New School Year Brings Fresh Faces, Programs

When classes begin next month at SDSU, first-time-freshman Alex Howe will be surrounded by a sea of new faces. Howe is making a cross-country trek from New Hampshire to attend SDSU in the fall, in part he said because of its national reputation for research. With the prestigious Provost Scholarship he received, Howe plans to study biology.

"I was looking for a university that catered well to the sciences and when I discovered San Diego State, I fell in love,” said Howe, who has a 3.7 high school grade point average (GPA). “When I found out that SDSU is the top school of its type for undergraduate research opportunities and has a brand new biology lab (BioScience Center), it was just the cherry on top."

Another new face on the SDSU campus will be first-time freshman Anthony Moore. A graduate of Eastlake High School in San Diego’s South Bay, Moore may occasionally run into a very familiar face on campus: his mother, Marlene.

After a near 30-year hiatus, Marlene, 53, returned to SDSU to study English last year. Now, following in her footsteps is her oldest son, Anthony, who plans to study hospitality and tourism management in hopes of one day owning his own restaurant.

"Learning is a lifelong process," said Marlene, who has four teenaged children, including Anthony. "I hope my kids will realize that learning has no ending date, even when you are in your 50s."

Anthony said that lesson is something he has already learned.

"She has been an excellent role model for all my siblings and I’m glad she is completing one of her goals,"said Anthony. "Now I believe that if you want to better yourself, to become a better, more complete person, nothing should stop you from reaching that."

High Achievers
Including Moore and Howe, there will be 7,580 new students attending SDSU this fall when classes begin on Tuesday, Sept. 2. This year’s incoming class includes an expected 4,331 first-time freshmen and 3,249 transfer students. SDSU received a record 62,350 undergraduate applications for the fall semester, up 7.4 percent from the previous year.

As a group, the first-time freshmen have an average high school grade point average of 3.47 and SAT score of 1048. Over the past decade, the average SAT score for incoming SDSU students has risen approximately 70 points.  The diversity of the new class is also strong with 46.6 percent of SDSU’s first-time freshman admitted students coming from historically underrepresented groups.

New Faculty
Other fresh faces on campus this semester include 45 new faculty members. The group of professors hails from prestigious universities across the country and internationally, including Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, Tufts University, New York University, University of Toronto, Politecnico di Torino University in Italy and the University of Hanover in Germany. Among the new faculty are Kate Spilde Contreras, new chair of SDSU’s Sycuan Institute of Indian Gaming and Thom Riley, new chair of SDSU’s nationally ranked School of Social Work.

New Academic Programs
Academic programs new to SDSU this year range from Korean Studies to Human Resources. SDSU’s College of Business will now offer bachelor’s degrees with specializations in entrepreneurship and human resources. SDSU’s College of Education will offer a new master’s degree with focus on teaching in urban schools and SDSU’s College of Sciences will offer a professional science master’s in bioinformatics and medical informatics. The professional science master’s degree prepares its graduates for professional careers in the biotech, pharmaceutical and health care sectors. Other new majors this year include American Indian Studies and Islamic and Arabic Studies.

New Student Life
As they find their way around campus, students will have access to several new student life opportunities. During the first five weeks of the semester, new programming called Aztec Nights will feature fun and entertaining weekend activities. The goal is to provide safe, healthy, on-campus social events from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursday through Saturday nights. Events include “Club Aztec, movie nights, a “Rock the Vote” concert and several others.

For those students living in SDSU residence halls, there are additional new ways to meet and interact with fellow students who share similar interests. Students living in on-campus housing have the opportunity to live within theme-based learning communities. New learning communities at SDSU this fall include future teachers, social activism and global environments, fine arts and journalism and media studies.