Baby steps, safe spaces and making a difference at SDSU

Imperial Beach native Victoria Tapia’s journey at San Diego State University exemplifies how students find their family and purpose on campus — one step at a time. 

Now in her final year, Tapia has spent three years advocating for the university’s Latinx community as a member of the HSI Affairs Student Advisory Board. It helps SDSU fulfill its commitment to its federal designation as a Hispanic-serving Institution, a responsibility Tapia embraces with pride. 

“In order to get to this point, I had to take baby steps,” said Tapia, a fourth-year marketing major.

Those baby steps started with inspiration from her father, took root in high school where she began her advocacy efforts, and blossomed at SDSU, where she said the efforts of the student advisory board have left a meaningful impact on the Latinx student population.

Tapia grew up in a household that underscored the importance of higher education for the Hispanic community. Her father was vice president of MEChA at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, and he imparted on her the value of his experience.

“Whenever growing up, he would talk about how higher education in our community is crucial to be successful and to help pick us up,” Tapia said. 

She joined MEChA her senior year at Olympian High School and was integral in raising money for a Dia De Los Muertos altar and raising awareness for SDSU enrollment opportunities, her first steps in her journey. 

A bigger stride came during the spring semester of her first year at SDSU, when she received an email  she said became “a pivot point for me.”

The email from Emilio Ulloa, SDSU’s associate chief diversity officer for MSI Affairs, and then-HSI Student Advisory president Kailey Quezada, asked her to be a part of the advisory panel. 

Feeling seen

“During my first semester on campus, I felt really out of place,” she said. “I didn’t see myself represented in the student population and I felt that imposter syndrome. I would go home straight after school and tell my parents that I didn’t feel seen.

The invite and what happened next helped Tapia decide to continue at SDSU. “It has given me a safe space to speak to people who look like me who have similar motivations, hopes and dreams for the campus,” she said, “and what it could look like.”

Ulloa said he was touched by Tapia’s testimonial, which he said underscored the need for such groups on campus. 

“When we create structures to institutionalize student voice, like with the HSI Student Advisory board, we communicate to the students that their partnership with us in this university is desired, that their perspective is critical, that their experiences are valid and that the structure provided is the materialization of those values,” Ulloa said. “I would hope that messages like this would help someone who was feeling disconnected, unseen or unimportant, to reconsider their place at the university.”

Tapia said she feels she’s made a small yet meaningful difference in the lives of SDSU Latinx students as part of the board. 

An example, she said, are sessions the board has held with students to help them deal with issues such as stress, anxiety and grief. There’s one planned for Dia De Los Muertos in which they will discuss the seven stages of grief with students, with an assist from therapy dogs.

“It’s incredible how these centers contribute to each student’s development and just breaking the shell,” she said. “I know for at least my experience as a Chicana, in my family, it is very difficult to speak about grief, so being able to do so on campus has been life-changing.”

Next step

After graduation, Tapia has her sights set on a childhood dream: working for the San Diego Padres as part of their community engagement division. 

“We would take the trolley to the park, and even though we couldn’t afford sitting in the seats, we would buy the tickets for the Park at the Park seating area (now known as Gallagher Square), and we’d eat soft serve,” she said. “It was a core memory, and I knew growing up that I wanted to help give kids who were like me, growing up underprivileged, that magic moment and experience that I had that made me a lifelong fan.”

Tapia said she is applying for the ball club’s spring internship program, and has taken a series of ambitious steps to accomplish it. 

This year, she has participated in three internships – with the Arc of San Diego as a marketing and community engagement intern with the group that supports and empowers disabled individuals; with the Sharp Healthcare Foundation as a marketing and fundraising intern, and with SDSU Athletics as an intern with the men’s soccer team – in addition to having a part-time job at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center as a nutrition assistant.

At Arc of San Diego Tapia is determined to confront the “stigma attached to being Latino or Latina in America … I have to prove them wrong, and prove that we are more than the stereotypes, and in order to do that, I have to have that confidence and work harder than anyone else.”

Ulloa said he believes success is inevitable for Tapia. 

“Every new experience she takes on seems to teach her something about herself and boost her confidence in her own capacity to grow,” Ulloa said. “She struggles, finds success, learns new things and builds momentum. I see big things for her in the future – it feels inevitable.”

Tapia envisions herself in five years completing her MBA, pursuing her doctorate in business management and getting her foot in the door with the Padres “because that is where my heart is.”

“But I also hope we are in a better place as a country, and that is reflected in the San Diego community as well,” Tapia said. “I hope we are more united. And I hope we take the steps to get there as a country and a region.”