Despite Obstacles, Cal State Northridge Students Realize Dreams, Graduate

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May 26 2004

NORTHRIDGE, Calif., May 26 (AScribe Newswire) — As more than
8,600 Cal State Northridge students walk across the stage next month
to receive their diplomas, university officials will recognize more
than academic achievement. They will also honor the tenacity and
dedication of people determined not to let anything — from war to
cancer — stop them from achieving their goals.

“Getting a university education is not easy, even in the best
of circumstances,” said CSUN President Jolene Koester. “Many of our
students are the first in their families to go to college. Some have
juggled two jobs and a full course load. Others have dealt with
family obligations — often as single parents — cultural barriers or
physical challenges such as battling cancer. Some of our students
have had to interrupt their studies to serve their country.”

“But regardless of what has happened, these students have been
determined to complete their education. They are truly what Cal State
Northridge is all about — providing an opportunity for individuals,
even under the most adverse circumstances, to achieve their dreams.
We are proud to celebrate all they’ve accomplished.”

Here is a short list of some of these extraordinary graduates:

— Jasmine Altounian, M.A., Mathematics Education

As immigrants, Armenian refugees, Altounian’s parents were
stunned when a social worker showed up one day at their home in
London to tell them that their seven-year-old daughter was supposed
to be in school.

“All I remember is crying and wanting my mother,” said
Altounian, now 41 and living in Sunland. “I did not speak a word of
English and I had never even heard the language. I was
unceremoniously dumped in the back of the class and left to cope. I
think I wet myself from fright and everyone laughed at me. I was
immediately ostracized. School was a very cruel place.”

Altounian said she realized that the only way to get out of
such a miserable place was to do her best and get ahead. She studied
every chance she got and graduated from high school at age 12. When
her parents moved to Southern California in 1983, she immediately
enrolled at Cal State Northridge, and made the university a second
home.

Altounian has earned bachelor’s degrees in biology and
psychology as well as a master’s in experimental psychology, a
teaching credential in biological sciences and a supplemental
credential in mathematics from Northridge.

Two years ago, Altounian, a teacher at Garvey Intermediate
School in Rosemead, decided to get her master’s in mathematics
education. About that same time, doctors discovered she had breast
cancer. Despite having to lose a semester at CSUN because of
chemotherapy, Altounian kept teaching.

“I had my good days and my bad days, but the kids in my
classes kept me going. When I lost my hair, they brought me hats and
scarves, and would visit me when I was in the hospital. If I felt
down, they’d bring me up,” she said. Altounian’s cancer has
metastasized. A year ago, her doctor’s gave her six months to live.
They now say she’s got two years.

Altounian thinks they are wrong. She’s making plans for
getting a doctorate and is fighting a decision by a new principal at
her school to dock her pay, retroactively, for missing after-school
meetings because she had to get to class at CSUN. Regardless, she
plans to keep teaching.

— Calvin Barnes, B.A., Sociology

While most of his classmates at Cal State Northridge spent
last summer at school or work, Barnes, 34, of West Hills, was in
Kuwait. As a member of the U.S. Naval Reserves, he was working as a
mechanic on field service trucks headed into battle in Iraq.

Despite the pressures of war all around him, Barnes wanted to
be sure that he kept his mind sharp. He read books, many sent by CSUN
professors. And when he got a chance, Barnes used his time on a
computer, provided for soldiers to keep in touch with loved ones
while away from home, to register for classes.

“I was already missing the spring semester and I wanted to
make sure that I was registered for the fall semester,” he said.

Barnes said he treasures his education. He admitted he was not
a good student while growing up in Miami, Fla. He had a severe
stutter then, and did not find school easy. When he graduated from
high school, he immediately joined the Marines. He served with the
Marines for six years and was part of Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Barnes moved to Southern California in 1996, got a job with
Sports Chalet in loss prevention, joined the naval reserves, and
enrolled in classes at Pierce College. While taking a general
sociology class at Pierce, Barnes said a light went off in his head.

“I just found the subject so interesting I knew it’s what I
wanted to do,” he said.

Barnes transferred to CSUN in spring 2002. He was supposed to
graduate last spring, but his time in the Persian Gulf postponed his
commencement date.

“I really missed CSUN while I was over there, and I was
determined not to miss any more classes,” he said. “I got back from
the Gulf on Aug. 25 and went right back to school on Sept. 6. A lot
of people told me to take some time off because I had just gone
through this traumatic experience. But I couldn’t do that. At first
it was hard, but I adjusted and it was worth it.”

Barnes is considering a career in law enforcement, but is also
thinking about getting a master’s degree and teaching.

— Joe Cedillo, B.A., English

After a 10-hour operation, Cedillo, 30, of Santa Clarita,
recalls lying in a hospital bed last fall thinking, “I am just trying
to get a degree.”

Getting a college education has not been easy for Cedillo.

One year after obtaining associate of arts degrees in history
and botany from the College of the Canyons, Cedillo enrolled at CSUN
in 1995. But he soon lost interest in his studies and was placed on
academic probation for two semesters. Ultimately, he was academically
disqualified in 1998.

Cedillo re-enroll at CSUN in 1999 as an English major. “I had
always wanted to be a writer,” Cedillo said, “but I never tried it.”

Over the next couple of years he developed a passion for
theater. He performed in and produced several university productions.

But last fall, Cedillo’s health began to deteriorate; he was
coughing up blood and was misdiagnosed with walking pneumonia. During
a performance, he lost the ability to speak.

As his health continued to decline, Cedillo’s body started
shutting down. “I was literally in the phases of dying,” he said.

He was eventually diagnosed with testicular cancer, which can
be fatal.

Cedillo underwent surgery and chemotherapy from November 2003
to April 2004. He lost 50 pounds and had to relearn how to walk. He
still cannot run. He takes blood thinners and undergoes regular
testing.

“I am living on borrowed time,” he said.

As Cedillo recuperated, he wrote “Three Bulls,” based on his
experiences, which will be performed in June at Tia Chucha’s Cafe
Cultural in Sylmar.

Depending on his health, Cedillo would like to get a master’s
in English at CSUN.

“If I want stuff to happen, I have to do it now. I don’t know
if I have another five years,” he said. “If you’re not busy you’re
dead.”

— Carolyn Copps, M.S., School Counseling

Born with a hearing disability, Copps was mislabeled as
learning disabled while going to school in Stevens Point, Wis. The
diagnosis confounded her parents, who kept insisting that their
little girl was bright.

“My dad told me several times that they had tested me as a
little girl and that I had a high I.Q. But at school, I was
constantly struggling and often answered the wrong questions,” she
said. “It was very hard.”

Things turned around when her parents divorced and she moved
with her mother to Tucson, Ariz., just before her 14th birthday. The
teachers and the school counselors there understood her problem and
helped her to catch up. She had entered high school reading at a
fourth-grade level, and by the time she graduated she was reading at
a college level. She was even encouraged to try out for drama so she
could learn to express herself better and be more assertive.

Copps graduated from the University of Arizona with a
bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2002. She said she chose to get
her master’s at Northridge because of the university’s reputation for
serving deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

The past two years have not been easy. She’s been going to
school full time while working three jobs — counselor at Granada
Hills High and CHIME Charter Elementary schools and tutor for a deaf
student — and battling several illnesses that often sent her to the
emergency room.

“I missed a lot of days of school, but I knew I could make it
up and I didn’t want to give up,” she said. Copps hopes to get a job
as a school counselor.

— Bettymae McKenney, B.A., Religious Studies

It takes a certain toughness of mind for a student of any age
to earn a university degree, but Bettymae McKenney’s 82 years are
testament to a special kind of determination. “You have to be
committed to do this,” said McKenney.

“Some mornings it was hard to get up and keep going,” said the
Van Nuys resident. “Your eyes, your whole body gets tired.”

But McKenney has never been one to back down from a challenge.
She dropped out of college in 1960 to take a secretarial position in
Edwards Air Force Base’s space program. There, she dealt with
sensitive correspondence between rocket scientist Werner Von Braun
and her bosses.

After her retirement, she took her son’s advice to go back to
school. As Valley College’s oldest graduate in 2001, McKenney earned
her liberal studies degree and a congratulatory letter from U.S.
Senator Barbara Boxer.

Student life at Cal State Northridge was challenging but
rewarding. “All the teachers were very polite to me, and respected
me. When I asked, ‘Am I really supposed to be here?’ they said
‘Absolutely.'”

McKenney’s memory, she said, was “not what it was when I had
to memorize everything working on the moon project at Edwards.” Her
heavy CSUN class and study schedule required every ounce of her
concentration, she added. “I worked myself around the clock doing
theses.”

But for McKenney, it was worth it. “The learning process
itself is what I love most,” she said.

— Doris Rosales, B.A., Chicano Studies

Rosales, 33, of San Fernando, died unexpectedly last month of
an erupted ulcer. Rosales is remembered by her family and friends as
a single mother determined to make a difference in the lives of women
in circumstances similar to her own.

Rosales, who was raised by a single mother, worked full-time
as a social worker with victims of domestic violence and part-time at
a YMCA shelter. She also volunteered at Casa Esparzena, where she
helped troubled teen-aged girls get back on track.

“She would do anything to make the kids laugh,” said Norma
Martinez, Rosales’ sister. “She would dress up like a clown if it
would help them have a better life.”

Despite financial hardship, balancing two jobs and
volunteering, Rosales attended Cal State Northridge full time to set
an example and to provide a better life for her 8-year-old son
Emmanuel.

“She had it hard,” said Celina Sanchez, Rosales’ friend and
co-worker, “but she managed to go to school, rain or shine. It was a
matter of getting her education.”

Rosales’ wanted to open a shelter for victims of domestic
violence.

“For my sister to almost make it to graduation is a great
achievement,” Martinez said.

— Cindy Trigg, B.A., Liberal Studies

Trigg, 48, of Simi Valley, credits her success to her
grandmother and other relatives who raised her. Her stepmother was
abusive and her own mother’s substance abuse led to large absences
from Trigg’s life.

“As a child I would daydream about being an adult and making a
difference in people’s lives,” she said.

After a failed marriage, Trigg, then a single mother of three,
had to work three jobs at times to support her children and to pay
for their education.

“I wanted the best for them,” Trigg said. “I wouldn’t let my
kids end up in the street.”

One of those jobs was at Cal State Northridge, where she has
worked for 29 years, the past 13 years she has worked in the
Department of Marketing as an administrative support coordinator.

Trigg initially enrolled as a student at CSUN in 1993 to set
an example for her children. Her 19-year-old daughter is now a
freshman at CSUN while her two older sons are in the military.

After more than 11 years of steadily attending school
part-time while working full time, Trigg will be graduating magna cum
laude. She hopes to teach third and fourth grade at a private school.

“I wasn’t going to let the people who hurt me ruin my life,”
she said. “I ultimately won.”

CONTACT: Carmen Ramos Chandler, CSUN Public Relations,
818-677-2130, carmen.chandler@csun.edu

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress