Cal State East Bay student Colleen Garland earns CSU’s highest student honor

Colleen Garland has a saying, "Try and try again."

The longtime art teacher learned this lesson through her own journey - one that took her from leaving high school without a diploma to studying ecology and evolution at Cal State East Bay.

Now, that journey has earned Garland the California State University's highest student honor.

Garland is Cal State East Bay's recipient of the CSU Trustees' Award for Outstanding Achievement and has been named a CSU Chancellor Emeritus Timothy P. White Scholar.

The award recognizes CSU students who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, community service and perseverance in the face of personal hardship.

For Garland, those qualities extend well beyond the classroom.

For nearly a decade, she has taught ceramics and drawing at the Richmond Art Center. Her goal is not to simply teach art, but to create a space where her students feel safe, seen and heard as they build resilience through trial and error. 

At Cal State East Bay, Garland is bringing that same curiosity and commitment to studying ecology and evolution, with plans to attend graduate school and build a career that combines conservation and teaching. Her dream is to someday bring her interests in science, art and education together by writing and illustrating a children's book about ecology.

Garland's path to her dreams was not linear. For years, she carried shame about not graduating from high school. However, after being diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, she began to understand her struggles did not mean she wasn't capable of succeeding. Failure doesn't mean you don't belong. Sometimes, it simply means finding another way forward.