Alumni Updates

Sociology Slugs Making a Difference

Sociology alumni have been busy making moves and changing the world! Check out the some of their achievements below. If you are a graduate of our program and would like to add your achievements to this webpage, or if you would like to make changes to your current listing, please keep us up to date on your achievements, careers, degrees, and awards via this online form.

  • Melvin Arquero (2014) graduated from UCSC with honors in the major and Magna Cum Laude. Melvin is a City Year Corps Member at Dever McCormack Middle School supporting a 7th grade classroom in Math, Science, English Language Arts, and Social Studies, and is also pursuing Teach for America.
  • Rita-Maria Alfaro (2011) earned a Master of Social Work degree from San Jose State University, and is a MSW intern at the Department of Children and Family Services for Santa Clara County.
  • Dayana Alvarado Escobedo (2010) earned a Master of Social Work degree from NYU in 2014, and is the program manager of College Track, based in Oakland, CA.
  • Jim Adams (2007) earned a Master in Public Policy degree from UCLA in 2010, and is an auditor/evaluator with the California State Auditor's Office. Jim works on improving state government programs every day, impacting millions of Californians
  • Jenny Bates (1998) now works as the vocational supervisor at SAIF Corporation, which is Oregon's not-for-profit workers' compensation carrier. Jenny also sat on the Board of Directors at Heritage Grove Federal Credit Union 2011-2015.
  •  Laurie Amaya (1988) earned a J.D. from Southwestern School of Law in 1993, and is an attorney and mediator with the Law and Mediation Office of Laurel Tuvim Amaya
  • Peter Beireis (1985) works as the Senior Recreation and Community Services Supervisor for the City of Newark, CA and has had numerous other notable achievements including: serving in the Presidential Series for the Bay Area Public Pool Operators Association (2014-16); serving on the Water Saftey Task Force for the Bay Area American Red Cross (2012-14); developed the first statewide aquatic summit and received the Pat O'Brien legislative award for the CA Parks and Recreation Society Aquatic Section Presidential Series (2006-2008). Peter has also received the Award of Excellence (2000) and Professional Achievement Award (2006) from the Bay Area Public Pool Operators Association; Program Excellence Award (2005) and Lifesaving Hero Award (2013) from the American Red Cross Bay Area.
  • Bonita "Bonnie" Banducci (1965) is President of Banducci Consulting--Engendering Gender Competence, and a lecturer of Gender and Engineering in the School of Engineering Graduate Program at Santa Clara University. Bonnie was also awarded the 2014 Women of Influence Award by the Silicon Valley Business Journal; has represented Santa Clara County's Commission on the Status of Women at the 1995 UN NCO World Conference on Women in Beijing, China; and researched "What is the contribution women make that could be the strategic advantage in the global marketplace?" for a VP of a Fortune 500 Silicon Valley Tech Company. As a result of this research, Bonnie created a framework for understanding the skills needed to work with gender differences as "competencies" in order for employees to work more effectively together to increase productivity, innovation, retention and promotability. Bonnie has trademarked this work as Gender Competence®.

More updates will be added soon!

(Updates provided March 2015)