UC Davis’ Top Graduating Student Is A Walnut Creek Resident

WALNUT CREEK, CA -- A resident of Walnut Creek will be honored as the top graduating senior at University of California, Davis during its final undergraduate commencement Sunday, June 12.

UC Davis senior Amanda Portier led a team of hundreds that put on this year’s Picnic Day — attended by tens of thousands of people and believed to be the largest student-run event in the country. She also has been a mentor to individuals with intellectual disabilities, shed light on social justice issues and achieved a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average.

Portier, who's graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in community and regional development, will be awarded the University Medal for excellence in undergraduate studies, outstanding community service, and the promise of future scholarship and contributions to society. She will receive a plaque and $2,000.

“While I’m one person receiving this award, it’s acknowledging the many communities and the mentorship and support I’ve received,” Portier said.

Portier went to UC Davis thinking she wanted a career helping animals. What she developed was a desire to build community and serve some of our most vulnerable individuals and communities.

Portier’s family has fostered orphaned kittens since she was in eighth grade, and she dreamed of becoming a vet. “I always had my eye on UC Davis,” she said of the university, which has the nation’s top-ranked veterinary school.

Attending Picnic Day during her senior year at Las Lomas High School sealed the deal, and Portier started in fall 2018 as a major in neurobiology, physiology and behavior.

When Portier found she wasn’t enjoying the major as much as she had hoped, pivotal to her finding her new direction in community and regional development was a Native American studies class. The instructor showed video of the treatment of those protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. “I realized I lacked a deep understanding of the past and present forces that shape today’s diverse and inequitable human experiences,” she said.

For more than a year, Portier helped Noli Brazil, an assistant professor of human ecology, investigate how policies can better direct investment into disadvantaged neighborhoods. She was second author on an academic paper and developed a mapping application to share data with policymakers and scholarly communities.

“Given her work on my project and her overall stellar academic record, I believe Amanda has proven that she has incredible promise for future scholarship,” Noli wrote in a letter of support for Portier’s recognition.

The opportunity to use her “number-oriented brain to have social impact,” Portier said, inspired her to add a minor in statistics. Later she co-founded the first college chapter of Women in Data, which works to increase diversity in data careers.

Of her academic achievements, Portier said she has always valued education. “I love learning and hold myself to very high standards.”