Kristen Schryver

Brett Strickland

Hello,

My name is Brett Strickland. I grew up on the central coast and I absolutely love it here!  To be totally honest one of the main reasons I choose Cal Poly is because it is located here in beautiful San Luis Obispo. I am married to my amazing wife Jazmyn. The photo above is from our honey moon in Hawaii. I transferred from Cuesta College, I am an ES major and plan on minoring in "Law and Society" and continuing on to law school after I finish my bachelors degree at Poly. I currently work full time for an engineering firm called GP Strategies where I get to do/see a lot of cool stuff. I am responsible for inspecting pressure systems on the rocket launch sites out at Vandenberg Airforce Base, again really cool, in a nerdy way I guess! I look forward to getting to know you all as well as working on this project with you! See you all on Tuesday.

Intro: Alexandra Baggs

Hi, my name is Alexandra Baggs and I'm a third year political science major anticipating a minor in ethnic studies. I'm from Bakersfield, CA, a primarily right-wing, Christian agricultural town in the central valley. I was raised almost my whole life in a single-parent but very close family. I'm very independent and I love both cats and books. I am excited to be in this class and learn more about women's and gender/ethnic studies that will hopefully help me in my minor!

James Sofranko (It's like James Franco but with a "So" and "k" instead of a "c")

My name is James Sofranko and I am a second year Business Administration major. Leading into college, I lived the entirety of my life in the same house in remote Pine Valley California, which is about an hour east of San Diego.  I have an older brother and an older sister as well two awesome parents, all of which I am very close with.  Being in a town of less than 2000 people, growing up in Pine Valley gave me a small town perspective.  When I was younger we rarely locked our doors, we stayed out late into the night, and much of the youth based mainstream culture never reached us--despite being only a few miles to the west.  Some might say I was "sheltered", but I prefer guarded.

Starting in 7th grade, I went to a school outside of Pine Valley for the first time.  I attended Christian Junior/Senior High--a small private school--for the next six years.  Complete with kaki shorts for guys and plaid skirts for the girls, CHS's uniform was the topic our conversations more often then it really should have been.  Christian High was a place of mixed emotions for me, but I suppose ambivalence is how most people feel about their high school.  At it's worst, CHS's strong Baptist ties pushed me away from such a constricted branch of Christianity and those similar to it.  At it's best, it provided a place for me to establish strong friendships as well as a very real sense of community amongst people who hold similar spiritual beliefs.

Throughout my years there I tried my hand at both athletics and academics, but found myself only exceeding in the latter.  In fact, after trying soccer, cross country, track, and golf I concluded that, while I enjoy watching most sports and even playing some of them, competitive athletics just aren't for me.  Instead, by my junior year I focused almost exclusively on doing well in my classes as well as being a part of the school's newspaper staff.  Being on the newspaper team was by far the most enjoyable and most fulfilling activity I did in high school, even if most of the student body didn't bother to read the thing.  My fellow staffers and I put copious amounts of hours into each issue, often not leaving school until nine or ten at night the day before printing.  Through all of that hard work, I grew very close with everyone on staff, and earned their respect in return.  By the time my senior year rolled around I was named Editor in Chief, one of my proudest achievements.

My crowning moment, however, was being named valedictorian of my high school class.  Even to this day (this very moment in fact), every time I think back to my high school commencement a smile crosses my face out of pure contentment.  I feel this way not because I have a sense of superiority over my classmates (there were at least a dozen students who I know for a fact are far more intelligent than me), but because I was so blessed to be honored as the representative of my class in academics, the area of school I dedicated so much of my time to.  I look back on that night and know that nothing I did got me there.  It was only the grace of God.

I began college at Cal Poly not wanting to leave home.  Life had been pretty good that summer, and I didn't want things to change.  However I was reminded that life isn't a destination--it's a journey--and sticking in one place when you need to move on is foolish.  My first year at Cal Poly began poorly.  While I did fine academically, I didn't really connect with very many people.  Unable to find a real solid group of friends, I began the preliminary process of transferring out of Cal Poly.  But in my last week I met some people from an apartment nearby that I really hit it off with.  Going home that break I had hope for my experience at Cal Poly for the very first time.  Ever since then, it's been an upward trend.  I've made more and more friends (too many, really :P ), become involved in programs like WOW, and mix sound on the weekends for my local church-- all while doing well enough in my classes to receive recognition from the university (a full 360 180 if you ask me!).

So through all of this I hope you've been able to gain a little more of an understanding of who I am.  I love people and really do enjoy making others around me happy.  You'll find I laugh at almost everything, especially people's little quirks.  Most importantly, I hope that you find I am a reasonable person that, while holding onto my convictions, is open to hearing out other's opinions that are very different from my own.

Thanks for reading this :)
James

*My dad and I hiking in the Sierra Nevada this summer

Bio

My name is Claire Sullivan and I am a sophomore Agribusiness student from Sebastopol, CA. I have always identified as an athlete; I played many sports including Varsity basketball, volleyball, and track in high school, and club volleyball here at Cal Poly. I am planning on concentrating/minoring in wine business, because I am from wine country and have been surrounded by the wine industry throughout my life.

This is my first time participating in an Honors Seminar, and I am very interested to see what this class has in store!

Intro: Desiree Rodriguez

            Woman, person of color, non-heterosexual, Cal Poly student, liberal, and the list goes on.  The difficulty I find in writing an autobiography is what hat to wear while writing it.  As a woman I could focus on rites of passage that women experience.  As a person of color I could hone in on the disadvantages of my skin.  As a non-heterosexual I could elaborate on the scowls and whispers directed my way.  My goal is to provide a brief description of my journey to Cal Poly without wearing one particular hat.

            Growing up in Los Angeles you would expect exposure to a plethora of diversity.  Not the case when you’re raised by Hispanic Catholics that never attended college.  My parents and grandparents were all blue collar workers and never encouraged us to commingle with a demographic that was unlike their own.  Pursuit of higher education was also low on my family’s list of priorities.  It’s not that they were anti-education, but they would have been proud if you at least got through high school without getting pregnant!  Unfortunately, most of my relatives couldn’t even do that, but I was happy to oblige them.

            Most families have expectations of their children.  From the major you choose, to the person you marry, to the career you enter, there may be unspoken expectations.  My situation was less restricted.  I was neither discouraged nor encouraged by family to follow a designated route.  The indifference drove me to prove myself for my own satisfaction.  It gave me the desire to be better than my relatives educationally, physically, and economically.

            After graduating high school in Orange County I took a year off to secure employment since I would be financially responsible for my education.  An internship provided by an adult educational facility gave me the opportunity and I was hired as a clerk in a hospital’s radiology department.  Once my year off came to a close I was promoted and several employees were placed under my charge.  The department director offered to cross train me as an EKG technician and of course I jumped at the opportunity to learn about cardiology.  My schedule was beyond full time and I often pulled double shifts which only allowed for attending school part time.

            Experiences at the hospital led me to the pre-med route while majoring in anthropology.  This major was appealing for its comprehensive study of culture.  My belief was that it would enable me to understand and build connections to my future patients.  Soon afterward a friend and mentor advised me to attend school full time and work part time.  Financially it was insane but the advice came with an offer of free room and board.  The catch was that I needed to leave Southern California and move to Fresno.  Relocating was easy.  However, it was several months before finding a part time job at a hospital.  My new job was as an anesthesia technician at a children’s hospital.  Being a member of the surgical team was exciting and enjoyable but brought me to the painful realization that there are aspects of medicine that I would not be capable of fulfilling.

            Pre-med was no longer in my future, but I continued pursuing a degree in anthropology.  Cal Poly, I discovered, was the only school in the CSU system to offer the degree as a bachelor of science which was my deciding factor in choosing where to transfer.  My declared concentration is environmental studies and sustainability.  GIS is also of particular interest to me and I hope to obtain a career in its utilization by multiple industries.

In two years my journey at Cal Poly will come to an end and transition into the next phase of my life.  Looking forward, I envision a career in public service.  More specifically, my hope is to obtain federal employment for the Department of the Interior, possibly with the Bureau of Land Management.          

Introduction: Jane Lehr

Gozo, Malta, 2011

I am very excited to be part of this "learn by doing" undergraduate research project that is a collaboration between the Honors Program and an upper level course at Cal Poly: ES/WGS 350: Gender, Race, Science & Technology.

I am an Associate Professor in the Departments of Ethnic Studies and Women's & Gender Studies at California Polytechnic State University. I am also Equity & Access Programs Director for the Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education (CESaME) and the Global Engineering/Cultural Advisor for the International Computer Engineering Experience (ICEX) Program. Previously, I served as elected co-chair of the Science & Technology Taskforce/Feminists in Science & Technology Studies (FiSTS) of the National Women's Studies Association and as a Post-Doctoral Research Officer for the NSF-funded Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS) at King's College, University of London. My PhD is in Science & Technology Studies and Women's Studies at Virginia Tech.