A key contributor to the welcoming atmosphere of UCI’s Campuswide Honors Collegium (CHC) is its advisors’ willingness to foster a tight-knit community through their wholehearted support of students’ academic and personal journeys. Jordy Cardenas, a first-generation college student and UCI alum, epitomizes a CHC advisor who accomplishes this goal. I had the pleasure of interviewing her about her career path and the valuable advice she has for college students.
Even from our first advising meeting during winter quarter, I recognized that Jordy embodies all of the characteristics of an effective advisor. She is intrinsically motivated to replicate the safe space that she was offered by her advisors during her undergraduate years at UCI. This accepting environment allowed her to establish UCI as her home, its students and faculty her newfound family. As I interviewed her, I was inspired by her desire to make every student she interacts with feel as though they belong and contribute to UCI. During advising sessions, Jordy prioritizes the human before the student, ensuring that the advisee is healthy mentally before discussing their academic life. This degree of care is crucial to making students feel safe and welcome in the advising space. The prioritization of mental health in her approach to advising was framed by her work in a mental health clinic, where she helped people diagnosed with depression and anxiety.
Jordy’s career choice is the perfect situation of “paying it forward.” I strive to follow her example in my future career by choosing a fulfilling job that betters the communities that have positively impacted my own life. However, Jordy’s career path was not linear. She initially wanted to pursue a position as a corporate lawyer at Disneyland. She made detailed plans to attend UCI’s School of Law, but she ultimately realized that locking herself into a specific career closed off opportunities that were better suited for her. After graduating from UCI with a Bachelor’s in Criminology, she recognized that it would be more fulfilling to serve the higher education system, resulting in her graduation from San Diego State University with a Master’s in Education. It is vital that college students give themselves the opportunity to embrace their curiosity and, in Jordy’s insightful words, “find passion and joy even in unexpected places.” She emphasized that students should not feel pressured to have all the answers about their major or career intuitively; rather, they should give themselves the freedom to explore their interests and discover a door that might lead to an entirely different path than they originally imagined.
I speak from experience when I say that Jordy’s warm and welcoming character translates to her hugs. She is the exemplary candidate for the unofficial title that I have given her – UCI’s “hugger-in-chief” – adopting the term from how Michelle Obama, one of Jordy’s role models, has referred to herself as. Jordy is an invaluable addition to the UCI family, and I am grateful that the CHC has given me the chance to connect with her.
Your friendly neighborhood Unaffiliated major,
Sabrina