Aylaliya Assefa Birru

My academic and career success has come partially at the cost of my freedom. But the cost of my freedom is what placed me in the right position to see and relate to the issues that others face. Not only that, but the cost of my freedom is also what opened up windows of opportunities to help others in similar circumstances. When looking back, I clearly remember the dark tunnel I was in with no end in sight. But I kept my focus on the almost invisible light that at the end of that dark tunnel. My life from a lost teenager to an almost doomed adult, from incarceration to successfully completing an undergraduate program and gaining a career in my chosen field, or from watching out for myself only to holding solidarity with many others has been a life-long process. I am grateful for sociology for allowing me to see it all in a grace filled manner. Surely I have come far and still have much more work to do. And through all of these processes, I have realized that one needs a value to remain grounded in, a courage to stand up against adversity, discipline to remain faithful to commitments, and solidarity with community. I have found it that my life is much more meaningful when serving others. It is rewarding to find those in less fortunate situation and find ways to lift them up and empowering them to do the same for others. I feel courageous when I stand up to a system that has marginalized minorities. My discipline is fundamental to do the work at hand. And a win is much more joyous when shared with others that fought similar struggles. Mostly importantly, my faith in God is an absolute necessity that keeps my hope for change alive and my vison for the future clear. I am thankful for second chances. I am thankful for opportunities. I am thankful to stand and make my mother and father proud. And for that, I give my utmost praise to God.

Annalise Harlow

2022 Outstanding Student Award Winner

My experience at Sac State has taught me that the value of higher education cannot be defined by the money that comes after, but only by the enriched mind that emerges from it. Sociology has given me large frameworks and structures to analyze, but Ethnic Studies has given me a community and purpose to put my passion to work. As an Asian international adoptee, I have always identified myself as an outsider to the Asian American community. But with my education, I have realized that I am part of a timidly explored unit of the Asian American community. My exploration of my Asian American identity far outreaches the confines of my computer screen and Canvas. I unapologetically decided to take up space in communities that I historically avoided. When I acknowledged that I have a valuable experience and that I am not limited by my preconceptions of what an “Asian American” is, I thrived.

This new sentiment that I have found at Sac State, passion and desire to assert Asian international adoptees into the Asian American discourse, inspires my post-graduate plans. I plan for my next few years to include obtaining two Masters’ degrees, one in Asian American Studies and the other in Social Welfare/Work, so that I may research the Asian international adoptee community more in-depth and also work to provide mental health resources for the Asian American community. There are hardly enough words that can capture the experience of Asian international adoptees, but regardless of this, there still is not nearly enough literature about the significance that Asian international adoptees have within the Asian American discourse. I want to bring the experiences of Asian international adoptees to our culture’s understanding of Asian Americans and my inspiration to do so was only made possible by my experience at Sac State and my willingness to reconcile myself.

Gregory Walton II

2021 Outstanding Student Award Winner

I chose to pursue a degree in Sociology because many of the topics discussed are personal to me. It’s a very expansive discipline which covers my favorite subjects in law, society, and human behavior. Moreover, Sociology provides us with an understanding for several societal issues which allow us to look in-depth at both the present and the historical contexts. In doing so, this illustrates many of the social injustices, social structures and unfortunate occurrences people experience that I have a desire to see changed through progressive social movements. My future goals are to attend graduate school in the fall of 2021, I plan to pursue my master’s degree in Criminal Justice (policy design & implementation) at the University of Southern California. My career goals are to become an innovative leader within public policy and the criminal justice system, as well as to one day teach criminal justice at the bachelor’s level as a college professor.

As for extracurricular activities that I have engaged in within the Department of Sociology, since August 2019, I have been the active President of the Sociology Club. The Sociology club was dormant upon my arrival to the university, and I had the honor of reviving the club and providing a space for us Sociology majors to network during our days on campus. I also spent numerous hours as a Volunteer Canvasser with the Western Service Workers Association during the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters. As a Canvasser we went door-to-door providing emergency services to those living in poverty within Sacramento County. Lastly, from the spring 2020-2021 semesters, I was also a member of the Cooper Woodson College enhancement program at Sacramento State. CWC provides service opportunities, scholarships, a Mentor, as well as a mandatory ethnic studies course. So, I am proud to say, through it all, I have enjoyed my time as a Hornet. Hence, I am looking forward to being an alumnus, and I’d love to be invited back one day as a keynote speaker to uplift future students with an educational dream!

Alexa-Lynn Hylaris

2020 Outstanding Student Award Winner

Being a person of color, a woman, a member of the lower class, part of the LGBTQ community, it is easy to feel marginalized. When you’re expected to be less educated, less articulate, less opinionated, it is easy to fall into your perceived role in society. When your teachers, role models, and celebrities don’t look or act like you, it’s easy to have low expectations for yourself. It would have been easy for me to take the path that led away from higher education. My grandma, aunt, and mom did what they could to keep me from that life. In doing so, they instilled in me the belief that the key to a better life was education.

In fall of 2013, I began my freshman semester at Sac State, registered as a hopeful nursing major. I originally chose to pursue nursing as my family encouraged me to go after a degree that would place me in a career upon graduation. I’d never particularly had any interest in nursing but at the time I felt my degree was simply a means of making money and little more. A few semesters later I was struggling to find General Ed classes to attend and randomly chose to attend the class Social Problems with Professor Welkley. I didn’t know it at the time, but this one class would change the trajectory of my academic career. The combination of Professor Welkley’s passion for sociology and the subject matter of the course had me immediately hooked. I signed up for another sociology class the following semester and I knew this was the major for me. While I have always excelled academically, sociology classes were the first time I experienced learning in a way that didn’t feel like a compulsory chore. Every assignment and reading was interesting, the class discussions were lively and multi-faceted, and for the first time, the subject matter was about me. I realized I could see myself in the lectures and readings. People of color, people in lower classes, women and the LGBTQ community were presented in ways I had never seen before. People on the margins were in the center of my sociology courses and I couldn’t get enough. I changed my major to Sociology and it felt like everything just clicked into place.