Education (Colleges & Universities)
Here's a look at documents from public, private and community colleges in the U.S.
Featured Stories
Wayne State University: Research Finds Mental Health Training Improves Pharmacists' Readiness to Help Patients
DETROIT, Michigan, Feb. 5 -- Wayne State University issued the following news:
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Research finds mental health training improves pharmacists' readiness to help patients
When most people think about mental health care, they probably picture a therapist's office or a hospital clinic. But for many people, one of the most common points of contact with a health care provider is their local pharmacist.
A 2025 study suggests that pharmacists and pharmacy students can strengthen their ability to support people experiencing mental health challenges by receiving Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training.
... Show Full Article
DETROIT, Michigan, Feb. 5 -- Wayne State University issued the following news:
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Research finds mental health training improves pharmacists' readiness to help patients
When most people think about mental health care, they probably picture a therapist's office or a hospital clinic. But for many people, one of the most common points of contact with a health care provider is their local pharmacist.
A 2025 study suggests that pharmacists and pharmacy students can strengthen their ability to support people experiencing mental health challenges by receiving Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training.
Researchers with the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences examined evidence from multiple studies evaluating MHFA training in pharmacy settings. Overall, the analysis found measurable improvements after training, particularly in mental health knowledge and in participants' preparedness to respond.
Why pharmacists are part of the mental health conversation
Pharmacists are among the most accessible health professionals in many communities and often see patients more frequently than other clinicians. That puts them in a position to have conversations that may not happen elsewhere, especially for people who are not connected to mental health services or lack a primary care physician.
At the same time, pharmacists have reported feeling underprepared to respond when someone shows signs of a mental health concern. MHFA is intended to address that gap by teaching participants how to recognize warning signs, communicate in a supportive way, and encourage appropriate professional help.
What the research found
Because this study was a systematic review and meta-analysis, it combined results from prior research to evaluate overall trends.
The findings showed:
* Increases in mental health knowledge among pharmacists and pharmacy students after MHFA training
* Improvement in survey-based measures of attitudes, confidence, or self-efficacy, indicating participants felt more capable of responding.
The authors also note that many studies measured outcomes shortly after training and that more research is needed to understand how long these effects last and whether they translate into changes in practice and patient outcomes.
A step toward stronger support
MHFA is not a replacement for therapy or medical treatment. But the evidence in this review suggests it can improve pharmacists' and pharmacy students' readiness, at least in the short term, to engage more effectively with mental health concerns.
"These types of analyses suggest that community pharmacists have the potential to influence patient outcomes beyond that of purely dispensing and counseling," says Kyle Burghardt, PharmD, pharmacy practice at the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. "As one of the most frequented health contact points for patients, community pharmacists should continue to innovate and improve patient health not only in depression but in other health areas as well."
As access challenges continue to shape the mental health field, training that increases the number of health professionals equipped to recognize concerns may help strengthen the system overall. For community pharmacists, whose roles already extend well beyond dispensing medications, that preparation can create more opportunities to identify needs early and guide patients toward appropriate care.
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Original text here: https://applebaum.wayne.edu/news/research-finds-mental-health-training-improves-pharmacists-readiness-to-help-patients-67998
University of Houston Researcher Helps Unlock Rare Antarctic Glacier Record
HOUSTON, Texas, Feb. 5 (TNSjou) -- The University of Houston issued the following news:
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University of Houston Researcher Helps Unlock Rare Antarctic Glacier Record
Ancient Antarctic Ice Loss Offers Clues to Future Sea-Level Rise
Key Takeaways
* Ancient sediment records collected by a University of Houston researcher show that the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers repeatedly retreated during past warm periods, including sudden collapses after long phases of slow retreat.
* The findings suggest that major parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are highly sensitive to warming and could
... Show Full Article
HOUSTON, Texas, Feb. 5 (TNSjou) -- The University of Houston issued the following news:
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University of Houston Researcher Helps Unlock Rare Antarctic Glacier Record
Ancient Antarctic Ice Loss Offers Clues to Future Sea-Level Rise
Key Takeaways
* Ancient sediment records collected by a University of Houston researcher show that the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers repeatedly retreated during past warm periods, including sudden collapses after long phases of slow retreat.
* The findings suggest that major parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are highly sensitive to warming and coulddrive rapid sea-level rise as global temperatures increase.
* The study is based on irreplaceable Antarctic sediment cores collected during a rare offshore drilling expedition, providing the only known Pliocene record of this glacial drainage area.
By Kelly Schafler, 713-743-1153, kmschafler@central.uh.edu
A University of Houston researcher is part of an international team investigating significant melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, research that reconstructs ice-sheet behavior from millions of years ago to better predict how they may respond to future climate patterns or environmental shifts.
A new study published Dec. 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers -- key components of the WAIS -- receded at least five times during the Pliocene, approximately 3 to 4.5 million years ago.
Led by Keiji Horikawa, professor at the University of Toyama in Japan, the research team analyzed marine sediments deposited by the glaciers. The samples were collected through an offshore expedition in 2019 and represent the only known geological record of this glacial sector from the Pliocene.
The geological record provides crucial insight into how the ice sheet may behave in the future as environmental patterns shift and temperatures rise. It also raises concerns about the potential for rapid sea-level rise if large parts of the WAIS were to collapse again, said Julia Wellner, professor of glacial and marine geology at UH and a co-author on the report.
"What this sediment core has shown is that there was major inland retreat of Thwaites during these time periods," Wellner said. "More significant than that, it also shows the glacier retreats pretty slowly and then reaches the final pulse where it's going to pull back very suddenly."
Why It Matters
Scientists focused on the Pliocene because global temperatures at the time were similar to or slightly warmer than today. This makes it a more useful comparison for climate projections than the last interglacial period roughly 120,000 years ago.
"If we want to know what can happen in more extreme warming, we need to go back to times like the Pliocene, to a warmer environment," Wellner said. "In recent times, the planet has warmed to a point that if we just look at the last interglacial period, it's no longer comparable."
The melting of grounded ice -- glaciers and ice sheets that rest on land rather than float in water -- directly contribute to global sea-level rise. While sea level is already rising and accelerating, the new geological record shows that it can rise much faster than modern society has experienced.
"The background reasoning for everything I do is to get a better understanding on how fast and how much will sea level rise," Wellner said. "While we don't have all of the answers, what we can definitively say is it is too fast and too much."
Sampling a Piece of History
Wellner first studied the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers as a graduate researcher in 1999. Twenty years later, Wellner returned to the Amundsen Sea as co-chief scientist, leading a major international offshore drilling expedition with German researcher Karsten Gohl.
"I definitely have a soft spot for working at Thwaites and Pine Island," Wellner said. "They are important parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and understanding them, I believe, is of critical importance."
Unlike modern ice changes, which are primarily tracked by satellite over the past 50 years, older glacial history must be reconstructed from sediments collected beneath ice sheets or from the seafloor. Offshore sediment collection is less invasive than drilling through ice but comes with logistical challenges.
The Amundsen Sea is extremely remote and difficult to access, as it is far from any staging landmass. Scientists worked from a non-icebreaking drill ship in waters about 4,000 meters deep, drilling up to 800 meters below the seafloor while constantly maneuvering to avoid icebergs.
The 2019 expedition was funded by the International Ocean Discovery Program, which was a program of the U.S. and several other countries that ended in 2024, making the cores irreplaceable. The cores are stored at a federal repository at Texas A&M University that will remain open despite the end of the drilling program.
"This sample is rarer than a moon rock," Wellner said. "If we want to know about the West Antarctic during this time period, these are the samples to do it -- there are no backup samples."
Researchers analyzed the geochemical signatures of the sediment, particularly isotopes of strontium, neodymium and lead. These markers revealed where the particles originated on the Antarctic continent, helping scientists determine when ice covered specific regions and reconstruct past ice-sheet extent.
Although the International Ocean Discovery Program has ended, the Pliocene sediment cores will continue to be studied for years. Wellner already has additional papers under review and expects several more publications. The PNAS study provides the foundation for that future work.
Meanwhile, Wellner serves as the lead scientist for Thwaites Offshore Research, which examines glacier behavior over the past 100-200 years. Using shallow sediment cores and laboratory dating methods, her team reconstructs glacier behavior before satellite observations began, helping bridge the gap between modern data and deep geological history.
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Original text here: https://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2026/february/02042026-researcher-collects-ancient-antarctic-sediment.php
Southern Connecticut State University: OWLL Expanding Growth Opportunities for Nontraditional Students
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, Feb. 5 -- Southern Connecticut State University issued the following news:
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OWLL Expanding Growth Opportunities for Nontraditional Students
Southern's Office of Workforce and Lifelong Learning (OWLL) is opening doors for hundreds of nontraditional students seeking to boost their skills through short-term, skill-based education.
Lexie Hratko is one of those students. She began taking cybersecurity classes with the goal of "moving up in the world and continuing with personal development and growth." Through OWLL, she transitioned from a part-time retail customer service
... Show Full Article
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, Feb. 5 -- Southern Connecticut State University issued the following news:
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OWLL Expanding Growth Opportunities for Nontraditional Students
Southern's Office of Workforce and Lifelong Learning (OWLL) is opening doors for hundreds of nontraditional students seeking to boost their skills through short-term, skill-based education.
Lexie Hratko is one of those students. She began taking cybersecurity classes with the goal of "moving up in the world and continuing with personal development and growth." Through OWLL, she transitioned from a part-time retail customer servicejob to a full-time administrative assistant role in higher education, gaining greater financial stability. Her coursework in artificial intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Google cybersecurity, and Python has helped her explore the broader world of technology and build a foundation for multiple career paths.
"I am open to learning more and branching out, because there's tons of different avenues when it comes to technology," she said. "Tech and computer science are huge umbrellas."
OWLL's reach extends well beyond technology. The program also offers courses in medical Spanish, medical billing, tourism and hospitality, a NextGen Parent Academy, and even a drone academy. Now in its second year, OWLL served more than 1,000 students last academic year.
According to Amy Feest, OWLL's senior director, the program is ideal for individuals seeking a new career or looking to grow in their current roles. "A lot of times somebody doesn't have the ability--whether it's time or finances--to go back and take a traditional degree program, and they just need specific skills," she said. "That's where we come in. We provide short-term training that someone might need."
Courses range from a few days to a few months, many offered in the evenings or on weekends for students balancing full-time jobs or childcare responsibilities. Most are delivered virtually, offering flexibility for nontraditional learners. Feest noted that OWLL also partners directly with employers to provide specialized training. "One local town is looking for supervisory training for employees, so we're developing a lunch-and-learn series where staff will come online a couple of times a week for a few weeks," she said.
Another important access point for students is The WorkPlace in Bridgeport, which covers tuition through the Good Jobs Challenge Grant. Because OWLL course fees range from $99 to $2,000, the partnership significantly expands opportunities for individuals seeking career advancement or a new start. In fact, Hratko came to OWLL through The WorkPlace, as did Taevon Walker.
Walker recently completed OWLL's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) training and "is a huge success story," said Feest. An electrician by trade, Walker first learned about OWLL when Mark Lazarus of The WorkPlace spoke at his church. After spending time in college studying engineering and later math, and then working in the building trades, Walker was still searching for a career that felt like the right fit. The cybersecurity pathway presented through OWLL immediately sparked his interest.
"My passion just ignited right away," Walker said. "I was doing my own research, watching videos to learn what cybersecurity is, what the jobs are, what you can do. I was listening to podcasts at work. I was so involved with it." He decided to give the OWLL coursework a try.
Since then, he has completed Python 1 and 2, Generative AI, SQL, Introductory and Intermediate AWS Cloud courses, and CMMC. "I don't want to ever stop learning," he said.
After passing the CMMC exam, Walker became a CMMC Certified Professional (CCP), qualifying him to assess organizations within the Department of Defense's industrial base. The certification has already opened several promising opportunities. "I couldn't be more grateful. I'm just appreciative of the OWLL program and The WorkPlace," he said.
For someone who began without a background in computer science, the progress has been transformative. "There's a lot of information, but I like pushing myself and sticking with it," he said. "The more I studied, the more accomplished I felt."
Walker's momentum continues to build. "It's been an upward trajectory for me," he said. "I love my trade, but this is something I can be more passionate about. I can always keep my electrician's license, but this is once in a lifetime. I'm going to take all the opportunities I can from the program and make the best of it. I want to keep pushing myself and bettering myself."
And Walker's path continues to trend upward: this spring semester, he has become an OWLL trainer, teaching a CompTIA Security+ class, which prepares students for the CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) certification exam, the industry standard for foundational cybersecurity skills.
"We are so excited to be a part of Taevon's journey, watching him move from OWLL student to OWLL trainer!" said Feest. "His experience is an inspiration to our learners, and his ability to understand their barriers will help ensure they make it to the finish line."
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Original text here: https://news.southernct.edu/2026/02/04/owll-expanding-growth-opportunities-for-nontraditional-students/
Dean's Message: International Programs 2025 Annual Report
IOWA CITY, Iowa, Feb. 5 -- The University of Iowa's International issued the following statement on Feb. 3, 2026, by International Programs Dean Russ Ganim:
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Dean's Message: International Programs 2025 Annual Report
Dear all,
I hope this message finds you warm and well as we brave the depths of the winter! There is some consolation in the fact that spring semester will end with warmer temperatures than when it began.
The first month of the new semester and the new year heralds the arrival of our annual report, and we are delighted to present you with the 2025 edition. The annual report
... Show Full Article
IOWA CITY, Iowa, Feb. 5 -- The University of Iowa's International issued the following statement on Feb. 3, 2026, by International Programs Dean Russ Ganim:
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Dean's Message: International Programs 2025 Annual Report
Dear all,
I hope this message finds you warm and well as we brave the depths of the winter! There is some consolation in the fact that spring semester will end with warmer temperatures than when it began.
The first month of the new semester and the new year heralds the arrival of our annual report, and we are delighted to present you with the 2025 edition. The annual reportpresents IP's activity in all its vibrancy. It showcases the many ways in which we carry out our mission to internationalize our campus, whether through support of study abroad, international students and scholars, community and alumni engagement, global partnerships, and funding for student and faculty research. The statistics, text, and photos highlight the Hawkeye spirit in every corner of the globe. We are deeply grateful to our Communications and Relations staff, namely Katie Ron, Daniel Vorwerk, Ben Partridge, Hallie Russell, Kate Murphy, and Amy Green, for the months of work they put into producing this gleaming testimonial to the UI's contributions across the world. Please enjoy the report and feel free to send comments and/or follow us on social media.
While the annual report headlines our activity for January, IP remained quite busy in other areas as well. We were quite pleased to welcome over 20 new international students to our campus this past month. As always, International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) does an excellent job preparing and conducting international student orientation, which takes place the week before classes start. IP is delighted that these students chose the University of Iowa to pursue their degrees, and we will do everything we can to make sure these new Hawkeyes feel comfortable in their Iowa home.
As our new international students find their way to Iowa City, so do our returnees from various Iowa Winterim study abroad programs. The January term included the study of water scarcity in rural India, international business in London and Sydney, sponsored by the Tippie College of Business, ancient world and genre fiction in Greece, as well as women's empowerment in the Dominican Republic. Between the students in the Iowa Winterim programs and those going abroad this spring, the UI will send hundreds of Hawkeyes to multiple global destinations during the first half of 2026. Study abroad is as popular now as it has ever been, and we applaud the curiosity and maturity of UI students willing to challenge themselves by embracing international experiences.
Mobility, communication, and engagement. These are the words and actions we live by in IP, and 2026 promises to be just as impactful as 2025. Thanks, as always, for your support. We are looking forward to another great year with you, our friends and sponsors.
All the best,
Russ Ganim
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Original text here: https://international.uiowa.edu/news/2026/02/deans-message-international-programs-2025-annual-report
Colorado School of Mines: Extensive Freshened Water Beneath the Ocean Floor Confirmed for the First Time
GOLDEN, Colorado, Feb. 5 -- Colorado School of Mines issued the following news:
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Extensive freshened water beneath the ocean floor confirmed for the first time
International team co-led by Mines professor provides first detailed evidence of long-suspected hidden fresh water aquifers
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For the first time, scientists have directly documented and extensively sampled a freshened water system beneath the ocean floor.
This major discovery comes from the initial analyses of sediment cores recovered during an international scientific expedition led by Co-Chief Scientists Brandon Dugan, professor
... Show Full Article
GOLDEN, Colorado, Feb. 5 -- Colorado School of Mines issued the following news:
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Extensive freshened water beneath the ocean floor confirmed for the first time
International team co-led by Mines professor provides first detailed evidence of long-suspected hidden fresh water aquifers
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For the first time, scientists have directly documented and extensively sampled a freshened water system beneath the ocean floor.
This major discovery comes from the initial analyses of sediment cores recovered during an international scientific expedition led by Co-Chief Scientists Brandon Dugan, professorand associate department head of geophysics at Colorado School of Mines, and Rebecca Robinson, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.
The cores, retrieved from deep below the sea floor, are now being opened, analyzed and sampled by the science team, during almost a month of intensive collaborative work at the University of Bremen.
During January and February, the expedition's scientists are working side by side to uncover new insights into the formation, evolution and significance of this newly documented subseafloor freshwater system.
"We were excited to see that freshened water exists in multiple kinds of sediments - both marine and terrestrial," Dugan said. "Freshened water in such different materials will help us understand the conditions that emplaced the water. Further analyses that are conducted by the science team will help to find out where and especially when the water was placed here."
The goal of the expedition went far beyond collecting sediment cores. Scientists also set out to sample the water stored within the sediments, including from sandy layers that act as aquifers and from clay layers that usually keep the water in place beneath the seafloor, known as aquitards.
Although roughly 70 percent of Earth's surface is covered by water, significant volumes of water also move and are stored below ground. Many coastal communities depend on land-based aquifers for their freshwater supply. What fewer people realize is that, in many parts of the world these aquifers continue offshore, containing zones of freshened, slightly briny water beneath the ocean floor. Scientists have known these offshore systems existed since 1976, but they have remained virtually unexplored until now.
During this expedition, the science team has successfully documented and sampled freshened water within a zone nearly 200 metres thick below the seafloor.
Shedding light on similar water aquifers around the world
The approach used during IODP(3)-NSF Expedition 501 will not only deepen understanding of offshore freshened groundwater systems off the coast of New England, but will also shed light on similar hidden water aquifers around the world.
Because many coastal regions rely on groundwater for their freshwater supply, the expedition's initial findings are highly relevant to society. The research will also reveal how nutrients such as nitrogen cycle through continental shelf sediments and how these processes influence the abundance and diversity of microbes living in these environments. These goals align closely with the 2050 Science Framework for Ocean Research Drilling - one of the foundations of the IODP(3) scientific programme. Ultimately, the expedition's research will help to decipher how sediments and fluids cycle through the Earth system and improve our knowledge about sea level changes and freshwater flow beneath the seabed along our coastal shelves.
"The researchers will continue to work on and with the samples to decipher more - for example, to date the groundwater more accurately which is critical to advancing our knowledge," Robinson said.
The expedition is a joint collaboration between the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP(3)) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The cores were retrieved during offshore operations between May and August 2025. For onshore operations the science team has met at the Bremen Core Repository at MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences of the University of Bremen (Germany).
"We greatly appreciate being able to conduct this advanced research at MARUM, supported by its world-class laboratories, exceptional facilities, and dedicated staff," Dugan said.
The cores will be archived and made accessible for further scientific research for the scientific community after a one year-moratorium period. All expedition data will be open access in the IODP(3) Mission Specific Platform (MSP) data portal in PANGAEA, and resulting outcomes will be published.
A total of 40 science team members from 13 nations - Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and U.S. - have taken part in the expedition's off and on-shore phases.
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Original text here: https://www.minesnewsroom.com/news/extensive-freshened-water-beneath-ocean-floor-confirmed-first-time
CUNY: In Memoriam - Leanne Rivlin
NEW YORK, Feb. 5 -- The City University of New York Graduate Center issued the following news:
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In Memoriam: Leanne Rivlin
A founder of environmental psychology, she brought compassion and rigor to research on how people are shaped by the places they inhabit.
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The Graduate Center mourns the passing of Professor Emerita Leanne Rivlin, a founding figure in environmental psychology whose work centered people who were often overlooked. She died on January 5. She was 96.
Graduate Center Professors Emeriti David Chapin and Roger Hart, along with fellow Psychology faculty, remembered her in
... Show Full Article
NEW YORK, Feb. 5 -- The City University of New York Graduate Center issued the following news:
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In Memoriam: Leanne Rivlin
A founder of environmental psychology, she brought compassion and rigor to research on how people are shaped by the places they inhabit.
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The Graduate Center mourns the passing of Professor Emerita Leanne Rivlin, a founding figure in environmental psychology whose work centered people who were often overlooked. She died on January 5. She was 96.
Graduate Center Professors Emeriti David Chapin and Roger Hart, along with fellow Psychology faculty, remembered her inthis tribute:
It is with sadness that we observe the passing of Dr. Leanne Rivlin, a scholar dedicated to social research and action, an academic and intellectual mentor over many years for dozens of graduate students, and a pioneer in establishing the study of how people related to their environments.
She is remembered by her colleagues at the CUNY Graduate Center as being a wonderfully open-minded and open-hearted person, curious, creative, rigorous, sensitive, thoughtful, communicative, challenging, attentive, generous, engaged, modest and caring. She kept the door of her office always open.
As a founder of the field of environmental psychology in the late 1960s, she was respected for her insights regarding social issues, for the strength of her work and for her ethics of care. Over time, she carried out important research on privacy, children's institutions, mental hospitals, public space, parks, community membership, and homelessness. She was passionate about issues of social justice and about finding productive ways to address them.
She pioneered the use of behavioral mapping -- observing how people behave in or use a space, often with the intention of adapting that space to their needs. But she had a commitment to understanding issues that went beyond merely methodically tracking behavior. She believed that researchers must deeply immerse themselves in a social situation before beginning acts of research.
She volunteered and spent nights in a homeless shelter a year before even proposing her research. Because of this, she was able to see people in everyday, distressed situations, not merely as victims, but as potential agents with great creativity and capacity for self-determination. In her view, even children in a mental hospital deserved recognition for the useful choices they were capable of making in situations where they had agency. She had a great talent for pointing to the obvious once her research had made that obvious visible.
Rivlin was prolific as an author of social science journal articles and book chapters, often graciously listing her graduate students as first authors, focusing on issues of privacy, place attachment, freedom of choice, research ethics, and environmental design.
She co-authored and co-edited several seminal books, including, with former Graduate Center President Harold Proshansky, Environmental Psychology: Man and His Physical Setting (1970) and An Introduction to Environmental Psychology (1974). She also co-wrote Institutional Settings in Children's Lives (1985) and Public Space (1992).
An extensive listing of her published work is available on her Wikipedia page.
Leanne Green, generally known as "Lee," was born in 1929 in Brooklyn where she remained a lifelong resident. She received a B.A. in psychology and English from Brooklyn College in 1952 and a Ph.D. in developmental psychology in 1967 from Columbia University's Teachers College, where she studied creativity in children.
She and Benjamin (Ben) Rivlin, a fellow Brooklynite and a political scientist, married that same year in Paris. Together, always in Brooklyn, they raised their son, Marc.
She joined the Graduate Center faculty in 1974 and remained on the faculty until 2008. She was instrumental in founding the school's environmental psychology program, now part of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Ph.D. program.
Ben Rivlin was also a professor at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, where he served as executive officer of the Political Science program and director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies. He died in 2015.
The Graduate Center will host an event honoring Dr. Leanne Rivlin on April 30.
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Original text here: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/memoriam-leanne-rivlin
'I Never Thought of It That Way' Author Monica Guzman to Speak at Cal Poly Pomona
POMONA, California, Feb. 5 -- California State Polytechnic University-Pomona issued the following news:
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"I Never Thought of It That Way" Author Monica Guzman to Speak at Cal Poly Pomona
Christie Counts
Monica Guzman, author of "I Never Thought of It That Way," will visit Cal Poly Pomona for the Common Read Keynote event.
Guzman will participate in a fireside chat exploring themes of her book, which was selected as CPP's 2025-26 Common Read. This engaging conversation, set for Tuesday, March 10 at 11:45 a.m. in the Bronco Student Center's Ursa Major, will be co-facilitated by Dustin Johnson,
... Show Full Article
POMONA, California, Feb. 5 -- California State Polytechnic University-Pomona issued the following news:
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"I Never Thought of It That Way" Author Monica Guzman to Speak at Cal Poly Pomona
Christie Counts
Monica Guzman, author of "I Never Thought of It That Way," will visit Cal Poly Pomona for the Common Read Keynote event.
Guzman will participate in a fireside chat exploring themes of her book, which was selected as CPP's 2025-26 Common Read. This engaging conversation, set for Tuesday, March 10 at 11:45 a.m. in the Bronco Student Center's Ursa Major, will be co-facilitated by Dustin Johnson,tutor coordinator at the Reading, Advising, & Mentoring Program, and Rayheem Eskridge, research and instruction librarian. Registration for the event is free and open to community members.
"I Never Thought of It That Way" serves as a toolkit for navigating difficult conversations and bridging divides through curiosity and empathy. Throughout the book, Guzman draws from her experience working across political and cultural divides to help people understand one another in an increasingly polarized world. Using her experiences as a Mexican immigrant and the daughter of conservative parents, Guzman examines how people can engage meaningfully with others who hold different perspectives. Through interviews and practical dialogue strategies, the book highlights the power of curiosity in fostering understanding.
The Common Read is part of the university's First Year Experience Program, which encourages students, faculty, and staff to engage in shared learning experience, according to Dora Lee, assistant vice president of academic engagement and success. Now in its 19th year, the First Year Experience programs have engaged thousands of community members, with past Common Read selections highlighting themes of sustainability, inclusivity, first generation experiences, and perseverance.
"We are excited to welcome Monica Guzman to Cal Poly Pomona as our Common Read keynote speaker," Lee said. "'I Never Thought of It That Way' speaks directly to the challenges students face today as they navigate differences in an increasingly polarized and digitally siloed world. The book's emphasis on curiosity, empathy and dialogue makes it a powerful shared reading experience for our first-year students and a meaningful opportunity for our entire campus community to reflect, learn and engage together."
During the event, FYE will also announce the winners of the annual writing contest. Students responded to prompts inspired by the book, reflecting on curious conversations, the impact of digital silos, and ways to foster empathy and dialogue across differences on campus.
The FYE program continues to strengthen its campus community by supporting students as they transition to CPP and explore opportunities connected to their major through FYE courses offered across all eight colleges. The FYE Committee is accepting nominations for the 2026-27 Common Read. Fiction or nonfiction books that spark discussion and reflect diverse perspectives can be submitted on the Common Read website by March 1, giving the campus community a chance to engage in shared conversation.
To Learn more about the First Year Experience Program, visit its website (https://www.cpp.edu/studentsuccess/oss/fye/index.shtml).
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Original text here: https://www.cpp.edu/news/content/2026/02/i-never-thought-of-it-that-way-author-monica-guzman-to-speak-at-cal-poly-pomona/index.shtml
