I am pleased to announce that Vicky Garcia has been hired as the TRIO SSS Multilingual Achievers Program Coordinator.
Early in her education, while studying to become a nurse, Vicky Garcia worked as a volunteer editor for the Sonoma County Free Press, a grassroots collective committed to progressive social change. She realized she was meant to become a teacher because of the great satisfaction she derived from helping prisoners write articles for the magazine by encouraging them to find their natural voice.
Taking on a different educational path, Vicky received her B.A. in English from U.C. Berkeley in 1992 and her M.A. in English with a concentration in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) from San Francisco State University. After completing her master’s degree, she worked full time as an English teacher at Chabot College in Hayward. A year later, she joined the Academy of Art University, where she taught English as a Second Language, developed ESL curriculum, and helped launch the Academy Resource Center (ARC) for at-risk students. Her desire to serve this population prompted her to pursue further studies in Educational Therapy at U.C. Santa Cruz.
After the birth of her first child, Vicky established a private practice in Oakland, teaching reading and writing to students diagnosed with dyslexia and/or ADHD and conducting psycho-educational testing. In 2002, after moving to Sebastopol, she worked as an educational therapist at New Horizon School and Learning Center in Santa Rosa. Using a holistic multisensory approach, Vicky provided one-on-one reading remediation for middle school and high school students with learning differences and documented their progress using a range of specialized assessment tools.
Realizing that her niche is with college students, she returned to the Academy of Art as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher and learning specialist, where she advocated for students with documented disabilities, reviewed their psycho-educational documentation, recommended appropriate accommodations, and provided one-on-one reading and writing assistance through personalized learning strategies. In Fall 2019, Vicky began working with TRIO SSS students at Sonoma State University, a career milestone that has offered her the challenge—and the joy—of doing what she enjoys most: helping students succeed academically by giving them the tools they need to become effective readers and writers.
Please join me in congratulating Vicky on her new position!
Rose Calzontzi
Interim TRIO SSS Operations Manager, Center for Academic Access & Student Enrichment
Division of Student Affairs | Sonoma State University