Integrity, Consistency, Strength through Coalition

Betty Ramirez for GSA Vice President for Campus and Student Affairs

 

Betty Ramirez is a first year in the Comparative Literature Ph.D program at UCSD. Born in Mexico City, Betty immigrated with her mother to Los Angeles, California to find the American Dream in 1996. Among many of Betty’s experiences as first-generation college student were the mixed feelings of not knowing what to do with her education. As an only child, with a single parent who knew nothing about American education, most of Betty’s inspirations and goals arose from the many talks she had with her former teachers, professors, and club advisors. During her academic career, she travelled from California to Washington state to Boston, MA and back to California in the pursuit of a career that could combine her academic interests and civic engagement. During her undergrad, she explored the majors of history, international affairs, social work, and music. In 2013, she graduated with a B.A in english literature and minor in philosophy.

 

Since high school, Betty has been involved in student government, civic engagement, and school-wide event planning. Her work in community and organizational development stems from more than four years working with her mentor Greg Williamson, Director of Student Support for the Office of Public Instruction in WA. Her skills and knowledge of organizational development derive from her participation in conferences such as the “Pegasus” (systems thinking) conference, “Sustainable Environmental Summer Institute” conference, and presentations as part of “Voices of Youth” branch of the nonprofit “Together!” among others. With her skills, she has mentored and presented on student voice and the importance of building better dialogue between administrators, teachers, and students in high schools.

 

Not surprisingly, it is not the first time Betty runs for a position as an incoming student to a university. As a freshman undergrad at Washington State University, she was elected program coordinator of Roger’s Hall, and Roger’s Hall representative at WSU’s Residence Hall Association. She also became involved as a “street team” member for WSU’s Student Engagement Team and a dispatcher for WSU’s  “Women’s Transit.” Positions in these student organizations have provided the skills to assess and execute student led legislation and campus events.  This experience inspired her to transfer to Northeastern University in Boston where she planned to major in International Affairs to pursue a career in the nonprofit sector. Having had nine great months in Boston, Betty had to return to the west coast to be near family.

 

Her final transfer to Saint Martin’s University reshaped Betty’s academic and career goals. Although her academic interests shifted between Music, Philosophy and English literatures, she continued to intern for Greg Williamson and work with the nonprofit Voices of Youth. As a mentor she promoted students engagement by presenting on past experiences with administrators and teachers in regards to healthy and sustainable projects for their school. Having developed the passion for literature and philosophy, Betty decided to combine her civic engagement and academic research interests by pursuing a career in academia.  Becoming a literature professor for Betty is not just about being able to explore literary topics, but also inspiring students to take an active interest in their education.

 

As an incoming student, Betty took the opportunity again to be involved in the gradlife community by applying for the Graduate Climate Intern position last summer. Once hired, Betty participated in the Steer Committee, VP Diversity committee, VP Finance committee, GPSES Committee, Co-Chairing the Cultural Student Organization Subcommittee to immerse herself in the active graduate community. Her many collaborations with GSA executives, the Gradlife Intern, and other graduate students have resulted successful projects and events during this past year.

 

For Betty, planning and seeing projects come to life balance the heavy brain work of reading theory and literatures for more than five hours a day. Nevertheless, some of her favorite things to do are to train for half marathons, family BBQs, binge on netflix, and take trips to go visit friends among the states.