College of Science & Engineering Alumni Newsletter

Spring 2001

Another Outstanding New Graduate

    This year the College has selected Jill Allison Stokes from Cell and Molecular Biology to represent our graduates at Commencement.
    Remember this name Jill Stokes, because someday we may hear about her research on herbicide resistance and the field of molecular genetics.
     Jill arrived at San Francisco State three years ago and found her way to the laboratory of Dr. Zheng Hui He and his studies of plant molecular genetics. Jill, a self- proclaimed science lover, made herself a valuable component to Dr. He’s lab.  After first meeting Dr. He, she recalls telling him, “I’ll do anything. I’ll wash dishes if you want.”
     Looking back, Jill says she appreciated the endless opportunities she was given to prove herself while working beside professors, post docs, and graduate students. She attended science meetings, contributed to a poster and collaborated on a paper for a plant journal. She’s fond of saying that her time in the lab changed her two-dimensional view of science into a 3-D movie. Jill once said, “If not for the lab, I would not have blossomed as much. The people there were growing me into a scientists.”
     Jill grew up on the East Coast but came west and enrolled at City College of San Francisco before transferring to SFSU. She finished classes in December and graduates with a 3.93 GPA. She now works for Exelixis Pharmaceutical Company in South San Francisco where she’s an assistant research scientist in plant biology. She hopes to attend graduate school at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.
     Congratulations and good luck to Jill and College of Science & Engineering Class of 2001. Please welcome these wonderful new grads into the alumni family.
 
 
 
 

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