Issue date: 10/1/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Susie Dickens Erika Alatorre helps a student in Sac State's CAMP program. [Click to enlarge]

Erika Alatorre stepped down from her position as director of Associated Students, Inc.'s Office of Governmental Affairs on Friday to become an outreach assistant for Sacramento State's College Assistance Migrant Program.

Alatorre has been involved with CAMP, which works with high school students whose parents are migrant workers by helping them get into college, since her senior year at Dixon High School. In returning to the program, Alatorre told CAMP director Viridiana Diaz during her interview that "she felt she has taken what she was meant to take from her ASI experience."

To that end, Alatorre expressed hope that she can one day go back to her high school and guide students to college and share her accomplishments. The outreach assistant position, Diaz said, would greatly help Alatorre reach her ultimate goal: Supporting migrant students, such as herself, get into college and become successful in their lives.

She was involved in CAMP's Scholars Internship program during her first year at Sac State. Through this program, she was introduced to ASI. She initially volunteered in ASI's Office of Governmental Affairs through the scholarship program. She became project coordinator before taking a position as assistant director. When the previous director of the Governmental Affairs Office stepped down, Erika was ready to take the helm.

In addition to her work in ASI, she has participated in CAMP activities promoting the student government and telling prospective freshmen about campus life and student activities. Since student fees are funding ASI, Alatorre said she wanted to make sure they take advantage of the services the student government provides.

One such service is the free Regional Transit bus pass. Many students are not aware that a piece of ASI legislation passed several years ago was responsible for the transit pass program. Alatorre said being informed of this and other services may plant a seed of motivation in students and might encourage them to come to the Governmental Affairs Office to become involved. All four of her current coworkers volunteered with the office before coming on board as project coordinators.

"The longer she was here, the more eager she would become about learning more and growing as a person," Diaz said about Alatorre's work in CAMP and ASI.

Upon meeting Alatorre, Diaz remembered her saying, "I want to go to college but there's no way my parents are going to let me." She worked closely with Alatorre during her application process to Sac State to make sure she was accepted, and Alatorre gained her parents' blessing to go to college.

Alatorre said her biggest accomplishment was developing her communication skills. One moment that stood out to her was when she spoke at the California State University Board of Trustees meeting in January 2008, advocating on behalf of the 30,000 Sac State students and imploring the trustees to not increase student fees.

"Listen," she told the trustees during the public comment portion. "I'm a first-generation college student. I'm working 30 hours in school. I'm taking 20 units as well, all in the name of me being able to get this degree, yet all the charges and curveballs thrown at me are preventing me from doing so."

Looking back at that event, she said that was one of her greatest accomplishments and one of the many stepping stones in her student-government career. To Alatorre, the experience was both impressive and rewarding.

"It's a circle," Alatorre said about returning to CAMP. "I'm coming back to the location that has taken me practically everywhere."

Alatorre said she came from a conservative Catholic upbringing. The second youngest of 10 children, she was the first woman in her family to go to college without first getting married. CAMP counselors convinced her father to allow her to attend Sac State. Though doubtful at times whether Alatorre would complete college, her mother issued this challenge: Alatorre's accomplishments are only going to be legitimate in her eyes once she sees that college degree.

"She's challenging me so that I can then prove to her that I belong here," Alatorre said. "That I'm capable of making her ultimately proud of me."

Juan Carlos Jauregui, ASI's director of Health and Human Services, started working with Alatorre in November 2007 as a project coordinator for ASI's Governmental Affairs Office. He said Alatorre would urge him to become more informed and educated on current events. What stood out most to Jauregui, however, was her vast knowledge of people.

"If you're walking with her, if you want to get to a certain point on campus, you've got to plan ahead because she will run into so many people," Jauregui said. "I don't know how she does it, but she knows a lot of people's names. When I see Erika, I see her as friendly and knowing anything that has to do with political stuff."

Alatorre's tenure in the Governmental Affairs Office greatly enhanced the office's level of collaboration with other campus groups, said ASI Executive Director Patricia Worley. Alatorre's approach to working with students and her strong positive working relationship with ASI's board of directors have greatly strengthened the Governmental Affairs Office, she said.

"Erika's strength is she sees the areas that have potential for collaboration," Worley said. "She goes out and she makes the effort to have those partnerships established, and then she works very well with other people to maximize potential."

Worley commended Alatorre's ability to make her fellow students feel like meaningful members of the team as an "incredible testament to her leadership in the (Office of Governmental Affairs)."

She said that Alatorre's new position in CAMP would be bettered by her increased sense of confidence and her ability to mentor students.

When she thinks of Alatorre's potential, Diaz becomes very excited. She would like to imagine what Alatorre will be like five to 10 years down the road. The quality that makes Alatorre particularly special, Diaz said, was that she does not allow barriers or challenges to stand in her way.

"Once she gets to where she wants to be, I think I just want to remind her that she's a great role model for her students and not to take for granted everything she has overcome," Diaz said. "She needs to be reminded more often that she's accomplished a lot and that she needs to be proud of that, and tell students what she has accomplished."

Ben Schilter can be reached at bschilter@statehornet.com

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