SDSU Imperial Valley News

Cross-Cultural Center Hosts First Ceremony for 44 Transfronterizx Students. Mexicali — San Diego State University-Imperial Valley’s Cross-Cultural Center hosted the first “Building Bridges” binational graduation ceremony meant to create a celebratory space for family members who were unable to participate in the main graduation held recently in Calexico.

CALEXICO — Though the San Diego State University-Imperial Valley Cross-Cultural Center does not yet have a physical space on campus, it occupies the mind of Vannessa Falcon Orta, who was recently hired to serve as faculty director for the newly created center.

Dr. Vannessa Falcón Orta is drawn to the complexity, the challenge, and the uniqueness of life in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. She will tell you that living in the San Diego-Tijuana border region shaped who she is. Researching the intricacies that isolate and shape individuals living in the U.S.-Mexico transborder region became the basis of her Ph.D. research.