Julia Barajas
explores how college students achieve their goals, whether they’re fresh out of high school, pursuing graduate work or looking to join the labor force through alternative pathways.
Published February 1, 2024 3:12 PM
Glendale Community College students pause for a photo at the Sundance Film Festival. From left to right: Sharukh Khan, Thomas Greenough, John Edward, Tati Golykh, and Malena Wilson.
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Courtesy of Deb Diehl
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Topline:
LAist followed up with the six Glendale Community College students who just got back from their trip to Sundance. They say the experience made them feel more confident and excited about pursuing careers in film.
Why it matters: Los Angeles is home to renowned film schools like USC, UCLA, and AFI. But their cost of attendance can be an obstacle for some students. Community colleges, which are far less expensive, have the potential to break barriers to entry.
The details: For five days, the Glendale students were surrounded by filmmakers, actors, and cinephiles. They attended screenings, panels, and workshops, where they had the chance to pick up new skills. Glendale’s media arts department chair, Geri Ulrey, wrote a grant proposal to cover the cost of the trip.
Sundance 2024 Leaves College Students Embracing Their Inner Film Geeks
As professor Geri Ulrey prepared to board a plane to Utah last week, joined by a small cohort from Glendale Community College, she gave each of the students traveling with her a small notebook.
Inside, students found Ulrey had written “Sundance 2024” on the first page, a memento of the momentous trip they were about to take.
Each notebook also offered a quote from a celebrated filmmaker:
“We only have two hours to change people's lives.” —John Cassavetes
“A film you can explain in words is not a real film.” — Michelangelo Antonioni
“Being an artist means not having to avert one’s eyes.” — Akira Kurosawa
And so on.
Sundance is the largest independent film festival in the country. The annual event features world premieres and screenings in every genre. Its panels offer access to some of the most acclaimed filmmakers in the world.
Tickets also cost hundreds of dollars, on top of travel and lodging, a prohibitive expense for most any college student. But Ulrey, who chairs Glendale’s media arts department, covered the cost of the trip through a grant.
She instructed her students to jot down their “thoughts, feelings, [and] reflections” — anything they found inspiring. For the next five days, they’d be surrounded by filmmakers, actors, and cinephiles. Ulrey wanted her students to be ready to take it all in.
Art that leads to art
Park City was a lot of things: A charming town decked in holiday lights. Morning waffles topped with whipped cream and berries. Chatting with Sundance programmer John Nein at a local café about what makes a successful film submission. Getting dragged into a snowball fight waiting for the bus. A Napoleon Dynamite flash mob. The painful realization that you should have worn more layers.
Throughout their time at the festival, the Glendale students watched several films every day, sometimes well past midnight.
The students met with Sundance programmer John Nein at Java Cow, a café on Main Street.
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Courtesy of Geri Ulrey
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For CandyJoe Dahlstrom, Sugarcanemade clear the path she wants to take. The documentary details the family separation, language loss, and all manners of abuse that Indigenous children endured at a residential school in Canada.
“I want to do that [type of] work,” Dahlstrom said, in reference to the film. “I want to help in any way that I can, to bring more light to the experience that Indigenous people in the U.S. have had and are continuing to experience, so they can get the justice they deserve.”
Her classmate, John Edward, spent time studying audience reactions, not just during the screenings, but also after the credits rolled. He reveled in hearing multiple takes on the same movie. He found it interesting that some people changed their minds about a film after they had time to discuss and process it.
“I’m going to remember the conversations I had with fellow filmmakers for a really long time,” he said.
Student Malena Wilson was struck by Nocturnes, a documentary that follows the work of moth researchers in India, and that's "absolutely gorgeous to watch.”
One scene is now a core memory: “It was during a thunderstorm, so it had the audience sit in darkness, in the darkness of the forest. And every once in a while, there’d be a flash of lightning on the screen.”
In that moment, “the only thing you could see was the outline of foliage and trees against the night sky, but only when lightning flashed,” Wilson added. The film made her realize that “you don’t have to constantly bombard the audience with visuals and lights. There’s ways to build tension, to share emotion, to tell a story with minimal visuals,” she said.
The students saw a number of films at the Egyptian Theatre, the largest in Park City.
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Courtesy of CandyJoe Dahlstrom
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Learning about process
Tati Golykh, who hails from Siberia, said she made an effort to approach the festival with the unbridled “curiosity of a child.” She attended workshops to learn about new techniques, and now she’s excited about editing with the help of AI. “I can’t wait to try [it] on my own,” she said.
Sharukh Khan is a UCLA grad who enrolled at Glendale to learn a new craft. A panel he attended on independent filmmaking now serves as a touchstone. During the presentation, director Richard Linklater shared that he attributes his success not just to the films he’s made, but also to the community of filmmakers he cultivated in Texas.
“Filmmaking, more than anything, is a collaborative medium,” Khan said. Linklater helped him see that as he makes his way in the industry, “it’s also important to be part of other people’s journeys and to support them and help them out when you can.”
Khan also has new thoughts on movie budgets. “You don’t need a whole lot of money to tell a good story. You just need to learn to work with your constraints ... That’s where the creativity comes.”
Greenough was inspired by this panel, featuring Toby Brooks, who runs the Sundance Ignite fellowship, along with directors Jazmin Jones and River Gallo.
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Courtesy of Tati Golykh
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Like Khan, Thomas Greenough signed up for a midnight screening. They went to see the horror film I Saw the TV Glow — alone.
“I was on the edge of my seat the whole time,” said Greenough. “And then I stepped out, and it was snowing, and it was late at night. And everything just felt really magical and special.”
Greenough’s Sundance experience was also buoyed by a brunch for emerging filmmakers, featuring a panel with directors River Gallo and Jazmin Jones.
While it was helpful to hear from people with established careers, said Greenough, Gallo and Jones — “roughly my age” and “a couple of steps further along [than me] in their journey” — made the prospect of becoming a professional filmmaker seem more attainable.
“I could really feel and hear what my path could look like,” Greenough said. “It made me want to do more work.”
What we know: The city is in the very early stages of planning how to transform the 192 acres into a park. The preliminary report shows some potential amenities of the park, such as gardens, biking trails, art galleries, a community center and much more.
Background: After a long legal battle between the city and the Federal Aviation Administration, a settlement was reached that ruled that the city could close the more than 100-year-old airport. The park was controversial among residents because of air quality and noise concerns, and was the subject of many legal battles in recent decades.
What’s next? The city wants to hear from residents. You’re encouraged to review the framework and fill out this survey. Feedback will be accepted until April 26.
Elly Yu
typically reports on early childhood issues and from time to time other general news.
Published April 1, 2026 1:41 PM
Thousands of immigrants, including refugees and asylees, in California are set to lose their food assistance benefits, known as CalFresh, starting this month.
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Brandon Bell
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Getty Images
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Topline:
Thousands of immigrants who are lawfully in California are set to lose their food assistance benefits, known as CalFresh, starting this month.
What’s new: The changes apply to certain immigrants who are here lawfully, including refugees and asylees. It also applies to people from Iraq and Afghanistan who have special visas for helping the U.S. military overseas.
Why now: The new restrictions stem from H.R. 1 — also known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” — which Congress passed last year.
What’s next: Officials estimate 23,000 people in Los Angeles County will be affected. State officials say noncitizens who are currently receiving benefits will continue to get them until it’s time to renew their benefits — adding that people might be able to receive benefits again if their legal status changes to lawful permanent residents.
Thousands of immigrants who are lawfully in California are set to lose their food assistance benefits, known as CalFresh, starting this month.
The new restrictions stem from H.R. 1 — also known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” — which Congress passed last year.
The changes remove eligibility for certain noncitizens, including people with refugee status and victims of trafficking. It also applies to immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan who have special immigrant visas for helping the U.S. government overseas.
”These are folks … many of whom have large families that we have a commitment to as a country because we welcomed them and invited them here to find a place of refuge,” said Cambria Tortorelli, president of the International Institute of Los Angeles, a refugee resettlement agency. “They’re authorized to work and they’ve been brought here by the U.S. government.”
The federal spending bill, H.R. 1, made sweeping cuts to social safety net programs, including food assistance and Medicaid. In signing the bill, President Donald Trump said the changes were delivering on his campaign promises of “America first.”
Officials estimate 23,000 people in Los Angeles County will be affected. The state estimates about 72,000 immigrants with lawful presence will be affected across California.
CalFresh is the state’s version of the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Undocumented immigrants have not been eligible to receive CalFresh benefits.
State officials say noncitizens who are currently receiving benefits will continue to get them until it’s time to renew their benefits — adding that people might be able to receive benefits again if their legal status changes to lawful permanent residents.
Who the changes apply to:
Asylees
Refugees
Parolees (unless they are Cuban and Haitian entrants)
Individuals with deportation or removal withheld
Conditional entrants
Victims of trafficking
Battered noncitizens
Iraqi or Afghan with special immigrant visas (SIV) who are not lawful permanent residents (LPR)
Certain Afghan Nationals granted parole between July 31, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2023
Certain Ukrainian Nationals granted parole between Feb. 24, 2022, and Sep. 30, 2024
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Nearly every student in the California State University system has used artificial intelligence tools, but most don’t trust the results, are worried about how AI will affect their future job security and want more say in systemwide AI policy.
CSU AI survey: CSU polled more than 94,000 students, faculty and staff, making it the largest survey of AI perception in higher education. Nearly all students have used AI but most question whether it is trustworthy. Both faculty and students want more say in systemwide AI policies. Faculty are divided about the impact of AI on teaching and research.
The results: Educators want a say in how and which AI tools are used. Students across the CSU system want to be included in those discussions. Some professors teach students how to use AI and encourage students to use it, while others forbid its use in the classroom. In addition to clarity around use of AI policies, students in this year’s survey said they want training that will be relevant to their careers. “I want to learn AI tools that are actually used in my industry, not just generic chatbots,” a mechanical engineering student responded. “Show me what engineers are actually doing with AI on the job.”
Nearly every student in the California State University system has used artificial intelligence tools, but most don’t trust the results, are worried about how AI will affect their future job security and want more say in systemwide AI policy.
That’s according to results of a 2025 survey of more than 80,000 students enrolled at CSU’s 22 campuses, plus faculty and staff — the largest and most comprehensive study of how higher education students and instructors perceive artificial intelligence.
Nationwide, university faculty struggle to reconcile the learning benefits of AI — hailed as a “transformative tool” for providing tutoring and personalized support to students — and the risks that students will depend on AI agents to do their thinking for them and, very possibly, get the wrong information. Educators want a say in how and which AI tools are used. Students across the CSU system want to be included in those discussions.
Some professors teach students how to use AI and encourage students to use it, while others forbid its use in the classroom, said Katie Karroum, vice president of systemwide affairs for the Cal State Student Association, representing more than 470,000 students.
“Both of these things are allowed to coexist right now without a policy,” she said.
Karroum said that faculty practices are too varied and that what students need are consistent and transparent rules developed in collaboration with students. “There are going to be students who are graduating with AI literacy and some that graduate without AI literacy.”
In February 2025, the CSU system announced an initiative to adopt AI technologies and an agreement with OpenAI to make ChatGPT available throughout the system. The system-wide survey released Wednesday confirms that ChatGPT is the most used AI tool across CSUs. The system will also work with Adobe, Google, IBM, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft and NVIDIA.
Campus leaders say the survey and accompanying dashboard provide much needed data on how the system continues to integrate AI into instruction and assessment.
“We need to have data to make data-informed decisions instead of just going by anecdote,” said Elisa Sobo, a professor of anthropology at San Diego State who was involved in interpreting the survey’s findings. “We have data that show high use, but we also have high levels of concern, very valid concern, to help people be responsible when they use it.”
Faculty at San Diego State designed the survey, which received more than 94,000 responses from students, faculty and staff. Among all responding CSU students, 95% reported using an AI tool; 84% said they used ChatGPT and 82% worry that AI will negatively impact their future job security. Others worry that they won’t be competitive if they don’t understand AI well enough.
“Even though I don’t want to use it, I HAVE TO!” wrote a computer science major. “Because if I don’t, then I’ll be left behind, and that is the last thing someone would want in this stupid job market.”
Faculty are divided about the impact of AI on teaching and research. Just over 55% reported a positive benefit, while 52% said AI has had a negative impact so far.
San Diego State conducted its first campuswide survey in 2023 in response to complaints from students about inconsistent rules about AI use in courses, said James Frazee, vice president for information technology at the campus.
“Students are facing this patchwork of expectations even within the same course taught by different instructors,” Frazee said. In one introductory course, the professor might encourage students to use AI, but another professor teaching the same course might forbid it, he said. “It was a hot mess.”
In that 2023 survey, one student made this request: “Please just tell us what to do and be clear about it.”
Following that survey, the San Diego State Academic Senate approved guidelines for the use of generative AI in instruction and assessments. In 2025, the Senate made it mandatory that faculty include language about AI use in course syllabi.
“It doesn’t say what your disposition has to be, whether it’s pro or con,” Frazee said. “It just says you have to be clear about your expectations. Without the 2023 survey data, that never would have happened.”
According to the 2025 systemwide survey, only 68% of teaching faculty include language about AI use in their syllabi.
Sobo and other faculty who helped develop the 2025 survey hope other CSU campuses will find the data helpful in informing policies about AI use. The dashboard allows users to search for specific campus and discipline data and view student responses by demographic group.
The 2025 survey shows that first-generation students are more interested in formal AI training and that Black, Hispanic and Latino students are more interested than white students. At San Diego State, students are required to earn a micro-credential in AI use during their first year — another change that was made after the 2023 survey.
Students in this year’s survey said they want training that will be relevant to their careers. “I want to learn AI tools that are actually used in my industry, not just generic chatbots,” a mechanical engineering student responded. “Show me what engineers are actually doing with AI on the job.”
The California Faculty Association, which represents about 29,000 educators in the CSU system, said in a February statement that faculty should be included in future systemwide decisions about AI, including whether the contract with OpenAI should be renewed in July.
“CFA members continue to advocate for ethical and enforceable safeguards governing the use of artificial intelligence,” the CFA said in the statement, asking for “protections for using or refusing to use the technology, professional development resources to adapt pedagogy to incorporate the technology, and further protections for faculty intellectual property.”
EdSource is an independent nonprofit organization that provides analysis on key education issues facing California and the nation. LAist republishes articles from EdSource with permission.
Fiona Ng
is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
Published April 1, 2026 12:00 PM
Tennis courts featured in an April Fools' Day social media post by Irvine.
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City of Irvine
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Instagram
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Topline:
Many Southern California cities and institutions are dropping big, grabby news today — from the city of Irvine going "pickle-ball" only, to the Huntington Botanical Gardens announcing it'll be bottling the scent of the famed corpse flower as a perfume.
Why now: Before you go "what the what" — remember today's the first day of April.
Read on ... to find a roundup of some of the April Fools' jokes from your city and local trusted institutions.
Many Southern California cities and institutions are dropping big, grabby news today. Before you go "what the what" — remember, it's the first day of April.
Here's a roundup of some of the April Fools' news dump items.
Irvine, the 'pickleball-only' city
Irvine announced that it'll be converting all tennis courts into pickleball courts by 2027. That's one notch for Team Pickleball in the ongoing turf war between tennis lovers and pickleball players over the fight for court space to engage in their beloved sport.
"Starting today, April 1, all tennis courts are being converted to pickleball courts as part of a citywide effort to make Irvine a pickleball-only City by 2027," the post stated. "We don’t just think this is a good idea … we dink it’s a great one."
Over in Long Beach, Mayor Rex Richardson announced the city's reigning royalty, the Queen Mary, will be renamed after another queen.
"After careful consideration, I am proud to announce that the Queen Mary will officially be renamed the RMS Queen Latifah," he said. "Long Beach is stepping into a new era as a major music destination — with a new amphitheater, a deep cultural legacy and a future built on sound. It’s only right that our most iconic Queen reflects that energy."
In real-real news, LBC native and everyone's favorite Olympics commenter Snoop Dogg is headlining the grand opening show of the Long Beach Amphitheater in June. That's the new waterfront venue near the RMS Queen Latifah.
Suspense writer James Patterson has more than 200 novels to his name, selling more than 450 million copies. If anyone deserves his own namesake branch, it would be Patterson, no?
The Los Angeles Public Library certainly dinks so, announcing today the James Patterson Canoga Park branch, "with wall to wall Patterson books and programming centered around this prolific author."
The opening of the corpse flower has become an annual event at the Huntington Botanical Gardens. The event brings legions hoping to get a whiff of the famed flower's "pungent aroma."
The San Marino institution announced that it's bottling the scent, as part of its new "The Huntington's Stank Collection."
"A musky gym sock note opens this unique fragrance, with a sweet, rotten-egg base to ground it. Smells like you — but smellier," the post explained.
