Zoe's Voice
How have increased tuition fees impacted you and your family?:
I transferred to SF State from a private out-of-state school because SFSU has so much to offer at what was (at the time) much less money. I was looking forward to my senior year being one where I could really focus on developing my professional skills and building an audio project portfolio for prospective employers after graduation. But the sharp CSU tuition increases coincided with a decrease in salary for my mom, who teaches at a California junior college experiencing the same hardships. As a result, I've had to take on a second job to continue attending school, and I now work 30 hours a week in addition to my six-class schedule. This year was supposed to be about immersing myself in my studies and focusing on my passion for sound; instead, the tuition increase has made it about making enough money to attend at all. And with the accompanying class cuts, who knows when I'll graduate or if I'll be able to afford the rest of my units?
What are you studying at SF State and what do you hope to do once you graduate?:
I'm studying audio production in the BECA program, and I hope to work as a sound designer or post-production editor and a live sound engineer.
Zoe L., 21 Sebastopol, CA
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