USC researchers know what you did on Venmo — and they’re not alone
The popular social payments app makes user profiles, payment notes and friend lists public by default. That’s laid the groundwork for millions of privacy leaks.
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Master in Social Work graduate dedicated to helping children experiencing homelessness
COMMENCEMENT 2022: Jennifer Weck was named School Social Work Intern of the Year by the San Diego Department of Education.
Former Trojan offensive lineman has been driven to succeed from childhood — on and off the field
COMMENCEMENT 2022: Frank Martin II is a busy guy: He’s accumulated three USC degrees in six years, all while being a spokesman for Athletics’ Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Now he’s moving on to the world of venture capital.
USC President Carol L. Folt recaps a year of Trojan accomplishments
As the 2021-2022 academic year wraps up, the president shares a video message highlighting an incredible year. Watch her roundup of the year’s events and hear her words of thanks to students, faculty and staff.
Meet the USC badminton star who wants to make ethical and sustainable gear
COMMENCEMENT 2022: USC Viterbi graduate Saket Venkatesh is harnessing his industrial and systems engineering skills to develop badminton shuttlecocks that avoid animal cruelty and cut waste.
Celebrating the Class of 2022
Relive all of the memories of Commencement Day:
A return to normal and a proper sendoff: Class of 2022 is urged to live ‘a life of purpose’
COMMENCEMENT 2022: A class tempered by the uncertainty of COVID-19 crosses a finish line during USC’s 139th commencement ceremony — where a new passage awaits. Share in the festivities and see some of our favorite photos of the day.
For these Trojans, commencement is a family affair
COMMENCEMENT 2022: USC alumni return to their alma mater to watch their children receive degrees of their own.
Parents, as they often do, create the foundation of USC student’s success
COMMENCEMENT 2022: Jacqueline Martinez will receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees on Friday, thanks to her mom and dad’s loving support.
People
Incoming USC freshman makes history as youngest U.S. woman to reach top of Mount Everest
Lucy Westlake, who started climbing mountains with her father when she was just 7 years old, reached the summit early Thursday morning.
The Wall Street Journal
Below the Hollywood sign, a once-private enclave becomes a home-buying hot spot
But Hollywoodland is also a hot spot for tourists, setting the stage for conflict between residents and visitors, notes USC Dornsife’s Leo Braudy. He’s the author of The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon.
The Guardian
‘Bossware is coming for almost every worker’: The software you might not realize is watching you
It’s not just a privacy issue: Being monitored lowers your sense of perceived autonomy, which can increase stress and anxiety, says USC Marshall Associate Professor Nathanael Fast.
New Humanist
How do we warn future generations about our toxic waste?
Saving our planet may depend on communicating with people 10,000 years from now. USC Dornsife visiting scholar Vincent Ialenti says that the speed at which language evolves will make such communication difficult. The word “internet,” he notes, would mean little to someone living in the 1970s.
Deadline.com
The Batman director Matt Reeves to deliver USC School Of Cinematic Arts commencement address
The USC alum will speak on May 13 at the Shrine Auditorium. Insecure writer-director-EP Prentice Penny will receive its Mary Pickford Alumni Award.
Los Angeles Times
What Elon Musk’s Twitter move says about social media’s political tightrope
“When I look at Twitter, I don’t see a social network, I see an information network,” says USC Annenberg’s Karen North. “It’s a network of people who are communicators, either journalists or people who act like journalists conveying information to their audiences.”
The Associated Press
For Russian diplomats, disinformation is part of the job
Russian embassies around the world are prolifically using Facebook, Twitter and other platforms to undermine the international coalition supporting Ukraine. “They must know better, but that’s what it’s like living in and working for a totalitarian regime,” said Nicholas Cull, a USC professor who studies diplomacy and propaganda.
Slate
Inside L.A.’s housing crisis, from someone who lived it
Trojan Ethan Ward reports on homelessness for KPCC-FM. It’s topic into which he has special insight: Before attending USC or becoming a reporter, he lived in his car.
LAist
California’s largest cities saw significant population decline during 1st full year of COVID
Rising housing costs in Los Angeles County and the Bay Area are chasing away both California natives and immigrants, USC Dornsife Professor Manuel Pastor says.
Los Angeles Times
Will Smith’s attack on Chris Rock shows toxic masculinity boiling over
Recovering from a lifetime of toxic masculinity requires men to be mindful of the ways we have been socialized to handle anger in interactions with other men, women and genderqueer persons, Executive Director Shaun Harper of the USC Race and Equity Center notes in an op-ed.
The New York Times
What’s next for the pandemic in California?
An increase in COVID cases in 2022 should be entirely different from one in 2020, says Jeffrey Klausner of the Keck School of Medicine of USC: “We’re kind of more in the realm right now of what a typical influenza season might look like.”
The Wall Street Journal
Scream or Scream? Hollywood loves sequels so much that not even the names change
Longer, more creative titles can be intimidating to some viewers and unnecessary for others, says Associate Professor J.D. Connor of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. And adding numbers to the end of sequels can discourage viewers who haven’t already seen the previous movies.
Protein protects cells from stressful forces, and diseases such as muscular dystrophy, by forming ‘nanoclusters’
A team of USC Dornsife scientists finds new evidence of how the protein emerin functions and how it may be linked to a rare and debilitating form of muscular dystrophy.
‘The class that did the impossible’
The Offspring’s Dexter Holland and a student speaker deliver are part of the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s commencement ceremonies.
Keck School of Medicine graduates congratulated for ‘choosing to become forces for good’
COMMENCEMENT 2022: Award-winning Journalist Ann Curry delivered the commencement address for USC’s doctorate of medicine students.
USC Price grad advocates for people with disabilities before the U.N., India Supreme Court
COMMENCEMENT 2022: Manushri Desai leaves USC with an arsenal of experience advocating for disability rights.
USC Annenberg and Paramount establish first-of-its-kind scholarship to advance Latino diversity in newsrooms
The Paramount Latinx Diversity in Journalism Scholarship, supported by a $1 million gift, will cover yearly tuition for a Latino student to enroll in one of USC Annenberg’s journalism master’s programs.
Students improve mobile app accessibility for people with disabilities
Two USC Viterbi doctoral students want to make the process of redesigning apps for accessibility convenient.
Report details potential problems caused by lack of diversity in clinical trials
Model from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics plays key role in report form the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.
USC helps Army veteran and counterintelligence officer deepens his expertise in defense
COMMENCEMENT 2022: Working in intelligence, John Esparza he knew a deeper understanding of the law would be beneficial to his career. That’s where USC Gould’s online Master of Studies in Law program comes in.
Oral history project collects tales from the Armenian diaspora using a converted food truck
“My Armenian Story,” a program of the USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies, encourages Armenians from Southern California and around the world to record their memories.
USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative comes back to campus in style
The university’s signature college prep program celebrates its graduates in person for the first time since 2019.
War in Ukraine hits home for Trojan rower
Despite the conflict in her home country, junior Anastasiia Slivina stays strong for her family and her teammates.
An architect of the landmark Human Genome Project looks back
USC University Professor Emeritus Michael Waterman stood at the forefront of computational biology 40 years ago. The world is still catching up.
Alumna Adria Navarro receives prestigious Fulbright Scholar award
The 2011 doctoral graduate will research the role of social workers in evaluating older adults’ capacity to make decisions.
From Nairobi to L.A.: USC Price and Dornsife grad aims for international impact
COMMENCEMENT 2022: Serish Thakker just graduated with degrees in public policy and international relations.
Family’s shared determination creates a path to USC
Ricky Ramiro Jr. — a new graduate of USC’s signature college prep program, the Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative — says his parents’ hard work and sacrifices helped him become a Trojan.
New ‘Segregation Index’ shows U.S. schools remain highly separated by race, ethnicity and economic status
USC and Stanford researchers say the index — a public resource for tracking segregation — signals an “urgent need” to address rising segregation in large school districts.
New evidence on how adults’ large bone injuries repair
Key to the repair strategy examined in the USC study is a gene with a fittingly heroic name: Sonic hedgehog.
New doctors train by serving L.A.’s underserved in first-of-its-kind Street Medicine residency track
Caring for unhoused people offers key lessons to Family Medicine interns at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
For graduate Elyse Pollack, there’s nothing better than being a Trojan
COMMENCEMENT 2022: From playing on USC’s world-famous marching band to mentorship for USC’s female engineers, the USC Viterbi graduating senior thrives on Trojan spirit and family.
Grad’s startup gives second life to students’ collegiate gear
COMMENCEMENT 2022: USC Viterbi graduate Patricia Garcia is winning accolades for her company that allows students to thrift their logo clothing and other branded items.
Full-time student, part-time soldier: USC Price grad says ROTC set her up for success
COMMENCEMENT 2022: Abby Erckenbrack says the lessons she learned and friendships she formed will last a lifetime.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address American universities Monday on future of higher ed in Ukraine
At 8 a.m. PDT, the Association of American Universities will livestream the speech on how American universities and Ukraine can work together to rebuild the country’s higher ed sector; a Q&A follows.
Adam Karelin: ‘May we all find the strength to face evil with light’
COMMENCEMENT 2022: USC’s valedictorian speaks for a resilient Class of 2022, and shares a poignant message on the war in Ukraine.
Carol L. Folt: ‘Challenges, and how you face them, are essential parts of who you are’
COMMENCEMENT 2022: USC’s president shares a message of hope and encouragement with the university’s newest graduates.