Graduate Profiles
Sonja Carlson - American Popular Culture
Immediately following graduation, Sonja moved from Berkeley to Los Angeles and began working as an administrator at a small independent elementary school. For two years, she led the after school enrichment program and managed the schools internal and external communications. Sonjas duties increasingly involved working in the admissions office, assisting with prospective parent communications, event coordination, and the collection of admissions data and materials. Beginning in July 2016, she transitioned from the enrichment coordinator position to the full-time admissions and communications assistant. Sonja is currently applying to graduate programs in library science and archival studies.
African American Studies 142AC: Race and American Film
Media Studies 101: Visual Communications
American Studies 101AC: World War II
American Studies 101: The Birth of Consumerism
American Studies H110: The New Literary History of America

Thesis Sonja Carlson : - The Making of an American Girl: Perspectives of Race and Class in the Literature of The American Girl Collection (Class of 2014)
Patty Chen - Race, Ethnicity, and Nation
Patty spent the summer after graduation studying for the LSAT and working. She assisted a lawyer doing every day tasks, such as preparing documents to file in court and maintaining an organized electronic and physical copy of all documents to ensure accurate filing of all documents that relate to the cases the firm worked on. She is currently a 2L at UCLA School of Law.
Rhetoric 152AC: Race and Order in the New Republic
American Studies 139AC: US Social Movements
African American Studies 111: Race, Class, and Gender in the US
American Studies H110: American Studies Honors Seminar
Ethnic Studies 144AC: Interracial Justice at Law

Thesis Patty Chen : - "The Racial Implications of Neoliberal Discourse: How the Stereotype of African Americans as Welfare Recipients and Asian Americans as the Model Minority Support Neoliberalism" (Class of 2014)

Sophia Ng - Twentieth Century American Culture
After graduating, Sophia Ng worked at Kickstarter in New York City as an Integrity Analyst. She also served as a Board Member for the National Asian Pacific American Womens Forum*New York City (NAPAWF*NYC) chapter, where she volunteered her time working on reproductive justice, immigrant rights, and worker advocacy issues. Sophia is currently a Fulbright Teaching Assistant, teaching English at a secondary school in Gopeng, Perak in Malaysia.
American Studies 102: The Road in American Culture
History 124B: The United States from World War II to the Vietnam Era
History C139AC: Civil Rights and Social Movements in U.S. History
Ethnic Studies 176: Ethnic Art and Artists
American Studies 2029 (University of Hong Kong): Current Perspectives on the U.S.

Thesis Sophia Ng : - Channels for Change: Sesame Streets Ability to Implement Civil Rights Ideology in Childrens Programming (Class of 2014)
Mykiyaa Walker-Sanchez - Race, Healthcare, and Urban Communities
After graduating in May 2014, Mykiyaa Walker-Sanchez returned home to her first love, Los Angeles, where she spent the summer volunteering at Residential Care Facilities in urban communities and working with adults with developmental disabilities. With future professional plans to promote positive well being through good health practices in disadvantaged communities of color and to dismantle some of the socioeconomic barriers that disproportionately affect communities of color, Mykiyaa will pursue a career in medicine as an internal medicine physician. She is currently completing a pre-medicine post-baccalaureate program.
African American Studies 116: Slavery and African American Life before 1865
City and Regional Planning 118AC: The Urban Community
City and Regional Planning 115: Urbanization in Developing Countries
Communication as a Social Force 124: Black Women, Feminism, and the Media
Urban Studies and Planning 104: Ethnic Diversity and the City

Thesis Mykiyaa Walker-Sanchez : - "Closing the Gap: The Institutionalization of Diabetes in America" (Class of 2014)
Anavictoria Avila - Family, Violence, and Youth Development
After graduation in May 2014, Anavictoria returned to Southern California to provide post-surgery recovery care for her mother. She also worked with several community organizations to develop pilot projects for training Anaheims youth in civic awareness and engagement. With the many policy and political changes occurring in the City of Anaheim, Anavictoria wanted to support her communitys youth throughout summer projects so that their voices and concerns influence current policy discussions. Anavictoria is currently a 2L at Northwestern School of Law, where she hopes to build from the substantive and practical foundation that her American Studies Major provided for serving and advocating for her community.
Legal Studies 155: Government and the Family
Psychology 131: Developmental Psychopathology
Public Health 210B: Adolescent Health
Legal Studies 163: Adolescence, Crime, and Juvenile Justice
Sociology 130AC: Social Inequalities, American Cultures

Thesis Anavictoria Avila : - The Disposables: An Analysis of Street Memorials and their Implications for Youth Gang Violence and Incarceration among Marginalized Black and Latino Youth (Class of 2014)
Shabnam Banerjee-McFarland - Politics of Cultural Representation
After a series of trial-and-error attempts to start a career in fashion retail and marketing, Shabnam Banerjee-McFarland did a 180 turn and channeled her energy into working with non-profits and learning more about the importance of disseminating change-making policy in all popular culture channels. Since January 2015, she has been working in book marketing with Berrett-Koehler Publishers, a mission-based publishing company in Oakland, CA that publishes books on social justice, conscious capitalism, and self-help in order to “Create a World That Works For All.” Most recently, she is designing an extensive research program to confront the extreme lack of diversity in publishing, in hopes of elevating voices from communities that are underrepresented in the industry. A true SF native through and through, Shabnam continues to fight to maintain the colorful vibrancy of San Francisco & Oakland by writing for her personal blog and the Berrett-Koehler blog.
American Studies 101: American Culture in the Atomic Age
African American Studies 142AC: Race and American Film
Media Studies 104A: Freedom of Speech and the Press
American Studies 102: Cultures of Place: California Food
History 125A: The History of Black People and Race Relations, 1550-1861
