After her graduation from the School of Illustration in 2016, Vashti Thomas applied to become a police office in San Francisco while also working on freelance illustrations in her spare time. Now a member of the San Francisco Police Department, Thomas works at Bayview Station as a school recourse officer.

Blazing the trail in ART U's historic 2012-13 campaign, Thomas guided the team to back-to-back NCAA DII National Championships (indoor, outdoor), a feat never before done by a program in its first year of eligibility. In addition to claiming four individual national titles (indoor long jump, 200m, outdoor long jump, 100mH), she scored 35 of the team's 59 points in indoor and 36.25 points of the team's 60 points in outdoor. An 11-time NCAA DII All-American combining indoor and outdoor, Thomas' resume was truly extensive. Over the course of her two-year ART U career, Thomas was 12-time All-Region, two-time USTFCCCA High Point Athlete of the meet (indoor, outdoor), 2012-13 PacWest Women's Athlete of the Year, 2013 PacWest Women's Track & Field co-Track Athlete of the Year, 2013 USTFCCCA NCAA Outdoor West Region Field Athlete of the Year, 2013 USTFCCCA NCAA DII Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, 2013 USTFCCCA NCAA DII Indoor West Region Track Athlete of the Year, and a three-time USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week (Indoor - Week 3, Outdoor - Week 2 & Week 7).

"What stands out to me most was the fact that Academy of Art even had an athletic program and how many people believed that because we were artists we were not athletic," said Thomas. "I greatly enjoyed proving them wrong."

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