Isabelle Briseño

My name is Isabelle Briseño! The summer before eighth grade my sister went to camp at Sonoma State University. When she came home she told me she had found my dream school. I had never visited the university but I knew she was right. At that moment my dream became Sonoma State. Senior year my dream became a reality. I got into SSU. I knew that I would thrive at Sonoma State, make memories, and have experiences that would affect the rest of my life and I couldn’t be more excited to be a Seawolf. Concluding the second semester of junior year, everything I thought I would succeed at SSU was wrong. It is so much more. I never realized that I would be able to accomplish so much while being here.

I fell in love with Sonoma State in the eighth grade without even knowing that it would develop me into a strong, opinionated, overly optimistic woman and a leader, and I AM a Seawolf. Throughout the last two and half years, I have gone through Associated Students’ (AS) Future Officer Program, volunteered with JUMP as a homework helper at a mobile home park, joined the Greek Life organization- Alpha Xi Delta, successfully ran for an AS senator position as a freshman, was a Summer Orientation leader, served on many academic committees, and have had many positions within my Greek Life chapter including Academic Achievement Director and Chapter President.

Through each of my positions I have come to the realizations that my passion lies in advocating for students and helping those students reach for their potential. I believe everyone on campus has the opportunity to be successful, but I struggle with helping students understand how many opportunities there are to be successful. For example, I took the position of a Summer Orientation leader because as the first years come in, I want them to understand that they have a voice on this campus and there are resources to succeed, not only on campus, but in life.

As I continue that work as President of Alpha Xi Delta, oftentimes the women in my chapter feel like they are not capable of succeeding or growing on this campus, but they do. We have so many resources that are unknown to most of the students and as a Senator of Associated Students, I advocated for more of those resources for our students.

During my time as a Seawolf, I have become the person I always hoped I would become and just as much as Sonoma State changed me, by the time I graduate, I hope that I will have made an impact on Sonoma State.