SDSU Imperial Valley News

For David A. Herndon, a senior who recently graduated with Summa Cum Laude Honors during May 2019 majoring in Public Administration, it was being selected to participate in an internship within public service with USDA-Rural Development in the Imperial Valley which offers financial programs that support essential community facilities such as public facilities, community support services, educational services, public safety services, healthcare facilities, food systems, and utility services with water and sewer infrastructures for drinking water and wastewater systems; providing financing for single-family homes and multi-family housing developments; and helping to finance the development of telecommunications and distance learning services.

After graduating from San Diego State University Imperial Valley (SDSU-IV) in a May 16 ceremony, Esteban Ayala hopes to earn a master’s degree from SDSU and teach history. The outgoing 22-year-old prefers to find an instructor position near his hometown of Calexico “and, hopefully, teach at San Diego State,” he said. “If not, I would teach at IVC (Imperial Valley College in Imperial).”

Fast-forward almost five decades and a 56-year-old Ponce, now dean of SDSU Imperial Valley, is sitting in his office recalling the story. “Through high school I had no idea this was a university,” he tells an astonished visitor. “That’s one of the challenges we’re trying to overcome. We need to get the word out that we’re here because our students (in the Imperial Valley) often don’t know we’re here.”

The number of students attending San Diego State University Imperial Valley has grown to 1,020 for the fall semester, which is the second-highest student head count in the history of the campus, according to university census figures released this week. And, the SDSU Imperial Valley is the top college within the University for exceeding its full-time equivalent student (FTES) target goal for the semester by 7%.

During the fall semester of 2018 Jonathan was accepted to SMU’s Ph.D. program with the help of the SMU and SDSU-IV faculty. As his research continues to develop, he will research the Bracero Program (a bi-national guest labor program between Mexico and the U.S. from 1942-1964) in two borderland communities, the Imperial Valley and the Lower Rio Grande Valley (Texas.)