Celebrating Black alumni

Among the hundreds of thousands of Sacramento State graduates are countless Black alumni who are making a positive impact in their community, region and the world.

During Black History Month, we highlight some of these alums – Hornets who are excelling in a variety of fields, often making history while doing so, and defining what it means to be Made at Sac State.

Lester Holt
Anchor, NBC Nightly News

Lester Holt came to Sacramento State to study Government and got his first taste of journalism while on campus. The University, he says, “set me off into the world.” Today, he is one of the world’s most respected broadcast journalists. In 2015, NBC named Holt anchor of NBC Nightly News, making him the first Black full-time anchor of a weekday nightly newscast. That same year, he received his honorary doctorate from his alma mater. Read more.

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Nicholas Haystings
Founder, Square Root Academy

Nicholas Haystings was the only person of color at all but one of the jobs he held after graduating from Sac State with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. If things were going to change, he knew a fundamental shift in education was needed. In 2016, he launched Square Root Academy, a nonprofit that provides STEM-based education and experiences to underrepresented fifth- through 12th-graders, all at no cost to the participants. In 2019, he was named among the Sacramento Business Journal’s“40 Under 40” young professionals. Read more.

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Elaine Welteroth
Best-selling author, journalist and television host

As a biracial woman, Elaine Welteroth rarely saw herself reflected in popular culture or the media. During her career as a journalist, author and TV host – often as the only woman of color in the room – she has worked to change that. As the groundbreaking editor of Teen Vogue, she amplified voices of color and built a more inclusive publication. Her best-selling book, More than Enough, offers lessons from her journey for future generations of girls and women. And as a judge on Project Runway and now co-host of The Talk, she’s helping change the face of television. Read more.

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Daniel Hahn
Sacramento chief of police

When Sacramento swears in a new police chief, it’s typically done at city hall. Daniel Hahn, however, chose to have his ceremony at a place near and dear to his heart: Sacramento State. It is where he earned a Marketing degree in 1995 while also serving as a Sacramento police officer. More than 20 years later, a crowd of more than 1,000 gathered in the University Union Ballroom to watch the Oak Park neighborhood native sworn in as the city’s first Black police chief. Read more.

Pair of Hornet journalists receive lifetime achievement awards

Two Sacramento State alums have received lifetime achievement awards for their work in the journalism industry.

Cheryl Dell ’82 (Communications), who retired last year as publisher of the Sacramento Bee after 30 years in the industry, on Sept. 11 received the Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award, a top accolade for newspaper and news media publishers. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the nonprofit Inland Press Association, and given to publishers who bring about positive change “while exemplifying the finest in journalism and community service.”

A native of Modesto, Dell served as publisher of the Tri-City Herald and The News-Tribune in Washington State before returning home in 2008 to oversee the Bee. Sacramento State awarded Dell an honorary doctorate in 2017.

High honors also are being bestowed upon Sacramento State alum and NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, who in December will be awarded the 2018 Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism. The award recognizes the “outstanding career achievements of journalists whose work has made a lasting impact serving citizens in our democracy.”

Holt began working at NBC news in 2000 following nearly 20 years in local television, in 2015 becoming the first African-American solo anchor of a weekday network nightly newscast. The Rancho Cordova native studied government at Sacramento State, received an honorary degree in 2015, and returned to Sacramento in early 2017 as the first stop in his “Across America” series.

Lester Holt’s journey as a journalist started at Sac State

Lester Holt is one of the world’s most respected broadcast journalists – and it all began for him at Sacramento State. He became a better student, he says, and made the decision to become a journalist while at the University. “It set me off into the world.”

He still considers himself a student – “and my finals are every night at 6:30 Eastern time when I get in front of the camera.”

Holt, 58, anchors both NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC. As a TV journalist, he has covered some of the world’s biggest stories, including the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil leak, the lead-up to the Iraq War, and two hurricanes.

In 2016, he was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, and he became the first African American to moderate a general-election presidential debate in nearly a quarter-century. In 2015, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, in Sacramento.

A few months earlier, during Sacramento State’s Spring 2015 Commencement ceremonies at Sleep Train Arena, Holt’s alma mater and the California State University Board of Trustees recognized his many achievements by conferring on him an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. His wife, Carol, and his parents, June and Lester Sr., who still live in the Sacramento area, were in the audience.

“I am honored, and I certainly accept this degree with deep gratitude,” said Holt, who noted that his father also attended – and graduated from – Sacramento State. “I am so proud to be and (to) have been associated with this university.”

Holt, a graduate of Cordova High School in Rancho Cordova, was a government major and left Sacramento State during his junior year to take a job at a San Francisco radio station. Within 18 months, he landed a position at the CBS-TV affiliate in New York City and was on his way to becoming one of the nation’s most highly regarded broadcast journalists.

“I began with dreams of being a big-time disc jockey, but it was at Sac State that I was exposed to journalism, and it was there that my interest and my focus really narrowed in on becoming a news person,” Holt said in accepting his honorary degree. “There have been many times … that I wished I had completed my formal studies, but I hold my head high, and I accept that things happen for a reason.”

President Robert S. Nelsen with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt during Holt’s Jan. 17, 2017, visit to the Sacramento State campus. (Sacramento State/Rob Neep)

Holt came “home” to Sac State again in January 2017, stopping by the campus for a quick visit, arriving in a modest rental car he drove himself. A day earlier, in Old Sacramento, he interviewed graduate students Ahlam Abdul-Rahman and Norma Mendoza as a part of a national discussion on immigration in the days leading up to the presidential inauguration. Sacramento was the first stop on his “Across America” series for NBC Nightly News.

The big news in the Holt household these days is the impending arrival of Carol and Lester’s first grandchild. Their son Stefan and his wife, Morgan, are expecting their baby in September.

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