Sonoma State student Bryce Iversen has been selected to receive one of the 2024 California State University Trustees' Awards for Outstanding Achievement. Each of the CSU’s 23 campuses nominate a student for the award, which recognizes students who demonstrate superior academic performance, personal accomplishments, community service, and financial need.
Iversen, who received the CSU Trustee Emerita Claudia H. Hampton Scholar award, is a self-made scholar and researcher who has distinguished himself in abstract mathematics despite being largely self-taught. He is completing two undergraduate degrees in pure and applied mathematics at Sonoma State and was selected for the McNair Scholars Program and Cal-Bridge predoctoral program.
Iversen started programming on his family’s computer at an early age and taught himself to create fractals by watching math videos. Motivated by a newfound passion for math, he got himself to and through high school and Santa Rosa Junior College. There, he earned a scholarship for outstanding mathematical potential and transferred to Sonoma State.
“A single positive exposure to an experience can snowball into a lifelong interest, and it all starts with supportive role models,” Iversen said.
He has served as a role model, tutor, and mentor for five years, including at a nonprofit STEM camp, in a STEM workshop for middle-school girls, and during a yearlong course for SSU freshmen who have had limited math success.
Iversen plans to become a mathematics professor and work with students who are underrepresented in math and science.
“I want to give students a positive STEM identity early that will improve their confidence in asking questions, solving problems, and developing a growth mindset to use throughout their lives,” he said.
Iversen’s nomination letter from Sonoma State included why he would be particularly deserving of the CSU Trustees’ Award:
“Bryce is a model of what we idealize as the highest benefits of a CSU education – service, research, learning, and benefit to the community. As a scholar, he has been and will be an asset to his discipline and to young learners who find guidance and inspiration in him.”