Q&A with Santa Rosa Junior College’s incoming president, Maria Angélica Garcia
Santa Rosa Junior College’s next president, Maria Angélica Garcia, who was chosen after a nationwide search, has big dreams for the students and community as a whole.
A former social worker, Garcia, president of Berkeley City College, will take over from outgoing President Frank Chong, who has led SRJC since 2012 and is retiring this summer.
Garcia will be the first Latina and the first queer president in the school’s 105-year history. She currently leads Berkeley City College, which has a student body of about 7,000 students.
In July, she will take over at SRJC, which has about 21,300 students.
Garcia sat down with a Press Democrat reporter Friday to answer questions about declining enrollment, community relationships and her leadership approach.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Press Democrat: What is your background pre-community college?
Garcia: I'm originally from the Central Valley. I was born and raised in Fresno. But my higher-ed experience actually brought me out to the Bay Area.
At the time I wanted to play basketball, and so I thought I was going to stay local. But in the end, I really wanted to have a different experience. I come from a very large Mexican Catholic family, so the only way that I could actually go to college was going to a Catholic college. That's how I ended up at St. Mary's College of California (in Contra Costa County). Then I started as a high school teacher and coach.
PD: What was a moment that shaped your presidency at Berkeley City College?
Garcia: I joined Berkeley City College two months after the entire state went into shelter in place in May 2020. It was memorable because we got to see a community coming together in action.
We were able to provide some in-person support to students through a warm meal food distribution. Students were just really struggling financially. Many of them were losing their jobs, and we were trying to figure out how to stay connected to them. So, we partnered up with local community organizations and we were able to figure out what they needed.
It's important that I share that because I think that my entry into a presidency was one that really called on engaging from this very humanistic perspective. And that's actually aligned with how I just operate as a person. I'm a trained social worker by trade and so I felt like it allowed for the connection to be community member to community member instead of some perfunctory regulatory piece.
My understanding is that Santa Rosa did that as well. To know that Santa Rosa was there for students and the community in the same ways speaks volumes.
PD: We still have a lot of struggling students here, many of whom are homeless. What do you envision for SRJC in facing the reality that people are leaving or might not be coming to SRJC because of the high cost of living?
Garcia: Sadly, that is a story that I know all too well, being currently president in the East Bay.
Certainly the regional cost of living impacts every fabric of our society, for employees as well. We had a lot of folks who were forced to take stock of their lives differently.
I think the assumption is that somehow the junior college might want to attract folks from outside the county to come to the college. Certainly, it has a history of that. But the beauty of a community college is that it's the community's college. And SRJC is the community college for the entirety of Sonoma County.
From Petaluma all the way up to Windsor, all the way out to Forestville at the Shone Farm, we are in this prime position to be either the reentry point or the access point for community members to find their way. The JC has a stellar reputation for academic quality, excellence and rigor and a top transfer rate.
Also important is the percentage of students that are coming in for career education programs. For students who are struggling financially, the JC has been programming these services and connecting with students to help them figure out what the first step is to keep going.
PD: How do you see the SRJC’s relationship with SSU developing in the future?
Garcia: The benefit for me is I get to connect and build from something that is already incredibly strong. Dr. Chong has been connected with the president of SSU, even in the most recent transition. This is one of those parts where if it's not broke, you don't fix it. You just kind of add some sparklers to the bicycle handles or something.
In my current role as the president of Berkeley City College, I too have been working with SSU to promote housing assistance for community college transfer students and additional scholarship support. So I'm looking forward to bringing what we've been able to generate as an agreement between SSU and Berkeley City College. If that’s not in existence at SRJC, I'd love to see how we can include that.
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