Celebrating education & volunteerism
San Luis local receives NAU’S coveted Gold Axe honor
Samantha Barraza, a criminal justice student at NAU–YUMA who hails from San Luis, was honored for her “outstanding contributions to the NAU community” in Flagstaff last month, as she received the Gold Axe Award.
According to NAU’S website, the award recognizes college seniors who have “committed to excelling in life outside of the classroom through leading student organizations, providing
inn service to the community, involvement their academic college, and more.”
During an interview with the Yuma Sun, Barraza – who currently works as a transit officer with the San Luis Police Department – explained that she first began volunteering as a teenager.
“I’ve been involved in the community since high school. I started volunteering during my junior year, and I’ve always been really involved because I like giving back,” she said. “I started volunteering at the library down in San Luis, and I continued doing other community service opportunities. When I came to AWC, I started volunteering for community events, and I did an internship my junior year with Yuma County Adult Probation.”
In honor of her continued volunteerism, NAU selected Barraza to receive the Gold Axe Award, and she expressed that she hopes to inspire people to never give up on continuing their education.
“I feel pretty proud of myself. I would also like to encourage others to continue with their higher education and never give up,” she reflectively shared. “Sometimes, people don’t like to see failure as something to learn from. I failed one of my courses at AWC, but I never gave up. I take every failure as a lesson, and I want to encourage others – especially people from San Luis – to continue their education.”
As part of the honor, Barraza had to nominate an educator of influence, and she chose NAU criminal justice/intelligence professor Dr. Rod Parish.
Barraza also credited San Luis High School teacher Gerardo Zaragoza, a former member of the SLPD, as being a major guiding influence in her criminal justice journey.
With Barraza wrapping up her studies at NAU– Yuma and aspiring for a career as a police officer or U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, she’s gearing up for the next chapter of her life – though she can still count on locals recognizing her from her involvement in various community events, which she fondly called a great part of volunteering.