After that, she’d take two years of community college, then return to campus after a decade only to find out she’s on academic probation. Garay believes that a lack of guidance from counselors was the reason she struggled when she began her journey as a first-time student.

“The major struggle was, nobody was guiding me,” Gary said. “Nobody was telling me, ‘Hey, maybe don’t take these classes together.’”

On August 26, 2022, CSUN President Erika D. Beck delivered her first live audience welcome-back address to the entire CSUN community at The Soraya. She commended faculty and staff for their dedication during challenging times, navigating classes, and supporting students through changing COVID-19 restrictions. She emphasized the need to shift the conversation at CSUN from focusing on what students must do to succeed to what the institution must do to support student success and achieve its goals.

“4,785 freshmen walked through our doors in the fall of 2015, with aspirations of walking across that commencement stage to a life that is forever transformed. Six years later, only 2,594 of them did,” said Beck.

Touma Murase, a first-time student at CSUN, spoke about his opinions on general education courses.

“Although GE is necessary for graduation, it has little relevance or appeal to one’s major, leading to feelings of apathy and unpreparedness, and causing people to lose sight of the value of a college education”.

This highlights an area for improvement in aligning and implementing CSUN’s general education programs to students’ interests and career goals.

Matthew Rohde, a first-time student majoring in Computer Science talked briefly about the difficulty of adjusting to a new environment.

“The transition from high school to college can overwhelm first-time students. He said that the educational levels of high school and university are completely different and that it was extremely difficult for many people, including himself, to have to start studying in an unfamiliar environment.” said Rohde.

He suggests that first-time students need time to adapt to the new academic and social environment.

The graduation rates between first-time students and transfer students have a big gap. Between the last 5 years, the gap has been around 20 to 25 percent.

Melanie Bocanegra, the Associate Vice President for Student Success at CSUN, talks about the difference between first-time and transfer students when they begin their first semester at the campus.

“They kind of are more sure about their majors at this point. You know, they’ve made some decisions, and they’ve made a transition. Whereas freshmen come in unsure, and they have to take math and writing, and they’re not sure. So I don’t know if they ever find their way, or their spark, you know, in college.” Bocanegra said.

Retention rates have been a recent problem for CSUN amongst first-time students. According to CSUN counts, in the year 2021 only 74% of first-time students decided to continue another year. In 2020 it was at 81%. The numbers are worse when you take into account that 911 students dropped out in 2021; compared to 2020 where it was only 587. It is also important to note that transfers retain at a higher rate than first time students.

Julie Pearce, Director of the CSUN University Counseling Services acknowledges the academic challenges that first-time students encounter, such as the difficulty of classes and assignments compared to high school, as well as the challenge of consulting new instructors.

“Significant stressors that new students face, including adapting to a new environment, managing a new lifestyle, handling the academic workload, and navigating social dynamics, which can contribute to a higher level of stress,” said Pearce.

She states that for first-year students to succeed at university, they need to adjust mentally and academically, which is extremely difficult.

Daniyar Dilshat, who transferred to CSUN from Santa Monica College has not struggled much with adjusting to CSUN, as the department’s faculty made it easy for him to adapt.

“I think first-time students make better use of the school’s facilities than transfer students. However, the fact that beginners are more accustomed to the school environment may lead to absenteeism. I think the more you get used to the school environment, the easier it becomes to slack off,” Dilshat said.

He points out that because of the hardships they endured during their first year at university, they become lazy after their second year, which leads to a decline in-class participation.

Tsuyoshi Shibata, a member of a CSUN soccer club, noted that first-time students are more likely to join sports teams, which can lead to exhaustion from early morning practices and potentially skipping classes.

In contrast, Shibata observed that many transfer students either do not join club activities or join them casually for fun rather than taking them seriously. He believed that this difference in participation could affect transfer students’ ability to focus more on their academics.

When transfer students transfer to a university, most know of the path they’re aiming for and have set their sights on a certain major. It can be inferred that this increases students’ desire to participate in classes, leading to a high graduation rate.

Although CSUN provides students, especially new students good mental and academic services to help them to spend a good CSUN life, new matadors don’t know the existence of these kinds of support.

This suggests a need for improved awareness and support for first-time students to navigate their academic paths effectively.

Currently, Garay is performing better at CSUN. Garay believes CSUN’s resources for students have improved, but believes students need to find guidance.

“I think they have the resources, but as a student you have to find them. Academically, I have to check in with my advisor, and it’s also on the advisor if they are willing to work with you.” Garay said.

Increasing awareness of mental care services for new students is necessary. Providing programs to support mental health, such as psychological counseling, stress management workshops and create an environment where students can pursue their studies without stress or anxiety.

Additionally, efforts may be made to improve the quality of general education (GE). CSUN now provides more interesting classes and hands-on learning experiences to help new students increase their academic motivation. It is important to aim to improve the graduation rate and academic performance of new students through these programs.

Throughout pop culture, there aren’t many popular characters who are also journalists. When journalists are mentioned, they’re usually used for part of a plot line, or even a joke, which can reflect how journalists are treated now. Gallup News reported that 38% of Americans don’t trust the media at all. Journalists are treated slightly differently in animated media, as well as comic books and manga. Some of the most popular characters from those types of media are journalists, even if that part of their character isn’t focused on.

In comic books and in animated media, one of the most popular and influential characters is a journalist with unimaginable strength and spirit named Superman. He’s also known as Clark Kent, which is his human identity that he uses to protect his private life and his loved ones.

Superman was introduced in comics in 1938. The Clark Kent alias isn’t the focus of his storylines, because he’s a superhero who protects the planet. Most of the audience comes back to read the stories about his adventures.

In most versions, Clark is a journalist who works for the Daily Planet in Metropolis with other well-known side characters in his stories, like Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.

When it comes to his work at the Daily Planet, Clark Kent is a journalist who’s won awards for the articles he’s written and is beloved within his news station. He and his friends have worked together to write stories that cover the events that occur around the world, but mainly in their city of Metropolis.

Since Superman is a powerful and smart character who’s from an alien planet, he could have any high-paying job with his secret identity. Instead, he chose to be a journalist for a few reasons which are connected to his character.

According to Dexerto, an outlet that focuses on entertainment media, “Traditionally, Clark became a journalist so he would be the first to learn about crimes and catastrophes or investigate in places where Superman could not.”

This has changed due to the character of Superman evolving through each comic series and through the different iterations of the character.

According to Dexerto, during one of Superman’s recent adventures in the comic series, Knight Terror, “Superman explains that he’s not afraid of not knowing everything and, in fact, became a reporter because of his curiosity.”

These reasons show the type of character Superman is and why he chose to be a journalist. It’s also because of his career choice that he’d meet his partner, Lois Lane, and the two would fall in love in most versions of their stories.

Currently, Superman/Clark Kent is prominent in pop culture, with the recently aired show, “My Adventures with Superman.” The show does focus more on the journalist aspect while blending Superman into the story.

It also focuses on the other characters, like Lois Lane, who’s an investigative journalist who wants to expose Superman’s identity. Jimmy Olsen is also in the story and works as a photographer. All three characters are prominent in the story, and it creates an interesting dynamic as Clark Kent tries to hide his superhero identity.

Another famous reporter that’s popular in their series is April O’Neil from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle series. She was introduced in 1984, but in some versions, O’Neil has been depicted as a news reporter for Channel 6, or a freelance reporter in the TMNT series.

Her origin story has changed a few times, like the careers of her parents changing in order to reflect her character. According to Screen Rant, “April realized that journalism was her passion, just like her mother.”

She works with the Ninja Turtles and keeps their identities hidden, but records footage and reports on the villains they fight. She has also done investigative reporting about the villains within New York City.

She is a prominent character that has helped the main protagonists of the story with her skills as a reporter. Even though she may be captured in some stories, she risks her life and continues to report on stories that people in her city must see.

She continues to make appearances in media, such as the movie, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” as a high school student. According to TMNTPedia, “April is a student at Eastman High, where she finds herself extremely interested in Journalism.”

She’s also in the fighting games, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, where she is a playable character who fights with equipment. According to Nintendo Life, “As with the previous game, April relies on her reporter equipment for many of her attacks in battle. Combined with a new TV camera and Turtles Blimp, she can navigate the stage with greater ease to prevent unnecessary falls.”

In anime and manga, journalism is sometimes talked about, mainly in the popular series, My Hero Academia which was serialized in 2014. The show is set in Japan and the plot of the series is a superhero world, filled with most of the population who were born with abilities known as “quirks,” which can range from abilities that display power or flexibility to changing the appearance of a character.

There have been times where side characters have been the focus for an episode, or for part of a chapter in the manga. In a special episode that isn’t showcased in the manga, a news organization called Juko News believes that the most popular hero within the series, All Might, has a successor within the school, U.A.

The idea of a successor came from a freelance journalist, Taneo Tokuda, whose quirk is “Whole-Body Lens.” According to Fandom, “Whole-Body Lens allows the user to produce camera-like lenses anywhere on their body to take pictures.”

Taneo Tokuda interviews students from the school, watches them train and manages to figure out that there is a successor. The successor is the protagonist of the story, Izuku Midoriya, but he doesn’t write the story and expose their identity in order to protect them from villains.

Tokuda’s journalism ethics align with being an absolutist which connects to using his moral judgement.

Two more journalists that are given a bit of spotlight within the whole story are two unnamed female reporters. They are seen within the anime, but their main highlight is within the manga of the story.

The manga is farther ahead in the story, but within the “Final War” Story Arc, the two reporters are seen in their own news station helicopters trying to cover the ongoing battles between the heroes and villains.

Both of these reporters have been seen throughout the story, covering stories for their own news stations. They’ve been seen reporting on the main cast or filming live events that were highlights of the show.

The first news reporter talks about how she has to report The first news reporter talks about how the hero of the story, Izuku Midoriya, was a U.A. student the whole time.

The story focuses on the second news reporter who feels differently about the situation. She apologizes to her cameraman for forcing him to tag along, but the cameraman declines that and mentions how no one forced him.

The cameraman also states how their news station is closed, so they’re not getting paid which shows how personal this is. Ethically, this connects to utilitarian which puts journalism and news reporting over morality and their own safety.

This shows that they’re willing to record the battlefield and stream it to the world, so people can see how hard the heroes are fighting in Japan while they put their own lives in danger. Live reporting is beneficial during this moment because news organizations around the world are reporting the fall of Japan.

With these two reporters putting their lives on the line, it highlights the importance of journalism and their utilitarian ethics being valuable in the world full of super powers.

Each series were introduced in different generations, showing how journalism is in media during different times.

While journalists aren’t too present in pop culture, there are characters that are iconic within the media who are influential and can show how important journalism is. It may be dismissed, but it can reflect on who they are and why certain characters are journalists.

There are many reasons for someone to choose long-distance over a relationship with someone who’s in the same city as them, even if they’re difficult to maintain. Some people do it because someone has moved away and they want to continue the relationship, or because they build a better connection with someone over the screen than they would in person. Sometimes they don’t work out, but other times these relationships continue to grow into strong and healthy relationships.

Long-distance relationships are becoming common as the years go by because of the internet and certain applications or social media platforms Like Instagram, Reddit and Discord. According to Relationships Advice, about 14 million people in the United States are in a long-distance relationship. Relationships Advice also mentions the top three reasons why long-distance relationships fail are because of lack of communication, jealousy and cheating.

Lauren Bello:

Lauren Bello is a California State University, Northridge student who was in a relationship that lasted over 14 years. It started as in-person until her partner had to move for college and transferred to UC Berkeley, where the relationship later switched to long-distance. When it switched to long-distance, her family didn’t approve of it.

Throughout the relationship, they’d try to meet in person during their free time. They’d at least try to see each other every month.

“I would try my best to see him either three, maybe four days in one month, or it would be like a week,” said Bello.”

During their relationship, Bello would start to lose trust in her partner due to miscommunication about her partner wanting to have an open relationship and having on and off moments in the relationship. She’d later find out during their time when they weren’t together, her partner was seeing someone else.

The relationship ended in 2023 with both wanting different things in the end.

Lance Cammagay:

Lance Cammagay is a college student who started his long-distance relationship around a year ago. They met online in a role-playing website and never met in-person. They rely on purely online interaction in order to spend time with each other.

Cammagay and his partner try to spend time with each other, but have a difficult time due to his partner’s job.

“He’s been more busy recently because he only recently got a second job, but before, he had a lot more time to talk,” said Cammagay. “So far, it’s just been when he does have free time during work to text.”

Currently, Cammagay has not told his parents about his long-distance relationship with his boyfriend due to religion. He has also not told his friend group about his relationship either.

“Welcome to the Christian lifestyle,” said Cammagay. “My parents would probably never approve of it, knowing them. Friends, they would probably accept it, but we haven’t told friends yet.”

Cammagay does plan on meeting his partner in the future, but it will take some time due to how expensive traveling can be.

“I’ve teased the idea and he seemed to accept the idea, despite it being like it’ll take $500+ to fly from California to East Coast,” said Cammagay.

Christian Howard:

Christian Howard is a CSUN student who’s in a long-distance relationship with someone who is in Malaysia, where the time zone difference is 16 hours. Howard met his partner through social media, and they have been dating for over six years.

Howard works as a freelance photographer while his girlfriend works as a TikTok makeup creator. Both are busy, but communicate with each other, even with the time zone difference.

“We’ve been in a relationship with each other long enough where saying ‘hey, I can’t talk, I gotta sleep’ is perfectly understandable on both sides,” said Howard.

When it comes to talking to his family about the long-distance relationship, his family has been understanding because it’s through social media.

“Now thankfully, my parents enjoy social media, so they’ve had the opportunity to, first of all, follow her when they first learned about her and then just talk with her one-on-one in a low-pressure situation,” said Howard. “Like, it’s intimidating when you sit down with your significant others family to have a talk, but if it’s just a text over Instagram messages, they feel like they’ve gotten to know her and they really like her.”

Amy T:

Amy T is a college student in Canada who met her ex-partner through Hinge, a dating app. They’d meet once a month due to both of them relying on public transportation to see each other.

When they don’t meet in-person, they’d hang out online through Discord, an online social platform and talk to each other or play games together.

T’s parents didn’t approve of the relationship due to it being long-distance and racial differences.

They broke up after a year due to personal issues and problems relating to the long-distance. T gives advice to anyone thinking about being in a long-distance relationship.

Jack Pruitt:

Jack Pruitt is a CSUN grad student who met their partner in-person at California State University, Fullerton. They had to switch to a long-distance relationship due to Pruitt moving to take classes at CSUN.

When they’re far apart, they communicate through Discord and play games. They’re also in an online book club and meet on Discord once a week.

The couple work and do their schooling during the weekdays which allows them to talk to each other during the weekends. The distance between them is around an hour and a half, so they manage to see each other every two or three weeks.

Pruitt mentions that they have gotten closer once they committed to long-distance. They have also mentioned that the relationship has also gotten stronger.

While it can be difficult due to their partner being farther away, the relationship is still healthy and they communicate often.

The main subscriptions that keep increasing their prices the most are Netflix and Disney Plus. They’ve introduced cheaper plans, but with ads built into them like the subscription plan that Hulu had established. Even though they have cheaper plans, they’ve also introduced premium plans which are much pricier, and offer higher quality video and more compared to their standard plans.

As the years pass, each company increases the cost of one of their plans, or all their plans, but they also take out shows or movies that people loved from their catalogues. With shows or films being removed from their platforms, it deletes a piece of media history for some people unless they own physical copies of the movies.

There are other reasons why entertainment companies continue to increase their prices on subscription plans besides inflation, which continues to rise.

California State University, Northridge Economics professor, Dennis Halcoussis offers his explanations to why the prices continue to rise more and more every year.

“A lot of the services keep producing more and more of their own content, instead of just showing old shows that already exist, and so that’s expensive,” said Halcoussis. “They’re becoming almost more like what a network used to do.”

Netflix also provides their own reason of why they continue to increase prices for their subscriptions on their website.

“As we continue to add more TV shows and movies and introduce new product features, our plans and prices may change. We also may adjust plans and pricing to respond to local market changes, such as changes to local taxes or inflation,” said Netflix.

With so many subscriptions for many types of media like Spotify, Playstation and Netflix, many students must pay for one of them within their household or take turns paying for them withing their household.

Due to Netflix cutting down on password and account sharing, people now must make their own accounts in order to access Netflix, so they can see another boost in income and in numbers of people who’ve purchased their subscription.

When Netflix made this decision, they faced severe backlash, but continued to see a profit after cracking down on password sharing. According to CNN, Netflix’s Chief Financial Officer, Spencer Neumann reported to them that they continue to see growth in memberships.

“Most of our revenue growth this year is from growth in volume from new paid memberships, and that’s largely driven by our paid sharing rollout,” Neumann said.

With prices rising, entertainment companies still don’t pay some of their actors or writers enough to keep food on the table. Due to the writers’ strike, many shows and movies have been on hiatus until the issue gets resolved. This affects many companies like Sony, Amazon, Netflix and other media companies.

The SAG-AFTRA strike has prevented movies and tv shows from being worked on and has created many delays. The strike has continued for months, but they’ve reached a tentative agreement.

CSUN Associate Professor of Consumer Affairs, Linda A. Bradley, talks about the price increases and writers' strike in an email.

“I think subscription prices keep increasing because the streaming channels (like all corporations and cable television) want to continue to see an increase in profits,” said Bradley. “I do believe that with the writers’ and actors’ strikes that occurred this year, we will continue to see rising prices.”

For first-time users, some subscriptions offer a free trial so new users can try them out, but that’s a way for many companies to automatically hook the new user into paying monthly for the service.

Sometimes it can be peer pressure, or the feeling of being left out can pressure someone into subscribing to a service. Feeling left out can happen because people who’ve subscribed to some platforms will talk about a popular show for weeks until they move onto the next big thing like “Stranger Things” on Netflix, or “The Boys” on Amazon Prime.

“I think they hear their friends talking about a show, and they want to watch that show,” said Halcoussis. “Then you end up trying it and then maybe you watch that show, but you forget to cancel it when you’re done watching. You keep paying for it.”

Another reason for subscriptions being more common is that cable is too limited and expensive compared to subscriptions. It’s an alternative for people who’ve cut cable television completely or couldn’t afford it.

“I ‘cut the cable’ with Spectrum roughly 5 years ago because I did not appreciate the lack of control that I had in what I paid for this service,” said Bradley in an email.

With a lot of companies holding specific movies or games behind their subscriptions, it creates a reason for someone to try to purchase that certain subscription, and potentially create shows or movies to entice people to stay subscribed to their online services. Netflix has also mentioned why certain shows or movies leave their streaming platform.

“Whenever a TV show or movie license is expiring, we consider things such as if the rights to the title are still available,” said Netflix. “How popular it is in the region, and how much it costs to license.”

With many types of subscriptions, and some of them expensive, it requires being financially responsible to balance them out while maintaining bills like rent, electricity and the water bill.

In order to better balance it, sometimes sacrifices must be made and subscriptions must be cancelled, so people can continue to pay their bills and continue to put food on the table. Halcoussis offers a way to look at subscriptions, and to possibly better manage them financially.

“How much time do they have to watch tv? Why do you need all these different services for?” said Halcoussis. “If people actually watch where their money is going, if they’re conscious about how they’re spending their money, they’re not going to subscribe to these services. It’s just a matter of paying attention.”

As of October 2023, Disney Plus, Hulu and Netflix have increased the prices of some of their subscription plans by a couple of dollars each.

While Simi is partially diverse, the majority of the population is white, while some of the population is Hispanic. It can explain why there’s a lot of restaurants focused on American Dining, and fast food, and some restaurants that are focused on Mexican food. About 11% of the population is also Asian which can explain why there’s are a few Asian restaurants in Simi Valley.

When it comes to the per capita income and the median household income, Simi Valley is 20% higher than the national average in California. This can be seen due to how expensive food, and drinks are in Simi Valley compared to other cities in California.

When it comes to the median household income, it shows that it’s double the amount of per capita income as well.

With education, a little less than half of the population has a bachelor's degree or higher. Simi Valley is 10% higher than the average for neighboring cities, and for California when it comes to bachelor's degrees or higher. This can also connect to why income as a whole is higher compared to other cities in California.

Since Simi Valley is predominantly white, the language that is spoken the most at home with children and adults is English. The second language that’s also spoken the most is Spanish. I connect with this statistic because when it comes to talking to my family or friends at home. The only languages anyone in my house can speak are English or Spanish.

For the languages that I hear at work or at other restaurants, I mostly hear English because most food orders are taken in English, with a few of them being in Spanish.

When it comes to the foreign-born population, the Census Reporter reveals that the largest group that makes up the population is Asian while the second group that’s slightly smaller is Latin America.

It surprises me that Asia has the highest foreign-born population because of how many restaurants or markets are for Latin Americans compared to Asian markets. This could reveal that maybe there will be more markets for people to visit and try out in the future.

David’s a writer, photographer, editor and video editor who likes to watch e-sports content, videos dissecting certain shows and anime and taking photos of food or cool cosplays that he sees at conventions. He loves trying out different games and constantly thinks of wanting to make videos of reviewing them in the future.

He has three beautiful, funny dogs who love him so much and who fuel his will to live once he comes home from work or school as they jump at his legs and scratch them violently.

Whenever David has free time from school and other responsibilities, he likes to enjoy his time with his girlfriend as they talk to each other about how their days were while playing some funny games.

David’s work has appeared on The Moorpark Reporter, where he’s written stories that range from fighting game tournaments to reviews to covering events on campus. He’s also taken photos for stories that other writers have worked on and has edited stories during his time as copy editor and co-editor-in-chief. Since he’s written for his college newspaper, David has a sense of how the newsroom can be and has accomplished part of his goal reviewing games and tournaments professionally. Now he plans to continue working on that goal and reaching his potential childhood dreams.