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SFSU student establishes nonprofit organization in memory of her son

Creative Writing major Theresa Thompson promotes literary excellence to children

A San Francisco State University student who has passed down her love of literature and language to her children is now paying it forward to the next generation. Theresa Thompson recently established her own nonprofit organization in honor of her late son, Marcus Angelo Bryant, while entering San Francisco State last year in her late 50s. 

We Theresa’s Kids is a nonprofit promoting literary excellence in middle and high school-age children from underserved areas by teaching them to read, write and understand poetry. The nonprofit provides free classes at public libraries throughout the Bay Area. 

“Our hope is that they seek higher learning, so we want to show them that the library is their sanctuary,” said Thompson, a Creative Writing major and Education minor. Her goal is to become a middle-school teacher in the Oakland Unified School District. 

“Young people struggle in middle school, and I want them to know that someone cares,” she said. “I want them to know that school is a safe place — that you can pour your emotions out on paper, and I won’t judge you.” 

At SFSU, Thompson has landed a work-study position with the Marian Wright Edelman Institute, which promotes early literacy in underserved areas of San Francisco. 

“It has taught me so much about working with young people,” she said. “It’s preparing me for what’s to come. These are all pivotable moments that I’m experiencing at San Francisco State.” 

Thompson keeps a home full of books, sharing her lifelong love for reading and vocabulary in her five children (and, now, nine grandchildren). Bryant was not only an avid reader, but also taught himself Swahili and three dialects of Spanish. He was planning to enter community college before his death in 2023. 
 
“Marcus was the joy of the family, the one who made everyone laugh,” Thompson said. “He was very proud of his home life.” 

Bryant was also an organ donor. Shortly after his memorial service, Thompson wrote poems and a class paper about his sacrifices and channeling her pain, and is writing a fantasy-fiction short story titled “The Sword of Seraphims: The Marcus Angelo Chronicles.” She is now an ambassador for Donor Network West, the organ procurement organization for Northern California and Northern Nevada. 

“I refuse to allow my grief to make me a slave, so I’m going to repurpose my pain and turn it into something else,” she said. “And Marcus repurposed himself. He lost his life, but he saved five lives. And the one thing I’ll never forget is that his heart and one of his lungs went to the same person.” 

Learn more about the Creative Writing Department.

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. 

 

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. 

SFSU undergrad research sheds light on zombie bees

An in-class, on-campus student project explores the impact of a parasitic fly on honeybees

After a semester in a class, most students gain new knowledge, skills and maybe some new friends. For students in Assistant Professor Mitzy Porras’ Biology class, several undergraduates also walked away with a peer-reviewed research paper about zombie bees in a scientific journal — a major résumé boost for any student.

“Publishing a paper is kind of rare, especially as an undergraduate,” said Lioh Jaboeuf, first author of the paper published in the scientific journal Insects. On the first day of Porras’ undergraduate course “Bio 460: General Entomology” in fall 2024, Jaboeuf and some of his classmates chose to conduct a research project about the honeybees as their semester project. 

Honeybees play a critical role in urban ecosystems, pollinating the plants that support community gardens, street trees and backyard crops. However, they face many challenges, including parasitism by species like the parasitic fly Apocephalus borealis. The parasite lays its eggs inside a bee, and the larvae later force their way out, killing the bee. A 2012 SFSU study reported that before their untimely death, infected bees exhibit zombie-like behavior such as being disoriented, abandoning their hive and dying near sources of light. Porras’ class wanted to continue studying this parasite.

From September 2024 to May 2025, the SFSU team monitored honeybee populations at six different sites on the SFSU campus that included gardens with pollinators and herbaceous and woody plants, and near the science building where bees were previously collected. Parasitism rates fluctuated with the seasons — peaking in May when approximately 50% of bees were infected — and were closely linked to warmer temperatures and lower humidity.

“This study reinforces the need for long-term, seasonally informed monitoring of bee populations in urban areas. It serves as a powerful reminder that cities are dynamic ecosystems, and their resilience depends on how well we observe, understand and protect the species that keep them functioning,” Porras explained.

As a new professor at SFSU, Porras (who came to the University in fall 2024) prioritizes creating undergraduate classes that extend beyond standard curricula. 

“It’s critical to offer a research experience that allows students to have hands-on activities,” Porras emphasized. “While they’re learning concepts, they should have an opportunity to apply them and actually build their CV. That would be a plus for them when they go to the job market.”

Jaboeuf, an international student from France, participated in two internships before coming to SFSU but didn’t have experience with this level of data analysis, publishing or the process of responding to peer reviews via revisions. As an international student, doing scientific writing in English was an extra layer of learning that he appreciated. “The whole experience was very formative,” he said.

“To be involved from the start, carry out the project on your own terms and write a paper, revise it and do it as a group was a very good opportunity to understand how research works,” said Jaboeuf, who took Porras’ class during his semester at SFSU. “It was one of the best classes I took when I was in the U.S.”

Co-author Jenny Hoffmann (B.S., ’25), a transfer student, repeatedly heard that she needed research experience for her future as a biologist. Field research, however, can sometimes be difficult for students, especially if it’s in a remote location and coincides with other obligations. But Porras’ assignment circumvented this problem by keeping the field work close to home. 

“The project was done on campus, so it was very conveniently located,” said Hoffmann, who lived in the Towers at Centennial Square when the honeybees were being collected. “I could just go out and do the work in my community, which was so cool.” 

For Hoffmann, this project was part of her connection to the SFSU community, something she valued as a student and cherishes going forward.

“My favorite part of science is that it’s very collaborative and team-oriented,” she said. “I can’t wait to see where the next part of my journey takes me because I now have this SFSU community with me. I get to bring that to the next place I work, and I get to create community there. I’m so excited for that.”

Learn more about SFSU’s Department of Biology.

SF State launches hub to better connect students to hands-on experiential education

At the end of the academic year, colleges at SF State will often host showcases where students get the opportunity to present their research, scholarship and creative activities.

The hub serves students of all majors and minors

Let’s say you’re a student who wants to participate in research or hands-on activities that'll complement your major or minor. You’ll probably ask yourself, “How do I get started?” Thankfully, San Francisco State University has the answer: Start with SF State Create.

SF State Create is a new hub focused on creating, facilitating and connecting students to research, scholarship and creative activities (RSCA), an inclusive term for hands-on investigative, experiential and creative work across all academic disciplines. Launched by the University’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, SF State Create currently offers services remotely but has plans for a physical space in the future.

“San Francisco State is focused on increasing its emphasis on experiential education, and SF State Create helps with that,” said SF State Professor of Biology Gretchen Le Buhn, a co-director of SF State Create. “Getting those in-person connections, having one-on-one relationships with faculty and building community by participating in scholarship together are all critical to student success, particularly for our underrepresented students.”

With SF State Create, students will have better access to RSCA information, opportunities and services such as:

  • A marketplace that lists on- and off-campus jobs and independent study opportunities that include RSCA components
  • The latest information about events and gatherings that complement a student’s field of study
  • Scholarships and awards to fund RSCA opportunities

“RSCA opportunities open up doors for students in a way that is unique compared to their usual day-to-day,” said SF State Professor of Kinesiology Kate Hamel, a co-director of SF State Create. “They allow skill building for workforce development. Some of it happens inside the classroom. This is another opportunity to do it outside of the classroom.”

Because the word “research” is often associated with STEM fields, the SF State Create co-directors want to emphasize an important message: the hub and University help facilitate RSCA opportunities for all students.

“There are so many opportunities for every student, regardless of their field of choice, to engage in research, learn research methods and share their work, but they often don’t know what is available or how to find it,” said SF State Create co-director Joshua Singer, an associate professor in the School of Design. “Providing a central place where students can have better access to opportunities, resources and guidance is critical in getting all students engaged in these transformative experiences.”

Nathan Burns, who graduated from SF State this past spring, is the perfect example of why the University wants to ensure all students have access to RSCA opportunities. During their last semester, Burns presented their original zine at the CHSS Undergraduate Research & Creative Works Showcase.  The zine, titled “SURV(IO)LANCE,”  incorporates academic research and Burns’ personal experience as a queer, trans, disabled person to discuss surveillance.

“Research has been such a key component of my SF State experience,” said Burns, who earned a degree in Sociology and a minor in LGBTQ Studies. “For the CHSS showcase I was able to print a few copies of the zine to share with people in attendance. It was so exciting to be able to not only share my research with other campus members, but get to see just how much incredible work is being done across campus that I otherwise might not have heard about.”

Learn more about SF State Create and how you can get involved with RSCA opportunities.

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