Just one class at Sacramento State can make a big difference in a student&s life. Just ask Travis Taylor, a 2004 graduate who majored in public relations. He landed his dream job working to make young people safer drivers and he&s enjoying every minute of it.

Taylor, 25, and fellow classmates teamed up in a public relations planning and management class to create a plan to bring the nationwide Alive at 25 program to California.

This program, which began in 1995 and has educated over 400,000 young drivers, has never been launched in California. That will change on April 26, thanks to Taylor and his new job with the Sacramento Safety Center.

&It&s really exciting watching something I&ve spent so much time on come together,& Taylor said. &We came up with some really good information that I&m now using.&

Taylor&s class group made a presentation to the Safety Center while they were working on the project in Yunna Rhee&s class.

Kristen Anthony, vice president of the alcohol and drug programs at the Safety Center, said the group and Taylor made a very strong first impression.

&They all showed a lot of passion for the project,& Anthony said. &(Taylor) was the leader and was so enthusiastic. We didn&t hesitate to grab him up.&

To develop the program, Taylor and his teammates gathered information wherever they could. They wrote a survey that they passed out at local Parent Teacher Association meetings and at Sac State.

With these contacts, they held focus group meetings and found out how likely it would be for young people and their parents to attend an Alive at 25 class.

&Our group really came together,& Taylor said. &We all wore a lot of hats. Now, it&s getting the message out.&

Taylor&s new job enables him to use one of his passions 8211; writing.

&I&m doing what I love,& Taylor said. &I always wanted to have a job where writing was involved.&

Taylor has been working at the Safety Center since January and has already produced a few brochures for the organization. He is also learning how to use software to translate the brochures into different languages.

While he was a student at Sac State, Taylor also found time to play rugby and held a part-time job at Home Depot. A Sacramento native, Taylor said he learned a lot from his mother who raised him and his sister single-handedly while earning her nursing degree.

&My mom was my mother and my father,& Taylor said. &I don&t know how she did it. It taught me that I could do it (finish college) and should do it.&