Sosa has Board seat in her sights

When it came time for Guadalupe Sosa to vote for the chair person of the advisory committee, working on the plans for a South Austin Campus, she hesitated. She wasn't sure if she should vote for herself. Sosa had brought the idea to build a campus in South Austin to ACC's Board of Trustees, and she had been working on it tirelessly for years.

There were many qualified people in the room. She hesitated, but then voted for herself. She won the chair position by one vote.

South Austin Campus is a reality today in large part because of Sosa's efforts. Now she has her eyes set on a seat on ACC's Board of Trustees.

"I love ACC," said Sosa. "To me education is the key to moving up, to doing better for yourself, and taking better care of your family."

Sosa knows first-hand the importance and the opportunities an education can provide. She moved to San Antonio, when she was 13. Her father had died, and Sosa's mother used the money they had left to obtain visas and move to Texas to be near family.

"My mother started working as a domestic worker to send us to school and keep a roof over our heads," said Sosa.

"She's my hero," said Sosa as she recalled her mother's hard work. Being the oldest of four children, Sosa helped raise her siblings while she went to school and learned English. Eventually, Sosa dropped out. She had fallen behind in school, and at 18 she had just finished the ninth grade.

After getting married and having five children, Sosa decided she needed to finish her education to get a good job. She got her GED and then a teaching degree from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. She studied education with the goal of teaching bilingual students.

Sosa never got her teaching certificate but instead worked in social services first in Victoria and then in Austin. It was in Austin working at a Medicaid program that provided transportation to clients, that Sosa said she found her most rewarding job.

"I loved that job not because it paid so much, but because it gave me the satisfaction of knowing I was helping people."

After retirement, Sosa joined her neighborhood association, and through that association she has been involved in projects such as the building of ACC's South Austin campus.

Her work has not gone unnoticed. Last year Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell declared July 9, 2009, Lupe Sosa Day. It has been the encouragement of friends and people in her neighborhood association that have gotten Sosa to run for a place on the ACC Board.

Sosa said that, if elected, she wants to keep ACC's focus on "serving the needs of the community, the needs of the students."

One area of interest for Sosa is the high school dropout rate among Hispanic students.

She said she would like to see what ACC could do to work with local schools.

Sosa also spoke about current issues like the proposed changes to the late registration and add/drop schedule, which she said, "is not a good idea."

Of the Adjunct Faculty pay issue currently before the Board, Sosa said, "We want quality teachers, quality professors. You pay for what you get, and we are competing with UT. We are competing with big institutions that can afford to pay, so we have to pay for quality."

Because of ACC's role in the Austin community and because of her work with the South Austin Campus, Sosa joked that she is "part of ACC even though I don't work for it."

After the May 8 Board of Trustees elections, Sosa hopes that she will officially be part of ACC and that is why she said she will definitely be voting for herself.