College of Liberal & Creative Arts

SF State students write Wikipedia bios for unsung heroes of STEM

Humanities class helps fill in equity gaps among STEM professionals from underrepresented groups 

Wikipedia is among the most visited websites in the world, with information on over 6 million topics. But much is missing, particularly in diversity. Through a partnership with the user-moderated online encyclopedia, students at San Francisco State University recently wrote original biographies for notable professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) from underrepresented groups. 

Scientists from traditionally underrepresented groups comprise a small minority on Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, only about 8% of the site’s 275,000 biographies of scientists are women, with similar gaps across race and ethnicity. 

With support from the Broadcom Foundation, the Wikipedia Education group selected the San Francisco State Humanities class “History of Science from the Scientific Revolution,” taught by Associate Professor David M. Peña-Guzmán from the Department of Humanities and Comparative World Literature, as one of its partners this past summer. Wikipedia Education is a nonprofit organization that serves as the bridge between academia and Wikipedia throughout the U.S. and Canada. 

Nine of the biographies compiled by SF State students are live on Wikipedia. The students’ writing brings visibility to living professionals whose legacies have yet to be completed. They include chemical engineer Miguel Modestino, sustainable industrial engineer Enrique Lomnitz and Procter & Gamble executive and microbiologist Adrian Land. 

Maxwell Stephen Williams, a History graduate student who took the class, helped contribute the bio on Aaron Streets, a UC Berkeley bioengineering professor. Williams says the class taught him different ways to utilize Wikipedia in academic research. 

“It’s somewhat frowned upon to use Wikipedia as a source. But what’s not frowned upon, I found, was the sources that the people used for the Wikipedia article,” Williams said. “I don’t know if you should cite Wikipedia for a research paper, but it offers a general baseline. It gives you scholarly sources to further your own research.” 

Peña-Guzmán applied for the class to participate in the Wikipedia Student Program because it aligned with the themes he wanted to impart to students about the complex relationship between science and the histories of patriarchy, colonialism, classism and social bias. Writing the biographies of scientists of color who have made an impact in a scientific or technological domain was the class’ culminating project.  

“From the very beginning of the class, I built in questions about the politics of science,” he said. “Filling Wikipedia’s race gap through these biographies gave my students a very real, if minor, way of making a difference.” 

Peña-Guzmán will discuss his students’ projects on Wednesday, Dec. 13, at “Closing the gap for Black and Hispanic STEM professionals on Wikipedia,” a free virtual seminar presented by Wikipedia Education. 

The Wikipedia Student Program aims to make the broadly referenced site more inclusive and diverse. Since 2010, students from over 800 universities in the U.S. and Canada have worked on over 135,000 articles.  

“Evidence suggests that Wikipedia can influence trials in courts of law and significantly shape the world of science,” says Wikipedia Education Equity Outreach Coordinator Andrés Vera, citing two research papers led by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty member. “Teaching with Wikipedia can help spread awareness about any topic to a wide audience.” 

Learn more about the Department of Humanities and Comparative World Literature

 

‘Hip Hop America’: SF State History professor assembles major exhibition at Grammy Museum

As co-curator, Felicia Angeja Viator emphasizes women’s contributions to hip-hop 

When a San Francisco State University professor was invited to co-curate an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, she knew women must be at the center. Their presence is unmistakable when entering “Hip Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit” at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Saweetie’s famously blinged-out fingernails are among the first things that visitors encounter. 

San Francisco State Associate Professor of History Felicia Angeja Viator, the co-curator, placed an emphasis on women’s contributions throughout the exhibit, rather than compartmentalizing women as hip-hop history often does.

“We wanted to weave women throughout every single story,” she said. “As a visitor, you come in and you see women everywhere, and that is a true representation of the history. But it’s also a way to normalize the idea that women were there — and contributed and innovated and were significant. It gives people a sense of where we are now, with women dominating hip-hop.” 

“Hip Hop America” opened Oct. 7 and is on display through Sept. 4, 2024. In addition to Viator, the SF State faculty is also represented by Africana Studies Lecturer Dave “Davey D” Cook, as a member of the exhibition advisory committee. 

Among the artifacts procured by Viator include the personal mixtape collection of late SF State alumna Stephanie “DJ Stef” Ornales, a champion of female DJs regarded as a legend in the Bay Area hip-hop community and beyond. In large part, the content on the 60 cassettes in the exhibition is not available on streaming services, showcasing a way that audiences discovered rap music in the pre-internet era. 

“For me, it’s the crown jewel of the exhibit because it represents what’s so important about hip-hop in terms of the DIY [Do-It-Yourself] culture of it,” said Viator, who also was one of the first female DJs in the Bay Area and wrote a book exploring the societal impact of the gangsta rap subgenre. “DJs and underground MCs would share tapes. I wanted to show how important that is for moving the music around.”  

Every semester in Viator’s “History of Popular Culture” class at SF State, her unit on hip-hop always ignites a lively discussion with a coalescence of varying musical tastes and historical perspectives. 

“When I teach this history, I try to honor the fact that this music is so dynamic and changes so much,” Viator says, “and, as I do in general when I teach history, to give students a sense that history matters.” 

Learn more about SF State’s History Department

Felicia Viator holds a microphone while speaking and wearing a black leather jacket and a 4080 Magazine T-shirt

Associate Professor of History Felicia Angela Viator speaks at the opening gala for “Hip Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit.”

Saweetie poses for a picture next to an encased display of her fingernails at Hip Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit

Saweetie shows off her nails — the 10 on her fingers and the 10 on display.

Alum’s design, illustration work represents Filipinos and the Bay

Since drawing art in yearbooks in his youth, LeRoid David has wanted to make a positive impact through art 

Long before his illustrations would be seen at restaurants and on television, LeRoid David drew art in school yearbooks. Not just the covers. Every year he would sign dozens of yearbooks with a personalized comic for his peers. Each piece used the same caricature-based style and humor that is discernable in his work today. 

The San Francisco State University alumnus has a diverse client list. Fans have waved the cheer cards he created for NBC Sports from Oracle Park to Chase Center to Levi’s Stadium. Last year he designed the official San Francisco Giants T-shirt for Filipino Heritage Night. David’s digital caricatures are on signs for The Lumpia Co. restaurant, and his work appears in the 2003 superhero spoof film “Lumpia” plus the sequel “Lumpia with a Vengeance.”  

The erstwhile Tower Records at the Stonestown Galleria is where David (B.A., ’03) first applied the skills he was learning at nearby San Francisco State. He created in-store displays and doodled on the whiteboard above the cash register.  

David and the interviewer for this Q&A attended Burton High School in San Francisco together. 

In high school, you were sketching comic art by hand for the yearbook, newspaper and even the senior class T-shirt.  

I’ve always been an illustrator, going as far back when I was 3 years old growing up in San Francisco. I was always fascinated by product labels and logos, in addition to reading comics and watching cartoons. 

LeRoid David’s digital illustrations of The Lumpia Co. of proprietors Alex Retodo and Earl “E-40” Stevens smiling and holding pieces of lumpia in each hand while wearing T-shirts with the text Eat Lumpia

LeRoid David’s digital illustrations of The Lumpia Co. of proprietors Alex Retodo and Earl “E-40” Stevens. Photo credit: courtesy of The Lumpia Co. 

I’ll always remember you would take the time, upon anybody’s request, to sign their yearbook with a personalized cartoon. 

That goes way back to elementary school. Around that age I realized that art can make a big impact. I saw the impact of creating something for someone and how it affects them emotionally. I got hooked to using art to make an impact. It gave me a feeling of wanting to do more. 

To this day, I will get a message from old classmates, even people I haven’t seen since elementary school. They would go through their closet and find something that I did for them, and I don’t even remember it! 

Tell us about your job at Tower Records and how it intersected with your SF State life.  

I started out just like a regular cashier. Slowly over time, I got involved with the visual arts team. I would assist the store artists with a lot of the signage, and that’s when I would start to apply the design techniques I learned from class.  

I stayed with Tower Records ’til the very end, which was 2006. I was able to move up and work for the regional office to do marketing and events locally for the Bay Area stores. My job was to propose music events, whether it’s album signings or even in-store performances.  

Describe a class or a moment at SF State that had a major impact on your life. 

Man, there were a lot of moments. The first thing that stands out is becoming part of DAI [the Design and Industry Department] at SFSU. It not only helped develop my skills as a designer, but it also helped me learn how to connect with my peers, learning how to network and how to be a better communicator. 

The second thing at State was being part of FilGrad, the student-run Filipino graduation. At State I solely focused on my major and what I needed to do to graduate. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to take other classes such as Ethnic Studies. I knew that SF State had a very strong Ethnic Studies program, especially when it came to Filipino American history, so I joined FilGrad as a way to connect with the Filipino American community. 

Of course at the very end, we held a very special fundraiser: We hosted the premiere of the “Lumpia” movie at SF State. It was crazy, man, it was. It was a sold-out, standing-room crowd.

I’m a second-generation Filipino American. My parents immigrated to the U.S. when they were really young, so I didn’t grow up speaking Tagalog. I only knew what being Filipino was to food, pretty much. It wasn’t until my later years, and again, especially at SF State, where I learned about Filipino American history. 

I saw that, as artists, that we, too, can also create — and be part of that history, too. 

Learn more about SF State’s School of Design

Student-curated art exhibition on campus celebrates farmworkers, exposes their struggles

Brianna Montserrat Miranda helms ‘Essential,’ on display in the Fine Arts Gallery through Sept. 2 

While essential workers were acknowledged in the COVID-19 pandemic, a new student-curated exhibition at San Francisco State University celebrates farmworkers and builds awareness of their continuing inhumane working conditions. 

“Essential” opens on Saturday, Aug. 12, with a reception from noon to 4 p.m., in the Fine Arts Gallery. It is open Tuesdays – Fridays from noon to 4 p.m. through Saturday, Sept. 2. Admission is free. 

As guest curator, San Francisco State student Brianna Montserrat Miranda has crafted a mix of contemporary art and poetry exploring relationships between labor, injustice, family and community. The nine artists include SF State alumnus Juan R. Fuentes, contributing a woodblock print titled “Mayan Warrior.” Historic works from the SF State Labor Archives and Resource Center will also be on display. 

Miranda hopes that “Essential” makes people more mindful of the labor involved before produce makes it to the grocery store. 

“I want our voices, our struggle and our experiences to be heard and respected,” she said. 

Miranda, an Art History major and Museum Studies minor, has deep family roots in agricultural work.  

“I’m a first-generation Mexican American woman, born to parents who immigrated to the U.S. at a young age,” she said. “Both sets of my grandparents have at one point or another worked in farm labor, as well as my parents. In fact, my grandparents are still actively working — my grandpa in the fields and my grandma at a sorting factory.

Juan R. Fuentes’ “Mayan Warrior” is a diptych woodcut depicting a Mayan image with the United Farm Workers of America logo and a farmworker crouching down to pick crips

“Mayan Warrior” by Juan R. Fuentes (2011)

“I also worked for a short while at a sorting factory, as have some of my relatives who are around my age,” Miranda added. “I’m from the Central Valley, where about 25% of the country’s food is produced — but most importantly, I’m from a small farming, low-income community that is often under-represented and overlooked.” 

Each semester, students in Lecturer Faculty Kevin B. Chen’s “Exhibition Design” class create a proposal for an original exhibition, but this is the first time that the Fine Arts Gallery has selected one for its shows of professional, non-student artists.  

“We have been so impressed with Brianna’s artistic sagacity and commitment to sharing lived experiences with our community at SF State, shedding light on the hard labor necessary to provide food on all of our tables,” Chen said. “Collaborating with her has been a highlight of the year!”

Sharon E. Bliss, the Fine Arts Gallery director, says she is excited for visitors to experience what came from Miranda’s vision: “Watching her bring ‘Essential’ to fruition — from planning meetings through studio visits with artists and working with essayist Marcial González and graphic designer Madeline Ko — has been an amazing journey, and now we’re just getting started with sharing it with a public audience.” 

Major support for “Essential” is provided by the Zellerbach Family Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. 

“Receiving the opportunity to curate ‘Essential’ has definitely been the most pivotal moment I’ve had at SF State,” Miranda said. “I’m still a little shocked but most really grateful for the opportunity. I know how important this exhibition is for me, my family and the Latino/a/x community who have experienced the effects of the agriculture business in the U.S.” 

Learn more about SF State’s School of Art. 

 

Alum designs FDA-authorized app to treat fibromyalgia symptoms

Nelson Mitchell developed his design mind as a graduate student at SF State 

Learning to design furniture at San Francisco State University can lead to more careers than one may expect. For Nelson Mitchell, his master’s degree was the pathway to creating an innovative mobile app to treat fibromyalgia. 

Mitchell, a user-experience designer, is head of design and co-founder of Swing Therapeutics. Earlier this year the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) authorized its app, Stanza, to be marketed to treat symptoms of fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that affects 10 million Americans. It is the first fibromyalgia digital therapeutic approved by the FDA. Available only by prescription, Stanza employs a form of cognitive behavioral therapy called acceptance and commitment therapy. It has proven effective in extensive randomized controlled trials and real-world studies, with 73% of patients demonstrating improvement in symptoms. 

Stanza provides patients with a customized schedule of treatment, incorporating practices such as mindfulness and self-reflection throughout their daily routine. “It’s the therapist in your pocket,” Mitchell said.  

Nelson Mitchell smiles while standing in front of a brick wall on a foggy day

Mitchell (M.A., ’10) entered San Francisco State as smartphones started to become a near necessity for daily life. Faculty and students already knew that enduring product design concepts would be key to success in the mobile software space. 

“I was designing chairs and lamps and stuff like that, but SF State’s program was really great at teaching me the design process and how to think like a designer — how to come up with a hypothesis, test, iterate and refine the idea,” Mitchell said. “I took that and applied it to software and interface design.” 

School of Design faculty such as Ricardo Gomes, Shirl Buss, Hsiao-Yun Chu and Nancy Noble gave Mitchell the tools and the freedom to explore his interests in depth. 

“I felt like I had a new kernel, a new framework,” he said. “SF State gave me the chance to build it — and really build it in a way that I understood it. It’s like the difference between owning a bike and having someone else fix it versus being able to take it apart and put it back together.” 

At his company, Mitchell is spreading the word about the Gator work ethic: “Nobody is going to work as hard for you as graduates from SF State,” he told his team. “These are people that we need to create opportunities for.” 

One of Swing Therapeutics’ first in-house software engineers, Mantasha Khan, joined the company after completing her Computer Science degree from SF State. Khan (B.S., ’21) has a passion for creating technology solutions for health. She notes that Lecturer Jose Ortiz-Costa’s “Introduction to Database Systems” course provided her with an invaluable foundation of skills. 

“I’ve been meaning to reach out to [Ortiz-Costa], just throw it out there, [to say that] you have helped me so much,’” said Khan, who attended SF State as an international student from India. “Everything you have taught has been helping me every single day in my work, so I’m very grateful.”  

Learn more about the SF State School of Design and Computer Science Department

‘Finding Filipino’: Renowned comics artist discovered herself attending SF State

Rina Ayuyang’s new graphic novel and comic posters explore Filipino American culture and history — including on campus 

One evening in the 1990s, Rina Ayuyang was passing through the Creative Arts building at San Francisco State University. In a small recital hall, she discovered a Filipino ensemble performing a ballad, “Dahil Sayo (Because of You).” She recognized the song because her parents would dance to it in the living room of her childhood home. 

“I lived near campus and would walk down the halls a lot, and I’d just stumble upon things that were happening,” Ayayung recalled. “It was a very film-noir scene actually, this woman singing this Filipino romantic ballad that I just came and found myself in. And it was a very magical experience.”  

It was one of the many life-changing experiences for Ayuyang at San Francisco State to influence her as a comics artist and shape her as a human being. 

New graphic novel 

“The Man in the McIntosh Suit” (Drawn and Quarterly, 2023) is Ayuyang’s new graphic novel, presenting a Filipino American take on the Great Depression. Mistaken identities, speakeasies and lost love intersect from strawberry farms on the Central Coast to Manilatown in San Francisco. 

Kirkus Reviews writes: “Ayuyang spins a captivating tale that is both an homage to starry-eyed Hollywood movies of the period and a corrective that highlights the anti-Asian racism faced by immigrants as well as the thriving communities they formed.” 

Throughout her work, Ayuyang (B.A., ’98) aims not only to increase representation of Filipino Americans in the arts, but awareness of their key roles in U.S. history. 

“We always feel like we’ve come a long way, but there are still things that need to be addressed. We like to bury things in our history that aren’t as pretty,” Ayuyang said. “I feel like as an artist, we need to continue to use our platform to share ideas, motivate and inspire.” 

‘Finding Filipino’ and the ‘CIA’ 

Ayuyang was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and chose to attend SF State because she had deep family roots in the Bay Area. She majored in Art with an emphasis in Conceptual and Information Arts, an experimental program where she says everybody made their own rules and embraced a do-it-yourself ethos that prepared her well for a career in comic arts. 

“They called it the ‘CIA’,” Ayuyang said. “It was a little fun rag-tag artist operation going on. It had this grassroots feeling that felt very San Francisco, bohemian-like. It was very much my jam.” 

The courses that Ayuyang took in the College of Ethnic Studies from professors such as Dan Begonia taught her about the hidden histories of Filipino farmworkers and activists in California. She met lifelong friends in the Asian American Studies Department and participated in the Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor, a student organization.  

SF State has had such an impact on Ayuyang that she dedicated a comic to the University in her new poster series, “Finding Filipino.” Presented by the San Francisco Arts Commission for the Art on Market Street Poster Series, the nine posters are on display at 30 bus shelters in downtown San Francisco through June.  

On the “Finding Filipino at SF State” poster, she shares her Gator story: “Here, I learned that I was more than a ‘model minority,’ that I could be an artist, a writer, an athlete — anything I wanted to be.” 

Learn more about the SF State School of Art and College of Ethnic Studies

Student enjoys Beltway life in internship with Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute

Lluvia Castillo is passionate about a career in public service, beginning in her hometown near the California/Oregon border 

A San Francisco State University student received real-life civics lessons on the Beltway every day this semester, thanks to her participation in a leadership program. Selected for The Fund for American Studies’ Capital Semester internship, Lluvia Castillo worked at the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C. 

As an administrative intern, Castillo served as the assistant to Mary Ann Gomez Orta, CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by members of Congress to advance the Hispanic community’s economic progress with a focus on social responsibility and global competitiveness. Castillo shadowed the CEO at meetings and events with elected officials, took notes and updated financial documents. When not at work, Castillo took classes at George Mason University and lived several blocks from the U.S. Capitol. She also enjoyed visiting the historic monuments and having the opportunity to meet Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Latina to be elected to Congress, and others. 

“Not only do they work with a lot of people in diverse backgrounds, but with Congress,” Castillo said. “I felt like I can learn new skills and take them back home and implement them in my community. That way I can help my community out.” 

Castillo, a Political Science major, plans to pursue a career in public service, beginning in her hometown of Dorris. The agricultural town in rural Siskiyou County sits along Highway 5 near the Oregon border. It is in California, but geographically and culturally a world away from San Francisco. Its population is 860 according to the U.S. Census, down 8% from 2010. Castillo describes the area as lacking overall support for its immigrant farmworker population in addition to convenient access to healthful food and other resources. 

“People have to drive if they want to even get fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh anything. We would have to drive up to Oregon,” said Castillo, a first-generation college student. 

This summer, she’ll go home to Dorris and volunteer with Ore-Cal Resources and Conservation Development, where she has helped develop a community garden, before returning to SF State for her final year. 

She says a San Francisco State class, “The Politics of Immigration in the United States” taught by Professor of Political Science Ron Hayduk, motivated her to pursue a career in public service.  

“He’s the reason why I’m here in D.C. He would email us about internships, and he was that professor,” Castillo said. “His way of listening and encouraging us was one thing that changed me. He was out there pushing us, but also teaching us why immigration is important and why we should go out there and do things for the people who don’t have any voices.” 

Learn more about the SF State Political Science Department. 

Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo named dean of SF State’s College of Liberal and Creative Arts

‘Teacher-servant-leader-scholar’ most recently served as vice president for diversity, equity, inclusion at Sarah Lawrence College 

Following a national search, Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo has been appointed dean of the College of Liberal & Creative Arts at San Francisco State University effective Aug. 15. She is vice president for diversity equity and inclusion at Sarah Lawrence College. Prior, she served as an associate professor of English at Vanderbilt University, where she was also an affiliate in the Latinx Studies Program, Center for Latin American Studies and Center for Medicine, Health and Society. 

At San Francisco State, Nwankwo will oversee all academic, financial and administrative functions of the College, which has one of the largest and most comprehensive academic programs devoted to the liberal and creative arts in Northern California. Comprised of disciplines in the literary, media, performing and visual arts, the College provides unique opportunities for specialized focus, collaboration, interdisciplinary learning and multidisciplinary pursuits. Nwankwo will also guide initiatives focused on excellence in the liberal arts funded by a transformational $25 million gift from alumni George and Judy Marcus. 

“Dr. Nwankwo is the consummate teacher-servant-leader-scholar with a wealth of experience in many areas of academia,” said Amy Sueyoshi, SF State’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “The entire San Francisco State community is poised to benefit from her expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion as well as the liberal arts. Thank you to the search committee and the larger College community for their commitment and service in identifying the new dean.”

Nwankwo’s extensive administrative experience includes serving as director of the American studies program and associate provost for strategic initiatives and partnerships at Vanderbilt, as well as co-director of the Atlantic Studies Initiative at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her in-depth research focuses on U.S. African American, Caribbean and Afro-Latin American literature, music and popular culture. Her publications include the monograph “Black Cosmopolitanism” and the co-edited volume “Rhythms of the Afro-Atlantic World.” She is founding director of Voices from Our America, an international research, curriculum development and community engagement project.  

“I have long admired SF State’s unwavering commitment to social justice that is central to the work of the University,” Nwankwo said. “I am excited to join the College of Liberal & Creative Arts, where our world-class faculty are dedicated to inspiring the next generation of thinkers, makers and doers, as well as to providing an excellent education for students of all backgrounds.”  

Nwankwo earned her B.A. in English and Spanish from Rutgers University and her Ph.D. in English with certificates in Latin American Studies and African and African American Studies from Duke University. 

She replaces Andrew Harris, who left SF State to become executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Sophie Clavier, the dean of Graduate Studies, has served as interim dean this academic year. 

Learn more about the SF State College of Liberal & Creative Arts. 

Student script wins national award from Broadcast Education Association

Jae Hamilton wrote raucous speculative episode of U.K. teen sitcom ‘Derry Girls’ 

What started as a class assignment has turned into a national award for a San Francisco State University student who has since graduated. Jae Hamilton is a first-place winner in the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Festival of Media Arts. Her speculative script for an episode of the U.K. teen sitcom “Derry Girls” brings a raucous yet thoughtful twist to a Catholic girls school in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. 

Hamilton (B.A./B.S., ’22) is among 300 student winners, representing 82 colleges and universities nationwide. They were honored at an awards ceremony at the festival on April 17 in Las Vegas. BEA is a leading international academic media organization that drives insights, excellence in media production and career advancement for educators, students and professionals. 

Hamilton wrote the script last fall as an assignment in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts (BECA) 470: “Dramatic Writing for Television and Electronic Media.” The plot takes the “Derry Girls” protagonists to a shop in town where one of the characters gets in a dispute with the owner for overcharging for candy. In the episode’s secondary plotline, Hamilton takes the Derry girls as far from their comfort zone as she thought possible: to a museum exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs, showcasing his trademark provocative images of nude men. 

“It’s hijinks, but the basis is taking care of your own and standing up for what you feel is injustice,” Hamilton said. “I wrote it because it’s funny, but it’s also about self-acceptance. Even though they are very simple characters, they deal with lots of different emotions and themes.” 

A double major in Visual Communication Design and Creative Writing, Hamilton entered San Francisco State as a transfer student after a career as a theatre props technician in Atlanta. She is pursuing a career in video game design, and her passion is writing plays.  

“Writing is my happy place. It always has been,” Hamilton said.  

Hamilton is not the only member of the SF State community to be honored at the BEA festival. Her BECA 470 instructor from last fall, Associate Professor Marie Drennan, garnered Best of Competition in the Mini-Episodic/Webisode category of the faculty scriptwriting competition. 

Learn more about the SF State Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts and Creative Writing departments and the SF State School of Design

  

Jae Hamilton selfie while seated in front of a kitchen sink and window

Student radio, TV, cinema coming to you live

Students gain hands-on experience in state-of-the-art studios in new Marcus Hall  

With the quarantine of 2020 long in the rear-view mirror, students at San Francisco State University are back to developing skills and making friends the old-fashioned way — in the flesh. Better yet, a new energy has emerged in George and Judy Marcus Hall for the Liberal and Creative Arts, the new building where students use state-of-the-art studios and labs to operate a radio station, produce television programs and much more. 

KSFS radio  

KSFS is the online student-run station based in the Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts (BECA) Department, representing the best of college radio with programming as diverse as San Francisco State itself. Students have the freedom to play and say pretty much whatever they like, leading to avant-garde playlists from all music genres (one DJ is still dedicated to spinning vinyl) and talk shows and podcasts on a range of topics.  

Samantha Ferro, Jennifer Gee and Alexandra Lopez host “Crave Radio”, airing Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. this semester. Each brings her own perspective and passion to her segment: Ferro focuses on the culture of her home country of Italy, Gee explores soul searching and Lopez discusses the San Francisco 49ers. 

“The BECA program has provided me with hands-on experience that you just can’t get outside of college. You can do radio, podcasting, video or script writing,” Gee said. “I get to learn with different people and see how they work and also learn about myself and how I work. You also go out of your comfort zone and grow as a person.” 

The three hosts only met last fall but already are completing each other’s sentences as if they’ve been lifelong besties.  

“Without SF State we could not do this,” Lopez and Ferro said in unison.  

Listen online 24/7 at BECA Media or download the app.

The Under SF set as seen through the viewfinders of a video camera

‘Under SF’ 

Things can get zany in Marcus Hall when “Under SF” is filming at Studio One. The weekly variety show, produced by two BECA classes, brings in artists, musicians and social justice advocates, even sending in the clowns of the Finelli Circus. 

The hosts, producers, directors, writers and crew members — all students — operate in a professional television environment, preparing them for careers in the television industry. 

“It’s a really good experience learning how to work with a crew in a studio … having fun together while also being able to make mistakes and learning from our mistakes,” student Luna Cardenas said. “When it was my turn to direct, [we] came together with the production group. … We just worked together a lot. We all cared about each other and our work.” 

Watch “Under SF” on the BECA Media YouTube channel. 

‘State of Events’ 

Every Tuesday, BECA student journalists present a full-length television news program, “State of Events.” Broadcast from a set with a street-level view of Holloway Avenue, the show covers news from the SF State campus to the greater Bay Area. 

Watch “State of Events” on the BECA Media YouTube channel. 

BECAfest 

BECAfest is the annual showcase and celebration of the work produced by BECA students. Emulating Hollywood’s top award shows, the event features award-winning work in video, audio, writing and radio, among other categories. This year’s event takes place Friday, May 19, at 7 p.m. in Studio One. 

Film Finals 

At SF State, the media arts are on display beyond BECA and Marcus Hall. In the Fine Arts building, students in the School of Cinema — recognized as one of the nation’s top film schools — enjoy a soundstage, editing rooms and recording facilities developed with guidance from industry legends including Francis Ford Coppola.  

A Gator tradition for more than half a century, Film Finals is the juried showcase of the year’s best student films — and the city’s premier student cinema showcase. It returns to the Roxie Theater, at 16th and Valencia streets in San Francisco, on Tuesday, May 16, at 6 p.m.  

Related screenings of SF State Cinema student films include the Queer Film Finals, scheduled for the Roxie Theater on Monday, May 15, at 6:30 p.m., and the Animation Finals on Thursday, May 25, at 6 p.m. in the August Coppola Theatre on campus. 

Visit the SF State calendar for a full list of events. 

Learn more about the SF State BECA Department and School of Cinema