Framingham State University senior Psychology major Sashell Thebaud of Stoughton, MA was among the 29 students from the Massachusetts Public Higher Education system honored by Gov. Charlie Baker during a virtual ceremony on Thursday, May 13.

Thebaud is originally from Haiti and came to the United States with her mother in 2011 following the devastating earthquake that occurred there in 2010. She is trilingual, with fluency in English, French and Haitian Creole. She is an outstanding student and a member of the Psi Chi National Honor Society. 

"Sashell has taken advantage of every opportunity made available to her at FSU," says President F. Javier Cevallos. "She is an outstanding students and an even better person. We couldn't be more proud of her."

At FSU, Thebaud served three years as an Orientation Leader, performed volunteer service work through the Alternative Spring Break Program in 2018 and 2019, and Studied Abroad in Spring 2020 at the University of East Anglia in England. During the current academic year, she has interned with the University's Pathways Program, which provides financial support to students who take on internships that would otherwise be unpaid. In this role, she has been critical in performing outreach to her fellow students, setting up and managing social media pages and reaching out directly to faculty to recruit eligible students. She is credited with helping a dozen students get paid for their remote internships during the COVID19 pandemic this semester, funding that is crucial to them during this difficult time.

"Ten years from now, the letter grades of the '29 Who Shine' won't matter. What we will remember is their commitment to their communities in a time of crisis," said Governor Charlie Baker. "Our public colleges and universities educate homegrown Massachusetts natives – people who are here to learn, and here to stay. They have shown how much they care about where they come from, how much they care about us, and how much they will contribute to the civic and economic future of our Commonwealth."

Thebaud's faculty mentor Professor Jen Lin was also honored during the ceremony.

Thebaud has applied to enter Framingham State University's Master of Human Resources program after she graduates this spring. A self-described "people person" she is interested in a career in Human Resources where she can help others achieve their potential.