Husband and wife met at the Learning Center, traveled the world and returned

Elizabeth Camarena was a student assistant who worked at the front desk of the Learning Center at Fresno State when Ali Emamjomeh worked as a math, physics and engineering tutor.

They came from different worlds. Camarena, the daughter of Mexican-American migrant workers, attended Fresno State through a migrant corps program to major in liberal studies and get her teaching credential. Emamjomeh was a student from Iran who majored in mechanical engineering.

Their paths crossed unexpectedly at the Learning Center, then called the Tutorial Center, where Camarena said one of her duties was helping student employees, like Emamjomeh, punch their time cards. Everything was manual back then, she said with a smile.

“We ran in such different parts of the campus. Had we not been working at the Tutorial Center, it was unlikely that we would have met,” Camarena said. “At the center, there was an opportunity to talk to others about topics or issues that we were not involved in. Ali and I were so different, not only were our ethnic and cultural backgrounds different, our fields of interest were completely different as well. There was a lot we were able to converse about — a breadth of conversations — and I think that is what was very interesting to me.”

Like many students, they left Fresno after graduating in 1983. Their journey took them to the Bay Area where they both attended graduate school and got married. They pursued their professional passions which took them and their three children on a lifelong adventure to live and work in San Diego, Singapore and Spain before moving back to Fresno in 2023.

Now, the couple is looking to reconnect to the university that brought them together and helped prepare them with a solid educational foundation for a life of opportunity, they said.

“We’ve never really lived here [in Fresno]. We didn’t have a professional network. We just attended school and left,” said Camarena, who got her law degree and worked in the nonprofit sector providing legal services to refugees, asylees and victims of human rights violations. “We now want to immerse ourselves and create a network here.” 

Camarena continues to work on organizational development and strategy projects and is engaging with local professionals and organizations.

Emamjomeh, who earned a master’s degree in engineering mechanics and a second master’s in materials science and engineering, spent his career working for Hewlett Packard before retiring in 2023. He is now a consultant in the field of advanced materials and product development. “I’m very interested in staying engaged and working on solving complex engineering problems,” Emamjomeh said.

The couple recently visited the campus and met Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, who was in the President’s Booth talking to students. The campus is twice as big as it was when they were students, Camarena said. 

That visit led to invitations to campus events and a chance to see the Learning Center where their love story began. The Tutorial Center was the size of about two residential living rooms in the Keats Building with no windows, Emamjomeh said.

The Keats Building has since been demolished to make room for the Resnick Student Union. 

Today, the Learning Center is located in the basement of the Fresno State Library — still no windows — but the mission remains the same: to advance student success by improving content understanding and course grades. It offers three programs for students: Supplemental Instruction, Tutoring and Academic Success Coaching. Results have shown that students who use the Learning Center tend to have higher course grades and GPAs than those who do not use its services.

“I have always known that the impact of the Learning Center is profound. Meeting Elizabeth and Ali truly opened my eyes to just how powerful an academic support space can be,” said Ruby Sangha-Rico, Learning Center director. “It’s not just about academic help; it’s a safe, supportive environment where ideas and thoughts can be exchanged freely. You meet others who may be vastly different from you, yet you realize how much you can learn from them. The space fosters inspiration and growth. Meeting Elizabeth and Ali reaffirmed my belief in the transformative power of such a space. I am so proud Fresno State’s Learning Center was a part of their story.”

In the academic year 2023-24, the Learning Center served 6,257 students leading to 27,120 visits. It employs about 140 students every semester. Tutoring, where a student sets the goals and a peer tutor applies effective strategies for learning, supports more than 600 courses across all eight Fresno State colleges and areas of general education.

“My best memories, fun memories, are from the students that I helped,” Emamjomeh said. “Some were very transactional, they just came and said I have a problem with this, and some really took an interest and appreciated all sorts of other things. Even to this day, I continue to tutor my nieces and nephews. It’s a lifelong thing. It’s very rewarding.”

Now, the couple’s journey has come full circle. They knew they would be back in Fresno where Camarena’s mother and siblings now live. Their own children are grown and off pursuing their own goals.

“I’m very interested in finding what the local problems are,” Emamjomeh said, “and applying my skills in developing scalable solutions.”