Featured Alumni: Sarah and Ben Hawkins
Sarah Hawkins grew up in Fresno and was admitted as a member of the second Smittcamp Family Honors College cohort in 2000, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 2004 with a degree in Kinesiology. Sarah was awarded the President’s Fellowship for her graduate studies, and after winning the Outstanding Thesis Award, she graduated with distinction with a masters in Kinesiology with a concentration in sport psychology in 2005.
Sarah and Ben at the 2003 Smittcamp Formal.
It was in SFHC that Sarah met her future husband, Ben, who also grew up in Fresno and joined the SFHC in the second cohort along with Sarah. In fact, his connection to Sarah started long before Fresno State when they were both in Mrs. Schmidt’s Kindergarten class at Wolters Elementary School. Imagine their surprise when they both switched schools and ended up at Manchester GATE Elementary School together! After competing against each other at debate tournaments in High School, Ben and Sarah “re-met” in Dr. Hanson’s Humanities 10H class and married in 2006.
Ben graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2005 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and received the Dean’s Medal for the College of Engineering. After graduation, Ben attended Cornell University where he earned his doctorate in Biomedical Engineering in 2010. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship with the National Institute of Standards & Technology in Gaithersburg, MD, Ben became the first SFHC graduate to become a professor as founding faculty of San Jose State University’s Biomedical Engineering department.
Ben’s graduation in 2005.
After completing her graduate studies, Sarah followed Ben to Ithaca, NY, where she began her career in Student Affairs at Ithaca College. Her professional areas of specialty include campus recreation and student organization management. While attending Fresno State, Sarah became an instructor for the American Red Cross through the training and encouragement of lecturer Justine McAlpine. Sarah has continued to teach health and safety classes, certifying hundreds of students in water safety, lifeguarding, wilderness first aid, and more. Her training business, Course Care, LLC, is celebrating its 20th year in 2022.
In 2018, Sarah was in bed scrolling through Facebook on a Sunday morning when she saw a post from an old Fresno elementary school classmate about his ailing father. The post said something like, “My dad’s been on dialysis for six years and the doctor is saying he won’t last much longer if he doesn’t get a transplant.” The family had all been tested to donate a kidney, but no one was a match. Sarah turned to Ben and told him that she was going to get tested.
The post wasn’t asking for a donor, Sarah said, only for help connecting with donor centers. But she reached out to friend Matthew Gillian, reconnecting after more than 20 years apart, got tested, and found out she was a match. The surgery happened on Feb. 6, 2019, at the University of California, Los Angeles. Matthew’s father, Terry Gillian, received Sarah’s left kidney, which they nicknamed “lefty.” He was up and walking around before Sarah. The surgery is often easier on the recipient than the donor, Sarah said.
Sarah Hawkins and Terry Gillian hug.
Post-transplant, Sarah found a community of fellow living donors and joined the board of directors of Kidney Donor Athletes, Inc. Along with another fellow donor and board member, Sarah came up with the idea to take kidney donors to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest point of Africa and one of the world’s Seven Summits, to raise awareness for living donation. On March 10, 2022, 20 kidney donors shouted this message from the top of Africa, the story of which was featured on Good Morning America, the Washington Post, and even the local evening news in Tanzania. Ben journeyed to Africa with the team, summiting alongside the donors while collecting biometric data to analyze the effects of altitude for people with one kidney.
At the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
In no small part due to her donation, Sarah was selected as a 2021 Fresno State College of Health & Human Services Hero. She was nominated by her long-time mentor from Fresno State, Justine McAlpine. Sarah credits Justine with much of her career success, saying, “regardless of where my life has taken me, the skills I learned from Justine are always relevant and guiding my way.” Sarah uses her experience as a first responder by volunteering for the San Luis Obispo Search & Rescue team. She plans to continue teaching first aid and volunteering for search and rescue in her retirement. “I told Ben we are going to work ski patrol at China Peak when we ‘grow up’!”
During his time at Fresno State, Ben developed a deep appreciation for multidisciplinary studies, earning minors in Mathematics and Physics. He continued his multidisciplinary pursuits during his studies at Cornell, combining Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Microbiology. His time at Cornell cemented his desire to teach at a university that would allow him to combine research and teaching. With its “Learn by Doing” philosophy and deeply rooted “project” culture, Cal Poly has proved to be a perfect fit. He has taught courses in Measurement and Analysis, Sensors and Data Acquisition, Microfluidics and Electrokinetics, Microelectronics Fabrication, Electricity and Magnetism, and Biotransport Phenomena. His current research projects focus on developing embedded systems for laboratory applications, devices for research data acquisition, microfluidic cell culture and cell impedance spectroscopy, and high sensitivity dielectrophoretic separation techniques. Ben is the advisor for the Medical Design student group, Associate Director of the Cal Poly Microfabrication Laboratory, and Program Coordinator for the Biomedical Engineering Master’s Degree at Cal Poly.
Sarah completing a triathlon.
Currently, Ben and Sarah live in San Luis Obispo, CA. Ben is an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering with a joint appointment in Electrical Engineering at California Polytechnic State University. Sarah is the assistant director for Leadership & Service, a department within Cal Poly Student Affairs. Ben and Sarah have one daughter, Mackenzie (10), and spend their free time hiking and training for triathlons.
Read more about Sarah’s transplant journey here:
Fresno State alumna donated kidney, gained more in return
Fresno athlete donates kidney to save elementary school classmate's dad