Mt. SAC Brought Out the Best in Erica Ledezma and Now She's Doing That For Current Mounties
The story of how Erica Ledezma became a Mountie exemplifies the spirit, grit, and determination she uses to approach all things in life, and it demonstrates the College’s biggest asset: its ability to bring out the best in everyone who enrolls. Erica grew up playing soccer, a sport she learned at the Boys and Girls Club she frequented after school while her single mom was working two jobs to make sure Erica and her siblings had everything they needed. Some of her friends were going to college after high school—some even to Mt. SAC—and although Erica had been a good student and a great soccer player, she didn’t have college on her radar. She knew she was expected to get a job and start making money for her family.
The idea of Mt. SAC scratched at the back of her mind, though, and one day during that summer after high school, she decided to drive over to the campus to see what Mt. SAC was all about. She found her way to the soccer field and eventually to the women’s soccer coach, Debbie Cavion. Erica asked if she could be on the soccer team, and Debbie told her that try-outs had already happened. In fact, the team was already a week into practice. Erica wouldn’t take no for an answer, and she convinced the coach to let her try out anyway. She impressed Debbie so much that she earned a spot on the team. That team, with Erica as a forward, ended up winning the state championship the very next year.
Mt. SAC was special for Erica in the classroom, on the soccer field, and everywhere in between. She transferred to Cal Poly to get her bachelor’s degree, but Mt. SAC was never far from her mind. Her experience there shaped the course of her entire life. She learned how education functions not just as knowledge acquisition but as a door opener to a myriad of opportunities. Soccer also opened doors for Erica. The team was a family, and she had never played—before or since—with teammates of that quality, not even when she played professionally. While a student at Cal Poly, Erica coached a junior varsity girls soccer team at a local private high school. There, she met the mother of one of her players who was the director of Community Education at Mt. SAC at the time. She asked Erica what she was planning to do after she graduated. Erica’s immediate plans were to have a baby, and after her son was born, Erica headed back to Mt. SAC, this time as a staff member.
After working with students who had been at-risk and were now getting their GEDs, a population Erica found she was very passionate about supporting, she became part of the team starting a tutoring and support center for student athletes at Mt. SAC. Called the WIN, this program was the first of its kind for community colleges. Programs like it existed at Division I and Division II institutions, and Mt. SAC wanted to support its athletes in the same way, so that they could become Division I student athletes. Although the WIN was originally conceived for student athletes, it eventually expanded to be open to all students. That means Erica never has to turn away a student.
Erica has been supervising the WIN for twenty years now, and she can’t imagine doing anything else with her life. That higher education was something she initially thought was out of her reach but has become her life’s work is nothing short of a blessing. Supporting the Mt. SAC student population, which is made up largely of first generation college students just like she was, is what Erica was meant to do.