Last month I shot several assignments for the Chronicle of Higher Education. I always enjoy shooting for the Chronicle, because I get to meet fascinating people working in the numerous universities of Southern California, including leaders in cutting edge stem cell research and Academy Award-winning physicists responsible for the lifelike animation in the film “Avatar.” One of the more interesting of my recent assignments was for a story on a national leadership meeting of the Secular Student Alliance at California Lutheran University, a school of about 2,000 in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The event was brought to the school by the founder of the school’s first ever SSA chapter, Evan Clark, who also has the unique distinction of being the school’s first ever atheist student body president. The meeting centered around strategies that the chapter leaders at various schools around the country can use to run their chapters, peacefully spread their message and handle confrontations with those who don’t share their views. Although the day was pretty much a series of meetings (i.e. not visually stimulating for this photographer) the fact that it was taking place at a religiously affiliated school with the blessing of the administration was very cool and is something to think about. Should everyone be so open-minded!