It has been a busy year for Vanessa Gonzales. With internships, presidency, and academics to attend to, she still founds time to be the Communication Department’s Student of the Year.

Gonzales was also the president of honor society Sigma Chi Eta and interned in the communication department, as well as in President John Romo’s office.

“I’m the kind of person that likes to get involved in everything,” Gonzales said.

The 21 year-old from Escalon, California, a small farming town near Stockton, chose to come to SBCC because she didn’t know what her major was so she wanted to go to a good city college.

Her first communication class was Interpersonal Relationships, and from then on she knew that this would be her major.

“I just felt that it was so applicable to everyday life,” Gonzalez said

From then on, she worked hard until she started interning for the department.

“I’ve always been labeled as the talkative one, so it just felt natural for me to be a communication major,” she said.

In order to join Sigma Chi Eta one must have a GPA of 3.0 with at least three communication classes and a communication GPA of at least 3.25

“The faculty has been amazing at helping out with everything,” Gonzales said.

Sigma Chi Eta has hosted the Domestic Violence Seminar and, with the Intercultural Communication Club, Pangea Days.

Gonzales also helped to put on the 24th Annual Lancaster Speech Tournament. She’s also the first student judge in tournament’s history.

“It was just a really honorable experience,” she said. “I worked so hard on it, that it was nice to just sit back and see it all fall together in the end.”

Despite her hectic schedule, Gonzales still finds time to relax and enjoys life.

“I love lying out at the beach, traveling, and meeting new and different kinds of people,” she said. “I also love my downtime. I spend a lot of time with my family and catching up with old friends from high school.”

Right now she is deciding whether to transfer to UCSB or the University of the Pacific. She will declare a communication major at whatever school she decides on and is leaning towards UCSB.

“I just feel like I’ve worked so hard at getting involved in Santa Barbara that I’m just not ready to leave yet,” Gonzales said.

Although she is still undecided on a career, she is open to just about anything from teaching to broadcasting.

In the end Gonzales said she owes some of her success to the communication department, and the people who work in it.

“I have gotten many opportunities, and a lot of that has to do with the opportunities that the department has given me.”