作者：辛西娅·休伯特
年轻的维里黛安娜·迪亚兹（Viridiana Diaz）从墨西哥来到湾区，在她的家人住过的一个移民营地拖车里，她开始梦想着一种不同的未来。
她想学英语。 她想要一份有福利的稳定工作。 她想要比她的母亲有更多的机会，她的母亲在农田和罐头厂做季节性工作。 “I didn’t know I could dream bigger than that,” she said.
But a few years later, while she was a student at McClatchy High School in 萨克拉门托, a counselor from 萨克拉门托 State’s College Assistance Migrant Program convinced her that larger goals were within her reach.
“囊状态 completely transformed my life. 每一年，我都会成为一个新的自己，因为大学给了我成长的机会。”
她的母亲几乎没有受过正规教育，家里也没有人上过大学。 在CAMP和萨克州立大学其他项目的帮助下，迪亚兹决定打破这个循环。
“I felt I didn’t have much of a choice,” she said. “I looked at how a lack of financial security affected me and my family. I wanted something different.”
迪亚兹在萨克州立大学获得了四个学位：传播学学士学位、西班牙语硕士学位、历史学第二个硕士学位和教育领导与政策博士学位。
她在萨克州立大学的职业生涯已经持续了近二十年。 She currently is the University’s associate vice president of Strategic Student Support Programs, overseeing academic advising, counseling, tutoring, mentoring, and other support for first-generation, migrant, undocumented, and other underserved students.
有关的故事
The programs are a bedrock of 囊状态’s efforts to recruit, retain, and graduate Latino students, culminating this week in its selection as a recipient of a coveted national Seal of Excelencia certification.
Viridiana Diaz的生活经历帮助她定位为Sac州立大学的学生提供帮助和支持。 （图片由Viridiana Diaz提供）迪亚兹说，她在每个来她办公室的学生身上都看到了自己。
她在下加利福尼亚州的墨西卡利出生并长大，12岁时随母亲和两个兄弟移民到美国。
“Poverty in Mexico was all around us,” she recalled. “There were no opportunities for work. 在美国，你至少可以谋生。 你可以有一个栖身之所，为你的家人买食物。 It was survival for us.”
当这个家庭住在奥克利的一个小型移民营地时，政府的移民教育工作者给孩子们带来了学习用品，并开车带他们去图书馆借书。
“For me it was like Christmas to get a backpack with a ruler, crayons, pencils,” Diaz said. “I filled up that backpack with as many books as I could, and I started learning English.” By the time she enrolled in school months later, she “felt pretty comfortable” with the language, she said.
但直到夏令营的辅导员来到麦克拉奇，迪亚兹才开始认真考虑上大学。
辅导员毫不犹豫地鼓励迪亚兹完成入学手续，帮助她填写适当的文件，并完成其他大学前的任务。
“As a first-generation student, I didn’t know what it took to go to college,” she said. “There wasn’t an understanding of the benefits of college in my family. My mom’s dream was that I would work in an office or in a bank, a place where I didn’t have to do physical labor. In her mind, that would have meant that I had made it.”
当她第一次踏上萨克州立大学的校园时，迪亚兹对自己成功的机会感到不安。 “I had every red flag imaginable. I was an English learner, I had low SAT scores, I had financial obstacles,” she said. “I was dealing with a lot of guilt about my family’s situation, and a feeling of insecurity that I didn’t belong.”
She took advantage of tutoring, advising and mentoring programs offered through CAMP and 囊状态’s Educational Opportunity Program. EOP服务于学业或经济困难的有前途的学生。
Eventually, “I was able to take off the armor,” she said. “I used EOP for math tutoring, and CAMP for emotional and social support. 我感觉轻松多了，就像有家人在身边一样。 That allowed me to push forward.”
她说，这些项目和萨克州立大学的其他项目现在正在转化为拉丁裔学生更高的毕业率，并为所有学生带来更好的结果。
迪亚兹和她的工作人员是强大的象征。 Their offices in the River Front Center represent “a place where students know they are not going to be judged, where they can let their guard down, where they can see others who are going through the same things that they are, and who survived and thrived,” she said.
游客们会很舒服地讲述他们的故事，说他们的母语，听他们熟悉的音乐。 冰箱里有零食和早餐。 新煮咖啡的香味在大楼里飘散。
对迪亚兹来说，萨克州立大学就是他的家。 她希望学生们也能有同样的感觉。
“囊状态 completely transformed my life,” she said. “Every year, I become a new version of myself, because the University has given me the opportunity for growth.
“囊状态 made it possible for me to believe that a different life is possible for everyone.”