CSULB BUILD Hosts Year-End Events

By Nicole Streicker

The California State University, Long Beach BUILD program has hosted a number of events and activities for its community. Here is a recap of activities that took place at the end of the fall 2021 semester.

November 2021: BUILD hosts the first talk of the Black Health Equity Speaker Series

“One of the overarching motivations for our BUILD grant from the beginning is addressing health disparities, and this year we have a theme for the BUILD program of promoting ‘racial health equity,’ and for this we thought it would be great to promote and speaker series on the topic Black Health Equity,” said Jesse Dillon, PhD, a CSULB professor of biological sciences who serves as one of the principal investigators (PI) for the CSULB BUILD program. 

To develop this speaker series, the BUILD PIs worked to find speakers with the help of Amber Johnson, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Science at CSULB and formerly the Director of the Training Core for CSULB BUILD Training Director. This speaker series is in addition to BUILD’s colloquium speaker series where faculty from disparate disciplines present their research.

Students and colleagues joined virtually on Nov. 16, for the first talk in the series—“Black Health Matters: Effects of the Pandemic on Social and Emotional Well-Being,” presented by Chantrey J. Murphy, PhD, assistant professor of sociology at CSULB. Murphy shared her personal journey, health equity research methods and research findings with attendees.

The next talk of the series is being planned for the spring semester. For more information, including viewing the recorded sessions or to find upcoming dates, visit the CSULB BUILD website.

December 2021: BUILD holds annual alumni reunion event and hosts end-of-semester holiday party with students

On Dec. 3, CSULB BUILD held its second BUILD Alumni Virtual Reunion & Trivia Night. 

“Last year, we had a blast catching up with our alumni, so we decided to do it again! Because alumni are across the states, we opted for a virtual event. We kicked off the event with a game of trivia using Kahoot! Then went into a couple rounds of ‘speed friending’ in different breakout rooms to catch up among alumni, staff, and faculty. Finally, we all came back to the main room and ended with sharing a New Year’s resolution,” said Nicole Streicker, CSULB BUILD program coordinator.

The winners of the trivia game were CSULB BUILD alumni Noel Chau, Wendy Miranda, and Rudolph Cheong.

Camaraderie, Crafting, Croissants, and Cocoa—CSULB BUILD student training directors surprised program trainees on Dec. 10 with a festive holiday crafting party that included donuts, croissants, coffee, tea and hot cocoa. Students, graduate mentors, staff and faculty enjoyed making colored sand vases, squishy stress balls, felt reindeers, and decorated stockings and wooden ornaments. This event also allowed for an opportunity for three different cohorts to mingle with each other and catch up, which has been challenging as many students are still learning remotely. View photos from the event here.