Gloria Curiel-Parker

College Friend

“The experience at SMC was fantastic. The teachers were great and the students were mellow.”

Gloria Curiel-Parker knew that she wanted to become a lawyer when she was only eight years old. “My parents were immigrants and I used to be their voice and their advocate,” she recalls. So she came to SMC in 1975 with her mind firmly set on law. Within two years she graduated, was accepted by USC and then moved on to Loyola Law School. Now, together with her husband, she heads her own law firm specializing in immigration and international law.

Being the voice of other people has always been a draw for Gloria. And so has political activism. While at SMC, she was president of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiante Chicano de Azatlan) for one semester. “Some of my fondest memories about SMC are of the camaraderie with the MEChA group,” Gloria recalls. “It was a support group with people who cared about your academic performance and the growth of your political awareness.”

Gloria is a member of the Santa Monica Commission on the Status of Women and of the Mexican-American Political Association. Her current project is organizing a Latina Youth Conference. “Helping young Latinas to become a little bit more aware of the opportunities to go on to higher education and careers is something very close to my heart,” she says.

Having become a successful professional, Gloria advises Latinas not to be afraid to seek information and make use of the resources at SMC. And she credits Herb Roney—now the college’s vice president of community relations—with pointing her in the right direction. “I owe some of my success to him,” she says. “He was a real mentor to me.”

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