Carol Phillips ('74) won a Kenneth Cole watch in the Aztec for Life monthly prize giveaway.

“I’m surprised.  I never won anything.”

That’s what Carol Phillips (’74) said upon learning she was one of two winners in last month’s SDSU Alumni Association Aztec for Life prize giveaway.  She won a stylish Kenneth Cole watch just by registering at sdsualumni.org.

Living in Whittier where she grew up, Phillips is now retired after working for 34 years as a physical education and health teacher and then a college counselor for high school students in the Montebello School District.  She describes her career in education as “very rewarding.”

As a student at San Diego State, Phillips remembers traversing campus to get to her PE classes and having to cross Aztec Bowl where Viejas Arena now sits.  The trip itself was a workout.

“I used to walk down that bowl and up that bowl to get to the gym every day,” she recalls. “To get from one part of the campus to the other, you had to go through the bowl.”

Phillips says her time on campus was “a great experience.” She lived in a residence hall (Olmeca) “which was amazing because you meet a lot of people from all over the place,” she says. “It just gave me an open door to learning about different people and different places and living on my own.

“I think very fondly of San Diego State,” says Phillips. “I steered many of my students down that way, but they didn’t all get accepted.”


Keeping time with a new Tommy Bahama men’s watch is Jeremy Wilcox (’04) of Anaheim.  The former criminal justice major is now an attorney for the Social Security Administration in Orange.  He says his SDSU education prepared him well for his career.

Tommy Bahama watch winner Jeremy Wilcox ('04) with his wife, Amanda.

“One of the best things about my degree in criminal justice was the requirement to get some sort of practical experience, whether it was an internship or what I did with the prison tour with Dr. (Paul) Sutton,” Wilcox explains. “That part of it was the greatest thing because you actually got to go out and see the effects of the criminal justice system on people.  You can’t buy that experience anywhere.”

As a student, Wilcox worked for the campus police as a community service officer whose responsibilities included clearing the library at closing time.

“I remember walking through the library trying to make sure everyone was out and there were no stragglers left,” he says. “That was kind of interesting seeing the library when it’s empty and the lights are turning out.”

Married to his wife, Amanda, for just 11 months, the 27-year-old Wilcox is excited about the impending arrival of the couple’s first baby. “We’re going to have a girl,” he says.

Any chance of a second generation Aztec?

“If that’s what she wants,” he laughs, “I’ll support her one hundred percent.”

Be an Aztec for Life monthly prize winner by registering today!

View a list of the newest Aztecs for Life!