ECS Dean’s Award winner is a role model for Latinas in STEM

By Daniel Wilson

May 12, 2025

When Isabel Santoyo-Garcia was a kid, she was known as the IT person in her family.

“From a young age, I was fixing printers or navigating the web because my parents didn’t know how to use it, and my siblings weren’t able to help,” she said.

Santoyo-Garcia, who will graduate May 16 with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics, is the Dean’s Award recipient from the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS). Deans’ Awards are given every academic year at Spring Commencement to the top graduating student from each of Sac State’s seven academic colleges.

“With her technical expertise, leadership and commitment to service, Isabel embodies the values and mission of Sacramento State … and is an inspiration to her peers.” -- Kevan Shafizadeh, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science

In middle and high school, Santoyo-Garcia noticed how few Latinas were in her STEM courses. Through conversations with teachers, she became inspired to serve as a role model and show how people like her can succeed in technology.

“Technology was a huge influence in my life,” she said.

Santoyo-Garcia grew up in Citrus Heights and chose to attend Sac State to stay close to her family. She is drawn to technology's versatility across disciplines but focuses primarily on back-end web and application development.

“I’m not a really creative person, so I like seeking problems,” she said. “Usually with the projects I develop, there's already a problem set, so I'm not building something from scratch. Having an already set problem … and just following through makes it easier for me as a person who likes setting goals and completing achievements.”

Santoyo-Garcia is most proud of her senior project, where she served as one of the lead developers on a team that created an interactive website for a local high school teacher to teach chemistry online. The site, called ChemClick, allows students to interact with chemicals and see how they react in a safe environment when they don’t have access to a classroom.

“It looks really, really nice, and I really like it because it's going to a good cause,” she said.

The website shows Santoyo-Garcia’s passion for helping others, a theme that runs through many of her projects. They include NatureGuardians, an advocacy website for endangered species, and Timeificers, a software application to make scheduling meetings easier.

Kevan Shafizadeh, ECS dean, said Santoyo-Garcia displays academic excellence in all she does.

“With her technical expertise, leadership and commitment to service, Isabel embodies the values and mission of Sacramento State … and is an inspiration to her peers,” he said.

Santoyo-Garcia's extracurricular activities include a Stanford University robotics internship, service-learning in Ireland as part of Sac State’s Honors Program, and participation in Hornet Hacks hackathon competitions.

“The hackathons were really great (because they) allowed me to dive into AI and include it into the website as an educational source,” she said of the events where groups of students collaborate to solve real-world problems.

In addition to her achievements in and out of the classroom, Santoyo-Garcia expressed great joy in being a first-generation college graduate, knowing many in her family have not had the same opportunities she has.

“They never had the chance to get a higher education because of financial reasons,” Santoyo-Garcia said.

Following graduation, Santoyo-Garcia plans to work for the state in IT while pursuing other projects that expand her skills. She also plans to continue working in her family’s large backyard garden, raising plants such as cacti.

“I just love plants,” she said. “They're just so cute to have.”

Santoyo-Garcia sees receiving the ECS Dean’s Award as a testament to her goal to be a role model.

“It feels surreal. It’s crazy,” she said. “I didn't expect to gain the award, but being part of a community that's part of the minority group, it feels nice to be a role model in a sense. Also, it shows that people from the minority stance can excel to the top levels.”

Historic Accomplishment by the Sac State Civil Engineering Student Team

Sac State Civil Engineering Student Team, Herky's Big Freakin' Beam Team with Clark Pacific Sponsorship Wins Two Awards in National PCI Big Beam Competition: Best Report and 4th Place Overall ($1750 award total)

Congratulations to Herky's Big Freakin' Beam Team (Anton Sta. Maria (Team Leader 1), Nayef Al-Fayiz (Team Leader 2), Javier Gaytan, Vadim Gritsak, Nour Hojeij, Garrett Hope, and Shaira Soliva) and sponsoring precaster, Clark Pacific, for their historic performance, winning two national awards in the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Big Beam Competition: Best Report and 4th Place overall.

The PCI Judging Committee recently selected the Engineering Student Design Competition winners, also known as the Big Beam Contest. The objective is for teams of students to fabricate and test a precast/prestressed concrete beam with the help of local precast concrete PCI Producer Members. Prizes are awarded to the top twenty (20) performers considering efficient design, highest load capacity, and other categories. The Sac State Team's 4th place finish is the highest in university history.

In addition, the PCI judging committee awarded Sac State, the winner of Best Report, which considers clear presentation of data, professional look and formatting, and an overall well-written report. The Sac State Team won the Best Report Award for the second time in 3 years.

Winning one of the highly competitive awards requires teamwork not only among students, but with industry and the college. The following partners helped make the team awards possible:

Clark Pacific: Glen Underwood, Brian Bertain, and Nathaniel Wilson (overall), Rick Armstrong and Sergey Dzhangetov (foremen), and Bob De Ruitter (mix design), among others.

Sac State College of Engineering and Computer Science: Mike Newton and Jeffrey Ortiz, with student helpers Jared Weinburke and Jeremy Willis (Laboratory Technicians) and Faculty/Technical advisor, Prof. Eric Matsumoto.

Results are available online: https://www.pci.org/bigbeam/.

by Dr. Eric Matsumoto