Latest news with #CalStateFullerton
Hindustan Times
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Where did Pepe play basketball? Exploring Love Island star's stats, sports career
As Love Island USA Season 7 star Jose 'Pepe' Garcia continues his journey on the reality TV show, leading up to the season finale, his basketball career remains in focus. Pepe Garcia, before embarking on his show business journey, used to be a pro basketball player. He played college basketball extensively before embarking on his professional journey in European basketball leagues. Jose 'Pepe' Garcia of Love Island USA. (Instagram/@ In this article, we'll look at Pepe's basketball career, starting in high school at Los Alamitos, to college at Cal State Fullerton, followed by the 6-foot-3 former point guard's stints in European leagues. Love Island Star Pepe's Basketball Career Love Island star Pepe Garcia, who is from Madrid, Spain, and is raised in California, had a long basketball career in the United States and European and South American leagues till the 2022-23 season. According to a report by Blavity, Pepe Garcia started his basketball career at Los Alamitos High School, where he averaged 18.8 PPG. He then joined Cal State Fullerton and mostly filled in as a bench player. His profile on ESPN's college basketball page shows that he played two seasons for Cal State Fullerton, the 2018-19 and the 2017-18 seasons. He played for a total of nine minutes across two seasons. His stat line at Cal State stood at 3.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and a field goal percentage of 33.3%. Also read: What did Cierra Ortega exactly say? Racism row blows up after Love Island villa exit Pepe Garcia reportedly declared for the 2021 NBA draft, but went undrafted. His professional records show that after being undrafted in the 2021 NBA season, he ventured abroad, playing for a third-tier professional basketball team in Spain, called CD Enrique Soler Melilla. He mostly played as a bench player in Spain, and averaged 5 points, 33% shooting, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 turnover in 12 minutes per game. In between his basketball career and current venture in Reality TV with Love Island USA Season 7, Pepe kicked off his career as a fitness trainer. He opened the gym in 2023 called Pro Gainz Training, a business he still runs.
Fox News
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Golf influencer Tisha Alyn carves her own path in the sport
The sport of golf is one of the most competitive fields any athlete could break into. Only a handful of golfers make it to the PGA or LPGA Tours. Some get stuck in the Korn Ferry Tour or Epson Tour, while others head for green pastures with LIV Golf. Golfers like Tisha Alyn have found a different way to make an impact on the sport – becoming one of the most-followed influencers in the sport. Alyn boasts more than 1.3 million followers on TikTok and another 519,000 followers on Instagram – numbers that rival the likes of Paige Spiranac, Grace Charis and others. Alyn took up the sport when she was 3 years old and began competing when she was 7. She's been across the entire country from junior golf to NCAA Division 1 with Cal State Fullerton – and it has never been about anything else. "Golf was always my main path," Alyn told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. "I used to be a competitive dancer as well, and for anyone who follows me or knows anything about me I'll showcase some fun dance trends and whatnot, but besides that, golf was always my main focus. "For those who aren't that familiar with golf, it really takes all of you. It is a lengthy sport that takes time in your day, and it is one of those sports, because it is low impact, you can do it and do it for so long. So my parents their goal for me was to always compete at a high level, play at a high level, achieve a scholarship, so golf was always it for me." Alyn said she played professionally from 2015 to 2018 but gaining funding to be able to continue to play at a high level took its toll. She said she made a larger focus on growing her social media right around the time platforms like Instagram reached its peak. She said she hoped she could use social media to earn sponsorships and other paid opportunities. "As I was going on my professional golf career, it grew in tandem with social media at the same time. Come 2018, when I stopped, I was going through injuries, I was going through a lot of personal things," she said, "I thought, 'I think it is time to put the bag down, stop playing professionally and pursue social media,' because I see something really big here, and I always was pretty good at finding trends and seeing what is going to be that it factor. "And I knew at the time even though there wasn't that influencer or personality, like we didn't have words for it, but I knew social media was here to stay. You know, looking at where we are now, it is basically the tried and true. It's where you go for any and all things media. So, I like to say I chose the right path after putting the bag down." Pursuing a career with a social media mindset is completely different from making one. A lot of time is spent creating and producing content and keeping a positive mindset is something that anyone who is extremely online is. With all the positives that come with a successful entrepreneurial career, so comes the backlash anyone would face on social media. Alyn, much like Spiranac, gets her share of social media scoundrels in her mentions. She told Fox News Digital that the key for her was to stay focused on her goals. "Staying focused on your own path and your own career I think is everything, and I am someone who is pretty feisty compared to my friends and peers around me, so I am not afraid to put up a fight or say what I feel when people especially come at me," she said. "I know I don't have it the worst among other people in my world. I'm good friends with Paige, and she really deals with it and I always tell her every time I see her you have the thickest skin … We don't wake up with a following right. "So, as you grow in it, you grow that thick skin with it. I can't imagine for those who have been one hit wonders how that must be for them to suddenly be criticize in front of the world, but for me, I just grown to wipe it off, you know dust it off the shoulder, because a lot of times they just want your attention. I think the comments that do hurt the most when they don't just attack me but they attack the people I love around me, and I think that is when it is kind of the most hurtful. But, you know, it is just kind of how that saying goes – those that throw hate at you are just envious and that is kind of how I feel, and they also give engagement, like if you want to comment thanks your growing, your growing my post, my profile, what have you, your feeding into the algorithm thank you for that." LPGA Tour legend Annika Sorenstam expressed support for golf influencers in their efforts to grow the game, lauding the ability of influencers to "bring a different view or perspective into the sport" in an interview with Fox News Digital. "I mean that to me means the world," Alyn said in response. "I have been able to work with Annika a few times so we do have a type of working relationship there but to get that affirmation from someone who is quite literally a legend in the game I think means everything. "There is still a lot of, you know, beliefs on influencers and personalities being in the space, but I think that for those who do it right, I want to say that I believe I do it the right way, to try to inspire and grow the game. I think that is here to stay, and I think Annika see's that, and she is utilizing social media. She is trying to grow on her platform as well, so it just means the world."
New York Times
09-06-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Quote of the Day: Expectations for Kindergarten Have Risen, Putting Boys at a Disadvantage
'The data is clear men aren't superhealthy.' MATT ENGLAR-CARLSON, founder of the Center for Boys and Men at Cal State Fullerton, on the higher increase in suicides by young men than by women, one of several data points showing that boys and young men are struggling.
Los Angeles Times
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Laguna Art Museum exhibit centers on ‘Wuthering Heights' character Heathcliff
There's vibrant color, engaging imagery and a strong sense of subversiveness. And at the center of Carole Caroompas' posthumous exhibit at Laguna Art Museum is Heathcliff. But this is no 'Wuthering Heights.' 'The show has this Heathcliff series and there's 10 works in the series and all 10 of them are included in the show,' said Rochelle Steiner, guest curator at Laguna Art Museum who curated 'Carole Caroompas: Heathcliff and the Femme Fatale Go on Tour,' which runs through July 13. 'It's the first time that the series has been shown completely, which is very exciting,' Steiner said. 'She made them between 1997 and 2001. This work was inspired [in part] by her interest in 'Wuthering Heights,' that's the Heathcliff reference.' Caroompas, who spent her early life in Newport Beach and attended Cal State Fullerton before moving to Los Angeles, died at age 76 in 2022. With the help of her estate, the museum is showing the exhibit fully, with all 10 pieces. She was an artist inspired by pop culture and literature, feminism, gender and relationships. 'She got her MFA at USC and then after she graduated, she kind of found her way into the artist community of L.A.,' Steiner said. 'She was a painter. Her paintings are quite interesting in terms of the way she mixes materials and sources and references. One of the things that she was very inspired by was music. So in this particular series, you see a lot of references to musicians. But she also was very interested in what she called 'found embroidery,' which is basically like everything from napkins to tablecloths to things that had embroidered edges. And those were incorporated into her paintings as well.' Steiner said there's a mix of painted, collaged and assembled works in Caroompas' art. 'Rough and also very refined,' she said of the artist's works. 'Extremely colorful and extremely painted … mashed together. It's quite an interesting aesthetic. Some of the imagery is taken from album covers or inspired by album covers or movies or TV shows or even postcards that she found. She was quite a kind of visual collector and then that got assembled into her artworks.' 'Queen of the Countryside' in the Heathcliff series is just one example. It uses acrylic paint and found embroidery on canvas over panel that's nearly 8-feet tall, and has two sections. In one section, Heathcliff is different male rock stars — John Doe of LA punk band X and Joe Strummer of the Clash. They are with Exene Cervenka of X and Catherine Earnshaw, the fictional female lead character of 'Wuthering Heights.' 'She was really … on the one hand, very grounded in art and idea and literature and the classics and the movies and the films,' Steiner said. 'And on the other hand, she was incredibly fantastical in terms of her imagination and amalgamation of imagery.' The works in the series range widely in size — from a couple of feet up to 8 feet. 'There's really a sense of scale,' Steiner said. Steiner also included some of the artist's source material. 'For example, we found a few of the original postcards that she used, like images of kids or singers or others,' Steiner said. 'I put those in the between so we can see what she was drawing from.' Steiner also included Caroompas' own copy of 'Wuthering Heights' as part of the exhibit. The classic novel was written by English author Emily Bronte and published in 1847. 'So she wasn't just kind of superficially interested in 'Wuthering Heights,'' Steiner said. 'She read it and read it many times and I reproduced a page from it. She marked on almost every page, like different passages, and she took notes, and she, you know, really studied it.' At the heart of the Heathcliff series is relationships. 'She definitely was a feminist,' Steiner said. 'On the one hand very much focused on relationships between men and women, and that comes out in many of the works [in Heathcliff]. … What is the relationship or structure of a relationship between men and women? But she was very interested in kind of deconstructing power dynamics and thinking about equality and inequality.' Los Angeles artist Tom Knechtel said he first met Caroompas when she was invited to CalArts as a visiting artist in 1975, when he was in his second year of graduate school there. 'Carole's inspirations were diverse: literature, film, rock music, the history of art, popular culture and advertising,' Knechtel said. 'Before each body of work, she did extensive research — she often came to my house to raid my library. … The materials that she brought back from these investigations were not presented in a simple, straightforward fashion but were woven into a complex tapestry of conflicting images that create a conversation in front of the viewer.' Artist Cliff Benjamin, who lives in Hawaii, is in charge of Caroompas' estate. 'I knew Carole since 1985, until the day she died,' he said. 'She and I were really good friends for many decades.' He said she was a professor at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles for more than 30 years. 'It was a huge influence on … hundreds and hundreds of art students,' he said. Benjamin said she was part of the generation that lived through civil rights, women's and anti-war movements. 'She was part of that '60s generation that went through all of those different movements and was very much about doing the right thing,' he said. The Laguna Art Museum is located at 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach. For more information and to order tickets, visit
Hindustan Times
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Yellowstone star Kevin Costner believes THIS particular change can actually help Americans
Kevin Costner wants to see a change in the way America educates its children. While sitting with the Associated Press, the Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker expressed, 'I wish we would have a giant shift in education where history dominated more than math.' 'The people that are really good at math, they're going to search out math anyway — cause that's who they are, they're just built that way.' What matters, he said, is 'Everybody can understand where they come from.' ALSO READ| 'Incredibly fit' Jennifer Lopez 'inspiring' Kevin Costner to hit the gym as rumoured romance grows Costner, who has often explored American themes in his work, from the frontier in Dances With Wolves to Field of Dreams, graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 1978 with a degree in business administration. He later returned to the campus in 2007 to speak with students. 'You'll need to listen to your inner voice,' he told them. 'There's no blueprint for success ... What's really interesting is how you're going to do it.' The Yellowstone star has largely avoided politics. Earlier this year, he attended a Super Bowl party in New Orleans, and in an interview with Fox News around that time, he stressed that filmmaking has 'nothing to do with politics.' Instead, 'I think you make the best movie you can for an audience and understand that… you have a chance. Every so often you have a chance to do something meaningful. And sometimes it's just pure fun. Movies don't have to be important, but they have to have an audience in mind.' Costner also pushed back against the idea that politics should influence the moviegoing experience, saying, 'It's got nothing to do with politics. It's about the people sitting in the dark.' ALSO READ| Kevin Costner felt 'sucker punched' as ex-wife Christine Baumgartner gets engaged with his old pal 'Movies — when at their best — are really about moments we'll never, ever forget,' The Highwaymen star believes.
