A Sacramento City College professor changed the lives of two siblings. Here’s how

It wasn’t until his early 30s that Ryan Mattson felt like he started to learn all the facets of U.S. history.

After years installing air conditioners, he signed up for online classes at Sacramento City College in the summer of 2021. He had recently suffered a work injury and figured it was time for a career change. Maybe a degree in stationary engineering, he thought.

Until then, Ryan said he had experienced a “white male centric” view of the nation’s past. Then, he signed up for prerequisite classes including History 310: U.S. History to Reconstruction with professor Dominic Cerri.

The next few weeks of class were life-changing.

He became fully invested in school for the first time. He stayed up late reading pages on the Civil War and slavery. He endlessly asked questions in class and signed up for weekly office hours. Not even sleeping could stop his curiosity.

“It started infiltrating my dreams,” said Ryan, now 35. “I couldn’t get away from it. They said ignorance is bliss. Well, I lost my bliss that semester.”

His sister, Melissa Mattson, wasn’t spared, either.

They lived in the same apartment complex when Melissa, 39, overheard Cerri through Ryan’s laptop. She was struck by how his lectures included women and people of color. It wasn’t just a glorification of American history, she added.

“I always kind of liked history,” Melissa said. “I just never liked my history classes. But with Cerri, he would talk about things I had never heard in classes. It was a totally different experience.”

Melissa had planned to take classes at the City College of San Francisco that upcoming fall, but after listening to a few Cerri lessons, she enrolled into Sacramento City College and two of Cerri’s classes.

More than two years and many Cerri classes later, Ryan and Melissa have both transferred to UC Berkeley as first generation, single parent students. Each will major in history, which they credit to Cerri.

Their decision is an uncommon one.

The number of history majors has dropped for years, with the discipline estimated to be 1.6% of all bachelors degrees conferred in 2015, according to the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History. Cerri estimates that 9 out of 10 students in his classes do not major in history.

Despite that, the Mattsons believe they can use the degree by passing down the knowledge or taking down oppressive institutions. Their unique choice comes at a time when history programs are under attack nationwide.

In recent years, some states have proposed laws to restrict what teachers can say about race, racism and American history. Most notably, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has fought to ban AP African-American Studies and statements about slavery.

Professors and students, like Cerri and the Mattsons, recognize these efforts and are pushing back in the classroom.

“To have an honest discussion,” Cerri said, “we need to be able to look at our past with eyes wide open, and that means to be able to view our past critically, recognizing the totality of the experience that defines who we are as Americans. Some of that’s going to be ugly and some of that’s going to be glorious. But I think to ignore one part over the other is a problem.”

Growing a passion for history

Cerri’s path into history mirrors the Mattsons.

He arrived at Sacramento State in 1986 to study physical education. But in his second year, he took a history class with professor Frank Kofsky, who ignited a passion for the subject.

The rest was history.

Cerri switched his major after that class and soon earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree in the specialization. Kofsky, who died in 1997, was instrumental in inspiring Cerri to complete a doctorate in U.S. History.

“If it’s a labor of love, you don’t mind doing the labor,” said Cerri, who has taught at Sacramento City College since 2006.

Cerri had Kofsky on his mind when he reached out to Ryan for a meeting near the end of the summer 2021 class. Cerri disclosed how he started college with another academic focus and was eventually lured “into the dark side” by a history professor, Ryan recalled.

“He says he’s been waiting 33 years and he thinks he found his person like that,” Ryan said.

Ryan said that moment made him feel like he was born to study history. He went on to switch his major and take two more Cerri history classes.

His sister didn’t take much convincing.

Melissa had always enjoyed history and reading, yet faced push back early in her education. She recalled a high school teacher telling her parents that she had no future in academics. The memory stuck with Melissa for years and she dropped out during her senior year. She earned a GED two years later, but struggled to continue school as a single mother of two daughters.

Enrolling in Sacramento City College was a fresh start for her. She had spent years working in property management, which sometimes required her to pester tenants for rent. The job became particularly challenging during the pandemic, and Melissa felt like it did not align with her beliefs.

“I was complicit in a system that oppresses and harms people,” she said.

Cerri’s history classes furthered her understanding into certain systems of oppression, while also making her feel like she could be someone to change them.

“He really believed in me as a student, and it made me believe in myself,” Melissa said.

Encouraging more people to take history classes

The two siblings expect to graduate from UC Berkeley in spring 2025, but see it as a stepping stone to bigger aspirations. Both want to attend law school after graduating.

Ryan hopes to become a lawyer or teach history, and Melissa is unsure of her specific career at the moment, but she knows that it will center around dismantling “systems of oppression.”

Though they are no longer at Sacramento City College, it hasn’t stopped them from raving about Cerri to their families and friends.

Ryan said they encouraged more than half a dozen people to take his classes. Many are nontraditional students including older individuals or those looking for another career.

For his part, Cerri is happy to help any student looking for a second chance. He said community colleges are key to achieving that goal. And history classes prepare them, regardless of what major they choose.

“It opens up a whole new kind of consciousness for a lot of students who now begin to have the tools to better understand our society today and the problems that we face,” Cerri said.