University of San Francisco’s Post

Thirty years after Lerisa Puckett graduated from Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, she walked into a classroom at USF. The students might have done a double take. “What’s this old lady doing? Is she the TA or what?” Puckett said, recalling the scene. No, not a teaching assistant. Puckett was a student. Little did her classmates know, she had attended USF in the mid-1990s, before any of them were born. This week, Puckett, who is 50, will cross the stage in St. Ignatius Church and receive a BA in politics. “It’s a long time coming,” Puckett said, her eyes tearing up. Puckett returned to USF two years ago after leaving in 1994 to raise her family. She reared her three children and sent them all off to college before returning to USF in 2022. Her youngest, son Keyshawn, graduates May 18 from Colorado Mesa University — the day Puckett was supposed to graduate from USF. USF wasn’t going to let Puckett miss commencement. “As you can imagine, this was a big challenge for the whole family,” said Elisabeth Jay Friedman, professor of politics. “So, we asked the USF folks in charge of these matters to allow Lerisa a very special and unusual dispensation to graduate the day before our politics grads during the ceremony for undergraduate business majors. That way the family could attend both graduation exercises. They very quickly agreed. Jesuit values in action!” Puckett said there was never any doubt that she would return to USF — and only USF. “I started at USF, and I wanted to finish at USF. Thank God for the opportunity. I know it took many years, but it was worth it.” More at USF News.

Spring flowers on the Hilltop 🌷🌼 Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in our USF family! 💚

Generative AI represents a frontier in artificial intelligence that is pushing the boundaries of creativity, innovation, and human-machine interaction. On June 13, the University of San Francisco School of Management hosts at the newly renovated Cove House at the SF Yacht Club for an interactive panel. Join us for a discussion on a future where GenAI breaks down language barriers, propels scientific discoveries at lightning speed, and revolutionizes personalization across healthcare, education, and business. 📩 RSVP and save your spot: bit.ly/44D6pXU

Each year, the Mathematical Association of America holds the Putnam Competition -- a USA & Canada-wide math contest. It is often regarded as the most prestigious university-level math competition in the world. The exam features 12 questions in six hours, and the median score is usually 0 or 1 out of 120 possible points. This year, eight USF students earned non-zero scores, with three students scoring 10 or more. The exam is taken by about 3,500 students each year across about 450 institutions, and includes teams from MIT, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCLA. Out of 472 schools, USF tied for 176th place with a total team score of 31, putting USF in the top third across the U.S. and Canada. "The students in the math circles class were fantastic and their hard work throughout the semester really showed on this exam. Our experience lasted six hours and included 12 questions, two dozen bagels, three dozen donuts, two jugs of coffee, and some very happy USF students." - Mathematics Professor Sam Rosen

Thank you to all of our Southern California alumni for joining us at the LA River to volunteer! It was a beautiful day restoring natural habitats and planting native plants. A special thank you to the Los Angeles Audubon Society for an informative nature walk in the Sepulveda Basin. 🌱 Connect with USF and learn more about alumni events: bit.ly/USFConnect

This week brings Teacher Appreciation Week. ✏️🧑🏫📚 In the classroom, students absorb knowledge and instruction from their teachers, but it’s often a two-way street. Memorable and inspirational learning moments from students enrich and inform the lives of teachers, too. It is a symbiotic relationship of sharing knowledge and wisdom of the human spirit. Alumni educators Willie Ablao MA ’05, Christian Flores MA ’15, Araceli Leon MA ’18, and Christian Vasquez MA ’21 share their journeys and what they have learned along the way as students from USF School of Education who became real-world teachers. 🍎 Read on » bit.ly/3QmFHg3

Civil rights activist Clarence B. Jones, founder of USF's Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice (INSJ), was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor last Friday -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Joe Biden recognized Jones’ lifelong commitment to social justice and his work with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “Dr. Clarence B. Jones wielded a pen as a sword and gave words to the movement that generated freedom for thousands of people. Let freedom reign, Dr. Clarence B. Jones. Thank you, Dr. Jones,” Biden said. Jones is founding director emeritus of the INSJ and was a visiting professor at USF prior to his retirement in 2021. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to work closely with Dr. King and to do my best every day to carry forward his legacy. Today, I am grateful to receive this honor for continuing to support his work,” Jones said. More at USF News.

The 166th Commencement ceremonies of the University of San Francisco will be held May 16, 17, and 18 in St. Ignatius Church, with 2,025 graduates receiving degrees from the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the School of Management, the School of Law, and the School of Nursing and Health Professions. The May 2024 graduates represent 44 states and 68 countries, and 618 are first in their families to graduate with a university degree. More details at USF News.

Six members of the National Society of Black Engineers chapter at USF attended the 50th annual NSBE conference, held in March in Atlanta. Ivey Garcia ’25, internal vice president of the NSBE chapter, talks about the conference and why she’s majoring in computer science. "The highlights of the conference for me were the luncheons and late-night networking events that were hosted by companies such as Amazon, HP, Experian, Dell, and plenty of others. We were given the opportunity to talk one-on-one with recruiters and representatives from the companies. We also had the chance to connect with other students from NSBE chapters from other regions. Everyone from our chapter received at least one interview from companies such as Jacobs, Universal Creatives, Kohl’s Tech, and a couple others. With today’s fierce job competition, I’m proud to say our chapter was able to stand out." - Ivey Garcia '25 More at USF News.

USF students Owen Sordillo ‘24 and Andrew Saah ‘25 were recently awarded a $100,000 grant after winning NASA’s Wildfire Climate Tech Challenge. Saah, an environmental science major, and Sordillo, an entrepreneurship and innovation major, met when they were randomly assigned suitemates in Lone Mountain East. Two years later, they combined what they learned at USF to win the NASA contest. 🛰️ The students’ startup, Silvaye, will develop software that uses NASA technology, satellite data, and ground-based sensors to measure how much brush and vegetation exists on properties as a way to assess the wildfire risk. Silvaye will provide accurate information to homeowners, insurance companies, and agencies like the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, with a goal of reducing the risk of wildfires. 💭 For the NASA challenge, Saah and Sordillo named their submission FLARE, for Fuel Load Analysis and Risk Estimation. The team has earned funding and admittance to a startup incubator at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Saah and Sordillo will be there this week. Sordillo plans to spend the summer working on Silvaye while Saah interns at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ➡️ “Andrew and Owen have been working hard to build their FLARE project over the course of this semester. Throughout this project they have leveraged Andrew’s environmental science knowledge on geospatial analysis and terrestrial laser scanning and Owen’s focus on entrepreneurship.” - Michelle Millar, associate dean of School of Management undergraduate programs