Informed & Inspired

As a lecturer in the San Diego State University Department of Child and Family Development, Carolyn Sanders teaches courses in multiple settings. But the course she calls her “passion project” typically meets in only one location: the natural canyon landscape of the SDSU Children’s Center’s backyard.

A staff team from the Office of the Dean and Office of Student Success is set to offer insight and provide recommendations for improving student success in the College of Education’s two undergraduate majors.

San Diego State University’s community has shown its true resilience during this unprecedented and difficult time in human history. Graduates from the Class of 2020, in particular, have risen to the challenge.

As she conducts research into dynamics between parents and their adolescent and young adult children in immigrant communities, Dr. Vanja Lazarevic, assistant professor in the Department of Child and Family Development, finds common threads — as well as echoes of her own experience as a teenage refugee from Bosnia.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, the San Diego State University College of Education’s community clinics are meeting the mental health needs of hundreds of San Diegans. Faculty and student clinicians in the Community-Based Block (CBB), Center for Community Counseling and Engagement (CCCE) and Healthy Early Years (HEY) have continued to provide their important services virtually.

While pursuing her Ph.D. in clinical psychology, Dr. Rachel Haine-Schlagel worked with children and families as a full-time clinician. She remembers being particularly struck by parents who didn’t seem engaged in treatment sessions. Some would text on their phones or ask to wait in the lobby. And she remembers how powerless that made her feel.