Portland Magazine
Admissions
December 1, 2021
Every fall, as students are settling in to new routines on campus, Cassy Esparza ’14, assistant director of admissions, hits the road in search of next year’s class. Her recruitment regions are Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico, and it’s not unheard of for her to have a day like she had a few weeks ago: visits with students at four different high schools in Albuquerque, then an hour-plus drive to Santa Fe for an evening meeting with students and parents. (She tries to remember to eat.) These trips involve long days and lots of miles, but the relationships she is building and the inroads she is making with students from historically marginalized populations make everything worth it.
It wasn’t that long ago that she was in their shoes. Cassy is from Utah, her parents immigrated to the US from Mexico, and she was the first in her family to attend college. She remembers how much she had to navigate on her own. She wants to tell students about University of Portland—what it offers, what it doesn’t—and she also counsels them and their families on college in general, things like how to apply and what to expect. Sometimes hers is the only table with admissions materials translated into Spanish, a change she initiated long ago when she translated a brochure with her mom and UP professor Marcela Cinta. Now, these communication pieces are created with institutional support. That kind of clear communication and access, that transparent relationship-building not only with students but also with their families, are what she’s been working toward for seven years. And she’s seeing progress.
She often tells the students, “I’m right there with you.” And this year she means it in a new way; she is getting her MBA at UP and will soon be a double alum.
University of Portland
5000 N. Willamette Blvd.,
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