April 22, 2019 — Three CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) students who have distinguished themselves as outstanding peer mentors were honored at the 15th Annual Business & Technology Partnership (B&TP) Leadership Dinner. A Business Leader, Faculty Leader and Technology Leader of the Year were also named.
Biology major Amparo Valdovinos, Business major Vanessa Meraz and Nursing and Health Science double major Robin Mathis were named “Peer Mentor Ambassadors,” which came with a plaque and a monetary stipend at the April 11 celebration, which was held in CSUCI’s Grand Salon.
President Erika D. Beck introduced CSUCI’s brand new Peer Mentor Ambassador Program to a sold-out audience of 250, underscoring how peer mentorship helps students stay in school, graduate on time and be prepared to enter the work force.
“When students are looking for credible sources of information about how to navigate the college experience, they look to other students,” Beck said. “Our peer mentors provide peer-to-peer support to their fellow students who need help in navigating college life, and most of it is not academic. It’s what we call ‘non-cognitive’ skills. It’s much more social and emotional—a sense of belonging, developing a sense of grit and perseverance, and building a social network.”
The Peer Mentor Ambassador program was started with an endowment from Former U.S. Second Lady Tipper Gore, a new friend to the University. The Peer Mentor Ambassador program enables peer mentors the opportunity to earn an additional $3,500 per semester ($7,000 a year) in return for doing more to help their fellow students stay enrolled and graduate.
The peer ambassador will not only mentor his or her peers in and out of the classroom, he or she will also take on other responsibilities designed to advocate for the program. The stipend ensures the peer mentors can mentor and attend school full time without having to work two or three jobs.
As the first in her family to attend college, Valdovinos of Santa Paula had no relative to help her navigate her first year at CSUCI. “I didn’t know what to expect. I felt like I had to find out everything on my own,” Valdovinos said. “If it weren’t for my peer mentor, I would have been lost and maybe even dropped out.”
As a transfer student from Santa Maria, Meraz was confronted with similar unknowns, which she was able to conquer with the help of a mentor who was also a Business major. One of Meraz’s mentees is also a Business student whom she met with many times this semester to help her choose classes, prepare for exams and manage her time.
“I have been given the opportunity to experience both sides of the peer mentorship program, and being a former mentee allows me to be a better mentor,” she said.
Mathis, who was born in Simi Valley and raised in Oxnard, also struggled to figure out the complexities of getting into college until a mentor with a similar background helped her find her way.
“The first couple of years of college for me were filled with uncertainty and doubt,” she said. “I had so many questions about my classes, about financial aid and there was even a time where I wasn’t even sure what questions to ask.
Mathis was unable to get into the Nursing program at first, so she majored in Health Science and was just about to graduate in 2018, had even purchased her cap and gown, when she finally was accepted into the Nursing program. So, she put the cap and gown on hold and is now carrying a double major in Nursing and Health Science and plans to graduate in 2021.
Other honors of the night went to the President of Glendale-based AppleOne, Brett Howroyd, who was named Business Leader of the Year. Howroyd is president of one of the largest privately-held staffing companies in North America.
“This award means a lot,” he said. “I do have a lot of passion for what I do and I’m very humbled to be recognized, but I believe this is really dedicated to all the people who give our applicants a great experience. I really feel it’s an award for them in many ways.”
Howroyd said he’s particularly proud of AppleOne’s motto, “hiring made human.” “It’s not an algorithm that just matches their resume to an opening, it’s allowing a human being to understand the company and the job seeker and make a great cultural fit,” he said.
Accepting the award for Technology Leader of the Year award for Haas Automation was Haas Vice President of Electrical Engineering Kurt Zierhut. Zierhut has worked alongside Haas founder Gene Haas since the two became reacquainted at their 1980 high school reunion in Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills.
The Oxnard-based company designs and builds computerized machine tools and employs more than 120 mechanical, software and manufacturing engineers. The company prides itself in being able to manufacture and deliver machine tools to a large volume of customers at a price that has remained stable for 30 years.
“Haas Automation has always wanted to lead the world if not in the state of the art technology, in the application of that technology,” Zierhut said, adding that a strong economy is based on industries that actually create a product, as they do.
Assistant Professor of Marketing Ekin Pehlivan was named Faculty Leader of the Year in part because of her creative spin on class. Pehlivan helps develop the students’ critical thinking skills by having them work together to come up with solutions for local nonprofits, social enterprises and small businesses.
As she spoke to the audience at the B&TP Partnership Leadership Dinner, she joked that she was not really a teacher, but more of a student herself as she watched her students work together to teach themselves, and learned as much if not more than they did.
“Inside every teacher is a lifelong learner,” she said.