Dean’s medalist Daisy Soto-Hernández to continue her education beyond a bachelor’s degree

In high school, Daisy Soto-Hernández didn’t know what she wanted to do career wise during her senior year when she was applying for colleges.

Teaching was always a backup, but her parents wanted her to go into computer engineering or software design because it was something she showed interest in when it came to technology.

But computer engineering “wasn’t something I was passionate about,” said Soto-Hernández.

As she started going through the classes in liberal studies in college, getting experience in the classroom teaching students, she discovered her passion.

Soto-Hernández, who graduated May 19 at the Save Mart Center from Fresno State’s Kremen School of Education and Human Development as the undergraduate dean’s medalist, earned her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies and teaching credential in only four years with a 3.9 GPA.

When Soto-Hernández started her freshman year, she would walk along the halls of the Kremen building and admire the pictures of the dean’s medalists from previous years and wondered about that.

Once she did her research on what it was like to be a dean’s medalist, Soto-Hernández said she worked towards that goal to make her parents proud and get on stage on graduation day.

However, being shy, Soto-Hernández said she was nervous about giving a speech in front of thousands of people, but “it was exciting,” she said of getting the award.

The 22-year-old from Visalia is also a bilingual authorization in Spanish candidate in the Fresno Teacher Residency Program, which would allow her to teach in a dual immersion classroom.

Soto-Hernández will begin her first year of teaching sixth grade at Wawona Elementary in the Fresno Unified School District. Wawona is a dual immersion program school.

First-generation college student

Soto-Hernández, who is a first-generation college student, considered dropping out of school after losing her maternal grandfather, her biggest supporter, to COVID-19 in January 2022.

As the oldest child, Soto-Hernández is the first in her family to go to college. Here parents, who came from México, work in construction and retail. Her 19-year-old sister is going to Stanford University while her 16-year-old brother is in high school.

Soto-Hernández was born in Reedley. Her family moved to Bakersfield when she was a year old, then moved to Dinuba when she was 12 before settling in Visalia.

She graduated from El Diamante High School in 2019 and went to Fresno State as a Smittcamp Family Honors College Scholar.

Soto-Hernández worked as a student assistant in the Center for Advising and Student Services, which influenced her decision to continue her education beyond a bachelor’s degree.

Working at the Center, Soto-Hernández said she was able to learn “a lot about all the educational opportunities Fresno State has.”

She plans to pursue a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at Fresno State, then obtain a doctoral degree to make a difference as an education administrator.

Soto-Hernández presented her research on emerging bilinguals at the ‘Make a Difference: Teach’ conference in the South Valley, the largest single event for teacher recruitment where she encouraged future teachers to use asset-based language in their classrooms.

Soto-Hernández and a classmate worked on a children’s book called ‘Con Mis Ojos: Going to the Remate’ to elevate the voices and views of girls who feel marginalized.

“What we wanted to do was write something that is Spanglish, which a lot of people will see, as you know, like a dirty language, because Spanglish isn’t proper,” Soto-Hernández. “But through research of translanguaging it’s been seen that people who translate, which is actually effective and they’re using a lot of cognitive thinking.”

“We do a lot of research on that and then we ended up writing the book,” Soto-Hernández said.

The book will soon be published.

“College is a little rough sometimes, and I feel like throughout the entire process you learn a lot by yourself and your abilities, but everything as difficult as it gets, everything’s going to be OK. It’s like it’s going to be worth it,” said Soto-Hernández. “Especially if you decide to change your mind and your career options. You still got an education. Everything was a process, that was an experience that would benefit you either way.”

Daisy Soto-Hernández’ favorites

Book: “That’s a good one. I don’t know if it’s going to be like cliché, but the bible is honestly one of my favorite books. I still haven’t obviously gone through all of it, but there’s so much in the little books within the Bible that are just like, to learn from, especially because I’m Christian, I learn a lot at my church from it, and my goal is to finish all of it, and I won’t ever understand the full lengths of it, but yeah.”

Food/meal: “My favorite food is hamburgers. I don’t know why I never get tired of them, but I would say hamburgers. My favorite ones are from I think In-N-Out. They’re cheap, they’re good, they’re fresh.”

Place to visit: “So, I’m more of a person who likes to be out in nature. So, I like going to the mountains. I recently went to Yosemite for the first-time last year. It was so beautiful I went in May, but I think recently my most favorite place is Disneyland. I went four times in the past 12 months.”

Music to listen to: “I’ve been listening to a lot of instrumental music, a mix of soundtrack music from movies like there’s this composer, John Powell, he wrote for ‘Kung Fu Panda,’ and for all kinds of movies. His music is so rich and like there’s so many layers, so instrumental music.”

Movie: “‘Up,’ Pixar’s ‘Up.’ It made me cry a lot.”

Hobby: “I recently got into crocheting, so I learned how to crochet two years ago, and I’ve been crocheting a lot. So, I’ve been crushing little stuffed animals for my students and then going to give them to them during their sixth-grade promotion on June 9. For my student teaching I’ve been with them since their first day of school.”

Best advice ever received: “I think it has to be from my mom. She once told me that whatever you have to say be very careful what you say to others. Because sometimes people can use information against you and sometimes people can get jealous for things you tell them. Just be aware of every single word you say because there’s good things and bad things that comes from your words.”