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Instant inspiration

When Jennifer Ochoa was a high school senior at East Bakersfield High School, she says she was told by a counselor there that she wouldn’t make it past high school and probably wouldn’t earn a degree at a community college.

These words prompted the young Latina high school students gathered to hear Ochoa speak let out sighs of shock that echoed throughout the room, though the mutual eye-rolling in the crowd showed that many in the audience could relate to her all-too-common story.

“Sometimes, people — when they a see a young Latina girl — they instantly think all she’s going to do is drop out of school and become a teen mom,” said Priscilla Calvillo, 18, a student at North High School. “Some believe Latinas are quiet and inactive, especially in school activities, and won’t accomplish anything.

“I plan to go to college and become a nurse.”

Ochoa was one of the several speakers at the 12th Annual Latina Conference at California State University, Bakersfield May 9. More than 250 Latinas in their junior and senior years in high school attended the more than five-hour-long event.

The conference was sponsored by CSUB’s Latina sorority Theta Sigma Chi to empower young Latinas to finish high school and seek higher learning, no matter the roadblocks they might encounter.

Ochoa admitted to her young audience that, in fact, she was discouraged by her counselor’s words for about a month. During this time, she even put her hopes of going to college away.

Fortunately, she snapped out of it.

Ochoa, who went on to earn a Ph.D in psychology from Alliant International University,currently works for the Kern County Department of Mental Health as a therapist.

“When I graduated from college, I sent that counselor an invitation to my graduation with a note,” said Ochoa. “I wanted him to know that snapshot he had in his mind (about) how my life was going to be was wrong.”

As such, Ochoa urged the group of girls gathered at the Latina Conference not to let others choose their futures or define them.

The girls also participated in various workshops on topics like “Struggling to Succeed,” “From Students to Professionals,” “Empowered by Education” and “Self Defense.”

Students found the conference inspiring.

“I’m graduating, but my economics class is really tough, especially my teacher. This conference helped me see what’s out there aside from high school,” said Adriana Rivera, a student at North High School. “The organizers and speakers were really nice and helpful.”

Once Rivera graduates from high school, she also plans to go to college, possibly CSUB.

Members of Theta Sigma Chi are required to maintain active in the sorority’s activities, regardless if they’ve already graduated from CSUB.

“We got together and decided we needed something for the young Latinas, so we created a conference,” said Maria E. Delgado, founding mother of Theta Sigma Chi.

“We started out with like 25 or 29 students, and now we have more than 250 students here today. It’s great to see their faces the first time they’re on campus.”

Latina high school students from throughout Kern County were bused to and from CSUB to attend the event.

Radio station “The Groove” 93.3 FM provided music during their lunch break.
Another speaker, Dulce Hernandez, who currently works for Chevron as a facility engineer, told the girls to set goals and achieve them without letting their fears hold them back.

In her last two years of college, Hernandez transferred from CSUB to Fresno State to finish her engineering degree.

“Don’t let your fears hold you back. I was scared about moving away to Fresno and pursuing an engineering degree when there’s not that many women in that field,” said Hernandez. “If I would have let those fears hold me back, I would not be sitting here in front of you today.”


As we approach this year’s graduation season and celebrate all the wonderful success stories of our community’s young people moving on to bigger & better adventures in their educational lives, MÁS takes a look at just what makes the difference in a child’s learning potential.

We are launching the “MÁS Education Series” to provide families with the tools needed to map successful paths of their own. Our experts tell us that it’s never too early to start planting the seeds in our students that will grow into higher learning.

An emphasis on doing well from the preschool to kindergarten levels and into elementary and junior high, then high school, can only lead to even more opportunities at a university. And in today’s world, a degree opens the kinds of doors all parents want for their children.

From the private school option to taking the necessary steps toward college admission, our articles for this first part of our Education Series focus on how to find avenues for academic achievement and even more success stories that we will gladly share with MÁS readers in future graduation seasons.

So please read on and discover how you, too, can become a positive influence in a young person’s academic career.

We’d also love to hear about your own academic achievements and the role education has played in your life.

Share your thoughts by blogging about them on our Web site: www.masbakersfield.com

Remember, this is a topic valuable not only for our young people, our future leaders, but it’s also paramount to our community that education receive the time and devotion necessary to seeing it through to successful completion.

But then again, when does the act of learning ever really end?