COE Alumni & Students share their stories.

Born and raised in Algeria, Amel Kaid always wanted to be a teacher. She deferred her dream as a young woman, getting married and starting a family. It was when the family immigrated to the United States that Kaid found a chance to pursue her chosen path.

She earned an associate’s degree in child development and one in Spanish, both from El Camino College, before enrolling at CSUDH. After graduating, Kaid plans to teach young elementary school students and sees herself involved in bilingual education in some way going forward. In addition to Spanish and English, she also speaks Arabic and French.

Effective communication in any language is a key part of education, which Kaid knows from her time with preschool kids—she’s been teaching at that level since 2014, even while attending CSUDH. They begin each day with Circle Time, a daily check-in for both talking and listening. “We talk about their feelings, what they did over the weekend,” she says. “That has become a time when we sit together and talk. I hear them, they hear me. It brings us together.”

How many people were named California Teacher of the Year in 2023? Five. How many of those never planned to become a teacher, and had law school in their sights after wrapping their English degree from Howard University?

That would be one: Bridgette Donald-Blue, who decided to postpone law school and join Teach for America, only to discover that she loved her role as a Compton elementary school teacher. She later moved to the Los Angeles Unified School District and currently works as a K-3 math intervention teacher at Coliseum Street Elementary School.

It was while serving in Teach for America that Donald-Blue was introduced to the CSUDH credential program. “I found that the school has great instructors who were also practitioners. They had been, or still were, in the classroom,” she says. “You didn’t get this ‘ivory tower’ feeling when you spoke to them. They were teaching us real skills and methods that they were using successfully in their own classrooms.”

Sometimes one decision changes your whole life. Lynne Sheffield had been accepted at a chiropractic school when she realized that wasn’t the career she wanted. Aware of a teacher shortage at the time, and with her mother’s experience as a teacher in Compton in mind, Sheffield took the California Basic Educational Skills Test, moved into a classroom position, and began her credential program at CSUDH.

She attended classes while working—and more. She also got married and had her first child while attending CSUDH. “I literally had my baby in my arms during my last credential class,” she remembers. She earned her CSUDH master’s degree after that.

Now, Sheffield is the assistant superintendent of education services in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. That’s after a decade of classroom teaching, followed by administrative roles in districts across Southern California—which have given her perspective on her own training as an educator.

“I learned to work with diverse students, which was important to know and understand,” she says. 
”I don’t think a lot of student teachers or new teachers are coming in as well-prepared. I think Dominguez Hills did an amazing job of that.”

Within two years of earning her bachelor’s degree at CSUDH, Jhey Crisostomo was back on campus, teaching in the Liberal Studies program. She’d earned a master’s and teaching credential at the University of Southern California, and was also teaching at an elementary school in Los Angeles. And serving as an intervention coordinator. And teaching a technology course at an adult extension school. Sound hectic?

These days, Crisostomo is a full-time academic advisor in the CSUDH College of Education. She works with graduating Toro seniors, helping them make sure they’re meeting all their requirements and tracking their progress toward graduation. She also stays active as a faculty member. “What I really like about the program here is that the faculty were teachers. We were educators. We have that experience, so we’re not teaching from a textbook. We’re teaching from real life.”

For her part, Crisostomo helms the Responsive Teaching and Classroom Management course at CSUDH—her favorite class. “Classroom management is one of the key elements of teaching,” she says. “You can have an amazing lesson plan, but if you don’t have that management aspect down, it’s not going to matter.”

As a first-generation college student raising two young children on her own, Jessika Villalva is focusing on early teaching and learning. She’s currently finishing up the requirements to earn her multiple subject teaching credential, and plans to work in early childhood education upon graduating.

The creativity and often unexpected thinking that younger students display is what drew Villalva to their age group. “I like their curiosity about everything, and seeing how their minds work and create their own reasoning behind things. It’s fun to see how they’re able to connect certain ideas.”

Villalva’s experience as the daughter of a Mexican immigrant mother who raised four children on her own colors how she sees her own educational experience through her children’s eyes. “I want to be able to show my kids that I’m able to do this,” she says. “I want them to know what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and show them that they can do anything they put their minds to.”

John Alexander spends his days counseling students, performing one-on-one check-ins, working with small groups, and conducting “restorative mediations” between students in conflict. He’s a social-emotional learning specialist at Lynwood’s Washington Elementary School, who says the self-reflection skills he learned in the CSUDH school counseling program still help him today.

“So much of counseling is looking inward,” says Alexander. “When you’re working with people, you have to be cognizant of your tone, your body language, your posture—and you only can realize that if you’re self-reflective.”

“My courses also helped me realize that every student is different. How I counseled one student may have worked, but the same techniques may not work with the next one. I really learned how to meet each student where they’re at and understand the needs they have in that moment.”

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She changed my life.”

That’s how Michelle Soto Garcia describes the impact that CSUDH alumna and philanthropist Maureen McCarthey has had on her. Garcia, a former Paramount Unified School District Teacher of the Year, is currently the principal at the district’s Roosevelt Elementary, and she is quick to credit McCarthey and her philanthropic foundation for that success.

Since 2001, the Maureen McCarthey Foundation has donated more than $1 million to graduates of Paramount schools who are interested in going into teaching and attending CSUDH. Each year, the foundation grants graduating seniors a full scholarship, and McCarthey and her team continue to support them throughout their academic journey.

“I don’t know where I’d be without the foundation,” says Garcia. “Ms. McCarthey is a mentor to me. She’s like family. I don’t know what I would have done without her guidance, her support, and her generosity. This doesn’t come from company money, this is her personal money that she’s investing in Paramount and the community.”

Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, McCarthey graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., before moving to Southern California in the late ’80s. She earned a teaching credential from Cal State Long Beach, then got a job as an elementary school teacher in Paramount. While there, she participated in a program at CSUDH to earn a master’s degree while still working, joining other teachers from the district in the endeavor.

“We got very attached to Dominguez Hills,” says McCarthey. “It was a great program, with a great education department behind it. It was a great experience.”

McCarthey’s parents were devoted philanthropists in the Salt Lake City area, and when they passed away, she took the opportunity to continue in their spirit of giving. She retired from teaching and formed a philanthropic foundation, with the idea of giving back to the communities that had so inspired her during her teaching career.

“When I left Paramount, I wanted to help students in the district, because I fell in love with the community, and I wanted to encourage them to go to Dominguez Hills.” With that in mind, she created the Maureen McCarthey Scholarship, which has been providing scholarships to prospective educators for over two decades.

Another grateful scholarship recipient is 2020 Paramount Teacher of the Year Brittany Esnayra. She currently works as a Resource Specialist Program teacher at Paramount High School, helping students with special needs develop the study skills they need to thrive.

”As a 17-year-old high school student with a full scholarship, I didn’t even know what to do with myself. I was so excited,” she recalls. “At first, I was just thrilled to be able to go to college and not have to worry about how I was going to pay for it.”

“It’s way more than that, though,” Esnayra continues. “Ms. McCarthey and her board became like family. During my first interview for the scholarship, they said, ‘This is not a scholarship where we’re just going to hand you money and say good luck to you. We want to be involved. We want to know about your life and where you go.’

“Over the course of the last 20 years, I have definitely hit some bumps in the road, and Ms. McCarthey and the foundation have been there for me every step of the way. They’re not only mentors, they’re also like aunts, in the sense that it’s truly more than the money. They’ve been involved my whole life and got to celebrate all of my accomplishments with me.”

McCarthey usually shies away from publicity, but received some rare public acclaim during 2023, when she was invited to join President Thomas A. Parham to throw out the first pitch at the annual at Toro Night at Dodger Stadium.

“The invitation took my breath away,” says McCarthey. “At first I didn’t think I could do it, but once I decided to, I took it really seriously. I went to the park with a friend and practiced so that I could at least get the ball over the plate!”

“It was really an experience that I can’t even explain. It was just so cool and so much fun.”

McCarthey credits her philanthropic nature to the values her parents instilled in her. “They were both very generous people. Now, the inheritance they left behind enables me to have this foundation. When I meet with candidates or their families, I always bring them up. I may be the one giving the money, but none of this would be happening if not for my mother and father. They were charitable, philanthropic people, and education was really important to them.”

As McCarthey’s foundation enters its third decade supporting CSUDH students, Garcia is happy that she is getting recognized for her work. “She’s changed so many lives,” says Garcia. “She doesn’t give to any other university—she just loves Dominguez Hills and Paramount and really wants to help in every way she can. I’m proud to be a part of that legacy.”

It was a great program, with a great education department behind it. It was a great experience.”

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