students

“The awards, grants, and donations we received were fundamental in a number of complementary ways,” said Carvalho. “For example, covering our registration fee to participate in the competition and the costs associated with fieldwork, which entailed taking 33 students and two faculty to site visits in Mendocino and Fort Bragg, including the Kelp Restoration site, the Noyo Center for Marine Science, and the Mendocino Art Center. Importantly, the funds also made it possible for us to pay for transportation and accommodation of four students and two faculty attending the Biodesign Challenge competition in New York this past summer.”

“The awards, grants, and donations we received were fundamental.” 

—Associate Professor Fernando Felicio dos Santos de Carvalho, SFSU School of Design

Carvalho was also quick to call attention to lecturer Josie Iselin, referring to her as a fundamental piece of all the effort who has been with him on this journey to the BDC since before the spring semester.

“Josie was the one making the connection with the Nature Conservancy in order to provide the class program with a focused topic,” Carvalho said. “She was also instrumental in facilitating the field trip activities, and supporting our students in New York City with me. I wish to acknowledge her invaluable, critical contributions.”

SFSU’s team included students who had never been to New York and had never participated in an international design event such as the Biodesign Challenge that gathered more than 40 teams from across the globe.

“This was, and is every year, a unique experience that significantly widens the perspectives of our students while providing them with a degree of confidence that comes with presenting to professional jurors, side by side with the best design schools in the world,” said Carvalho.

The BDC is a global, interdisciplinary education program and competition that invites students to explore the convergence of art, design, and biotechnology. Founded on the belief that scientific progress is enriched by creative vision, the event empowers participants to imagine more equitable and sustainable futures through the lens of emerging technologies.

Team Urbon’s approach employed living organisms that convert CO2 emissions in food resources and living structures, helping industries and society to envision a synergistic path to a more sustainable future, while supporting bull kelp restoration efforts through grazer suppression, public awareness, and local community engagement.

SFSU’s competing teams leading up to the BDC worked from the cutting-edge research and ongoing restoration efforts of the Nature Conservancy, led by marine biologist Tristin McHugh, to understand the relationships between the main organisms involved in the coastal ecosystem of Mendocino and Fort Bragg, to then explore, experiment, and design solutions that would contribute to the current bull kelp recovery work.

Angela is focused on expanding environmental knowledge and increasing access to outdoor spaces. She describes these as a personal and professional calling. “I’ve experienced firsthand how nature can be a source of profound healing — helping me navigate my disability (PTSD), process trauma, and build an intimate, restorative relationship with the world around me. Spending time in outdoor spaces has also allowed me to explore and connect with my mestiza identity and indigenous Peruvian ancestry. As I have learned about the complex histories of the natural spaces I visit, I continue to reflect on how colonialism has distanced me from my ancestral language, Quechua, and from ways of life connected with nature. Being in these landscapes feels like coming back home.”

Angela is currently the president of the Sierra Nevada Alliance of Gators (SNAG), a student organization that builds community through nature and advocates for continued access to SFSU’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus (SNFC), where she fundraises efforts to help students overcome financial barriers to attend. She also works as an outdoor trip leader and is a student manager for the Gator Outdoor Adventure (GOA) program, a branch of Campus Recreation at the Mashouf Wellness Center that provides accessible hiking, backpacking, camping, and climbing trips for students, faculty, and alumni. Notably, the “Gator Wild” program led by GOA was Angela’s first experience with camping and backpacking, as well as her introduction to the SNFC, a research and education field station dedicated to building inclusive community around teaching and learning in the natural sciences, land management, art, music, and culture, offering workshops, classes, and a home base for research at nearby field sites. SNFC’s reach extends beyond the SFSU community, serving as a research and education resource for the local communities of the northern Sierra Nevada, the general public of California, and beyond. 

“I’ve experienced firsthand how nature can be a source of profound healing — helping me navigate my disability (PTSD), process trauma, and build an intimate, restorative relationship with the world around me. Spending time in outdoor spaces has also allowed me to explore and connect with my mestiza identity and indigenous Peruvian ancestry.” 
—Angela Tafur

With transportation being a challenge for SFSU students to access the field campus and other outdoor spaces, Angela utilized her roles within SNAG and GOA to organize various low- and no-cost trips and public transit trips to SNFC and various National Park sites, California State Park sites, and regional parks; showing students that accessing the outdoors without a car is not only possible but empowering. “Having seen and experienced the transformative impact of outdoor programs firsthand, I now want to help others find that connection,” Angela said. 

“I consider the work that I do a daily offering for the earth and environment around me. In highland Quechua cultures of Peru, making offerings to the Earth, known as Pachamama, is a deeply rooted indigenous tradition. It is more than just a career, it is a service I have dedicated myself to being a part of the interconnected, beautiful world that gives all of us water, sun, fire, earth, food, air. The least I can do is to give back for how the earth continues to take care of me, mirroring reciprocal and balanced relationships found across nature,” Angela says.

Prior to attending SFSU, Angela saw her interest in the environment flourish under the tutelage of a familiar SFSU face. “At Chabot College, my passion for geography was sparked by a professor — an SFSU geography and earth science alumnus (Suzanne Maher, ’09, ‘16) — who encouraged me to pursue the field,” said Angela. “From the moment I began applying to universities, I knew giving back to my community would be central to my path. That’s why I chose SFSU — to serve the Bay Area community that shaped me. I graduated with honors (from Chabot) and delivered the keynote speech at Latino Graduation Night, a defining moment as I transitioned to SFSU to earn my B.A. in geography.”

“From the moment I began applying to universities, I knew giving back to my community would be central to my path. That’s why I chose SFSU — to serve the Bay Area community that shaped me.” 
—Angela Tafur

The Kirkeberg Scholarship, established by retired SFSU professor Max Kirkeberg and his husband, Gabriel Proo, is awarded annually to an SFSU School of the Environment undergraduate or graduate student whose studies and goals align with dedication to the lived and changing environment of the Bay Area.

Kirkeberg was born in Stanton, Iowa (“the Swedish capital of Iowa”), the only child of high school teachers. He made his way to San Francisco in 1965 as he was working on his Ph.D. thesis. He joined SFSU as a professor of Urban Geography and ultimately received tenure and emeritus tenure status. His most well-known class was Geography 454: "San Francisco on Foot,” which he taught for 30 years. He loved every day as a teacher. 

Upon retirement, Kirkeberg continued teaching the class as a lecturer and offered it through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. He documented the urban geography of the San Francisco Bay Area in almost 60,000 slides taken over 50 years. His images of streets, architecture, development, landscapes, culture, and geographical highlights provide an encompassing picture of the diverse neighborhoods that make up San Francisco, as well as the features and regions beyond it in the greater Bay Area. The collection is available through DIVA, an open digital collections archive built and managed by Academic Technology at SFSU.

Kirkeberg was also the founder and leader of the St. Francis Lutheran Church and SFSU Geography Department AIDS Walk team, which ran from the 1980s to the 2020s, raising more than a million dollars for AIDS research and care, and often competing with the largest corporate teams for the top fundraising totals each year.

Student photographers capture the stories behind the music by putting Gator performers in front of the lens

In the SF State course “Journalism 435: Studio Lighting and Business,” Lecturer Scot Tucker teaches his students editorial photography and professional practices. The goal: giving budding shutterbugs the skills they’d need to launch and sustain careers as photojournalists and studio photographers. As part of their classwork in the fall, Tucker’s 14 students set out to create portraits of Gators who’ve dedicated themselves to a different artform — music. 

The student photographers blended editorial photography with storytelling. The project highlighted a diverse range of campus musicians — from punk bands to classical instrumentalists — showcasing the University’s vibrant creative community. Two of the musicians featured in the project, Ailing Zhao and Zheng (Audrey) Ma, are awardees of donor-funded scholarships. Learn more about Ailing and Audrey below, and see the full photography project here.