Featured Alumni: Raj Singh Badhesha

Raj Singh Badhesha.  Raj was born and raised in Fresno County and graduated from Sanger High School in May 2001.  He joined SFHC as a Scholar in August of that year, and graduated magna cum laude in May 2005 with a B.S. in Business Administration (Marketing) and a minor in Communications.  Subsequently, he attended UC Law SF (formerly UC Hastings) and earned his Juris Doctorate in 2008.  He started his professional career as an associate attorney at Baker Manock & Jensen, PC, where he advised Central Valley residents and businesses.  In 2012 he joined the City of Fresno City Attorney’s Office and has risen to be the Chief of the office’s transactions and advisory team.  He serves as in-house counsel and advises City officials and administration on all aspects of municipal operations and governance.  On May 1, 2024, Raj was appointed to be a Judge of the Fresno Superior Court.  He and his family live in Selma.  He is an avid audio book “reader”, involved Sunday school parent and teacher, an active member of the local Sikh community, and enjoys traveling with his family and friends. 

Raj has been involved with the SFHC over the years, serving on the board of the Smittcamp Alumni Club, reading applications, and speaking at colloquia.  He is an all-around supporter of SFHC because of the impact the program had on him, and because of the important role it plays in identifying and encouraging success in our community.

Reflecting on his time at SFHC, Raj wrote the following:  My years as a Scholar in the SFHC were formative.  The bonds I forged during this critical time in my life have endured and today I remain friends with a great many of my classmates and those in the SFHC orbit – including the wonderful staff and directors.  I was fortunate to be a part of a program which brought together a group of ambitious young adults from diverse backgrounds and provided them with a strong support structure (academic, social, and financial) to enable success. 

One of my most vivid and fond memories of “the SFHC experience” is of fall of my senior year, and of sitting in the Honors College computer lab with a contingent of my classmates – all of us frantically applying to graduate programs in different fields.  As I look back, I am so grateful for that moment and the many others like it, where I found myself being pushed to success by the sheer force of my surroundings – because I was in a group of people pursuing, and encouraged to pursue, excellence despite their backgrounds.  It is this culture of supportive success that makes the SFHC unique and valuable in the Central Valley.  It takes a village to maintain a culture like the one in the SFHC and that culture could not remain if it were not for the synergy amongst the various actors – the University, the directors of the college and all those people who make it run.  It is a great program!