STOCKTON CAMPUS
rising
By Lori Gilbert
Administrative Assistant Zona Zaragoza proudly showed off the Warrior Welcome Hub door with its light blue background, cotton ball clouds and colorful hot air balloons made of paper. The judges — Provost Rich Ogle, Vice President of Student Affairs Christine Erickson and Dean of Students Heather Dunn Carlton — deemed it the best-decorated door on the Stanislaus State Stockton Campus.
“I think we’re both growth-minded, and we see this as an opportunity. We see how much potential there is here,” Sweitzer said.
The contest — a first in Zaragoza’s tenure that began in 2006 — was part of new Stockton Campus Dean Sarah Sweitzer’s back-to-school sprucing up of the Acacia Building, which will be used until the expected completion of a new classroom building at University Park in fall 2025.
“It was an opportunity to do more here for Stan State, to do more in the Stockton community,” McKinney said. “I helped grow the Warriors on the Way program at Delta and was part of the start of that. I knew what the potential of the Stockton Campus was.”
McKinney understands the Stockton Campus, having worked for 10 years at San Joaquin Delta College before leaving for two years prior to accepting the new dean of students role.
The Stockton Campus, McKinney said, “is a hidden gem, a diamond in the rough, we need to uncover and show off to the community, show that we’re here to stay.”
The colorful door tied into Sweitzer’s “Up, Up and Away, Stockton Rising” messages. Across the hall is a huge poster of hot air balloons where everyone is invited to stop for a few moments and color. Markers sit on a table below it, and it’s not uncommon for a combination of students, faculty and staff to color together.
Stan State has had a presence in Stockton since 1974 but has largely gone unnoticed by most of its residents in recent years. Rose Ordonez, a second-year psychology student at the Stockton Campus who dreams of becoming a high school guidance counselor, graduated from nearby Stagg High School, but didn’t know there was a four-year public university in her hometown until a friend told her. She learned more about transferring to Stan State’s Stockton Campus through the Warriors on the Way program at Delta College.
It all fits neatly into the big picture for Sweitzer, named dean of the Stockton Campus in July, and Stockton’s Dean of Students Amy McKinney, who arrived in May. Together, the redheads, along with Associate Dean Matthew Derrick who arrived a year ago to start the social science program at the branch campus, are ready to turn the Stockton Campus on its head.
“What made me want to come here was when somebody I knew told me about Stan State and I live 15 minutes away from here,” Ordonez said. “I didn’t know this was a campus.”
Or at least turn it into a force in Stockton and San Joaquin County. The women share more than hair color. They share a vision. STA N M AGA Z I N E
New Dean Sarah Sweitzer Creating a Welcoming, Anchor Institution
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