college of Social and Behavioral sciences
John Conley, dean

Spring/Summer 2005

Paying it Forward

by Alan Llavore

Sean Brunske remembers what it was like being a college student, benefiting from great teaching, learning with his fellow classmates how to apply their newfound knowledge in real life, and making lifelong friends among those students and faculty members.

He also remembers real life itself in those years. “When I was struggling and started at Cal State, I didn’t have two pennies to rub together. And I was wondering, ‘How is this all going to work out?’” says the member of the Class of 1990, who graduated with a degree in economics. To be sure, there was financial aid, such as the Pell Grant and student loans. But what made a difference – and a huge impression on Brunske – was being named a recipient of a Janczyk Family Scholarship in his junior year. The money covered the cost of the fall quarter fees. That was a good $600 that didn’t have to come out of his pocket. “To me, that was huge money back then,” he recalls. “When you get that check, or when financial aid calls you and says your fees are paid, something changes inside you. For one, I’m worth something … It just makes you grateful for what someone did in the past.”

Now, Brunske, who has his own real estate business, Evergreen Realty in Upland, wants to help others along just as he was helped that one memorable quarter with a scholarship. Working with economics professor Tom Pierce and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences development director Cecelia Soriano, Brunske has established a scholarship fund totaling $10,500 annually, half of which is to be used to fund a scholarship a year for the next five years, with the other half to be used as an endowment to fund future scholarships. In all, the contribution comes to at least $52,500, not counting any interest the endowment will accrue.

The way Brunske sees it, a scholarship can go a long way toward keeping a student who is doing well academically, yet struggling financially, to stay in school. “It’s just my way of giving back what was given to me,” he says. Just as important, says Brunske, is that alumni who now have the means can look at their own college experience and perhaps start the process to contributing to university scholarships. Taken all together, Brunske sees it like the movie and novel, “Pay It Forward,” where the main theme was to do something nice for three people, who in turn would do something equally as nice — or greater still — or three more people, and it all expanded from there.

Pierce, who every few years sends out a newsletter to economics alumni to update them on news in the department, college and about fellow alumni, says from that occasional piece of communication, 80 to 90 alumni have contributed to scholarship funds in the economics department. The amounts don’t have to be huge, and many alumni can only afford what they do give. But sometimes they become fortunate enough in their lives to be able to give larger gifts, such as the one Brunske gave. “I think these things do take off,” Pierce says. “Maybe it plants the seed in the minds of other people,” who down the road will be able to give.

“I guess my focus is, ‘Don’t forget where you came from and don’t forget who gave you the opportunity or took the time to give you some personal attention in class, or an advisor who swung a job your way,’ ” Brunske says. And, he adds, it isn’t so much the amount as it is contributing to a greater fund and cause to give just one more student an opportunity to graduate, and to pay it forward.

The Meaning of Death

Some time around 50,000 B.C., Neandertals in Europe and the Middle East began burying their dead with rituals and grave offerings.

Since then, every society has developed its distinctive beliefs, ceremonies and obligations regarding the dead. The exhibit, “Celebrations of Death,” explores how human beings conceive of and cope with death. It is now on display in CSUSB’s Anthropology Museum, located on the third floor of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Building.

This exhibit samples the diversity, presenting information, objects and pictures from different societies and places such as the Kwakiutl of British Columbia, rural peasants in Greece, modern urban China, ancient Egypt, Victorian England, Buddhist Tibet, and the tribal peoples of West Africa.

“Funeral ceremonies are designed partly to ease this transition for the deceased, partly to ease the equally trying transition for survivors,” said Russell Barber, museum director and anthropology professor.

“Thus, a funeral and any other memorial ceremony is an intimate mixture of sorrow, grief, joy and hope. In death there is celebration, as well as sadness."

Quick Takes

The student population at Cal State San Bernardino has gotten younger. That’s younger as in 3-months-old younger. Of course, these students aren’t officially enrolled at the university. But they are part of the Institute of Child Development and Family Relations’ new Infant/Toddler Center, which opened its doors in March. The center is geared to serve children 3 months to 3 years old, providing quality child care on campus while also providing a nursery school lab setting for undergraduate and graduate psychology students specializing in child development. The center operates from 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The facility is located on the first floor of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Building.

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