Fresno State business student Faith Bither was taught by her professor to be proactive and take responsibility for her community. Bither took this lesson to heart and created a student-led effort to repair and beautify the fountain in the Peters Building plaza at Fresno State.
Now, after years of nonoperation, the fountain is running and surrounded by new plants, thanks to the efforts of Bither and fellow business students Kennedi Campbell-Caldwell and Kirsten Martinez.
“Dr. Carlos Martinez, my information systems professor, always told us to be a good community member,” Bither said. “Pick up the trash if you see it. If there’s a pothole, report it. He instilled in us to be a participant, not an observer.”
Bither remembered that lesson when she first noticed the Peters Building fountain, which hadn’t been running for several years. Due to difficulties in sourcing replacement parts, the fountain was placed on the campus’ deferred maintenance list.
In 2025 as a new transfer student from College of the Sequoias, Bither volunteered for a Craig School of Business Clean-Up event and was disappointed that nothing was done to clean the fountain or plant new vegetation around it. Bither began emailing faculty and the Craig School dean’s office to volunteer her services to beautify the plaza.
“Initially, I wasn’t thinking about spending money or fixing the fountain,” Bither said. “I just thought we could get donations and fill it in with a flower bed and make it look pretty. I proposed that, but eventually the university decided to fix the fountain instead.”
Bither enlisted the help of Campbell-Caldwell and Kirsten Martinez, the Associated Students Inc. senator for the Craig School.
“Faith texted me and said, ‘I need you to help me email the dean,’” Campbell-Caldwell said. “I never knew that our efforts would flourish into what they are now.”
“I was inspired by and impressed with Faith’s passion and drive,” said Dr. Julie Olson-Buchanan, dean of the Craig School. “Over the past few years the Craig School had been working with an architect to renovate the plaza, and we had received approval from the campus planning committee to do so. We were told we would need to completely replace the fountain because the engineers thought it was irreparable. However the renovation plans were a very large project and, meanwhile, the fountain was in a state of disrepair. We loved the possibility of being able to fix the fountain instead of continuing to wait for the renovation project to be realized.”
With the dean’s support, Bither took the students’ request to Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval. He applauded the students’ efforts and connected Bither with Facilities Management.
A project was launched to repair the fountain and replant the decorative vegetation around it. While Facilities Management oversaw the repair of the fountain, Bither and her group organized student volunteers to clean and plant on two workdays during the fall and spring semesters.
“It was rewarding to see these students step up, take initiative and ensure this project came to life,” said Eduardo Zenteno, grounds manager with Fresno State Facilities Management. “They were persistent in asking questions and following through, and I’m glad they did. They were a pleasure to work with.”
The revitalized fountain and plaza were officially unveiled at a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by Olson-Buchanan and Jiménez-Sandoval, who praised the students for their initiative and follow-through. To commemorate the occasion, Bither, Campbell-Caldwell and Martinez invited students to decorate stones with personal messages, to be left in the plaza and found by future students.
“I think it’s important for students to take pride in being a Bulldog,” Bither said. “My vision for this project is for students to see the fruit of their labor and be able to come back as alumni and say, ‘I contributed to this fountain and this plaza.’”
Bither said the success of the project and the university’s responsiveness have increased her confidence in her ability to tackle challenges and influenced her decision to pursue a career in project management.
“Fresno State is very supportive and very communicative with students,” Bither said. “Having faculty and staff support me and tell me I can do this has really stuck with me, and I think that’s going to leave an imprint on my heart for the rest of my life. I really loved doing this, so I want to see how I can direct this into a career.”
Campbell-Caldwell said the support from student volunteers and the university demonstrate the sense of community at Fresno State.
“The turnout we had shows me students are passionate about our school,” Campbell-Caldwell said. “It shows me the effort and support we have had from everyone in the Craig School. I’m so grateful for the people around me. I want to thank the president for coming to the opening, which shows me how big this project is, not just for the Craig School, but for Fresno State as a whole. It gives me so much pride in myself, in my group and what we’ve done.”
For Bither, the lesson of this project is the transformative power of working for community improvement.
“It takes just one step out of your comfort zone to have this domino effect,” Bither said. “You start living what you preach. It sparks a fire underneath you, it makes you passionate, it gives you a bigger purpose than just living for yourself. It makes it so you can’t see living life without the community you’ve built.”
