’15 Public Relations
“It’s important to show people that you can be more than your circumstances.”
Applon grew up in the Oceanview community of San Francisco, a community struggling with death, drugs and violence. “I could have been a statistic: somebody’s addict, somebody’s dealer, somebody’s fighter. I could be dead,” Applon says, “but I’m not.” As a student at Balboa High School, she joined United Playaz, a youth violence prevention group, in an effort to better both her own circumstances and the circumstance of those around her. That mission continued at SJSU, where she worked to establish a Black Scholars Floor in university housing and a database of incoming black freshmen and transfer students.
Department: Journalism and Mass Communication
College: College of Applied Sciences and Arts
Photo: Thomas Sanders, ’15 MFA Photography
