Cal State LA earns dual honors from Insight Into Academia for commitment to excellence and belonging in higher education

Cal State LA has received dual recognition from Insight Into Academia magazine, the nation's leading publication focused on advancing best practices in excellence and belonging in higher education.

The magazine recently recognized Cal State LA with the 2025 Higher Education Excellence and Distinction (HEED) Award for demonstrating an outstanding commitment to academic excellence, belonging, and community-building across all levels of campus life. The university is one of only 62 institutions nationwide to receive this distinction. This marks the seventh time Cal State LA has received a HEED Award.

Additionally, Insight Into Academia granted Cal State LA the 2025 Health Professions HEED Award for its success in fostering academic excellence, belonging, and community-building in the Patricia A. Chin School of Nursing at Cal State LA. The university is one of only 29 institutions nationwide to receive this honor. This is the ninth time Cal State LA has received the Health Professions HEED Award since 2016.

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As a recipient of the 2025 awards, Cal State LA will be featured in the October 2025 issue of Insight Into Academia. The magazine annually recognizes colleges, universities, and professional schools across the country that foster environments where students, faculty, and staff thrive. Through the HEED Awards, Insight Into Academia highlights institutions that implement forward-thinking strategies, champion academic success, and cultivate supportive campus communities.

"We take a detailed and somewhat holistic approach to reviewing each application in determining who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where academic excellence and belonging are woven into the work being done every day across their campus," said Lenore Pearlstein, co-publisher of Insight Into Academia magazine.

Cal State LA is a national leader in expanding access to higher education and promoting equity, inclusion, and belonging. As a Hispanic-Serving Institution, Minority-Serving Institution, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution, the university is deeply committed to serving historically underrepresented communities.

Cal State LA acknowledges the Tongva people as the traditional caretakers of Tovaangar-known today as the Los Angeles region. As an institution located on unceded Tongva land, Cal State LA pays its respects to the ancestors, elders, and relatives past, present, and future.

Established in 2019, the College of Ethnic Studies at Cal State LA was the first such college founded in the U.S. since 1969. The college houses the departments in Asian and Asian American Studies, Chicana(o)/Latina(o) Studies, and Pan-African Studies, and is currently developing a new program in American Indian and Indigenous Studies.

The Patricia A. Chin School of Nursing in the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services at Cal State LA transforms lives and fosters healthy, thriving communities across greater Los Angeles, Southern California, and the nation by cultivating and amplifying students' unique talents, diverse life experiences, and intellect. U.S. News & World Report has ranked Cal State LA's nursing graduate program among the top five programs in California. The nursing undergraduate and graduate programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.

Cal State LA was recently recognized in the 2025 Carnegie Classifications as an Opportunity College and University, a designation that highlights institutions providing high access and strong post-graduate earnings for socioeconomically and racially diverse students.

The university is also expanding pathways in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for underserved students. This summer, the Verizon Innovative Learning STEM Achievers program served about 200 middle school students from East Los Angeles, offering hands-on experiences in robotics, virtual reality, and coding. In August 2025, Cal State LA launched the Building Bridges to STEM Careers Expo, part of the STEM Core Engineering Pathway, which supports community college students with paid internships, apprenticeships, and transition programs into four-year STEM degrees.

For a listing of the 2025 HEED awards, visit the Insight Into Academia webpage.

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California State University, Los Angeles is the premier comprehensive public university in the heart of Los Angeles. Cal State LA is ranked number one in the United States for the upward mobility of its students. Cal State LA is dedicated to engagement, service, and the public good, offering nationally recognized programs in science, the arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education, and the humanities. Founded in 1947, the University serves more than 22,000 students and has more than 270,000 distinguished alumni.