Cal State San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Campus has named Nicole Phillips as its Outstanding Undergraduate Student and Barbara Katic as its Outstanding Graduate Student for 2017.
Both will speak at the campus’s commencement ceremony on Thursday, June 15, at The Show at Agua Caliente Resort in Rancho Mirage.
Phillips, who lives in Palm Desert, will receive a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies and graduate magna cum laude, or with great honor. She is currently pursuing a teaching credential.
After graduating from Sachem High School in Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y., Phillips moved to Palm Desert with her parents to be a part of the first freshman class at the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus. From her first day on campus, she has been involved in numerous activities, including the Student Advisory Board, the Student Health Advisory Committee, the Alpha Omega Business Association Club, Club Educate and the Rotaract Club. She was also a SOAR Leader, student ambassador and has worked as a programming assistant in the campus’ Rancho Mirage Student Center throughout her four years on campus.
Phillips says she is most proud of the work she has done with the Jacob’s Light Foundation in New York. The foundation collects and ships much-needed items to America’s military. She found that she wasn’t able to continue working with the foundation, which is based in New York, while attending PDC, so she initiated a new community service club at the campus that would allow her to continue their work.
The California State University Chapter of Jacob’s Light Foundation runs events and activities that raise funds in the name of the foundation. It has been able to collect $5,000 through on-campus bake sales, car washes, boot camps and other fundraising events. The Jacob’s Light Club at PDC is in its fourth year and focuses on collecting food and personal items to be sent to the Bob Hope USO in Palm Springs.
In the community, Phillips has volunteered 50 hours at the Desert Sands Unified School District, including working with autistic preschool children at James Monroe Elementary School.
On the academic side, Phillips has received numerous scholarships, including the prestigious Mary Stuart Rogers Scholarship, as well as various awards, including the Outstanding Emerging Leader Award and the Outstanding New Student Organization Award. She is a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society, the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, and has been on the Dean’s List of Distinguished Students every quarter from 2013-2017.
Phillips plans to become a special education teacher. “I feel that I will be making a positive impact on future generations by guiding, teaching and being a positive role model for students with special needs.”
Katic, who lives in Palm Desert, will receive a master’s degree in counseling and guidance and a PPS credential this June. She came to the counseling and guidance program at PDC from her hometown of Calgary, Canada.
During her first year she joined the campus’s Palm Desert Counseling Student Association and participated in events and social activities. As an international student who came to PDC on her own, she says the club has provided her a sense of family and community, helped her create friendships with her classmates and afforded her greater learning opportunities through workshops and guest speakers. She served as the club president for two years.
As part of her counseling fieldwork, Katic has been placed in public schools in the cities of Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs. She says working directly with students through individual and group counseling has been her favorite aspect of being in the school environment. Katic’s fieldwork experiences have provided her a deeper understanding of not only the unique challenges that the valley faces but also the amount of community support it has.
In her final year, Katic is working on a research project involving restorative justice and the San Bernardino City Unified School District, examining restorative justice practices at the middle school level and its effects on school suspension rates. It is set to be completed and published prior to graduation.
Katic was recently accepted into a Ph.D. program in school psychology at the University of California, Riverside and was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship. She says this opportunity would not have been possible without the support of her classmates and professors in the counseling and guidance program. She hopes to continue to contribute to the Coachella Valley through her counseling work and academic research.
Located in beautiful Palm Desert, the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees, a doctorate in educational leadership, and teacher credentials and certificates. With more than 1,400 students, it is the Coachella Valley’s four-year public university and plays a vital role in educating and training the region’s growing population.
For more information about the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus, contact Mike Singer in the campus’s Office of Public Affairs at msinger@csusb.edu or (760) 341-2883, ext. 78107, or visit the campus website.