By Andrew Amaya
Sai Ke, Yevgeniya Mikhailik and Erika Rosen are three of the 34 new faculty members that Long Beach State has hired for the new academic year.
Although the three professors all teach different subjects, they share the same excitement for the academic year.
Coming from the University of Mississippi, Sai Ke is a new assistant professor of finance at CSULB.
Ke started his educational journey at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he obtained both his bachelor’s degree in quantitative finance and risk management and his master’s in finance. He obtained his doctorate in business administration at the University of Houston.
The wide range of math is what intrigued Ke to study the subject of finance.
“When you learn about finance a bit deeper, you will find different math formulas,” Ke said. “I feel like sometimes the formulas look like incantations or magic spells, which attracted me when I was younger.”
The lively energy on campus played a big part in why Ke chose CSULB.
“I like the atmosphere among colleagues and the interaction between faculty and students,” Ke said. “My colleagues here are very helpful, they are very friendly. For students, I feel like they are quite hard working and they are eager for knowledge.”
Ke plans to continue his academic research and publish research papers to his website.
Yevgeniya Mikhailik in her art studio standing next to her own illustration. Despite not having an on-campus office yet, Mikhailik said that she wants to help her students in their artistic journey. Courtesy of: Yevgeniya Mikhailik
As an alumni and lecturer for seven years at CSULB, Mikhailik recently took on the role to teach at the institution as a full time assistant professor of illustration.
“I feel very much at home here,” Mikhailik said. “Overall, I love it here, which was why I applied for this position in the first place. It’s sort of a home away from home.”
Mikhailik received both her bachelor’s and her master’s degrees in illustration at CSULB.
In her early years, Mikhailik said that she always knew she wanted to become an artist. Once she came to CSULB, she discovered the different paths of art that she could pursue.
“I came to Cal State Long Beach right out of high school and started to discover the different avenues to pursue in the arts,” Mikhailik said. “Illustration combined my interest in making images, drawing and working with text.”
Despite not having an on-campus office yet, Mikhailik said that she wants to help her students form their individual creative identities, and she also hopes to form a creative community. To Mikhailik, community starts in the classroom.
“My bigger goal for my students is to help them understand themselves as artists and to start forming their creative identities through continuous practice,” Mikhailik said.
Outside of the classroom, Mikhailik said that she is working on a year-long body of work that focuses on communication between plants and how they support each other.
Erika Rosen standing right outside her new office next to the Health and Human Services 2 offices. Like Ke, Rosen is arriving from the South as a new assistant professor in health science. Photo credit: Andrew Amaya
Rosen comes from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, where she was a graduate assistant for four years. She also was a guest lecturer at Xavier University in New Orleans.
Rosen said she chose CSULB specifically because its social mobility relates to her work.
“That’s what a lot of my work revolves around,” Rosen said. “It’s trying to work with communities and leave them better than I found them.”
Rosen got her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Washington and her master’s degree in Public Health, specifically in epidemiology, from George Washington University.
After obtaining her doctorate in epidemiology from LSU Health Sciences Center, Rosen said she knew she wanted to become a professor.
“I knew I wanted to continue doing research, but I also knew I wanted that mentorship with students and aid in their development,” Rosen said.
One of the goals that Rosen wants to achieve while teaching at CSULB in her first year is to become a better educator. She said that working with students and others around her will help her with this objective.
“I think that working with the students is really going to be helpful,” Rosen said. “Learning how the student population learns best is really important to customize your teaching to the students themselves.”
