AMPed Transcripts

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Diane Marin: Hi, how are you today?

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Mulika Musyimi : I'm doing well, how you doing today, Diane?

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Diane Marin: I'm good well today, I want to introduce to you Mulika Musyimi.

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Diane Marin: I am happy to interview him for our AMP Life podcast and I met

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Diane Marin: Mulika a few years ago and today he's going to share with you more about his story about mentoring, momentum, and milestones. Welcome.

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Mulika Musyimi : Thank you so much so excited to be here.

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Diane Marin: Terrific! Well we're happy to have you can you share with our audience a little bit about your story and your SDSU experience.

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Mulika Musyimi : Absolutely, I will try and keep it concise, because it is long and it's got twists and turns arm so i'm originally from Kenya so born and raised. There is small town in the south coast guard called Kabete.

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Mulika Musyimi : used to joke, that the town is not even on the map, that's how small it was.

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Mulika Musyimi : Was there for a couple years, my brother was born a little bit North in Mombasa, which is another port city in the south of Kenya.

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Mulika Musyimi : We move to Nairobi.

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Mulika Musyimi : Which is the capital on following my dad's passing. My mother needed a just a better job you know, to support all of us.

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Mulika Musyimi : Finished my primary school and my secondary school there and then migrated to the United States.

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Mulika Musyimi : Shortly after,

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Mulika Musyimi : my initial since we're in Reno Nevada that's where I went to junior college Community college, and that is what catapulted me in a couple years later into SDSU and that's how I ended up becoming an aztec.

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Mulika Musyimi : Thoroughly enjoyed my time at school and got to connect with some amazing faculty made some really good friends.

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Mulika Musyimi : So I look back at that experience with a lot, a lot of fondness.

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Diane Marin: Awesome, you have come a long way and where are you now?

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Mulika Musyimi : yeah, so I am currently i'm a first year student i'm a UC Berkeley.

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Mulika Musyimi : In the master's program in global public health and environmental health so that's the degree, I will be getting in May of 2023 so starting my second semester

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Mulika Musyimi : right now.

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Diane Marin: Congratulations! How exciting to start graduate school and what are you thinking of doing with your graduate program?

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Mulika Musyimi : That's a really good question Diane because I feel it's a question I asked myself every day or so we're currently living in in a landscape that's changed a lot since my time at SDSU and it's something that I think a lot of us

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Mulika Musyimi : have needed to do, I guess, we know reassess what they're doing.

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Mulika Musyimi : Also just you know being flexible, you know with whatever does come on some my degree is in global public health and environmental health.

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Mulika Musyimi : When I was at San Diego State, I gained my degree in sustainability and environmental geography, so at the time

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Mulika Musyimi : I envisioned myself potentially working for an environmental firm or an agency, like the EPA.

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Mulika Musyimi : However, at the time that I was looking for work on some of these spaces were really not hiring and again also we were just coming up on

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Mulika Musyimi : COVID on the scene so places just were not maybe doing the active hiring that you know that was expected. So that really started, you know turning inside of me on the I thought about a lot of public health issues that are gone through personally and also

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Mulika Musyimi : issues that had affected my family or grandmother. You know it's in her late 90s she's going to alzheimer's so I just started just to reflect on issues that I could potentially

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Mulika Musyimi : serve in our contribute and potentially also married to two interests, on one hand, was this interest of the great outdoors and environmental spaces, that you know we all occupy.

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Mulika Musyimi : On the other hand, was the public health aspect just health of people and also people on the margins, you know people sometimes it gets

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Mulika Musyimi : the brunt of of you know, public health issues first so again. This is shifting, I guess, if I had to potentially pick a population i'd like to serve once I finished my degree i'm refugees and migrants on low income folks you know LGBTQ plus individuals and just a lot of

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Mulika Musyimi : minority populations that sometimes don't get access to to good public health information when they need to exercise those decisions.

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Diane Marin: yeah yeah well that's that's exciting and good to know I mean two fields, public health and the environment that definitely could use your passion your expertise and what you're sharing your heart to serve those under representative Community so

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Diane Marin: good for the audience to know, just in case they know of any opportunities in the future, where you could where you can serve, so thank you for sharing that.

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Diane Marin: But one of the reasons we met was because you participated in the aztec mentor program and reached out to me at some point to share your experience and i'm so grateful that you did and i'm so grateful that we have stayed in touch.

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Diane Marin: So, can you share with us how has mentoring mentoring supported you

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Diane Marin: In your career journey?

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Mulika Musyimi : Definitely for me.

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Mulika Musyimi : it's been a relationship, frankly, because I think I approached it initially with

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Mulika Musyimi : a little bit of you know, concern and fear you know, I was approaching graduation at San Diego state.

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Mulika Musyimi : And it was just a few things that I just felt that I didn't know how to do you know you know polishing my resume for one, doing mock interviews, and like really defining what it is that you know my degree, is it doing for me so just these are things that I feel

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Mulika Musyimi : came alive, you know once I found mentors that you know in AMP program that we're able just to steer that in the right direction.

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Mulika Musyimi : I am going again, I think I look back, because there was no way that I could have predicted covid would have happened but i'm so thankful.

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Mulika Musyimi : Those initial contacts really helped me be flexible once covid did happen, because if it was not for my mentors.

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Mulika Musyimi : Just the amount of time they invested in me, I would not be in Grad school right now, and I think the AMP program for me has provided the grounding of that I needed and just

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Mulika Musyimi : the language to be able to advocate for myself um so just skills that I think you know um you know will forever, you know be be useful, regardless of you know where I end up so.

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Diane Marin: Wow that is wonderful I love that images of the grounding but then also the ability to to advocate to because that's so so important in every in every day life.

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Diane Marin: Now you mentioned mentors so can you share a little bit more because

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Diane Marin: we can have mentors in different areas of our lives, so how did more than one mentor help you

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Diane Marin: in your as you move forward?

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Mulika Musyimi : I think going in I enjoyed the fact that AMP

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Mulika Musyimi : had this platform where you could look at

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Mulika Musyimi : your potential mentors profiles like I guess academic journey, career journey. So again just engaging with the platform, I was able to you know do searches and bring up people that

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Mulika Musyimi : could that I felt could speak to just some questions that I had so I guess

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Mulika Musyimi : my initial like one of my criteria, was that I wanted someone who was a little bit more advanced both in years and experience. So I picked someone who was

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Mulika Musyimi : you know much more advanced in their career, I think they were retired a neurosurgeon.

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Mulika Musyimi : Then the second person was close to my age on was valedictorian, you know as as as you arm and now he's a PhD student at ucsb.

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Mulika Musyimi : So just I wanted these two different perspectives, you know for somebody who's already gone through the process of going to school and you know holding several positions and now is on the retirement scale.

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Mulika Musyimi : Then another one who is currently building themselves up just to get a little bit of

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Mulika Musyimi : perspective and

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Mulika Musyimi : I mean both of them had you know their own core strengths, which I really appreciate it, and I would check in with them periodically I think once it came

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Mulika Musyimi : to making decisions to apply to Grad school it really helped having both their input when it came to revising my you know personal essays.

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Mulika Musyimi : And my essay statements and also figuring out which program you know best fit my interest because I think when when any student is approaching, for instance, applications it can be

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Mulika Musyimi :you know, like i've said in the past, like drinking from you know from a firehose, and this is, this is a statement that I actually you know

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Mulika Musyimi : picked up from you know my time here at uc Berkeley is anything you starting any new venture these things you know can feel a little bit overwhelming, but I think having two people, for me, you know that will were helping me steer my journey and anchor me really helped me.

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Diane Marin: yeah yeah I hear you and you mentioned perspective, so you had multiple are a few people that gave you perspective different ages,

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Diane Marin: different experiences, which helped you, you know get to Grad school and and that's just a good reminder for our audience that different people can provide that in our lives in our careers so

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Diane Marin: Any advice you'd give to students as they're looking for a mentor because sometimes we want to find people that are just like us, but it sounds like

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Diane Marin: the diversity of experience might be something to consider what would your advice be?

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Mulika Musyimi : wow!

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Mulika Musyimi : Great question Diane and frankly I feel like I should borrow some of those words you just used I think everything you just opened up with, I think, is so pertinent and so important.

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Mulika Musyimi : I feel that any student who is at this stage is

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Mulika Musyimi : know yourself, you know know your story, you know be authentic know what it is that you want to

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Mulika Musyimi : to to get out of this experience, because all of us are very different and we bring so many great qualities to the table so maybe start there. To

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Mulika Musyimi : show up you know, I feel, like some of these opportunities, sometimes are offered at the beginning of the Semester when our gears haven't really kicked in.

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Mulika Musyimi : And it's Okay, you know typically semester is about 15-16 weeks, you don't have to start you know hot right off the gate But once that momentum has built up show up and now that we're in this

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Mulika Musyimi : environment where certain things are a little bit of in a hybrid environment where you don't have to be physically on campus if career services is having any

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Mulika Musyimi : online you know, workshops and you have that time you know definitely carve that out into your schedule on.

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Mulika Musyimi : So definitely show up and be true to who you are it's okay to get more than one mentor more than two or even three.

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Mulika Musyimi : And because this is your vehicle and you want to be in charge, and you want to drive this experience and you don't want to show up you know, several weeks before your final exams in your senior year and you haven't done some of this homework yeah.

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Diane Marin: yeah great advice know yourself show up and try the experience all good advice now you have obviously you seem very motivated and

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Diane Marin: keeping in touch with you, you have kept your momentum going, what gives you momentum to stay in that driver seat kind of like you said, and continue to move forward, because we are in

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Diane Marin: Some uncertain and often difficult times?

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Mulika Musyimi : Another great question Dan and I think in the spirit of also being authentic um it hasn't been easy.

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Mulika Musyimi : I mean there are moments

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Mulika Musyimi : you know I failed so many things that i've tried that

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Mulika Musyimi : I have needed to retake a class or two because I didn't do too well, initially, so I acknowledge my failures and I think that's that's been it's something that i'm learning, you know give yourself grace, you know you will not always succeed at everything you do.

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Mulika Musyimi : Again, like Diane, I mentioned these are very interesting times you know where we are called to potentially tap into other reserves

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Mulika Musyimi : much deeper. So whatever it is that you, you like to do you know whether it's prayer whether it's meditating whether it's service to your Community whether it's petting your dog, you know do those moments that you know that gives you self care.

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Mulika Musyimi : There's a lot of things that I do, but again, for the sake of time though um I i've been trying to journal, a lot more and not in any particular style or fashion, I just write my feelings and that seems to be helping on where where I sit, where I do my homework when I write my essays um.

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Mulika Musyimi : it's a strategy I got from one of my mentors his name is Trevor he goes to ucsb he has all of his accomplishments and in sort of like an altar so I have like my study board letters and cards that people have sent me my admission letters to universities.

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Mulika Musyimi : And I look at these things, and these things motivate me and sometimes when I want to throw in the towel, I read that kind word or that you know I look at that amazing card or that nice picture and i'm able to move on to the next thing.

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Diane Marin: yeah well, thank you for sharing your authentic self because you're right it's not easy, but you know if we fail forward

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Diane Marin: give ourself grace and come up with some rituals routines, whatever they may be, in your case journaling and it sounds like a

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Diane Marin: vision board and encouragement board in in front of you that definitely helps and I agree, I created one and for myself in my office to so that I can look at it and remember where i've been where i'm

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Diane Marin: going and be thankful for the people that i've met along my career journey.

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Mulika Musyimi : I appreciate you sharing that because I think initially when he did bring that strategy, I felt like.

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Mulika Musyimi : So secondary however i've seen how it's it's it's coming full circle for me so i'm glad we share a similar strategy.

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Diane Marin: yeah terrific i'm well, you have come a long way since I first met you so what milestones,

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Diane Marin: would you like to share with us today

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Diane Marin: and just celebrate because you know it has been a journey and, yes, it can be challenging but at the same time, I know there's things in your life that i'm sure we can celebrate and encourage others as we move forward?

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Mulika Musyimi : That is such a great question and.

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Mulika Musyimi : I feel like I could pull from so many areas of my life 

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Mulika Musyimi : however, I think

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Mulika Musyimi : one that is probably pertinent to students is

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Mulika Musyimi : just the ability to to make decisions and the decision to go to graduate school.

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Mulika Musyimi : For me, is a huge milestone because

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Mulika Musyimi : I didn't necessarily come from a background of that

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Mulika Musyimi : could have predicted that I would have gone to Grad school, you know, I was a migrant single parent home

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Mulika Musyimi : the eldest,

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Mulika Musyimi : had an accent, you know.

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Mulika Musyimi : You know i'm LGBTQ plus I mean if there were there were things in my background data could have potentially tripped me up you know and hampered to my decision making process, but I think once I got to this level just the ability to to know that this

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Mulika Musyimi : was a decision that could you know reap the benefits for me, you know and make that decision and stick to that decision, I think

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Mulika Musyimi : for me, that is, like one milestone that I that I will forever, you know hold dear, because I know, sometimes we are plagued with a lot of decision making.

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Mulika Musyimi : And sometimes it's not it's it's not about the decision is a bad or wrong one it's just another decision to make but, again, the ability to do it, I think so.

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Diane Marin: yeah I just want to acknowledge you I mean that's that is it's a big step and I know, with your support system, whether it's your family as you shared or

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Diane Marin: Your mentors or your you know your inner drive to keep going, you know how exciting that you're at Berkeley so congratulations on starting your your second semester and

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Diane Marin: I just look forward to hearing from you in the future about that that internship you're going to gather that job, and you know how someone perhaps that's listening today may have have referred to you.

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Diane Marin: Because they resonate and you know, want to support a fellow asked at so as we wrap up our AMP life session today any last words of encouragement for our listeners?

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Mulika Musyimi : Oh, my goodness

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Mulika Musyimi : All I can say I get a decent this moment is

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Mulika Musyimi : i'm immensely grateful

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Mulika Musyimi : To AMP and to

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Mulika Musyimi : just the crew that make AMP what it is because

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Mulika Musyimi : Without me connecting with them without the connection that diane and have developed.

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Mulika Musyimi : I wouldn't be here so again, Diane! Thank you so much for this space listeners! Thank you so much for you know, giving us your your time and attention.

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Mulika Musyimi : But just immense gratitude and will forever hold St Su and being an ass deck so close to my heart, thank you.

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Diane Marin: yeah well, you have said it just me to gratitude for your time your story and just sharing your authentic self and just encouraging you know, students and mentors out there, that you know show up.

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Diane Marin: And it's true and mentors you know these students may be struggling, but they are just doing and working on some amazing things so just thank you so much for your time.

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Diane Marin: For your story and for for everything that I know you're going to do.

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Diane Marin: and answer the you know that Aztec Community or the greater Community so thank you.

 

 

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Diane Marin: hi Nicole, how are you?

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Doing really well, Diane. Thanks for having me.

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Diane Marin: yeah, thank you for joining us today. So today i'm talking to Erin Nicole Vedar that has three degrees from SDSU and is here to share her story and mentor journey.

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Diane Marin: So thank you, Nicole for being with me today, and I would love for our audience to learn more about you so tell us more.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: yeah thanks for having me again, my name is Erin Nicole, my pronouns are she/her and they/them I am currently an academic advisor at six college at uc San Diego.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But it took a really long time to get to this point and I definitely owe so much of what got me into this position into this like

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: kind of phase of my life.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: To the wonderful mentors and frientors that have helped me supported me pave the way for me, showing me that what was possible.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: So I guess to start a small explanation of why I have three degrees from SDSU. I graduated 2016 with a bachelor's in psychology.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Really really wanted to become a therapist I wanted to be like a multicultural counselor so I applied for CBB and FT all those different programs.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But because I was like a first generation student. I first generation

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: bachelor student undergrad and then about to become a first generation graduate student there were so much I didn't know or understand about the process, I was just sort of throwing myself at the applications and then hoping.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Years later, I realized that there's all these like strategies networking things you need to know that, like no one tells you.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But back in like 2016, when I was applying and getting rejected from jobs from positions from a lot of things. I realized that I lacked a lot of experience and luckily, for me, the education, with an emphasis in counseling program it was online hybrid for one year from SDSU.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: They needed their pilot cohort so I applied, I was recommended to apply

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: and I got in, and it was a really wonderful experience, but it was the first of its kind, so it the program now still at SDSU has changed a lot since I was there.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But there were still some things that I was missing, so what I was trying to apply for more programs licensed programs jobs anything I was still there were still things that I didn't understand or that I wasn't getting.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: I really, really fortunate I had some really incredible mentors and frentors. Dr Amonzon is one of them, Brian Spencer from EOP is one of them, and my mentor Christy Quiogue.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Who, I actually met when she was the director of the Center for intercultural relations and then just built up a wonderful beautiful mentorship.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Throughout the last few years, they are the people that have written my letters of recommendation. They are the people that told me that it was going to be okay, they read all of my rewrites of applications and personal statements.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: and always like are really real with me like hey, this is what i'm seeing. Is this what you want? How can we like realign your goals?

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: This is what the field is like that you're trying to get into how you considered other things.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: So, as I was sort of trying to figure out everything.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: i've graduated from the first master's program the education counseling in 2017.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And then I had a period of i'm not sure what i'm doing right now, because getting into these licensed programs hasn't been working.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: It was a mix of like i'm not ready. Program wasn't ready things. There are things I was just unaware of, so I ended up going to Community college for a couple years to learn sign language.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And kind of figure out what my next move would be, I had a job at the time with cal soap which is student opportunity and access programs, so I just had to be.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: A college student in some capacity and I got so go out into high schools in San Diego and help them figure out how to get to college and I loved it I loved being able to work with.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: First gen, low income, students of color students, that need someone that looks like me or sounds like me to tell them, you can go to college here's how it's not going to cost you a million dollars, we're going to do everything we can to help you out.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Because that was all.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: My mentors and frentors have done, for me, always just come in crying my office it's gonna be okay here's how we, you know strategize and get you ready for your next move.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But in in all of my experiences in the high schools, I was starting to realize okay I enjoy and love everything that call it represents, and is.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But I also want to work on the College side like what happens when I send all of my beautiful students over there are they supported do we understand where the resources are.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And so Christy helped me out with understanding the field of student affairs and education, higher education, specifically.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Because I barely realized it, but I was so involved in a lot of things from student affairs like student organizations was a huge part of me feeling connected on campus that sense of belonging was actually something that people did research on.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: It matters to students to have that sense of belonging to feel able to connect with peers with mentors with staff and faculty to find success within the institution and then outside of it, so I applied for the degree number three from SDSU.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: which was the post secondary educational leadership with a specialization in student affairs program which Christy I believe was in the first cohort of so beautiful full circle circle moment for us.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: That was the program that was extremely eye opening I got to have so much hands on experience. I got to do research with Dr Eric Felix, who is also become a mentor in this new phase of my professional and academic career.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: i've gotten to work in a CSU and UC and in a Community college setting and i've just gotten so much incredible.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Like information and the whole time like Christy as my AMP mentor and even after we were like formally done with the program we would meet every month or every couple weeks or she helped me set up my, how will I track down keep track of all of the

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: drive applications? i'm doing how am I keeping myself accountable to my goals.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: giving me like little homework assignments are like taking me for walks around campus and showing me like hey you have 10 minutes to kind of relax not think about anything notice what you're noticing those like genius Christisyisms.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And it really was such a wonderful way to kind of like keep myself accountable to my goals but also like taking time to pause and reflect because Grad school can feel very, very fast paced.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Especially as a first gen student, even though I had experience in my first masters, it still was like a totally different ball game, I was learning so much more.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And like I felt so much more prepared as I approached like job hunting season, which is why again I owe so much to it Christy and

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: ante meaning big sister in the tagalog for anyone listening is curious.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But yeah I owe so much to ante Christy and all the people that have encouraged me to get this far, even though it's a lot of like stumbles and on not knowing if I was going to keep going or not knowing which direction, I was going to take.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: yeah that's like it's a bit of my story.

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Diane Marin: yeah well, thank you Erin for sharing and just reminding us that LIFE has a journey of ups and downs and twists and turns.

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Diane Marin: Yet as you've mentioned with mentors like Christy or it sounds like a handful of mentors or frientors that have been for been there for you, that has what has helped keep you going and.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: what's really helped keep me going is.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Okay, so any like logistical sense having meetings with christy like once a month or every couple of weeks.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Having someone just like legitimately care and check in with me of like hey, you said "you wanted to apply to five jobs by this point in the semester how's that going" or.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: i've had supervisors who kind of like check in with me on my short and long term goals that helps me stay accountable because.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: You know there's always just so much going on at the same time and and then, when it comes to focusing on like me and the professional development skills i'm trying to.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: You know, develop and get through or anything like that it it really helps to have someone go like hey let's pause and talk about this and reflect on how you're doing and.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: christy always does, that thing of like hey did you realize that like two years ago you started this program and look where you are now or when I

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: first, got this this job that i'm in right now i've been in it for about three and a half months I started in August

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: and Christy was like, can you imagine like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Telling young Erin Nicole that started at the beginning of Cal Soap or the beginning of your first masters, or even like the start of your college journey and letting them know hey you're going to be an academic advisor someday. How does that feel?

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: it's an incredible feeling, to know that someone is proud of you, and I think that's one of the biggest takeaways I have from all of my mentors and mentors I always feel like they're proud of me.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And, as I also you know offer my own Fen Fen mentorship to others, I always want them to know like hey.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: It may not feel like it, but you are doing incredible right now, like our ancestors are so proud, because you have exceeded all expectations, even if you feel like your standards right now.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: are a little bit struggling, even if you feel like right now everything's very, very difficult, you are still doing so much more.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: than like anyone ever imagined, and that is a triumph, and you should be proud of that, because I feel like a lot of students of color are freshmen students are just like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: daughters and sons of immigrants, they don't hear that enough because it's all about like the grind and the hustle and the keep going and the do better.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But the reality is we're already doing better we're already doing so much, so please take care of yourself, so you can keep doing it.

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Diane Marin: yeah no I love that this, and thank you for reminding me and the audience that it's the people in our lives.

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Diane Marin: Those mentors and frientors that encouraged us that remind us of where we've come and where we're going and to.

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Diane Marin: Be proud of it that it's an accomplishment that it's a journey but to be proud of it and, yes, it can be a grind but you need to take those moments to to to reflect and and to celebrate.

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Diane Marin: All your hard work and I just love that you're able to take all that experience and all your journey and pass it  on in your current in your current role.

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Diane Marin: So you have.

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Diane Marin: You have some accountability what other resources have you used in your journey to support you to keep going.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: hmm.

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Diane Marin: Or that you would recommend?

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Oh, my goodness.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: I see like that's such a broad question because, like resources could mean a lot of things to a lot of people certain resources definitely work for some and they don't work for others right but.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: I think the biggest thing is just like asking it all like just putting yourself out there and trying to find the people or organizations or offices that you feel comfortable with and just.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: open your mouth and ask for the thing that you're looking for, because if there's anything i've learned from student affairs and education.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: we're trying to help you but you need to come in and talk to us first like it's not I always tell my high school students used to tell my high school students like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: they're not going to track you down and find you, you have to go and seek them out, you have to go and find them and ask for what you need because they do want to give it to you, but you got to make the first step. so I think, for me, a lot of my resources revolve around like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Different student services offices definitely a lot of student organizations and just I always commend

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: students that are on executive boards or executive committees in charge of putting all of these huge like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Events or maintaining all of these organizations and everything, because your student your human beings and then your students and then you know, families and lives, and on top of all that

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: you're planning high school conference for thousands of people or you're planning a giant culture night or fashion talent show with like famous manti people in it and stuff like that, at the biggest venue that we have in SDSU, you know, like

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: I think I took it for granted, when I was an undergrad but people do a lot of work to really like make your college experience incredible to connect folks to create community.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And it's so difficult to create Community when everyone's got like their own stuff going on, so resources is i'm very big on just like social capital and

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: The knowing people that also know you know what you can do know what you want, and can connect you I think that's always like one of the biggest strengths, that I.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: That I really value and one of the biggest resources, because as long as you know somebody you're going to be able to get to where you're trying to go sooner or later.

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Diane Marin: yeah ask and seek, yes, we have to ask and seek right.

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Diane Marin: And to know somebody and just building your network so talk to me or share with our audience, maybe a couple tips on how did connect and and and build that Community because there is oftentimes a lot out there, what was most valuable to you.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: it's a it's a bit of a mix, because obviously you work at the career Center and you always get those very formal professional business type networking things.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Back in my day, it was like you know business cards and making sure you shake everyone's hand in the room and make sure you have like your little elevator pitch and everything

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But I think as 

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: I don't know progressed and developed and everything building the network is really like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: I think that there's a sense of like authenticity that you need to bring into it like you're not just like you like quote on quote using people or quote on quote selling yourself, it really is like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: This is me this is what I want to do, and these are my goals anyone out there resonate with that anyone out there, like see a little bit of you and me or anyone out there, like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: want to connect and cheer each other on and go with each other to conferences and anyone feel like my vibe is cool enough to work with you on your team because i'm an interested in what you're doing.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: So it's it's kind of reframing the whole like networking and job applications and stuff and making it so it's about like i'm just i'm here and i'm trying to reach this goal and if you're here to help me great and if not, do you know someone who is because I know you do.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And I don't know I think it's a very broad tip because, obviously, you can go to a million workshops listen to a million podcasts get a lot of tips um.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But it takes practice over years and years to realize like Oh, this is how I want to present myself to others, and if you're down for it amazing and if you're not that's okay i'm gonna swim around and find something else.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Something that works and resonates with me, because if you're networking and like that.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Let no like superficial, but like you know kind of like cookie cutter super professional way.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Then that's what they're going to expect from you when they're thinking like oh yeah this job is up, and I think this person is really good for it because.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: I know that they're passionate about this, I know that we have this in common, I know that they know these other people that I trust, and I think you need to be really genuine and authentic when you're making all of those connections.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Oh, like i'll say a name to folks i'm meeting like Oh, I know christy or Oh, I know diane and everyone goes oh my God I love this person, how did you meet and.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Bam that's a way better connection than just Hello i'm random person that might be interested in your job, like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: The fact that there's a connect a common connection and the thought is oh I love them they're amazing um that's that's a lot more beneficial in my eyes, but of course it's different for every field every professional.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But it's just one one side of the story that is possible, I think.

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Diane Marin: yeah I agree, I love, how you broke it down to because networking sometimes is a scary term but it's it's really building about building the connections and community.

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Diane Marin: and finding those people that you have something in common with common interests common goal common industry, and if it works out great If not, maybe, asking them, maybe they know someone else that that wants to connect with you as well.

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Diane Marin: So one of the things about this podcast also we're talking about mentoring about momentum, but milestones.

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Diane Marin: As part of this journey this life a career journey, you know milestones are important and you'd mentioned either earlier about you know reflection, can you tell me more about how you reflect on on some of your milestones and then secondly

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Diane Marin: asked you how you celebrate them too? Because I know, sometimes it's easy just to move on to the next thing but i'm learning more and more about how important reflection is so, can you share your thoughts about that?

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: yeah!

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: It's very interesting you bring this up, because I go to therapy just maintaining the mental health and my therapist kind of like

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: drop some knowledge on me because he's been like taking notes on me and obviously through like all our time together and we're sort of talking about like

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: "Am I a good person?" that's always the question i'm asking myself trying to be critical of myself my interactions with my students, my friends, my family and just ensuring that I am a positive influence to folks.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Mental health is a big deal to me.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And he was like honestly given everything I know about you everything, these are all the things that I have seen from you that are positive you're always trying to do better, and he, like laid everything out for me and I was like that's I.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: I was like so speechless because

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: that's the sort of reflection that i'm always trying to do, I do it a lot with like with Christy or I will journal and things like that.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But really like looking at all the things that I have done, and instead of being like that was so tiring or I remember how stressful That was really like soaking in I am a woman of accomplishment, I have done this thing.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: The big project at the end of the Cal Soap program, which is the student affairs program, it's the portfolio Defense

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: or portfolio presentation we're trying to make it less scary.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: I invited everyone I knew my portfolio presentation friends, family, cousins

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: every student I had ever worked with because I wanted to show my students like "hey, this is the thing that brought me to you", and this is the

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: stuff i've been working on for the last two years, and thank you for being a part of it. Also did you know that student affairs is a field? Because I did intimate now you know.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And I think like 70 something people showed up to my to presentation and that truly was like the ultimate reflection and celebration, because the portfolio it's

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: not meant to be like Oh, I have it is meant to be like you know "i've done all these things i've had all these course learning objectives", but it also is like here's how I did it through a pandemic

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Mostly online here's how I have survived and attempted to thrive and how I plan to continue.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Again, to like soaking all of that positive energy, even though it was like through a screen and, like my mom in the background, and my partner like sitting with me.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: it's like it's big moments like that, and then it's a little moments of just being able to like say it out loud, like, I have two masters, I am now an academic advisor which is honestly really what I wanted to be doing.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Like hearing it said back to me that's that's like an important part of like my conversations with Christy of like.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: She will you know, as I said before, she'll like help me remember that a long time ago, I was really stressed out about trying to get to where I am now, and now I am here.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And yeah like having having people in spaces and time to be able to do that is really, really valuable to me and it's it's helped me become more like positive about myself about what i'm doing about soaking in the day today.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: Because I know that at some point everything gets stressful at some point, you know registering for classes at whole like enrollment season gets pretty hectic or

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: you know, traffic and trying to find parking at UCSD is not the best, but I worked to get here I wanted this so bad I get to you know walk on my campus and feel like wow I get to work here, I am seven minutes from the beach.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: i'm in the same hallway physically, as my colleagues.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: It's always something I want to try and take note of before I get kind of like lost in the day, today, you know what I mean.

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Diane Marin: Yes gosh, Thank you so much for just sharing that reflection and what a beautiful picture of 70 people there to

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Diane Marin: share in your experience and to let them know like hey you can do this to where you were a part of this and that's why i'm here or that beautiful idea that your mom is.

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Diane Marin: In the background just you know i'm sure smiling and just celebrating you in your accomplishments and and just thank you for sharing how much or how important that reflection is because.

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Diane Marin: Sometimes we may forget about our accomplishments but thankful, it sounds like you're thankful to her mentors and to other people in your life that remind you that you are this amazing accomplished woman.

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Diane Marin: and new professional and it sounds like you know have so much to offer you know the students or your colleagues, or the people, the people that you work with.

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Diane Marin: So as as we you know wrap up today, you know I definitely would love for you to share any words of encouragement for for students or for mentors What would you share with them.

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Diane Marin: To encourage them to keep going as a mentor to have momentum and to make sure and celebrate the milestones.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: um, I think I mentioned this when when we met at the panel, that I was a part of, but I think the most powerful sentence anyone said to me, is like you can do it.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And and saying it with such like, conviction and just like no doubt it's just I said, I think I want to be a therapist and sounds like yeah you can let me help you, and then you know things didn't work out, and I said I still want to help students, I still want to do this X, Y and Z.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: How can I do it? Can I do it? They go Christy just goes "yeah you can you will do it! it's going to happen!"

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: So on either end on the side of the mentee or the mentor because you know we're all trying to like grow and develop together i'm really big on like a two way mentorship experience you know, I hope that my mentors learn from me as i'm also learning from them.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: But it's just that very certain reminder that you can do it, you as a first generation as a person of color as all of the beautiful incredible you know.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: different identities that you hold at the intersection ality of all that you are, you can do it.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: And then know that it is also okay to rest, it is 100% okay to have phases of not knowing what you're doing a phases of getting your ish together.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: To come to your mentors and no matter how much you know them it's totally okay to cry everyone Christ, everyone will cry at some point in this journey, whether of joy or anything else.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: These These are all things that are okay and acceptable um so again just being authentic and everyone that you get to connect with.

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Diane Marin: yeah and you're you're making me cry because

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Diane Marin: it's a beautiful reminder that you can I can, and sometimes we need people to remind us about that and

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Diane Marin: yes, it's going to be tough, but when you have community when you have mentors and you have others, it makes it easier to keep going to reflect and just to remind ourselves just to

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Diane Marin: take time to celebrate and even if that's just being grateful and appreciate that we live

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Diane Marin: so close to a beach, or that we have colleagues down the hall, that we can just pop into their office and talk to

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Diane Marin: or mentors that we could jump on zoom and have a virtual lunch with. So just room Thank you so much for reminding us that

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Diane Marin: I can you can that we can and that with each other, it makes life, just so much more beautiful and possible and I so appreciate this time with you Erin together. Thank you for encouraging our students our mentors and I just celebrate you and the journey that you are on and

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Diane Marin: that you will continue, so thank you so much.

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Erin Nicole (she/they) Vedar: yeah thanks for having me.

 

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Diane Marin: Hi Corina, how are you?

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Corina Lard: Hi, i'm doing great! How are you?

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Diane Marin: I'm doing well! Well today I want to introduce you to Corina Lard, she is an alum but a student that worked in career services, a few years ago.

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Diane Marin: A motivated students who took advantage of the aztec mentor program and we have kept in touch. So i'm excited to share your story with her with her today and talk about mentoring, momentum, and milestones so welcome Corina!

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Corina Lard: Thank you, thank you super happy to be here and excited for this podcast.

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Diane Marin: Terrific! I'm excited to so share with us about your story, so the audience can learn more about you.

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Corina Lard: Sure, so I am originally from San Diego, I went to San Diego State University, and I studied mechanical engineering. I was there for five years and i'm a recent graduate so i've been out of school now for about six months and then just getting used to a full time job in my field.

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Diane Marin: I know that you took advantage of the aztec mentor program while you are at SDSU so tell us more how has mentoring supported you in your career journey.

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Corina Lard: Mentoring, for me, has been really big especially you know, while I was an aztec

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Corina Lard: I signed up for the aztec mentor program probably around like my junior year so like third year college.

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Corina Lard: And I got matched to Michelle Davis Vargas and I was really just looking for somebody that I could just find out more about quality engineering because

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Corina Lard: at the time when it still is my background is mechanical engineering, but I had an experience and internship that really kind of turned me

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Corina Lard: towards quality engineering and Michelle had a background in that so it's just really trying to find out more about what opportunities were there after college.

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Corina Lard: and the aztec mentor program is perfect for that, because it was just

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Corina Lard: set up in a fashion that you could get that type of exposure and learn about the different things that you could do post college and it doesn't always have to line up with what you studied while you're studying when you're an undergrad. So

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Corina Lard: I met Michelle, of course, and she

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Corina Lard: amazes to amaze me at the time, she amazes me now her background is amazing now, she

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Corina Lard: comes from you know she's an immigrant herself so that was really something inspirational, at least for me my mom immigrated from Jamaica and Michelle immigrated from Nicaragua so to hear her story and see how she was able to go through that type of

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Corina Lard: that type of move and life change and come here to the States and do schooling and get her degree in engineering and then also be excel in the workplace and be somebody so in a power in a position of power.

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Corina Lard: That was just something that resonated with me, so I really appreciate the program for having people like that that I could look up to myself and then also being that she's a woman.

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Corina Lard: In my field that's a male dominated industry, that is that was really big for me and I really appreciate asking her and her program for having that type of resource for undergraduate students.

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Diane Marin: yeah I know Michelle so shoutout to Michelle, with all the amazing work.

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Diane Marin: Now, who is doing some amazing works in stem and is growing in her career, but also paying it forward by

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Diane Marin: writing time to share her experience with students and every area.

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Diane Marin: What advice would you give to students about finding a mentor?

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Diane Marin: Because I know it sometimes can be intimidating to reach out to someone you don't know and and not know what to expect.

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Corina Lard: I feel like in

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Corina Lard:  every any situation, I went into blind like I always felt that sense of uncomfortable at that anxiousness like oh my gosh like what do I do, and I feel like

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Corina Lard: when I didn't know there's always somebody around that could kind of help guide me there, and at least with

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Corina Lard: my experience I had opportunity to work, you know in career services, and so I can kind of get

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Corina Lard: I could get some of the background about the aztec mentor program or.

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Corina Lard: If I was a student, which I was you could go to career services and kind of get an idea they have tons of workshops and you could go in there and just learn.

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Corina Lard: and try to basically ease yourself into it and ask somebody asked me, asked other students that might have done it just to kind of get an idea of like

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Corina Lard: how what's the best way to reach out? How do you like maintain a relationship with a mentor that type of thing? But I think the best thing to know is like

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Corina Lard: your mentor knows like your students so you're not a professional yet and that's the whole point is to help you get to that point so

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Corina Lard: though the at least inches in that aspect like what are they going to think like I know nothing they know they can start from step one with you.

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Corina Lard: That's where I was, I was at step zero and

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Corina Lard: you can ask them like "hi, I what i'm looking for is maybe to help build my resume" or "if I don't have one what's like the first step to do that" and they can help like you know review your resume and

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Corina Lard: especially when I was in like you know nearing end of college and graduation, I was reaching out to my mentor to help with interviews and how to conduct myself, because you know there's oh my gosh now that we're in

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Corina Lard: we have virtual interviews so that's good. It's an adjustment and if you need to you know practice those skills, how to you know communicate through cameras a lot different than having you know, like an in person interview.

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Corina Lard: They're there to help you through those awkward situations, I know that first step is awkward but they're not to make you feel awkward they're there to really help you propel you.

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Corina Lard: So that you're successful.

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Diane Marin: yeah, I think, and thank you for the reminder, I know, sometimes it can be intimidating even to come into career services right but

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Diane Marin: we are here and we're have lots of friendly faces and we have student workers and we're just here to support you and guide you to resources and connect you to to mentors to support you in your career journey here at SDSU and beyond.

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Diane Marin: So Corina you are tell us a little bit about where you're working right now, and you know what has giving you momentum to move forward, as you graduated and you're starting to work on your career?

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Corina Lard: Sure, I am at thermo Fisher scientific.

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Corina Lard: I am in a rotational program right now called the operations leadership development program, and so this program is a two year program and it's really a way for me to develop different skills and different

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Corina Lard: areas of operation, so I get exposure to logistics to quality engineering manufacturing engineering and supply chain at my company, and right now i'm geographically located on the east coast, which is

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Corina Lard: I never thought that would be here, if you asked me two years ago I didn't think i'd be in Rochester New York, which is where I am right now. So that was really

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Corina Lard: interesting and like one thing that drew me to like the program to there's opportunities to go to another location, and you know i'm from San Diego born and raised never lived anywhere other than San Diego so I This is like the great a great way for me to kind of

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Corina Lard: to grow and stretch myself basically so i'm here on the east coast at thermo Fisher and our plant.

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Corina Lard: We manufacture laboratory plastics essential so any equipment that laboratories need made from plastic so Kobic diagnostic test kits and vials and different things needed to help us navigate through the pandemic is stuff that we work on.

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Corina Lard: And so what type what was the momentum that you know prepare propelled me from California to New York right? I would have to say

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Corina Lard: that segmental program had a lot to do with it.

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Corina Lard: Also, just the student involvement me being an SP my mentor was a big. She's big on reaching out to students and

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Corina Lard: she was big on networking and so she instilled networking in me and so, when I was at my student organizations, I got to network with people from thermo Fisher.

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Corina Lard: And so just that exposure and really learning how to market myself and just open my mouth and say "hey i'm interested in that program, can you tell me more" about it that led me to

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Corina Lard: get this job and that's one thing my mentor really

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Corina Lard: really

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Corina Lard: she exaggerated that networking was like the King and in helping you 
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Corina Lard: sharpen that skill.

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Diane Marin: Yeah and thank you for bringing that up networking it's so important, and it can it can be intimidating sometimes but to have a mentor show you how it worked for them and how it opened the door to get jobs.

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Diane Marin: I'm sure was a boost of confidence, it sounds like and it helped you like you said speak up and helped you get to

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Diane Marin: get to the east coast and have an opportunity to do what you're doing so great to hear and career services can help you with that as well, and help you hone that skill.

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Diane Marin: And what milestones have you been able to achieve as you graduated that you would like to share with us? or we can encourage the audience

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Diane Marin: as well.

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Corina Lard: Sure um I would have to say, well, one being like

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Corina Lard: moving from something that you know, and you grown in like my move from San Diego to Rochester.

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Corina Lard: It wasn't easy per se, it was quite

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Corina Lard: it was different you know, leaving my family behind that i've been with, for you know, ever since I was born but I knew at least, that this was a program and it lasts for two years and so it's not forever, you know nothing is always like set in stone. But,

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Corina Lard: tthat was a big milestone for me to say okay i'm going to get myself out of my comfort zone i'm going to go to the east coast and then i'm also going to do.

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Corina Lard: Do something that I have never done before, and so within that also I was starting a role in supply chain.

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Corina Lard: And that role was something that I stepped into, and it was held by somebody with you know five years of experience and that person

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Corina Lard: was no longer there to help kind of like pass that knowledge, so I think that's also a milestone in itself that through that difficulty of not having that exact person that was doing that role.

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Corina Lard: I was able to basically again use my networking skills and work with my team to help me get through, you know this particular role. So that that was a big milestone for me is to say, like hey at the end of six months, I was able to

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Corina Lard: do my role and do it in an environment that

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Corina Lard: I have no control over, we have a lot of things we don't control over this pandemic we don't have control over. I think also that you know that's I added layers like there's always

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Corina Lard: at this time, we have a lot of turnover in the market and people, you know, are there, changing like their lifestyle and you know some work life balance is different for everybody that looks different for people, so you know there's lots of changes.

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Corina Lard: And so I would say yes, like that in itself is a milestone, to be able to

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Corina Lard: carry myself through those six months and really lean on my team and pick up a lot of skills and you never stop learning after college you're gonna keep on learning. 

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Corina Lard: You might not be in a lecture Hall, but you're going to do some learning and that's okay. So I guess one little you know piece of encouragement is like don't feel like you're in it alone and everybody has to start from somewhere, so I would just say you know

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Corina Lard: really keep my momentum going my mom calls me like every other day we talk every other day and I talked to my dad and

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Corina Lard: they helped me it doesn't have to be at work to even after work, you can be like

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Corina Lard: "oh, my gosh like that was so long day" I just need to talk to somebody about you know what happened, or whatever and it's always i'm always has some like really good word of encouragement to give me.

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Corina Lard: When i'm like "oh my gosh like I feel like i'm not doing enough" and she's always got something great to tell me and helped me get through

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Corina Lard: each and every week.

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Diane Marin: yeah wow yes so moving across the country.

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Diane Marin: Yes, and and I, and thank you for reminding us that it's not easy and sometimes we have to get out of our comfort zone to take advantage of opportunities.

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Diane Marin: And to go into a role that someone else that had a lot of knowledge had and to get into it and just a reminder to continue to learn

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Diane Marin: continue to learn and grow, and I think that's probably why your your your you're being successful in your role because you're open open to that, and you know what a great reminder to there there's just going to be some things in life that are out of our control.

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Diane Marin: So, so we have to focus on what we can control

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Diane Marin: then be gathered the people around us that can support us and it's so great to hear that

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Diane Marin: you know, you have the family, you know and may not, they may not be in San Diego, but we have these resources like zoom that can help us continue to be connected.

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Diane Marin: So we had to so great to hear your story, and you know how mentoring is supported you.

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Diane Marin: Any last words of wisdom that you would like to share with you know other students or mentors that may not know the benefit of mentoring or experienced just yet?

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Corina Lard: I would just say keep even after your mentorship

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Corina Lard: ends on paper, let's say like you graduate like keep up that relationship with each other.

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Corina Lard: My mentor and I, we still communicate and we share like achievements with each other, we share, you know, sometimes you might have things going on at home and we we do like rely on each other, sometimes to like

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Corina Lard: help encourage each other to continue to push forward so a mentor can also be almost like a friend, but like it's really somebody that encourages you to be where you want in life.

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Corina Lard: And we really can help each other so in the mentor helps me but I really do think that it also

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Corina Lard: it encourages them to have somebody that shows you know, an interest or somebody that shows investment in wanting to learn and I bet that just it it really it just gives them the encouragement that there's there's more to come.

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Corina Lard: So I would just say like continue to foster that relationship with your mentor because who knows, they might even hear of other opportunities for you

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Corina Lard: After maybe your current role that you have, and I know that

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Corina Lard: met my mentor constantly is keeping me in mind, they they keep you in the back of their mind all the time for any thing like opportunities that come up.

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Corina Lard: I know my mentor reaches out and says oh my gosh like i'm thinking of you for this, and I think you'd be great for that, even in one-two years time my mentors looking at

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Corina Lard: so you always have somebody looking out for you and I think vice versa, you look out for your mentor and religious support them there.

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Corina Lard: And so that would be my advice is just to maintain that relationship and support each other.

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Diane Marin: yeah that's that's great advice, and I know so many mentors and mentees who have continued.

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Diane Marin: That relationship informally after the aztec mentor program and you never know you could have an aztec for life connection, and you know.

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Diane Marin: Who doesn't, who wouldn't want someone else thinking ahead of them were considering them when they see a potential job opportunity or or a good fit or you know sharing a word of encouragement and I love that you said it's mutual.

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Diane Marin: So it doesn't have to just be a one to one, but it could be a back and forth reciprocal mentoring connection to help you both stay connected and and encourage each other.

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Diane Marin: You know throughout your life.

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yeah.

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Diane Marin: Well, Corina it was so good to hear your story, and I just appreciate you taking time from the east coast

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Diane Marin: to share, you know your story and reminding us that networking is important.

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Diane Marin: Stepping outside of your comfort zone is important and staying connected is important, so I look forward to continuing to stay connected to you and I just appreciate your time and your story that you're sharing with our audience today.

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Corina Lard: Of course, thank you so much for having me and I can't think you know San Diego State enough, and thank you Diane for having me today and I really appreciate you starting this, this is a really wonderful tool and I can't wait for others to hear about this and

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Corina Lard: feel encouraged that they can get through their professional careers.

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Diane Marin: Awesome, Thank you so much!

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No problem.

 

 

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Diane Marin: Hi Joey, how are you today?

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Joey Lucero: I'm good, Diane! It's good to see you and good to talk to you.

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Diane Marin: Yes, good to talk to you. Welcome to our podcast and to live mentoring, momentum, and milestones. I look forward to introducing you to the audience today and hearing more about you and your story at SDSU with the aztec mentor Program.

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Diane Marin: Or, can we hear more about yourself?

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Joey Lucero: yeah, absolutely Diane thanks for having me um so my name is Joey Lucero I graduated from San Diego state back in May of 2019.

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Joey Lucero: And while I was at San Diego state, I was involved on campus and associated students, I was on different boards and commissions with associated students.

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Joey Lucero: I was in rotaract of San Diego state, which is a part of the Rotary organization.

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Joey Lucero: So that was phenomenal and it was you know a lot of service projects that we got to do on an off campus, which was great.

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Joey Lucero: And then I did working career services as a career peer, which was a phenomenal experience you know, making sure students know what resources are available after your services.

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Joey Lucero: And then, helping students with resumes, finding their internships, so I was really involved in San Diego state and I loved my time at SDSU when everything that I got to do.

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Joey Lucero: And then, of course, I was a part of the aztec mentor program as well met a phenomenal mentor, i'm sure we'll talk about here very soon.

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Joey Lucero: And with that mentorship that helped propel me into my career and really seen what I wanted to do and so really for me at the conclusion of my time at SDSU and my internship.

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Joey Lucero: I really had a focus of wanting to go into training and development, so I did take a role at Geico in the management development program for customer service.

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Joey Lucero: And essentially what I did there was I learned how to manage a team of associates on our service department, how to make sure

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Joey Lucero: they hit their metrics to get their promotions, and of course provide excellent service to our customers. And about a year ago in February of 2021 I got a promotion to supervisor in the training and orientation department.

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Joey Lucero: So specifically what I do now is I work with new hires that come into the customer service Program.

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Joey Lucero: And, basically, I help train them make sure they know what the expectations of the job are build the skill to make sure they're successful in their role and then I work with them to get them promoted.

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Joey Lucero: Once they get promoted, they go to a core what we call the core service team at Geico and then start all over again and get a new training class.

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Joey Lucero: Make sure they get their promotion and so on and so forth, so it's a little bit about me and kind of what my career path has been from San Diego state.

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Diane Marin: Wow! Thank you Joey for sharing it's so exciting to hear all that you have accomplished since SDSU and some of the things I heard you say were that you were involved to add at SDSU and i'm sure that helped you

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Diane Marin: get an internship and then it sounds like because of that internship you had a better sense of where you want it to go after graduation. Congratulations on the promotion that's

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Diane Marin: exciting to hear and i'm sure you're

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Diane Marin: excelling at that to get students or get new employees oriented to to Geico.

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Joey Lucero: Yes, definitely no I love it so rewarding job for sure it's amazing to see.

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Joey Lucero: When someone comes in, and they don't know anything about the job and then just a few months later they're experts and they're providing excellent service getting our customers protected and, of course, for the employee getting their promotions on to the next step that's very exciting.

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Diane Marin: So one of the reasons that I first met you was because of the aztec mentor program and I know that you were looking for a mentor you sought me out and we helped connect you to a mentor so tell us how has mentoring supported you in your career journey?

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Joey Lucero: Well, my mentor, Brenda Lazarus, at the time she worked at the Disneyland resort, and I really wanted to be a part of the Disney college Program.

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Joey Lucero: So, like you said, I mean I was going to do everything I could to try to get that internship internship and I was involved on campus already so that was good. It shows

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Joey Lucero: Leadership experience you know working in group settings so that definitely was part of the puzzle, but the other pieces, where I had to get out there and try to do what I can to

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Joey Lucero: get into that internship and the aztec mentor program was a phenomenal stepping stone to do that.

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Joey Lucero: Because I could meet somebody who was actually in that field, and specifically at the time working at Disneyland, which is, I wanted to Disney college program was perfect.

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Joey Lucero: And so, with Brenda I mean you know she she was phenomenal and learning about me she was invested in me and wanted to do everything she could to get me from point A to Point B.

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Joey Lucero: Brenda was phenomenal because she helped prepare me for what life was the Disneyland resort what the culture was and what the Disneyland resort looks for in someone who wants to be a cast member there.

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Joey Lucero: And in addition Brenda was very well connected she worked in the college program at the time she was working in

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Joey Lucero: our hotel security and training department at the Disneyland resort to see a lot of phenomenal people that she could introduce me to to help further my career.

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Joey Lucero: And with Brenda and I think it's true with any mentorship when you develop a really strong relationship for a mentor their mentor for life, I mean Brendan I were just talking last week, I mean we we check in every once awhile to see how things are going.

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Joey Lucero: And her exact words were upon a mentor for life so that's really cool and really special that when you develop that strong relationship and you build that bond.

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Joey Lucero: I mean yeah they're going to help you get that internship or get that job that you're looking for during your time at SDSU were post Grad but also a mentor for life and they're definitely going to help you out

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Joey Lucero: at any stage of your career and it's just really cool.

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Joey Lucero: With that relationships that I built with her that you know, I was able to achieve getting into the Disney College program she helped me prepare for you know going into my role at Geico.

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Joey Lucero: So it was a really rewarding experience for sure, but I think the biggest thing is you just got to get yourself out there and put yourself out there and

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Joey Lucero: share with somebody what your career goals are get involved in the aztec mentor program get a mentor and you'd be amazed at how many opportunities and relationships could open up for you.

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Diane Marin: Yeah thank you for reminding our audience, because I think you said some key words you got to put yourself out there and build those relationships and

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Diane Marin: by putting yourself out there you not only built a relationship to that one person, but because of that good relationship, it sounds like she introduced you to other people.

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Diane Marin: So help you help you build your network and then it's just so great to hear that you have continued to stay connected and you have an aztec for life connection.

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Joey Lucero: yeah it's amazing because I mean i'm pretty sure her and I first became mentor and mentee I think it would have been

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Joey Lucero: fall of 2017 yeah I think that's I think that's right, and I mean look at all these years later we're still just as close and talk all the time and check in with each other so yeah it's pretty amazing for sure.

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Diane Marin: yeah so one of the things I know about you, too, is that, for your internship you took a risk and took some time off.

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Diane Marin: To you, to move up to to Disney college and and do that tell us a little bit more about that, because you know, sometimes we think it's a straight path, but sometimes we need to take that risk and it sounds like it paid off for you?

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Joey Lucero: It really did, and it, I mean i'm not gonna lie it's scary for anybody when you think about you know, taking a semester off away from campus now.

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Joey Lucero: A couple things were I had a time you know, this is an internship that I knew I really wanted to do so by my sophomore year I already started to start

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Joey Lucero: kind of thinking about you know I probably should be taking like maybe like one or two classes in the summer.

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Joey Lucero: Just so that way, it could be a little bit ahead and I wasn't a student just just for the audience as long as it's not a student that came in with like

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Joey Lucero: You know AP credits or things like that, where I was ahead, I really wasn't I came in with your credits and you know just kind of started my my college career.

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Joey Lucero: So that was balanced one thing is that if, if you want to do something like that.

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Joey Lucero: Taking classes in the summer and they're all online, you know just one or two classes it's not bad there's two stuff there were two summer sessions at the time when I was at SDSU, so I took

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Joey Lucero: one class one summer session one and the other it's not a big summit in a week, you know, so there was that, but then, why I did the Disney college Program.

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Joey Lucero: Even though I wasn't physically on campus I did the same thing, so I took one to two classes as well that we're 100% online.

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Joey Lucero: So that way with the summer classes i've taken before plus the couple classes, I took while I was at Disney.

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Joey Lucero: It worked out really well that I really wasn't behind and yeah it is kind of scary being away from the campus for a whole semester, and everything, but it did 100% pay off in the end and I

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Joey Lucero: loved my time at Disney I met my wife, actually, while I was at Disney as well, which is amazing so yeah the College program totally changed my life in so many different ways.

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Joey Lucero: And if I had been scared about you know not being a campus first semester, none of those amazing things would have happened.

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Joey Lucero: So it's definitely worth it does it cost a little bit more, you know hard work 100% but if you're willing to put in the hard work you're gonna have some really great benefits to pay off in the long run.

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Diane Marin: yeah wow yeah, thank you for that reminder and letting students know it's not easy, but with some pre-planning, it sounds like it kind of gave you a cushion so you could go out there and do the College Disney college 

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Joey Lucero: Once we got together, and you know, once we both graduated she came down to San Diego State to do her teaching credential at SDSU us now we're both aztec alumni which is really cool.

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Joey Lucero: So yeah it's it's a really cool story it's really amazing how everything worked out.

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Diane Marin: wow that that's just wonderful to hear the unintended consequences of just putting yourself out there and having an aztec for life connection with your mentor but then also meeting your wife and now you have two aztec in the family.

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Joey Lucero: yeah it's super cool are super proud of that.

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Diane Marin: Oh, so what i'm what gives you momentum to move forward, you know we're we've been living in some challenging times the last couple years what give you a momentum?

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Joey Lucero: It's a good question just to give some context to you know I graduated in May of 2019 started my career at Geico in July of 2019.

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Joey Lucero: And in my management development program you know, I was basically, you know as when you start the management

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Joey Lucero: program you're on the same kind of goals as an agent, and I appreciate Geico for this, because you have to achieve

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Joey Lucero: whatever what else achieve. You know you're coming in the mentoring program you have to be able to show that you can produce results, and you can be successful.

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Joey Lucero: And so I just finished that component of my program and I finished that stage at the end of December, then I started moving into more the leadership training aspect.

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Joey Lucero: You know, at the start of 2020 and then you know the pandemic hit a couple months later, and much of like the World everything was on pause and switch my leadership Program.

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Joey Lucero: Now you know, I was still working at Geico and helping our customers, but the learning and development that I was supposed to be doing got put on a pause for a lot of people as well across the world.

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Joey Lucero: So I think that was probably a very challenging time where it's like Oh, my goodness i'm supposed to be learning and moving into leadership and it's

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Joey Lucero: all pausing you know we're just at a standstill. I think what got me through the momentum was I definitely am a visionary person and I, you know

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Joey Lucero: set these these high expectations and high goals for myself, but with setting those long term goals and high expectations for yourself.

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Joey Lucero: You have to sit back and realize that it doesn't happen overnight, and I think the momentum for me, is, I want to get from point A to Point B, I want to make myself proud, I want to make my family proud.

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Joey Lucero: And so that's really what keeps me going is i'm going to get there i'm going to get there.

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Joey Lucero: I want to make everyone proud, I want to make myself proud, I want to achieve those goals, but you have to take a step back and realize doesn't happen overnight.

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Joey Lucero: So that's what I have to remind myself to keep the momentum going and not slow down, even when things kind of get tough, especially in the middle of a pandemic.

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Diane Marin: Right and I think it's something you said earlier

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Diane Marin: pandemic or a call was just that reflection, it sounds like you, you reflect it and realize, you know life happens.

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Diane Marin: yeah I mean even think about you know for for a lot of students at San Diego state, I mean graduation depending on you know your major.

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Joey Lucero: and your minor and things like that, I mean it could be four or five years before you walk across the stage and there's nothing wrong with that right.

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Joey Lucero: So you know you go through all these different milestones but all these different obstacles

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Joey Lucero: to get eventually to walk across that stage on graduation day and it's the same thing in your career, it's the same thing in life, it takes time it doesn't happen overnight.

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Joey Lucero: You can't rush things you have to just live your life experience, things are supposed to experience and then it's very rewarding when you get to the finish line.

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Diane Marin: yeah like that it takes time, I think it takes time and you know there's all these different milestones in our lives to celebrate it and you've mentioned, if you

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Diane Marin: So what milestones would you like to share with us today that we can celebrate with you because it sounds like you have

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Diane Marin: you know, come quite away and I love your positive mindset as you're moving through these different phases and learning and

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Diane Marin: things are being paused but at the same time, you mentioned earlier that you were promoted so it sounds like there's some good stuff happening in your life right now?

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Joey Lucero: yeah I think when I when I look back even over the last few years, I think

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Joey Lucero: a huge milestone to celebrate was just my mentorship with Brenda that was huge because, when I look at my mentorship with Brenda.

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Joey Lucero: That opened up so many opportunities I got my dream internship at Disney it was phenomenal with that I met my wife, but I think that's another huge milestone was that my

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Joey Lucero: journey to the aztec mentor program not just got my internship I just got my great mentor by men a beautiful wife, who I love dearly and you know who got to share our love for San Diego state together now, which is great.

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Joey Lucero: And then you know when I think post grad I you know got a phenomenal job with a phenomenal company in the back role that I wanted to do, which is training development.

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Joey Lucero: And you know I got a promotion and I am doing really well things are looking good at Geico, so I think when I look back there's lots of milestones, but I think it all starts with

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Joey Lucero: getting involved and putting myself out there and I think that's a huge milestone to celebrate with the really a domino effect for other things to come.

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Diane Marin: Yeah I like that getting involved and definitely putting yourself out there sounds like has led you to Brenda has led you to your wife and has helped you or propel you to your next promotion.

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Diane Marin: And we're excited for you and just how exciting it just it warms my heart to hear your story and to share it with our audience today, so any words of you know, encouragement for mentors or students who aren't sure if mentoring, is for them?

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Joey Lucero: Good question! 

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Joey Lucero: I think what's really funny are you a lot of people I don't think would realize this about me personally, if you if you know me on a personal level i'm pretty shy, I really am like I can I can get in front of a room and train people and talk to people but

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Joey Lucero: I can be shy so going to a career fair or going to go meet with with someone about your career goals and career services.

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Joey Lucero: It can be a little nerve wrecking and I relate to that I get that but you've got to put yourself out there, and you know, even though you may be a little bit nervous or.

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Joey Lucero: I don't know what to expect you know with this person, on the other end of my webcam or we get to meet with them in person like

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Joey Lucero: put yourself out there you have nothing to lose by trying to build a really strong relationship with a mentor who wants to help you, by the way right they're signing up for this, because they want to help you.

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Joey Lucero: So it's a phenomenal opportunity, even if you're uncomfortable if you're shy it out there and do it if it's worth it, I think. For the mentees,

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Joey Lucero: you know your mentor may challenge you to do certain things they may challenge you to a look at this resource read this book and tell me what you think about it.

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Joey Lucero: Do it take him up on that offer remember Brenda recommended me to read a book that was essentially about Walt Disney to be like waltz by Pat Williams and it's.

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Joey Lucero: it's more of a leadership style book and you know she asked me hey why don't you go ahead and read this and read a few chapters, let me.

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Joey Lucero: know what you think I did that I took notes and a phenomenal relationship and it showed Brenda that I was invested in this mentorship, so I think that was huge and I think for mentors

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Joey Lucero: again are signing up for this, because they really want to do this, and I think that for the mentors you know just thank you for what you do and I think you know the guidance.

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Joey Lucero: You know the relationship building the introduction to other people in the field that tremendous he wants to go to.

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Joey Lucero: These are all things that mentors are really great out there well connected, they have such great advice and experience in the field that you want to go into or even if they're not in the field that you exactly want to go into

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Joey Lucero: our mentors is such phenomenal job advice career advice and, of course, life advice. So a huge Thank you to all the mentors out there, but I think for both parties, as long as you're invested willing to put yourself out there, the benefits are phenomenal for both sides.

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Diane Marin: yeah will you you I always say that our mentors and mentees tell the best story, so you said it best you know take advantage invest and take advantage of those opportunities and you never know what's going to happen.

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Diane Marin: You can have

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Diane Marin: live connection you know, maybe you'll meet somebody. So Joey, Thank you so much for sharing your story today for sharing how you know mentoring has you know, made an impact in your life.

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Diane Marin: You know, being real about how that momentum works and yeah you know there's going to be

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Diane Marin: some obstacles, but you just keep moving forward and then just sharing your exciting milestone, so thank you so much for sharing with our audience today and I look forward to staying in touch with you and and hearing more about your career journey as well.

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Joey Lucero: yeah, no I thank you Diane and thank you to yourself and the whole AMP team for all you do for our students and our mentors because it's absolutely an impactful program that can change your life, so thank you very much.

 

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Diane Marin: Hi Greg how are you?

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Greg Trujillo: Doing good today! How are you?

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Diane Marin: Good! Well as we get started, I just want to welcome you to today's AMPed Life mentoring, momentum, and milestones podcast. I am so glad to have you as a guest and introduce you to our audience today.

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Greg Trujillo: Thank you! Yeah my pleasure to participate.

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Diane Marin: Terrific! So as we get started, can you please share your story I know we met probably about a year ago

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Diane Marin: and you shared your story about who you are and about what you were doing with your company and how it was going with your mentee. So I know a few things have changed, so please share more about yourself today.

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Greg Trujillo: Yeah! Thank you so a little bit about myself is i'm actually from San Diego California, but, as I was growing up, we moved to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, when I was very young.

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Greg Trujillo: It was a really interesting transition my dad was a lead mechanic and he took the opportunity to come out to the east coast.

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Greg Trujillo: When I went to the east coast, what I found at the fools is there was a lot of focus on science and math there which I really appreciate it.

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Greg Trujillo: As I grew up, I really kind of like you know, working with numbers things like that.

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Greg Trujillo: And then we moved to California, when I was in high school, and that was about the time where I needed to really figure out what I want to do with my college career.

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Greg Trujillo: At that time, I was the first person considering college in my family, so it was really hard for me to really understand what opportunities are out there for someone that like math.

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Greg Trujillo: Luckily, when i'm getting closer to graduation I did have someone that was two years above me and they actually participated at SDSU in the mechanical engineering program.

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Greg Trujillo: I had no idea what engineering was at the time, like I said i'll the first one to go to college and

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Greg Trujillo: so what he did, for me, was it had been me with five or six different pamphlets of all the different engineering programs.

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Greg Trujillo: The one that says to me the most was mechanical engineering just for the fact that it's very diverse and it seemed to cover all the other fields, just enough to get an understanding what they kind of like.

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Greg Trujillo: As I went through college I didn't really understand what engineering was or what the job responsibilities to be.

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Greg Trujillo: I knew that it was a very difficult major but I didn't really understand what I was getting myself into but I really enjoyed the challenge and just the classmates and everyone else that was in there.

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Greg Trujillo: So when I graduated I had no idea what I wanted to do, I had my engineering degree.

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Greg Trujillo:  So I started looking into this impossible fields throwing my resume out to everyone, and anyone that would look at it.

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Greg Trujillo: And Luckily, there was a company that reached out to me that was an aerospace looking back on it now, I was selling sunglasses at the fashion valley mall and I had no idea what company was reaching out, I was just so excited that someone you know, look at my resume one give me this interview.

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Greg Trujillo: So I went in there, the first day, and when I was interviewing with the hiring manager, the thing that stood out to me the most was his office was covered with paperwork, all the way to the ceiling.

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Greg Trujillo: And me not understanding what the engineer, would do I was assuming that I have a very similar office, where I would have papers all around my desk people are constantly coming in, during the interview, and I just kind of assumed that with my job.

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Greg Trujillo: So I signed up for the first day when I started working there I started really realizing that and SDSU you I gained the foundation of mechanical engineering.

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Greg Trujillo: But there was still a lot to learn, you know how you work as an engineer in the office, as well as just daily responsibilities and duties.

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Greg Trujillo: So my first job was in an aerospace company, where we converted passenger planes and to firefighting plane, it was very cool job we got to go on airfield do a lot of tests.  

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Greg Trujillo: I really felt just an excitement of that can I can really explain and as talking to engineers to kind of reflecting back on it now.

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Greg Trujillo: It's kind of that excitement you get once you get through a difficult problem you actually able to launch a project.

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Greg Trujillo: That really got me excited but since this was a very small company there wasn't really an opportunity for me to have my own design projects, so I reached out to other companies looking for a design specific role, so my next company that I worked for was a company called Abum.

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Greg Trujillo: What Abum focused on was industrial controllers so joysticks, drumsticks, which is for industrial products, including construction vehicle miners dump trucks things like that.

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Greg Trujillo: I was there, maybe for about two months

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Greg Trujillo: And both senior and junior engineers

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Greg Trujillo: quit at the job, so I ended up being the senior and junior engineer, so it was definitely a trial by fire.

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Greg Trujillo: But I really enjoyed it at that facility I learned about manufacturing designing marketing, it was a really cool place where I could see all the different majors that I kind of worked around as a student.

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Greg Trujillo: Being implemented and seeing the teamwork and collaboration on together, and how to launch a project.

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Greg Trujillo: So at that place, I was the lead design engineer for all heavy industrial vehicle joystick and drumstick end up getting a few patents there, which was really cool and exciting.

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Greg Trujillo: But the most exciting part for me was just the day in, day out, working with the manufacturers, working with the manufacturing line.

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Greg Trujillo: A whole range of different types of people, as I was there I realized that there are a few different opportunities for engineering, you could either focus on designing and theoretical or you can also go down a road where

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Greg Trujillo: it's more project based management, where you're interacting with multiple different.

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Greg Trujillo: Multiple different departments trying to all get to one goal of releasing a product so at Abum, it was a very medium sized company, and I was actually looking for a way to understand how processes and different items

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Greg Trujillo: come together at a larger company.

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Greg Trujillo: With medium or small companies procedures, a very light if it's a very small team, but when you go to more of a corporate company.

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Greg Trujillo: there's a lot more standards and procedures as the teams are so large so something that really interested me and something that I really wanted to focus on.

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Greg Trujillo: The company and move to next was a company called Allegra, which is a global company that focuses on swimming pool equipment.

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Greg Trujillo: So at blue we do we designed everything from swimming pool toys, ladders, chemicals, heaters, pumps, and robotics the team that I was hired on to was on the robotics team, and what we focused on was creating robots that would clean your swimming pool.

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Greg Trujillo: So my first project I worked with a senior engineer was to create a swimming pool cleaner, that was not the only mechanical and there was no like electrical electronic components.

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Greg Trujillo: In the product so with it gives the customer is something that's reliable, they have to rely electronic and you just throw it into the pool and you just leave it in there.

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Greg Trujillo: working at fluid your I really was exposed to procedures.

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Greg Trujillo: which, in turn, showed how you make products that are very similar to an iPhone or something that consumers grab.

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Greg Trujillo: You don't realize that there is any design behind it at all, but there was thousands of hours from multiple different departments.

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Greg Trujillo: You know, collaborating to make the product what it is today, so, as I was at Allegra, I use this as my opportunity to really understand how corporations work.

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Greg Trujillo: Not only with design, but just with the collaboration.

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Greg Trujillo: So after I was on that design team I reached out a little further into the product management world, where I was in charge of above ground

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Greg Trujillo: swimming pool so any products for above ground swimming pool. What I really liked about this position was able to communicate a lot more with a bunch of different departments.

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Greg Trujillo: As a design engineer you're focused on the design and the technical side with my personality and with my background I really saw drive or pool to a position where I was able to communicate the engineering feedback, as well as everyone else's

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Greg Trujillo: as you know, as you go through college, everyone has their own you know major but within those majors is all these different types of personality types.

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Greg Trujillo: And it's really critical, especially when you get to a larger corporation, to be able to collaborate together to understand communication styles and to also be able to contribute and help move the budget forward.

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Greg Trujillo: So we're going to big corporation, you know I did small company at Wagner, medium company at Abum and a large company, Allegra.

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Greg Trujillo: My current role is for startup company, the company is called Verity and we focus on sustainable product, mostly in the beauty industry so recyclable containers for your deodorant.

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Greg Trujillo: What I really love about a small company is that I am able to contribute all of my knowledge that i've gained throughout my engineering career.

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Greg Trujillo: Be that at the small to large company and i'm able to contribute and actually make procedures help push

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Greg Trujillo: You know, focusing on culture, as well as just making sure that the team has what they need and it's so small, of a team.

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Greg Trujillo: that's currently where i'm at i'm really enjoying it i'm glad I made those transitions from a small to large company and reflecting back on it, I really do feel like i'm a startup company is where I need to be right now and it gets me the most excited.

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Diane Marin: terrific Thank you so much Greg for sharing your story and

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Diane Marin: you have such a diversity of experience and and that's you know that's good for our audience and our students to know that you can graduate in one major.

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Diane Marin: And there's going to be a different experience from a small to a medium to to a startup company and the one thing that stood out for me was just your excitement and your willingness to learn as you went from job to job.

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Diane Marin: So one of the reasons that we met probably about a year ago, is because you are a mentor for the aztec mentor program and you share with us today, you know what motivated you to get involved with that aztec mentor program and support SDSU students?

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Greg Trujillo: yeah sure I believe i've been participating in AMP for about seven years now i've loved it since the very beginning.

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Greg Trujillo: I didn't have that close mentor as I was going to college, so I look back on and just remember how last I sell.

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Greg Trujillo: I know, going to classes, you know passing tests and all the different things, but I had no clue what I wanted to do.

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Greg Trujillo: So whenever I read the details of the AMP program I thought it was the perfect fit, not only for engineering students but for all students.

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Greg Trujillo: I think we all go through that as you're going through college and you don't really understand what the next steps are but understanding what the program was trying to deliver something that I definitely wanted to be a part of and help support students anywhere that I could.

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Diane Marin: yeah thank you for supporting our students, they could definitely use perspective and it sounds like you have experience to share.

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Diane Marin: What gives you momentum to to move forward, as you move through your career?

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Greg Trujillo: Well what give me momentum is on continuous growth, I think, once they feel stagnant at a company I kind of get

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Greg Trujillo: I guess I kind of understand that that time to kind of move forward.

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Greg Trujillo: For me, I do want to contribute on a larger scale to a company so as long as I interview being with on supporting the team right procedures things like that um it really helps drive my day to day activity.

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Diane Marin: yeah no I hear you I love that continuous growth, you know.

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Diane Marin: If two different places to grow or to take advantage of some new opportunities.

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Diane Marin: What advice would you give to students, as they are, you know seeking a mentor?

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Greg Trujillo: Everyone is just a student and there's they're going to be open to any questions that you're going to be asking.

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Greg Trujillo: For me, I always tell my students, I give them a rundown my background, but I stay 100% communicated with them and be that, through emails phone calls or video chat.

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Greg Trujillo: But being able to just to be open to ask them to the dumb questions let's say I think that's really going to be useful, because you only have a small amount of time with this mentor and

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Greg Trujillo: they do have a lot of experience that they're able to provide but sometimes they may not know what what you need so that's those questions will definitely will definitely help guide the mentor and what's provide you for the support.

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Diane Marin: Yes, So yes, I, and I appreciate that you know be open asked questions and share some of the mentor can help guide you and share any experience or resources they may have to make it easier for you.

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Diane Marin: What milestones have you been able to achieve in working with your mentees?

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Diane Marin: Can you share with us?

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Greg Trujillo: When I first meet with students, you can tell

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Greg Trujillo: they're not very confident and maybe because they're actually talking to an engineer talking to a professional but

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Greg Trujillo: as we go through the semester, I think, when the big milestones just gaining that confidence.

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Greg Trujillo: Understanding that when you're in school it's the Foundation you're learning all the theoretical, but there's going to be continuous growth and

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Greg Trujillo: When you get into that first position companies do understand that you are entry level, and they do assign someone to kind of help get you through you know to that next step.

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Greg Trujillo: So me adding this one of the bigger milestones another thing, as well as getting the confidence on resumes and interviewing I do review resumes and I do perform mock interview.

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Greg Trujillo: So, with all of this together, I think this also helps to build the confidence of the student at the end and I think that just give them something that to look forward to start applying for jobs and things like that.

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Diane Marin: yeah you hit on three things I hear a lot of mentors share with me is or students share with me that.

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Diane Marin: That mentors have build their confidence held them accountable and reviewed their resume or done practice interview, and that goes a long way because you're sitting you're potentially sitting at a company where they want to work at so you have a resume that got you hired.

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Diane Marin: And then also to you know it's always helpful to have someone to do a mock interview with to you know get rid of some of those nerves

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Diane Marin: or better prepare to answer some of those harder questions that you've already answered in an interview, or you know that are coming because you, you have been there.

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Diane Marin: So thank you so much for sharing that.

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Diane Marin: Also, too, I always like to celebrate you know milestones that you're proud of, and that you have achieved in your career, what milestones would you like to share with the audience today as you're moving through your career?

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Greg Trujillo: yeah Thank you, I think one of the milestones that stands out the most is when I first transfer from my first job from aerospace to Abum.

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Greg Trujillo: this is a milestone is because, like I said i'm the first person to graduate from college so.

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Greg Trujillo: When I first got that job I felt like I was drafted into the NFL like it's so great, you know I wasn't selling sunglasses anymore i'm going to be professional and all the thing.

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Greg Trujillo: But towards the end of my career in the aerospace industry, I was really thinking that there's more out there and I wasn't really sure what it was, but I did have the confidence to kind of look and see and kind of figure out what I wanted.

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Greg Trujillo: And being able to understand that I needed something different, and to change companies, I think that was a huge milestone, because that really show that I was growing.

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Greg Trujillo: I wasn't you know not confident anymore, and my abilities, all these different things and

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Greg Trujillo: being able to transfer that first job, I think, was one of the biggest milestones because that's what actually launched me into really focusing on designing.

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Greg Trujillo: And that's where the core of my professionalism is in mechanical designing, so I think that that right there was one of the biggest things that i'll be able to achieve as I continue my career to where i'm at now.

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Diane Marin: Yeah and I just want to celebrate that with you, you you just lit up as you shared and you know it's you said it again it's back to that confidence. You know mentors and

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Diane Marin: working on that continuous growth can help take you to that next job and that that next level and and i'm sure the support that you got from different people has helped you move forward, especially since you've been voluntary with our organization for for about seven years now.

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Diane Marin: What advice would you give your college self?

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Greg Trujillo: That's a great question! The advice I would give my call itself is to enjoy college, a lot more.

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Greg Trujillo: I feel that I was very focused on I guess just the day in, day out, but just really understanding, this is where you're kind of getting your educational foundation so just to be able to reach out more to clubs and do all these other things that I felt like I didn't do in college.

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Greg Trujillo: I would say I should probably have joined some more clubs and things like that definitely just for the fact house with networking.

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Greg Trujillo: As well as just kind of your interaction with a bunch of different types of people and that's something that I didn't do but uh yeah we're definitely in my top five.

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Diane Marin: Yeah, definitely getting involved in clubs is important and connecting with your Community because they can be your network and a source of support throughout your life or as you move forward.

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Diane Marin: What words of encouragement, would you give to you know, students and mentors that are just not sure about mentoring and should I do it doesn't make sense, is it worth my investment of time?

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Greg Trujillo: yeah I would say, do it it's definitely worth the investment of time I think it's so great, to give back to students, as well as just the community in general.

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Greg Trujillo: With me working with students, you know it's really helped for me to find potential internship for students.

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Greg Trujillo: As well as even entry level positions and things like that so it's a two way street definitely I mean you learn from the students, as well as them learn from you.

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Greg Trujillo: And as i've kind of grown through this program, I could definitely tell that i'm not a college student anymore and it's really nice to make that connection back with college students, just to kind of get that fresh insight again there's definitely a two way street, I think, both parties.

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Greg Trujillo: Definitely get something something out of it.

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Diane Marin: Yeah, thank you for bringing that up because oftentimes we may think of mentoring as a one way.

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Diane Marin: But as you shared it's a two way street and I hear that from other mentors as well that, yes, you're sharing your expertise and your knowledge but you're also learning from the students and

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Diane Marin: hearing about what's going on at SDSU and just getting excited about you know the great things that are are happening out there and being able to encourage students along their path and along their career journey as well, so

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Diane Marin: I appreciate you saying that because i've heard other mentor say it's a two way street.

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Diane Marin: Well, as we close today any other words of wisdom or advice you'd like to share with our audience today?

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Greg Trujillo: What I would like to share is for the students, I would say, please focus join, and I think and, as such a great program not every school offers this.

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Greg Trujillo: Talking with colleagues, a lot of people wish they had this at their college and wish they had this opportunity I think it's a great Program.

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Greg Trujillo: From what I participated in with different you know programs with AMP the mentor is they're all 100% and as well as a student.

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Greg Trujillo: So it's a great program, I think, the more we get all kind of participate in this, the better we can make SDSU in the long run and it'd be something that other colleges will hopefully look to us to be able to provide at their school but it's it's definitely an Aztec Program.

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Diane Marin: Terrific! Well Greg it was just so good, to talk to you today to hear your story and

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Diane Marin: just reminders of you know mentoring can help build our confidence and it's a two way street, and you know just the excitement that comes.

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Diane Marin: As you move through your career the continuous learning and then growth just the growth that comes with it, and you know for the students to know they don't have to do it alone there are SDSU

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Diane Marin: alumni and aztecs that have been where they've been and that are willing to support you review your resume and do a mock interview and

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Diane Marin: are happy to talk to you and learn from you as well, so thank you so much for your time and your commitment to the aztec mentor program and returning back to SDSU.

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Greg Trujillo: Yeah, thank you, yeah, it's been my pleasure yeah Thank you.

 

 

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Diane Marin: Hey Mariana, how are you?

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): Hi i'm good, how are you?

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Diane Marin: Good! Well, I just want to welcome you to our AMPed life podcast mentoring, momentum, and milestones and I am just so excited to introduce you to our audience today to hear about your story about mentoring momentum and milestones to can you share more about who you are?

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): Yeah, so I am a recent graduate from San Diego State, I graduated in December of 2021. So a little bit more about me

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): SDSU was always my dream school both my parents went here, they got their undergrad and their masters here.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): And then both of my grandparents worked on campus my grandma worked in you know nursing, she was a nurse and then my grandpa worked with a

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): he's a locksmith. So both my parents were very involved SDSU, so I just knew I wanted to come here and it just felt like home so.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): It's been really great! I graduated with a degree in journalism, with an emphasis in media studies and then a minor in leadership development. Then during my time at state I got to

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): work out a bunch of different offices, which was really fun, especially career services so that was great. I got a chance to have two mentors the which really helped me kind of transition from

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): as i'm still transitioning from graduating college and then into my career.

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Diane Marin: Awesome! Well, Thank you so much for sharing it you and one of the reasons I wanted to share your story was because you have a legacy here at SDSU and it's just so

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Diane Marin: fun to hear all the people in your family that have gone through us through SDSU and that's what drew you to SDSU, so can you share a little bit about how mentoring has supported you in your career journey?

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): Yeah so when I started the segment or program I still wasn't really sure what I wanted to do.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): I knew I wanted to do something in social media marketing or digital marketing or something like that so just being able to connect with my first mentor and kind of use her

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): As a guide to be like "Okay, what do you do like day to day? what are some projects that you work on what work have you done?"

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): We really started to connect when she showed me a project, she was working on it and it was had to do with photography and it had to do with

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): thinking of the layout of this or that. And that really kind of helped me envision you know what I would be doing after graduation and the type of job I would

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): want to be doing, and then the second mentor I had really helped me 

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): transitioning to full time and i'm still making my transition into full time work, but um yeah both of them were great and they really helped me, you know get over the fear of not being in school anymore.

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Diane Marin: And they love that you said that they shared about what they do, because so often, we may have an idea of what someone does, but when someone kind of

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Diane Marin: gives you that perspective or that insight that could help you

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Diane Marin: better figure out what your next step is. It sounds like to they believed in you and I know I hear from a lot of students, that it makes a difference when they have someone

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Diane Marin: You know, believing in them and listening and encouraging them as they're trying to figure out what's next is it in this transition from you know college to career.

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Diane Marin: So I know a little bit about you, but I know, in general, these times have not been easy, what gives you momentum to move forward as you're transitioning and trying to figure out the next steps in your career?

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): Yeah so during my leadership development minor in the classes, I was taking in some of the activities, I got to do there was a presentation by Dr Gates. Shout out to Dr Gates.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): It was about finding your leadership, why so to me what I took away from it was

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): you know if i'm going to be working full time I would love to be working for a company that I believe in, or a cause that I believe in and like take away the money take away everything else, like Why would I want to be

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): working at that specific place so that really helped me kind of understand that I would love to work, for you know, like the San Diego or sorry.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): I would love to work for the San Diego humane society, I would also love to work at the San Diego food bank and I have connections there and we're looking at hopefully getting me

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): maybe a full time position soon. Or just something like that, where you know I would be working towards a mission that I believe in.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): And then also just with these very weird times that

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): we're living through just thinking about "Okay, what type of career do I want to do? and what will that enable me to do outside of work?"

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): Like what do I like to do outside of work do I do, I like to go on a picnic or enjoy nature or do all these things so i'm just kind of keeping it in perspective that

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): you know, a career is great. I would really love to work for a company that I believe in and do something I love, but also finding the balance of

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): doing things for me so like, for example, I just started a photography certificate that i'll be finishing this semester, and that was really for me and something that I passed my mentors to

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): give their opinions on and they said, "you know it'd be great it would really complement your work, and it would help you do things that would combine photography and social media" which are two things you want to do so.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): I think just keeping a balance of doing what you want to do, but then also helping a company that you believe in I think that's super important in that really motivates me.

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Diane Marin: Yeah and thank you for sharing the that leadership minor and that why and how that's really

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Diane Marin: giving you a chance to reflect and consider. You also mentioned balance, too, and I know that might be hard to strike as a student or as you're transitioning so it's so great to hear that you have mentors

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Diane Marin: to encourage you, and support you so that you can learn that balance early on, as opposed to as you're older, because I know that will help you thrive, as you continue.

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Diane Marin: Any other words of advice for students as they're about to graduate and things you may or may not consider, but now know as you're currently transitioning?

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Mariana Minjares (she/her):Yeah I think you know, one of the things I was really grateful for, or all the experience that I did throughout college and I know you can't go back and do things.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): You know that you may be wanted to do, but just maybe thinking back in recalling things that you could put on your resume or things that you get help

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): targeted towards your career and even if you don't eat didn't join a lot of clubs or you didn't have a lot of work experience.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): I would say just finding things to compliment you as you transition from college to career so, whether that be micro internships, I know, career services has

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): a page on their website about micro internships or taking classes on linkedin and getting a certificate on linkedin.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): Just doing different things like that, and maybe even like exploring things that

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): It doesn't don't really fit into your major what you've got your degree in.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): And I think that would be really beneficial because, like I said i'm in the photography certificate, but one of the classes i'm also taking is ceramics so just

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): doing ceramics for three hours today and just working towards that goal of getting the certificate was it's really fun and it's a good balance like I said so any sort of thing like that.

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Diane Marin: Yeah, thank you for that reminder, you know school is important, but you also want to balance that with things you love or things you're interested to figure out how that can complement your next job

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Diane Marin: moving forward.

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Diane Marin: What milestones can we celebrate with you today, I know i'm sure graduating was a big one, and I know you've achieved a few things that you showed them, but what milestones can we celebrate with you as you move forward?

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): yeah good question um i'm still looking forward to graduating in May, so my family's going to have a party for me that Sunday, when I graduate and it will kind of be full circle.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): I think, and then completing that photography certificate in June will be awesome but then also just looking for full time job is for me right now i'm working part time and

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): doing that with my photography certificate and i've been going to interviews and applying for full time jobs so.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): You know i'm really looking forward to the day I get a full time job, and I can start saving money and then get my own place that would be

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): really awesome, but I think everyone should celebrate you know little milestones here and there, especially because we've been living through a pandemic and there's so many different things going on. So

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): just just celebrating the small things I think is important.

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Diane Marin: Yeah I hear you definitely we can celebrate our life, our health, and you know it sounds like you've had mentors that have been in your life to support you and how exciting and to look forward to graduation and the party with your family.

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Diane Marin: What words of advice would you offer to mentors and mentees that you know aren't really sure about

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Diane Marin: mentoring and the impact that it might have

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Diane Marin: In their lives?

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): I mean you kind of never know what you're going to get out of a mentor because everyone is so different.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): But I think, no matter who you have are no matter if they're in your specific they were in your major or they have the exact job you want, or if they have a completely different job.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): Everybody has a different story and everyone has got to where they are today through different you know pathways that they maybe didn't envision for themselves so

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): i've just been doing a lot of career chats even now i'm just asking people like "hey, can I ask you about how you got to where you are?"

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): And a lot of them are like Oh, I never thought I would be doing this, but I said "yes to this opportunity" and I said yes to this, so I think just listening to

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): everyone's sort of different pathways and advice, everyone has different advice to give and I think it's really valuable to listen to a lot of different perspectives.

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Diane Marin: yeah great advice, and I know you mentioned career chats or another word is you know informational interviews where you have a chance to learn

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Diane Marin: from someone who is in a company or an industry or doing something that you're interested and better understanding what they're doing and

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Diane Marin: listening. You know it sounds like you're actively listening and taking it and and that's going to help you figure out figure out what's what's next in your story.

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Diane Marin: And for students, why you know what advice, do you have for the students? I know

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Diane Marin: students are often wondering why these why these amazing alumni and professionals, want to help them what would you tell students so they're not quite sure what what should they be doing or considering?

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): yeah there's there's so many opportunities Su Su and colleges in general, and I think even before I started working at career services, I really didn't take advantage of

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): the services that they provide, and I think after being there for almost a year and using the resources they're super super valuable and you can even use them as a graduate to but i'm

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): just taking advantage of your resources going to club meetings getting more involved in clubs, I know it was difficult.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): With the pandemic, but just doing anything fun like that that you can and remembering that these resources are here for you and you pay for them, and you know they're really going to help you.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): With your career or learning new skills or anything like that so and I kind of miss it, you know, being in graduate like oh i'm not on campus anymore like I can't just pop into

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): Diane's office and say hi and asked her about this mentor to 

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): or stuff like that, so I think just taking advantage of things, while you're there because when you're there you feel like you're always going to have these resources but you're not so, I think, taking advantage of the resources are really important.

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Diane Marin: Terrific! Well, you said it best you know don't not only take advantage of mentoring, but the resources and we do have some great career resources and SDSU and just some great resources in general, so.

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Diane Marin: Mariana, Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today, and we look forward to celebrating your graduation as well and hearing from you in the future about

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Diane Marin: photography or seeing a beautiful picture that you posted on photography and we just wish you the best and just thank you for encouraging us and encouraging our students and mentors to take advantage to take a chance and

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Diane Marin: Get encouraged by this mentoring experience, so thank you so much.

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Mariana Minjares (she/her): yeah definitely thanks for having me.

 

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Diane Marin: Hi Dave! How are you?

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Dave Turis: Hi Diane, nice to see you!

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Diane Marin: Good to see you too well! I just want to welcome you to our AMPed Life podcast: mentoring momentum and milestones, i'm so excited to speak with you today to share your story and have people learn more about you.

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Dave Turis: Cool! Sounds good i'm excited too!

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Diane Marin: So, David tell us more about you!

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Dave Turis: More about me so well, a graduate from San Diego State in 2001 that year also got married on a TV show called Surprise Wedding so you know we can go anywhere, you want to go here there's a lot going on here.

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Dave Turis: Yeah, I currently work for an amazing company called Yamaha.

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Dave Turis: I think you've heard of that company before, we make amazing instruments to create more music makers in the world, so really love, what I do here.

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Dave Turis: Married obviously i'm surprised letting last 2022 years now have a 19 year old daughter, and a seven year old son, so you know life's good.

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Diane Marin: Yeah it sounds like it you have a interesting wedding story too.

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Diane Marin: So, yeah so tell us a little bit more about that, because that kind of peeked my curiosity.

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Dave Turis: Okay, i'll give you though the watered down version here. Okay, so I met my future wife in Las Vegas all right, she lived in Wichita, Kansas, I lived in San Diego. Six months later, I was brought on a TV show called surprise wedding.

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Dave Turis: Where the woman asked the man to marry them on National TV was on fox channel 6 there and yeah it's been a love story ever since I got married and moved to Dallas Texas, after a year in San Diego.

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Dave Turis: Started raising a family and came back to seal beach, California about about eight years ago. So yeah back in Socal attending

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Dave Turis: you know, San Diego state basketball games and football games and trying to be more involved in my community and and to school and university that gave me my profession my start in life so yeah that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

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Diane Marin: Terrific, thank you for sharing so it's so good to hear that you are still connected with SDSU and a mentor in the Aztec mentor program so

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Diane Marin: tell me more about what mentoring means to you?

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Dave Turis: Yeah you know about four years ago, I wanted to be more involved with San Diego state and because I became

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Dave Turis: a local again I was here for the last four years, and I really wanted to get more involved with sending the state and give back to my community.

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Dave Turis: And one of the best ways to give back was to be a mentor with the graduate program so I signed up you guys were awesome and got me started and i've mentored about four

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Dave Turis: students now. And you know it just it feels really good giving back and giving some guidance and some leadership to

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Dave Turis: folks that are trying to get into the workforce and trying to break through and get a career, you know when you're when you're in college the

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Dave Turis: number one thing you're you're really thinking about and stressing about is what am I going to do next, with my life, and you know finding a career that you want to go into is hard enough.

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Dave Turis: You know, I was a major a liberal studies major so I actually my career path was going to be in teaching in third grade.

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Dave Turis: I did it for a week and I was like after I graduated you know the kid thing you know 22 years old, I don't know this wasn't really working out for me, so I got into sales and then you know that's another story, but

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Dave Turis: yeah I wanted to give back to my Alma mater and that was the best way I could think of doing that living about 90 miles away from San Diego state and it's been super rewarding for me to you know give some guidance and some structure to some of our graduates.

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Diane Marin: Awesome, that is, that is so good to hear, but I am curious you have peeked my curiosity about how you go from

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Diane Marin: teaching third graders to sales, since that is great, and you do have the liberal the liberal studies background so tell us more about that transition or that decision to go from teaching to sales.

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Dave Turis: Yeah you know well you know you're doing your student teaching and at that point that reality sets in and oh boy i'm in this for the long haul like this is going down the next 40 years i'm going to be an educator and a teacher and I really wanted to get into administration and

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Dave Turis: take that route, but first, you have to put in work and become a teacher. Well I started reevaluating myself as being a teacher and how impactful I would be because I did not want to just have a job to have a job, and you know, being a teacher is probably the most admirable

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Dave Turis: you know profession that you can be in and just working with kids I really loved it.

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Dave Turis: However, I got a summer job in sales and I worked for a cell phone company, and you know how that goes, you see a Commission check versus you know how you're working with

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Dave Turis: being a teacher and it wasn't making sense and adding up to me and I was putting in 16 hour days as a teacher and I could put in five hours

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Dave Turis: working in sales and make the same amount of money, and so you know not trying to discourage anybody here with.

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Dave Turis: You know not picking a day to be a teacher, for your professional but it just wasn't in my cards at that time and I recognize that early in my career that

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Dave Turis: I wanted to do some other things, I wanted to travel as well and teaching really didn't let me travel 

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Dave Turis: you know, during the season or during the Semester so that's how I got into sales and you know career path took off and i'm at where i'm at today because of my experience as a teacher at with San Diego state.

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Diane Marin: Wonderful good to hear! So it's just good for our listeners, to know that you know you can start in one path, but reevaluated and figure out what makes the most sense to you.

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Dave Turis: Absolutely, you know and it's really important to get that degree right so you're at San Diego state your number one mission should be got you have to graduate get that degree and then see where life takes you see what interests you.

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Diane Marin: Yeah yeah and you mentioned something about mentoring being super rewarding and can you share more about that, because I know, sometimes it's hard for students to make that commitment, or you know it's more work for you as a working professional.

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Diane Marin: How has that been rewarding so we can encourage others to

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Diane Marin: take that opportunity?

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Dave Turis: Well, I graduated in 2001 and I didn't have an opportunity to have someone mentor me, and let me know hey your resume it doesn't Look how it should look in the you know you need to have a

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Dave Turis: really substantial resume when you're applying for jobs, no one really talked to me about interviewing I wasn't aware of how to interview, so I go into my first couple interviews and totally bombed because I wasn't

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Dave Turis: trained properly with that. So I take that

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Dave Turis: from a perspective of I wish I had something someone like that to mentor me, and so, when I did get the call to be a mentor and I do have conversations with with students that's what it's about it's about.

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Dave Turis: You know how does your resume look what profession, you want to get into let's talk about interviewing are you familiar with interviewing this isn't you know you're not interviewing for

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Dave Turis: Annies pretzels you're interviewing for major corporations. So you have to act accordingly, we have to

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Dave Turis: prepare you for that so that's what I mean by that satisfaction getting a phone call going hey I got that internship. Thank you so much, oh my gosh you've got the internship you know program amazing good job or hey you know I just one of my last mentees.

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Dave Turis: She was on she got a job at fashion week New York fashion week and we did a lot of prepping and resume.

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Dave Turis: Building there, and when she got that I felt like I got the the internship at New York fashion week right so that's what I mean by satisfaction.

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Dave Turis: Just getting somebody else an opportunity to helping them get an opportunity to go to their dreams, where their dreams are and help them be an avenue or bridge to that is really satisfying for me so that's what I meant by that.

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Diane Marin: Yeah, thank you for sharing and it's a great to hear your story and how your mentees successes are in somewhat in turn in your successes, because you have contributed 

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Diane Marin: to that

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Dave Turis: that's right.

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Dave Turis: yeah.

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Diane Marin: So I know it's not easy being you know, a mentor or a mentee sometimes, especially during these you know, often challenging times what gives you momentum to move forward.

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Dave Turis: In these challenging times, or as being a mentor?

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Dave Turis: that's right.

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Dave Turis: Well, you know i'm pretty self motivated to begin with and i'm an impasse, I really like helping people and working around people that are you know that have my

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Dave Turis: type of temperament and my goals and my dreams, so I try to surround myself, obviously with my family but with my friends to my colleagues I go to like minded people.

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Dave Turis: You know I really want to make an impact in the world, so you know, being a mentor for me checks that box it really does.

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Dave Turis: So you know what motivates me on a daily basis is obviously family but being a good citizen and you know I work for an amazing company called Yamaha I mentioned that.

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Dave Turis: But you know our tagline is to "make more music makers" and there's nothing more beautiful in the world and music and you know children seeing, children dance, and children play music, and adults.

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Dave Turis: You know it's a common bond that we can all have and i'll share and enjoy and we you know rejoice in music so that's what motivates me on a daily basis, just being a good person and seeing other people be successful that's you know that that kind of does it for me.

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Diane Marin: Yeah I, and I can feel it, and I can hear it, that's and what a great motivator I know music always uplifts my soul and you know puts me.

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Diane Marin: in mind says so, what a great reminder in.

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Diane Marin: How awesome that you have found a sales position at a company that that does that.

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True.

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Dave Turis: that's right.

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Diane Marin: And what milestones have you been you shared a little bit about some of the milestones you've been able to achieve with your mentees

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Diane Marin: Anything else you would like to share with us just to encourage our audience or

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Diane Marin: A dance to continue to move forward?

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Dave Turis: Absolutely, and continue to take advantage of programs like this that are offered.

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Dave Turis: On campus and to San Diego state and I encourage you to be involved because

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Dave Turis: a community that supports each other that gives back to each other and uplift each other as a thriving thriving community.

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Dave Turis: And that benefits all individuals so number one just be a good person can be a good human being, I think that will help a lot of of what's going on in the world today.

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Dave Turis: And you know be empathetic and and you know donate your time as well everyone's had a gift of you know time is valuable so.

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Dave Turis: If you have that time, and you can afford to spare 30 minutes out of your week or an hour out of your mind or whatnot I encourage you to do that and any students that are listening.

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Dave Turis: I would really strongly encourage you to take advantage of all the programs that are offered at San Diego state, because when you do become

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Dave Turis: In your late 20s early 30s late 30s you're going to want to look back and go hey I gave it all I gave 100% and you don't want to have any regrets of any programs that you did or did not participate in so.

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Dave Turis: You know this mentor program i've seen it firsthand be extremely successful as long as the student is matching the mentors you know dedication, so you know take advantage students you guys got this you know.

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Dave Turis: This is it.

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Diane Marin: Yeah and yeah, thank you for the those words of encouragement because it's just making that time, and when you make that time whether you're a mentor or mentee you never know that you can plan that internship or that job and fashion week and then also expand your network with other.

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Diane Marin: Alumni.

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Dave Turis: yeah you make those connections you never know who that mentor or that mentor is going to be so, you know I had a 

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Dave Turis: boss one one time tell me that you never know who that person that you're talking to could be just a quick story I did pharmaceutical sales.

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Dave Turis: Back in the day and I was in an elevator with a gentleman, and he was old I mean this guy it was in a doctor's office, so he had to be in his late 80s or whatnot.

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Dave Turis: And I helped I sent you know I agree to them as he came into the elevator I helped him and I opened the door for him, I actually walked into his car and help them help them get in and I called it a day.

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Dave Turis: Well, it turned out that that gentleman that I helped was the ex president of the pharmaceutical suitable company that I was working for.

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Dave Turis: And that actually elevated me into promotion all sorts of stuff so you just never know the moral the story is you never know who you are talking to

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Dave Turis: and treat everybody with kindness and respect and i'm telling you those connections that you make band that you're just talking about being a mentor you know you can go a long way in life with those connections those lifelong connections.

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Diane Marin: Yeah you're you're so right, and you know I tell students sometimes you you never know it could be an asset for life connection, you know, and I have no mentors and mentees

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Diane Marin: are still friends today or I have mentors calling me up and saying I lost touch with the student, but I have a job opening and can you help reconnect us or

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Diane Marin: you know, some people have met there you know the loves of their life at the at the university or referred by a fellow aztec. So thank you for

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Dave Turis: that's right.

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Diane Marin: reminders how being a good person could potentially elevate you or promote you.

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Dave Turis: Company that's right yeah and you know you know our assets that are listening, you know you're 2021 years old, you don't you don't really know what you don't know right so again treat everybody with kindness.

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Dave Turis: And you know good things will happen to you along the way, but yeah super excited to be a part of your program I really am.

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Diane Marin: yeah it's just so terrific to that you have even though you're a little bit away you still find time to come out to a game and enjoy some of the stuff that's happening here at SDSU.

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Dave Turis: Yeah yeah I have a season tickets for basketball, so you know we come down I try to make at least 10 trips down to San Diego for basketball game and I go.

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Dave Turis: To football games I go to the alumni section, we have a blast and you know it's just fun, so you know when you do graduate take advantage of some of these programs because you're going to be an ass tech for life, so you know take advantage have some fun and build connections.

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Diane Marin: Right and another thing you reminded me of is you don't have to live in San Diego to participate.

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Diane Marin: Just a reminder to you know our students and our mentors you can live in a different city, you can live in a different country because you know, thanks to technology, you can still stay connected, but if you're nearby you can also come down so you may have a

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Diane Marin: mentor in long beach or orange county.

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Diane Marin: But you know if they come down what a great opportunity to connect with them in person as well.

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Dave Turis: And they have alumni chapters across the United States, so when I lived in plano Texas, as I mentioned, I lived there for for 12 years I was part of the San Diego state alumni chapter of the southeast so.

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Dave Turis: Absolutely, you can you can still network, when you move out of California and I went to a couple I went to a basketball game at the University of Kansas against San Diego state and I went with the alumni association so.

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Dave Turis: You can absolutely still feel connected, even if you don't live in the 619 so.

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Diane Marin: Terrific and then you mentioned one more thing network tell me what that means to you and how has your now war, how do you move forward in your career?

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Dave Turis: Yeah the network to the network is that what we're talking about here.

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Dave Turis: I was kidding yeah networking is huge so number one obviously linkedin for professionals is a huge way to start building your your own personal brand.

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Dave Turis: I'm not on Twitter, or you know Facebook or instagram, but I do belong to, I do join linkedin linkedin and and have great connections there, so we do that any mixers or.

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Dave Turis: Anything that can do that's involved with San Diego state within the orange county area I tried to do that and just networking in your your career and profession, so I mentioned, I work with yamaha i'm also in several chapters as ambassadors around long beach and.

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Dave Turis: orange county so making those types of connections it's vital to not only your

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Dave Turis: success in your career, but also as an individual I made several lifelong friends,

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Dave Turis: networking, and connecting.

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Dave Turis: So yeah I think it's a must if you want to have if that's the path you want to take and and have

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Dave Turis: success in what career and if you're going to be a teacher, you're going to have to network with other teachers, if you want to be a doctor you're gonna be networking with other doctors that's just how it works so.

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Dave Turis: Get used to it when you're young because, as you get older it'll you'll see the benefits and if you're older and you haven't done that start doing that you know  you'll make a friend, or you make a

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Dave Turis: connection for life, so you know I preach all the time connect connect connect connect.

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Diane Marin: Yes, yes, and I hear you i'm a connector and I enjoy connecting with alumni with students or with just anyone on a personal or professional level it just reminds you're not alone and

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Diane Marin: people want to be in Community and I don't know about you, but in most cases, people want to help or give back or

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Diane Marin: You never know who they know and how that might you know move you personally or professionally forward.

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Dave Turis: Absolutely absolutely hundred percent agree there!

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Diane Marin: So, as we close out our interview today any

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Diane Marin: last words of encouragement or advice for our audience?

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Dave Turis: Yeah you know just take advantage of the programs that are offered to you because, once you do leave San Diego state you're in the real world really.

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Dave Turis: And you know this, this could be your safety net and your launch pad to your next career or meeting your future future spouse or friendship so.

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Dave Turis: I guess my one advice would be get involved stay involved and give you know your

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Dave Turis: you know, give it 100% every single day and everything that you do and good things will happen for sure.

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Diane Marin: Terrific! Thank you Dave so much it was so great to

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Diane Marin: learn more about story here about

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Dave Turis: talking to.

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Diane Marin: momentum and milestones have impacted your life, and thank you so much for just encouraging our audience to be kind to human beings.

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Diane Marin: With right plug into their communities and not to be afraid of networking, so thank you so much!

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Dave Turis: And not scary i'm telling

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Diane Marin: It doesn't have to

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Dave Turis: Thank you Diane!

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Diane Marin: That's right! Wonderful Thank you so much!

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Dave Turis: Okay, you got it have a great day!

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Dave Turis: You too bye!

 

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Diane Marin: Hi Megan! How are you?

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Megan Guardado: I'm good, how are you?

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Diane Marin: Good! Welcome to our AMPed Life podcast mentoring, momentum, and milestones and today I look forward to talking to you Megan Guardado about your AMP experience and how mentoring has helped you achieve some momentum and milestones. Welcome!

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Megan Guardado: Thank you for having me!

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Diane Marin: Yeah so Megan tell us about your story because it's a good one, so I can't wait for our audience to hear about it.

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Megan Guardado: So I graduated from San Diego State in 2021 with my bachelor's in nursing and through San Diego state I connected with my mentor Matthew Donohoe.

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Megan Guardado: Because Covid really impacted my clinical experience at the hospitals in San Diego. I felt that I wasn't necessarily going to be prepared to move on to real world nursing when I graduated.

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Megan Guardado: So I called my local hospital my hometown adventist health Simi Valley and left a message didn't expect to hear anything back, but just wondering about maybe an internship or a job opportunity, just to gain more clinical experience before you know I reached my graduation point.

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Megan Guardado: So, but two and a half to three weeks later, I get a random phone call one day from an 805 number, I'm like I'll just answer the phone.

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Megan Guardado: And it's Matthew Donohoe, he said he really connected with me because he went to San Diego state as well, and he was a part of the aztec mentor program so we connected.

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Megan Guardado: Instantly because of that, you know shared

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Megan Guardado: experience and ever since then he was able to get me a job as a nursing assistant last summer.

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Megan Guardado: And now, he was able to get me my first job as an RN at the hospital and the connection really was it just worked out so perfectly and i'm so thankful for it.

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Diane Marin: Yeah no, thank you for sharing with our audience and

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Diane Marin: it's just so great to hear that you took that risk to to reach out to someone you didn't know but it sounds like that risk really paid off. And it connected you

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Diane Marin: to a fellow alumni and reconnected you through through SDSU and that is so wonderful to hear so tell us a little bit more because

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Diane Marin: how did you get that internship? I mean you know you obviously talk to them, but you must have had to apply or what did that process look like.

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Megan Guardado: Yeah so in September 2020 was when I first heard back from Matthew and we connected through the Aztec mentor program basically we we have monthly phone calls and just kind of went over

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Megan Guardado: what to expect at the hospital because originally I was trying to get an internship for Labor and delivery and then about i'd say march 2021 I get a phone call from him and he's totally apologetic they don't do internships for Labor and delivery.

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Megan Guardado: So I asked him about the possibility of applying for a nursing assistant job and he said that that was a great idea, so I sent my application in and

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Megan Guardado: literally

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Megan Guardado: two hours later, I got a phone call from my old hiring manager. She's like i'd love to

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Megan Guardado: give you the opportunity for an interview, Matthews told me great things about you. At the time, she was also a fellow San Diego state alumni.

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Megan Guardado: She wasn't connected to the mentor program but she had that shared connection as well, and it was it's really interesting to see how

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Megan Guardado: aztec alum just are able to connect outside of San Diego especially.

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Megan Guardado: So yeah, I went through the interview process and was hired in a couple weeks and in May 2021 I started my job as a nursing assistant.

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Megan Guardado: Just a perdiem position just getting more experience and

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Megan Guardado: in August 2021, came back to San Diego and finished up my last Semester and

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Megan Guardado: December 2021 was when I graduated I reconnected with Matthew.

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Megan Guardado: And said Hey

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Megan Guardado: is my old hiring manager still hiring do you know I haven't really heard back from her so he reached out to her and she said, unfortunately she wasn't hiring so at that time, I felt very, very defeated.

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Megan Guardado: So i'm like well that was that kind of defeats the purpose of my work experience.

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Megan Guardado: And then, in January, when I was studying for my boards he emailed me and said there's another manager on a different floor the hiring here's her contact information i've already referred, you to her so she's expecting to hear back from you.

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Megan Guardado: So I reached out to her and got hired on that floor and so Matthew was a tremendous help through.

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Diane Marin: Wow congratulations and I love that it was more than one SDSU alum that you connected and outside of SDSU, and I think sometimes students feel like

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Diane Marin: I need someone here, but you know what we have SDSU mentors all over California, obviously in Simi Valley.

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Diane Marin: And all over the world, so you never know who you're gonna meet when you're out there and how great that you know aspects are connecting Aztec.

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Diane Marin: And referring you to hiring managers or thinking about you when an open position and that happens all the time, so I am so happy to share that your story with other so they can better understand how a mentor or an alum can help them.

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Diane Marin: So what advice would you give to students about finding a mentor because I know that can be you know a little scary?

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Megan Guardado: yeah I agree it is, it can be intimidating especially

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Megan Guardado: like for me, I was a little hesitant, because I was going through school at the peak of the pandemic, basically, and you know, I was like nobody's going to want me.

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Megan Guardado: It's going to be hard to find somebody to connect with through health care, because you know at the time, healthcare workers were getting so burnt out, and I mean they still are. But,

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Megan Guardado: you know, I was just I was worried about finding a connection, but my biggest piece of advice is to just take that chance because you never know who you're going to run into and who you're going to meet, and it really taught me

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Megan Guardado: to be a risk taker because before I was, I was more reserved and conservative in my ways of thinking and ways of doing things.

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Megan Guardado: From this experience it really allowed me to

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Megan Guardado: be more outgoing and more I keep saying the phrase risk taking, but that's really what it boils down to

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Megan Guardado: you know, even just something as simple as me being in line at the grocery store I strike up a conversation now with somebody in line and

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Megan Guardado: you know, sometimes I find out there from San Diego or when i'm at the hospital find out that my patients have family that lives in San Diego and they're very familiar with the San Diego state area so

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Megan Guardado: really just take that risk I can't emphasize that enough.

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Megan Guardado: yeah you never know.

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Diane Marin: Right, you took that rescue you never know you got it you got an internship you got a job and you met to SDSU alone.

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Diane Marin: And it just makes me think that it's just that growth, and you know you, you are better for it and it's, not just in your job, but it sounds like it's in life that you never know who that person is

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Diane Marin: in line or who your patient knows and how you might be able to you know build some support or a connection.

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Diane Marin: So what gives you momentum to move forward?

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Diane Marin: You're going into

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Diane Marin: a challenging a continuing challenging profession

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Diane Marin: and

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Diane Marin: you know we're still in a pandemic, so what gives you momentum?

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Megan Guardado: Yeah, well this kind of stems back to the reason why I wanted to become a nurse in the first place very personal story.

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Megan Guardado: When I was about seven or eight years old, my grandpa was diagnosed with alzheimer.

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Megan Guardado: So I mean when I was young, I didn't really know what that meant other than you know my grandpa was slowly losing his memory that's how I interpreted it.

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Megan Guardado: You know I didn't realize, there were other things that came with it, like the sun downing were at night he would become sort of aggressive and he would try to just leave the house and you know just like those little things you don't really register as a kid.

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Megan Guardado: But through it all he always remembered, who I was and my older cousin so we're the two oldest on my mom's side.

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Megan Guardado: So him and I had a very special relationship and I felt like I was able to help my grandma out through that tough time that she had.

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Megan Guardado: Even just you know sitting around having the same conversation with my grandpa over and over and over again when my grandma was preparing dinner just something as simple as that.

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Megan Guardado: I realized that nursing was my calling and in 2011 when he passed I

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Megan Guardado: made a promise to myself that I was going to follow through with this and I was going to become a nurse and do everything in his honor. On my toughest days, you know I just I think about him and I think

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Megan Guardado: you know i'm doing the right thing, I know that this is where I meant to be, and he helped me gain that momentum to carry through my toughest days.

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Diane Marin: Yeah Thank you so much for sharing that that personal story and it's it's beautiful just beautiful to hear that.

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Diane Marin: He made an impact in your life. 

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Diane Marin: That you can impact others sorry it's just beautiful.

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Diane Marin: to hear.

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Megan Guardado: Yeah it was it was a eye opening experience in my young childhood and you know i'm so glad that I ended up going through this because I tell everybody all the time I can't imagine doing anything else with my life and.

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Megan Guardado: The fact that I also have that purpose behind it really means a lot to me, and it means a lot to my family.

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Diane Marin: yeah well and you said to a I heard you say that in your hardest moments you remember him and you're doing it in his honor and

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Diane Marin: I mean that just goes to show your your passion and commitment and and that's what are probably is going to get you get you through some of the hardest days and then.

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Diane Marin: Also, I think back to those SDSU alum that you know you know that i'm sure it can go back to you because they're in the same profession and industry and understand what you might be going through, unlike others who may or may not.

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Megan Guardado: mm hmm yeah that comes in and checks in on me almost every shift just to see how i'm doing and.

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Megan Guardado: He knows as a new Grad it can be a little overwhelming sometimes he went into the nursing profession, a little later on in life than I did, but he knows how tough, it can be, and you know just having that connection with him and having him come in and check in on me means a lot to.

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Diane Marin: yeah that's that's so wonderful to have to have that to have network or to have community to support you.

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Diane Marin: On the good days, i'm sure or at on those more challenging days.

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Diane Marin: What milestones have you been able to achieve?

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Diane Marin: In these last few years, that you could share with us?

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Megan Guardado: yeah Well, yes, starting back in I applied to a bunch of nursing schools just everywhere getting into San Diego state was my biggest milestone at that point, because

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Megan Guardado: I didn't realize it at the time but come to find out there was only a 7% acceptance rate for the school of nursing directly out of high school.

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Megan Guardado: So that was a huge achievement and once once I realized that magnitude it that I was even more like impressed with myself, and you know, had a little celebration for that obviously committing to San Diego state was

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Megan Guardado: the best decision i've ever made.

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Megan Guardado: And then later on just really getting through each semester, especially once the pandemic hit and everything transferred online and my clinic goals were limited, it was just I kind of got into this.

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Megan Guardado: Like mentality just taking it day by day.

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Megan Guardado: You know each each day, whether it was a good day or a bad day I got through the day.

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Megan Guardado: So those those little victories that may not seem like a lot, but they they added up to these big victory of you know finishing nursing school and graduating.

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Megan Guardado: And then, of course, moving on and getting passing my boards becoming a licensed registered nurse and getting my first job I mean.

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Megan Guardado: It all it's crazy that that all happened in a span of four years so.

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Diane Marin: Yeah well congratulations, yes, I was going to say the nursing program is i've heard difficult to get in so you know so much to celebrate from from getting in.

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Diane Marin: To graduating you know, to the taking advantage of the mentor program and getting an internship and job and

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Diane Marin: you mentioned something that I think is really important it's not just about

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Diane Marin: those big bigger milestones but you said you started to take it day by day. Can you share a little bit more about that? Because I think that's probably what got you through and is helping you maintain that momentum.

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Megan Guardado: Yeah I mean when the pandemic started, you know everyone's like okay we'll be back in two weeks we'll be back in two weeks, and then those two weeks were up and then it's like okay we're going to finish the Semester online maybe we'll be back next semester.

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Megan Guardado: Really once August 2020 hit that's when I kind of started getting into the mentality of "Okay, things are not going to be normal for a while."

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Megan Guardado: You know we're still majority of the school is still online I was thankful enough to at least go once a week to the hospital and you know get out of my apartment I had wonderful roommates that helped me through it my mentor helped me through a lot.

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Megan Guardado: But really I started, I had to sit down with myself, because I was starting to get very overwhelmed you know with Covid.

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Megan Guardado: At the time, if we got Covid we would fail our clinical trials and would fail or class that we'd have to be held held back a semester, or whatever, just to have to retake that clinical so I started to really reflect on.

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Megan Guardado: Little victories like I like to call them.

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Megan Guardado: Getting through each day completing an assignment.

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Megan Guardado: You know, really attending a lecture because, as we know, it's so hard to you know attend to lecture if it's online it's like okay well it's just online I don't need to go in person kind of thing.

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Megan Guardado: But I made it a point to always attend my lectures,

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Megan Guardado: get my assignments done on time, and those little things added up and really helped give me the momentum and push me through the online learning because I would much prefer as a lot of other people would in person learning.

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Megan Guardado: But yeah once I sat down and realize that those those little things really

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Megan Guardado: add up to become big things in life that's when I started shifting my mentality more to looking on the positive end of things and not just how everybody's getting sick around me people are dying.

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Megan Guardado: You know i'm going down that path.

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Megan Guardado: So yeah the

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Megan Guardado: sitting down with myself really was eye opening for for me at least, and I think a couple of at least some of the people that i've talked to you can relate to that.

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Diane Marin: yeah and I can relate to that I think oftentimes we don't leave that time for reflection, because maybe we're too busy or

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Diane Marin: we do some we were too busy, but I think it's when we can reflect and kind of do some soul searching that we figure okay.

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Diane Marin: Let's figure out how this can work and counting those victories, and like you said attending class or completed assignment and then also sounds like you have a Community around you as well, to support you and I know that definitely helps.

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Diane Marin: Whether it's a pandemic, or just in general to have people support you and check in with you and see how you're doing.

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Diane Marin: Any words of encouragement to share with students that may be on the fence about

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Diane Marin: having a mentor.

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Megan Guardado: Yeah,

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Megan Guardado: I would say just go for it if you're unsure apply see there's a way you can search up your

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Megan Guardado: like basically what you what you want to go into So for me

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Megan Guardado: Like you can type in nursing and it'll show up with all the mentors who are either in the nursing profession or in the healthcare profession and you can read a little bit about them and see you know who matches your personality.

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Megan Guardado: The best, and you know you never know you might find somebody that's able to get you that first job like I did or you might find somebody that will just even help you prepare for your first interview or help you write a resume.

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Megan Guardado: You know.

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Megan Guardado: Little things like that can lead to the bigger picture of getting you know your first job or you know, a job outside of college.

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Megan Guardado: Because it's hard getting that first job, at least for me it was hard, and you know I struggled with that and without the mentor program I don't know if I would have had a job as quickly as I did.

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Megan Guardado: But yeah my biggest piece of advice is just just go for it and don't don't be scared take that risk and just do it we're here to help.

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Diane Marin: Yes, yes, thank you, I agree, just go for it and and take that rescue you never know you could get an internship you could get a job or meet other aztecs.

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Diane Marin: What would you want to say to your mentor right now? or to other mentors that are out there that aren't sure if

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Diane Marin: mentoring to soon is right for them?

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Megan Guardado: Well, to my mentor specifically, I am very, very, very appreciative of everything he's done for me.

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Megan Guardado: You know, without Matt, 

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Megan Guardado: I can't stress this enough I don't I don't know where I would be he helped guide me through some of the toughest times in the pandemic he reassured me that you know I can get through nursing school I can do it.

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Megan Guardado: In my darkest days and having him there for me and now working with him that

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Megan Guardado: It it really means a lot that he's so supportive and so he was so welcoming from the beginning, he he just wanted to help he wanted to do whatever he could to.

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Megan Guardado: You know, give me the best opportunity of getting a job or an internship as he could and

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Megan Guardado: he did

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Megan Guardado: he went above and beyond, in my opinion

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Megan Guardado: and i'm so thankful for that, as far as other mentors being on the fence about you know, maybe wanting to do this or not.

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Megan Guardado: You can make a huge impact in somebody's life, whether whether you know it or not, you know just reaching out to somebody once a month and checking in and saying hey how are you doing even if there's not nothing more than just saying hey how are you.

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Megan Guardado: It that goes a long way

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Megan Guardado: you know, especially since now.

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Megan Guardado: We're finding after the pandemic there's a lot of

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Megan Guardado: depression a lot of anxiety out there, mental health issues.

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Megan Guardado: Just being there for somebody is more than enough, I feel like these days, too, so I would strongly encourage the mentors on the fence to just just reach out to somebody you never know who you're able to help.

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Diane Marin: Thank you, being in such a great reminder that just being there helps.

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Diane Marin: And you said it, you said it beautifully that.

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Diane Marin: Yeah you just said it beautifully so I just want to end by just celebrating you and your accomplishments and your achievements, so far, and I look forward to staying connected with you and just thank you Matt.

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Diane Marin: for making a difference in megan's life and just thank you SDSU alums for continuing to connect to each other and and students and just being there for her, and it makes a difference and makes an impact.

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Megan Guardado: Thank you so much!

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Diane Marin: Megan, Thank you so much, and I look forward to staying in touch!