When Derek Carr and Davante Adams were Fresno State student-athletes, they spent three hours one day signing autographs and talking to students at the Diamond Learning Center in Clovis.

At the end of the visit, the football stars, who are now teammates for the Las Vegas Raiders, posed for a group photo that still hangs in the center. When the Diamond Learning Center students see Carr or Adams on television today, they remember what it felt like to have the athletes spend time with them, said owner and founder Jami Hamel-De La Cerda.

The center serves adult learners with intellectual disabilities who range in age from 18 to 67 and is an internship site for Fresno State students. The partnership over the years has grown into special visits from the various athletics teams for memorable signings and picture-taking.

“Fresno State doesn’t forget our students,” said Hamel-De La Cerda, a Fresno State alumna and adjunct professor in special education. “They give back … the win-win is just fantastic.”

Jami Hamel-De La Cerda and her three sons.

Hamel-De La Cerda is a longtime supporter of Fresno State, from the internships she offers to gifts that she has given to support the bowling team that brought her from Vancouver, British Columbia to the university where she earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. Her generosity has also been transformative for Fresno State athletics and the Bulldog student-athletes.

Through thoughtful donors like Hamel-De La Cerda, gifts to the University during the 2021-22 academic year totaled about $28.2 million — $21.7 million for academics and $6.5 million for athletics.

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