Building the Stan State Stockton Campus Future with a Personal Touch

To assess her first year as Dean of Stanislaus State's Stockton Campus, Sarah Sweitzer needed to look no farther than the door to her office.

On it are small pieces of paper shaped like kites - in keeping with her first year's theme of 'Up, Up and Away' - with messages of support and encouragement.

Sweitzer spent most of August caring for her mother - who would pass away in Sweitzer's home - and returned to find the outpouring of love from staff and faculty.

It's representative of the impact Sweitzer said is most important to her as she charges into her second year as dean.

"There are a lot of things we did," Sweitzer said. "We brought in grants. We brought in students. We're building pathways. We're at events. We go out in the community, but it's really about the people here."

Enrollment increased by 30 percent to more than 1,300 full-time students this fall, and Sweitzer wants students to feel welcomed and to have a positive experience on campus. She also wants faculty to have a rewarding experience.

Her focus is also on ensuring staff are well supported, and most importantly, appreciated.

"They always had that sense of purpose here, but they didn't sense anybody cared or valued it," Sweitzer said. "Those who were here - especially Administrative Analyst Zona Zaragoza and OIT Consultant Lead Mike Tablett, who have been here the longest - always had a sense of purpose and knew their work was important and needed. What they didn't feel was supported at a leadership level, cared about or valued. That's what's different now. What they're doing is amplified, held up and celebrated."

In return, Zaragoza organized the messages for Sweitzer's door.

The dean found them on a Saturday when she visited campus for one of the Community Health Worker Training Program classes, just one of the initiatives launched since Sweitzer's arrival in summer 2023.

"I saw them, stood there and wiped tears from my eyes," Sweitzer said.

"Everything we do is around shaping the Campus as an anchor institution in the community. We need to continue to push forward that idea that the Stockton Campus is at the heart of the Stockton community, and we serve in all different ways to strengthen community and grow community."

-Sarah Sweitzer, Dean of the Stanislaus State Stockton Campus

That she was on campus on a Saturday demonstrates her commitment to the work she's put into Stockton since her arrival.

The Community Health Worker Training Program, in partnership with Health Plan of San Joaquin, provides the state-required 80 hours of training for community health care workers. Most students enrolled are employed by nonprofits or public agencies that need experts in the field. A Spanish-speaking cohort is planned for 2025.

Addressing health care areas is one priority for the Stockton Campus.

"Grants we went after are about building pathways," Sweitzer said. "That's at the heart of why I came to Stockton. I'm a first-gen college graduate. If we're going to create health equity in this country, we need to diversify our health care workforce. To diversify our health care workforce, we need to really focus on pathway development in largely underserved communities, where many students are the first in their families to go to college."

Trained in science as a pharmacologist and toxicologist, Sweitzer proudly shows off an encased dose of a Phase 1 testing patent for a non-opiate pain medication she worked to develop.

"I'm still a scientist," Sweitzer said. "You develop a plan and have metrics. It's how you view the world. That led me into public health. When you train community health workers, they change lives every day."

Sarah Sweitzer and Amy McKinney

In addition to the Community Health Worker Training Program, Sweitzer and Health Science Program Director and Professor of Nursing Mechelle Perea-Ryan secured a We Will! grant to build the high school to community college to Stan State pathway for health care workers.

The campus also benefitted from a Congressional Grant from Representative Josh Harder to add a Master of Social Work cohort at the Campus and establish more placement opportunities for students.

Sweitzer also procured a grant to create the Health Career Opportunity program that launched in the summer with seven high school and seven community college students interested in health care careers. Collectively, they completed 686 community service hours as they learned about the various opportunities in the health care field. More importantly, the program strengthened student applications for medical programs. It also enhanced the resumes of two recent Stan State graduates who ran the cohort with Sweitzer.

The program feeds part of Sweitzer's two greatest ambitions: building pathways for students and making Stan State's Stockton Campus more relevant to the community.

"Everything we do is around shaping the campus as an anchor institution in the community," Sweitzer said. "We need to continue to push forward that idea that the Stockton Campus is at the heart of the Stockton community and serves in all different ways to strengthen and grow the community."

She created mini faculty grants, with the first one awarded to Assistant Professor of Accounting Larry Barnes, who brought the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program to the Stockton Campus, enabling Stan State students to help 433 residents with their tax returns, resulting in nearly $1 million in tax returns and earned tax credits.

In addition to health care, K-12 credential programs, business administration and social sciences are among the degree programs offered at the campus.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Esteban Montenegro earned this year's mini grant and will work with a student assistant evaluating the Positive Parenting program at Friends Outside.

"We're building pathways. We're at events. We go out in the community, but it's really about the people here."

-Sarah Sweitzer, Dean of the Stanislaus State Stockton Campus

Through partnerships such as Stockton Scholars, which has held events at the Stockton Campus, as did United Way of San Joaquin County, Sweitzer has connected to numerous community members and organizations.

Outreach is a big part of Sweitzer's agenda, and her team - including Associate Stockton Campus Dean Matt Derrick and Stockton Campus Dean of Students Amy McKinney - staff table at events and engage in community activities.

Alumna Aleesa Ponce, who works in the Warrior Hub, has taken on social media for the campus, increasing its visibility and following in the community.

Being dean of the Stockton Campus is a dream job for Sweitzer, a first-generation college graduate who earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Nevada, Reno, a doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology from Dartmouth Medical School and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Stanford University's School of Medicine's Department of Anesthesiology. She understands the guidance first-gen students need to fulfill their dreams.

"This is the position with all the things I love to do," she said. "We get to be out in the community and build community partnerships. We get to be on campus and interact with students, and we work with amazing staff and faculty who are committed to being on a branch campus. We make sure we practice what we preach, which is providing wrap-around services so our students can be successful without being weighed down by barriers like food and housing insecurity."

A new academic building is under construction at the Stockton Campus with a planned fall 2025 opening. Sweitzer calls it a game changer.

"The building demonstrates a commitment by the California State University system, by the state and by Stanislaus State," she said. "It's the physical manifestation of that commitment, but the magic is what happens inside the Acacia Building and the growth into the new building."

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.