“USC helped me build a foundation for my pedagogy, and I would love to help future educators in the same way.”
Category: We Are SC Story
![Madina Zermeño](https://we-are.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Madina-Zermeño-.jpg)
“Just coming into the room with confidence and letting people know that, while people may underestimate me because I’m a woman, a person of color, or someone from a different religion than they are, I am just as knowledgeable, just as skilled, and I deserve a seat at the table.”
![Buu Van Nygren](https://we-are.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/dq-Buu-Van-Nygren2.jpg)
“I’m used to being held accountable in every job. I’m taking that approach. If I don’t perform, I have no business being here.”
![Sharae Tejada](https://we-are.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sharae-Tejada.jpg)
“One of the big things that drew me to this trip was the teaching component. It is so much more valuable for us to spend our time educating other practitioners to leave a lasting impression and to hopefully make every subsequent group of students better than the one before them.”
![Ethan Chilton](https://we-are.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Ethan.jpg)
“The creative process isn’t just when you’re writing it, it’s also when you’re performing it and when you’re mixing it and then when you’re doing the video. So the process of making it just gets spread out and I like that.”
![virginia polley](https://we-are.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/virginia-polley-online-msl-student-768x512-1.jpg)
“The actual learning was a redemption. Learning is so much better when you’re older. I wasn’t intimidated by the professors … If I messed up, it didn’t bother me.”
![Katrina Manrique](https://we-are.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Katrina-Manrique.jpg)
“Public policy isn’t just something you learn in the classroom. I value the fact that (USC) Price understands this on a very fundamental level.”
![Noé Olivas, an artist and activist, photographed on his truck at the Crenshaw Dairy Mart. The CDM is an art and community space in Inglewood, Los Angeles. Olivas graduated from USC's Roski MFA program in 2019 and operates the CDM with other fellow Roski alumni. (Photo/Damon Casarez)](https://we-are.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TFM_NoeOlivas_Feat.jpeg)
“A lot of my work is very much responding to where I come from, with my family immigrating here, but also where I’m living right now in South Central, and Crenshaw Dairy Mart being in Inglewood.”
![Hayley Mota](https://we-are.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Hayley-Mota.jpg)
“People think you can’t do certain things because of your disability and that just annoys me. I’m stubborn, and I don’t like to be told what to do or what I can’t do by other people.”
![Omid Sani](https://we-are.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Omid-Sani.jpg)
“So much of what I did was enabled by the kind and supportive faculty and staff and the resources that I had access to. Being a member of the Trojan family is something that will always stay with me.”