SDSU Imperial Valley News

Staff and students at SDSU Imperial Valley join local volunteers who serve hot meals every single night and see the faces behind the numbers Staff members and students of San Diego State University Imperial Valley have been involved from the beginning. When Maribel Padilla, an active local volunteer, put out a call in 2014 seeking help with housing the homeless, her friend Norma Aguilar was among the first to respond. Aguilar, student affairs academic advisor and coordinator for the Student Ability Success Center at SDSU Imperial Valley, persuaded the Calexico Unified School District to open up the high school gym and the like-minded volunteers brought in those seeking shelter.

Overcoming odds to become outstanding student of the year, Chelsea Castañeda embodies the success students at San Diego State University Imperial Valley can experience when they persevere and make full use of opportunities. She was given the award by faculty in SDSU Imperial Valley who voted for her. Nominees are graduating seniors with a GPA of 3.5 or above. They in turn nominate the professor who had the most influence on them, and she chose Jeanette Shumaker, her English professor, as the most influential faculty member.

Megan Brinkman and Carlos Fitch share a special enthusiasm and excitement about being admitted to San Diego State University Imperial Valley as freshmen for the fall semester. One’s an Imperial Valley native, the other a recent immigrant. Both are part of a class of 68 full- and part-time freshmen, the first time in nearly a decade the campus has admitted students directly from high school. For Brinkman and Fitch, the educational journey promises to be historic, but for very different reasons.

Faculty and students from San Diego State University Imperial Valley have been actively involved in summer research that took them to different parts of the valley as well as Mexico, Austria and Hungary. Their work helps us better understand the trauma that migrants from troubled regions experience, the cultural beliefs that guide treatment decisions made by cancer patients, and the corruption and organized crime rampant in border regions.

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.”

Chancellor Timothy P. White has honored SDSU researcher Guadalupe X. “Suchi” Ayala for her groundbreaking achievements, and her exemplary impact on students. Guadalupe X. “Suchi” Ayala’s scholarly and community-based work to help improve the overall health and wellness of some of the most underserved people began with the influential teachings of her parents, Reynaldo and Marta Ayala.