Paul Mata and CSUSB alumni think about how many miles one ...

exchange of ideas – fashion statements included– piercings and punk rock hair likeChris’s are typically less free.The signs of acceptance had begunpopping up well before commencement.Deft at handling social science statisticsand at getting along with people, Chrishad aided several students and saw it asa gesture that just made sense. His classmatesfelt the same way about nominatinghim to carry the honors-students flagfor the commencement ceremony.A few years earlier, that choice wouldn’thave come so easily to the principal at theChristian school in Apple Valley whereChris, who had been home-schooled byhis mother until the 11th grade, had begunattending.“I enjoyed it. But I kind of ran into …,”Chris pauses, huntingfor the right word, “Idon’t know if you‘d say‘trouble.’” Mohawks andbody jewelry not beingin the school’s good graces, the principalasked Chris to cut his hair, a request irritatingenough that Chris dug for and foundU.S. Supreme Court rulings that said “hairwas not a distraction.” Chris discussed thiswith the principal. He and the school compromised.He wore a hat.Still, the “politics” that permeated theissue was disillusioning, and so Chris leftschool before finishing. He soon enrolledat another school, graduated a few monthslate and then took a job at Hot Topic – alternative-wearheaven and the one placeat the Victor Valley Mall where there wouldbe no critiques of piercings and the blackand red Mohawk that stood nine incheshigh straight and stiff. No critiques, withone exception: Shawna Wittig.Shawna, a high schooler who shoppedHot Topic, had been raised on military basesand on the looks of “clean-cut” boys. ButChris was attractive, and Shawna liked hishair. “When I saw Chris it was like, ‘Ah, he’san individual,’” she recalls. He was also intelligent,sweet luck for a young woman,who, at 16, was already taking college classesand now grateful to find someone withwhom she could talk more deeply. One oftheir topics was college. “Okay, she thinksit’s important,” Chris admitted grudgingly.“I’ll give it a try.” Figuring he’d climb theHot Topic corporate ladder, he enrolled atVictor Valley College as a business major,but soon changed his major after takingtwo courses in psychology. His psychologyinstructor, a man of suits and ties, practicedhis subject matter well, never oncemaking Chris feel different because of hisjewelry, clothes or hair.And in another pairing of what seemedstrange bedfellows, Chris also enlisted inROTC – the nonconformist in a strongholdof conformity – a program he’d carried afondness for ever since childhood. Thisfeeling gave his teenage conversations atpunk rock concerts a certain texture. He’dgo to punk rock concerts and hang withfriends, who, on the whole, had a fondnessfor anarchy.“I was always at odds with them becauseI was [for] capitalism [and a] conservative,Republican, Christian,” he says. “So I lookedlike them, but I didn’t think like them.”When Chris transferred to Cal State San‘I was always at odds with them because I was [for] capitalism, [and a] conservative,Republican, Christian. So I looked like them, but I didn’t think like them.’Bernardino, he began research with psychologyprofessors as a McNair Scholar, gotinvolved in academic clubs and, over time,began accumulating awards. In 2007, heand Shawna, the outstanding student forCSUSB’s social sciences department, graduatedtogether and married two monthslater. (“Degrees before rings,” they hadtold each other.) Now, it was time to workon his Ph.D. in clinical psychology.The fact that an undergraduate such asChris cruised into a Penn State Ph.D. programfrom a CSU impressed people in thefall of 2007. Only one other student in hiscohort came straight from an undergraduateprogram, all of them hailed from miniIvy, public Ivy or classic Ivy League schools,and three waited one or two years to enterPenn State, choosing first to pick up moreresearch experience. Chris felt fortunate.By the time he arrived at Penn State, hehad done two studies at CSUSB and hadearned an outstanding undergraduate researchaward.All of it added up. The awards, researchand club activities and the work with professorsand classmates. “That really feltgood,” he says, recalling his classmates’applause at seeing him honored at commencement.“That just reconfirmed everythingthat I felt – that I belonged, I finallybelonged somewhere, not just got along.”18 | summer 2008