Aspiring teachers, artists and other professionals have been selected as the 2022 Mary Stuart Rogers Scholars. 

The awards, in their 32nd year, honor upper-division students and credential candidates who have overcome challenges to achieve success and demonstrate hope for the future. 

Even before calls for police reform began after high-profile shootings by law enforcement, University Police Department (UPD) Officer Quenna Martinez understood strength didn’t come with force or weapons. 

Whether at her first job as an officer at San Francisco State University or during her seven years at Stanislaus State, Martinez has never thought of the uniform or weapons as the keys to being able to “protect and serve.”  

“To me it’s being out there talking to students and being engaged in programming and collaboration,” Martinez said. 

Stanislaus State graduate Denise Wickham (’98, B.A. in Liberal Studies), walked the halls of Ceres’ Caswell Dual Language Academy, popping into more than a dozen classrooms and sitting down to read a story to first graders. 

Such a visit is something the Ceres Unified School District superintendent, a one-time fifth-grade teacher, loves to do, and she showed she hasn’t lost her knack in the classroom, mesmerizing the children with the story, “Sofia Valdez, Future Prez.”