001evolution in uc irvine so with that i'm going to turn it over to our good friend carlos hernandez director of learning and development thank you carlos he's he's actually you know i texted him this morning he's pinch hitting for christina fernandez who's also part of the collaborative and was going to moderate uh the student panel but uh is not field was not feeling well this morning we totally understand that but we have uh carlos that will be doing a great job so thank you carlos all right thank you very much and good morning and we're going to move the mic so i can get out of the way of who is behind me uh and again thank you manuel for giving us an opportunity to we we heard of the successes we know this the
002story of success on paper in terms of data and this is amazing but let's put a name to the success stories let's put a name to the journey into the stories that we uh have before us so i'm going to do a quick introduction and they're also going to go deeper with with that first question of you know introducing yourself so uh melissa guerrero is over here and i'm high school uh melissa i also want to give a shout out to she so she went to six sycamore she went to sycamore junior high and also horseman elementary so shout out to the entire feeder pattern right all right from cypress college we'll get to haley barcumian from cypress high school lexington junior high morris thank you can't read my own writing morris elementary so she
003went to two different elementaries there and then moved over to lexington and then cyprus all right we have ricky roman here from western high school junior high and san marino elementary park high school and then we have rosario rosie aviso [Music] [Applause] an um group that we have of students and so we're going to start with our first question and we're just going to go from rosie and then all the way down so please tell us a little bit about yourself we have your name we know where you came from tell us about your college your major and then career plans great thank you hi everyone um like mentioned my name is rosie rizzo um for my higher education i did go directly to uc irvine um so you know a proud ant eater just
004very proud to also still be working and closely connected um for my major i did major in international studies um because i just found an interest for just like cultures in society and um just learning a lot about inequities and communities of color and ways to of course support them for my career plans i would like to keep continuing doing the work that i'm doing eventually later on i just for context i am a program coordinator for i've been working very closely to my own community and working with the school sites so i would like to keep continuing the work that i'm doing and just hopefully elevate within the work and the center of course so thank you mr rosie melissa hi everyone my name is melissa guerrero and i am currently at kelsey fullerton
005i graduated from anaheim high school in 2018. i am going to get a degree in human services this may so it's very exciting [Applause] and currently i think my career path is going to be with community engagement and community outreach and i currently also work with cal state fullerton with educational talent search as a college mentor and with the program of avid as an academic tutor awesome thank you melissa thank you all right we're going with you hi everybody my name is haley i'm a cypress high school alum as well as a cypress college alum i am now transferred over to cal state long beach where i am majoring in psychology i also work at cypress college as a student ambassador so i do work very closely with all the students and i am looking
006forward to beginning my degree next may and continuing my uh education with psychology as becoming a sex therapist and working with people through sexual trauma and sexual education hi everyone it's a pleasure uh being here um i attended um so i want to start off with my junior high weren't you um and then straight uh from high school i attended fleurson college they did two years there uh transferred out i'm currently attending cal state fullerton so i'm a business major at cal state fullerton uh concentration in operations and supply chain management um it's kind of the industry in the field i'm trying to get into um currently in the job search um so we'll see how that goes um i'm also a mentor um with denise the pledge program without the fed program and everything
007we do after to college [Applause] a little bit um we're going to ask you to describe your educational journey and who and what made a difference and why and i'll ask whoever's ready to share that question i can go first so um i think especially for who the people that impacted me a lot of you are actually here today i was just talking to all of you in the lobby and then in the room and i think it's the people in the district that have personally impacted me because you've been there i've asked you a bunch of questions i've tried to figure out what am i going to major in what college am i going to go to i don't know what i'm doing and a lot of you have helped me figure that out
008you've um provided the safe space for me to actually share these types of questions and to share all the concerns that i had and it's a big thank you to all of you [Music] thank you i could go ahead and share um so as far as my educational journey i would say it really was molded and shaped at catella high school um i was a puentesta so definitely had a lot of support and help through that sense with my buena counselor ms pineda who's actually here today um and also miss diaz who was our college and career readiness person at that time i really got so much support and preparedness and just was offered so many resources that i definitely feel prepared me um into my journey at uc irvine uh just being a first
009generation student i really didn't know you know the college process um how to fill out a college application all of those like questions that are you know asked was i was a little like nervous and scared to just overshare a lot of information um but definitely felt comfortable once you know just being provided with so many uh just like resources and information and just preparedness right to just pursue my higher education i'm going through irvine it was a little challenging again because it's a completely new system i didn't have the amazing like counselors and support that i had in high school but i did have the resources and the ability to like reach out right and communicate and ask for help so that was definitely helpful for me once graduating from uc irvine in 2020
010i still came back to my community and i wanted to kind of ask for help right of like what was next so i reached out to a lot of my old teachers and um asked for you know just kind of like an informational interview about the way like how they pursued their um journey and how they like identified the career that they wanted to be into which eventually led me into applying for like my graduate program that i'm currently in right now in education so um definitely you know i have received so much help and resources from you know my educators my counselors and my support here in anaheim union high school district so i definitely have a lot of things to give and just super grateful and appreciated um all the support i received
011thank you guys you guys answered about 10 of the questions that i had so i'm almost done good thing because we only have about six more minutes uh let's get into the pledge and knowing the pledge and understanding you heard um from the different structures and what you know relationships mean and matter but how do you represent the first pledge graduating class so what does that mean to you um benefits the the partnerships that you know you guys started to describe um ensuring student success what what is that you know first class you know me to you of course yeah i kind of started off um so for me um being a first generation student a college student um everything was pretty much new to me um going to flirting college i think it's important
012um to to have a face um to what you show and the first time i actually went to fullerton college um was a pledge coach shout out to juan who's not here today but him helping me out throughout the process the transition from high school um to college really helped out shout out to valerie here in the audience on being my pledge coach at the time helping me out my two years there um it means a lot to be a part of um something so special and being in this this room right now seeing everyone's have a part of um in it um helping my success um helping me be the first in my family to graduate um have any college degree really associates and bachelor's also being the first in my family to do
013that i couldn't have done it um without the help of everyone in this room um and the direct help of my coaches and and my peers who are also part of the program who kind of um who walked me through it and we've been doing this since fullerton since 2018. so it means a lot to be here and share my story i was pretty much lost my first year of college and if it really wasn't for the pledge program i think i would still be at cypress college unsure what i was going to do with my major or anything after a community college so without that support especially from you know our charter experience and our pledge counselors i i would be lost i wouldn't know i wouldn't know about transferring out to cal state
014long beach i wouldn't think that was possible um and without that kind of support and i tell this to all of our students whenever i give campus tours you know without the support that we provide i wouldn't be where i am now i wouldn't be getting my bachelor's and i'm super grateful which is why i continue to work for cypress college and i want other students to you know know that they're not alone in their education journey and that we're all here to help and support them the answer questions aren't really about advice um we have parents in the audience perhaps some students that are going to hear from from you so what advice would you give yourself as a ninth grade student so go back to ninth grade what advice would you give your
015ninth grade self ready rosie uncle haley is ready she's ready don't be afraid to like explore your options uh going to cypress college going to a community college really allowed me to explore my passions in psychology and it gave a better foundation for me as a cal state long beach student it gave me better discipline and better work ethic so without being able to have the freedom of a community college especially cypress community college providing so much support for me i wouldn't i would again i would be lost so i really encourage for allowing your students to explore their passions explore you know take different classes and have them get involved with those classes and those programs yeah um i would absolutely um if i were back in um as a ninth grader i would
016say to of course take advantage of all of the resources that are provided um and offered so um one thing that i've noticed within uhc is that there's so many resources and people that are there to help and even those like freshmen you you know i i remember thinking would think that like college was like way down the line for me but it's so important to start early um and to start you know getting those extracurricular activities under your belt gaining that experience and just taking advantage of all this like college knowledge resource because it will just make you that much more prepared um and confident when you know application season comes when um you know your time in in college comes you'll just feel so much more confident after receiving help from so many
017resources all the partnerships um not only from you know for me as like taking advantage of eaop but also um like educational talent search upward bound all of those like resources are there for your students so make sure to take advantage of them because there are schools that don't have them so um definitely just take advantage of those and just milk all the information you could absolutely get thank you i think this might be the last question okay and this one is in all the audience with many of us are partners so let's think about educational partners and that's all really all of us what advice would you have for our educational partners as they work with young people who are navigating their college and career journey that's a really good question [Music] i think
018one of the main things to remember is that the students are just as scared as we are to give the answers because sometimes they ask some really difficult questions and i'm like let me google some things let me go ask somebody else and i think one of the biggest things is just to know that we are also not alone when trying to figure out those answers and trying to find different resources whether it's a scholarship or another school or figuring out what type of major they might be going into but just understanding that we are also not alone and that the students are just as panicked i guess as we are to try and figure out an educational path thank you awesome oh yeah i think for me something we should all kind of take
019away from this is that every interaction matters no matter how small i could think of back to moments sending back an elementary junior high and i turned my orange view to western of moments that that really impacted me um and maybe for the teacher at the time it didn't mean much but it's something i look back on now and i still remember it um so i think that's something that that needs to be emphasized that every interaction with the student matters um it could be the first time on campus it could be their 100th time on campus every time you talk to them every time you see them just acknowledging them acknowledging their problems it's something that helps that students look back on and we look at proudly and we're here on thanking people that
020have changed our lives um i could thank all the teachers that that have put me on this path um because without them i wouldn't be here [Music] [Applause] absolutely so um advice for you all sitting here um i know sometimes it could be a little discouraging where i have students who are sitting within a presentation or a classroom and they may not be um it may not seem like they're taking in the information but just being patient um being understanding that every student has a different life that they're like going through different challenges and i know we all are aware but um you know as mentioned every interaction does matter and it's the littlest things that even though it might seem like a student might not be um you know paying attention or might not
021be uh just acknowledging what it is that you're seeing um that information will be so useful to them later on down the road and i speak on it on experience myself or there may have been times when um you know i may have been zoning out within a presentation but i remembered that information and recalled and was able to share it with my peers my classmates and was able to kind of expand on that like community cultural wealth in a sense and just sharing information that was passed along to me so just continue feeding your students and just your your students your kiddos with all of that useful information because it is mean when it is impactful for them i agree with the every interaction matters reach out to your students i know a lot
022of us are very shy very introverted and we want to you know speak out and talk to you go to office hours or you know get help but it can be really hard for us so i would definitely say you know if you might see a student struggle a little bit or they look like they want to say the answer you'll know and i think that'll be the perfect time to call on them and let them know this person is looking out for you and reach out to them you know say hi and kind of open that conversation up a little bit more thank you all right well we have seen again numbers on the screen and the slides from many of our partners as we leave today thinking about success of our relationships with
023the pledge and our collaborative these are the faces that we want you to leave with this is these are the success stories and we are very very proud of each and every one of you ricky haley melissa and rosie thank you for being here and congratulations on your journey [Music] thank you carlos thank you students oh my god short and sweet but inspiring right i don't think they could have said it any better um and just again it's the reason why we do what we do so with that and hopefully you're leaving inspired by the voices of our students because it is it is because of them that we do what we do um i wanted to close with going back to september 27th of 2017. as many have already shared um this was a
024group effort um i think rolando called it the fab five and maybe it could have been the fab five with rolando and santana and adriana and evelyn and melba and i mean you name it and then as in addition to that there's an extended group that was part of that that the two years really that it took to really identify and they were they were they were struggles there were struggles uh to really be mindful of what every word that was going to go on that pledge meant and then he talked about trust many talked about trust and building trust because it started with that and one of the things that we talked about in those days was you know we all have done this for many many years you know santana many many years
025have have done this work tireless work uh rolo and everybody and and we said you know what this is this is gonna end we have to do something about if it's not us then who then when and so collectively um this came about and and you saw the results of it today um but but it did start with trust and it did start with the commitment that that we can make a difference that we can make a big difference for our kids and our kids in our district um so i want to thank rolando and santana and adriana and um and and evelyn and all of you who were part of those days and struggles that we went through to get to that point when you see the pictures of our institutional leader signing and
026i love the one on the left i know you can't see it very well but you see the excitement the excitement of our chancellors you see the excitement of our presidents our superintendents our board members that were there that day ecstatic to sign the pledge do you realize that when they signed that pledge they had no idea what they were signing up for they did it and and those of us who were they they didn't but they were committed to the vision they were committed to the mission they were committed to the purpose that it meant there was no strings that tied to this to the play do you guys remember there was no strings that tied attached to it but they were committed because they believed they believed in you they believed in our
027kids and so that's what that meant that's what it means today um i want to end as you've heard i am retiring after 31 years of service and all of you picked up a bracelet and many of you who know me have seen that i have two bracelets that i've had you know as long as probably many of you have known me um the last seven years um the free the first bracelet i got from my daughter um who as many of you know she was a um a a karate student um and she was you know uh she did karate both my kids they tried it for many many years my daughter was a national team member and was national champion in 2017 and she had these bracelets and i put it on because
028it meant a lot and relevance to the work we were doing and the race that says seven times down eight times up you get knocked down seven times but by god you gotta get up those eight times and it's a true reflection of the work that we do that no matter what we do we got to get back up we got to teach our kids to get back up get back up be proud and move forward and and so every day i look at it i remind myself of that and i remind myself of the work that we do to never ever ever give up and the second bracelet that i wear is the pledge bracelet i put it on when we signed the pledge back in 2017 and i've never taken it off because
029i made a commitment to the kids that i would never take it off and that everything we did was for them so i leave you with my bracelet for you to carry the torch and to make sure that you never forget our kids thank you have a great day thank you everybody