By Resty Grey

Editorial Assistant

Graduating senior Rachel Gallego still wants to stay at CSUSM even after acquiring her BS in Kinesiology.

Born and raised in sunny San Diego, Rachel graduated from Rancho Bernardo High School and was accepted to Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. Feeling homesick after a year, Gallego returned to California and attended Mira Costa Community College until she was accepted into CSUSM as a junior transfer student.

“It wasn’t until my senior year that I became more involved. I joined the Kinesiology club and signed up to write for the Cougar Chronicle (whoop!),” Gallego said. “Let me tell you, this was the best decision I ever made. The only thing I can say is I wish I became involved a lot sooner because CSUSM has so many beneficial things to offer.”

Having written for The Cougar Chronicle as the exclusive writer for the Heart Beat for the fall and spring semester, Rachel appeared as one of the most dependable authors the Chronicle during the 2013 – 2014 academic school year.

“Rachel was absolutely great to work with. She was one of the best writers, the first to turn everything in and continuously looking for ways to improve herself. In fact, I still remember the time she got on me for not giving her feedback on her article so that she could improve,” Sports Editor, Justin Donner, said.

Rachel began at CSUSM having declared her major in Child Development. However this quickly changed to nursing and even quicker to Kinesiology.

“I had an internship at the hospital working with nurses and that’s when I realized it wasn’t for me,” comments Gallego. “During this time, I was in a nutrition class as an elective and I thought ‘I really like this, I could see myself doing big things with this kind of information.”

“Shout out to Dr. Astorino!!” of the Kinesiology program.

Gallego believes Dr. Astorino is “one of the most amazing professors” at CSUSM. Considered one of her most difficult classes, Professor Astorino motivated and taught her how hard work really pays off.

Rachel now plans to look for a career in Health Education after graduating. She has thoroughly enjoyed her time at Cal State San Marcos and there is no doubt that she will have a very successful career.

“Oh, yes this too..my oh my was there a lot of stairs. I realized I was going to get my butt kicked here..literally,” Gallego said.