Transcript of

Celebrating 50

Kristen Yukech, student:
Well, it’s the fiftieth anniversary, and we’ve had a lot of kids and a lot of parents and a lot of alumni and students all come here today. It’s been really fun because we’re celebrating how it’s been around for so long. We had elephant races in the very beginning. The engineering students made their own elephants, and there was a Greek elephant and I’m a Delta Zeta, so I’m a Greek. So it was really cool to see the Greek elephant go down. So yeah, it’s good stuff.

Anthony Sanchez, student:
Oh, it’s great, especially the alumni from the fraternity, just people sharing their stories and whatnot. It’s good to see young and old come together and celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Cal State Fullerton. I love seeing the school spirit, you know? ASI and everybody that helped put everything together today – it’s great. I’ve never seen this much school spirit; it’s great to see it.

Jenny Rodriguez, alumna:
Oh, it’s been awesome. Fun for the whole family, absolutely. I’m actually a fourth grade teacher in Anaheim and I invited all my students and I’m so happy I did because of all the free, fun activities for them. I could see all the smiles on the children’s faces, and the parents being able to share their campus with their children. A actually helped out at the alumni booth for a little bit. I love this school. I love how it has developed, and I think that it just keeps getting more and more beautiful every year. It’s amazing, and I feel very happy to have been a part of this school throughout the years, and I’m very happy to be back.

Emma Donahue, student:
I’m really excited to be here today because it’s the fiftieth anniversary here for Cal State Fullerton. We’re having a great carnival out here for the kids. For example, we’ve got all these rides – we’ve got a caterpillar ride, we’ve got basketball, we’ve got great food and stuff, and it’s a wonderful thing to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Cal State Fullerton. What made me want to come out here was mostly just to help kind of promote our school because I’m really proud to be a student here and I want to share that with the community.

Brian Canup, student:
There are a lot of alumni here. Even last night, there were alumni here from twenty-five years ago. They still feel that connection to Cal State Fullerton. Yeah, it’s a commuter school. We don’t have that many beds compared to other schools, but that’s okay because they come here. They take the time to get in their cars and drive here. Just doing that6 alone shows some spirit, and after their here for a while, this is a second home.

Refugio Arellano, Jr., alumnus:
I was a photo communications major here at Cal State Fullerton. I graduated in 1985 and we were the twenty-fifth graduating class here, and we got special silver pins for this. It’s remarkable coming back to the school here and seeing how much it has changed since then, though. I’m very proud now to be a Titan, but back then I just thought it was a commuter school. Just come in, get out of here, get my degree, and that’s that. But the change here has been very remarkable. I’m just very proud of this school now.

Brent Foster, professor of communications:
The atmosphere on campus is bustling right now. I have three small children so it’s a task just keeping them sort of wrangled with all of the people that are on campus. But what a friendly place; being new here, I have found nothing but friendly people, and that is something I think that the university needs to be very proud of. Not all universities have that sense of family.

Laura Neal, Career Center counselor:
I’ve worked here at Cal State Fullerton for six and a half years at the Career Center, where I’m a counselor, industry specialist actually, for arts, entertainment and communications. One thing that people told me right away when I came to work here was that we’re a commuter school, so that presents different challenges because we don’t have a lot of students living on campus and building a sense of unity and community amongst the students and communicating with students is something that’s difficult. What I’ve found is that with a little bit of outreach effort, which is part of my job, is that the students are very responsive and that there is a sense of community, unity and Titan pride that’s on this campus now and it’s growing. This fiftieth anniversary event is, I think, a real chance for people to show that, and it’s just pumping it up even more.