Alumni cement their support with Otter statue bricks

By Mark Muckenfuss

Matt Lussier said he hadn’t thought seriously about donating to Cal State Monterey Bay until he had the chance to buy a brick. 

An email about the new otter statue on campus and the opportunity to purchase and inscribe a brick at its base intrigued him, he said: “I thought now was the time to start giving back.”

The campaign is a way to raise money for the cost of the statue. The bricks, which will be inset in the pavement surrounding the statue in front of the Otter Student Union, are being sold in a range of donation prices, from $250 to $2,500, They provide a way for any Otter booster to not only donate to the campus but to leave an enduring symbol of support.

Lussier’s brick will be engraved with his name and information on his degree and graduation year. It will also bear the Latin phrase “Cras es Noster” and its translation, “Tomorrow is ours.”

A resident of Pacific Grove, Lussier grew up locally and said he felt strongly about attending the community’s university. After graduating from CSUMB in 2007, he built a 17-year career at Apple, most recently serving as the education program manager for K-12 for hardware engineering. Having a focal point for CSUMB’s identity is important, he said. 

“I feel like the adding of this centerpiece is another step in showing the maturity of CSUMB’s campus,” he said, pointing out that the surrounding donor bricks create “a legacy piece that represents all the students that came before and will come after. We’re simply voices of the past that are helping support the students of the current and future generations.”

Alumna Jessica McKillip said she’s been inspired by the new statue. 

“I think it's a great center statement,” McKillip said. “I love it.”

So much so, that she decided it was time to make her first donation to CSUMB since graduating in 2008 with a double major in public health and social work. She now serves as the executive director of ITN Monterey County, a nonprofit that provides transportation for people over 60 and visually impaired adults. . 

McKillip, who is from Hanford and now lives in Seaside, said one of the things that attracted her to CSUMB was its then oceanography program – where she began her studies – and its service learning requirement. 

“The service learning model was really important to me,” she said. “My first semester, I volunteered with the after-school program for at-risk youth in East Salinas.” 

She later spent time working at the Marina Veterans Transition Center and with the Monterey County Health Department on a needs-assessment study for low-income communities. The latter experience helped her get hired right after graduation for a county program addressing community health disparities. 

Over the years, she said, she has kept CSUMB close to her heart, attending several alumni events. Seeing the otter statue campaign compelled her to get involved at another level.  

“In the industry I work in, there are a lot of organizations that do planned or legacy giving,” she said. “It’s something I’ve paid a lot more attention to in the past few years, that opportunity to be part of something.” 

Now, her brick – engraved with her name, her major and the year she graduated – will be a permanent part of CSUMB. 

So too will Nerida Macias’ brick. Hers, however, will be printed in Spanish.

Macias, who is from Modesto and now lives in Portland, said she is hoping her brick will speak to other students, like her, who come from immigrant backgrounds and are the first in their families to attend college. 

Support from the TRIO SSS and EOP Summer Bridge programs helped her earn not only a bachelor’s degree in social and behavioral sciences in 2013, but also encouraged her to go further and pursue a master’s in leadership with an emphasis on student affairs in higher education from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She worked in college admissions there before taking a job at Portland Community College, where she is a coordinator for its high school dual credit program and part-time faculty. 

She said she still feels a great affinity for CSUMB.

“I have graduated from another institution and I’ve worked for other institutions, but I’m just naturally drawn to Monterey,” she said. “I have so many fond memories. I really just wanted to leave my mark on campus, much like it left its mark on me.”

And she wanted to leave it in a specific way. The inscription, “Raíces profundas florecen en mi,"  translates to “Deep roots flourish in me.”

“I was intentional about having my inscription in Spanish,” she said. “I did a lot of growing up at CSUMB. I grew a stronger connection to my roots via the diverse courses I took while there. I am proud to be first-gen and to be the daughter of immigrants. In a way, my degree wasn't just for me but for my parents and my community." 

She said she hopes the phrase in Spanish on her brick “helps others feel seen on campus, to see my name and think, ‘OK, that's a success story.’ A lot of students, I think, get sort of lost along their journeys. This is for them.” 

Otter statue bricks can be purchased on the donation webpage until Dec. 4.