BY DENISE WHISENHUNT, J.D.
President – Fresno City College
(FEB. 11, 2026)

I still remember the brown leather backpack.

My older brother received it from one of my mother’s friends when he graduated from high school and attended college. Watching him carry it filled me with pride and gave shape to my own sense of direction. 

Years later, when he finished school, my older sister carried that same backpack — now softened with age, marked with pen stains and purpose — first to college, then to dental school. By the time it was my turn, I remember my mother carefully cleaning it with saddle soap, preparing it for me as I headed to college, and eventually to law school. 

What I remember most is her pride — and the intention behind it. That backpack carried more than books (my younger sister carried the same backpack in college as well); it carried the trajectory my parents envisioned for all of us.

My parents were raised in the midst of segregation. Their sacrifices, made in a world that too often denied them opportunity, became the fuel for our collective determination. They believed deeply in education — not just as a pathway to mobility, but as an act of faith in the future.

Education has the power to transform our lives in ways both visible and unseen. The most powerful forces have been visualization — seeing myself in places I had not yet been, imagining roles I had not yet occupied. It is not the only way transformation happens, but it has been essential to my journey.

As president of Fresno City College, I have the privilege of working among a sea of extraordinary practitioners — faculty, classified professionals and administrators — who have dedicated their lives to the betterment of our community. 

We are people shaped in part by words on paper and by role models who show us, sometimes quietly, what is possible. Higher education became my life’s work because of them. I came to it as an ordinary person, daring to stand alongside others who dare to do the extraordinary every single day.

Upon joining FCC, I quickly recognized the transformative work our staff and faculty perform daily to dismantle barriers for our students. Our college is proud of many designations: as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Institution (AANHPI), and most recently a Black Serving Institution (BSI), one of 30 in the state, we support access for all who attend.

And we believe in the potential of all of our students, regardless of socio-economic background, and use our own life’s journey and experiences to shape our work.

Today, as I sit at this desk as a college president — at the first community college founded in the state — I sometimes invite students to come sit in the president’s chair. Many of them, like me, are descendants of the decisions shaped by Brown v. Board of Education and the courage of the Little Rock Nine. 

I ask them to visualize themselves in this space. To imagine what it means to lead. To see themselves not only as students, but as future presidents, educators, scientists and architects of opportunity.

This is how the torch is carried forward — not just through policy or position, but through imagination, example and belief. Education does not merely open doors. It teaches us to see ourselves walking through them — and holding them open for those who follow.

Worn out backpacks and all.