By Katlin Sweeney

Editor-in-Chief

Evan Long is an outstanding example of how campus involvement can inspire a person to excel.

After five years at CSUSM, Long will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and a minor in Women’s Studies. While focusing on his interest in the arts and doing a professional show in San Diego during his first semester at CSUSM, Long explained how his grades and getting involved on campus were not his priority.

“I really immersed myself in the production that I was in. I didn’t have connections to campus and I had friends at the dorms [where I lived] that started talking about O-Team, their involvement and applying for RA positions,” Long said. “The second semester of my first year here is when I started to figure out what I wanted to do.”

From then on, Long became an active presence on campus. He has been involved with the LGBTQA Pride Center, O-Team, Network Colleagues, Sigma Chi, Peer Mentoring and has sat on various committees. He plans to take a break from school for a while before he goes into a masters program. Afterwards, Long plans on either working with nonprofits for mental health and therapy or with an off-site branch of an organization that works with persons dealing with eating disorders. While he is excited for graduation, Long is nervous to meet new people and to leave the comfort that CSUSM has given him, especially the LGBTQA Pride Center.

“Whenever anyone graduates or leaves, the space changes,” Long said. “So I think the entire energy of the [Pride] Center changes every semester. I’m going to miss that comfort and consistency.”

Long encourages students to find their niche on campus as soon as possible to make their CSUSM experience even better.

“I would say anyone that’s feeling uncomfortable at Cal State, there’s always opportunity to get involved and make friends,” Long said. “For transfer students, there’s a huge population of them that think they only want to be here a couple years. Me getting involved a little later, I finally realized that there’s a lot of people, things and ideas to work with. You only have so much time here that at the end of it, you won’t feel like it’s enough.”