Akilah Green will never forget the education she received at CSUSM.

A human development major with an emphasis in counseling, she chose CSUSM because it was the first school that responded to her and she decided to give it a chance because it was a fairly new university.

“I was really excited to get accepted into this university,” she said.

Unsure of what she wanted to focus her studies on, Green changed her major four times. She majored in kinesiology, psychology and sociology before settling on human development because it combines all the disciplines she learned before.

“I realized I needed to graduate already,” said Green.

Her favorite class is Women’s Studies 101 because she gets to “see the issues beyond” herself and it “lit a fire” for her love of feminism and equality.

Green’s favorite professors are Dr. Alyssa Sepinwall, Cecili Chadwick and Dr. Dino Bozonelos.

“Being a black student and knowing the topic of slavery is going to come up is just going to feel really icky,” Green said, “[Sepinwall] just made it feel different. She’s really personable, and she was fun. She used Jay Z lyrics in one of our classes and related it to life.”

Speaking about Chadwick, Green said, “Not only is she fierce and empowering and an incredible intellectual, but she said not to be a passive consumer of education.”

“I have one more,” Green said, “Dr. Dino Bozonelos. He’s so straight up and matter of fact with you. He has a lot of knowledge and background in his field. He brings an emphasis on asking us what we thought… That will forever stick with me,” Green said.

When asked about the wildest thing she’s done at CSUSM, she said, “I try to keep my wild side off of campus, but so far the wildest thing I’ve done was the Undie Run.”

Approaching graduation, Green has “a salad bowl of emotions.”

“I’m thrilled, excited and proud for getting to this point. Before college, I had doubts of surviving it. It’s a bittersweet feeling. This has been my life for the past six  years, a big chunk of my life. But I’m ready for the next chapter,” she said.

After graduation, she plans to travel and then go to Officer Candidate School for the Marines.
“From there, I’ll pursue a master’s degree in whatever my heart tells me to do.”