The right classes— at the right moment — can help students redirect their lives
By Matt Itelson and Kanaga Rajan
For many SFSU students, the path to a degree — and a career — doesn’t follow a straight line. Some arrive after years in the workforce, others return after starting and stopping, and many balance school with jobs, families and other responsibilities. Nearly 6,000 SFSU students are age 25 or older, making up more than a quarter of the student body. The following stories highlight four Gators who came to SFSU at different stages of life and found mentorship, opportunity and renewed direction — proving that it’s never too late to begin again.
Breaking self-imposed ceilings
College wasn’t Chloe Peak’s priority for much of her life. As a teen, she took a few community college classes but focused on a career in the food industry, even travelling the world for her job. But after seven years, this became tiresome. After graduating from SFSU this May, she will enter a Ph.D. program in Chemistry — something she never considered before SFSU.
At community college, she slowly began expanding her horizons by exploring careers as a sonographer, nurse or doctor, though she quickly realized she disliked patient care.
“[I decided] I’m just going to pursue this Chemistry degree, and maybe I’ll get a bachelor’s and become a lab technician. Again, putting a ceiling on myself because I didn’t really know,” she says, explaining that she didn’t know people who pursued anything beyond a bachelor’s degree.
At SFSU she joined Assistant Professor Michael Enright’s research lab to get hands-on experience. Enright and mentors in the Student Enrichment Opportunities office helped her dream bigger.
“I’ve been super lucky. Dr. Enright has been really open about opportunities out there and advocates for his students and makes sure we know about opportunities that we can reach for,” she says. Enright and the Student Enrichment Opportunities office helped her understand graduate school and that you could get paid to get a Ph.D. — dispelling a narrative she had that more school meant more debt.
“I’ve literally been paid, and had my tuition paid, to do research for the last two years,” Peak says.
A place of belonging, even online
After graduating from high school in 2012, Erica Alberghini worked in retail, restaurants, law and animal care. It wasn’t until she got a job in special education that she found her calling.
“Any type of education can change lives,” she says.
SFSU’s Online Degree Completion Program in Criminal Justice Studies allows Alberghini to work full time as an office technician at Folsom State Prison’s education department during the day. In the evenings, she enters a supportive cohort of fellow working professionals over Zoom. When she completes her bachelor’s degree, she will be eligible to advance to higher positions in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“People struggle with the preconceived notion that you have to have a degree or a career by such-and-such age. A lot of people are focused on this imaginary timeline that doesn’t exist,” Alberghini says. “Going back to school, and especially being at SFSU, I never felt that I was behind. I never felt that I wasn’t good enough. I always felt like I had a place.”
Guidance, opportunity and approachability
“Charlotte Tate changed my life,” says Darwin Guevarra, an assistant professor at Miami University in Ohio. He models his own career, teaching and mentorship on Tate and other SFSU faculty.
He first met Tate, an SFSU Psychology professor, when he took her statistics class. Conversations with her during her office hours changed the course of his life. She answered all his questions and encouraged him to consider research and graduate school. She also introduced him to Professor Ryan Howell, who became Guevarra’s research adviser.
“Charlotte started it, but Ryan is probably the biggest influence on my thinking about psychology research,” says Guevarra (B.A.,’13). SFSU helped set the foundation for where Guevarra is today — a far cry from when his college experience began in 2001.
Back then he started at City College of San Francisco as an English major and wanted to be a teacher. After four years, he transferred to SFSU before dropping out and returning five years later as a Psychology major in his late 20s.
“Being first-gen, I didn’t even know you could visit colleges before you attended. That didn’t even occur to me,” he says, admitting he wasn’t a model student at first. “None of my friends went to college. I didn’t really hang out with people who talked about those things.”
Things didn’t change until his second round at SFSU. That’s when he found his passion and the foundation he needed. “Approachability leads to guidance, and then guidance leads to a bunch of opportunities,” he says.
School’s in session
Industrial Design major Damani “Phesto Dee” Thompson’s path to higher education was anything but traditional. As a member of the legendary hip-hop groups Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics, he has performed worldwide since his late teens. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, touring halted for a time. Upon the recommendation of his friend, superproducer Dan “The Automator” Nakamura (B.A., ’90), he enrolled in SFSU’s School of Design.
One of Thompson’s early designs was the Souls of Mischief logo and cover for their debut album, “93 ’til Infinity.” At SFSU he has learned to apply design thinking throughout his creative and business endeavors.
“Being in design has taught me that it’s not just about the visual aspect,” says Thompson (B.S., ’25). “What’s behind that curtain is what I’ve learned here.”
Thompson also learned a great deal in his interactions with other students.
“I always tell people I like being around young people because they’re not reminiscing. They’re not like, ‘Back when I was in elementary school,’” he says. “They don’t want to talk about that. They want to talk about what’s happening when they move forward.”