Congratulations Graduates!
On the evening of May 6, at Atherton Auditorium, the La Raza Employees Association hosted Delta's Raza Graduate Celebration, a bilingual (English/Spanish), culturally meaningful celebration.

This year's theme: "Honoring our Past, Empowering our Present, Transforming the Future"

Over 120 students participated and hundreds of their family and friends joined in celebrating the students’ accomplishments at San Joaquin Delta College.

Keynote address was presented by Delta College Alumnus Dr. Jesús Isaac Luna, who was also inducted into LREA Hall of fame.

Dr. Luna was born in Juchipila, Zacatecas, located in the north-central region of Mexico on August 27, 1982. Since his early years, he has held a deep fascination for science. At the age of 19, Jesus migrated with his family to the San Joaquin Valley, where they worked as farm worker in the vineyards. Jesus was recruited into the local migrant education program where he received help earning his GED through the High School Equivalency program at the San Joaquin Delta College.

After Dr. Luna was awarded his GED, he enrolled in college coursework at Delta, where he spent the next four years taking science and engineering classes. After completing transfer coursework, Jesus transferred to the University of California Merced, where he graduated in 2008 with a Bachelors of Science in the area of Biological Sciences. During his undergraduate studies he conducted research in the areas of immunology, stem cell biology, and bioengineering.

After graduation, he was accepted into a doctoral program in Biological Engineering and Small-scale technologies at UC Merced. Jesus dedicated the next five years to conducting research in cardiac tissue engineering, focusing on engineering tools with potential therapeutic applications to fight cardiovascular disease. During his graduate studies, he earned both national and international recognitions, and received awards for his scientific achievements. His current plan includes working in science policy and minority education outreach for promoting equal opportunity in the STEM fields, he eventually hopes to start up his own company in biotechnology to continue his vision to improve global human health.

Community Service Awards

As members of a community college we recognize the importance of the contributions our students make to our community. There were many excellent candidates nominated by their peers, the recipients of this year's award are:

Sofia Bobadilla, Enlisted in the U.S. Navy
Sofia was nominated because of her continuous community involvement by several of her peers. She is an active member and former President of the Puente Club, each year she was one of the top 25 members, completing hundreds of documented community service during her study at Delta. Here is what her peers had to say about her: She sets an example for becoming a leader and helping others along the way

She is hard working and always looks for new places to lend a helping hand. She is always there when we have community service events, even when she's feeling under the weather. Sofy is a great organizer and excellent leader! She is an amazing person who has proven herself time and time again. Sofy will go the extra mile to help, She has worked very hard as the Puente Club President to  provide members the opportunity to tour Universities in Southern Califiornia by organizing countless number of fundraisers to pay for the transportation, lodging and food for twenty five members. Sofy is a dedicated leader and Delta Community College is a better place because of her service.

Vanessa Fregoso, Transferring to UC Los Angeles
Vanessa understands the true meaning of giving back and holds her community very close to her heart.  As a Latina daughter of immigrant farm laborers, granddaughter of a bracero, and a current sociology pre-law student, she fully understands what it is like to be a marginalized female minority in a struggling community and she realizes that along with accomplishing her academic goals she needs to help her community achieve their own. Her dream is to become a constitutional and immigration lawyer so that she can better help underserved communities defend their rights as human beings.

Vanessa's dedication to her Latino/a community is shown through over 1000 hours of community service with multiple well known organizations such as CDN, PICO, PACT, and the recently formed group San Joaquin Immigrant Youth Collective (SJIYC) of which she was a cofounder and active board member.  She somehow manages to help her community despite having been a full time student and part time employee at Catholic Charities where she assisted hundreds of local immigrant youth apply successfully for Deferred Action (DACA) as their personal case worker, consultant, and workshop lead for over a year. She has great potential and desire to help improve her communities’ qualify of life.

Alexis Buz, Transferring to UC San Diego 
Since he began Delta back in summer 2011 Alexis has committed over 1500+ Community Service hours to the community through several leadership positions and involvement with organizations both on and off campus; all the while maintaining a 3.71 GPA as a full time Biomedical Engineering student with several rigorous course loads. His community work has been highlighted on several media outlets such as: Univision Local/National, Fox 40, Tracy Press, Stockton Record, Lodi news, and SJDC website. He has been apart of PUENTE Club and served as its Campus rep for the CA Dream Network, SHPE Club as its Outreach Coordinator, LAMSA, MESA, and was the proud Co-founder, Vice President, and President of Delta's first American Chemical Society Chapter in which he has helped coordinate several chemistry magic shows designed to inspire future generations of underprivileged youth to pursue degrees in STEM fields. Additionally he has served in several leadership positions with CHIRLA and the CA Dream Network such as San Joaquin Steering Rep, Northern Regional Rep, and the Northern Regional Coordinator for the CA New Americans vote campaign in which he led a group of students to register over 500 first time Latino voters in San Joaquin .

Merit Award

Participant with the highest grade point average:
Patricia Muñoz

Philanthropist of the Year Award 

Dedicated to a person in the community who seeks to promote the welfare of others. This year's recipient is Frank Sapata. Frank has been dedicated to working with Stockton’s youth for over thirty five years! Frank has used his Ballet Folklorico performances as fundraisers for Delta College scholarships and has helped many students continue their college education.

We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who played a role in coordinating celebration, especially:

Oscar Alarcon Dr. Stella Alonzo Trini Araya Veronica Arroyo Lori Aubin Maria Bernardino Anthony Canela Jan Chansilaphet Amy Courtright Chris Garcia Ariana Gonzalez Celina Gonzalez Dr. Kathy Hart Cassandra Hernandez-Vives Dr. Charles Jennings	Roy Juarez VP Michael Kerns Dr. Jon Krupp Tina Leal Connie Martinez Lydia Macy Consuelo Muñoz Pablo Ortega Kishor Patel Olga Santiago Sabrina Sencil Sandra Varela Jim Vergara Mario Vasquez Zack Walker

Another fine example of Delta College teamwork!
Thank you!
La Raza Employees Association

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