Informed & Inspired

When the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is looking to document the landscape of education-focused work across the country, San Diego State University’s Dr. James Marshall answers the call. 

“Summer melt” is a well-established phenomenon in higher education. The term refers to the significant number of high school seniors intending to enroll in college, but who do not show up to campus the semester following high school graduation. For students from large urban school districts, that number ranges from 21 to 50 percent. In these pandemic times, however, summer melt might be the tip of the iceberg.

Y. Barry Chung, Dean of the San Diego State University College of Education, has been elected to the executive committee of one of North America’s top associations of education deans. 

At a time when COVID-19 restrictions have ground non-essential border traffic to a halt, San Diego State University is using an innovative virtual approach to continue offering its bilingual teacher credential candidates an immersive global experience.

In a role many associate with punishment and discipline, Bell Middle School principal Precious Jackson-Hubbard is making a difference in one San Diego community by offering students something else entirely: love. It’s a love that comes from a place of profound understanding.

With students stuck at home and behind screens during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fontana Unified School District counselor and San Diego State University alumnus Eduardo Valencia (’97, ’98) is going door-to-door to make a difference. NBC Los Angeles recently spotlighted Valencia — a graduate of our Community-Based Block and school counseling master’s program — as he made house calls to meet the social and emotional needs of his students.

Sarah Kouzi, a master’s student in San Diego State University’s Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program, has published a commentary in the San Diego Union-Tribune reflecting on the intersection between her culture and her career as a therapist. She explores her desire to dispel the stigma about mental health in the Arab and Muslim communities in America — and in her own family.

In the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd last spring, a group of Black faculty in the San Diego State University College of Education met virtually to share their grief, vent their frustration — and strategize what to do about it.

As she looks back over a transformational career as a professor in San Diego State University’s Department of Child and Family Development, Dr. Shulamit Ritblatt remembers one particular moment of inspiration. It was her first time teaching the course CFD 590: Children With Special Needs. There were the usual lectures, discussions and class readings, but she just couldn’t shake the notion that something was missing. 

Alumna Phet Pease named finalist for presidential STEM award in recognition for her work to spark a passion for science among students in her home community.