#065
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Outstanding
graduates include mother and son, cancer survivor, and S.F. Police
Officer
SAN FRANCISCO,
May 19, 2005 -- San Francisco State University
will confer a record number of bachelor's and master's
degrees and the first in a new joint doctorate at its 104th Commencement
at 12:15p.m. Saturday, May 28. The 7,832 graduates -- the largest
class in the University's history -- include representatives
of 117 countries. Below you will find selected stories of outstanding
graduates, including this year's hood recipients, who are top
graduates chosen to represent their fellow students from each of S.F.
State's academic Colleges and Liberal Studies program. For assistance
in contacting any of these students, please call the S.F. State Office
of Public Affairs and Publications at (415) 338-1665. The sampling
below includes:
- a
mother and son graduating together
- a cancer survivor
- a
San Francisco police officer who wants to teach junior high
- outstanding
students representing each college or division at SFSU
Jessica
Diane Jones, Youngest in Class of '05
Barely 19, the youngest grad this year wasted no time on the way to
her bachelor's in English literature. She attended Middle College
High in San Pablo, which shares a campus with Contra Costa Community
College. There she was able to simultaneously pursue her high school
diploma and associate's degree from Contra Costa C.C. The Oakland-born,
Pinole resident admits that she chose to major in English literature
because "I wanted to get as far away from math as I could!" While
Jones originally planned to enter law school after graduation, she
has decided to pursue a teaching credential because she wants to help
high schoolers "get into literature like I did." In fact,
she's already at it -- tutoring students back at Middle
College High.
Rhodes
Young, Oldest in Class of '05
The desire to write and publish his own poetry haunted the 78-year-old
Young throughout fatherhood and his career as a psychologist at University
of California, San Francisco. In addition to earning a master of fine
arts in creative writing, Young's thesis, a collection of "spare
poetry" titled "Stretching the Strings," provided
him with the opportunity to "achieve that sense of perfection
that makes you just want to write more." The Missouri native
and long-time Mill Valley resident says he relished every class at
SFSU and will miss the company of classmates as he pursues publication
of his work. Young, who once taught a statistics course at SFSU, maintains
there is at least one advantage to postponing a poetry career until
retirement. "All good writing draws on life experience and I
certainly have enough of that."
Kathy Ryan Collis and James Valoria, Mother and son support each other
in college
Collis, of Millbrae, raised her two children as a single parent while
earning her college credits one class at a time. In time her son James
Valoria caught up with her and enrolled at SFSU too. Though the two rarely
crossed paths on campus while completing their undergraduate degrees,
they won't be far from one another on Commencement day. Valoria,
an Alameda resident, will graduate with a bachelor's in speech
and communication; Collis will receive hers in psychology. They credit
a single class assignment with strengthening their relationship. A few
years ago, Valoria was asked to write his life mentor a thank-you letter.
His mother was the obvious choice. "I thanked her for raising [my
sister and me] as a single mother, for everything she's done for
me," he says.
Sean O'Leary,
Taking it to the streets
"
It's a two-way street," says the native San Franciscan and
14-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department who will earn
his bachelor's in sociology. The beat cop maintains that his experience
on the streets fed his studies just as much as his class work influenced
his work. The San Rafael resident and father of four plans to retire
in nine years and return to SFSU for a teaching credential. "You
don't have many chances to make a deep enough impression on kids
to keep them off the streets," he said. "I figure I might
have the opportunity to make one if I taught junior high. Education is
tethered to success. If I can inspire just one kid a year to stay in
school, I'd be happy."
Lathem
A. Bonem, Transgender student's research helps his community
Bonem, winner of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences' Graduate
Student Award for Distinguished Achievement, focuses his academic work
on health-care access among female-to-male (FTM) transgender people.
As an FTM himself, Bonem can relate to the struggles and discrimination
that transgenders face. "You don't see many transgender people
in media and getting jobs, and I've internalized that," the
masters degree candidate in human sexuality studies said. Bonem came
out as a lesbian immediately after graduating from Cleveland Heights
High School in Cleveland in 1997. Several years later he began identifying
as male, changing his name and undergoing breast reconstruction surgery.
Bonem plans to continue his research and teach part-time at SFSU. "Being
in this program with such wonderful people has helped me," he said. "I
now know I don't have to choose between being out and having a
job."
Meredith Edwards Wampler, First doctorate in physical therapy science
Wampler will receive her doctoral hood at ceremonies at both SFSU and
University of California, San Francisco, as the first graduate of the
joint doctoral program in physical therapy science. Wampler says she
received exactly what she wanted out of her advanced degree -- a solid
science base with heavy emphasis on clinical research. The Missouri
native, now Sunset District resident, will return to the SFSU campus
in the fall as a member of the Physical Therapy faculty. She also plans
to continue the clinical research at UCSF's Comprehensive Cancer
Center that she began during her studies. "Ultimately," she
says, "I want to design physical therapy programs and protocol
for cancer survivors."
HOOD
RECIPIENTS: One outstanding student from each academic college,
the Liberal Studies program and Division of Graduate Studies will receive
the symbolic investiture of the hood on behalf of their fellow students.
The hood recipients are as follows.
Natasha
Scholtz (Behavioral and Social Sciences), Class of '05
student speaker,
Economics major adds excellence into the equation
Scholtz, a native of Half Moon Bay, will become the first person in her
family to graduate from college. Although she has worked full-time since
her senior year of high school, she has found time to tutor her peers
at SFSU in economics. In Half Moon Bay she has worked on a watershed
creek project and coached a girls' softball team. Now a project
manager at Instill, an e-company in the food-service industry, she aspires
to one day teach economics to high school students. "It's
not so much about mastering time management," she explains. "If
you're going to do something, you have to do it well."
Felicity
Fyfe (College of Business), Accounting is "beautiful"
The native of England, now San Francisco resident, was an advertising,
marketing and fund-raising professional before moving to the United
States with her husband 11 years ago. While raising two sons, she decided
to pursue a college education and discovered -- much to her surprise
-- that she loved numbers. She even goes so far as to say that accounting
is "beautiful." Fyfe, the hood recipient for the College
of Business, served as Webmaster and president of Beta Alpha Psi, the
national honors accounting students organization. After completing
a spring internship with West Coast accounting firm Moss Adams, she
was offered a position and will join the firm in the fall.
Cameron Fuller (Creative Arts), Printmaker on to St. Louis
Art is his passion, although it took a while to realize that it could
become his career. His art tends to be complex, crossing boundaries
between print, sculpture and theory.
Fuller's professor, Barbara Foster, said that he is one of the
most outstanding students that the Art Department has had over the past
10 years and adds that his research papers were often used as models.
Fuller, 29, attended Centralia High in Centralia, Washington. He will
soon move to St. Louis to enter the master of fine arts program in printmaking
at Washington University.
Simone Kytle (Education), Coaxing the brain
Kytle combined outstanding academic performance with community work while
getting
her bachelor's in communicative disorders -- even though she
had to battle melanoma along the way. The Palo Alto resident worked
with
young children with communicative disorders at California Pacific Medical
Center and tutored fellow undergrads who were struggling with psychology
courses. She also was an active member of the Student Speech, Language
and Hearing Association. Inspired by her work caring for an autistic
boy, she became particularly interested in neuro-linguistic disorders
and plans to become a speech-language pathologist and was accepted into
SFSU's graduate program in communicative disorders.
Shawnna Vel Demmons (Ethnic Studies), Bettering the black community
Oakland resident Demmons, 40, a Black Studies major in the College of
Ethnic Studies, balanced her undergraduate studies with a full-time
career as a clinical case manager in San Francisco's Tenderloin district,
helping underserved people of color who have multiple diagnoses. In addition,
she was a writer and
co-editor of the College's Black Studies Journal. Raised in Los Angeles,
she spent a decade counseling teen youth with HIV and worked with queer
youth of color. Demmons is the first in her family to earn a bachelor's
degree. After a year off she plans to pursue a degree in law, social
services or public health, with the eventual goal of making a difference
in the black community. "Employment and education are the issues
in the African-American community," she said. "The violence
is residual."
Sarah Kathleen Baldwin (Health and Human Services), Community means
recreation
The recreation and leisure studies major's outstanding academic
performance is matched by an impressive history of community service.
While attending SFSU, she has volunteered as a tutor at a Daly City after-school
program and assisted people with disabilities during kayak adventures
that promote personal growth. As a member of the Board of Directors of
the Recreation for Students Club Baldwin worked to increase awareness
of the importance of recreation to health and quality of life. Baldwin
will pursue a career as an event planner immediately following a busman's
holiday of sorts -- a tour of Europe.
Matthew Parn (Humanities), Australian writer finds niche in technology
Parn began to write speeches for elected government officials in his
native Australia at the ripe old age of 20. After nearly a decade as
a writer and editor for members of parliament and government agencies,
he decided to expand his skills and work in the high-technology industry.
The technical and professional writing major will earn his bachelor
of arts in technical writing magna cum laude. A resident of the Castro
district in San Francisco, the 33-year-hopes to land a job writing
multimedia Web content for a leading technology company.
Lisa Duque (Liberal Studies), From head of the class to head of the
class
Duque is an aspiring teacher who leads an after-school class in cooking
and baking in San Francisco's Portola district. As she helps students
whip up foods from an
international menu, she not only exposes them to new cultures, but also
gives hands-on lessons in math and science. Duque, a recipient of a National
Hispanic Scholarship, is proud of her family's Central American
roots in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Colombia and proud to be a second-generation
San Franciscan. She wants to teach third grade specifically because its
coursework focuses on exploring the local community. After four years
in SFSU's Liberal Studies Integrated Teacher Education Program,
which enables students to earn both their bachelor's degree and
teaching credential in just four years, Duque plans to teach full time
or enroll in a master's program in education.
Lisa
Yong Wu (College of Science and Engineering), From farming to organic
chemistry
Wu's advanced research into enzymes that may be connected to prostate
cancer belies the fact that she is just completing the first step in
her scientific studies. After immigrating to the United States just a
few years ago, she is the first in her farming family to complete high
school. Despite the fact that she has helped to rear two younger siblings,
she has also managed to volunteer in her community with organizations
including the Red Cross, Leukemia Society, San Francisco Public Library,
Mandarin Elementary School, Asian Art Museum and Asian Women's
Shelter. Already the coauthor of two professional journal papers, she
plans to continue her higher education, earn a Ph.D. and teach medicinal
chemistry.
NOTE
TO EDITORS: Reporters interested in covering commencement are asked
to contact the SFSU Office Public Affairs and Publications for media
credentials. Please call (415) 338-1665 prior to Commencement. A transcript
of Commencement will be posted online shortly after the conclusion of
Commencement on May 28 at: www.sfsu.edu/~news.
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