NAMED NATIONAL FOUR-YEAR DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR FOR 2020-21 IN THE COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION’S PINNACLE AWARDS
Thursday, March 7, 2023
Volume 160 No. 17 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
Club fights for Filipino farmers Student group advocates for a monument to recognize historic Filipino members of United Farm Workers movement By Matthew Gonzalez STAFF WRITER
DYLAN NEWMAN | SPARTAN DAILY
Signs in support for Filipino farmworkers sit on a stand at a table on Seventh Street during the CHI Day of Celebration event on Thursday.
Students for Filipino Farmworkers is a newly-formed student organization on San Jose State’s campus that aims to bring attention to the struggles Filipino farmworkers faced in the 1960s. The organization was created as a part of sociology and interdisciplinary social sciences professor Scott Myers-Lipton’s sociology class. In the class, Myers-Lipton tasked his students with launching a campaign around a social injustice of their choice. The organization was preceded by Asian American Arts and Action, another social-action organization which also wanted to see recognition for Filipino farmworkers. Applied anthropology masters student Kayla Celest Taduran, also a member of Students for Filipino Farmworkers, said raising awareness to the crucial work of Filipino farmworkers is important, FARM WORKERS | Page 2
Mentors provide guidance to SJSU students By Dominique Huber STAFF WRITER
Punit Sundar, who graduated from San Jose State in 2022 with a master’s in bioinformatics, is one of the students who has benefited from mentoring during her time at SJSU. Sundar said she met her mentor Wendy Lee, an assistant professor and graduate advisor for SJSU’s master’s bioinformatics program, at an orientation event. She said she found Lee enthusiastic, approachable and knowledgeable in her field. These were qualities which motivated Sundar to take advantage of Lee’s office hours. Sundar said while she was enrolled in one of Lee’s classes, she sought out Lee’s guidance in hopes of learning more about career options in bioinformatics. “It was a genuine curiosity on my end,” Sundar said. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, I just really wanted to take as much advantage as I could of the program.” She said although she wasn’t explicitly seeking mentorship when she began meeting with Lee, it was helpful having someone like her to go to for information. “We just developed a natural connection,” Sundar said. “I didn’t really think of her as a mentor at the time. It was more like, ‘This person has worked in the industry before, let me just talk to her.’ ” She attributes several of her significant scholarly and career advancements to Lee’s help, including having her master’s project published at a conference and the attainment of her current full-time job as a bioinformatician. Sundar said her advice to students seeking mentorship, especially to those who are unsure of what path to take after graduation, would be to seek out a professor who is approachable and whose work they find interesting. “Just start off by going to office hours. You could ask them random questions, it does not have to be about your field or even your classwork,” Sundar said. “You could just say, ‘I’m not really sure what to do with my career,’ and I’m sure they’d be able to give you some advice on it.” She said students may have to reach out to multiple professors before they find one who is willing to give
DOMINIQUE HUBER | SPARTAN DAILY
MENTORS | Page 2
Education counseling and guidance graduate student Ivan, who only gave his first name, works on his assignments at the San Jose State University Career Center on Monday afternoon.