From left, Karen Rodriguez, Sabrina Lahlali, Antonella Torres Peralta and Sam Adhikari at the Circle of Change conference in Carson, California
When it comes to nurturing tomorrow’s global leaders, it seems everything unplanned is as important as what is.
Students taking part in recent Student Leadership, Involvement & Community Engagement (SLiCE) learning excursions had the opportunity to step away from the daily grind of university life. With the overarching goal of living and leading with intention, they traveled to conferences in California and New Orleans and participated in an international program in Mexico to experience a bit differently what they’d been learning in class.
“We want students to embrace being over just doing,” SLiCE Program Coordinator Dylan Johnson said. He led the President’s Leadership Program (PLP) trip to CSU’s international campus, Todos Santos, at Baja California Sur, Mexico. “Classroom learning happens before the trip, and during the trip, students are asked to build relationships and just be in the culture, to experience and absorb everything happening around them.”
CSU Todos Santos: Mexico
The November 2023 weeklong trip to Mexico included 10 students, three of whom were traveling internationally for the first time. The CSU Todos Santos Center, which is about 90 minutes north of Cabo San Lucas, offers CSU employees and students a chance to engage authentically with the local community, the area’s rich environment and a welcoming new culture.
“One of my favorite experiences was the first day that we arrived at the Todos Santos campus,” senior PLP student Valeria Valles Castañeda said. “We were welcomed by the Todos Santos staff and had the opportunity to sit down in the main classroom after a long day of traveling. I remember so clearly the feeling of excitement when I saw the whiteboard decorated with learning material in Spanish.
“As a first-generation Mexican daughter living in the United States, I did not have the same educational experiences as most of my peers from CSU,” she added. “English was always the language of the classroom even though Spanish was the language in which I experienced the world. Being able to finally see a whiteboard with words written out in my language, and school staff being able to pronounce my name correctly was a healing experience. It was that much sweeter when I came home and was able to talk about my experiences to my parents in a culture and a language that they best understand.”
This cultural immersion was not limited to language. Students, who were encouraged to interact with the surrounding community, joined in local customs and events and enjoyed traditional recipes and music.
“We were invited to a homemade taco dinner prepared by a local mother and daughter who also made us Mexican cocoa,” Johnson said. “They set intentions for the group with their preparations – with the love and care they put into their everyday actions.”
Johnson said students particularly enjoyed taking part in Revolution Day parade festivities that mark the anniversary of the 1910-1917 Mexican revolution. “They celebrated with some local partners on the Zero Waste Alliance and walked with elementary scholars in the parade,” he said.
“Another impactful moment was when a friend, Chuchuy, stopped by,” Johnson said. “He invited us to visit his grandfather, a very old tree on his property and a very big part of his family’s life that through the years provided his loved ones with protection and shade to relax in. He told us there’s medicinal benefits to its sap, and how he always asks for permission to gather it, which goes back to intentions in our learning. Chuchuy invited us to hug the tree, and to think about what nature can provide for us if we protect and honor it.”
In addition to celebrating this gift from across generations, students had the unique opportunity to participate in releasing young turtles nurtured by a new generation of local environmentalists to the wild.
These experiences opened Castañeda’s eyes to the intrinsic value of everyday experiences.
“I will think often of the people that I met during this trip who impacted my perspective of what being fulfilled and happy looks like,” Castañeda said.
LatinX Leads! in New Orleans
Each year, Latinx Leads! brings together members of the Latine community from all over the country to talk about critical issues and how to manage them on a local level.
A cohort of eight leadership students and one staff advisor visited the LatinX Leads! conference at Loyola University in New Orleans during Fall Break of 2023. The students, who participated through the collaborative efforts of SLiCE and El Centro, had the opportunity to connect, learn and network with peers from universities across the country.
According to SLiCE Senior Program Coordinator Rachel Kiemele, students attended workshops and listened to speakers across a wide range of topics, from addressing the use of one’s cultural narrative as a source of strength to working effectively across difference to create inclusive movements.
“Regardless of the specific topic,” Kiemele said, “each workshop was intended to further the conference’s four learning outcomes by enabling students to raise awareness of the Latinx community, history and culture; increasing their knowledge of culturally responsive leadership; developing skills related to effective communication and conflict resolution; and creating equitable and inclusive communities through their campus leadership roles.”
In addition to making connections with peers from other universities, students were asked to bring their learning back to campus and use it to benefit the CSU community in the form of a collaborative action plan.
Armando Maqueda Garcia, a third-year accounting and finance major who attended the conference, said he was excited to learn that CSU has initiated opportunities to further build an equitable and diverse environment.
“We, as Latinx students, must support one another to increase our overall success,” he said. “Our cohort is planning an event for spring semester – stay tuned!”
Circle of Change: Carson, California
Both the LatinX Leads! and Circle of Change trips are sponsored and organized through the Co-Curricular Leadership branch of SLiCE and are open to all CSU students. Both conferences host students from all over the United States.
At the November 2023 Circle of Change conference at California State University of Dominguez Hills in Carson, California, students focused on navigating the next big challenge – their careers.
Workshops, panels, activities and professional networking events encouraged the nine CSU students, some of whom are first-generation learners, to step out of their comfort zones. They practiced interacting with professionals in an unfamiliar environment, speaking about their own skillsets and accomplishments, and through various activities, finding confidence in their own leadership styles.
Third-year social work and history major Antonella Torres Peralta said the conference had a profound impact on how she will approach preparing for her professional future.
“I learned I am the only one stopping me from achieving my dreams,” she said. “The contacts I made will definitely bring a lot of opportunities to my table if I take the initiative. I feel more motivated, and I have a different mindset. This conference is as life-changing and impactful as everyone says it is.”
Feeling that sense of confidence and direction is the exact outcome SLiCE Co-Curriculum Leadership facilitators had hoped for.
“The focus is to empower students as they step into the next chapter of life and step them up to better navigate the career world,” said B Wuller, SLiCE Co-Curricular Leadership Development graduate assistant.
SLiCE Program Coordinator for Involvement Gilbert Falcon said he found the conference offerings created an engaging experience for the students. One activity, introduced to emphasize the value of professional connections, was to set up and begin using a LinkedIn account. Falcon said another exercise, which asked students to break a board that symbolized past and future challenges, encouraged students to trust in their ability to succeed.
“If you could see their faces! They felt so energized that they could break the board,” he said. “They learned that they could do hard things and come out the other side better.”
Seeing that confidence take hold is especially rewarding to Wuller, as well.
“The group I led really took advantage of the opportunity to reflect on their experiences and understand how they already hold so much strength within them,” they said.
