Equipo
The Student Advisory Equipo
Students are knowledge holders and creators whose language, culture, familial, and community histories are powerful assets that enrich and transform UC Santa Cruz. Although higher education has often overlooked these strengths, framing Latiné and other marginalized students as deficient or underprepared, the Equipo model actively challenges this perspective. By centering students’ wisdom, cultural knowledge, and lived experience, we honor them as co-creators of their educational pathways and as essential partners in shaping more equitable institutional practices.
Through shared governance and coalition building with campus departments, offices, resources, and student organizations, Equipo strengthens community engagement and cultivates belonging for Latiné and other marginalized students at UC Santa Cruz.
Get Involved with the Student Teams
Student Advisory Equipo
The Student Advisory Equipo is made up of six undergraduate interns, who work closely with the El Centro Program Coordinator, Camila Cárdenas and Director, Xiomara Lopez. Grounded by your lived experience and experiential knowledge, Equipo members serve as compensated collaborators who help shape culturally affirming programs, policies, and decisions that impact student life.
As an Equipo member, you will develop and strengthen the following skills:
- Read relevant literature on servingness and HSIs
- Participating in campus committees and working groups
- Co-developing initiatives and programs that reflect our communities
- Collaborate with faculty, staff, administrators, and fellow students
- Mobilize your ideas within institutional decision-making spaces
- Engaging in participatory action research that centers student voice and social justice.
2025-26 Equipo Members:
Bryan Martinez
Felix Santiago-Reyes
Marthasol Vera-Barrera
Isabel Stepanian
Camila Alvarez
Andres Martinez-Sabino
Email El Centro to find out more about the Student Advisory Equipo.
CREA HSI Servingness Research Team
The CREA HSI Servingness Research Team includes five undergraduate researchers who work under the mentorship of Dr. Rebecca Covarrubias, Professor of Psychology. Together, the team conducts a participatory action research project focused on servingness. You and your peers will define the research question that matters most to your communities and work collaboratively through every stage of the research process.
As a CREA research team member, you will develop and strengthen the following skills:
- Read relevant literature on servingness and HSIs,
- Co-develop a research question
- Design, collect and analyze data, translate findings across various platforms (e.g., conference presentation, campus talks, infographics)
- Learn how to mobilize your findings into social change and improve practices at UCSC
This project is funded by CULTURA Title V HSI Project.
About Equipo
Equipo launched in 2025 through UC Santa Cruz’s HSI Title V CULTURA grant (2024–2029) and is co-created by a team of students and educators from El Centro and HSI Initiatives.
Our Vision and Values
UC Santa Cruz’s Equipo is part of a growing movimiento committed to advancing servingness—a framework that examines how institutions meaningfully support racially and economically marginalized students. Servingness looks beyond enrollment numbers and focuses on the relationships, structures, and practices that help students thrive.
Partnering with the Collaborative Research for Equity in Action (CREA) research group, the Equipo works to build a community of student leaders who imagine and shape what servingness can look like at a research-intensive Hispanic-Serving Institution.
Roots and Leadership
UCSC’s Equipo draws inspiration from the student-led transformation work at Pasadena City College (PCC). The UCSC team met with Dr. Desiree Zuniga—who founded PCC’s Student Advisory Equipo—as well as Equipo members Catarina Gonzalez, Estrella Gutierrez, Alfredo Martinez, and Brianna Mejia. Their testimonios, insights, and guidance shaped the foundation of UCSC’s own initiative.
Through their mentorship, UCSC was welcomed into a broader movement grounded in cultural affirmation, collective care, and community-rooted leadership, guided by cariño, corazón, and comunidad.