Student & Alumni Spotlight

On a Friday, ISM Brewing in downtown Long Beach opens its doors. When people walk in, they may only notice the friends they’re with, the beer they ordered, or the food they’re smelling. What they may not notice is where the owner, Cal State Fullerton alum Ian McCall, comes in.

He has a lot to think about each day to keep his business running smoothly. There is the brewery itself, where more than a dozen award-winning craft beers are created and distributed; the kitchen and back of house, where Chef Robert “Bobby” Gill and his team prepare pub fare from scratch; and the customer’s first point of contact- the front-of-house team. Overall, McCall is thinking about approximately 25 employees and the many moving parts that keep the business running.

Managing it requires an understanding not only of business and hospitality but, most importantly, of people.

For that last part, McCall's Humanities and Social Sciences education prepared him surprisingly well.

He majored in Religious Studies, then known as Comparative Religion.

“I didn't find Religious Studies,” said McCall, who graduated in 2011. “It kind of found me.”

After graduating from high school in 2000, McCall didn't immediately jump into a four-year degree, nor did he know what career path to take. He spent several years working and taking classes at different community colleges before eventually earning his associate degree from Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

While taking community college courses, McCall began working at Brewbakers, a small brew-on-premises brewery in Huntington Beach, where customers have an active hand in brewing their own unique beer. It was also where he met his future wife, Lisa, who would help him get back on track toward a bachelor's degree. 

Lisa encouraged him to go back to school. 

“She actually pulled all my transcripts together, enrolled me at Cal State Fullerton, and got me set up with my first semester of classes,” McCall said. 

Among that initial mix of courses his girlfriend signed him up for was RLST 105, “Religion and the Quest for Meaning,” taught by Jeanette Reedy Solano, professor of religious studies. The course examines the “nature of religious experience as the human pursuit of meaning and transcendence,” according to the CSUF course catalog.

Up until this point, studying religion in an academic rather than a religious setting had not occurred to McCall. 

“I was raised Catholic. Around 18, my mom and family really wanted me to continue, but I didn't find the answers to the questions I had within the Catholic Church,” McCall explained. He ended up walking away soon after. 

The option to study religion academically offered McCall something different. It gave him the opportunity to learn about many belief systems without one belief being imposed. It also encouraged him to delve into their histories while exploring subjects across the humanities.

“When I jumped into comparative religion, it was an opportunity not only to study religion from an outsider's perspective, but it included all of the humanities,” McCall said. “Everything from history and anthropology to archaeology, philosophy, and sociology.”

It was this range of humanities disciplines that further solidified McCall’s desire to pursue a Religious Studies degree. 

Professor Solano said McCall’s experience of discovering Religious Studies through an introductory course is one she has seen with other students.

“Most of our students who become majors follow a similar path: they discover the rich and vital academic field of Religious Studies in an introductory or specialized topic upper-division seminar and have an academic ‘aha’ moment,” Solano said.

At Cal State Fullerton, Religious Studies approaches religion through understanding rather than belief. Students examine different religious traditions, beliefs, and practices from an academic perspective, with openness and a willingness to learn at the center of that study.

For McCall, learning to understand beliefs different from his own had a lasting impact that he has taken throughout his post-college life.

McCall explains that even though another person’s beliefs may not always make sense to him, they really don’t have to.

“It's accepting people where they're at and not expecting them to change and be something different,” McCall said.

Several Religious Studies faculty members helped shape that experience.

Solano still remembers McCall as a student.

“I remember Ian being open, jovial, and curious,” Solano said.

McCall’s first religious studies class with Solano sparked McCall's initial interest in the field. The two also found an unexpected connection: Solano’s husband was running a microbrewery in downtown Los Angeles when they met, while brewing remained an interest McCall had in the back of his mind throughout his time at CSUF.

Another important influence was the late Benjamin J. Hubbard, professor emeritus of comparative religion, who served as McCall’s adviser. Hubbard, who passed away on April 23, 2026, at age 89, encouraged McCall to pursue a Jewish Studies minor as well. 

The suggestion proved particularly meaningful. McCall's then-girlfriend, now wife, is Jewish, and he described the way his collegiate and personal lives came together as “serendipitous.”

McCall also remembers taking an Introduction to Mormonism course taught by Richard T. Livingston, former adjunct professor of religious studies, as one of his most engaging experiences at CSUF. Having known little about the religion beyond common stereotypes, he found the opportunity to study and openly discuss a belief system unfamiliar to him particularly valuable.

All together, those experiences began shaping a lesson McCall still carries with him today.

“Religious Studies is a people study,” he said. “It's a study in people.”

That understanding of people is one of the skills the department hopes Religious Studies students carry with them beyond the classroom, according to Zakyi Ibrahim, professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies.

“Religious Studies gives students a toolkit for working with people: how to ask good questions, how to interpret unfamiliar perspectives, and how to respond with respect,” Ibrahim said. “Those abilities matter whether graduates become teachers, managers, healthcare workers, or entrepreneurs. Understanding people and empathizing with them are some of the most valuable skills a person can carry into any career, allowing them to engage others for mutually beneficial end goals.”

So how did McCall make the jump from Religious Studies to brewing?

For a time, he wasn't sure he would.

After graduating from CSUF in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in Religious Studies and a minor in Jewish Studies, McCall considered continuing his education. He researched master's programs in Religious Studies and considered pursuing a career in academia, potentially as a professor.

But his love for brewing had never gone away.

McCall celebrated his graduation from CSUF at one of his favorite taprooms, Beachwood Brewing in Seal Beach. During dinner, he learned that the brewery was preparing to open a new brewpub in Long Beach and was hiring.

McCall applied for a brewing position. Although one wasn't available at the time, he accepted a job as a bartender and returned to the beer industry shortly after graduation.

Determined to take brewing further, McCall enrolled in a brewing course through the Siebel Institute of Technology. The additional training helped demonstrate that he was serious about making brewing his career.

In 2013, McCall became an assistant brewer at Beachwood Brewing & Barbecue in downtown Long Beach. He eventually became lead brewer before leaving in 2018 to become head brewer at RIIP Beer Company in Huntington Beach, where he helped see the brewery through a period of significant growth.

Then, in 2023, McCall received an unexpected call from his former employer.

Beachwood was preparing to sell its downtown Long Beach pub and approached McCall about purchasing it.

Owning his own brewery had once seemed like a distant dream, but suddenly, the opportunity was in front of him.

McCall and his wife took the plunge, purchasing the brewery and opening ISM Brewing in November 2023.

More than a decade after McCall walked into Beachwood as a recent CSUF graduate and bartender, he returned to the same Long Beach location as its owner.

But owning a brewery is about more than brewing beer or watching the bottom line. For McCall, it also means leading a team of employees and creating a place where everyone who walks through the doors feels welcome.

It's here that his Religious Studies education begins to reappear.

When it comes to leading his employees, McCall said he comes back to the same ideas of “acceptance and open-mindedness” that shaped his time studying different religions and belief systems.

“Being willing to meet somebody where they're at, and then bring them up to where we want them to be,” he said.

Those lessons extend beyond his employees to the larger community surrounding ISM.

“Downtown Long Beach is a diverse community,” McCall said. “Being part of that community requires being open-minded, understanding, and accepting people where they're at.”

That philosophy has helped McCall create something he fondly refers to as a “third space,” which he explained is “a space away from home and away from work where the community can feel warm, welcome, accepted and invited.”

His religious studies background and his personal life further combine in the name he chose for his brewery.

“‘-ism’ is a suffix that denotes a belief or a movement, right? Catholicism, Mormonism, nationalism — all the ‘isms’ of the world,” McCall said. “That definitely ties into my Religious Studies background.”

And there is another connection.

“Fortunately for me, it's also my initials,” McCall said.

Even though McCall’s path from studying religion academically to running a popular brewery may not seem linear or easy, he says he would do it all again.

“I had no idea what my future held, and I was along for the ride,” McCall said.

McCall’s advice for students is simple: “Get a degree in something you enjoy.” McCall adds, “So very rarely do people's college degrees fully determine what their future is.”

Studying something meaningful to them can teach students invaluable skills they can carry into their future endeavors. 

As a business owner, he has learned that being successful isn't just about knowing how to brew a good beer or turn a profit; it’s about the people who walk through the doors and decide to stay.

When ISM Brewery closes at the end of each shift, the individuals who fill its walls are at the heart of what McCall referred to as a “third space.” A special place in the community where people felt “warm, welcome, accepted, and invited.” 

McCall will return to Cal State Fullerton for HSS Pub Fest on Nov. 19, where ISM Brewing will be a featured vendor during the after-hours faculty showcase featuring interviews with the dean.

Pub Fest Schedule

ISM Brewery has won numerous awards, including:

Great American Beer Festival - National
2025 Gold - Chepedelic - New Zealand IPA
2024 Bronze  - Plough & Harrow - Classic Saison
World Beer Cup - International 
2026 Gold - Immutable Dawn - American IPA
2026 Silver - Chepedelic - New Zealand IPA
2025 Silver - Hambrughini - Italian Pilsner
2025 Silver - Plough & Harrow - Classic Saison
2024 Gold - Western Standard Time - West Coast IPA
2024 Gold - Calf Fiend - Coffee Beer 
2024 Bronze - Plough & Harrow - Classic Saison 
Awards at the California Craft Beer Cup, Best of the West, and Craft Beer and Brewing Best of 2025