Arlene Dunfee has an 18-year-old daughter, a paralegal job, a 4.0 GPA and a variety of scholarships. All she wants now is a good night’s sleep.

The business administration junior became the first Sacramento State student to win one of 50 Exceptional Student Fellowship awards given by the State Farm Companies Foundation this semester. She has also been awarded $1,000 a year from the Farmers Insurance Group, $1,000 from the Regional Credit Association Information Services, and $1,000 as the recipient of the Dr. Charles J. Soderquist scholarship, which is offered by Sac State College of Business Administration.

In addition to carrying 12 units in the form of four classes and maintaining a 4.0 GPA, Dunfee has been working 30 hours a week at Trimble, Sherinian & Varanini as a paralegal.

Dunfee also volunteers with many community services. She is a volunteer telephone reader for the Sacramento Society for the Blind, which assists the blind in obtaining information through telephone services. Dunfee also serves as the charitable project chairman for the Capital City Legal Secretary. Moreover, she scans products for the Nelson Company in order to protect consumers’ rights.

“I’m an amazingly busy woman. My life is so busy with volunteer work, my daughter, my work, school and everything that I do. But I love doing them all,” Dunfee said.

Dunfee offered tactics in time management that have worked for her.

“I’m pretty organized. I keep myself focused. School is my most important goal right now. And I have the most incredible boss. She is a super flexible woman who allows me to make my own dates, time and hours. And I don’t sleep,” Dunfee joked.

Dunfee has been a single mother for the past 10 years. She considers her daughter as a source of love and support, especially after she returned to school in 1996.

“I keep a calendar on my wall with all my test dates, project dates and presentation dates on it. She [Dunfee’s daughter] was looking at my calendar last night and said, ‘Final, final, final. Mom, I’m not going home from May 21 to May 26. I’m staying at my friend’s.”’ Dunfee broke out into laughter when repeating her daughter’s words.

As a first-generation college student with 18 years of paralegal experience, Dunfee’s ambition is to start her own business in the legal field.

“She is bright. She works hard and has a good attitude. She stuck out in class by being one of the students who participated actively,” commented Charles Davis, an accountancy professor who had Dunfee in his Accounting I class last semester. He is the professor who wrote her recommendation for the State Farm Fellowship awards.

The State Farm Companies Foundation awards 50 Exceptional Student Fellowships each year to full-time college juniors or seniors in business-related majors. The Fellowship winners are chosen based on scholastic performance, business leadership potential, extracurricular and volunteer activities, and recommendations from the college dean and other faculty.

The award pays a one-year stipend of $3,000 for the student’s senior year of college or first year of graduate studies. In 2000, over 500 students applied for the 50 Fellowships. Since the program began, over 850 Fellowships have been awarded with stipends totaling over $2 million.