She designed award winning news pages for the Stagg Line. She graduated at the top of her class at Chico State. She became a Christian.

Alumna Erin Lund is not only notable for her academic achievements, but more importantly for her humble and self sacrificing spirit. She is motivated not by the number of zeros behind the number on her paycheck, but rather the number of hearts she can touch, the number of differences she can make.

The 2009 salutatorian was the guest speaker at the senior dessert May 15, which honored scholarship winners.

“I’ve always craved experiences that shift or transform the way I see people,” she said. “Coming from Stockton you have a different view on people. I wanted to challenge my socialization.”

Due to her personal desire to change her view on the world and help others, she spent six weeks in Kolkata, India, teaching the children of sex workers. “Because of limited language and supplies, my interactions with the children in India were casual and playful,” Lund said. “Aside from teaching English, my responsibilities included facilitating games using a single deck of cards and guiding the children through advanced origami lessons with a developmentally inappropriate book written in English and Chinese.”

Going to India for that amount of time with no monetary reward truly shows Lund’s character. “I value highly living simply, never had a desire for lavish things,” she said. “That’s helped a lot.”

People tend to question her simple life and don’t understand how she lives from the bare minimum. Because she graduated at the top of her class, Lund could have easily received a full scholarship to the graduate school of her choice, but that was not her goal. She wanted to begin helping people as soon as she could. “I don’t need a doctors or masters (degree) to love kids or support women who are abused.”

Lund values the relationships she has built more than anything else. Now she works as the Children’s Ministry Director for City of Refuge, a religious nonprofit, in Sacramento, where she “equips and empowers individuals to lead purposeful lives.” Though she is not back in school yet, she feels the work she is doing now will “help form the path (she’s) going on.”

“My passion for advocacy and desire to stand united with the disenfranchised will continue to influence my life decisions,” she said. “As a woman who has attended college, I have achieved a new level of privilege and accepted the accompanying responsibility. Knowing what I know now about the world and the many depth of injustice, being self-centered is no longer an option.”