SON Writing Center

The School of Nursing has partnered with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) to provide writing assistance for our students. The volunteer tutors are retired professionals who are willing to give their time and expertise. We track aggregate data on students' writing skills when they seek tutoring assistance.

Meet Our Tutors

Barbaran Gossett

Barbara spent her last 18 years of employment as a planner at Caltrans, writing reports and editing engineering documents. She retired in 2009, recently enough that she misses the fun and challenge of helping people construct readable reports that present sound arguments, peppered with well-chosen words, and she is looking forward to working with nursing students.

Christian Milord

Christian was born in Wisconsin and spent many years in Canada before moving back to the USA. Following his B.A., he served a tour in the United States Coast Guard, where he specialized in electronic radio navigation as well as financial management. He was a member of the Honor Guard for a year, and wrote articles for the USCG Training Center newsletter. After his service, he entered the teaching profession at CSUF. He earned a couple of credentials and his M.S. He taught for about 25 years in both private and public schools in Japan, Sacramento and Southern California. He retired from the Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) in 2015. He’s taught about 4,000 students in his career. Currently, he’s mentoring students in various Schools at CSUF, taking part in veterans meetings, and writing articles.

Rafi Rahamim

Rafi Rahamim received a BSEE in Electonics/Computer Science from Cal-Poly in 1981. He graduated with his MBA from the University of Redlands in 1993, and earned an MA in Political Science from Cal State Fullerton in 2011. He has worked as a mortgage analyzer and is also an inventor, having invented 28 U.S. patents.

John Raphael

(In his own words): I completed two years of college as physics major. When Kennedy gave his “ask not” speech I joined the Army, just as the Viet Nam war escalated, was wounded – so they sent me computer school instead of the jungle. I spent three years fixing computers for the NSA. When I got out, IBM sent me to school, so I could fix their computers at Caltech. Then Caltech made me a Carnegie Fellow, so I could fix their astrophysics computers. The list goes on for another twenty years. I became the teacher at Calcomp, Hughes and Boeing; writing 105 books as a consultant along the way. I finished my BA in English at Cal Poly, where I met my wife of 44 years in poetry class. So we both earned our Master’s at CSUF, hers in Art, mine in English again. Boy do I love to read. My wife opened Orange County’s 1st children’s art school because they told us our oldest daughter wasn’t “gifted and talented” based on a 2nd grade IQ. The schools didn’t support visual learners or the kids gifted in art. It wasn’t in the budget.We raised four kids. Each one had to learn an instrument, take dance or karate, and pursue a sport. All four taught art at our school and earned every cent they spent. The three grown girls own their art school; their brother is a doctor. All four went to college on art scholarships. The Art House is alive and well after 25 years, but I retired. I’m here because our family spent so many great years at CSUF. I love to be here. And, there is almost nothing I’d rather talk about than writing.