My journey to higher education was a resilient one. I immigrated from Michoacan, Mexico to the U.S. at the age of 15. When I came to this country, I did not know any English or how the educational system worked. I enrolled as a sophomore in high school. At that time, I felt desperate and frustrated with my classes due to the inability to understand what my teachers were saying. I quickly learned that it was up to me to push myself to reach my lofty goals. That resulted in my immersion in the English language. Through that process, I realized that the Latinx community is often stereotyped as not wanting to pursue a higher education. It was precisely that stigma that kept me persistent in the face of adversity. I graduated from Arroyo High School in El Monte, CA having received two President’s Awards for Outstanding Academic Performance and two awards from the Title 1 & English Learners Program for outstanding achievement in my English Language Development (ELD) classes. My undocumented student status gave me the opportunity to begin my college journey at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC). Although the CA DREAM Act was not in place at the time, I was able to benefit from the AB 540 California Nonresident Tuition Exemption to afford my community college education. My Spanish high school teachers supported me with the opportunity to grade homework and exams for their Spanish AP courses in return for scholarship money that allowed me to pay for books and school supplies. My transition from high school to college was not smooth as a non-native English speaker, low-income, and first-generation student. These challenges placed me on the verge of dropping out during my two years in community college, but I learned the importance of student involvement on campus to combat feelings of disconnectedness and lack of sense of belonging. I attribute my college success to my extracurricular activities. I was a Mt. SAC Cross-Cultural Senator and Inter-Club Council Chair. When I transferred to UCLA the Center for Community College Partnerships (CCCP) gave me the opportunity to be a CCCP Program Scholar and Peer Mentor. All of this involvement was facilitated by my now husband Jose Jimenez, who had plans of going to a college closer to his house but decided to join me at Mt. SAC in order to support each other. After five years at Mt. SAC, I graduated with four associate’s degrees with honors and a Service Achievement award and accomplished my dream of transferring to UCLA.
CCCP has had a tremendous positive impact in my personal, educational and professional life. Being admitted to the CCCP SITE PLUS program was so validating. I still remember that I was missing a component of my program application after I submitted it, but CCCP showed since that moment that they believed in my potential. Instead of disregarding my application and denying me automatically, they called me multiple times to help me make sure that my application was complete. Over the years, I understood that every single action from CCCP is intentional because they understand the imposter syndrome and self-sabotaging behaviors that historically underrepresented communities often experience. From this point forward, my life would no longer be the same. Attending UCLA was my dream since high school. Thus, taking a UCLA summer course before being officially admitted was surreal and to this day the most impactful moment of my higher education experience. I couldn’t believe that a low-income and undocumented student like me was studying at UCLA. Through this summer program, the Saturday Academies and year-long peer support, I was able to see my dream of attending UCLA as an attainable goal. I traveled more than four hours each day taking multiple buses to UCLA in order to complete this program and expand my academic knowledge and transfer preparation. I did so with excitement and gratitude. Receiving an A+ in the summer course along with the positive messages from our SITE Plus Coordinators, Peer Mentors and workshop presenters reassured me that I was “UCLA material” and that I belonged in academia. I then became determined to challenge the educational pipeline of students of color by persisting in my higher education journey and pursuing a career in the field of education. CCCP helped me get to and through UCLA. They provided validation, challenge and support to become a successful transfer student. They are what a transfer-receptive culture looks like in action. I had a smooth transfer transition and overall great experience at UCLA thanks to the support network I had developed through CCCP. I was fortunate enough to not have experienced transfer shock, which I attribute to the preparation and support that CCCP provided me. Fortunately for me, both the CA DREAM Act and DACA were then in place, which allowed for CCCP to offer me my first formal job in higher education. The CCCP Peer Mentor Position prepared me so well professionally that I was offered a full-time permanent position as a High School Outreach Specialist at Mt. SAC upon my graduation from UCLA. The weekly Tuesday evening Peer Mentor meetings kept me engaged and motivated to persist. Those meetings were more than a check-in to ensure Peer Mentors were understanding and meeting job expectations. Santi, who often led those meetings, turned them into an opportunity to build community, a safe space to share our challenges and our success as students and provide support to one another. This was my support group at UCLA. The CCCP food pantry/closet kept me fed. While my funding for food was limited and/or I would run out of food vouchers provided by the Bruin Resource Center, I knew that I could always count on CCCP to ensure that I did not experience food insecurity. To me, CCCP is family. Their work is a work of love and extends to the entire community. They supported my sister Melissa De La Cruz in the same way they did with me, and we are not the only family they have supported in their pursuit of higher education. CCCP transforms communities, and I feel so blessed to continue to receive their guidance and support as a student affairs professional and faculty member. It’s all about generational change and continuing to pay it forward.
Some of my most memorable experiences at UCLA include being a CCCP Summer Programs Peer Mentor and going through all the fun and insightful trainings. I will always cherish the moments I spent working in the CCCP office alongside Claudia Salcedo as my professional development began. Since day one, Claudia has motivated me to strive for excellence. She continues to serve as a role model and inspiring woman to me. It was such an honor to have been nominated by Santi Bernal and the CCCP staff team to receive the AAP Student-Staff Recognition Award, a recognition I did not take lightly and that enforced my commitment to social justice. I also enjoyed being involved with the UCLA Student Transfer Opportunity and Mentorship Program (STOMP) as an Outreach Coordinator, assisting with the coordination of the 2013 and 2014 STOMP Conference for prospective transfer students. In 2023, I was honored and recommended by Alfred Herrera to be the keynote speaker for this same conference. What a beautiful opportunity to connect with community college students from across California to share my transfer journey and empower them to persist in theirs. Being able to represent the transfer student community as the only transfer student who was selected as one of the Senior of the Year award recipients for the UCLA class of 2014 was a memorable way to culminate my UCLA experience. I do acknowledge that not every transfer student experiences UCLA in such a remarkable way as I did. It is precisely that what adds to my infinite gratitude for CCCP. It truly took a village to get me to where I am now.
Graduating from UCLA was a dream come true for me. Navigating this institution as a minority student and graduate with all the academic honors (Latin Honors, College Honors, & Departmental Honors) was a huge accomplishment for me and my now husband Jose, who would make sure to be there to support me emotionally as my family could not be present in that journey. His presence marked a difference in my performance as a UCLA student because I always felt supported and cheered on. Until this day, I still get the chills every time I step foot on the campus. At first, I would tell myself, “I graduated from here” with a little bit of disbelief and now I tell myself, “I graduated from here!” with a great sense of pride and gratitude. My heart is always filled with happiness every opportunity I go back to campus whether that is to attend an annual transfer conference, facilitate a CCCP Peer Mentor/Advisor training session or for a graduation ceremony for one of my students. I will always maintain a deep connection with UCLA and my CCCP family. This serves me as a reminder of the work I committed myself to ever since I became a CCCP Scholar and Peer Mentor. The Social Justice in Education Award that I received from the UCLA Education Studies Minor Program of the UCLA Department of Education stands in my office as a reminder of the work I strive to do day in and day out for others. All of these accomplishments were possible with the immense and unconditional support of Jose, who was in every step of the way throughout my college journey and played a pivotal role in my academic and professional success.
I continue to be an educator with a passion for challenging the educational pipeline of historically underrepresented students through transfer as a pathway to equity in education. I am now married to my high school sweetheart, Jose Jimenez, going into our 10-year wedding anniversary. We became homeowners in 2019. He was the one to take me to my job interviews as I was getting ready to graduate from college and begin my professional journey. After graduating from UCLA with a B.A. in Spanish and Community and Culture and a minor in Education Studies in 2014, I took a two-year gap to begin my professional career. In 2016, I began graduate school at CSULB where I earned my M.S. in Counseling: Student Development in Higher Education in 2019. I have been working in higher education for 12 years through High School Outreach, Transfer Services, and EOPS/CARE Counseling at Mt. SAC. Through this service, I have been nominated by students and selected as a recipient of the Mt. SAC Educator of Distinction Award in 2017 and 2023. I am now a full-time tenure-track Professor and Counselor in General Counseling at Mt. SAC. For 10 years, I also served as Mt. SAC’s Transfer Club Advisor, a student support group grounded in student development theory that has been recognized as the 2020-2021 Club of the Year for being the most active and impactful club on campus. Transfer Club members and I presented at the annual National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students Conference on how this type of club can normalize the transfer function of community colleges. Most recently in my faculty role, I developed and authored two new counseling courses: (1) COUN 7H: Preparing for Transfer Success Honors and (2) COUN 10: Education for Critical Consciousness, which have successfully gone through the curriculum approval process on campus for 2026-2027 catalog. With the introduction of Cal-GETC, and the elimination of the Lifelong Learning and Self Development area, counseling courses were essentially left out of this new general education pattern. I consequently developed the COUN 10 curriculum for CSU/UC transferability and Cal-GETC area 4: Social and Behavioral Sciences consideration. If approved, this would be the first Mt. SAC Counseling course to be on this GE pattern. In my classroom, I create a space to promote personal agency and empowerment to improve the achievement gap of historically underrepresented students. The new courses aim to engage students in a critical analysis of the educational experience of diverse students as well as their social identities and factors that contribute to their college success. I extend my student advocacy outside of the classroom through my participation in shared governance. I am a member of Mt. SAC’s Academic Senate, Outcomes Committee, Achievement, Retention and Completion (ARC) Committee and an annual participant of the Transfer Conference for Counselors, UC Ensuring Transfer Success Conference and CSU Transfer Conference.
CCCP is truly the embodiment of social justice, equity and community of care. The CCCP community creates generational impact and change. By engaging scholars in a critical analysis of systemic inequities that impact student outcomes and widen the achievement and opportunity gap, they instill a sense of social responsibility that turns into persistence in higher education that relies on community cultural wealth. CCCP instills motivation to fight for social justice in every space we are in regardless of career field. It does not come to a surprise to me that so many of us, former CCCP scholars, are always willing to volunteer our time to support the powerful work that CCCP continues to do. Every time CCCP reaches out to me to facilitate a Peer Advisor training, present at one of the summer programs, be an alumni panelist, to serve as a keynote speaker, or support them in any way, my answer is always “yes!” because we will continue to reframe and reimagine higher education in the U.S.
Thank you SO MUCH for all you do for our communities <3
