Dr. Andres Jauregui, director of the Gazarian Real Estate Center, was the moderator for the “Central Valley Strategies: Local Pathways to Housing Progress” panel, co-hosted by the Center for California Real Estate and Fresno State’s Gazarian Real Estate Center.

Jauregui's role showcased Fresno State’s deep commitment to community engagement, regional collaboration and advancing informed conversations on housing, growth and economic development across the region.

Dr. Natalie Baumgartner and Dr. Samuel Rodriguez, assistant professors in the Animal Sciences and Agricultural Education Department, presented their research in December at both the National Association of Agricultural Educators Conference and the Association for Career and Technical Education Conference in Nashville.

Baumgartner’s presentation was tied to her study that explored early career school-based agricultural education teachers’ experiences with the growing population of English Language Learner students, addressing both challenges and benefits amid limited existing research.

Its findings identified key themes and offered recommendations, such as improved teacher preparation, culturally responsive teaching, stronger support networks, and enhanced advocacy to enhance teacher and student success.

Rodriguez presented a poster on research he conducted with graduate student and former Jordan College honors student Daniella Garcia on agricultural teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in teaching agricultural mechanics courses. Their findings suggested a need for standardized, experience-based instruction and curriculum alignment with industry skills to enhance teacher preparation.

He also delivered a workshop presentation with Lisa Rodriguez, director of Student Services at the Kings County Office of Education, on integrating industry members into career technical education advisory committees to help enhance agricultural education programs.

Dr. Benjamin Boone, left, professor of music and saxophonist, collaborated with violinist Stefan Poetzsch, far right, and their band, New Global Ensemble, center.

Dr. Benjamin Boone, professor of music and saxophonist, collaborated with violinist Stefan Poetzsch and their New Global Ensemble to release their album “Dream Walking.” The New Global Ensemble includes musicians from the United States, Germany, Ghana, Mexico and Ireland. Boone said “Dream Walking” was conceived during his Fulbright fellowships in Ghana and Ireland.

“We see this album as a sonic journey through whatever our existence is. So our hope is that listeners will be transported to a plane of awareness that engenders reflection, possibility, connection, peace and a sense of the infinite,” said Boone.

The album was released worldwide on One World Records and is available on Amazon or wherever you stream your music.

Also, from Nov. 19 to 21, Boone performed at the 2025 Khairagarh Mahotsav Festival on the campus of Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwa Vidyalaya, a performing arts university in Khairagarh, India. Several musicians he performed with are no strangers to Fresno State. Sitarist and Vice-Chancellor Acharya Lovely Sharma and tabla master Pandit Gourisankar have both performed at Fresno State in recent years at the invitation of Professor Joan K. Sharma. While in India, Boone also did a lecture-recital at Mangalwani University with Indian slide guitar master Debasis Chakroborthy, who has also performed at Fresno State.

“Not only was the musical experience one of the deepest and most profound of my life, something that will inform my music-making forever, but Dr. Sharma also opened up her incredible home, a former actual palace, generously sharing meals and her everyday life with me which taught me so many wonderful things about Indian culture,” Boone said.

Days later on Nov. 29 and 30, Ashlea Sheridan, bassoon lecturer, performed with the South Asian Symphony Orchestra in two different programs in Bangalore, Karnataka and Chennai, Tamil Nadu at the invitation of former Ambassador of India to the United States Nirupama Rao. The South Asian Symphony Orchestra’s mission is to promote greater cultural integration and peace through music in South Asia. They performed a mix of western classical music and music from Indian films.

Sheridan said a highlight of the trip was the 6.5-hour bus ride from Bangalore to Chennai after a cyclone disrupted their flight plans.

“We were all in quite good spirits for that long drive the morning after such a hefty concert and had a great time bonding with each other, including Ambassador Rao and her husband. It was an extremely rewarding experience and a reminder that the world is very small and that we all have many things in common with everyone, even coming from opposite sides of the world,” Sheridan said.

(Left to right) Graduate student Aileen Soria; Dr. Brooke Findley, associate professor, Department of Communicative Sciences and Deaf Studies; and Elise Guerra, a spring 2025 graduate and President’s Medalist.

Dr. Brooke Findley, associate professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Deaf Studies, recently presented research with two of her thesis students at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Annual Convention in Washington, D.C.

Alongside graduate student Aileen Soria, Findley shared findings on the impacts of peer mentorship in the supervisory and clinical self-efficacy of speech-language pathology graduate students. She also presented with Elise Guerra, a spring 2025 graduate and President’s Medalist, on the effects of 360-degree video modeling on the executive functioning skills of an adolescent with autism.

This presentation was recognized as one of the convention's Meritorious Posters. Findley also participated in ASHA Capitol Hill Day, where advocates met with legislators and staff to discuss issues affecting the fields of speech-language pathology and audiology. She met with several offices representing our state, including that of Congressman Jim Costa.

Mike Harding, coordinator of the Office of Digital Accessibility in Technology Services, presented at the 2025 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in the session “The Hard Conversation: Burnout in Higher Education Technology Organizations.” His participation helped elevate an essential discussion on supporting staff and addressing burnout within higher-education technology.

Dr. Alina Méndez, assistant professor in the Chicano and Latin American Studies Department, published a chapter entitled "We Never Separated: Bracero Family Migration to the California/Arizona-Mexico Borderlands” from the book "meXicana Roots and Routes: Listening to People, Places, and Pasts", which was published in September 2025 by University of Arizona Press.

Méndez also presented “A Living Wage Paid, and a Living Wage Spent: The 1961 Imperial Valley Lettuce Strike” in October at the Western History Association Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The talk examined the lettuce strike that the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the United Packinghouse Workers of America organized in California’s Imperial Valley in January 1961, demanding an hourly minimum wage of $1.25.