A love for learning

Noel Lopez graduating with bachelor’s in English this month, hopes to become professor

By California State University, Bakersfield

December 12^th, 2023

When Noel Lopez first transferred to California State University, Bakersfield in 2022, his plan was to major in English and ultimately enter a career in law. Those career goals quickly changed after he took one of his first English courses: Critical Approaches to Literature.

“For me, that was a very defining course. It introduced literary theory and criticism in a way I had never been exposed to,” he said. “Once I realized I could do what I like in the limitless realm of literature, I feel like I found the place I wanted to be, career-wise.”

Lopez said he has enjoyed examining literature through a modern lens, particularly as it relates to social movements, gender constructs and psychoanalytic research.

“Being able to tie subjects like psychoanalysis and queer and feminist theory to the literature, I was able to say something about the social structures we live in now,” he said. “It brought literature into a realm of relevance that I had never experienced before.”

Lopez is preparing to graduate with his bachelor’s degree in English next week, after less than two years at CSUB. He has applied for graduate school and hopes to one day become a professor.

“I feel really good. I’m excited to graduate,” he said. “I feel like I’ve learned so much, but I’m sad to be leaving this institution. I want to continue what I’ve been cultivating here. It’s been a really integral part of what I hope to be doing for the rest of my life.”

Lopez said he’s always enjoyed reading and writing, especially because of the limitless nature of it.

“Literature is the documentation of the human experience. It’s a very unique thing we have,” he said. “Not only does it reflect our reality, but it’s limitless in fiction. Writers are able to take whatever feelings, thoughts and ideas they have and manifest them in their writing. That provides us with a unique ability to dissect that and see what it’s saying not just about the writer but the world at the time it was written.”

Dr. Monica Ayuso has had Lopez in several of her classes, including the foundational Critical Approaches to Literature course. She said he proved himself to be an excellent student.

“Very quickly, it became evident to me that Noel has a brilliant mind, a profound love for literature and writing and a great capacity to work very hard,” she said. “His literary analysis skills developed fast, as he moved though the BA in English and took a total of three classes from me. I am very excited that he is contemplating graduate work in English specializing in masculinity studies.”

While Lopez has appreciated his experience at CSUB, it hasn’t come without its challenges, the biggest of which has been time management and scheduling.

He has had to balance schoolwork with his full-time job as an office services technician in the Welfare-to-Work program at the Kern County Department of Human Services. He has also worked for the county’s Child Support Services office. While much of the jobs consisted of clerical work, he is also experienced with helping manage client referrals for resources.

“I help ensure they are getting the services they need,” he said. “I’ve always been interested in social services and working with people. I want to help people and ensure that what I’m doing is contributing to something greater than myself.”

Lopez is excited about going to graduate school and is also interested in pursuing a doctoral degree.

“I want to do my research at that level. I want to be able to contribute to the discipline in an important way,” he said. “I want to be a forever student, and as a professor I’d be in a space where I would be able to continue learning while also being able to teach what I know to new generations that have their own perspectives and understandings of the world around them. To be a part of that would be incredible.”

Lopez hopes to one day return to CSUB and play a role in expanding its curriculum on gender and sexuality. He said he would love to introduce courses focusing on queer literature and film as well as masculinity studies in literature.

“I think the diverse student body at our institution would benefit greatly from the conversations and scholarship that this type of coursework would engender,” he said. “I think accessibility in education is very important, especially the ongoing increase of diversity within academia, so to be a part of that both as a student and as a future educator would be incredibly fulfilling. I am really grateful to the professors at CSUB and all of the knowledge and resources they were excited to share with me. I would love to continue in their footsteps.”