Recent News
From Syria to SLO, Psychology Student Tackles the Issue of Homelessness
Nov 12, 2019
As a high school student, Alaina Martine knew she cared about the issue of homelessness. She had volunteered at homeless shelters and taken service trips to do her part. But after one service trip to Greece, she returned feeling transformed and ready to make a lasting impact in homeless individuals’ lives.
"I never liked inequality, but when I was in high school, I kind of had my blinders on and wasn’t paying attention,” Martine said. “I didn’t realize it was such a large issue until traveling, volunteering and getting to college."
Martine, who has travelled to three continents – helping orphans, Syrian refugees, and disabled communities – recalled one profound moment while volunteering on a service trip in Greece in 2015. While donating supplies to Syrian refugees, she met a displaced girl named Sarah.
Sarah was Martine’s age and she was the only one in her family who spoke fluent English. She was dedicated to helping her family communicate with others on their journey, and had learned the language by watching a Disney movie over and over again.
“We were able to compare our lives and see we have so many similarities,” Martine said. "But solely because of where she’s from, she’s going through all these hardships that I am not. It was by complete chance."
Alaina Martine
Martine returned to San Luis Obispo, motivated to tackle the issue of homelessness in her own community. She started researching the issue as it pertains to California and produced a video to educate the public about ways they can help.
The video delved into the uncontrollable factors that often lead to homelessness — such as natural disasters, mental health issues, and domestic disputes.
“Being displaced doesn’t make anyone a bad person, but simply a person in a tough situation,” Martine said.
The video has several calls to action — ways that governments, organizations, and individuals can help the homeless. She submitted the video along with an essay to ApartmentGuide, which earned her a competitive scholarship for the quarter.
The Center for Service in Action Program at Cal Poly also keeps Martine connected to volunteer experiences abroad. With help from anonymous donors, she has been able to take service trips to three different countries despite her financial obstacles.
Martine plans to use her psychology major and biology minor to pursue psychiatry in low-income communities. In the meantime, she is looking into volunteering at the SLO Needle Exchange Program, which aims to combat issues like addiction and drug-related infections on the Central Coast.
Martine’s ambition to help solve this global problem has inspired her fellow students and professors, like her Multicultural Psychology professor, Susana López.
“We need more students like her. We need more people like her,” López said. “I know she will continue to do well for herself and for others.”
Read the most recent stories in The Link
Uncovering the Untold
Nov 12, 2019
Students and professors launch the Queer Archive Project to document Central Coast history
Students and faculty from Cal Poly and Cuesta College are collaborating for the Central Coast Queer Archive Project (CCQAP), which uncovers untold history and documents that history from the lives of the LGBTQ+ community on the Central Coast.
Researchers with the CCQAP are not only collecting archival research using local newspapers and Cal Poly archives, but they are also filming oral history interviews for a deeper look at the history.
“That’s the exciting thing — it’s not like we’re treading ground that’s already been covered,” environmental protection and management senior Autumn Ford said. “We’re not looking through secondary sources that tell the story. We’re going out into the world, finding the primary newspaper sources, talking to those people and documenting history that can be preserved for later generations. That’s what’s so amazing about it.”
Ford, who is part of the Science, Technology & Society minor program, began research on the Queer Archive Project through the BEACoN mentorship program, where she was matched with English professor Steven Ruszczycky as a mentor. Together, along with a local documentary filmmaker and Cuesta College students and professors, they created a website to help find untold stories.
Recently, Ford conducted a video interview with Lisa Dean, who was a prominent figure in the Central Coast LGBTQ+ community in the 1980s and 1990s. She ran and operated Breezes, a gay bar that shut down in the late 1990s due to high rent prices, and advocated for treatment and support during the United States' HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“It’s indescribable in a way, being able to sit down with someone who was established in the queer community and who lived it,” Ford said. “It helped me to understand what growing up with the AIDS crisis, and the turmoil of having a space and losing it does for a community of queer people. It was one of those experiences you can’t quite replicate.”
Kennedy Library Archives and Special Collections will preserve these oral history videos so future students and researchers can listen and use them for their own projects.
The project has also sparked the addition of a new Women and Gender Studies special topics course — WGS 302: Contemporary Issues in Queer Studies - Queer Oral History. The course will debut in winter 2020.
“It’s important that this history is not seen as a niche history,” Ruszczycky said. “It’s not a supplement to the main story; it is a part of the main story.”
Steven Ruszczycky
Ruszczycky said queer and trans people have often been excluded from institutions of official public memory — except as unfortunate examples, such as disease, disorder, or crime. The Queer Archive Project attempts to celebrate the untold positive contributions to local life members of the LGBTQ+ community have made on the Central Coast.
Although the stories of the LGBTQ+ community have been excluded from public record, the history still exists in the memories of those who lived it, Ruszczycky said.
“In a way we’re going back and filling in the holes in history, but what happens when you go to fill in those holes is that it changes the whole story,” Ruszczycky said. “This work can be really transformative in terms of how we understand the history of San Luis Obispo and how different communities experience this place.”
Read the most recent stories in The Link
Emily Ryalls Guest Stars in Podcast "Historians on Housewives"
Oct 16, 2019
ISLA Professor Emily Ryalls was featured on a podcast from Historians on Housewives, which brings together scholars from interdisciplinary backgrounds to explain The Housewives phenomenon, and to explore how issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality can better shape understandings of American and world history.
Graphic Communication Senior Selected for Cal Poly's Accelerator Program
Oct 14, 2019
GrC graduating senior Joe Sobrero successfully participated in Demo Day earlier in the month for his product Ropegun, a fitness tracker, route-guide and social media platform for climbers. Nathaniel Furbeyre, a mechanical engineering graduate, also worked on the team.
How Cal Poly Alumnus Lance Lunker Merged His Background as a Veteran With His Political Science Major For His Senior Project (Q+A)
Aug 19, 2019
Get to know Lance Iunker, a veteran and political science alumnus, as he talks about his service, senior project and life after Cal Poly.
CLA Athletes Honored at Big West Conference
Aug 14, 2019
Below is a list of Cal Poly student-athletes from the College of Liberal Arts who earned Big West Conference all-academic honors for Winter and Spring Quarters.
Art and Design to Collaborate with College of Architecture and Environmental Design on Los Angeles Art Gallery
Jul 24, 2019
Sara Bartlett
The Art and Design Department will collaborate with the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) for a unique opportunity to showcase student and faculty work at the Museum of Architecture and Design in the arts district of Los Angeles.
The Art and Design Department and CAED teamed up to rent a gallery space in Los Angeles for one month from August – September 2019 to display artwork created by students and faculty. Roughly half of the selected work will be from CAED, and half will be from art and design.
To highlight the student-scholar model, faculty are invited to submit creative work paired with an artwork created by a student. Each submission will include one work created by the faculty member, and one created by the student.
“The idea behind it is showing the transference of ideas through teaching,” University Art Gallery Specialist Garet Zook said. “Even though those works may not be identical, and hopefully they aren’t, it shows an influence of the professor on the student, without necessarily determining the outcome.”
This is a rare opportunity for the Art and Design Department to showcase artwork outside of San Luis Obispo county, in the arts district of Los Angeles.
“We might get 700 people coming through the University Art Gallery for a show — but they might get that in a single day here,” Zook said.
The show will be juried by Mimi Zeiger, a Los Angeles-based critic, editor and curator who has covered art, architecture, urbanism and design for a number of publications, including The New York Times and Architectural Review. Zeiger holds a Master of Architecture degree, teaches a Media Design Practices MFA program at Art Center College of Design, and has contributed to and collaborated on projects that have been shown in renown museums across the nation, including the Art Institute Chicago.
Faculty in the Art and Design Department and the CAED are eligible to submit a wide range of work, from design models to paintings to videos.
“This collaboration helps to create a well-rounded show,” Zook said. “I think it’ll create an interesting gallery that forces people to look at design in every aspect that exists.”
Read the most recent stories in The Link
CLA and Industrial Technology Students Win Third at Coca-Cola and Mondelez’s 48-Hour Repack Competition
Jul 19, 2019
Two CLA students were part of the third-place team in the 48-Hour Repack Competition, hosted by the Institute of Packaging Professionals and sponsored by Coca-Cola and Mondelez.
Political Science Sophomore Sworn in as Assembly Delegate for the Democratic Party
Jul 19, 2019
Political Science sophomore Rob Moore was elected as an Assembly District Delegate for the Democratic Party.
Food Science and Graphic Communication Seniors Publish a Cookbook Featuring Recipes from Pop-Up Restaurant DENCH.
Jul 19, 2019
Food science alumnus Jimmy Wong became a viral sensation when he created a high-class pop-up restaurant, DENCH., in his studio apartment — and he just released a cookbook designed by graphic communication senior Carly Lamera.