Kiana Reyes is the undergraduate student of distinction from the Department of Linguistics with a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Language Studies.
“Kiana is inquisitive, hardworking and always willing to go the extra mile to make sure she has mastered the material at hand,” said John P. Boyle, associate professor in the Department of Linguistics.
Reyes was raised in Clovis, the youngest in a family of five and a first-generation college graduate.
“I’ve experienced firsthand how it feels to fumble over words due to language barriers, and I’ve grown throughout various opportunities available to me throughout my educational career,” she said.
Reyes graduated as a valedictorian from Clovis High School and summa cum laude from Clovis Community College. She graduated with two associate degrees in Foreign Language and Spanish after four semesters at Clovis Community College, earning Dean’s list honors each semester. At Fresno State University, she was on the President’s list for three consecutive semesters.
“Native in English, Kiana has managed to obtain advanced fluency in Japanese and intermediate fluency in Spanish, and enough fluency in ASL to tutor in it. She has also studied French and Korean. Kiana has been an active member of the Linguistics department, regularly attending our Colloquium series and the international conference we host every year, the Western Conference On Linguistics,” said Professor of Linguistics Chris Golston, Ph.D.
Reyes has worked alongside a linguistically diverse student body and led a team for Clovis Tutorial Center’s social media before the pandemic, presented in the local Supplemental Instruction and Tutoring Expos in the State Center Community College District in 2019 and 2021.
Reyes has a long history of volunteer work mentoring younger students, including working as a tutor at Clovis High School and a teacher’s assistant intern at Red Bank Elementary School.
She still works with Clovis Community College as a Tutorial Center social media and advertising leader and a peer writing tutor.
“As for my goals and plans after graduation, I hope to work for an institution where I can assist those struggling in communication due to language barriers. I hope to be a bridge for those who need a multilingual channel of communication as an interpreter, translator, or teacher for students learning English,” says Reyes.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 