What Does it Mean to be a Spartan?

BIG IDEA

In a year defined by major sporting events and international competitions, the Spartan spirit is alive and well in Silicon Valley and beyond. Whether through athletics, the arts, engineering, entrepreneurship, research or innovation, the San José State community is welcoming the world with open arms.

For this issue’s Big Idea, we asked our community to answer the same question:

What does it mean to be a Spartan?

Students speak

Teairra Brown

’27 Public Relations, Radio-Television-Film

“Being a Spartan means being resilient. It means dreaming big, learning boldly and moving toward graduation with purpose. It means being in a major that brings you passion, joy and purpose. It means being first generation, being a person of color, being a film major, an engineering major, a nursing major, etc. It means bringing every background, every story, and every ambition into one shared space.

“To me, being a Spartan is about community. It is my friends, my professors, and every lesson that shaped me into who I am today. As a first-generation, low-income student of color, I did not fully understand what college would be like. Being a Spartan taught me how to navigate it, how to grow, and how to become my own person.

“Being a Spartan did not just give me an education. It helped define my path. I would not be who I am without this experience, and I will always be grateful to call myself a Spartan.”

Teairra Brown

Ellery Carlson

Ellery Carlson, '25 Child and Adolescent Development, '27 MA Teaching, Program Coordinator for the Queer Hope Institute

“For myself, being a Spartan means being involved in the surrounding community in various capacities. Through my work with the Queer Hope Institute and various positions on campus, I have been able to connect with different people and hopefully make a positive impact on their lives. Spartans also treat all people with respect and dignity, working to uplift marginalized communities and create a better world for all to live in.”

Jiya Jogia

’27 Marketing, Student Marketing Assistant at the Lucas College and Graduate School of Business

“Being a Spartan means being open to opportunity and embracing every educational and professional moment you can find. It’s about stepping outside your comfort zone and trusting that each experience you go for adds to your growth. The Spartan spirit is grounded in curiosity and courage, the willingness to challenge yourself. As SJSU welcomes the world through major athletic competitions this year, there are countless opportunities for Spartans to learn beyond the classroom. These events allow us to connect across cultures and see our community on a global stage. Being a Spartan means having the openness to learn from the world around us and the confidence to step into new spaces.”

Jiya Jogia

Keira Lieb

’27 Music Education

“To be a Spartan means finding a place in this very diverse community. There are so many people at our school, and everyone has their own journey, their own start time.”

Vinayak Sharath

’26 MS Mechanical Engineering

“A Spartan is someone who is not afraid to do the things they want to do to be themself. With me, I find that in music. I find deeper connections with people because we have more in common; we find our people. Something I want to impart on others is that you should do things because you want to do them, not because you have to. For example, if playing in pep band or marching band in high school was important to you but you stopped in college to focus on school — if that’s your priority, that’s fine, but if you feel you need something to be whole, then you should pursue that. For me, being a Spartan means you have to put yourself at the forefront.”

Vinayak Sharath

Aliya Swan

’26 Psychology, Associated Students Events Assistant

“Being a Spartan at San José State University means embracing resilience, diversity and determination while striving for excellence in academics and personal growth. Spartans are known for their grit and perseverance, balancing rigorous coursework with leadership, community involvement and career ambition in the heart of Silicon Valley. Through my experiences, I have grown by stepping outside my comfort zone, taking on new challenges and building meaningful connections with peers and mentors. Being a Spartan has shaped me into someone who is driven, adaptable and committed to making a positive impact both on campus and beyond.”

Faculty and staff reflect

Fred Cohen

Director, School of Music

“Being an SJSU Spartan means embodying innovation, creativity, and compassion while championing social justice in one of the world’s most dynamic regions. As the West’s first public university, SJSU empowers diverse students to become leaders who transform communities. Music and the arts are central to Spartan identity, where artistic creativity fuels Silicon Valley’s innovation. Spartans engage deeply with music, visual arts, film, theatre and dance, developing skills to create works that honor diverse heritages.

“The School of Music and the Department of Art and Art History offer NASM and NASAD-accredited programs where students work with award-winning faculty, perform in ensembles, and showcase work in over 200 performances and 150 annual exhibitions. Film, theatre and dance programs further expand creative opportunities. Being a Spartan means actively dismantling systemic inequities while celebrating all people’s dignity and participating in local and global cultural life through artistic expression.”

Fred Cohen

Mantra Roy

Community Engagement Librarian, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

“The SJSU Spartan spirit has been global since at least the 1930s, when students from India came to study economics and education at what was then San Jose State College. The University Archives at the SJSU King Library holds commencement records of students like Rama Jaggi (1933), Karam Singh Sandhu (1934) and Ram Bagai (1934). The Spartan Daily was also international in scope way back in the 1940s. Students from India wrote about traditional social norms back home.

“In 1960, a graduate student in aeronautics, Bhudeb Das, from then eastern Pakistan, today's Bangladesh, spoke about college education in ‘Dacca’ (today, Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh) and 'arranged marriage' in an article in the Spartan Daily.

“SJSU's global Spartan spirit shone again in the 1960s when Maryleela Rao became homecoming queen in 1961 and proudly wore a saree (sari), the national dress of India, to the Coronation Ball.

“And today, SJSU welcomes hundreds of students from all over the world. South Asian students represent 65% of all international students. Initiatives like the 'South Asians in Silicon Valley' at the SJSU King Library preserves and curates the lived experiences of a vast global community that calls the Bay Area home for more than half a century. I am a very proud Spartan faculty member and I come from India. San Jose has some of the biggest diaspora communities from all over the world and SJSU carries the torch of welcoming everyone from all countries in the true Spartan spirit.”

Janet Sundrud

’07 BA, ’11 MA Communication Studies, Interim Assistant Director, Finance Support and Innovation

“[Being a Spartan means] persevering in spite of your life circumstances. In other words, it means having the drive to better yourself, your outlook, and your position in life, by applying yourself in all endeavors.”

Janet Sundrud

MyShaundriss Watkins

’20 CHAD, program coordinator for the Black Leadership and Opportunity Center (BLOC)

“Being a Spartan to me means being resilient. Reflecting on my experience as a student at SJSU and now my current experience as staff, resiliency has been my strength. Though Spartans are known to be strong, I want to highlight our emotional and intellectual strength because that often gets overlooked outside of a physical context. As a proud Spartan, we bend rather than break, and that is what I am most proud of because that is where our true strength comes from.”

Alumni share

Tanvi Pisal

’23 MS Human Factors

“To me, being a Spartan means learning how to stay steady even when everything around you keeps changing.

“I became a Spartan during a really uncertain time — starting graduate school at San José State University right after the pandemic in 2021, attending classes remotely, and trying to figure out life in a new country while juggling on-campus jobs, a new culture, and a new career path all at once. A lot of days felt overwhelming. But SJSU taught me more than what was in the syllabus. It taught me resilience — how to adapt quickly and keep going even when things didn’t feel fair or predictable.

“As an international student, that resilience wasn’t optional. SJSU helped me build meaningful connections that I deeply value and that eventually led to landing a full-time job. When I later faced a wave of layoffs, those moments weren’t just career bumps — they could change everything, including my ability to stay in the country. But being a Spartan meant staying persistent, learning to evolve, and finding the strength to rise — proving that setbacks don’t get the final say. I guess, this is what I think is meant to be a Spartan.”

Tanvi Pisal

Neal Raghani

'25 Digital Media Art

“To me, being a Spartan means being a hustler, someone who seizes opportunity and maximizes its potential. It is an incredible privilege because it encourages you to hold onto your vision, however absurd, and do whatever necessary to manifest it. Whether pushed to the absolute limit in an internship or surviving on four hours of sleep to finish a massive project, a Spartan is always levelheaded and patient. A Spartan trusts the process knowing that growth comes through hard work, curiosity and collaboration. More than anything, grit is nothing without grace. We have to realize that we are all just human beings who want to seek our own version of success. As such, being a Spartan also means leading with kindness, and choosing to help each other is quintessentially the Spartan way.”

René Siegel

‘87 Public Relations

“I became a Spartan the moment Dr. Briggs read my work out loud and I felt seen for something I wasn’t yet confident enough to claim. San José State gave me permission to dare greatly and dream bigger. Spartans are gritty, hungry, often first-gen students working two jobs and lifting entire families — and I was one of them. Being a Spartan means fighting for opportunity, turning ‘no’ into ‘watch me,’ and paying it forward with honesty about what success really takes. I keep coming back because representation matters, real stories matter, and today’s students deserve to feel seen, supported and challenged to be bolder than they think they can be.”

René Siegel

Dontae Lartigue

18 Psychology, CEO of the nonprofit Razing the Bar

“To me, being a SJSU Spartan means carrying a deep sense of resilience, access, and responsibility. San José State University is a place where many of us didn’t come from privilege — we came from grit. Being a Spartan represents showing up even when the odds aren’t in your favor, believing that education is a tool for mobility and impact, not just personal success. Being a Spartan isn’t just about where you went to school — it’s about who you become and who you lift up along the way.”

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Top image by Pourya Nadimi.