Soul Series #2: Interview with Jesse Magaña
Jesse Magaña is a graduating senior Sociology major (social justice emphasis) at the University of San Diego from Ceres, CA. His energy for social justice, unmatched wisdom, and activism has made waves on USD’s campus and in the world. And the impact he’s making is just getting started. We can’t wait for you to get to know Jesse more!
I have been so lucky to get to know you over the past couple of years, which has not only changed my life, but many others and I’m so excited for more people to learn about you and your voice. Tell us about you! How would you describe yourself in your own words? What are you involved with on campus?
I would say there are two spectrums of who I am- I would describe myself as tenacious, compassionate, but at times timid and sensitive. On campus I am involved in Associated Student Government (ASG), Tour Guides, Nu Alpha Kappa Fraternity (NAK), I am a Co-chair for MEChA, and a part of Beyond Borders.
What’s something about you that most people don’t know?
Most people don’t know that I hate being an extrovert. I’ve always been an extrovert, but I think that has come from people always expecting that of me, and it takes a lot of emotional energy to live up to what people expect.
What experiences from growing up have been most influential in shaping who you are today as a leader and an activist?
With my upbringing, I had to grow up a little faster than a lot of my peers and become more aware of how the world works from a young age. I couldn’t go straight to college after high school (the “traditional way”), so instead I took a year off and worked 2 to 3 jobs at a time. This opened my eyes to a lot of new perspectives in the world. These experiences have made me more open to hearing what people have to say and finding common ground in the disagreements I might have with them.
What was your journey from working at Disney World and going to junior college to transferring to USD? Why did you decide to pursue these in this specific order?
In high school, I had an academic counselor who wasn’t very supportive. At one point when seeking my options for attending college, they told me, “That’s great, but I still have my doubts that you’ll even graduate high school.” At the end of high school I didn’t end up passing a math class and ultimately got my admission rescinded from Sacramento State University. I didn’t give up and was later accepted into a private school near my area to which I had submitted a late application. However, a loan that I needed to attend there was denied which prohibited my chance of attending. During this time, I fell into a slight depression- I felt like I failed myself.
Later on, I got the opportunity to move to Florida to work at Disney World. This experience actually opened my eyes to many racial inequalities at Disney- many of which my co-workers ignored were happening. I worked on Main Street, where Walt Disney once said that he wanted to feel like “Fourth of July everyday.” Well, in the small Missouri town Walt grew up in, I imagine it was very white. So my coworkers reflected that same small Missouri town. There are a lot of Haitian and Puerto Rican immigrants in Florida and who worked at Disney World as well. But, I never saw a lot of them working in the front-lines of the park- rarely ever in speaking character roles or interacting with guests first-hand like the cast I worked with. Instead, I saw many of them in janitorial positions.
I ended up receiving the opportunity to volunteer to teach a 3rd grade class in Florida, which is when I realized I was more passionate about education than anything else. My contract ended in Florida in Spring of 2016 and I moved back home, where I started working full time at an elementary school while I finished community college. When I graduated in May 2018, I was enrolled and set to transfer to a different college in the Bay Area. It wasn’t until late June that I was notified of my acceptance into USD. After thinking it through, I realized I didn’t see myself being happy in the Bay Area at a super tiny school living in Stanford’s shadow because of its proximity. I had flown down to San Diego about every 4 months in high school for meetings for a leadership program I was in. I fell in love with SD and I knew I always wanted to live there at some point. I thought about the opportunities I would have at USD and a month before school started in 2018, I accepted the opportunity to attend, transferred, and the rest is history.
Reflecting back on your time at USD now as a graduating senior, who do you think has had the greatest impact on you in your time at USD?
I think having a network of people that genuinely care about me- I was never expecting to have that level of support from mentors and peers than I’ve had at USD. Throughout my time at USD, my professor Dr. Nunn was one of the first to normalize struggling in school and has gone out of her way to make sure I was succeeding. In general, I often think about the people I’ve been able to meet and how they’ve impacted my life. I don’t regret attending USD, I don’t think I would have experienced the amount of growth that I’ve had if I would have stayed close to home or moved to the Bay Area.
What social justice causes or communities are the most important to you and why? How do you work to create positive social change in these environments?
I am passionate about educational social justice- who has access to education and how the educational system negatively treats certain groups of people, especially people of color and those of lower socioeconomic statuses, which is why they suffer the most. Everyone deserves the right to equitable access to education. For instance, we need to think of the inequalities black students face with equitable access to education and how we can better provide lasting support. There really is a lot that goes on under this topic, including language barriers, developmental differences, and how the experience of students differ based on the color of their skin. In addition, immigration issues and health care access is extremely important to me.
In my life and through my work, I work to understand all the privileges that I hold- constantly checking myself and being conscious of having parents that support me and being Latino/white passing, which has caused me to navigate obstacles in my life differently. It’s important to always recognize whose identities are being marginalized. I’m never afraid to stand up for what I believe in and call people out when others are silent.
What has it been like to be a senator in USD’s Associated Student Government (ASG)? How do you believe USD can better support their students?
Being a senator allowed me to be more dedicated to diversity, inclusion, and equity. It’s taught me to stop attaching students to statistics or numbers/percentages on a graph -a likert scale and stop denying that we have a diversity and inclusion issue because the more we hide what’s actually going on, the less progress we will see. Money doesn’t always need to be involved in order to care for students. We also need to be more aware that having students share their experiences is emotionally taxing. Lastly, I think there is an extreme lack of POC solidarity on campus. It comes from the ability of some POC to understand how we have more privilege than our other POC siblings. Once we learn to understand our privileges and how they play out that will allow us to stand as a more unified community and we will see a significant difference.
Tell me about a project you’ve been working on recently.
After the hate crime that occured at USD this past October, I connected with students from the University of St. Thomas, who also discussed a hate crime that happened on their campus. Together we are working on an action plan to combat instances of hate on our campuses. Our main goal in this project is to address different parts of our university and how we can be more proactive vs. reactive. We’ve been working on it for a while now, putting it together before I graduate so it doesn’t go to waste. This project has so many different facets to it that have allowed me to understand where we need to improve on in terms of marginalized student experiences.
Although always worth it, I know social justice work can be extremely draining. What wakes you up and keeps you going?
For me, it’s the thought that the work is never done. There will always be work to do. For some people this could be draining, but that is really exciting to me.
What are some things you’ve had to unlearn? What do you hope to learn more about?
Self deprecation. I think we are really hard on ourselves. Sometimes I find myself thinking there’s not enough time, someone’s already doing that or even that I’m not meant to do certain things. I’m learning to not listen to people who say I can’t do something and give myself more grace when I make a mistake.
You have just recently committed to USC for Graduate School (Masters in Post-Secondary Administration and Student Affairs), which is absolutely incredible!! What were the deciding factors in choosing this school and program?
I spent days and nights deciding between USD, Columbia University and USC, thinking about what would be the best opportunity for me and detaching the name of the schools from my decision. Then of course, Miss Rona made things more complicated. I had to think to myself if it would be worth it to move all the way to New York during this time and I didn’t want to be so far from my family. I had a really positive application experience with USC and my decision was solidified with my phone call with USC’s Assistant Director of Admissions. We were talking about decision making and I had expressed to her that part of my decision had to do with my grandmother recently being diagnosed with cancer. She stopped the conversation to make sure that I was doing well given the news and genuinely cared about how I was doing as a person. A week later she sent me an email telling me she hoped my grandma was doing well and that she was praying for her. That experience ultimately was what sold me.
What are you determined to accomplish during your time there?
My biggest hope is to learn a lot more about how institutions can shift their lens to better support minorities. How are they supporting their most vulnerable students and when they put their students first, how significant the outcome can be. Private institutions are so interesting to me because they work with significantly less restrictions than public institutions and they have the room and ability to make significant impacts on the experience of minority students.
What moment or experience are you most proud of in your life thus far?
Despite everything I’ve been through, I still have enough determination to keep on going. I could have been negative, but instead I’ve turned these circumstances into positive thoughts. I always doubted how I’ve performed academically, but everything I’ve worked so hard on paid off when I got into USC, and I’m proud of that.
What would your dream job be if money wasn’t in the question?
My dream job is to be an educator, but not in the conventional way people think of. I want to take everything I’ve learned and share that with students like me, putting the most effort into making sure they’re successful in their pursuits in life.
When will you know you’ve “made it” in life?
In a sense I feel like I’ve already made it. I will always strive to feel at peace and happy. When the two are able to coexist then I’ll feel like I’ve fully made it.
What legacy do you hope to leave at USD? In the world?
For USD, I hope I’ve been able to show people that there isn’t a cookie cutter way to do college. There is no one size fits all. You should always challenge things even if it makes people feel uncomfortable. It’s always worth the change it made in the end.
As for the world, I want people to know that they deserve to be cared for no matter how broken they think people are. I try to love people as much as I can with boundaries, while I believe that all people deserve love I know that I have no love to give to people who see others as less than them.. Lastly, I want people to know that they should never doubt themselves. You are always deserving of the space you inhabit.
