Women’s Conference Empowers High School Girls and Promotes College Access
Photo credit: Fullerton Union High School
Award winning author, education advocate, and Latina Erica Alfaro stood on stage in front of more than 400 high school girls at Fullerton College on March 13 to empower them with hope and inspiration to pursue their dreams. Alfaro served as the keynote speaker at Fullerton College’s inaugural Mujeres Achieving Success (MAS) Conference. The conference was held in celebration of Women’s Herstory Month and designed to inspire young girls and women of color to pursue higher education.
“It was the first conference designed specifically for female empowerment,” said Counselor and Faculty Coordinator Rolando Sanabria. Sanabria and his team in Educational Partnerships and Outreach saw the need to host a women’s conference after several years of hosting the Males Achieving Success Conference at Fullerton College each winter.
In collaboration with Chapman University, the outreach team coordinated the conference for more than 15 high schools in Anaheim Union, Fullerton Joint Union, Garden Grove Unified, and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified High School Districts where guest speakers like Alfaro, led workshops on college and career readiness, goal setting, mentorship, and overcoming obstacles. Alfaro’s keynote was the highlight of the conference, Sanabria said.
Alfaro made headlines in 2019 after she posted graduation photos of herself with her parents in the farm fields of Carlsbad, after earning her master’s degree from San Diego State University. Since then, she has written an award-winning book titled Harvesting Dreams and has served as a keynote speaker at many conferences throughout California.
“Alfaro’s story resonates with many young women in this community,” Sanabria said.
Photo credit: Erica Alfaro and Fullerton College Outreach Team
As a Hispanic Serving Institution, Fullerton College is home to more than 50 percent of students who identify as Hispanic/Latinx with many of them also identifying as the first in their families to go to college. The Mujeres Achieving Success Conference promotes college access while recognizing the struggles women of color face when pursuing higher education.
“When it comes to your dreams, be as persistent as you can be and always remember, you can use your adversities as a reason to stop or you can use it as a reason to keep moving forward,” Alfaro said during her closing remarks on March 13.
Following the conference, she also shared an Instagram post of herself on the Campus Theatre stage with conference attendees in the background and captioned the post with “To my younger self, stop trying so hard to fit in, you came to this world to stand out!”
The Office of Educational Partnerships and Outreach collaborates with Fullerton College’s local high school districts to offer robust programming for students in grades 9-12. To learn more visit the Outreach website here.
