Equity Champions

Hope in Bloom: Growth and Resilience

2024 Equity Champion Awards

The Equity Champion Awards celebrate individuals and groups who are making significant contributions to inclusion at De Anza College and to advancing the college’s vision of equity, social justice and multicultural education.

This year's winners include the following (scroll down or click each name to read more):

• Student: Jennifer Ulloa De La Torre
• Classified professional: Melissa Aguilar
• Faculty member: Sherwin Mendoza
• Administrator: Yvette Campbell
• "Elder": Christina Espinosa-Pieb
• Team: Football Academic Success Team (FAST)

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Student Award: Jennifer Ulloa De La Torre

Jennifer is a political science major who is the Outreach intern for Higher Education For AB540 Students. Her life mission is to fight for immigrant rights as an immigration attorney.

Outside of HEFAS, she has interned for VIDA’s Students for Environment & Equity program and De Anza’s Public Policy School. She leverages her experience in public policy and community organizing into creating more equitable spaces for communities of color in higher education.

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Classified Professional Award: Melissa Aguilar

Melissa has dedicated over two decades of service to the California Community College system in mathematics education with a strong focus on DEIA, and culturally responsive and sustaining approaches to teaching and learning.

She loves building bridges with educators to transform mathematics education and advance STEM equity work that supports disproportionately impacted students becoming fluent in mathematics and reflected in STEM fields to serve their communities. She has a strong passion for Ethnomathematics and mathematics curriculum that promotes this work through the lens of inclusive cultural perspectives, social justice, and community partnerships.

Melissa hopes to have you as an accomplice for institutional transformation and the advancement of mathematics education for students of all backgrounds, especially indigenous. 

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Faculty Award: Sherwin Mendoza

Sherwin Mendoza (he/him/siya) is a 1.9-generation Filipinx American who began teaching at De Anza in 2008 as he was completing his doctoral work in Literature at UC Santa Cruz.  He is now a part-time instructor in both English and Asian American Studies.

At present, he is looking for people interested in participating in a summer reading group to discuss how to apply the concepts of "racial capitalism" and "settler colonialism" towards understanding barriers that are preventing the college from achieving equity.

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Administrator Award: Yvette Alva-Campbell

Yvette Campbell is the Director of the MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) Program. Before joining De Anza, she received a Master's from SFSU and a Doctoral degree in Molecular Evolution from UCSC. Her professional experience includes work in molecular genetics labs and the Smithsonian Conservation Genetics Institute in Washington DC. After 20 years of research, she decided to return to her true passion: education. She truly enjoys her work at De Anza and hopes to encourage more underrepresented students to enter a career in STEM.​

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Elder Award: Christina G. Espinosa-Pieb

Christina G. Espinosa-Pieb has shown a commitment to diversity, equity and student success throughout a career that has spanned more than four decades at De Anza College. As vice president of instruction from 2008-2023, Espinosa-Pieb led the college’s academic divisions, which educate about 18,000 students each fall. She played a central role in the hiring and evaluation of faculty members, and has been a strong voice for equity and diversity in hiring throughout her career at De Anza.

A first-generation college student herself, Espinosa-Pieb initially came to De Anza College as a community volunteer, working with disabled students. She was hired a few months later, in 1980, as a student employee of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. Over the next 18 years she worked in a variety of increasingly responsible positions – including administrative assistant, lead affirmative action representative, and coordinator of the Disabled Student Services Program – before becoming dean of academic services in 1999. In the dean’s position she oversaw offices devoted to diversity and staff development, managed Learning in Communities (LinC) and Honors programs, led the tenure review process, and acted as the college’s accreditation liaison officer.

Espinosa-Pieb grew up in Corning, a small town near Chico, California, with her parents and seven siblings in a three-bedroom, one-bath home. In these circumstances, she said, “communication and respect for others was an absolute necessity each day.” As child number six, Espinosa-Pieb attributes her people skills, strong work ethic and love of multitasking to her upbringing. Espinosa-Pieb’s story is one of determination, hard work and a desire to help others realize their potential and succeed.

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Team Award: FAST (Football Academic Success Team)

• Joe D'Agostino, Head Football Coach/FAST Coordinator;
• Dr. Boo Fuqua, FAST Lead Tutor
• Daniel Green, FAST Tutor
• Victor Martinez, FAST Tutor​

The FAST (Football Academic Support Team) program is designed to address the academic, financial, and personal growth needs of our diverse student-athlete population. FAST is a proven model for Guided Pathways and our campus Villages – where Equity work thrives. With a commitment to wrap-around student-centered support, our FAST tutors empower student-athletes to excel academically while pursuing their athletic aspirations.​

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Award Criteria

We recognize that there are multiple ways of demonstrating commitment to these values. The following are examples of ways that nominees may exemplify their commitment to equity:

• Promoting a deeper understanding of equity by advancing best practices in their respective office or program
• Exhibiting leadership qualities in their work through collaboration, courageous conversations, inclusion through an intersectional lens, and fosters accountability.
• Prioritizes student needs and advocates for systemic and institutional change to address them to ensure equitable opportunities.
• Serves as a creative and equity-minded decision-maker in the shared governance process
• Fosters practices that help bridge the student equity gaps

The individual or team being nominated should also embody the spirit and principles reflected in the above criteria.

For more information, please contact Adriana Garcia at EquityOffice@deanza.edu or 408.864.5636.

For more information, please contact EquityOffice@deanza.edu or 408.864.5636.

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