A champion for inclusivity

Olly López Beltrán earns Wendy Wayne Ethics Award

By California State University, Bakersfield

March 16^th, 2020

Editor’s note: Olly López Beltrán is one of two CSUB alumni receiving Wendy Wayne Ethics Award honorable mentions. The other is Reyna Olaguez, executive director of South Kern Sol.

Check out the full list of honorees on the website of CSUB's Kegley Institute of Ethics, the awards founder and organizer.

Too many student government races were going uncontested at CSUB, making students feel like their vote didn’t matter.

So Associated Students Inc., under the leadership of Executive Vice President Olly López Beltrán, acted. It extended from two weeks to more than a month the time taken to educate students about running for and serving in government. One outreach event, “Let’s taco about it” offered information and Mexican food.

ASI also gave election kits to candidates with posters, handouts and other marketing materials so lack of money wouldn’t be a barrier to effective campaigning.

“We didn’t want a financial disadvantage to be the reason why incredibly eligible candidates would decide not to run for ASI,” López said.

That’s just one way López, a 2019 CSUB graduate and now a master’s in public administration student, has worked to make campus programming more diverse and inclusive at the university.

It has earned her an honorable mention at this year’s Wendy Wayne Ethics Awards, which recognize adults and youth up to age 24 who’ve shown a commitment to service and ethics. The awards, which include main awards and honorable mentions, honor late CSUB alumna Wendy Wayne, a leader in children’s health and welfare advocacy.

López was nominated by Mike Kwon, events coordinator for CSUB Campus Programming. He has co-advised students in the Sensational Sophomores leadership program with López and worked with her on a number of other student life initiatives.

“When I think of Olly, her actions really exemplify a humble servant leader,” Kwon said. “She focuses on what needs to be done and utilizes others in the process so collective decisions are being made and student-led endeavors are being produced.”

Getting the memo

López, second from the right in the front row, poses with fellow members of the 2018-2019 Associated Students Inc. governing body.

López wasn’t always destined to be a university student leader. Not until her senior year at East Bakersfield High School did she even “get the memo” about college preparation options and begin to believe higher education was for her.

The third of four children born to parents who came here from Mexico, López thought she’d just graduate from high school and go straight to a full-time job. But her mentor at East Bakersfield’s multimedia academy, Al Gaines, encouraged her to take advantage of the opportunity, as a low-income student, to apply to four California State University campuses for free.

López successfully applied to the four closest CSUs and chose CSUB, thinking it was as much change as she could handle and that she could transfer to another college later.

But López fell in love with CSUB – specifically the opportunities it offered her – and stayed. She earned bachelor’s degrees in public administration and Spanish and studied in Spain for a year.

“I knew that if I wanted to run for ASI, the option was there. If I wanted to get a job on campus, I could find one somewhere,” López said.

“So as long as I was dedicated to being a good worker, being a good advocate, being a good student, there was opportunity for me somewhere. That’s something I saw very early on in my college years.”

López ran with that opportunity.

Building people up

As president of Sensational Sophomores, López helped start an International Women’s Day celebration that was not just celebratory but instructive. Women on campus whom students identified as having changed their experience at school were invited to speak about their work.

López expected 50-60 attendees; more than 100 packed the Stockdale Room.

“It showed they, too, thought that conversation was meaningful,” López said of the crowd.

After watching students stand in long lines for food, only to walk away after seeing their options, López lobbied for better food diversity at catered events. Now when ASI distributes snacks during finals week, for example, it better caters to students who are vegan or vegetarian, don’t eat pork, must go gluten-free or simply want healthy offerings.

And what about the effort to encourage more students to run for ASI? It resulted in a jump from 17 candidates in Spring 2018 to 26 the following year, López said.

López helped lead an effort to increase the number of candidates for student government office by giving out information, marketing materials and tacos.

López’s recent approach to chairing Hispanic Heritage Month events on campus also exemplifies her commitment to diversity and inclusivity, Kwon said.

After consulting with a variety of campus constituent groups, she not only produced events but proposed changing the month’s name to include other Latino-based identities.

Some nationalities such as Brazilian and Guyanese don’t fall under the term “Hispanic,” she said, and some students are moving away from the term because of such rhetoric as colonization does not determine my identity.”

A decision is on pause, but a potential solution is “Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month.”

And Kwon credited López with helping retain 100 students in Sensational Sophomores this past semester, an “unprecedented” number. Usually 60-65 students stick with the program, he said.

While Kwon focused on the class as a whole, he said, López focused on encouraging students who were shy and reticent to speak up.

“I’m a firm believer that leadership is not always seeking different projects and making grand and extravagant change,” Kwon said. “I believe building people up and making sure they have a foundation to stand upon is just as noteworthy, and I believe Olly shares that principle with me.”