Psychology Professor Jeanie Clifford said that, of the thousands of students she has taught in community college and university in her career, Diana Gonzalez ranks among the top 1% in skill, ability and drive.
Gonzalez was originally selected as Merced College’s Student of the Month for March. She won the annual award because her instructors witnessed the lengths to which Gonzalez has gone to squeeze every ounce and every type of learning out of her two years at Merced College.
For example, on the academic end, Gonzalez will graduate with an Associate of Arts in Psychology and a 4.0 GPA. She has won the Bernard Osher Foundation Scholarship for continuing students, the Angela Williams Scholarship, the Cynthia E. Garcia Memorial Scholarship for female students heading to four-year universities and an Alpha Gamma Sigma (AGS) Honor Society New Purpose Scholarship.
But, while doing for herself, she also reached outside of herself. She also regularly connected with classmates who seemed to need extra support and encouragement. She offered both.
Gonzalez participated in the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, the Psychology Club and the Latinx Club. But while serving as vice president of AGS, she pushed for and directed a unique toy, clothing and blanket drive that supported the Merced Community Action Center and the Merced County Foster Parent Resource Closet.
Jamming her schedule with activities wasn’t her way to impress. It was how she made friends and found colleagues and support.
Working with friends on club rush, playing psychological family feud with psych department buddies, attending AGS meetings with other academic overachievers—this was how she wove herself into the campus fabric.
Gonzalez said she also always attended office hours to build strong relationships with professors like Clifford, Julie Ray, and Torey Arnold. They all guided Gonzalez on how to flourish in higher education.
“I felt at home on campus,” Gonzalez said.
And that is why she excelled.
When Gonzalez thinks about her future studying psychology at CSU Stanislaus and someday becoming a family therapist, she grounds that dream in her hometown of Dos Palos.
She populates that picture with the people she knows there, the ones who might need mental health services but can rarely access them. They motivate her.
The small town Gonzalez came from and the small Merced College classes, the perfect learning atmosphere, she said, gave her firm footing to pursue greater success. But “small” is the opposite of her ambition. Because Gonzalez’s objective—to serve, to show faith in, to give back to and to celebrate her community—are huge.
“My hope is that I could add to the limited opportunities in areas like Dos Palos so others are better equipped to achieve their own goals,” Gonzalez said. “I am confident that I will reach my goals, and I owe that confidence to Merced College.”