Cal State CREATE

Prismatic blue and green background with Cal State CREATE stylized logo

What Is Cal State CREATE?

Cal State CREATE is a CSU-wide creative event and competition in collaboration with Adobe and Apple. Similar to Adobe Creative Jams, CSU students have the opportunity to explore creative tools and create a unique, personal artifact to submit to the competition for prizes. The theme for 2023 was “You Belong Here” which encouraged students to explore thier personal definition of belonging and community and charged them to visually communicate their stories.

The virtual event began on April 5 with two keynote speakers who were both CSU alumni and active in the Film & TV industries. The opening keynote was followed by an Adobe Express bootcamp to give all participants the tools they need for the competition. Afterwards, students had asynchronous time to create a visual story with Adobe tools on the theme of belonging for the creative competition. After submitting projects, everyone returned on April 19 for a closing ceremony to highlight the winning submissions and feature the diverse ways belonging is depicted by the student participants.

Icon of three people figures representing 381 registrants
Icon of a school building representing 21 participating CSU campuses
Icon of a basic webpage representing 50 project submissions
Blue shape of California with each CSU campus labeled

Congratulations to Our Inaugural Cal State CREATE Winners

First Place– “To My Self” by Juan Carlos Mosqueda Rosales from Fresno State

Second Place– “How I Found Belonging At Cal Poly As A Queer Woman Of Color” by Anusha Sowda from Cal Poly

Third Place (tied)– “Where Do I Belong?” by Imani McEwan from CSU Dominguez Hills

Third Place (tied)– “Asian-American Artists United” – by Samuel Louie, Katie Tam, and Lyndsey Park from Cal Poly

Click the button below to visit the event landing page for more event details and archived session recordings.

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