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| Rachel Maldonado-Aziminia (above left) and Vielka Elvebak chat during CTA’s State Council. |
When Vielka Elvebak enrolled at Chabot College in 2004 as a re-entry student, she thought she wanted to become a high school Spanish teacher. That was until Rachel Maldonado-Aziminia, a counselor and stalwart CCA member, got hold of her.
Now the South American immigrant and mother of two, is the out-going president of the Student CTA and on her way to earning a double major in Spanish and political science from UC Berkeley, with the intent of becoming a community college political science professor, an attorney, and, oh yes, perhaps the president of Ecuador one day.
She was my mentor
“I hadn’t even thought about UC Berkeley,” Elvebak says. “Then Rachel became my counselor and urged me to go there. She was my mentor.”
It’s amazing the difference a teacher can make in a person’s life. Then again, Maldonado-Aziminia wasn’t the first teacher to have an influence on Elvebak.
As an immigrant to this country, Elvebak had already faced a number of challenges in her life. The 13th of 14 children, she arrived in California from her native Ecuador as a teenager to live with an older sister after her father had died. She began attending Hoover High School in Glendale and worked at a Del Taco by night, but transferred to Hollywood High for its diversity – even though that meant two long bus rides to get there. It was there that her French teacher took her under his wing and encouraged her to finish high school and go on to college.
“He kept telling me, ‘Be the first one to graduate.’ I thought college was only for people who have money. As an EL (English Language) student, no one had talked to me about college before,” she says.
Because of that encouragement, she received her high school diploma and enrolled at Los Angeles Mission College – though she stayed just a year before leaving to get married and start a family.
She reflects, “I never wanted to stop school, and I told my kids from the beginning that I was going to go back. I waited until they were 10 and 12, and started back at age 33.”
Joined AmeriCorps
At Chabot, Elvebak joined AmeriCorps because the program helped defray the cost of books for the volunteers. It was during one of the AmeriCorps meetings that Moldonado-Aziminia came to talk to the group about SCTA.
“Rachel really sold the program. I got the brochure and the next day, went to see her to sign up,” Elvebak says.
But Maldonado-Aziminia spotted something special in Elvebak.
“She innately had the leadership skills. If they have the leadership skills, they can see how Student CTA can help them. Vielka saw that,” she says.
Elvebak was initially drawn to Student CTA for the conferences and professional development workshops it offered. But soon she was involved in political campaign work, volunteering for phone banking duties and tabling activities. After a year of serving as an officer in the local Student CTA chapter, Elvebak applied to be on the statewide board and then ran for president. Upon transferring to UC Berkeley, however, she was disheartened to find there was no Student CTA chapter on campus.
“So I started one,” she says. “We now have 105 members.”
Although she started out as a Spanish major, Elvebak says she decided to get a second major in political science because of her work with SCTA.
“I think I’m a good example for my sons. I tell them everything in life involves political action. In order to make change, you have to be involved in politics,” she says.
SCTA provides growth opportunties
Getting involved in Student CTA has provided Elvebak with a number of “growth opportunities” that have helped her develop her own leadership skills. Whether it’s conducting the Higher Ed Caucus meeting at CTA’s State Council, or leading a group of SCTA members on a trip to work with orphans in Mexico, Elvebak has thrown herself into the job.
In that time, she has also worked to strengthen relationships with other affiliates within CTA. She recalls pursuing former CCA President Carolyn Inmon for a chance to request support from CCA for student activities, and has since attended several CCA conferences to forge an alliance.
“They provided us with more advisors on their campuses and $3,000. We’ve become really close to CCA as a result,” Elvebak says.
A longtime advisor herself, Maldonado-Aziminia also encourages her colleagues to become faculty advisors to Student CTA. "The requirements of attending two leadership conferences a year aren’t that demanding, she says, and provides faculty an opportunity to get together. But more than that, it has an impact on the next generation of leaders."
“Being an SCTA advisor helps future leaders and future teachers understand what CTA does. If you are empowered, you are less likely to be intimidated,” Maldonado-Aziminia says. “If students can see the professionalism and understand the politics, they can feel more empowered.”
There are other reasons to become an advisor as well as a member of SCTA, Maldonado-Aziminia points out. “Student CTA members are more likely to stay in the profession. They become active members of the association.”
Elvebak, in the meantime, is continuing to pursue her bachelor’s degree and is contemplating her future. Having become involved in various CTA campaigns in California, she is considering a political future in her native Ecuador. She is also in the process of buying family land from her siblings to start an orphanage for street children there.
“I’d like to be able to get this project going in five years and bring volunteers from the United States to work there. There really is so much to do,” she says.
(Elvebak has completed her term as SCTA president but hopes to remain active in SCTA while finishing her degree. She has since been joined at college by her husband who had delayed his schooling after undergoing a kidney transplant in 2005. He is now completing his associate’s degree in English at Chabot.)
