| Christine De Castro:
Reaching for the Stars
Junior Christine
De Castro received
a $1,000 scholarship from the Hispanic Americans for
Fairness in Media (HAFIM) at their 2006 Gala Awards
and Scholarship Presentation on Feb. 2 at the Hollywood
Renaissance Hotel. Twenty-five scholarships were awarded
to students from the California State University, the
University of California, and USC, all of whom are
preparing for careers in the radio, television and
film industries. The communications major was recommended
by Donn
Silvis, professor of communications, and
qualified for the award with her 3.71 GPA.
A returning student, the 34-year-old
De Castro says that she was “very close to
not winning the award. They were probably saying, ‘Look
at this, 17 years of college going on here,’ and
probably thought I would have commitment and discipline
problems. A phone interview took care of that. We
talked about how I’ve always been going to
school everywhere I’ve lived and have always
been continuing my education.”
 When De Castro moved to Southern
California from Florida, she toured several campuses
and found that Dominguez Hills held, “the right
energy for me, a place where I can walk around and
daydream and study.”
Another factor in making De Castro
feel at home was the prevailing CSUDH demographic of
older and returning students.
“That was another bonus,” she says. “When
I started taking classes at night, I met more adults,
distinguished people who already had degrees, Ph.Ds,
nonetheless. This really made me feel more comfortable
about coming back to school.
I really feel like now is the
time for me to go to college. Now that I’m older, I have more patience
and more discipline. In every class I take, I’m
just amazed at how much great information there is.”
An important part of De Castro’s
education has been her work experience, which includes
everything from the hospitality industry and serving
as a nanny for her sister who was stationed with the
Air Force in Germany. Self-motivated to learn all she
could about radio, she became a deejay on the American
Radio Network, after four years of volunteering at
local radio stations in Orlando and Los Angeles. As
a former program presenter at the Amgen Center for
Science Learning at the California Science Center in
Los Angeles, she shared the wonders of space with
young students, coordinating educational programming,
research and curriculum under a NASA grant. Now a full-time
student, she is interning for an Adelphia public access
channel, working on lighting, audio, camera operating,
and editing. After such a varied menu of media experience,
De Castro knows that she would like to call the shots
in her career, as she has done in so much of her education.
“I’d like to see myself working in production,
coming up with the creative spin on things, as well
as making projects happen,” she says. “Maybe
that would be in the form of films, of cartoons or
comic books, I’m not exactly sure what my form
is. But I do see myself as a concept person. I can
also go into teaching or public relations, that’s
why I like the versatility of this degree.”
Ever curious about every aspect of
communications, De Castro hopes to enter a work study
program with local talk station KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles
while completing her degree. Her determination and
drive is reflected in her tenacious pursuit of knowledge.
“I’ve learned how to educate myself,” she
says. “Teachers want to teach, but sometimes
you have to make sure you ask the right questions to
get the results you want. If I want clarification,
whose responsibility is it? It’s mine.”
-Joanie Harmon
Photo above (L-R): Jerry Velasco,
vice president, HAFIM; Esther Renteria, president and
founder, HAFIM; De Castro; and Danny Romero, ABC7.
Photo courtesy of Christine De Castro
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