Every week, Itcelia Segoviano-Ramirez ’19 helps young people imagine futures they may never have thought possible. As assistant executive director of Stiles Hall, she oversees mentoring and college-access programs serving hundreds of students. Years earlier, she was one of only three students from her Eastern Coachella Valley high school to make it to UC Berkeley.
For Itcelia, education has always been a way to transform yourself. Home life was turbulent; she witnessed alcoholism and abuse. Throughout this time, school provided an interlude where she could simply be a child. School was also a place that fostered her self-discovery. She found joy as a mentor to her peers in high school, often hosting study groups after school.
However, resources were limited within the Eastern Coachella Valley public school system. Students were encouraged to take less demanding coursework and few AP classes. The expectation was that students would go to Coachella Valley’s only community college after high school. It was rare for students from her region to go to schools like Berkeley, but Segoviano-Ramirez did not want those odds to limit her. With the guidance of her AP Spanish teacher, she enrolled in advanced placement courses and participated in extracurricular activities.
Segoviano-Ramirez recounted in her speech as the keynote speaker for the Alumni Scholarships and Engagement Program “I needed an education. Not just for a job. Not just for a degree. But so I could have options. Because when you don’t have options, everything feels like survival. And I wanted more than that. So I held onto school.”
The extra work paid off and she was accepted to UC Berkeley. As a first generation college student from a low-income family, she received a full scholarship from the Cal Alumni Association. In addition to her scholarship, the Cal Alumni Scholarship Program gave her an iPad to do her coursework, helped her build community with her peers through retreats, and offered financial literacy and professional workshops. Together, these resources helped her navigate her time at Cal and beyond.
I needed an education. Not just for a job. Not just for a degree. But so I could have options. Because when you don’t have options, everything feels like survival.”
Segoviano-Ramirez was an integral part of her community at Cal. She got involved at Stiles Hall in her freshman year, and later became a program coordinator, matching Berkeley student mentors with local elementary school children to provide academic support. Additionally, she organized the Latinx Healing Circle to create a community that raised awareness and supported students who experienced sexual assault or sexual harassment. She often returned to the Coachella Valley to give presentations on the opportunities higher education provides to students like her. She was a living example that higher education was possible for others in her community.
During her student years, when she was not giving back to the community, she was studying and supporting her family through her work at Stiles Hall.
It was a constant balancing act, and the stress, paired with underlying health conditions, took a toll on her; she was hospitalized for an autoimmune disease during her senior year of college. But as a Cal Alumni scholar, she was paired with an advisor who routinely checked up on her and helped her navigate the TAANG Center for mental health. She says that with her family on the other side of the state, having someone nearby to support her made all the difference.
After graduating, Segoviano-Ramirez decided to continue to pay it forward. At Stiles Hall, she leads mentorship and college access programs for hundreds of underrepresented youth, ranging from elementary school to college. She is simultaneously pursuing her master’s in Educational Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She hopes to continue assisting students in pursuing higher education, especially those from rural communities. When working with students Segoviano-Ramirez encourages them to become mentors: “You shouldn’t wait to mentor someone until you have a fancy title or all the degrees and certifications. You are ready now! There is someone in your community and your hometown waiting for someone to come back and believe in them, tell and show them that it is possible.”
