Highlights of the First Annual Partnership Conference

The Department of Child and Family Development co-hosted the Inaugural Partnership Conference April 17, 2014.

Dr. Karen Moran Finello

The San Diego Association for the Education of Young Children, the California Council on Family Relations, and the Center for Family, School, Community Engagement (CFSCE) also hosted the conference.

The conference featured keynote presentations by applied developmental psychologist Dr. Karen Moran Finello and licensed clinical social worker Michael Jones.

Dr. Finello's presentation explored the topic of home visiting and its ability to support families and strengthen not only mental health, but child-caregiver relationships.



Mr. Jones presented on the topic of Trauma Informed Care, along with the importance surrounding a professional's ability to identify their own trauma histories and their awareness regarding the possible impacts of those experiences in work with clients.

Dr. Michael Jones

The conference also featured workshops by some of San Diego State's very own. Dr. Shulamit Ritblatt, Dr. Audrey Hokoda, Dr. Sascha Longstreth, Dr. Sarah Garrity, and the Director of CFSCE, Jeana Preston.

All of these experiences provided excellent opportunities for the 350 student and professional attendees to be inspired, while building on their knowledge of Infant and Childhood Mental Health.

Thanks to CFD undergraduate Victoria Kapper for contributing this post.

Dr. Shulamit Ritblatt

Master's Student Mashaael Alwashmi Explains Why SDSU Is First Choice

My name is Mashaael Alwashmi and I am from capital city Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I graduated from Princess Nora University, which has the largest female campus in the world. My undergraduate major was Home Economics that includes subjects about home, family, and children. I decided to join the (KASP) King Abdullah Scholarship Program that offers full funds for distinguished students because I graduated from PNU with honors.

I chose San Diego State University in particular for many reasons. First, my brother, uncle, and cousin were in San Diego seeking their education, and they highly recommended San Diego as a nice city for studying and for families. Second, SDSU was one of my first choices because they ranked high, especially the College of Education. Also, the Child and Family Development department has the most suitable master’s program that is an actual extension to my undergraduate major. In fact, the Ministry of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia added the program to their list for recommended and approved programs all over the world on: http://ru.mohe.gov.sa/default.aspx

I started planning to apply when I was in the American Language Institute (ALI) at SDSU by learning about the application requirements and completing them one by one. During the language-learning period I was able to earn an English level sufficiency certificate, qualify my undergraduate degree certificate, take the GRE exam, and write the required essays. After sending the required documents, I was extremely happy to hear from the department as per the scheduled timeline they had provided telling me that I was accepted in the Fall 2013.

I have loved the program so much. During the first semester, I had the pleasure of working with many people with different backgrounds. I especially loved the courses CFD 634, CFD 660, CFD 590 as well as ED 690. Additionally, the program was flexible to the extent that I was able to take some undergraduate classes that I really enjoyed and learned from. This gave me a whole new perspective in this filed and made me interested more and more about children's problems and developmental challenges. I look forward to the courses I will take this year that will assist me in writing my thesis on children’s school readiness in Saudi Arabia. I cannot wait to apply the knowledge I have gained from this master’s program in my country.

My goal is to enhance the invaluable experience of working with children during my studying in SDSU. I want to work with the SDSU Children’s Center and learn the successful ways that they follow, and apply them to my future children’s center in Saudi Arabia. Also. I will back to work at PNU as a lecturer, so I get the opportunity to transfer the great information and knowledge from the CFD master’s program to the Early Childhood Department at PNU.

Aitor Sendino Fernández from Spain Shares What he Took Away From the ECD Program

My experience at SDSU was very rewarding at a personal, academic, and professional level. I first came to SDSU as an exchange student for two semesters, taking several classes in the Child and Family Development department. Needing to adapt to such a different educational environment and methodology, compared to my country of origin, was a really interesting challenge.

All the professors and classmates were very helpful and I soon started enjoying the learning experience at SDSU, finishing with great academic results as well! After my two semesters as an exchange student, and thanks to one of my professors from the Child and Family Development department, I had the opportunity to come back to SDSU for a third semester working as a research assistant at the Youth Violence Research Lab, supervised by Dr. Emilio Ulloa and Dr. Audrey Hokoda.

I'm sure that the experience and the skills I gained working with such a great team will be very useful for my professional future. With the help of my mentor at the lab, I developed my own research project on dating violence, which resulted in a research manuscript. This manuscript in particular, and my international working experience at SDSU in general, are now helping me find better job opportunities back in Europe, giving me a competitive advantage over other candidates without any experience working or studying abroad.

In the next months, I'll be starting an internship abroad with a program sponsored by the Basque Government and the European Union through the Leonardo da Vinci scholarships.

Saba Borjianboroujeni from Iran provides an international look inside the Master's Program

When you get admission to go abroad and study in a different country, you have no idea what you are going to experience. In my first week at SDSU, I felt like Alice in wonderland. Everything was new and the system was not familiar for me, on top of the language barrier. However, the professors were very friendly- they helped me with all the new things. The program requires lots of writing and reading, which is more difficult for international students, so the first few weeks is all about adjusting to the language and new system.

After the first month, I started to realize how interesting my program is. In every assignment, the professors forced us to apply what we had learned in the texts and articles to real situations, which helped to understand the techniques more deeply. The professors make plenty of time for each student and clarify all the tasks. They explained all the assignments over and over for me; therefore, they tried to speak more slowly and simple in class, which I really appreciate. In total, I found my school and my faculty very friendly and helpful. This is an experience that is very unique and I wouldn’t exchange it with anything in my life.

Master's Student Chun-Ju Chen Shares Experience in Graduate Program

My name is Chun-Ju Chen, and I am from Taiwan. I was an English major as an

undergraduate. I found my passion for education from some of my teaching and

research experiences, so I changed my major when I decided to study abroad for


I planned to go to school in San Diego because my husband goes to UCSD, so I

searched for other universities that provide programs in education. SDSU is the best

university that offers rich educational programs in San Diego. Therefore, I applied for

this program, and luckily I was admitted! The process of application was very simple.

First you need to prepare some documents like transcripts, recommendation letters,

statement of purpose, etc. Just check the SDSU website and it will tell you everything

you need to prepare. Then you need to finish the online application and pay the

application fee. That’s it! After you are done, just wait and see if you are admitted.


I really had a great time in the program. I especially like the classes on development

and classes that require students to do internship. Just like I said I was an English major

and I had no background in child development, so Dr. Ritblatt suggested that I could

take an undergraduate level class on human development in the beginning, which was

CFD 270. CFD 270 was a very important class for me because that class gave me a

clear idea of what happens to a human being at different age periods. CFD 670 was

also very inspiring. It was also a development class but it went deeper with theories on

psychology, sociology, and education. Most important of all, it taught me to think about

how to practice these theories in education. I also enjoyed CFD 590, CFD 578, and

CFD 597. These classes gave me great opportunities to get to know what education

really is and chances to work with different people at different sites. For example, I was

doing my internship at the SDSU Children’s Center for one semester, and the next

semester after that I was hired as an assistant teacher!


For my final project, I will build a webpage that is linked to the SDSU Children’s Center

website. The purpose of the page is to inform parents the benefits of shared book

reading, and provide strategies that help parents read to their children more effectively.

In my future, I plan to continue working with children because that is my passion. The

various master’s courses provided gave me with knowledge to work in the field, and the

internship opportunities enabled me to know this industry better and get prepared for

my future job. What’s more, the faculty here are very nice and always happy to help,

and that gave me a very good model of what an educator should be like. I am sure this

is the place you should come if you have a passion for education, and you will have a

wonderful time like I have.

The First Annual Child Development Conference, Co-Hosted by the Department of Child and Family Development at SDSU

Please join us for the First Annual Child Development Conference, Co-Hosted by the Department of Child and Family Development at San Diego State University. The conference will be held on April 17th in Montezuma Hall in the Aztec Student Union. This will be a great opportunity for students and members of the surrounding community to come together for a day of learning. The conference is dedicated to educating attendees about an array of areas in child development, it will include keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and presentations on current research. Don't miss out on this awesome event and chance to network within the community. Be sure to register for the event ahead of time and bring your friends! For full details see the flyer below and visit our website:  http://coe.sdsu.edu/cfd/community/organizations.php

International Student Defne Kabas of Turkey Tells her Experience in the EC-SEBRIS Program

The EC-SEBRIS program got me closer to my dreams of becoming a psychologist. It
taught me a great deal about the biological, psychological and the behavioral aspects
of children's development and how we can assist them reaching their potentials. I
learned to become a team with the teachers, the families and other students in order
to strengthen specific children’s abilities and support them in any struggles they were
having growing up. I learned many valuable lessons that I can speak about in my
interviews now, from the questionnaires that we learned to use, to presentations we
prepared in small groups.

I'm also very appreciative to have met amazing teachers and students in the EC-
SEBRIS program and learned so much from them. As an international student, I felt
very welcome and supported by many amazing people and encourage anyone who is
interested in children's development to enroll. They will not only be informed of socio-
emotional and behavioral development of children, they will also be able to intervene
and experience it with children in their field practice.

I just found a job in the Istanbul Medical Faculty, Psychiatry, doing projects about bipolar
disorder. We are investigating if there are any genetic influences on kids that have
bipolar parent/s. I will do my master’s in Clinical Psychology very soon.