To President’s Medalist Nuvia García ‘to every end there is a new beginning’
When Nuvia García got a Zoom call informing her she won one of the Fresno State’s top academic honors, she could not help shedding tears of joy for the President’s Medal, Fresno State’s top honor for an undergraduate student.
Interim President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval – who was joined by interim provost Xuanning Fu on the May 11 surprise call – said the university was “incredibly proud” of García “who have continued to strive for excellence despite all the challenges.”
García’s outstanding academic achievements “truly embody the Bulldog Spirit,” Jiménez-Sandoval said in a statement, adding that she will become a visionary leader.
The Turlock native was chosen from a group of nine undergraduate dean’s medalists.
“Oh my gosh. It’s such an honor,” García told Jiménez-Sandoval and Fu after she received the news and saw the medal with her name on the back.
She is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in criminology, forensic behavioral science option, and a minor in Spanish with a 3.97 GPA.
“My parents have always been super supportive. They came from México when they were young without anything, without knowing any English. And now they have given us everything that we needed. They are definitely one of my greatest inspirations and my motivations to continue moving forward,” Garcia said during the call.
Garcia’s parents, Felipe and María Guadalupe García, are from Tecolotlán, Jalisco. Her father is a truck driving company owner/operator while her mom takes care of the bookkeeping and paperwork.
The 21-year-old is the 2021 undergraduate dean’s medalist for the College of Social Sciences.
“I am so grateful for the criminology department. The faculty has always been very supportive, and they’ve always provided me with so many opportunities that I never expected to be where I’m at today,” said García, who was not expecting to be nominated for outstanding student for her department and was very surprise to be selected dean’s medalist.
“It was a nice surprise,” she said, adding that the other students nominated for her college dean’s medalist honor have done “great and amazing things.”
“At that point, I was kind of grateful just for the interview, for the opportunity, for the consideration. I never expected to win,” García said. “But when I received the email, I was really surprised. I even cried a little bit.”
Garcia is a first-generation college student who became interested in criminology after a friend got involved with drugs, criminal activity and then took his own life. Her own struggles almost got the best of her, too.
She selected Fresno State’s criminology program because “it really is one of the best in the nation” focusing on selecting a program itself rather than the school where she would be spending her undergraduate college career.
“I didn’t know what aspect I wanted to do in criminology. It was not until I got to college and I took several courses. It was one course, it was in counseling, corrective counseling. So, it kind of gave me an idea of what it would be to work inside a correctional facility. That really intrigued me. So, I continued to pursue that,” said García, who has spent many hours in the lab as a research assistant and lab manager.
García was also able to conduct her own research as part of the McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program and the College of Social Science Honors Program, examining the effect pre-admonition commentary – statements given to the witness before a lineup – has on mock jurors.
Garcia wants to pursue a master’s degree in clinical counseling and a license as a professional clinical counselor, and then pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology.
“Now after graduation, my goal is to get into the clinical rehabilitation and mental health counseling program at Fresno State, become a licensed therapist, work for a couple of years to get some experience and work with different populations. And from there, go get my PhD in clinical psychology,” said García, the oldest of four siblings.
García said she is waiting to hear back from the clinical rehabilitation and mental health counseling program at her alma mater.
“That’s my goal. But if I do not get into that program, I’m going to go to the criminology master’s program,” she said.
Finishing her college senior year in the middle of the pandemic was difficult.
“I’ve always like to consider myself as someone who was resilient, someone who can endure difficult things, but this pandemic just was difficult in terms of the lack of eye contact,” García said, remembering the fear at the beginning of the pandemic of always having to be careful and what “this can do to us. It just made things a lot harder.”
As a dean’s medalist, García was invited to do a speech for her College of Social Sciences which was prerecorded and was shown during the May 15 morning graduation at the university’s Bulldog Stadium.
“Each and every one of us knows the struggles and challenges we faced to get here today. Personally, the hardest thing I have ever had to do was leave my family and move to Fresno,” said García in her speech. “There were many times where I wanted to quit, where I just cried because I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore. But today marks the end of a difficult but beautiful chapter in our lives. Fellow graduates, to every end there is a new beginning. I wish you all nothing but the best as our next journey begins.”
In her speech, García talks about the adversity they faced during a pandemic and how even they are six feet apart they are “closer than we have ever been” and “standing stronger than ever.”
María G. Ortiz-Briones: 559-441-6782, @TuValleTuSalud
Nuvia García
Age: 21
Birthplace: Turlock
High school: Turlock High School, 2017
Parents: Felipe García and María Guadalupe García
Siblings: Noé, 14, Julissa, 10 and Isaac, 7
First job: Crew member at a McDonalds in Turlock
Favorite meal: Posole verde.
Who inspires you? “I would probably say my mom, she I kind of feel like as a superhero, you know. Everything that she does, she does it like great, amazing. I don’t know if I could ever fill her shoes just because she does probably a lot of jobs, she’s a mom, she’s a wife. She helps my dad in his business. She obviously takes really good care of us. I would say that seeing my mom and how good she is at everything inspires me and I want to be that good at everything one day. I do not know if I will.”
