Outstanding Graduate Student: Robin North, School of Art and Design

Robin North has been selected as the Outstanding Graduate Student from the School of Art and Design. In his time at SDSU Robin North developed his artistic style and fostered a love for education that would lead him towards the next chapter of his life.

After moving to San Diego from the small town he grew up in, North struggled to acclimate to life at a large university and had difficulty knowing what resources could best serve him at SDSU. To overcome this challenge North threw himself headfirst into the SDSU community by joining various student organizations and actively seeking mentors from the facultNorth’s thesis is titled Keeper of the Walls: Walls of Memory, Echoes of Resistance. In his thesis, North analyzed how visual art is used as a form of protest and narrative reclamation by black families in the rural south 

“It challenges prevailing narratives about race, decolonizes knowledge production, and empowers Black communities to tell their own stories,” said North.

After working as a teaching assistant at SDSU, North developed a deep interest in education. After graduation, North will move straight into a faculty fellow position at Whitman College in Walla Walla Washington where he will continue honing his skills and striving to create social change. His research in this role will center around digital repositories and how they can be used to foster community engagement and stimulate social change. 

“As we embark on the next chapter of our lives, I hope that we can all become agents of positive change, advocates for diversity and inclusivity, and lifelong learners who derive meaning from our work,” said North.