SOLES Spotlights
All Departments
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Kim Athans '95 (BA), '00 (MEd), Curriculum and Instruction
What led you to USD and the School of Education? What has your journey through education on campus been? When I started undergrad, I didn’t hav…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Tina Casola '01 (MA), Marital and Family Therapy
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. Well, all the schools for grad school, none of them were large. I know I didn’t want to…
SOLES Alumnus Spotlight: Dan Lang '11 (MA), Leadership Studies
Tell us about your SOLES degree program and why you chose it. I completed the Educational Leadership Development Academy (ELDA) and the additional st…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Erika Soga '16 (MEd), TESOL
Tell us about your SOLES degree program and why you chose it. I was looking at the SDSU program (for the bilingual education and English certificate …
SOLES Alumni Spotlight: Kevin '87 (EdD) and Jackie '94 (EdD) Freiberg, Leadership Studies
Please tell us how you met, and how that shaped your decision(s) to attend SOLES: Kevin I was in the doctoral program at the School of Education at …
SOLES Student Spotlight: Matt Dahlman '20 (MA Student), School Counseling
Tell us a little bit about yourself. I moved to San Diego when I started graduate school from Minnesota where I grew up. I love playing games and spo…
SOLES Student Spotlight: Belgica Crespo '20 (MA Student), School Counseling
Tell us a little bit about yourself. I am in my second year in the School Counseling Program at SOLES. I am currently a school counseling intern at T…
SOLES Alumnus Spotlight: Sean Green '13 (MA), School Counseling, Doctoral Student
Tell us about your SOLES degree program and why you chose it. I am actually blessed to be a (hopefully) two-time SOLES grad. I completed my Master's …
SOLES Alumnae Spotlight: Janedra Sykes '05 (MA) and Jessie Towne-Cardenas '09 (MA), Nonprofit Leadership and Management
Tell us about your degree program at SOLES and why you chose it: Janedra: For me, I was an accidental executive director. I started with a faith base…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Stephanie Bernasconi '08 (MA), Higher Education Leadership Studies
Tell us about your SOLES degree program and why you chose it. Though I grew up in San Diego, I first really discovered USD through a close friend who…
SOLES Alumnus Spotlight: Mark Arapostathis '06 (EdD), Educational Leadership and Literacy
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. In 2006, I received my Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership, through a joint prog…
SOLES Student Spotlight: Meredith Mendez '20 (MA Higher Education Leadership)
Tell us a little about yourself?My name is Meredith Mendez and I am a third-year in the Higher Education Leadership Program as well as a graduate assi…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Heather Dierolf '99 (MA), Counseling, '09 (PhD), Leadership Studies
Tell us about your SOLES degree program and why you chose it. I received my masters in Counseling and my PhD in Education Leadership. I chose SOLES b…
SOLES Alumnus Spotlight: Jeffrey Young '14 (MA), Marital and Family Therapy
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. I’ve been interested in the field of psychology since before I started university, back…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Kay Krohne '91 (EdD), Leadership Studies
Tell us about your SOLES degree program and why you chose it. I was executive officer of the NROTC Unit at the University of San Diego when I started…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Laura Smith '06 (MEd), Induction Master's Partnership Program
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. I was part of the original cadres that opened up for first year teachers in the SOLES departm…
SOLES Alumnus Spotlight: Alan Nelson '94 (EdD), Leadership Studies
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. I earned the EdD in Leadership Studies in 1994. At the time, it was one of the few doctorates…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Stacey Williams '13 (MA), Higher Education Leadership
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. I got my MA in Higher Education Leadership with the intention of working with students in ser…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Khea Pollard '15 (BA), '18 (MA), Nonprofit Leadership and Management
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. I did a fellowship program with RISE San Diego and they have a partnership with the School of…
SOLES Graduate Spotlight: Georgie Kelly '15 (MA), Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. When I went into undergrad, my main goal was to end up doing pastoral counseling. I wanted to…
School of Education Alumna Spotlight: Lynn Anderson Scherer Keough '70 (BA), English
In this alumna spotlight, we are featuring an alumna from the College for Women. The history of the School of Leadership and Education Sciences began …
SOLES Student Spotlight: Tina Kimsey '19, (M.Ed '20)
Tell us a little about yourself. My name is Tina Kimsey and I’m in the CTEP program, which means that I will get my Master’s just one y…
SOLES Alumnus Spotlight: Danny Romero '14 (MA), Nonprofit Leadership and Management
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. The program that I chose was the Nonprofit Masters in Leadership and Management. I was consid…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Christine Enger '93 (BA), '94 (Single Subject Credential)
Tell us about your degree/credential program and why you chose it. My degree is in English, and I have a Business minor. I started out on the B…
School of Education Alumna Spotlight: Teri Parker '71 (BA), '72 (MEd), Special Education
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. In 1971, after obtaining a BA in Sociology from USD, I heard about a new graduate program in …
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Nicholle Wyatt '00 (MA), School Counseling
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. I earned an MA in School Counseling in 2000. I originally worked in the college admissions fi…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Susan Payment '93 (MA), Counseling, '03 (EdD), Leadership Studies
Tell us about your SOLES degree programs and why you chose them. I chose to enroll in programs offered in SOLES for a number of reasons: &…
SOLES Alumnus Spotlight: Willie Blackmon '09 (MA), Higher Education Leadership
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. So how I found USD...I graduated from undergrad and did social work for a little bit. But I s…
SOLES Alumna Spotlight: Leah Nierman '14 (BA), '16 (MEd), Curriculum and Teaching
Tell us about your degree program and why you chose it. I hold a Mild/Moderate Special Education Teaching Credential with an authorization in Autism,…