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A dozen outstanding graduates to be honored at 2024 Commencement

The student hood recipients will represent their academic colleges at the University’s 123rd graduation ceremony May 24.

A dozen outstanding graduates will be honored during San Francisco State University’s 123rd Commencement ceremony, to be held at Oracle Park Friday, May 24. They will represent their more than 7,300 graduating peers in the Class of 2024.

As part of a longstanding tradition, each of the University’s six academic colleges selects an undergraduate and a graduate student to represent their classmates and wear their college’s academic hood during the ceremony. Additionally, two of the hood recipients, one undergraduate and one graduate student, will each deliver a Commencement address.

More details about the ceremony are available on the Commencement website. 

Devora Jimenez Domingo

Devora Jimenez Domingo
B.S., Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Graduate College of Education

Devora Jimenez Domingo, originally from Guatemala, moved to the United States at a young age. Witnessing her Latinx community’s struggles due to language barriers, Jimenez Domingo has dedicated her work to assisting those with limited English proficiency, especially after recognizing the privilege she had being trilingual in English, Spanish and Mayan.

To support her community, Jimenez Domingo enrolled at SF State to pursue a degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences with minors in Education and Special Education. During her time at SF State, she has actively contributed to the Gray Matter Lab, facilitating language therapy for Spanish speakers and promoting inclusivity in educational settings.

Jimenez Domingo also held leadership roles in various student clubs, advocating for cultural and linguistic diversity within the field of speech pathology.

Now preparing for graduate school to become a licensed speech pathologist, she aims to serve marginalized communities, particularly Black, Indigenous and People of Color, by ensuring their identities and linguistic backgrounds are acknowledged and respected in standardized testing and therapeutic practices.

Joanna (Liyi) Huang
M.A., Education (Secondary Education)
Graduate College of Education

Joanna Huang has had a full circle moment: She’s now teaching at the same school district she graduated from.

At age 13, Huang moved from China to San Francisco, graduating from Francisco Middle School and Washington High School, part of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). That’s where she participated in English Learner programs, finding solidarity and community among immigrants from around the world.

After earning a degree in Managerial Economics with a minor in Education from UC Davis, Huang received her single-subject credential in Math from SF State in 2022.

Huang is now back at SFUSD for a different reason: She’s in her second year of teaching seventh grade at James Denman Middle School. This school has served as the site for her field research study, which looked at math participation among seventh graders. The study was partly inspired by her experience getting her credential at SF State, which allowed her to see that students who do not yet feel confident in mathematics can experience greater engagement, confidence, fun and learning through groupwork.

Joanna Liyi Huang

Read about all the other hood recipients on SF State News.

Monday’s Eclipse and College Meeting – “With Knowing Comes Caring, with Caring Comes Change”

The GCOE held its second College Meeting of the semester on Monday April 8. About 45 faculty and staff joined us in the Library for an hour of informative sharing. Starting the University’s 125th anniversary, we remembered our roots as a Normal School for training teachers started in 1899 and that evolved into a large university over that time. Our long-standing college is thus the heart of SF State, and will continue for many years. We heard updates on key program development, budget and schedule planning for 2024-25, and the Draft Resolution on Faculty Work Equity presented to the Academic Senate Executive Committee on February 21. If you’d like to see the slides, please send me an email and I’ll share the link.

Happily, the meeting ended outside in front of the Library with eclipse-viewing and lots of amazement and good fellowship.

And here’s our group photo! This might be the most people we’ve had in a photo in many years!

Graduate College of Education group during the solar eclipse watch event

SPED Graduate Certificate in Autism Studies – New Name Approved

This week in Academic Senate, the former Graduate Certificate in Autism Spectrum got a new name: the Graduate Certificate in Autism Studies. This new name reflects the current terminology in autism communities, and better describes this program which requires 12 units and can be completed by students currently enrolled in a master’s degree program in SPED or in a related field at SFSU. Congratulations and gratitude to the Special Education Department for your commitment to this field, and for moving forward with this change.

Stephanie Sisk-Hilton at the CEETL + Academic Senate Faculty Book Reading and Coffee Tasking

Our Elementary Ed colleague Stephanie joined a panel of seven faculty who shared their books, all published in 2023. It was great to have teachers and teacher stories represented in that group, and to hear Stephanie share her experiences in putting this project together. Congratulations, Stephanie! Maria Zavala’s book was also featured on the table of faculty publications.

Stephanie SiskHilton at book reading

Students from Washington High School AVID/Step to College Visit

On Thursday, a group of AVID/STC Washington High School students visited SFSU with their Step to College instructor, Nicole Carrillo, and the AVID teacher at WHS, Mr. Steven Bonaccorso. They had a walking tour and then met in BH 170 for a presentation from EOP, led by Mr. Rudy Herrera, EOP coordinator and current ESJE MA student. Special shout out to Anarose Schelstrate for all her leadership!

ELSIT Faculty Vince Matthews Recognized in SF State News March 14

It was great to see this article on Dr. Matthews appear in this week’s SF State News. The interview by Jamie Oppenheim captures Dr. Matthews’ deep experience as an educator, and his energy and commitment around supporting and preparing educational leaders. Dr. Matthews is a three-time alumnus of SF State, and we are proud to have him as a faculty member in our college. As the article states, coming back to teach at SF State is Matthews’ way of give back to both the institution and the profession that gave him everything. “I saw this quote in a classroom and it said, ‘The whole world is changed by changing your corner of the world,’” he said. “What I’m trying to do every day is focus on these 45 students, making sure they’re ready to change this corner of the world.”

Congratulations, Dr. Kevin Kelly, on Two Upcoming Publications

Dr. Kevin Kelly, Lecturer Faculty in ELSIT’s Instructional Technology & Design program, has two upcoming books to be published in Routledge:  Making College Courses Flexible on April 1 and The Blended Course Design Workbook (2nd Edition) in June. Both books balance teaching, technology, and equity, and are great resources for faculty and students.

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