Did you know that gators live in a variety of habitats and locations? Just like gators thrive in diverse habitats – from murky ponds to lazy rivers and bustling bayous – SF State Gators come from all corners of the Bay Area and beyond, adapting and making our campus their home!
Happy New Year Gators and happy spring semester 2024!
Your Division of Student Life and Dean of Students’ team is excited to welcome you to a new semester full of opportunities to fully engage in your college experience.
As you set your academic goals for the semester, keep in mind all the resources available to help you succeed. For a full list of campus resources visit here.
I am also thrilled to announce we will be hosting a SF State LeaderShape Institute during spring break in March. The LeaderShape Institute is designed for students who hold a leadership position on campus, or are in the process of discovering their leadership moment. This program engages participants in a transformative experience and inspires students to create a just, caring, and thriving world. The experience creates time and space for people to have conversations that matter. In these conversations, and through intentional instruction and challenge, participants have time to explore their personal values in the context of community. Participants forge a strong community during these 4 days and will return to campus with a community-oriented vision that addresses critical social and global issues. For more information, visit [https://leadershape.org/]. Apply here to attend this year’s session of Institute.
Remember, your Division of Student Life team are here, and we hope you will include us as part of your circle of support throughout your academic journey.
Be well and go gators!
Dean Miguel
Associated Students
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Are you passionate about making a difference in your community?
Do you want to be a powerful advocate for change?
Look no further! Join the Associated Students Lobby Corps and become a force for positive impact! As a member, you’ll have the unique opportunity to meet with legislators, and be a part of local, state, and federal advocacy efforts.
Fill out the interest form today! https://bit.ly/LobbyForm
City Eats
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February 14th - Valentines Day: Join us for a special Valentine’s Day celebration filled with sweet moments and delightful treats. Capture the love with our photo booth and make it extra sweet by preordering a Valentine’s Day package, complete with heartwarming cookies and decadent chocolate-covered strawberries.
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February 15th - Cooking Class: Save the date! Join us at City Eats on February 15th for an engaging Black History Month cooking class.
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February 20th - Workout with a Friend: Strengthen your bonds while breaking a sweat with a 7-minute standing workout challenge. Research-backed and packed with prizes, it’s an opportunity to promote health and wellness of our students.
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February 21st - National Pancake Day: Join us for a pancake extravaganza with our delectable pancake bar, where you can customize your stack with an array of toppings.
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February 22nd - National Potato Day: Join us for a delightful potato-infused experience, where pillowy gnocchi meets culinary creativity.
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February 27th - National Strawberry Day: Join us at our pop-up station for a berrylicious celebration featuring refreshing strawberry smoothies. Sip, savor, and indulge in the sweet essence of strawberries as we toast to the vibrant flavors of this beloved fruit.
Health Promotion & Wellness
- HPW is excited to announce our new Wellness Vending Machine program. Open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week the Open24 vending machine is located between the Library and the Admin building and now offers low-cost wellness supplies for students. For only 25 cents per item, students can now get Narcan, Fentanyl testing strips, condoms, pregnancy tests, and menstrual supplies.
Division of Equity & Community Inclusion (DECI)
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Tuesday, February 13th from 12-2pm – Friendship Day @ Malcolm X Plaza: Join us for music, activities, and vendors.
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Wednesday, February 14th from 12-2pm - Springfest! Valentine's Day Fair @ Malcolm X Plaza: Enjoy a campus Valentine's Day celebration with a DJ and sweet treats, and drop by the DECI table.
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Thursday, February 15th from 3-5pm - Teams Day @ Mashouf Field: Come by for food, field games, and soccer!
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Friday, February 16th from 2-5pm - Game Night@ The Faculty U Club: Play board games, jack box, and switch games!
Career & Leadership Development
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Spring 2024 Part-Time Job Fair on Thursday, February 15th, 2024 from 12pm-3pm in Jack Adams Hall. Student registration is open, you may contact us at recruit@sfsu.edu with any questions.
Career & Leadership Development (CLD) is hosting the Part-Time Job Fair on Thursday, February 15th from 12-3pm in Jack Adams Hall of the Cesar Chavez Student Center. We invite you to join us. Employers from Bay Area businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits will be there. Several on-campus employers will also be in attendance. Register for the fair and meet with employers to learn about part-time jobs and internships. These employers are interested in hiring SF State students, do not miss out!
The SAFE Place
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The SAFE Place has moved to SSB 403A! The SAFE Place is a survivor-focused, trauma-informed program that provides FREE and CONFIDENTIAL support services to survivors of sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking, and sexual harassment (sexual violence) while working with campus partners to end sexual violence. Stop by the new space in SSB 403A for services or reach out to nloren@sfsu.edu
The Dream Resource Center
The Dream Resource Center is under the Office of Diversity, Student Equity & Interfaith Programs, it was established in 2017 to support undocumented students and students of mixed status families. The Dream Resource Center promotes leadership and professional development opportunities, financial aid resources, free immigration consultations, and informational meetings to support the retention and graduation of undocumented students regardless of AB540, DACA, or CA Dream Act eligibility.
You can make an appointment to receive free legal consultations with Immigration Legal Defense through Calendly: calendly.com/csulegalservices/ild. The appointments are available to all students, recent graduates, staff, faculty, and their families, regardless of immigration status.
The Dream Resource Center also offers professional development opportunities for students like the Research to Advance Services & Support for Undocumented Students Fellowship (RASSUS). This fellowship is for undergraduate students who are curious and interested in research, graduate school, and student advocacy. Students interested in the fellowship can express interest using this link: bit.ly/DRCFellowship. Another funding opportunity open to CA Dream Act recipients is the CA Dream Act Service Incentive Grant Program (DSIG). You can find more information about here: https://bit.ly/SFSUDSIG
Come meet the team and get involved during the Division of Equity and Community Inclusion- DECI Week with the following events:
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Friendship Day where we will have music, activities, and vendors! Tuesday, February 13, 2024, 12:00PM-2:00PM, Malcolm X Plaza
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Field Day for food, field games, and soccer! Thursday, February 15, 2024, 3:00PM-5:00PM, Mashouf Field
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Game Night for board games, jack box, and switch games! Friday, February 16, 2024, 2:00PM-5:00PM, Cesar Chavez Student Center- The University Club
If you need support, please reach Griselda Madrigal Lara, Dream Resource Center Coordinator, at gmadrigallara@sfsu.edu or drc@sfsu.edu. You can also make an appointment at https://calendly.com/drcsfsu.
Students enjoying a game of pool in downstairs Cesar Chavez Student Center
Students introducing themselves and working together during spring classes
New Gators receiving advising!
Monique Scott (She/Her) – Master of Public Health, Oakland, CA
Monique Scott is a second-year Master of Public Health student at San Francisco State University. She is an Oakland native and completed her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Mills College. Living in the Bay Area, she witnessed her community being affected by structural and systematic health disparities, leading her to begin her career as a Social Worker and Care Coordinator assisting those navigating systems and managing medical conditions. During the COVID-19 emergency response, the CDC Foundation hired and deployed her to the Alameda County Health Department Covid Response Unit. As a Community Resource Navigator, she performed case management for those exposed to COVID-19. From her lived and work experience, her interest gravitates toward the community, the availability of community resources, how people can gain access, how services are utilized, and whether they help empower individuals to achieve their health goals.
Desiring to make a larger impact after witnessing the disparities among marginalized residents in Alameda County during the COVID-19 pandemic, she became interested in the social determinants of health and how prevention programs could be created to impact the community more effectively. Hence, she returned to school to earn her MPH. She selected San Francisco State University for its historical commitment to social justice, the depth of knowledge of lecturers with relevant practical experience, the diversity of courses offered, inclusion, and its well-respected Public Health Program focused on health equity. While in the MPH program, she applied to intern with the San Francisco State Health Equity Institute as a Graduate Student Researcher. She was paired with Dr. Zubaida Qamar to conduct research projects that examine food insecurity.
Monique is a 2023-2024 Climate Action Fellow; her project demonstrates how urban agriculture can be used as mutual aid to build communities, increase marginalized communities' food security, and contribute to slowing down climate change. For her culminating experience paper, she plans to explore how food justice can be used as a model for food security. Her work centers on how the built environment contributes to adverse health outcomes of environmental injustices such as respiratory illnesses, chronic conditions, and food insecurity among marginalized communities. She aims to provide tools for community advocacy by conducting research, creating community-led projects, and exploring practical solutions for marginalized communities of color using a health equity lens.
Since working with Dr. Qamar as her research advisor and co-author, Monique authored and presented an abstract titled "Assessment of Food Establishments and Participation in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs in Urban University Settings" at the SFSU Graduate Research and Creative Works Showcase, San Francisco State University Health Equity Institute Showcase, and the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Conference in 2023. Her research has influenced a statewide campaign to improve access to SNAP benefits on California State College campuses. The abstract was published as a supplement in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Additionally, she has authored a manuscript titled "Navigating Nutrition Inequities: BIPOC Maternal Health and The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)'s Fruit and Vegetable Voucher," which was published in the January 2024 edition of The Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing. Monique currently supports Health Equity Institute staff as a Graduate Assistant and is a Program Research and Evaluation Assistant at Innovative Health Solutions. Monique is a trailblazer; she created her own climate impact independent study course to learn about food justice and climate mitigation. Being an SFSU Graduate Equity Fellow, among other accomplishments, is a small testament to her determination and drive to create meaningful change in her community.
Each month we will be featuring your fellow gators, if you want to nominate yourself and/or someone else please submit a nomination here.
LeaderShape Institute at SF State
The Division of Student Life is teaming up with the national organization Leadershape to offer SF State students the opportunity to participate in a 4-day institute, taking place Monday, March 25th – Friday, March 29th. This free event will help aspiring student leaders clarify their values and become more resilient as they work to make changes on campus and in their organizations. The hope is that through this experience, more SF Gators go out into their communities and lead toward creating a just, caring, and thriving world. Not a typical leadership retreat, the Institute is grounded in helping individuals identify the values they hold that lead to making a difference in the communities around them. Through self-assessment, simulations, intensive small group discussions led by trained facilitators, and more, participants will develop a vision for something they care about. By leading with passion, integrity, and a healthy disregard for the impossible, participants explore who they are and the impact that they want to have on communities working towards a more caring, just, and equitable society.
You can learn more about the Institute through LeaderShape’s website and these videos. The cost to attend is free, and participants will commit to staying at Camp MayMac for all four days of the Institute and attend programming from 9am to 9pm with breaks, meals, and transportation included.
If you have additional questions and would like to meet potential participants, please join us for an Information Session. Light snacks will be provided!
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Wednesday, February 14th – 12pm – SSB 401
Space for the institute is limited, so if you are interested in applying, the application can be found here: https://apply.leadershape.org/Applications/Apply/4109 , applications are due by Wednesday, February 28th, 2024.
If you have any questions about this experience, please feel free to contact the LeaderShape Planning Team at leadershape@sfsu.edu, or Marissa at mledesma3@sfsu.edu.
Thank you and we look forward to your participation at the LeaderShape Institute 2024!!
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Pop-Ups on the Plaza: Black Creators Craft Market (SF) - Saturday, February 17, 2024 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Support local Black-owned businesses and celebrate Black History Month with a day of crafts and community at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. The south plaza in front of the Ferry Building will be transformed for a pop-up market featuring 10+ Bay Area designers.
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Black Laughs Matter featuring some of the Bay’s top black comics on Saturday, February 17, 2024 from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at Savoy Tivoli, 1434 Grant Ave. (North Beach), San Francisco
Find more event in San Francisco and the Bay Area here.
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The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is now open. Apply for the 2024-2025 year on their website.
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The deadline to add/drop classes is Friday, February 16th