boy she walked in the morning went from missing 45 days last school year to missing just one so far this school year. Marks said his single mom is raising him and two siblings, one with a disability, and the family was struggling to get him to the bus on time.

But with the walking support, he chats up his friends and looks forward to greeting the assistant principal at school. “Chris is just so proud of his improvement, and so is his mother,” Marks said of the child.

She said having their children walked to school is reassuring for parents. It means “being able to tell a parent who is seeing their kid off to school that ‘we’ve got them’ and we will see that they get breakfast.”

Experts say students’ lack of connection to school is one of the biggest factors leading to high absenteeism across the country. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, regular school attendance has plummeted.

One-on-one connection is key to bringing the kids back, education workers say, but it’s painstaking and requires funds and commitment. Some states, including Maine, are spending more money or implementing programs to tackle absenteeism.

Nearly 30% of public school students were chronically absent nationwide in the 2021-2022 school year, compared with about 16% in 2017-2018 before the pandemic, according to Attendance Works, a nonprofit that addresses chronic absences, and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Education. Chronic absenteeism is defined as a student missing a tenth or more of the school year for any reason.

Research has shown that student absences can harm test scores and lead to a higher dropout rate.

In Maine, the number of students considered chronically absent fell slightly last school year, from 31% in 2021-22 to 27% in 2022-23, according to the Maine Department of Education. Department spokesperson Marcus Mrowka said while state officials are “encouraged” by the drop, the numbers are still too high.

He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to parents keeping kids home at “the first sign” of illness, and cited other factors including “increased stress, mental health and other well-being issues” for students feeling less engaged in school.

Maine is using $10 million in federal emergency funds to implement programs for attendance, Mrowka said.

For attendance to rise, schools must be safe and academically engaging, and students must feel a sense of belonging and that adults care about their well-being, according to Attendance Works.

“Relationships are absolutely essential to every piece of this,” said Hedy Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works.

“The pandemic eroded these conditions for a huge number of students. When we closed schools … we said it’s not healthy to be at school. Now, we are saying, ‘You can be back at school, it’s healthy.’”

In addition to homes with financial or social challenges, Chang said sometimes even affluent parents don’t recognize the necessity of school attendance because the pandemic and remote learning appeared to show them that “you can always make up the work.”

“When we have a lot of churn in the classroom, it affects the ability of teachers to teach and other kids to learn,” she said. “I think we need to think about how our actions have consequences. Sometimes your family might need time together and something really challenging is going on; there are times when it’s really discretionary and we need to think twice.”

Connecticut had an almost 22% chronic absenteeism rate in 2022, up from 9% in 2017, according to Attendance Works and the Everyone Graduates Center. The state in 2021 launched the home-visiting Learner Engagement and Attendance Program, known as LEAP, which came out of the governor’s office and serves students who feel disconnected from school.

Initially, the program was not intended to be directed primarily at absenteeism, but as absenteeism escalated, the program pivoted, according to Mike Meyer, director of family and community engagement in Stamford public schools.

Sometimes, Meyer said, the program pays teachers extra to do home visits with students and their families after school or on weekends. But the program has begun hiring outreach workers to intervene with families who are “really struggling, having challenges getting their kids to school.”

Stamford schools have partnered with the Stamford Youth Services Bureau, a city agency, to address absenteeism. Lily Villanueva, a family outreach worker contracted by the school district from the nonprofit Domus Kids, set up a study group for high schoolers who were chronically absent. Since then, the failing grades of students in the group have turned into passing grades and two are headed to college, she said.

One student, the son of a Haitian immigrant, also connected with an after-school video game program at his school. “They looked forward to going to school that day so they could go to their after-school program,” she said.

“I try to build a relationship with the family,” Villanueva, 26, said in an interview. “It’s all about trust and getting the families to open up to you. We have even gone so far as picking up students from their home and transporting them directly. We do that so we can help them build their routine.”

Kari Sullivan-Custer, director of the Connecticut LEAP program, which initially used $10.7 million in federal pandemic funds for the absenteeism program in 2021, said the program is targeting 15 school districts. In 2023, the state legislature appropriated $7 million in federal funds to carry the program through 2026.

She said the program targets districts with free lunch programs, or multi-language learners. “They tended to have high levels of chronic absence,” she said.

The District of Columbia found that career-focused programs help high school students connect to skills they enjoy, which keeps them coming back to school, said Clifton Martin, state director of career and technical education for D.C. schools. The program, which began last year, includes cybersecurity/IT training and general nursing.

“We found that those students are more engaged; they are more excited to be in this environment around other young people with similar interests.” He said the students who participate in the career programs “have about a 5 to 7% increase in attendance compared to those who don’t participate.” Absenteeism, he said “is going in the right direction,” partially due to the career programs.

Attendance Works numbers for D.C. show the chronic absentee rate in 2022 was about 44%, up from almost 27% in 2017.

Some school districts are hiring private companies to help address chronic absenteeism. In Maryland, several districts have hired Concentric Educational Solutions, a Baltimore-based tutoring and outreach company, to help with student engagement, according to David Heiber, founder and CEO of the company. The company is now working in 12 states, he said.

Heiber said he can relate to the problems his company tries to address. “I started Concentric because I was one of those students,” he said in an interview. “I was kicked out of five high schools, my parents died and I went to prison.”

But he went back to school, became a teacher, got a Ph.D. and then became an administrator, before founding the firm.

Heiber said that knocking on doors is an effective way to connect with students and families, but that many districts don’t have the personnel for it. He says his company can do that, at a cost of about $70 a visit and a general total of about $175 to $350 per student for several visits, depending on how many visits are made.

The company, he said, addresses “what I experienced and what I saw.” Before he was kicked out of school, he was an all-state athlete in cross country, he said. But even that wasn’t enough to keep him engaged.

“If I was an all-state athlete and I managed to fade, imagine what’s happening to students who [don’t have] that,” Heiber said.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Each year, albatross pairs – mated for life unless a partner dies – typically have just one egg. The eggs incubate for 60 days and crack open in the fourth week of January. From then, the chicks spend six months on the islands of the Midway Atoll, growing and learning to fly.

The massive seabirds — some have wingspans of up to 12 feet — spend their lives on their wings, soaring up to 500 miles a day and cruising at 80 mph with barely a flap, so developing flight skills are critical to survival. They are known to travel incredible distances without rest and are rarely spotted.

So seeing the birds close up and “being part of their tribe” was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the Orange County marine biologist who usually spends her time researching marine life closer to home off the Southern California coast and educating local students. Caruso, of Garden Grove, was part of a team of 12 citizen scientists who recently spent six days a week for three weeks counting albatross nests on the Midway Atoll.

Just back from the monthlong trip, Caruso has been sharing what she learned with students at local middle schools. The lesson includes fascinating tidbits about the albatross, but also how plastic pollution and entanglements from fishing lines, hooks, and nets are a real threat to the birds. She also tries to inspire students to think about volunteering as citizen scientists – much of her research is done with the help of hundreds of volunteers.

“I was handing them pieces of grass,” Caruso said of her recent experience as one of a dozen volunteers helping United States Fish and Wildlife Department officials with their annual albatross nest count on the U.S. territory island. The atoll is home to at least 70% of the albatross population and is known for its use during World War II and the battle that secured it for the U.S.

“They’d go about their business preening and they’d talk to their egg,” Caruso said. “I’d sit and watch them do their dances. There aren’t many places in the world where you can be among them.”

Counting albatross annually

The wildlife department – along with the Friends of Midway Atoll  – have kept track of the elusive seabirds since 1991. The U.S. Department of the Interior took over monitoring the atoll’s islands from the Department of Defense in 1996 when a Navy base was shuttered and the islands became a marine sanctuary, a national historical monument and a national wildlife refuge.

The count starts in December and must be completed in 21 days by the Nesting Albatross Census Team, which tracks two species of seabirds on the island: the black-footed albatross and the Laysan albatross.

The charter plane Caruso took from Honolulu to the islands landed in the dark of night to avoid the birds. The group was picked up in golf carts and bunked in old military barracks. After breakfast early the next morning they rode bikes along gravel paths to get their gear and start counting.

The gear included snow shoes because another of the island’s birds, the Bonin petrel, burrows deep tunnels into the ground to nest.

“Every step you take, you could fall into a hole up to your waist,” Caruso said. “Then you’d have to get up and dig the bird out.”

To start the count, the volunteers, who came from different backgrounds and from across the nation, formed a line standing five feet apart and systematically moved along, passing nesting adults and counting each nest with a clicker.

“We’d get to the endpoint and then go back the other way,” Caruso said. “We covered the entire islands and I walked 196 miles.”

After 21 days – volunteers got Sundays, Christmas, and New Year’s Day off – the census group had counted 29,562 black-footed albatross and 498,448 Laysan albatross nests for a total of 528,010 nests. About 80% of the eggs typically hatch, but only about 30% of fledglings survive.

An estimated 1.5 million albatross visit the atoll, which once was three islands but two merged as geography shifted, said Dan Cullinane, a retired biology and chemistry teacher from – coincidentally – Midway City, who lead the count this time.

This was Cullinane’s third time participating in the census count.

“It’s nice to be able to walk among the albatross, and you’re counting more than 500,000 nests,” he said, adding that since the birds have no natural predators on land, they are not fearful of humans. Heat and dehydration – if chicks can’t be found when the parents return to feed them – are the biggest enemies of the chicks growing into fledglings.

“It’s hard for the people on the island to see so many birds die,” he said of the 40 or so refuge staff members, contractors, and volunteers who live on the islands year-round.

Doing the albatross dance

Caruso, Cullinane and the others were treated to a show by the albatross – the seabirds’ mating dance.

Young birds do not return to land until their third year after fledging. When they return, they don’t breed at first, but instead learn to perfect their dance moves, build nests and look for a possible mate. Birds first breed between 5 and 8 years of age.

The dance is done to identify their mate of choice; the better the dance, the more coveted they become. The dances are complex with several moves.

Once mated, they finetune the dance and use the moves to identify their partner when returning to Midway to mate again, Cullinane said.  After a chick fledges, the pairs separate for the rest of the year and return to Midway when it’s time to breed, he said.

Birds who lose a mate, either because it doesn’t return to Midway or suffers some other fate, have to go through a new courting process.

Such is the case with Midway’s oldest bird, Wisdom, said Cullinane. Famous among birders, Wisdom was first banded by scientists in 1956. She was seen dancing again, on the prowl for her third mate. But age becomes her well, Cullinane said, because she looks physically no different than younger birds.

Sharing the experience

While Caruso was wowed by the albatross’s fascinating life and how the seabird has evolved over millions of years, a sad discovery was the tremendous amount of trash and debris she and others picked up from around bird nests and beaches. Along with litter washing ashore, the seabirds often pick up plastics from the ocean.

She had bags of litter with her when she recently took her presentation to eighth-graders at Vista View Middle School in Fountain Valley. She said many were “slack-jawed” by what she shared, especially by the albatross dance moves.

“The students really loved the ones where the birds put their beaks into their armpits,” she said.”They were attentive and amused.”

But, even more thrilled was Daryth Morrisey, who teaches science and marine biology to the middle schoolers. Eliminating single-use plastic is a message she said she wants to deliver loud and clear to her students.

“I start off the year with a plastic pollution unit,” she said. “To actually have Nancy see those incredible birds is amazing. To gift me a piece of regurgitated plastic from an albatross is a priceless teaching tool.”

Among the most fulfilling of those opportunities for Darvish, who is in her fourth semester at CSUF, was her participation in the Panetta Congressional Internship Program.

As a Panetta Scholar, Darvish, a criminal justice major, spent the Fall 2023 semester in an 11-week internship in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington D.C.

The Panetta Institute was founded and is co-directed by Leon Panetta and his wife, Sylvia. Panetta served in several Democratic administrations as Secretary of Defense, director of the CIA and White House Chief of Staff.

As part of the internship, congressional representatives, along with state and local elected officials, taught the interns policy issues related to income inequity, inflation, health care and Middle East politics.

The first two weeks of the internship took place in August at Cal State Monterey Bay, where the interns attended lectures, including lectures given by Panetta himself.

“We were learning all about the government and bipartisanship and basically how things work,” Darvish said. “And then we were sent to D.C.  and spent 11 weeks there working full time for a member of the House of Representatives.”

In Washington, Darvish worked as a legislative intern for U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal of California’s 24th District, which encompasses portions of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Her duties included preparing and maintaining reports and memos, drafting letters to constituents, organizing messages from constituents, answering phone calls, attending briefings and giving tours of the U.S. Capitol building.

Only 25 students from the CSU system, Santa Clara University, St. Mary’s College of California and Dominican University of California are selected for the internship.

Students’ housing, tuition and travel are funded by the Panetta Institute for Public Policy.

Darvish also drafted and wrote co-sponsored recommendations for the congressman on bills related to voting rights, criminal justice reform, civil rights and LGBTQ rights.

To be considered for the internship, each candidate intern had to have an exemplary scholastic record along with an interest in politics, policy and public service.

Darvish also had to participate in several rounds of interviews with university officials, culminating with an interview with then CSUF President Fram Virjee, who recommended Darvish for the internship.

“I was surrounded by some of the most powerful and important people at Cal State Fullerton,” Darvish said of the interviews. “They were really there just to hear about me and learn about me. I felt supported and uplifted by them.”

In his letter to Darvish informing her of his recommendation, Virjee wrote:

“Sophia, I wish you much success and thank you in advance for aspiring to represent Cal State Fullerton in this very prestigious position. As you know, this is a highly competitive process, and I congratulate you on your outstanding application and interview. I know you will have an amazing experience in this program and am also confident that you will represent CSUF in an outstanding manner.”

Darvish was then interviewed by members of the Panetta Institute.

Before earning the Panetta Congressional Internship, Darvish participated in a fellowship with the Progressive Turnout Project, which focuses its efforts on mobilizing the Democratic Party and motivating Democrats to exercise their right to vote.

Darvish also completed an internship with U.S. Representative and CSUF alum Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, where she was the first line of communication with constituents and assisted with casework updates and directing calls to appropriate resources.

“I just try to apply to anything and everything that piques my interest, and hopefully I can do a better interview with that job or other internships,” she said.

As the daughter of Iranian immigrants, Darvish began taking an interest in public affairs and government while a student at nearby El Dorado High School, where she was involved with several campus clubs.

Darvish was a member of ASB and participated in Mock Trial and in the ED Law Academy, where students received a primer on the legal profession through coursework and in-person meetings with attorneys and judges.

“I was always listening to podcasts and reading up on the news,” Darvish said. “So, I think that’s what made me so engaged, especially my experiences in high school impacted my interest in the whole field.”

She became more impassioned with criminal justice reform from reading two books: “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson and “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander.

Both titles deal with injustices in the criminal justice system.

“Those two books got me even more interested in criminal justice … in the whole process,” Darvish said. “It’s such a real-world thing. You really have the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.”

The university said it made the decision “out of an abundance of caution and with the safety of students, faculty and staff as its top priority.”

The announcement said staff members are being encouraged to work remotely and that some services on campus will be reduced. The announcement said information about plans for Tuesday is forthcoming.

“We acknowledge that our students have a lot of demands on them,” said Jason Parks, vice president of academic affairs. “They’re working and they have familial responsibilities. When you think about a full load of 30 units a year, that’s four to five classes a semester—a big challenge for students who have a family, plus a job.”

The Hawks Flight Path was created to ease the burden.

Parks conceived of the program, but he is quick to credit a team of colleagues, including faculty and deans, who put it together. “The team got together and really thought it through about how we would work to benefit the students the most. I think it’s really well-designed. The spring is the soft launch for it,” he said. “Next fall we will target incoming freshmen who need all of their prerequisites.”

The first class is in public speaking (Feb. 12–March 24) followed by a class in nutrition (March 25–April 28), and, finally, an introduction to cultural anthropology (April 29–June 9).

“We have knowledge of what classes go well in those shorter times and where students thrive, so we’ll choose those classes (accordingly),” Parks said.

Since the Hawks Flight Path classes will fulfill General Ed requirements, students will be able to put more hours and effort into the classes that are part of their major. This is particularly helpful for students whose majors require a lot of time, for instance, if they must work in a lab.

“They can take those three classes and then take an overlying major’s course, something that they maybe need to spend quite a bit more time on, such as a calculus, chemistry or physics course,” Parks explained.

“The initial thought was let’s target our students who may be pre-nursing or health sciences,” he said. “For those students, the hope is that they would take those three classes and then maybe an anatomy and physiology class that would last the entire term. The amount of time you have to spend in the laboratory is a lot, so we would want to give them that opportunity to spend that laboratory time doing the work that is going to be most pertinent to their career as they move along.”

The plan is also designed to relieve exam stress. Rather than having five final exams at once, exams will be spread out over the semester.

And because the three GE classes are sequential, faculty members will be able to share with each other information about students who may be struggling or those who need more challenge.

“The idea is to create an ecosystem where those faculty members communicate with one another about the students who are incoming, Parks said. “This will be an advantage because most faculty members get students cold. You just walk into your classroom and you need to learn about your students starting on day one. But if one of your colleagues has said, ‘Hey, this group kind of needs help there, and this group is accelerating over here,’ then you’re not walking in cold.”

The ultimate intention of the Hawks Flight Plan is to make it easier for students to stay in college, Parks said. “We know that our most vulnerable students, we don’t lose them at the very end of completing their degree, we lose them at the beginning,” he said. “And so, we want to help them to persist.”

The number of students enrolling for credit programs at Santiago Canyon College recently jumped more than 12%.

“(They are) our target audience, absolutely,” Parks said. “This particular program is going to target more of the traditional college age, which is in the 18 to 24 range, because we are trying to get them in, get their associate degrees and out into a career. Or if they’re looking to transfer, we want to help them to transfer to a university to earn a bachelor’s degree.”

Santiago Canyon College also has a tutoring center that encourages students to support each other in their studies. “I’m just the old guy telling them college is good,” Parks said. “But if their colleagues are telling them that you can do this, and they encourage one another, that’s worth more than I could ever tell a student.”

Other forms of student support at SCC include a basic needs center, a food pantry, and financial aid. “We’re trying to hit them from all angles to make sure that they feel supported and they have everything they need to get through college,” Parks said.

An assistant professor in Cal State Fullerton’s Department of American Studies, Rowe teaches courses such as “Women, Race and Ethnicity in American Culture” and “The Body in American Culture,” where she and her students examine the intersection between beauty, pop culture, race and gender politics.

Rowe’s passion for research and her many published works in this area resulted in an invitation to contribute to the 2022 Comcast Xfinity docuseries, titled “The Black Beauty Effect,” a three-part series that focuses on the history, evolution and contribution of Black people in beauty and culture.

As an English major undergraduate student, Rowe was drawn to storytelling, film and pop culture. At the same time, she decided to join the contemporary natural hair movement, when a critical mass of Black women stopped chemically straightening their hair via relaxers in favor of natural hair styles.

Prior to that time, a significant part of Black beauty culture was centered on chemical relaxers. Rowe argues that at that same juncture, there became an overarching interest across races around going green, going organic and going natural, with an emphasis on “dechemicalizing” various aspects of our lives.

These movements, along with the introduction of YouTube in 2005, allowed the internet to become a space for Black women to teach each other how to style and maintain their natural hair. It wasn’t long before a community took shape, and Rowe felt the pull to contribute to the discussion.

“It was really just being in it,” Rowe said. “Being in the community, in the movement, being a product of it and observing things. And it was thinking that someone should write this down or unpack this.”

When the team from FaceForward Productions contacted Rowe in 2021, they explained the project and that they were looking for published experts to speak on the field of Black hair and Black beauty. She spent a day at Soho Works in West Hollywood being interviewed for the documentary, placing her voice alongside significant Black cultural creators, such as celebrity makeup artists, magazine editors, scholars and cosmetic company founders.

“The Black Beauty Effect” debuted in November 2022, highlighting the “social change in the beauty industry through the lens of successful Black women.”

The docuseries is in three parts: Episode 1 – “The Beat Effect” focusing on makeup, Episode 2 – “The Skin Effect” spotlighting skin care, and Episode 3 – “The Crown Effect” focusing on hair, the episode where Rowe makes the most significant contributions.

Rowe attended a premiere for the documentary in Los Angeles and is more than pleased with the finished product.

“I keep describing it as kind of an archival love letter,” Rowe said of the documentary, “the way they put all the voices in conversation with each other, along with the images and the video footage.”

Rowe feels the topics surrounding Black beauty are important and timely, with the docuseries playing a role in archiving and sharing the history of these contributions to society. She also sees the project as an entry point for wider discussions around race and gender.

“There are so many things to talk about,” Rowe said. “What do people have access to and how does that inform their experiences? How do different modes of presentation vary from class to class? There’s not just race, but ethnicity … body and size politics … all these things are embodied and wrapped up in beauty as well.”

While Rowe has not made viewing “The Black Beauty Effect” a required part of her courses, she has informed her students about the docuseries and introduces many of the topics into the curriculum of her upper-level classes and electives.

Additionally, Rowe is under contract to write a book on art, pop culture and representation in the context of the contemporary natural hair movement using a black feminist framework to review texts and new media.

All three episodes of “The Black Beauty Effect” are now available for viewing on Netflix, and Rowe feels it is a critical project that contributes to a relevant conversation.

“I think what they’ve made is so wonderful and so important,” Rowe said. “It is a topic that a lot of people connect to because it provides language and scholarship for things they’ve observed in their world and in their bodies … If it had nothing to do with me, I would still encourage you to watch it.”