February 2016 e-Newsletter

The state and county stipends of $18,500 to be awarded to Marriage and Family masters students were recently finalized for the current year. There are some 40 colleges and universities competing for 52 of these stipends each year. The awards are for current MFT students who will graduate before next July 1st, and who must commit to at least one year of working either for County Mental Health or a County contracted agency. What salary they will receive at the hiring agency is on top of the stipend. CSUN shines in this arena! Last year our MFT students won 13 of these stipends, and this year 7. Lots of competition, and our people did superbly!

After serving as Director of the China Institute at CSUN for 20 years (1995-2015) and establishing more than 40 MOU partnerships for CSUN with Chinese education institutions, Dr. Justine Su returned to Michael D. Eisner College of Education in 2015 to focus on teaching, research and program development in comparative education.

Read more about our distinguished colleague

Since his memorable visit to China in October 2014, Dean Michael Spagna has become one of the most featured international education leaders in China. Reporter Sophie Wang from the prestigious Journal of World Education (JWE), the premier international education journal published by the Chinese National Ministry of Education and read by all education leaders, scholars and practitioners throughout China, conducted a cover-page interview with Dean Spagna on his 4-hour high-speed train ride from Beijing to Shanghai, which resulted in two major interview articles translated and edited by Dr. Justine Su and Sophie Wang for publication in the Journal of World Education in 2015.

Read more, by Dr. Justine Su

On February 18th, The Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) hosted their 2nd Education on the Edge speaker for the season: Dr. Candace Thille! Dr. Thille is from Stanford, where she is the founding director of the Open Learning Initiative. Dr. Thille presented on "Technology, big data, & student learning needs: Transforming education." Dr. Thille came to us at the recommendation of President Dianne Harrison who said, "I wish every one of the faculty here at CSUN could hear Candace!" Her talk was informative and engaging, and attendees left the event feeling excited and energized.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has started a brand new and very exciting new venture: providing one hour presentations for the many residents at a local retirement and independent living home! Faculty and students with areas of interest or expertise are encouraged to contact Dr. Wendy Murawski (wendy.murawski@csun.edu) in the CTL to offer their services. We have faculty who have volunteered to come and teach about: reading with (not just 'to') grandchildren; basic ASL; an experiential approach to understanding learning disabilities; the changing work of work; the positive aspects of aging; book club; family trees; basic Spanish; and Zumba Gold, among others. We are truly giving back to the neighborhood by helping our elderly community members keep their brains (and bodies) active. We hope you will contact us and be a part of a good thing!

The CTL is happy to announce yet another publication! The "CTL on the Cutting Edge" is a publication first produced by Dean Michael Spagna, Rick Goldman, and Marcia Rea in 2008. The premise behind this publication was to spotlight different areas of cutting edge research and scholarship by our own faculty here in the College of Education. We are recreating this excellent publication with a new look but the same great purpose.

Read the first issue - Mindfulness with Dr. Diane Gehart (.pdf)
See previous issues