Dr. Vanessa Falcón Orta is Transfronteriza from the San Diego-Tijuana borderlands, and the daughter of working-class immigrant parents from Mexico and Peru. Informed by her background, she is a scholar and organizer focusing on the social justice of Transfronterizx students in postsecondary and higher education along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. She started her academic trajectory at Southwestern Community College (SWC) and graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from San Diego State University in 2008. In 2013, she graduated from the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) with an M.S. in Counseling, emphasis in Student Development in Higher Education (SDHE). In 2021, she graduated with a Ph.D. in Education from the Joint Doctoral Program in Education (JDP) at SDSU & Claremont Graduate University (CGU). During her doctoral studies she founded the Transfronterizx Alliance Student Organization (TASO) and the Transborder Student Ally Program (TSAP) at SDSU. Currently, she is the Co-Founder of Transfronterizx Futures, a forthcoming federal 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving as a hub dedicated to creating initiatives focused on the social justice of the Transfronterizx community along the U.S-Mexico borderlands. Her research is focused on Transfronterizx students in postsecondary and higher education, and she has published her findings in the Journal of Transborder Studies, the journal of New Directions for Student Services, Journal of Borderlands Studies and in the National Association of Bilingual Education. Recently, she was a Visiting Scholar for the Borderlands Education Center (BEC) at the University of Arizona (UofA), focusing on creating research and spaces of inclusion for Transfronterizx students in the community college at the Douglas-Agua Prieta borderlands. She was also an Adjunct Faculty teaching online in the Department of Counseling and Human Services at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. This November, she joined the SDSU campus community as Faculty Director for the new Cross-Cultural Center at SDSU-Imperial Valley.
Publications
Falcón Orta, V., Lorona, I., Gonzalez-Quintero, S., Vasquez, J., Flores Cabrera, K.V., Franco-Ortiz, J.C. (2022). Fostering the success of Transfronterizx students in postsecondary and higher education at the San Diego-Tijuana borderlands. National Association of Bilingual Education: Global Perspectives. Special Issue on Transborder-Binational Education.
Falcón Orta, Vannessa. (2021). Transborder Identity Development: A Photovoice Constructivist Grounded Theory Study of Transfronterizx Students in Postsecondary and Higher Education at the San Diego-Tijuana Border Region. CGU Dissertations, 236. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/236. doi: 10.5642/cguetd/236
Falcón Orta, V., & Monk, G. (2020). Creating Change in Higher Education Through Transfronterizx Student-led Grassroots Initiatives in the San Diego-Tijuana Border Region. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 1-20. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08865655.2020.1735480
Falcón Orta, V. & Orta Falcón, A. (2018). The Transborder identity formation process: An exploratory grounded theory study of transborder college students from the San Diego-Tijuana Border Region. Journal of Transborder Studies: Research and Practice, 4 (1) 1-26.
Falcón Orta, V., Harris III, F., Leal, U. & Vasquez, M. (2018). An intersectional multicultural approach to advising and counseling Transborder Mexican-American men in the community college. In X. Wagner (Ed.), New Directions for Student Services, 2018 (164), 73-83. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ss.20285
Urias Vasquez, M., Falcon, V., Harris III, F., & Wood, J.L. (2017). Narratives of success: A retrospective trajectory analysis of men of color who successfully transferred from the community college. In X. Wang (Ed.), Studying transfer in higher education: New approaches to enduring and emerging. Madison, Wisconsin: New Directions for Institutional Research. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ir.20182
inaugural advisory committee
Ismael Arvizu
Ismael Arvizu, born and raised in the Calexico/Mexicali borderlands. Graduate from Calexico High, a proud community college transfer from IVC to San Diego State main campus for a BS in Televisions Film Media but quickly switched to Xicanx Studies. Ethnic studies is a passion and an ideology they follow. One of the founding members of a local activist group, Calexico Needs Change, community work and empowerment is an emphasis in the daily life of this team member. “Change the perspective, change the story.”
Carlos A. Fitch
Carlos A. Fitch is a senior majoring in History and Spanish. During this academic year, he is serving as the Associated Students President and has membership in various student and community organizations that embrace the different components of the binational community that characterizes Imperial Valley. Prior to 2016, Carlos studied elementary education in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. It was until then that Carlos moved to Calexico to take a journey in the American educational system. In 2019, he was admitted to the Imperial Valley University Partnership among SDSU-IV and IVC. In 2019 and 2020 he served as an Ambassador for both institutions. Carlos will be serving in the Cross Cultural Inaugural Advisory Committee representing Associated Students and the undergraduate students from the Arts and Sciences Division.
Stephanie Amaya-Vasquez
Stephanie Amaya-Vasquez is a junior majoring in Spanish with a minor in linguistics at San Diego State University-Imperial Valley (SDSU-IV). Prior to 2015, Stephanie studied middle school in Mexicali. Also in 2015, Stephanie moved to El Centro to continue with her academic journey. In 2019, Stephanie was admitted to the university partnership between Imperial Valley College and San Diego State University-Imperial Valley. During this academic year, Stephanie will be serving as a Student Representative for the Cross-Cultural Cultural's Inaugural Advisory Committee.
Luis G. Hernandez
Luis G. Hernandez is a practicing visual artist, curator, lecturer at San Diego State University, Imperial Valley (SDSU-IV) and Imperial Valley Community College (IVC), and director of Steppling Art Gallery at SDSU, IV.
The goal of the Steppling Art Gallery programming is to expose the SDSU-IV campus community to cutting-edge artistic practices and exhibitions by contemporary artists and cultural producers working professionally in the field. The activities held at the art gallery are carefully selected and organized so that they are integrally connected to the community they serve. The gallery strives to expose the work of local and underrepresented artists and to present projects that deal with border issues, pedagogy, and other subject matter pertinent to the SDSU-IV academic course offerings.
Part Time Instructor in History and advisor of Chicanx Sin Frontera
Gilberto Reyes Morgan, has always lived between Mexicali and El Centro he is what we call a transfronterizx person. As Native of the hybrid borderland (Mexicali/Valle Imperial) he has based my academic work in its history. His thesis Race and National Identity in Mexicali, Territory of Baja California, Mexico (1903-1937), talks about the cultural, economic, and social impact the Japanese and Chinese communities had in Mexicali through the 1900 to the early 1940s and I also focus on agrarian movements like 1937 Asalto a las Tierras and how the colonization of the Colorado River has had a negative effect in the Cucapa community. Gilberto got his A.A. in Liberal Studies at Imperial Valley College and his B.A. in History from San Diego State University Imperial Valley. He also has a Masters in History from Cal State Fullerton under the guidance of the Chicano Anthropologist Dr. Alexandro Gradilla, Historians Dr. Steven Neufield, Nancy Fitch, and Dr. Gerardo Arellano (now in UCSD Raza Center). Since 2013 thanks to the Chicanx Studies Program and History Department he has presented various topics on the history of the counter cultural movements in México since 1950s-1990s and struggles in of the Chicnax community at the Imperial County at the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS). In 2015 he came back to Mexicali/Imperial Valley since then he has taught as a part timer at both of his alma mater Imperial Valley College and San Diego State University (IV Campus). In the past four years he has worked at IVC with faculty and staff on creating a Chicano Major at IVC. He has taught and helped create the course Chicano 100 (intro to Chicano Studies) and Chicano 110 (Chicano Heritages). In addition, Gilberto is not only advisor and one of the founders of the SDSU IV Campus club Chicanx Sin Fronteras but he has also become the mentor of many SDSU students that are going to be the future leaders of the Imperial Valley.
Publications
Rock Mexicano: ruido de empoderamiento y revolución. Boletín Músical, Casa de las américas, 55 enero-junio 2021, 97-107.
Andrea Van Bebber
Andrea Van Bebber’s major is psychology, and she has a minor in social work at SDSU-IV. She is from Mexicali, and she emigrated to the U.S. in 2016 and became a U.S. citizen in 2021. She would like to become a social worker one day and be an advocate for women and immigrant populations. At SDSU she belongs to the Chicanx Sin Fronteras club, Revolutionary Women of our Community, and she is a student representative for the Cross-Cultural Center’s Advisor Community. Another thing about her is that she loves animals and for that reason, she has been a vegan for 7 years. She loves cooking, traveling, and learning new things. She believes that if we all support each other, we can make the world a better place for our future generations to come.
