The month of March offers an opportunity to celebrate powerful women on campus with Women’s History Month. Female powerhouses can be found across campus and there are many women who inspire, mentor and affect change on and off campus.
In spring 2019, the student body elected two women of color for roles President and Vice President of the Associated Students of WSU Vancouver. President Davina Cepeda is a senior studying integrated strategic communications and vice president Ana Betancourt Macias is a senior sociology major.
Cepeda said she is always assessing what roles on campus would be fitting for the students she meets.
“We’re putting ourselves in places that we knew we should have been in,” Cepeda said, discussing how Betancourt Macias and herself came into office. She explained that women make up the majority of student government this year. “…I think It says a lot, having a predominantly women filled cabinet says women aren’t afraid to get work done, we were never afraid to get work done, but it says we deserve to occupy spaces that maybe some people believed we didn’t deserve to occupy in the first place,” Cepeda said.
Cepeda and Betancourt Macias both take pride in being the second women of color president and vice president pair to be elected since 2007, the first year the data was recorded. They hope there are more women of color taking office in the future.
“Whatever my journey is, it might be different from her journey but that’s something we want to let people here on campus know, you shouldn’t be competing with each other, you should be complementing each other,” Betancourt Macias said.
Betancourt Macias is not only vice president of ASWSUV and a full-time student, she is also a single mother to a 10-year-old son and operates as a co-founder of the Betancourt Macias Family Scholarship Foundation. This foundation provides scholarship opportunities and resources to undocumented people hoping to pursue a college education.
She said her motivation to do this work can be summed up by one thing: passion. “It is my duty as a woman of color to give back, to make sure I’m not the only woman of color to be in a position like this,” Betancourt Macias said.
Cepeda explained she looks up to an educator on campus. “Another mentor or someone I look up to is Liz Candello, I just get so fascinated with her. I think the way she carries herself. When she speaks it’s clear but it also carries a lot of weight, she’s graceful, but she is very smart,” Cepeda said.
Candello is an assistant clinical professor in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. “I try to be available as possible to help as many students as I can in particular fields that they’re most interested in. So I do see myself as providing that leadership role, if students need direction,” Candello said.
While many see Candello as a mentor, she explained she finds it weird to self-proclaim such a title. Instead, she calls herself a resource for her students.
Along with teaching classes, Candello is also the Public Relations Society of America co-chair for Vancouver and still manages to solely operate a non-profit organization, Aisle 10. This organization focuses on providing health products that are not covered by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to low-income individuals in the Portland area.
Between being an instructor, a resource, a chair and a non-profit founder and head, Candello emphasized utilizing the time one has every day. She also feels it is important to maintain a sense of humor and not take yourself too seriously, a message she hopes her students receive throughout her time with them.
“Talking less and listening more is really important and understanding that everybody is lost in general, there’s no guide-book for life, so feel confident in the skills you have at that moment and leverage those opportunities for yourself,” Candello said.
Another student that can serve as an inspiration to others is ASWSUV director of campus and community outreach, Esmeralda ‘Vita’ Blanco, a junior strategic communications major with a minor in psychology and Spanish.
Blanco does not have a “traditional” college path. After dropping out of high school over 20 years ago due to the birth of her first child, she completed her high school diploma at Clark College in 2016 as a single mother to two daughters.
Blanco explained after receiving her high school diploma, she was inspired to continue her education. “Just crossing that stage and knowing that I could do that just awakened my fire for learning,” Blanco said. She continued at Clark College to receive two associate degrees in 2019 before transferring to WSU Vancouver.
To enroll full time in school, Blanco faced the ultimatum of leaving her full-time job as a manager at a dentist office. Being a single mom, she said it was a leap of faith that has so-far paid off. She hopes by going back to school, she can show her daughters the true value of a college education.
“It’s not easy, but that’s where not giving up comes in and that’s huge,” Blanco said. She was awarded the 2019-2020 Community College President’s award. Blanco described this award as “humbling” and again awakened her fire for learning.
Lead Academic Coordinator in the college of arts and sciences, Katrina Choi has been a WSU Vancouver employee serving as a student resource 10 years. She began at the financial services front desk before becoming an admissions counselor.
For the last four years, Choi has been an academic coordinator for English and psychology majors while overseeing the arts and science department, which provides academic advising for 15 different programs.
She works with approximately 250-300 students throughout the semester, while her department is closer to 1,500 students. “In general my practice usually is to give students as much information as I can to help them, but then also knowing when it’s appropriate to refer them to someone who’s more of an expert in their studies,” Choi said.
She feels she has a unique experience as an advisor because of her background in different departments at the university. “I think just being on campus for 10 years, it helps me to know where the resources are and how things are run, so if students have questions about how things are structured, I have some sense of who they should be going to and talking to,” Choi said.
Because serving as a resource to students is important to Choi, she explained she often volunteers in graduation because of the pleasure she gets from seeing her students complete this part of their lives.
Student or faculty, inspiring women on campus extend beyond Cepeda, Betancourt Macias, Candello, Blanco and Choi.
WSU Vancouver recognizes nominated, distinguished women at the Women of Distinction event, held on March 26 in The Firstenburg Student Commons. Nominees can include students, staff, faculty and community members.
Brody Voge is a junior at WSU Vancouver studying strategic communications.