詹妮弗·k·森田著

2023年5月5日

Norma Sanchez, a 2023 President’s Medal of Honor recipient, wanted to go to school.

Her family had recently immigrated from Jalisco, Mexico, to Modesto, and she didn’t speak English.

The 16-year-old tried telling her mom she could go to high school and still work the night shift – picking apricots from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.

“I looked at my mom like a kid who wants candy, and she just shook her head and said, ‘We can’t afford to do that,’ ” Sanchez, now 38, said. “And that was the end of the conversation. It never came up again.”

直到大约五年后的一个可怕的夜晚，桑切斯带着他们9个月大的孩子逃离了挥舞着刀的男友。

“At that moment, I promised my daughter I would better myself so I could give her a better life,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez will graduate magna cum laude from 萨克拉门托 State with a bachelor's degree in International Business as the Dean’s Award recipient for the College of Business. She will be recognized along with other Deans’ Award honorees during Commencement May 19-21 at Golden 1 Center in downtown 萨克拉门托. 

Deans’ Awards are given annually to seven outstanding graduating students, one for each of 囊状态’s academic colleges. The President’s Medal of Honor is given to the University’s top graduate, and this year President Robert S. Nelsen selected two recipients.

“Norma’s perseverance and determination is at the heart of what it means to be a Hornet and an American,” Nelsen said. “She graduated with highest honors from 囊状态, when she didn’t even have the benefit of high school, excelling academically. I can’t wait (and neither can her daughter or her son) to see all that she will accomplish."

桑切斯在莫德斯托度过了她的少年时代，在盛夏的时候，她在没有空调的大仓库里采摘水果和使西红柿脱水。

当她找到一份分拣杏仁的工作时，这是一个进步。 房间里有扇子和凳子，让女人们轮流坐着。 甚至还有一台微波炉。

“We thought this was heaven,” Sanchez recalled, saying she still longed to get an education.

老板经常停下来和工人们交谈，告诉桑切斯她应该去学校学习英语。

于是，她照做了。

“I hope my story will make other people want to take opportunities for themselves. 我认为Sac州立大学是这样做的正确地方。” -- Norma Sanchez, recipient of the President's Award and Dean’s Award for the College of Business

“Me and my sister signed up to go to classes in the afternoon,” she said. “It took many years to learn the language, but I would take every single opportunity to learn anything new.”

桑切斯21岁时生下了女儿卡珊德拉。

“My boyfriend was abusive from the beginning, and every time, it just got worse and worse. There was one terrible night when he tried to kill me,” Sanchez said.

“I was holding my daughter, and he had a knife directly over my heart. I thought, ‘This is the end of my life. He’s going to kill me and my daughter.’ I closed my eyes, and I just remember the sound when the knife fell on the floor.”

她最终逃脱了，抱着女儿开车穿过人行道和草坪，最后来到了她工作的杂货店。

“I have gone down a different path because of the promise I made my daughter,” Sanchez said.

她在杏仁行业努力工作，成为一名经理，并获得了食品安全和质量控制证书。 她结了婚，生了一个儿子，名叫朱尼。

Two years later, Sanchez applied for a director’s position at work.

“My boss told me, ‘You do qualify, but you don’t have a degree, and I can’t help you anymore with that,’ ” Sanchez said. “I understood, because there were times when other people would say, ‘She doesn’t even have a high school degree.’ ”

桑切斯报名参加了成人教育课程，尽管她知道自己有阅读障碍，但她在三个月内获得了高中同等学历证书。

在成人学校的老师和辅导员的鼓励下，她于2018年秋天进入加维兰学院，在那里她自愿担任TRIO项目的学生领袖，该项目支持来自弱势背景的学生。

“Norma is exceptional,” Business Lecturer Joseph VanVo said. “Her parents never wanted her to go to school, period. 诺玛一直在工作，上学，照顾她的两个孩子，并自愿为有价值的事业奉献时间。

“She has overcome personal issues against all odds, and is working to build a bright future for herself and her family.”

桑切斯还帮助创办了扶轮青年服务团，在COVID-19大流行期间为有需要的人组织捐款活动，并自愿参加另一个帮助低收入者报税的项目。

But when she tried to explain her decision to go to college to her parents, they didn’t understand.

“They just grew up in a very different world, very conservative,” Sanchez said. “They said, ‘You have a good job. 你为什么要白白放弃安全的东西？’ But I knew I would have more opportunities.”

到了转到四年制大学的时候，桑切斯被七所学校录取，并被加州大学伯克利分校列入了候补名单。

她之所以选择Sac州立大学，是因为她被邀请参加以群体为基础的商业荣誉项目。 在两年的时间里，同一组22名学生一起修完所有必修课程。

“It’s an intensive program, but it has been a blessing for me because it has given me so much confidence that I can do so much more than I thought I could,” said Sanchez, who also utilized services on campus for students with dyslexia.

“It has given me confidence about my English, and it has given me confidence about feeling like a smart woman,” she said. “The teachers have high expectations for us, but they’re also very caring about each individual and who we’re going to become and how we’re going to be the future leaders of 萨克拉门托.”

桑切斯从事食品安全咨询工作，她说她希望毕业后能在萨克拉门托工作。 

“I hope my story will make other people want to take opportunities for themselves,” Sanchez said. “I think 囊状态 is the right place to do that.