Reon Allen '25
Here at CSULB I had a rough time my freshman year, it was covid and I was living alone in a dorm with no connections to anyone on campus to make new friends. I experimented with a few different things in my freshman year and by my sophomore year I started to find my place on campus. Classes were back to being in person, clubs were more active, and I was now a Resident Assistant in the dorms. I felt a lot more connected to the Beach Community and worked to reach out to create more connections. I became involved in clubs and my major and I was able to gain experiences on campus that I will never forget. My major is pretty small, so we are a close-knit community that I wouldn’t get at most institutions.
I applied to a lot of schools (probably too many, I burnt myself out) and a few scholarships, my main goal was to go somewhere out of the Central Valley because I was bored of the environment. My whole life I was in college-oriented programs and all my peers expected me to go to a large “prestigious” institution like most of them. I won’t lie, I had those options, but I received the president’s scholarship here and decided that the education I would get here is just as good as anywhere else, and I would be saving my family and I a lot of money. I couldn’t be happier here at CSULB and I am glad I chose to come here.
I am currently applying to Ph.D. programs at universities like CalTech, Northwestern, UCSD, and more for Astrophysics. My goals are to receive my Ph.D. in Astronomy and ultimately apply for faculty positions where I can direct my own research on topics in Stellar Astrophysics.
I got involved because I feel a strong connection to campus, and while CSULB does not offer a Ph.D. in Astronomy/Astrophysics, I still would like to be connected and involved with the school in my future to give back what it gave to me.
