New president emphasizes student engagement

When people talk about a successful person, they talk about someone with millions in their bank account, someone who's authored a plethora of bestsellers, or even a professional athlete.

But if you ask new Pierce president, Alexis Montevirgen, what the orthodox definition of a successful individual is, he will tell you that achievements like those would not make him feel accomplished.

“I don't define success as achieving a presidency or becoming president,” Montevirgen said. “It's not how much one makes, it's more in terms of how much of an impact you are able to make with society as a whole because all the money in the world, the highest position in the world, if you're not making an impact with others and improving other people's lives, what’s the point of it?”

From coming to California as an immigrant from the Philippines, to being the oldest sibling and the first in his family to go to school in the United States, Montevirgen assumed the leadership role from a young age.

“I remember being in third

Sports teams short players

Plethora of issues result in athletic programs struggling to fill their rosters

In the past couple seasons of Pierce College Athletics, there has been a decline in the amount of students participating on the sports teams, making it harder for some of the programs to compete.

Tennis Head Coach Long Dao has struggled to find the minimum requirement of student athletes to play. Dao believes that this decline of students has been for a multitude of reasons.

“Usually when I recruit, most of the players ask me about scholarships and how much I can provide them. My answer is always the same," Dao said. "No junior college in California has any athletic scholarships.” grade where as soon as I got home, I would have to get the rice going for my mom so when she and my dad would get home from work, that dinner's already started and I would have to watch over my brother as well,” Montevirgen said.

“So I always felt as if I had to grow up or I had to mature early and be a leader quicker. So those were my first memories of having to take on leadership responsibilities.”

Despite living in the bay area, Montevirgen decided to attend University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He said his family considered it a bold move because as an immigrant, staying close to family was a big part of their life.

Montevirgen started at UCSD as a premed major and despite graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in biology, he knew all along he did not want to be a doctor like his parents wanted him to be.

“I never had the heart to tell my parents that I didn’t want to go into medicine,” Montevirgen said.

“Knowing how hard my parents worked and continued to work to put me through school, I thought I would be disappointing my parents because of everything they have sacrificed.”

It was not until he became involved with the cross cultural center at UCSD and joined the Asian and Pacific-Islander Student

Alliance (APSA) and Kaibigang Pilipina/o (KP), where he finally realized there are others dealing with the same hardships as he was.

“There are people here that actually want to understand what I'm going through, want to provide you with support and want to help me,” Montevirgen said. “So then I realized, maybe this is what I want to do because I want to be there for other students that come after me who are having a difficult time because there were times where I wanted to just drop out and go back to the bay area.”

By joining cross cultural groups and getting support from his peers, the first-year president understood that his passion was to help students figure out their path to success.

After receiving his Master's degree in education, Montevirgen worked as the coordinator for student organization development and special programs at San Jose State University where he was involved in 300 to 400 different student organizations. He went on to be Associate Director for Multicultural Programs at California State University, San Marcos. Montevirgen was instrumental in helping develop their cross cultural center, which now has just celebrated their 15th anniversary. Montevirgen then brought his insight to the California Community College system. From 2006 to 2009, he was Director of Student Life for the San Jose/ Evergreen Community College District. From August 2009 to 2014, he served as Dean of Enrollment Services and later, as Vice President of Student Services at College of Alameda.

He then took his passion for student success to Indiana University Northwest where he served as Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management for five years before assuming his role as President of Pierce College on July 1, 2019.

Francisco Rodriguez, Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, was instrumental in the hiring of Montevirgen and believes that his leadership and character is what made Pierce a perfect match.

Rodriguez also admires his ‘pro-student’ approach to leadership.

“We are proud and pleased that President Montevirgen has joined our team of educational leaders during this critical time of dramatic shift for the state’s community colleges with the transition to the new Student-Centered Funding Formula and the implementation of Guided Pathways and AB 705."

[see NEWS on pg. 4]