Your Impact
When you support Sacramento State, you ensure that our mission is carried out in the following key areas:
Supporting Students
Together, we ensure student success by giving all students access to quality education. We believe that everyone deserves to have a transformative and fulfilling college experience that leads to advancement and a rewarding professional career.
Watch how small acts of kindness have had a tremendous impact on LaVontae Hill’s ’18 life.
Deepening Knowledge
Because of you, we can provide challenging, high-quality courses that are taught by faculty who are leaders in their fields. Innovation is embraced, and course material is adapted to be most relevant — including up-to-the-minute research, theory and technological advancements, and important real-world applications.
Read about how Lillian Murphy ’20 was able to pursue her dreams of doing bio-medical research thanks to the quality courses and funding opportunities available at Sacramento State.
Read Lillian Murphy's story
For as long as Lillian Murphy ’20 can remember, her mother has been in pain. Lillian’s mother suffers from endometriosis—a painful disorder in the pelvic area that has no scientifically proven cause, but it is something the Murphy family attributes to the chemicals her mother was exposed to while growing up as the child of migrant farmworkers.
“My mom has learned to overcome so much and is such an inspiration to me. It’s part of the reason I am interested in doing bio-medical research in neurological disorders,” Lillian says. The Sacramento-native chose to attend Sacramento State because it allowed her to pursue her degree at her mother’s alma mater and stay close enough to help her family.
Soon after arriving at Sac State, Lillian became connected with Assistant Professor Kimberly Mulligan and applied to work in Professor Mulligan’s lab in biological sciences. After proving her dedication and abilities, Professor Mulligan encouraged Lillian to apply for the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) award. This program, which is unique to Sac State, provides funding to support projects in which faculty and undergraduate students work together on research or other scholarly projects.
Lillian was awarded a SURE scholarship, which allowed her to focus on her research on genetic patterns in the brains of fruit flies that carry risk factors associated with autism. She has presented her findings at various conferences and earned the prestigious Glenn Nagel Award—given for the best undergraduate research across the entire CSU system. It also ignited a passion for a future career in research.
“The financial support I received to do research has been a big part of my life,” says Lillian, who was accepted into doctoral programs at the nation’s top educational institutions, including Harvard University, and will pursue her doctorate at UC Berkeley.
“Anytime someone can help a Sac State student, it allows that student to focus on doing well in their classes instead of worrying about loans or trying to work odd jobs while going to school. It’s definitely worth it.”
Building Community
We can build strong communities by inspiring leadership as an influential cultural, business and policy driver because of your generosity. The Sacramento region looks to our faculty, staff, alumni and students to provide valuable insight and community leadership. We partner with cities, counties and school districts to pave the way from elementary school through to college to produce career-ready graduates. We are a strong community on and off campus.
See how Dewey Cotton found strength, opportunity and a new family in his Sacramento State community, after making the sacrificial decision to prioritize his siblings and secure his future.
“When I signed my letter of intent to Sac State, I cried. I’ll never forget that moment. You know how they say the rainbow comes after the rain. All I went through in high school, well, that was my rain. The scholarship is my rainbow.”
—Dewey Cotton III
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