Beach Faculty’s Hands-On Experiences Skyrocket Student Success

The Division of Academic Affairs proudly prepares our students to be civically engaged, career-ready professionals. By merging theoretical knowledge with practical experience, our Beach faculty equip students with the preparation, confidence, and rigor to excel in the professional world. Some of our colleges and departments share the projects, goals, and initiatives behind the compelling hands-on experiences they provide for CSULB students.  

Advancing With the Technological Age 

The department of Academic Technology Services (ATS) is a driving force in providing Beach faculty with the equipment to facilitate hands-on experiences during our technological age.  

Full-time lecturer in the department of design, Michael LaForte, recently invited his Design 132A students to the Innovation Space’s (ISPACE) XR Lab for a comparative demonstration of traditional and digital drawing. Designed for first-year students, LaForte’s course partnered with the ISPACE to explore OpenBrush – a tool for foundation-level learners. This community-building experience exposed students to innovative equipment and grew their technological skills. 

“The rate of change we experience today is faster than ever before. We can’t continue doing things the same as we did a couple of decades ago and think we’re remaining relevant. There’s a valuable place for traditional methods and techniques, but students today belong to a different landscape than the one most of their faculty came of age in,” says LaForte, “We need to be present in this moment of time if we’re going to be of service guiding students into their futures, and curriculum needs to be more malleable and dynamic to remain current with it.” 

LaForte thanks ISPACE team members Cesar Sigala, Tom Nguyen, Monica Robles, and Loc Luong for their hard work and commitment to curate an unforgettable experience for his design scholars. 

“The ISPACE’s XR Lab is a testament to the university's dedication to expanding access and engaging the student body. Faculty from multiple disciplines have used the XR Lab to foster exploration into the metaverse, which aligns seamlessly with the University's strategic priorities,” says ISPACE Director, Dennis Lupresto, “Inclusive of virtual and augmented reality and motion capture, the XR Lab serves as a hands-on hub for collaborative learning experiences. Academic Technology Services is honored to provide this resource and support to our faculty and students. I highly encourage anyone wanting to know more about the resources in the ISPACE to book a tour. We give one-on-one tours, but we love class tours.” 

To visit the ISPACE, book a tour on their website.  

Partaking in the Industry 

Many other colleges and departments bring industrial experience to The Beach, creating accessible opportunities for students to preview a day in the field.  

The College of Engineering (COE), for instance, capitalizes on their many partnerships with world-class engineering firms in Long Beach and Southern California. Here are a few of their partners and the faculty behind this robust collaboration: 

• SoCalGas: The nation’s largest natural gas distributor, SoCal Gas partnered with Assistant Professor of electrical engineering, Dr. Ava Hedayatipour, with the vision to enhance safety on construction sites. Dr. Hedayatipour gives her students a taste of the field by having them design a radio-frequency identification tracking system to prevent collisions between equipment and workers.  
• Port of Long Beach: Professor of Practice and Beavers Endowed Chair for the department of civil engineering & construction management, Dr. Marwan Youssef, has been providing his students with unique professional experiences since his appointment in 2021. Dr. Youssef’s students, also known as ‘CSULB Beavers,’ recently toured the Port of Long Beach harbor, where they participated in a project including the mixing of concrete. Dr. Youssef’s position was established from the Beaver’s Charitable Trust, aiming to promote opportunities and nurture talent between the civil engineering industry and CSULB. 
• Boeing: Associate Professor and Endowed Chair of Boeing, Dr. Bo Fu, is researching the use of eye-gazing technology to advance pilot training and aviation safety. Every semester, she invites undergraduate and graduate students to work with leading scientists and engineers at CSULB and Boeing’s Long Beach campus. 

Industry involvement is also happening at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. The center’s Arts for Life Campus Connections program links College of the Arts (COTA) faculty and students with performing artists, augmenting COTA's curriculum by placing theatrical performance at the center of academic life.  

This season, COTA is connecting hundreds of Beach students with engaging and enlightening performers like those in A.I.M.by Kyle Abraham. A.I.M. allowed students to learn from eight award-winning dancers. Another group of students in Street & Club Dance classes also engaged with Versa-Style Dance Company in a rousing artist workshop. Similarly, theatre arts students engaged in an enticing workshop with Native American jazz singer, Julia Keefe (Nez Perce). At the workshop, students learned advanced warm-up techniques and participated in individual lyric interpretation exercises. 

Our College of Professional and Continuing Education (CPaCE) is also at the forefront of cultivating industry experience. In collaboration with the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (CNSM), CPaCE addressed the challenges of our rapidly changing workforce. Faculty members Barbara Taylor and Tyler Reed secured funding from the CSU Mineta Transportation Institute to explore talent pipelines providing new knowledge, skills, and abilities aiming to alleviate the post-grad job search. The duo piloted a new curriculum-based approach, which was implemented in COE’s partnership with consulting firm Gannett Fleming and a workshop-based model with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Generating tremendous success, Gannett Fleming and JPL plan to hire some of the students who participated in these workshops. 

Bettering Our Community 

CSULB colleges and departments uphold a standard of excellence when improving the community as well. The College of Health and Human Services’ Nuero Pro Bono Clinic prepares Doctor of Physical Therapy program students to implement their clinical experience by working with real patients under faculty supervision. Developed by CSULB Vice Provost and former chair of the department of physical therapy, Dr. Jody Cormack, the clinic allows students and patients access to state-of-the-art equipment that mimics a physical therapy facility. Today, the clinic is run by lecturer of physical therapy, Dr. Kristin DeMars.  

The college also holds a proud partnership with the California Scottish Rite Foundation and the Department of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP). Thanks to continued philanthropic investment, the clinic continues to offer students an immersive learning opportunity to serve children in need of SLP services with exercises, resources, and more. Through this, students can improve their hands-on skills, elevate our community, and advance the public good. 

In the College of Education, a select number of credential and graduate students in the schools of counseling, psychology, and special education have enjoyed field training, mentorship, and other valuable outside-of-classroom opportunities. Their Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) offers substantial financial aid, fieldwork opportunities, peer and faculty mentorship, special projects, seminars, and other lessons that go beyond what is taught in the classroom. 

“Our students are always telling us, ‘You know, I learned so much more during my fieldwork than in any of my classes’,” said Professor Dr. Kristi Hagans, who teaches school psychology and co-leads two OSEP grants with Professor of advanced studies in education and counseling, Dr. Cara Richards-Tutor. 

Associate Professor Dr. Jake Olsen, who coordinates the College of Education’s School Counseling program, collaborates with Special Education Assistant Professor, Dr. Edwin Achola, for two other OSEP grants. These grants aim to teach students the research and best practices necessary to succeed in the field and apply them to the real world.  

One OSEP-grant program pairs up Master’s of Special Education students with Master’s of School Counseling peers. Classrooms become fieldwork sites, supplying enriching and practical experiences for those who seek a career in teaching.  

Every two years, five students from school counseling and five from special education are selected as grant recipients, illuminating our campus’ mission to break financial barriers and prepare our students to embark on a fruitful career. 

Our Film & Electronic Arts Department has similarly supplied students with hands-on training that has made a lasting impact on the Long Beach community. Students in the Independent Media Production class (also known as “Surfside Productions”) get to work with small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government entities by producing exemplary video work highlighting the uniqueness of each organization.  

Some of the past organizations this class has worked with have been the Gold Coast Veterans Foundation, California Highway Patrol, Harmony Project, Playmakers, The Miller Foundation, and many more. 

The Independent Media Production course continues to offer students hands on learning to hone their skills in the film and creative industries.  

An exciting array of opportunities, the Division of Academic Affairs provides a student-ready curriculum, coupled with faculty expertise and guidance. Our impactful learning experiences showcase CSULB’s mission to prepare our students for their industrial and creative endeavors at The Beach and beyond.