Director Steven Neal and seniors during the Academic Community of Excellence Virtual Recognition Event.Top Row: Steven Neal, Gisselle Brambila, and Francesca Briones. Middle Row: Alexis Cordova, Lucie Everett, and Danielle Garcia. Bottom Row: Leonardo Garcia Cerecedo, Malcom Kam, and Kimberly Rodriguez.
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Director's Message
March is always a busy but fun month for ACE. On Friday, March 26, we celebrated students and alumni during our virtual ACE recognition event. At that time, we recognized all students for their hard work and persistence this semeseter. We celebrated the academic achievements of our continuing students and graduating seniors, and recent alumni. We also acknowledged two student staff members for their contributions and dedication to ACE. This newsletter features our seniors including their postgraduate educational and career plans. It also highlights the undergraduate and postcollege activities of an ACE alum. Congratulations to our students, recent alumni, and graduating staff!
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Congratulations to our Seniors
The ACE seniors entered the program in 2018 and 2019. We recognize them for their upcoming graduation and completion of their experience in ACE and each senior received a commemorative medallion (pictured above). The following are photos of each student and a brief description of their post-graduate plans.
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|  | Gisselle Brambila
After graduation, I will work as an emergency medical technician before applying to physician assistant school.
| |  | Francesca Briones
After graduating, I will begin a two-year fellowship with Teach For America, teaching secondary science in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.
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|  | Alexis Cordova
I will be teach elementary school in Las Vegas as a 2021 Teach For America corps member, while also earning my master's degree in education at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
| |  | Lucie Everett
Upon graduating, I look forward to traveling internationally using the language skills I have strengthened as an undergraduate at LMU and will apply to graduate school for fall 2022 to continue my studies in modern languages and history.
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|  | Danielle Garcia
In my pursuit of attending medical school to become a physician, I will dedicate the next year to a medical scribing fellowship.
| |  | Leonardo Garcia Cerecedo
I will participate in a 4+1 master’s degree program at LMU, studying health care systems engineering.
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Camille Grundy
Upon graduating, I will participate in a service opportunity teaching children before going on to a master's degree in social work program in the fall of 2021.
| |  | Malcom Kam
After graduating, I will pursue my J.D. at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai'i Mānoa.
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|  | Kimberly Rodriguez
After graduation, I will work before exploring graduate programs in educational psychology.
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ACE Senior Spotlight
Leonardo Garcia Cerecedo will graduate from LMU this spring. Originally from Mexico, now residing in San Jose, he is majoring in health and human sciences while minoring in biochemistry. He learned about ACE through his participation in the ACCESS program. Two ACCESS TAs, who were also part of ACE, spoke well of the program and influenced him to apply. Since joining, Leonardo stated that he benefited from the support he received with graduate school applications and the community of students who had the same interests as him. He recalled, “Growing up, I didn’t have any friends that wanted to … or aspired to go to college. My parents also didn’t go to college in the U.S. There’s been a lot of challenges that I’ve had to face when thinking about college.” However, he stated that ACE provided him with a community that encouraged his success.
As a student, Leonardo earned the ACE Outstanding Academic Achievement Award during his three years in the program. In terms of co-curricular involvement, he has worked part-time as a lab assistant in the Health and Human Sciences Department and served as its student liaison. He also participated in an observership/internship at Harbor-UCLA, where he shadowed various surgical and clinical specialties. He stated that this experience was a pivotal moment that solidified his decision to pursue a health care career. This spring, Leonardo began the master's degree program in health care systems engineering as part of LMU’s 4+1 program. Congratulations, Leonardo, on your collegiate achievements and graduate school acceptance!
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| ACE Alum Speaks on Career in Social Work
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In 2016, Marianna Hernandez graduated from LMU with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology. Afterward, she earned a master’s degree in social welfare with a concentration in social and economic justice from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Today, Marianna is a prevention manager with the Community Coalition of Los Angeles.
While attending LMU, what did you study?
I came in as a psychology major and always knew that I wanted to be in a helping profession, which stems from my background. I always had this notion of inequities and gaps that existed in the world, and I wanted to be able to help people one on one, getting through traumatic or abusive experiences that I had observed how they impacted people’s lives ... [By also majoring in sociology] I felt like I found what I was missing in psychology and it felt more relatable. We were studying people and their environment rather than just the person as an individual in isolation, so I double majored in psychology and sociology.
Please discuss some of your collegiate experiences that influenced your career interests.
Something I heard was that there are opportunities for students to expand their education beyond a bachelor’s degree. That was something that I think I knew [as] a first-generation college student, so I might have heard it, but I didn’t know much about it. That’s how I became involved in the ACE program and, later, the McNair Scholars program. For me, it was an opportunity for me to know and build a pathway for my next steps beyond LMU. Besides just the academic trajectory, I was also involved in the El Espejo mentoring program and that program confirmed my desire to continue to want to work with youth [within] the community to set an example for younger generations and create pathways.
Explain one or two of your most memorable experiences in graduate school.
I had the opportunity to participate in a weeklong trip around 2018 where the school arranged a program for us to volunteer at an immigration detention facility in Southern Texas. I had the opportunity to work with the families, hear their stories and help them to prepare for their hearing with the asylum officers. It was a very intense week, and it put a lot into perspective into what you hear on the news … It was a very heavy but also memorable experience.
What were the most meaningful or impactful aspects of your experiences in ACE? How did your participation in ACE contribute to your post-college activities?
All the resources and the wealth of knowledge that they shared with us. I remember having those assignments once a week where we had to do research on programs that we were interested in or connecting with professionals who were already in the field. Talking to our mentors, all of that was very helpful … It set me up on the path to go to graduate school. Maybe I would’ve ended up going to grad school had I not been in ACE or McNair, but it may have taken me longer, or I just would not have made an informed decision. It provided me the resources and the information to make a good selection. I was able to feel prepared for what I was going into.
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ACE Staff Eyeing Graduate School
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Maryela Mendoza started working for ACE in fall 2017. Originally from Montclair, she is studying civil engineering. She states, “There are a lot of skills that I would not have gotten from just LMU. It’s given me small tools that I can carry on to my postgrad, especially talking to the public and answering phone calls. Mr. Neal has been very helpful with resumes and cover letters. ACE has given me the necessary extra skills.”
Maryela intends to pursue a career in geotechnical engineering and has learned that a master's degree is necessary for her career field. She is currently studying for the GRE to apply for M.A. programs and looking out for any available job and internship opportunities. Taking her experiences as a first-generation student into her post-graduate studies, Maryela wants to get involved in the CIP Mentorship program within the civil engineering community, giving back to other first-generation students.
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Francesca Briones is a health and human sciences major from West Hills. She joined the ACE program in fall 2018 and began working for the program the subsequent year. Since working with ACE, Francesca shared, “I have gained a variety of soft skills and technical skills. As a peer [instructor] ... I have definitely learned the basics of what it means to be on the speaker side of the classroom versus the student side, what it means to plan a lesson, to be intentional in the activities, and the wording you use when posing a question with students.”
After graduating, Francesca will participate in a two-year fellowship with Teach For America in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, teaching secondary science. She is also studying for her certification exams and applying to graduate school programs to earn a master’s degree during her fellowship. “My goal is to start off teaching in an underserved community because I feel like that’s where I can be the most beneficial.”
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