[Honoree] Scott Bell

Just another normal day for Scott Bell, senior, Psychology, who was shopping around Last Chance looking for whatever caught his eye. His phone began buzzing in his pocket and on the other line was someone he never expected, with news just as surprising.

"Hey, I have some good news for you," the voice he now recognized as President Dianne Harrison said. "I have picked you for the President's Award."

"I was stoked, shocked, and I teared up a little," Bell said about receiving the news. "I didn't expect to get it, I just thought I would apply to get it out there."

"The President's Award for Exemplary Student Achievement, given to a well-rounded student who has made notable contributions to a particular area of university life through depth of involvement and service as a student leader, is an agent of innovation and action with demonstrated service to the campus community, and achieved a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher," according to the Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) website.

Bell was a student-athlete at University City High School where he played baseball and he graduated with a 3.8 GPA. He then went to Grossmont College where he planned to major in Engineering. His first semester there, though, he failed all of his classes and was placed on academic probation. After switching his major to Psychology, he did much better personally and academically and left Grossmont after three and a half years.

He then took nine months off of school to work in Big Bear and entered CSUMB in fall of 2008. During his time at CSUMB, Bell has been a member of Associated Students, a McNair Scholarship winner, part of the Harambe African Heritage group, and a member of the Disc Golf club.

Next year, Bell is going to Sonoma State University to pursue his career in the Psychology field. He will be in a clinical PhD program that mixes Eastern philosophy with in-depth psychology and a modern clinical practice and is based on the work of Dr. Carl Jung, famous for his own theories and working under psychologist Sigmund Freud.

Bell will also be speaking at graduation. When he was informed of this, he did not know the prompt or have a topic on which to speak. After a "gnarly dream about speaking," Bell got inspiration for his speech. He didn't want to say too much about the speech, but he did add that public speaking is "not my thing."

Bell attributes this award to all the opportunities he has had on campus. "It's a big honor and a big deal. It makes me feel really good about how involved I've been on campus," he said. "It's a good finale.