Meet our Alumni

Jessica Bravo got her acceptance letter to UCSD in the middle of preparing for a stage performance.

“I screamed,” she says, “cried a little.” She had already recovered her letters from other colleges and didn’t realize that she had been waiting on UCSD. “I think this is the school I wanted to go to just based on my reaction.”

Jessica Bravo is a recent Theatre graduate, with a focus on stage management. According to Bravo, theater students keep to themselves, huddled together in Revelle College located furthest away from the rest of the campus. The PATH Summer Academy helped her open up to people outside of theatre. “It opened me up to friends in History and Literature who I still talk to…If I didn’t have PATH I would not have these people; I would not have been able to make my circle—my support.”

There’s a focus on forging friendships and maintaining connections through PATH, a mentality that seems to happen naturally when you have a group of students all going through the transferring process together. This mode of operation is displayed clearly in Jessica, who is bubbly and bright upon first introductions — certainly a useful skill for her previous position as an Outreach Intern for PATH. For the rest of her time at UCSD, Bravo mostly spoke to high school students, championing community college and the Humanities to students who didn’t believe that college was an option for them, either due to financial insecurity or some perceived lack of intelligence. 

Jessica got to see how much stigma students face when making decisions furthering their education and career: such as the stigma of seeing community college as “second rate”: or even pressure from the people who are meant to advocate for students the most. 

During a visit to a school in Claremont, Bravo was confronted with a situation where a class clown type kid made a comment during her presentation and, in response, the teacher claimed that the student “wasn’t made for college.” 

Bravo was shocked. Afterwards, she (very politely) shared her own experience with the class about being told she wasn’t made for college, and yet still attended UCSD. 

“Everyone’s made for college, if they want to be in college,” Bravo emphasizes.

“Don’t let anyone say or imply you’re too stupid to go to college…This is how my journey went, you can take inspiration from that…giving them these resources at such a younger age than when I got them hopefully is helpful for them.”

Jessica has a penchant for putting a spotlight on others, giving them a platform to thrive when others might not. While this is obvious within her stage managing work–among other things, Bravo had the unique opportunity to stage manage a remote dance show–this is most notable in the campus theatre group Found Space, which Jessica founded in order to make up for a lack of diversity and new work within the theatre scene on campus.

Found Space allowed for more diversity within casting and also provided students a chance to showcase their own writing. The influence of Found Space continues to grow even after her graduation. “[They’re] using it now for Black voices on campus–which is amazing. [They’ve] incorporated the Black Resource Center now, I believe. So to see it grow to be available for other voices that we kinda didn’t reach before, it makes me feel better…it’s in good hands.” 

Jessica’s advice for current or prospective PATH students:

“Push yourself past fear and anxiety.” 

Written by Demree McGhee

“I am pretty gregarious,” Chelsea says, laughing. And this certainly proves to be true during our interview. Chelsea has a way of being open and honest about her life that makes her the perfect interview subject. It’s this communicative quality that describes her approach to education, as well.

 “I think that brings me the most joy, is just learning about people and their experiences.” Chelsea’s fascination with people and their stories naturally led to her interest in the arts and humanities, specifically literature. “It’s like a kaleidoscope of different cultures, different people.” 

So when she heard about the PATH program from Dr. Kelly Mayhew, one of her mentors at San Diego City College, she was delighted. She attended an information session at City College led by Laura Martin and Danny Widener and was sold right away. “It was all about talking about the arts and humanities and then dealing with it in a practical way, and looking at the world in a critical way. I wanted to be a part of it.” So Chelsea applied to UCSD.

And then she was rejected. 

However, this setback did not deter her. She appealed the decision from admissions after receiving encouragement from Mayhew and others who knew that she belonged at a UC. Soon after, her appeal was accepted, and Chelsea was on her way to study Literatures of English at UCSD. 

But the self-doubt she experienced in that moment – and throughout the vast majority of her educational career prior to transferring – would stay with her even after being accepted to UCSD. “Impostor syndrome, I think, is the biggest demon that I have.” 

As an undergrad, Chelsea would often see other students who seemed to have everything under control, juggling classes, work, and other responsibilities with ease. “And there I was dropping my books everywhere, crying, having panic attacks — thinking ‘no one understands me. I’m alone.’” This is a common experience for transfer students upon entering an institution like UCSD, known for its rapid pace and academic rigor. “A quarter system does not give you time to ruminate and reflect a lot,” Chelsea jokes.

But being in the PATH program helped Chelsea to navigate these feelings of impostor syndrome. With PATH, she was able to access mentorship from her professors and support from her peers. After completing two courses in five weeks during the 2018 PATH Summer Academy, Chelsea was more confident in her abilities and her place at UCSD. “I was intimidated, but through PATH I didn’t feel like I was any less than or any more than. I felt accommodated. You feel you belong there.”

And while Chelsea still struggles with feelings of impostor syndrome, she hasn’t let that stop her from achieving her goals. In 2019, Chelsea went on to obtain a bachelor’s with Honors in Literatures of English. She even wrote an honors thesis in her senior year, a process which coincided with a personal tragedy that she experienced during her last quarter. This event, she says, changed the way that she approached her education. During that time, Chelsea says, “I had to make sure that I was getting enough sleep — that I was treating myself kindly. And I got really good grades [that quarter] because I wasn’t overthinking it. I just enjoyed the process.”

And she recommends future PATH students do the same. “Don’t feel pressured by society or your parents or anyone to do a certain thing,” Chelsea advises. “You should go through the path that is enriching to your soul and heart and you’ll find that more paths open.”

These days, Chelsea is exploring different skills and experiences, including getting a certification in Adobe Photoshop and taking continuing education classes on social media and business. “I call it my experiential gap year because I don’t think that there’s a right or a wrong way post-college, or that you have to go straight into graduate school. It’s more like building a thesis on you.“

“You know how there are 8 billion people on the planet?” says Arielle. “Those are 8 billion worlds I can learn about!”  

This is the common ethos seen in the work of recent 2020 Literature and Writing graduate, Arielle Amante. 

Arielle learned about PATH from San Diego Mesa College English professor and PATH Coordinator, Pegah Motaleb, who she credits as being her mentor and appreciates as one of her dearest friends. At the time, Amante had gone back and forth between being a Business and English major. Eventually, however, she chose to pursue her passion for creative writing and believe in her ability to succeed in a fulfilling career with an arts and humanities background. PATH was everything she was looking for—and more. 

“I bled my soul into that application. UC San Diego was my dream school for a decade, and I knew that I belonged in its Literature program. When I stepped on campus for the first time, I felt an electrifying energy I had never experienced before. Therefore, I decided to take a chance on the career path I truly wanted to pursue. I would have regretted not taking that risk for the rest of my life.”

Amante was able to show her passion for campus when she presented “Articulating the Discord: How San Diego’s PATH is Attempting to De-Instrumentalize Education” alongside other PATH students and representatives at the Community Colleges and the Future of the Humanities Conference in New York City, October 2018. In addition to speaking about her experience with PATH, she was also able to expand on KNIT, the digital common room between UC schools and San Diego Community College District—of which Amante was a developer and researcher for. “Besides fulfillment, I knew my time with PATH and majoring in the arts and humanities would become the stepping stones for my future—and I was going to be proud, relentless, vicious, and unapologetic about it. ”

Amante was also able to present her research proposal, “Education through Empathy: Understanding Mental Illness through Literature”, where she was able to explicate her ideas about using literature as a tool to educate people on mental health at the Reclaiming the Humanities: Resistance, Justice, & the Arts Conference in San Diego, April 2018. 

“The idea came to mind when I read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. While reading, I thought, “is it possible, through perhaps studying a life in its entirety in a fictional story, can you identify the specific areas that would dictate or determine the beginning of a mental illness?” 

Amante’s skills in research and her shining empathy are also relevant to her creative writing. For her, speculative fiction and poetry are both areas of study and her genres of choice. She loves poetry for its ability to explain the inexplicable, while fiction allows her to explore limitless and surreal worlds. “I’m addicted to the feeling of imagining different things, and am endlessly curious about other people and storytelling as a whole; there’s always something else I can understand, something else I can educate myself on. ”

Arielle is currently seeking to be a poetry editor or reader where her curiosity for finding new worlds will undoubtedly lead to beautiful understandings. 

Her advice for PATH students: “Never underestimate your abilities and potential. What’s more, trust and value yourself with unwavering belief and pride. You’re going to contribute something incredible to this world.” 

Written by Demree McGhee