Alex Beltran was originally from the San Gabriel Valley in California, but her family moved to the Inland Empire when she was seven years old. The Fontana area was where she grew up until her family moved to San Bernardino in 2008. Alex stated, “I remember when I was 17, I was at the annual Route 66 event in San Bernardino helping people register people to vote, that’s where I began to learn how apathetic people were about voting.”

Alex attended Colton High School and eventually ended up at California State University, San Bernardino after graduation. There she worked as a student assistant for Dr. Tom Rivera for about a year, who she found to be a inspiring mentor. Due to the housing crash, her family had to move, and she had to transfer to Riverside Community College to finish her general education (GE) classes.

Eventually, Alex transferred to the University of Southern California (USC), where she majored in history and minored in film. As a student at USC, Alex was involved with the residential government (housing), advocating for students’ housing needs on campus.

After graduating from USC in 2011, she started working for a nonprofit in San Bernardino called Youth Action Project as tutor, helping students prepare for the workforce and college with resume help, mock interviews, and college applications. The following year she became the fundraising development coordinator, where she learned about grant writing, budgets, and other aspects of finances.

In 2013, San Bernardino County had an opening in its Parks Department, and Alex was hired to manage the social media accounts and perform other media related work. Unfortunately, in 2015 the county had budget cuts, and she had to change her professional path.

In 2014, Alex met Ivan Aguayo a co-founder of San Bernardino Generation Now and she began volunteering with the group because she saw the need for a change in San Bernardino amid the bankruptcy. She assisted with several park clean ups, mural projects, candidate video interviews for local elections, the refurbishing of the recent Garcia Center for the Arts and has become a crucial leader as the co-chair within the organization in 2018.

“I believe that art and culture are important in the community. As a result of the mural projects, there was more pride from the community, and people felt more comfortable going to visit parks just to see the murals.” Alex said.

In 2016, she joined Abigail Medina, current San Bernardino City Unified School District Vice President, who was running for California’s 40th Assembly District. She worked as the scheduler and learned what it was like to be a part of a million dollar campaign.

“I joined Team Abigail because she’s so down to earth, she understands the struggles that people face, and stays positive to seek a solution to make things better for the community,” said Alex.

By March 2017, she applied for a fellowship with the Women’s Policy Institute with three other women from the Inland Empire and has been digging her life into public policy. Their current project is focused on ensuring school districts in California are compliant with the California Healthy Youth Act, which teaches inclusive comprehensive sexual health education to help prevent HIV/AIDS.

“My goal is to get elected to a local office to bring resources to the San Bernardino community because our 2017-18 resources add up to $158,939,640  compared to LA which is approximately an 8 billion annual budget or San Francisco’s approximate $10 billion budget,” Alex explained.

Because of her community involvement, we honor Alex Beltran for being a millennial on the rise.

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Rocio Aguayo

Rocio Aguayo is a young community oriented aspiring educator who has worked as a mentor with Inland Congregations United for Change (ICUC), a tutor with Youth Action Project at local high schools and now a youth leader with CAPS in San Bernardino, CA. She previously took pictures and wrote opinion pieces for the El Chicano Newspaper in the Inland Empire and was yearbook editor-in-chief at Arroyo Valley High School.

Latest posts by Rocio Aguayo (see all)

• Perspectivas desde Inland Empire: Como los Ingresos Afectan los Resultados de Aprendizaje en los Estudiantes - January 31, 2019
• Perspectives from the Inland Empire: How Income Impacts Student Learning Outcomes - January 30, 2019
• Luchadora Alex Beltran esta en un Empate Con el Titular de San Bernardino en el Consejo Municipal - December 4, 2018
• Luchadora Alex Beltran is Neck and Neck with San Bernardino Incumbent in City Council Race - December 4, 2018
• Los Jóvenes Pueden Hacer Una Diferencia en Esta elección, Incluso si son Demasiado Jóvenes para Votar - November 6, 2018