Alumni Updates
Aaron Jensen Murphy, 2017
Submitted: September 14, 2024
After graduating, Aaron worked on campus for Facilities Management as a groundsworker. In 2021, he moved from Arcata to Salt Lake City, Utah, to work as a Senior Natural Resource Technician for the Salt Lake City Public Lands Department. For the last two years, Aaron has worked for Salt Lake County Flood Control as a Permit Review Specialist. In his current position, he regulates all aspects of floodplain development within the county, including the installation of structures, channel realignments, and watershed restoration. He has remained passionate about environmental stewardship, professional development, and fostering successful partnerships with state and federal agencies.
Natalie Burghardt, 2020
Submitted: December 1, 2023
Jesse Bobrow and Natalie Burghardt are engaged! They both attended Humboldt State University from 2017-2020.
Adam Cashman, 2021
Submitted: August 21, 2023
Adam Cashman is among the first Peace Corps volunteers to return to overseas service since the agency’s unprecedented global evacuation in March 2020. Cashman wanted to travel to a different country and work in a different ecosystem and hoped to learn more about agriculture, restoration in subtropical ecosystems, and African culture. He is looking forward to making friends along the way and will serve as a volunteer in Zambia in the environment sector.
Aydee Zielke, 2008
Submitted: June 14, 2021
Aydee recently obtained her dream job, joining the San Dieguito River Park JPA, taking on the role as the the Park Environmental Planner. Her work includes habitat conservation, preservation, planning, permitting, and mitigation for trails and parkland. She is also using her cartography skills to create map exbibits, maintain, and update GIS data. She had worked for various private consulting firms and earned a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii (2015). She met her husband while studying at Humboldt and they have more recently taken on the role of parents, raising their two outgoing toddlers in Coastal North County San Diego.
Patrick Murphy, 2013
Submitted: December 15, 2020
Patrick Murphy has been working for the Orange County Water District for the past 6 years. His job consists of water quality monitoring through the sampling and water quality data analysis of many groundwater and surface water sites. Murphy has also recently obtained a MS in Environmental Studies from California State University, Fullerton.
Garrett John Costello, 2014
Submitted: November 17, 2019
Over the last two years Garrett Costello, Environmental Science & Management, 2014, and his wife (fellow alumni) got married and started an environmental consulting business. As the business has grown they have turned their attention to constructing low-tech beaver dam analogs to help restore critical stream and meadow ecosystems. This year Symbiotic Restoration installed over 100 beaver dams across north-eastern California. As the business expands they hope to be able to employ and incorporate Humboldt State students in to these programs. Their current plans include looking for land so that they can move back to Humboldt County and build their home back where their journey began.
Sylvia Lynn van Royen, 2019
Submitted: October 31, 2019
After graduating from HSU Sylvia Lynn van Royen, Environmental Science & Management, 2019, was hired by the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources based out of Orleans, California. The Tribe's DNR has ground breaking management goals that she feels honored and blessed to be learning from. Van Royen was originally hired to supervise the summer youth crew working on manual fuels reduction units, but is now working as a GIS Technician making maps and other spatially-oriented technology to support field crews.
Jason Sikorski, 2017
Submitted: September 23, 2019
After graduating from Humboldt State University, Jason Sikorski, Environmental Science & Management, 2017, stayed local and worked at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park as a senior maintenance aid building ADA hiking trails in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park for one season. Afterward he moved back to his hometown in Orange County and was hired by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as an Environmental Health Technician in Laguna Niguel, California.
Dr. Jessica K. Rendon, 2008
Submitted: March 10, 2019
Dr. Jessica Rendon Environmental Science, 2008, recently received her PhD. in Entomology from the University of Idaho. She currently works for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, working to protect Oregon’s agriculture and natural resources from invasive species. She was recently promoted to Japanese Beetle Eradication Specialist. She says: "Experiencing HSU education, student life, and its inspirations greatly shaped my desire for further education, and future career, which I so enjoy. It also made me fall in love with the Pacific Northwest." Starting volunteering experiences at HSU, she continues to volunteer on habitat and riparian restoration.
Jonathan Baer, 2014
Submitted: August 29, 2018
Jonathan Baer, Environmental Science & Management, 2014, got married the year he graduated from HSU. Two weeks after graduating he and his wife moved to Shenyang China where they taught English for a year. This experience convinced him to become a teacher for good. He applied to several schools for graduate programs and eventually decided to go with Southern Oregon University in Ashland. He received his master's degree in teaching with a K-12 teaching license with endorsements in elementary education and secondary social sciences. He subbed for a while and now is starting his second year teaching 6th grade in Baker City, Oregon. We also had a daughter Isabella in October of 2017 who just started walking this last weekend.
Julia Clark, 2015
Submitted: October 4, 2016
Julia Clark, 2015 Environmental Science & Management, was elected to the board of directors of the Society for Conservation GIS, a non-profit organization that assists conservationists worldwide in using geographic information systems through communication, networking, scholarships, and training.
Dani Burkhart, 2013
Submitted: May 16, 2016
Dani Burkhart, 2013 Environmental Science & Management, led Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Congressman Jared Huffman, Board of Equalization Members Fiona Ma and George Runner, Asm. Jim Wood and the Blue Ribbon Commission on a fact-finding tour of Humboldt County's Medical Cannabis farms and industry. Following that work, Emerald Heritage Farms was launched as a consulting firm to help the area's heritage cannabis farmers come into compliance with changing laws and regulations. Recently, Burkhart helped launch of the first Humboldt County Cannabis Chamber of Commerce building bridges between cannabis and non-cannabis based businesses in Humboldt County.
Adam Gabriel Peretz, 2008
Submitted: April 19, 2013
Adam Gabriel Peretz, 2008, Environmental Science & Management, now goes by Fagbemijo Amosun Fakayode, following his initiation to the Ifa religion in Nigeria. Fagbemijo was married in June to Oyaseye Fakayode. Oyaseye gave birth to their first-born son, Famarada Ojo Fakayode, on October 3rd, 2012. In, Oyeku Ofun Temple, the home of worship Fagbemijo and Oyaseye founded together, moved to Arcata, CA. In April, Fagbemijo returned to Nigeria for the fourth time to be installed as a traditional chief of Ifa with the title Otun Amufawuni of Ibadan Land, meaning "the one who holds the love of Ifa". Ifa is the traditional religion of the Yoruba people.
ADAM GABRIEL PERETZ, 2008
Submitted: September 24, 2012
I went to Ibadan, Nigeria in January 2011 where I was initiated to Ifa, traditional West African Religion. Through Ifa initiation, I have shed my old self and have even been given a new name, Fagbemijo Amosun Fakayode. I since have returned twice to research and study Ifa as well as to bring other people to do their own initiations and other rituals.
My wife, Oyaseye Fakayode, a priestess of Oya, and I have formed Oyeku Ofun Temple, a traditional Ifa and Orisha temple based in Northern California. The temple serves many devotees.
I have written two books on Ifa religion thus far, "All Days Are Sacred" (2011) and "Ori Mi Gbe Mi: Ori, Support Me" (2012), both published by Oyeku Ofun Temple.
