Alumni Spotlight: Sabrina Rodriguez

Emmy award winning Anchor and Reporter for Fox 40 News. Sabrina earned her degree in Mass Communications with a focus in Broadcasting from California State University East Bay (CSUEB) in 2005 graduating as a Summa Cum Laude. Sabrina credits her degree and internship at KTVU as helping her get her foot in the door. As a young child Sabrina always wanted to be a reporter. Her original plan was to become an English high school teacher when she began her studies at Cal State East Bay but those plans quickly changed. Sabrina decided to follow her long term dreams and passions of becoming a reporter.

Sabrina states that not making it in TV News was never an option for her and when she sets her mind to something she sticks to it. Sabrina said “Without the hands on experience I got at CSUEB (Video production and editing) and my internship, I would have never been able to put together a resume tape to get hired.”
Sabrina wants her viewers to know, “I really am passionate about making the world a better place. My life’s purpose is to achieve a position of influence and break convention. The idea behind that is history repeats itself because the same people (ideologically not necessarily the actual person) keep getting placed in positions of power and influence. The only way to enact true change is to also get to that position and do something different and unconventional.”

Sabrina currently lives in Sacramento, CA and in her down time she enjoys running and actually did her first marathon this year and is training for her second one. She also rock climbs and has climbed Yosemite in the past.
Sabrina advice to students,“ Always work to the best of your ability and full potential, Don’t do anything half-way, because that’s your name, your reputation, and how people will know you. Once an opinion of you is established it’s hard to change it and always get job-related promises in writing. ”

FaceBook Fan page: www.facebook.com/SabrinaRodriguezNews
Twitter: @SabrinaRFox40
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sabrina-rodriguez/29/4b2/156

Alumni Spotlight: Derek Gordon

Derek is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Pathbrite an early stage start-up in the education technology space. Pathbrite is a company with a focus on People Portfolios. The company’s motto is “The best way to collect, track and showcase a lifetime of learning and achievements, and to go beyond flat resumes or timelines to really stand out from the crowd.” Derek has also served as the Communications Director for the San Francisco AIDS foundation. Derek states “I’ve witnessed the majesty that is tens of thousands of people walking to raise money to end the HIV pandemic and the heartbreak of watching too many wonderful men still in the prime of their life cut down by AIDS.”

Derek holds a degree in Mass Communications from Cal State East Bay. Derek states that earning his degree has enhanced his ability to write efficiently and to write well. In his career he credits story-telling as being at the heart of everything he has done up until this point. Derek said, “My Mass Communications training also taught me to be a strong public speaker and to organize information effectively.”

Since graduating Derek has had a relationship with the same extraordinary man for 24 years, who he shares a home with in San Francisco that he says he fell in love with more times than he could count. Derek loves to cook and enjoys wine, he loves to travel and tend to his garden in his spare time. Derek said, “I have a passion for urbanity and loves cities, the people in them and their customs. Virtually every city I’ve ever visited I’ve wanted to move to for awhile to really deeply learn it and know it and understand it.”

Derek’s advice to CSUEB students is to “learn to write well. Learn to present yourself well. And never stop learning. The world changes at an amazing pace these days and you can’t possibly imagine the sorts of skills and knowledge you’ll need 25 years from now, so never stop learning.”

http://www20.csueastbay.edu/news/blog/2012/06/derek-gordon-cmo-pathbrite-csueb-alumnus.html

Twitter: twitter.com/derekgordon; twitter.com/djg2theworld; twitter.com/dailycasserole.

Facebook: facebook.com/derekgordon

Derek’s blogs: http://www.getthefive.com/search/?q=derek+gordon and http://dailycasserole.com