Harper Talks Episode 39 - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Harper Talks Episode 39 — Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez (.mp3)

Transcript

Harper Talks: The Harper Alumni Podcast
Show 39: Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez – Harper Talks — Transcript

[00:00:00.350] - Brian Shelton, host

I'm Brian Shelton, and you're listening to Harper Talks, a coproduction of Harper College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio. Today on Harper Talks, I'm excited to speak with someone whose name I'm going to butcher, so I am just going to ask her to say it for me.

[00:00:16.430] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez.

[00:00:18.060] - Brian Shelton, host

See, I can't roll the R's. Anyway, we're so excited to have you here today. She's a graduate of Harper College and currently serves as the Coordinator for Student Diversity Initiatives here at the school. She joined me in the WHCM studios in the A building on campus. Thank you so much for being here.

[00:00:34.420] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Thank you for having me. I'm super excited.

[00:00:36.400] - Brian Shelton, host

I am super excited to have you here as well. So much stuff going on at the college that I want to talk to you about. We were chatting before the show that you run a group that I don't even know what it does. And so there's so much to learn, so I'm really excited to chat with you. But I do want to ask you, what was behind your choice to come to Harper College as a student? Because you are a graduate of the school. Why did you come here?

[00:00:56.810] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

I think for me, it was always the the support of continuing my education. I'm the first of five, so first generation, undocumented at that time. I had recently learned I was undocumented when it was time to go to college. I was looking at what options there were, there was for me. I heard a lot of people were coming to Harper College, and I thought, okay, it's affordable. I'm going to be paying for this out of pocket because I learned that financial aid wasn't an option. I had not applied for scholarships, so I was navigating and finding my way, and I found my way here.

[00:01:40.370] - Brian Shelton, host

That's fantastic. Can we talk about that for just a second? So a good friend of mine found out that he was undocumented when he went to ask his mother for a social security card to apply for a job. And she's like, Oh, I have a story to tell you, right? What was that like for you? Can I ask you about that? Is that okay?

[00:01:55.140] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Oh, no, absolutely. I'm very transparent with the process because I know that a lot of students are in this situation. And it's helpful to know that you're not alone, that our students are not alone in this experience and that process they go through. So for me, I had known something was different because my siblings, all born here, four of them, were able to go to Mexico. And I had to stay behind. And I wasn't sure why, but I was like, okay, well, it's different for me. And it wasn't until that time that it came across as like, well, you are in a different path or you don't have this. And my situation is different, though, because I was fortunate to then be able to go through the path of obtaining a permanent legal residency.

[00:02:44.520] - Brian Shelton, host

Did you go through the DACA program?

[00:02:45.950] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

No. No. The DACA was... No, that was not in existence for me.

[00:02:49.990] - Brian Shelton, host

Oh, okay.

[00:02:50.030] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Or would it have been an option for me based on when you have to have been here? But I was able to have a permanent residency and then become a US citizen in my 20s. But when I started Harper College, for me, it was navigating all the information, being undocumented, the pressure of the financial piece, and then knowing that as the oldest of five, I needed to pave the way to let them know that what I do, and you follow because we know our siblings follow everything, that they would look to me to what I would do next. So there was no choice for me. I needed to pave the way. And so there were a lot of challenges and a lot of obstacles. And I think it was always keeping in mind that it's scary.

[00:03:38.710] - Brian Shelton, host

Right.

[00:03:39.430] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

There's a lot of uncertainty. But eventually, I came to learn that I wasn't alone. And that's the story that comes with Harper and the people here.

[00:03:47.840] - Brian Shelton, host

Do you feel like we do a decent job helping undocumented students here now?

[00:03:52.240] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

I feel that this is... So I was a student back in 1998, so I was dating myself. In 1998, there was nothing in terms of really what that meant for me in navigating that. It was very key people like Juanita Pérez-Bassler, Frank Solano, Pascuala Herrera, who were here, who guided and provided support to our students. But now I believe that we have more information. I really feel that we are in that momentum being a Hispanic-serving institution and capitalizing on this movement of the support we bring to our students to really do more for what that means. But yes, there's more information, support opportunities than before.

[00:04:40.260] - Brian Shelton, host

Did your siblings wind up going to school as well?

[00:04:42.400] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

They did. So Oldest of Five and all of us are alum from Harper College. Oh, that's fantastic. It is. So my sister, who is Linda, she's a nurse from the nursing program, and now she's a manager in a hospital. And then my other sibling, Dulce Barraza, she works here. Oh, I know her. Dulce works here. She obtained her master's, and my other two siblings are in social work, and they're all along from Harper. So this family, Harper, really took us in and provided the support, and the people here made an impact in our lives.

[00:05:15.300] - Brian Shelton, host

That's great. And look at the good that just your family alone is doing in the world, right? From coming here. That's so awesome. That's really neat. Hey, while you were here, I know that you were heavily involved in stuff. You got involved in student government and Latinos Unidos and all that. Tell me about being being involved on campus. Why was that important to you when you were here?

[00:05:32.470] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

I tell this to all my students because I've been in higher ed for 15 years and only seven years here at Harper. Harper was my second home. And if it wasn't because of the key people I had mentioned, I would not have been as successful in navigating higher education as I was. Because at first I would walk. It was come to school, go home, work, come to school, go home, work. But I didn't feel there was a connection then for me here or that sense of familia, family that we want our students to have, all of our students to have. So when Juanita, one day I saw her and she said, hey, come to Latinos Unidos. And I was like, Okay, okay. But went to class and I was like, I'm busy. I'm busy. It was the third time that she asked me that. I was like, okay, let me see what Latinos Unidos is about. And that meaning, that sense of familia, it engulfed me in how it helped me feel at home. And I felt like this was a place for me. And so then I continued to come. And through that engagement and welcoming space, and we're talking about 100 deep students back in those times, I became involved.

[00:06:46.620] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

I said, You know what? I'm afraid. There's this sense of as a Latina, first generation. There's this fear of going above, sometimes that you feel that you aren't ready or able to, but for me, it was a lot of this that helped me move forward in life and my career aspirations and opportunities. So Latinos Unidos, I joined. I became President in 1999. Of course, you did. Which is crazy because we started the first Sabor Latino event, and this is the 25th annual now on October 11th.

[00:07:24.390] - Brian Shelton, host

Tell me about the event. What is that?

[00:07:25.560] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Yes. So when we did it back in 1999, in December, it was a a way to bring cultural awareness to the plethora of different performances, really mainly brought to you by students, different performances from dance, song. And in those times, it was a way to then maybe fundraise some money so that we can use as an organization. We would have this show open to the community, but there was a cost, so like $5. And then it continued on even after I left. So when I came here to Harper College as a professional in 2017 and I was excited. I was thrilled to know that Sabor Latino was still happening. And then I became the advisor of Latinos Unidos, and since then, we continue to have this opportunity. But here's the difference. When I started my position in the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, but thought this would be the way to support our students because a lot of the times we leave what is the visibility of engagement to the students, whereas if we support them in the way that now it's run by an office, and it makes sense, Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, that they don't have to feel that stress to then have something for the community and the students.

[00:08:41.140] - Brian Shelton, host

Yeah, they can just be there and belong.

[00:08:42.620] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

They can come and participate, have fun, learn, but they don't have to feel that crunch of, Oh, I have to coordinate this.

[00:08:49.000] - Brian Shelton, host

Right. Fun. Good stuff. All right. So you were here as a student, and then you went off and did your thing, and you came back here as an employee. Let's talk about going off and doing the thing, right? You transferred out of here to UIC. What was that like for you?

[00:09:04.040] - Brian Shelton, host

Uh-oh, I look at that face.

[00:09:05.740] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Not only the face, that sigh. Not many people talk about the failures that happen, but I believe that it is in the failures that we are able to grow in the challenges where we learn. UIC was great for me because it offered an opportunity as a first of five to go out on my own independently, but But also it was freedom. I didn't balance as well. I joined Greek Life, Alpha Lambda Coed, Incorporated, fraternity Incorporated, and I couldn't balance. So I fell behind and I was kicked out of UIC.

[00:09:49.290] - Brian Shelton, host

Oh, goodness.

[00:09:50.050] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

I was. I was kicked out. But that offered an opportunity for me to learn and be like, you need to do better at how you balance life, activity, involvement. And so for me then, that helped me when I went to Northern Illinois University to be able to be involved, but also to balance what was all my priorities. And I graduated with a high GPA, 3.5. And I was able to do both.

[00:10:17.060] - Brian Shelton, host

Well, see, that's great. And I'm glad that you tell that story and don't hold back from it, because I do with my students all the time, because we would talk about writing and struggling with writing academic papers and that thing. And I'm like, my first semester of college, I had a 0.98 GPA, and now I'm a college professor. You can figure it out, too. And so we have to talk about those failures and when things don't work out, and then how that helps us grow into being other things, because I think a lot of times our students see us and they're like, oh, well, this person has their stuff together, and I don't have my stuff together. I don't have my stuff together today sometimes. So what was NIU like for you, though?

[00:10:51.590] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

NIU was fantastic. And it felt like I was living on my own, like a because I had my apartment. At UIC, I didn't. I was commuting.

[00:11:03.170] - Brian Shelton, host

That's hard.

[00:11:03.910] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

It is. That commuter, going back and forth, it was grueling. But being on campus, I felt like, oh, wow, this feels really nice. So it was a different experience. I could say I did community college. I was in the city, and then I lived on campus. So I think the independence, it brought the flexibility to then manage the resources on campus, the nightlife. And I'm not talking about party life. I'm talking about the night scene being on campus when it's after 5 and there's still life on campus. That was really nice for me. They had a Latino... Well, still do, a Latino Resource Center that I then connected in different ways than beyond Greek life for me.

[00:11:45.050] - Brian Shelton, host

That's really cool. So you had all those experiences there, but you were prepared academically by Harper to go to UIC, but you just personally weren't ready. No. That's basically what it boils down to, right?

[00:11:54.850] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

No. And being the oldest Latino... Well, for me, as as a mujer, as a woman, there was a lot of restriction and the oldest. So when I went to UIC, that was the most freedom at first for me to be like, oh, I could do all of this. In all honesty, I joined Greek life because I was looking for what Latinos Unidos offered full-time. I meant forever, for life. But Latinos Unidos, for me, as the organization was family. I was looking for family. Alpha Scalenda, Co-Ed fraternity Incorporated is familia, it's family. So I was like, Yes, let's do this. But I didn't balance everything the way I believe all students can definitely do.

[00:12:37.110] - Brian Shelton, host

Yeah, that's really cool. Thanks for telling that story. I really appreciate. A lot of people would shy away from doing it. I think it's very important to tell these stories. I appreciate you doing that. So talk to me how you got back to Harper as an employee. How did that happen?

[00:12:49.380] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Yeah. So I took a little while before I really realized what career path I was going to take. Actually, after completing my baccalaureate degree in psychology from NIU, I was offered a fellowship with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant Refugee Rights as an electoral campaign manager. And I said, yes, because I want to make a difference in the community. I'm all about the community. So I was there, and it was a really great opportunity to work with the Resurrection Project in the city and bring out the vote and increase registration. But for me, I felt like I want to marry what is empowerment of students in higher higher education. So I went back for my master's in higher education at Northeastern Illinois University. And then I started becoming... That's where my professional life started. Doing involvement with events on campus and then applying for the satellite location, which is called El Centro at Northeastern Illinois University, and working my way as a coordinator and assistant director. So for me, higher education made the most sense working with the students in that way.

[00:14:03.090] - Brian Shelton, host

You're able to give back and to help as well.

[00:14:05.070] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Yes, in different capacities because I've been fortunate to be in many different roles, not only in higher education, but in life, like many different hats.

[00:14:14.610] - Brian Shelton, host

I'm curious. You were here as a student and you were really actively involved while you were here. You went off, you did your thing, different jobs, and you come back here as an employee. And now as an employee, now that you see how the sausage gets made, so to speak, how's it different being an are you here now versus when you were a student? How's your perspective changed? Careful how you answer. No, I'm just kidding.

[00:14:36.310] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

Who's listening? Who's listening? Yeah. Well, I think keeping it true to what it is. If you work making movies, You don't have that lackluster of, the movies, and it happens because you know how that magic happens. And for me as a professional, I'm behind the scenes now, and I see how the magic happens for the students. So the students aren't seeing how it happens. In the end, so long as it happens for them and they have these opportunities, that for me is the most rewarding. Of course, I now see behind the scene how things happen and what it takes to make those things happen. A lot of work and flexibility. But the last... Not the last. The main key of it is really working in a community sense. We're a community college. So that community piece has never faltered in what I've done and what I bring in where I'm at. But, yeah, it's different. They get the presence. We're making them behind-scenes. Yeah.

[00:15:37.100] - Brian Shelton, host

Do you think the students should know about the background, or you think we should just let them enjoy?

[00:15:41.650] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

I think we let them enjoy. And that was the reason why I thought it was very important to have these additional supports for Latinos Unidos in regards to some of the things they were already doing. Because we want our students in the end, first and foremost, they're here for their education. Then they have everything that they deal with family, And then it's, Let me have fun. But let me have fun in a way where I learn, I'm excited, but I'm not being taxed.

[00:16:07.160] - Brian Shelton, host

Yeah. Cool. So what is your job as the Coordinator for Student Diversity Initiative? I mean, what's that mean? What's your day like? I mean, I know every day is different, but what's that like?

[00:16:18.070] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

So this position to Harper College is new. I've been in this position for three years, and at first, it's diversity, equity, and inclusion. So it is a position that you get pulled in in many different other areas. We work with policy procedures, making sure that the voices of the students are being heard in spaces that they might not be in. And for me, specifically, the populations that I oversee are Latine, so Latino, Latina, Latinx, Latine student population, our undocumented student population, international students, and our Asian-American Pacific Islander student populations. And We have two additional coordinators, and we have populations we serve. And then we also are part of our employee resource groups. And I'm part of Dream Employee Resource Group, not only through this role, but also in the engagement. I've been involved with the It's been a dream for, I would say, six years. And it's being there for the students in different way and managing the Glide Peer Mentorship program. So the Glide Peer Mentorship program starts for guiding learners intentionally to Develop Efficacy. Okay. Glide.

[00:17:33.460] - Brian Shelton, host

Glide. 

[00:17:35.120] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

It then has 40 mentees and 10 mentors. It's a peer mentorship program with the support of two coordinators, myself and Monica Shirley. It has academic sessions, excursions. We do one-on-ones with the students. So it's a holistic way of supporting our students. Now, this program does look at our Black and Latine students in terms of addressing the equity gaps for retention and persistence. And so it has a very high persistence rate, 90% persistence rate. The retention of our students is higher in comparison to our other students that also are in the similar, but not in the program.

[00:18:19.720] - Brian Shelton, host

How does a student get in that program?

[00:18:21.620] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

It is only a one-year program. When they register or apply to Harper College, we get the list of the students. We out mailings to see which students would like to be involved. We reach out to the students because there is a commitment of them attending these monthly sessions, the weekly meetings with the mentors, and that they're committed because they do receive a stipend of support to alleviate some of the financial burdens. So these students, we've had, in terms of the persistence of these students, as I was saying, very high because we invest in them as people. They have access to There's two professionals that they can come to and say, hey, help me navigate this, or I understand your story is similar to mine. Can I talk to you additionally about this? And there's that high level of support and care. And so that's why I feel that that's something different that you can't maybe always do with very, very high volumes. This is a boutique program, but it is effective because it is very tailored to have this type of relationship.

[00:19:28.790] - Brian Shelton, host

What does it take to grow something something like that, though. Does it make sense to scale that to a higher number or you want to keep it small? I'm just curious.

[00:19:38.110] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

I believe that if there is the scaling opportunity, it would just need to be looked through a different lens of how you could bring that and what that may look like. Because when we talk about excursions, we're talking about an opportunity to take a student to maybe see a play. And so that might not be always affordable, but it is doable. Because Brian, where there's a way... Where there's a will, there's a way. (laughs) It can happen. And I believe that as a community, we can really bring something like this to a larger number.

[00:20:13.380] - Brian Shelton, host

Yeah, that's really cool. It's a really cool thing. We were talking before we started the show that I didn't understand what the Glide program was, and now I know all about it, and I'm really excited about it. So it's really a cool thing that's happening here. That's neat. So I ask everybody who's on the show, what advice do you have for current Harper students?

[00:20:33.470] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

What I would tell my current Harper students is, find your involvement and connect yourself. I can't stress to you how important it is to be connected, and whether that is with a student club or if you wanted to start your own, maybe perhaps, but be involved, because the more involvement and connections you have, this net that you create, you expand, and you continue to expand. And in the future, these connections that you've made will come in and support you. They will make a difference to you.

[00:21:16.230] - Brian Shelton, host

Yeah. I tell students all the time, you have to get connected with people while you're here. You have to meet people, you have to talk to people. And even if it's just stopping by a professor's office for office hours or something like that, because even at the most selfish level, it's like at some point you're going to apply for scholarship or apply to transfer, and someone's got to write that letter for you. So even at the most selfish level, you've got to get to know people and talk to them.

[00:21:37.820] - Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez

100%. I agree that. Yeah, I agree.

[00:21:40.020] - Brian Shelton, host

Esmeralda Guerrero Lopez is a Harper College graduate and serves as Coordinator for Student Diversity Issues at Harper College. If you're enjoying Harper Talks, please subscribe. And while you're at it, rate and review us so that others might find us. Harper Talks is a co-production of Harper College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio. Our show is produced by Shannon Hynes. This episode was edited by Coby Pozo. Our online content producer is Matt Byrne. Our theme music was created by Aiden Cashman. I'm Brian Shelton. Thanks for listening.