Summer — 2007

Yesenia de la Rossa

History

“It’s almost like being nosy. You have to ask a lot of questions and get answers from a lot of people. Nobody is going to do it all for you.”

The above quote from Yesenia de la Rosa concerns itself with how to make your way—successfully—at SMC. But if you, yourself, are feeling a little ‘nosy,’ you might want to make your way over to SMC’s Welcome Center. And if you’re lucky, you might even meet Yesenia, who works there. “I try to attract a lot of students here, because what I do is an important job. We have a lot of counselors, and we patiently show students all there is to know about SMC. And we students can tell them about good professors we’ve had, how to get money for books, and all about the other resources they should make sure that they get to use.”

Yesenia is now in her third year at SMC and will soon graduate, on her way to an eventual Masters’ degree. “I want to transfer to Biola University in Orange County, because they have a strong Christian perspective, and I think I’ll fit in with that well. What I want to do is to become a teacher in Latino history, because I love interacting with students,” she says. “But I definitely want to teach at the college level. And one of the main reasons for that is because of a part-time professor I had here. She just brought everything in our culture to life, and she made me want to understand it all—and then teach it to others.”

Yesenia is the second in her family to go to college and, as it happens, the second to go to SMC. “My brother graduated from SMC, and now he’s almost got his Bachelor’s,” she says with delighted pride. But again, she counsels others at SMC to be their own best advocates. “If you come to see us at the Welcome Center, I guarantee that you’ll get a good start here. But it’s really all up to you. If you can come up with the discipline, this place will let you be a much better person.”

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