Sarina Muhammad is this year's Alumni Rising `Runner for CSUB Antelope Valley.
Sarina Muhammad has devoted her career to helping businesses, individuals and organizations with economic and long-term societal issues, especially in the area of employment.
That includes helping people overcome barriers to securing a job such as homelessness, learning disabilities and incarceration — barriers she, too, has overcome.
Muhammad is currently using her two CSUB degrees as a business service representative for Goodwill Southern California, whose mission is to "Transform lives through the power of work." The services she’s brought to companies large and small include lay-off aversion, staffing assistance and workforce development.
Muhammad also works with community leaders, educators, chambers, and legislative bodies to help bring an end to systemic racism and stereotypes.
She brings personal experience to the work.
Muhammad suffered physical trauma as a child that led to a learning disability. And following what she describes as an unfortunate accident that occurred while she was protecting her children from someone with whom she’d been in an abusive relationship, she was incarcerated for 15 years for voluntary manslaughter.
Upon her release, Muhammad realized that although she’d served her time and rehabilitated, she’d have a hard time finding employment due to her prison record. Her internal defenses began to resurface, followed by chronic depression, isolation and PTSD.
Then a friend challenged her to leave her past behind.
Muhammad enrolled at Antelope Valley College, signed up with student with disabilities services, practically lived in the library, and took full advantage of tutoring services.
She also took what she learned in school and volunteered with the Paving the Way Foundation in Lancaster. She developed and facilitated life-skills and career development workshops for felons recently released from prison.
After earning her AA in business administration in 2013, Muhammad enrolled at CSUB Antelope Valley. She continued to battle self-doubt and mental health issues that sometimes-made school difficult and credits mentors, including Disability Management Counselor Shelly Brooks, with helping her persevere through it.
While a student at CSUB, Sarina worked as an intake coordinating manager for the Skid Row Development Corp., helping homeless clients find jobs and housing, and providing other services. She was recruited to senior case manager at Volunteers of America, helping federal ex-offenders rejoin the workforce or gain an education.
For three years, Muhammad drove between home, CSUB Antelope Valley, Bakersfield, and work in downtown Los Angeles every weekday.
“There were times when I did not have class I just stayed the night in my car and did homework," Muhammad said. “Other times I was so tired coming directly from work to school that I don't know how I even graduated."
In 2015, having earned her BS, Muhammad decided to focus on school and entered CSUB's MBA program. She worked part-time in CSUB’s IT Department to help pay the way.
“There were times I experienced imposter syndrome and wanted to quit school," she said. But through encouragement, particularly by Professors Jeremy Woods and John Stark, she completed the program.
"I have met many great people," Muhammad said. "It is amazing how God will put the right people in your life. Randy Shultz, Melissa Miller, and Tom Prothro, to name a few.”
Muhammad earned her MBA and joined Goodwill in 2017, first as a job coach teaching individuals with disabilities to maximize their potential. Then she moved up to the job she has now to teach employers to see the talents beyond the barriers.
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