Between 94 candidates, the law student of the University of California at Berkeley, Marlenee Blas Pedral, born in Mexico, but naturalized American, was selected as student regent – student representative – in the Board of Regents of the UC education system for the period 2022 – 23.
“My commitment is to be a strong advocate for students. I’m going to read everything, I’m going to prepare and think of innovative solutions that empower students and ensure their success, ”said Marlenee, a second-year law student at UC Berkeley.
He specified that his priority as regent is the welfare of the 277, 000 students, maintain their opposition against the increase in tuition fees, especially because with the pandemic there are many impacted families, facing many challenges.
“When I was at UC Santa Bárbara, every year we went out to protest against the increases ”. And although this year the tuition fees were increased, she did not have the power to vote to express her opposition.
In addition, he said that he will be monitoring the back to school next school year which is going to start in September.
Regarding the increase in racial diversity in UC, he considered that it has improved, but not in the higher-ranking campuses. “I will be an advocate for policies that provide an inclusive climate in the entire UC community.”
Although the position is for two years and began this month, the first year is training, and it will not be until the second that he will have the right to vote, starting in July of the year 2022.
Marlenee was born 30 years in San Pedro, an Otomí community in the state of Mexico. Her parents immigrated to Rosarito, Mexico and when she was 8 years old they brought her to live in Riverside County. “I lived between Temecula and Murrieta.”
In 2010 became a naturalized US citizen. He graduated with honors from UC Santa Barbara from UC Santa Barbara and holds an MBA from the University of Vermont. Upon completing his graduate degree, he won a Fulbright scholarship to travel to Brazil for almost a year.
For nearly 4 years she worked as a career counselor at UC Riverside and later as associate director of the UC Riverside Center for Social Innovation.
She is co-founder of the Butterfly Project , which supports with resources undocumented students; and is one of the creators of UC Riverside Career Closet which provides students with wardrobe career fairs and interviews.
During her freshman year at UC Berkeley Law Schools, she was an elected student representative from postgraduate and served in the Electoral and Political Empowerment Project.
Marlenee says it was a friend who encouraged her to seek the opportunity to be a regent student. “I was encouraged because this year is going to be very important for the return to in-person instruction and because I can bring the perspective of being a student and former worker at UC Riverside.”
After an interview process, Marlenee was selected from almost 100 candidates. “I was very excited when they gave me the news. I think I was chosen for my student experience, for my work at UC and for starting a program to give opportunities to the undocumented. ”
She states that both experiences have helped understand students’ needs and what the university can do to address them. “That perspective, in addition to knowing how to identify problems and having ideas on how to deal with them, convinced them and helped me win.”
Marlenee is two more years away from graduating from law school. “I would like to be a lawyer in criminal law, but there are also areas of education that interest me.”
And she says that the desire to excel, They were instilled in them by their parents. Pablo Blas has been a construction worker for more than 30 years. His mother Laly is dedicated to cleaning houses.
“ My mom always told me that crossing the border is difficult, but everything else is easier. I always had that pressure that we had left our country for better opportunities and we should take advantage of them ”.
The Board of Regents is the governing body of the University of California. Their 26 members are appointed by the governor and last for a term of 12 years while the student regent is chosen by the presidents of the UC undergraduate and graduate student associations.
The regent student position was established in . Blas Pedral is the number 50, and is the twelfth Latina in office.