Turlock - (May 30, 2008) Included here are graduating California State University, Stanislaus students who have overcome a variety of challenges in their lives to attain their degrees and teaching credentials. Their contact information is included here for use by the media only to gather story information and set up interviews and, obviously, not for publication. All of these students have been informed that they could receive a call from the media and are open to telling their stories. Some have written accounts of their experiences that can be made available upon request.
Jessica Tacdol, Liberal Studies Degree and accepted into the Teacher Credential Program. Graduate of Bear Creek High School in Stockton and now lives in Turlock.
Tacdol is the first student in the developing Promise Scholars Program that helps former foster youth earn a college degree. Made a ward of the court when she was 2 years old, Jessica was raised by foster families in Stockton and was a recipient of the Mary Graham Children's Shelter Project Scholarship when she graduated from Bear Creek, having been mentored through that program as she grew up. Tacdol works in the University's Child Development Center and has earned her bachelor's degree in four years and will march at the Saturday, May 31 commencement.
Additional contact: Wanda Bonnell, Director of the CSU Stanislaus Promise Scholars Program. Bonnell will receive her Master's Degree in Advanced Education in Counseling on Saturday, May 31. Bonnell has been at the University as a student and employee for 18 years, having previously earned her BA in Psychology. She has also overcome a number of challenges during her life to succeed as a student and in her career as an Academic Advisor at CSU Stanislaus.
Susan Bowman, Anthropology Degree with a minor in Geology, of Hughson.
After starting college at 24 as a single mother, Bowman worked two jobs to make ends meet but still had to withdraw from school for two years due to financial difficulties as she approached her final semester. Returning to CSU Stanislaus in Fall 2006 to complete her major in Anthropology and minor in Geology, Bowman became a founding member and President of the Paleo Club. She has devoted time to preparing a dinosaur hadrosaur femur bone for future display in the new Naraghi Hall of Science and organized a recent fossil dig for her Hughson Cub Scout group and students from Julien School in Turlock. Graduating Magna Cum Laude with a 3.73 GPA, Bowman has a 9-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter and serves as Cub Scout Master of Pack 326 in Hughson. She plans to continue her studies in graduate school with a focus on paleontology.
Christina McDonald, Management Degree with a concentration in Human Resources and a Communications minor, of Modesto.
A graduate of Central Catholic High School in Modesto, McDonald has overcome a series of family losses and illnesses that forced her to temporarily withdraw from school for a semester at a time during her last two years of college. She has determinedly made up the time during the University’s winter and summer terms and will still graduate in four years. Her eventual goal is to teach at the college level. Her personal trials started in March 2007 when she had to withdraw from a number of spring semester classes due to the death of a family member while she was attending the funeral of another relative in Ireland. She took 12 units of classes last summer to make up for the lost time. When both of her grandparents, who she lives with, fell gravely ill during the fall semester, McDonald once again had to take a break from college to care for them. She took nine units during the following winter term to once again catch up. Carrying 18 units of classes this spring semester, McDonald has dealt with more setbacks. Her mother’s twin sister had to undergo a serious operation and a best friend gave birth to a stillborn daughter at 36 weeks. There were services to plan and days of tears, but McDonald managed to stay on track with her academic pursuits and will graduate with the Class of 2008.
Jessica Avendano, Political Science Degree and a Sociology minor, of San Mateo who lives on campus.
Avendano was admitted to CSU Stanislaus in 2003 as an Equal Opportunity Program (EOP) student from San Mateo who had not done very well at the high school level. She participated in the University’s Summer Bridge college preparation program before starting her freshman year. The product of a single-parent family, she remembers having to convince her concerned mother that it would be all right for her to leave home to attend college. She stayed with a relative in Ceres her sophomore year while working out financial aid logistics and took a break from school to serve a three-month internship at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Once again living in student housing on the CSU Stanislaus campus and working as a student assistant in the Student Outreach office, Avendano has realized her dream of a college degree. She plans to continue her education at the graduate school level.
Christina Guerrero, Business Administration Degree with a concentration in Human Resources, of Gustine.
Guerrero’s life changed in April 2007 when she sustained a work injury that resulted in serious damage to one of her ankles and left her disabled after it turned into Reflex Sympathic Dystrophy. Admitting that she always regretted not having finished college that she had started in 2001, Guerrero took a couple of classes at Merced College between surgeries, doctor’s appointments, and physical therapy. After earning her Associate of Arts Degree at Merced College, Guerrero decided to go for a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources Management through the College of Business Administration. “I don’t think anyone thought I would stick it out,” she said. “I am fulfilling my wildest dream and am testament to ‘If you change your thinking, you change your life.” Guerrero next plans to seek her Master’s in Public Administration Degree at CSU Stanislaus.
