Congratulations to the staff and faculty who are earning degrees this year. While graduation ceremonies are a little different this year, we still want to celebrate you and your accomplishments.

Please read on to see who is graduating. Campus News will celebrate our employee graduates the next several weeks. There's still time to submit, please click here for instructions.

Name: Parneet Kaur
Department: Fresno State Small Business University
Current job title: Project assistant
New degree earned this year: M.B. in computer science

The gratification of overcoming an obstacle is my greatest motivator. For example, math and computer have never been my best subject, but I opted to take mathematics as my major after 10th grade and computer science as my bachelor and master's study, because I wanted to prove to myself I could do it. The six-year journey (four years of bachelor's and two years of master's) wasn’t easy, but I am here graduating with master's in computer science and defining my career in this field. The feeling of accomplishment that comes with exceeding challenging goals is what drew me to be here where I am today.

Name: Victoria Ponce
Department: Fresno State Small Business University
Current job title: Project assistant
New degree earned this year: B.A. in media, communications and journalism, public relations option

Obviously, with the pandemic taking online courses didn’t work for me at first, but I realized I had no other choice but to take this challenge and run with it. I could waste my time or find a way to make it work, so I made it work. I’ve been able to lead my classmates in the first ever MCJ virtual TASTE event, find new virtual work opportunities and intern all from home.

Name: Katelyn Spencer
Department: University Development
Current job title: Administrative assistant
New degree earned this year: M.A. in higher education administration and leadership

While working full time, Katelyn put herself through school to earn her M.A. in higher education administration and leadership. Never mind that she also serves as president of the Rainbow Alumni and Allies Club on top of it all. With over six years of experience working in University Advancement, Katelyn is a wealth of knowledge and models our Principles of Community to a "T." We are so thankful to have Katelyn as a teammate!

We look forward to celebrating more graduates next week.