5 years

2 degrees

4 gray hairs

3.8 GPA

And

1,000 reasons why I would do it over and why I would tell you to do the same.

— Tiffaney Boyd in a Facebook post on May 1.

Since 2011, Boyd has been involved with Lambda Pi Eta, Tukwut Leadership Circle, Pre-Law Society, the Black Student Union, the Department of Communication, the Faculty Mentoring Program and Associated Students, Inc. (ASI), where she has served as president from 2015-2016.

In February, Boyd told The Cougar Chronicle that her goals for her presidency were to bridge the gap between students and ASI, and advocate for the creation of an ethnic studies major, food pantry on campus and a black student center. Reaching the end of her presidency and undergraduate career, Boyd has achieved them all.

Student Town Hall Meetings were established during her presidency, making ASI more visible to students on campus. Proposals for an ethnic studies major, a food pantry and a black student center were also created during her presidency and have all reached President Karen Haynes’ office, with the latter two being subjects of resolutions passed by ASI.

Boyd worked closely with ASI Vice Presidents Bianca Garcia and Jamaela Johnson to achieve these goals.

“I wouldn’t have been able to survive the year without them,” said Boyd, “they were my rocks!”

She has left her mark on campus through social justice efforts, even contributing to the addition of the Outstanding Social Justice Advocate award at the Tukwut Leadership Awards Night.

“I really tried to promote advocacy for policy and resources for students who are housing displaced and food insecure, for gendered name preferred policy—which should come [in] August—and gender-neutral bathrooms,” said Boyd.

Upon commencement, Boyd will receive two bachelor’s degrees, one in communication and one in social sciences. With this educational background, she aims to attend law school at UC Berkeley or UCLA, where she had a law fellowship last summer, and pursue a career in which she can shape public policy surrounding the education and criminal justice systems.

“There’s a disproportionate [amount of] people of color in the prison system and there’s the school-to-prison pipeline… so I would really want to try to see how I can help shape legislation to make sure we’re funding education more versus the prison population,” said Boyd. “I’m really intrigued by higher education public policy and criminal justice and how that intertwines and intersects with race.”

Boyd reflected on her time at CSUSM and recognized ASI as being an integral part of her career.

“I feel like it really enabled me to find my voice, not only as a student, but even as a woman, as a person of color, as a fighter,” said Boyd. “The Office of Diversity, Gender Equity Center and BSU have really helped me develop my identity as well.”

She also thanked her parents for supporting her through her journey.

“My mom and my dad have been two huge supporters. I think often times they don’t understand everything I’m going through in college or why I put so much on my plate, but I feel like they’ve always been there to support me in all my ambitions and that they’ve always been really encouraging.”

As Boyd reaches the end of her undergraduate career, she resonates with a quote by Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”