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>> I chose to come here and work as an instructor, work as a professor, here at CSUSB, in part because I had taught at a number of Cal State campuses. That experience informed a lot of my teaching and the possibility of teaching at a Cal State campus. Teaching similar students was both exciting, and interesting, and I felt that I could contribute to that campus in that way based on those particular experiences. I am homegrown here in San Bernardino. I was the first person in my family to go to college, was the first person in my family to graduate high school. So I feel like I do connect to the students in many ways. I feel very much at home on our campus. I feel very much at home at this university. I think that our community is made up of diverse racial and ethnic population. We have first-gen students. We have students from different parts of the class structure. Understanding these perspectives and experiences does inform my teaching, it informs my research, and I feel like my particular perspective does add a lot to this particular community. One of the ways in which our students benefit from having a diverse faculty has to do with the fact that they can see us as role models. They see us in the classrooms, in the research labs, see us here at Cal State San Bernardino or the PDC Campus where we can contribute to their learning. We can contribute to their adaptation. We can contribute to their career goals. And I think this is one of the ways in which we can best inform their lives through the multiple perspectives that we have on our campus. I think that aspect of diversity in the classroom does add to a diverse campus and a diverse faculty. So that together, the university can offer a diverse and dynamic institution that can contribute not just to the students growing up in San Bernardino but to students in California. To students in -- from other parts of the country, to international students. And we can signal to them with our diverse faculty pool, with our diverse perspectives, that you are welcome, and that we're here to serve you, and that we want you to join us.

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