An SBCC Education, Revisited

Branded Content Presented by Santa Barbara City College Office of Communications 

Almost immediately after sitting down with Geordie Scully-Taylor at South Coast Deli on Carrillo Street, I ask the obvious question: Why SBCC?

She pauses.

“I’ve been trying to dig back,” she says, “because that was in 2010, so it was like 16 years ago.”

Our salads arrive — two Caesars, both equally unwieldy. We laugh about the challenge of eating and talking at the same time.

Then she begins in Truckee, a mountain town in eastern California about 12 miles from Lake Tahoe. Raised by a single mother who worked as a domestic violence lawyer, Scully-Taylor grew up understanding the financial realities of higher education. She watched her mother, well into her sixties, continue paying off student debt.

“If I learned one thing from my mom,” she says with gumption, “it was that I did not want any school debt.”

That, she says, is the long-winded answer to what first drew her to SBCC: the opportunity to earn a quality education without debt. The other reason was simpler.

“I mean, it’s just one of the most beautiful places.”

Not long after arriving, she found her footing at The Channels, the college newspaper. Through a work-study role as office manager, she built a close circle of friends and what she describes as “a little family within city college.”

She remembers Patricia Stark, who headed the newspaper, as “just a standout teacher to me there…. She was also just really communal and always let everyone hang out in the newspaper room all the time.”

As much as she enjoyed the newsroom, journalism wasn’t her path. She arrived at SBCC planning to study political science, but found it too “stuck in the past.” What she wanted, she realized, was something more forward-facing.

The turning point came in a Global Studies class with Dr. Andrea B. Haupt. During a lecture on nuclear nonproliferation, Scully-Taylor had what she now describes as an “aha” moment.

Which, on the surface, sounds a little silly, she admits. But the idea that countries could agree to limit nuclear weapons felt like a profound example of cooperation. For the first time, she saw international coordination as a tangible force for change.

“So that inspired me,” she recalls. “… I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I’m looking for.’”

In 2012, after two years at SBCC, she transferred to UCSB on scholarship, allowing her to remain debt-free. She spent the spring before classes traveling through Spain.

At UCSB, she studied International and Global Studies with hopes of becoming a teacher. After graduating in 2014, she returned to Spain to teach English, then came back to Santa Barbara to work at San Marcos High School as Program Coordinator for the AAPLE Academy, where she ran the program with the director, taught leadership skills, and managed volunteers for the nonprofit.

Along the way, she became involved in political campaigns and saw how ideas move — and sometimes stall — through the system.

Environmental policy caught her attention, though she hesitated.

“I thought it would depress me if I worked in it every day.”

But campaign work changed her mind. The more she learned, the more she saw both urgency and possibility.

“I realized there is a lot of hope in Environmental Policy and a lot of opportunities to work with and mentor students in this field as well.”

She went on to pursue graduate study in Environmental Policy at the University of Edinburgh, deepening both her training and international perspective.

Still, something felt off. The work was harder than expected, and she struggled in ways she couldn’t explain. After testing, she was diagnosed with dyslexia at 30.

“I was literally shocked,” she said. “So that was … very freeing for what I’ve struggled with in my educational career.”

Looking back, earlier challenges made more sense. At SBCC, math had been a constant hurdle. She credits her statistics professor, Lee Chang, with helping her through it.

“He is the single most patient math teacher I’ve ever had,” she said. “No math teacher ever had any patience for me until him.”

After discovering her dyslexia, she adapted her studies and went on to succeed, graduating in 2020 with a master’s in environmental sustainability. When she returned to Santa Barbara that year, she joined the State Senate as a policy analyst focused on environmental issues and long-term solutions, starting in the height of COVID doing unemployment and constituent services in “all hands on deck” work before shifting into climate and environmental policy.

Today, she works in the California State Senate as a Policy Consultant to Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limón, where she has served in various roles for the past five years.

She also manages the internship program, having hired, trained, and mentored 20 interns.

“It has been my greatest joy combining my love for environmental policy, community, and mentorship all in one job,” she said. 

Fifteen years after arriving at SBCC in search of an affordable education, Scully-Taylor’s path has taken her through many roles. Yet when she talks about the future, she returns to where it began — and to the idea of teaching again. 

“Which I would love to do at SBCC.”

This article was paid for by Santa Barbara City College. For more information on Santa Barbara City College and the hundreds of programs they offer, visit sbcc.edu or (805) 965-0581. If you are an SBCC alumni please join SBCC Alumni Connect at sbccfoundation.org/alumni.