Leadership seems to come naturally to Jennifer Johnson, president of one of the largest global financial firms in the world, a rarity among the paltry four percent of Fortune 500 companies led by women.
When Sonya Berg (Ph.D., mathematics, ’12) came to UC Davis to study quantum computing, she didn’t know her training would lead her to Stitch Fix, an online retailer that delivers a personalized shopping experience.
Stephen Mew (B.A., economics, ’06) was nine years into a successful career as a program manager at Yahoo when he felt a higher calling and resigned his job. With his wife, Kathy, Mew joined the ship MV Logos Hope, operated by a German Christian charity, to bring books and aid to people around the world.
Three and a half years into his career as a talent recruiter for technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chinsin Sim (B.A., communication, ’14) still marvels at his good fortune. The son of Cambodian immigrants and the first in his family to get a college degree, Sim said: “Sometimes I look back and ask myself, ‘How did I do it?’”
A love of stories led Christian “Joel” Lee (B.A. ’90) on a journey from undergraduate history major at UC Davis to a career as an actor and independent filmmaker in Singapore.
Robert Woods ’76 and fellow members of the Cal Aggie African and African American Alumni Association (5A) are excited about further enriching the diverse UC Davis campus with a new scholarship to assist students of African descent.
When Devon Bradshaw (B.A., music and statistics, ’17) was growing up in a one-bedroom apartment with a single mother in Hollywood, she spent over two years listening to her neighbor down the hall teaching the violin–and pleading with her mother for lessons.
For some, nothing is more American than football. So it seems appropriate that Jacob Frank, who earned a degree in American Studies in 2011, works for the National Football League. After an internship and a seasonal job with NFL communications, he landed a job with the league’s new health and safety policy department in 2013 and now manages it.
Darius Graham ’17 may be a master of time management. From a young age, he’s balanced busy school and basketball schedules. Now as a senior point guard for the UC Davis men’s basketball team — for which road trips take him away from school Wednesday through Sunday — and sociology major who also factors in time for community outreach, he’s worked hard to maintain that delicate balance.
Fawzi Haimor ’05, M.A. ’07, takes over as music director of Germany’s highly regarded Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen in September, but the 34-year-old conductor is already living the dream.