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Sutter County Judge Jesse Santana delivers a speech to Latino students during the annual Alliance for Hispanic Advancement scholarship awards banquet in Yuba City on Tuesday.
The Alliance for Hispanic Advancement awarded scholarships to area high school students during the organization’s annual scholarship banquet in Yuba City on Tuesday.
Sutter County Judge Jesse Santana delivers a speech to Latino students during the annual Alliance for Hispanic Advancement scholarship awards banquet in Yuba City on Tuesday.
Sutter County Judge Jesse Santana delivers a speech to Latino students during the annual Alliance for Hispanic Advancement scholarship awards banquet in Yuba City on Tuesday.
The Alliance for Hispanic Advancement awarded scholarships to area high school students during the organization’s annual scholarship banquet in Yuba City on Tuesday.
Sutter County Judge Jesse Santana delivers a speech to Latino students during the annual Alliance for Hispanic Advancement scholarship awards banquet in Yuba City on Tuesday.
Continuing in its mission of platforming opportunities for area Latinos, the Alliance for Hispanic Advancement (AHA) celebrated over 20 Hispanic and Latino students at its annual scholarship awards banquet on Tuesday.
Applications for each scholarship were distributed to all local high schools in the Yuba-Sutter area in January. AHA’s scholarship committee awards students based on their academics, dedication to community service and demonstrated need for financial help, Scholarship Chair Diego Escutia said.
The organization awarded tiered scholarships worth up to $500 to the majority of the students. Each year, one student is awarded a $1,000 David Gonzales Scholarship award, which was established in honor of the owner of El Zarape Restaurant who died in 2021.
Yesenia Ochoa, a recent graduate of Yuba City High School, was this year’s recipient of the David Gonzalez Scholarship. According to Escutia, Ochoa was selected due to her outstanding academic performance and dedication to community service.
Ochoa’s weighted GPA upon graduation was 4.37, and she performed over 150 hours of community service. Throughout high school, she served on several academic support committees including Positive Behavior Interventions and Support team and English Language Advisory Council, where her contributions helped her school increase scores on state testing and dramatically increase English language proficiency assessments, Escutia said.
Ochoa will attend University of California, Berkeley in the fall and will double major in film and media studies to pursue a career in journalism.
AHA once again partnered with the Yuba-Sutter Bar Association to invite Sutter County Judge Jesse Santana as this year’s keynote speaker. Santana spoke of his parents’ experience migrating from Jalisco, Mexico, to the United States with $20 to their name. He was born in Marysville and raised in Gridley, where he worked as a farm laborer alongside his family.
Santana spoke of how experiencing racism as a high school student made him determined to pursue a career in law. He said that one of his teachers attempted to prevent him from meeting with a college recruiter, claiming that farm work was his only career option as a Mexican.
“When my time came to visit my recruiter, I handed my note to the teacher and told him I was going to go see the recruiter. He told me to sit down. He said, ‘You’re not going to college. You’re a Mexican. You’re going to spend the rest of your life working in the fields.’ I was embarrassed, I was humiliated, and I was pissed,” he said. “The college recruiter insisted on going with me to the vice principal’s office. He demanded that he make a phone call to his friend who happened to be a (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) attorney. … At that point, I said to myself, ‘This is what I want to do.’”
Santana earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Chico and later earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of San Francisco School of Law. Santana began his law career working as a corporate attorney for multi-national companies like Suzuki Motor Corporation and General Motors. He later served as a deputy district attorney at the
Fresno County District Attorney’s Office before starting a local practice in Yuba City in 1995.
Santana was appointed to the Sutter County Superior Court in October 2023 and is the first Latino to serve as a Sutter County judge. He primarily handles family and juvenile dependency cases.
“I know that on my journey to achieve my dreams and goals, I had doubts of fear because I had never been to college before. My parents had never been to college, but I would always remember what my father said. ‘Mijo, no somos crías de cobardes,’ which translates to ‘Son, we are not offsprings of cowards.’ But what happens too often is that they will fear they’ll make mistakes,” Santana said. “I’ve had 60 years, and one thing I’ve learned is to make mistakes is to be human. To stumble, fall or fail is to be human. … But don’t let that scare you and don’t let that mistake, fall or failure define you.”
The following students were recipients of scholarships provided by AHA:
– Lily Parra of East Nicolaus High School
– Ernesto Zaragoza of Feather River Academy
– Cynthia Salazar of Marysville Charter Academy
– Amyah Lawrence of River Valley High School
– Braden Whitmore of Sutter Union High School
– Byanka Velasquez of Lindhurst High School
– Gurkeerat Dhillon of Lindhurst High School
– Juana Amezcua of Live Oak High School
– Kirtan Kalkat of Live Oak High School
– Lizbeth Diaz of Live Oak High School
– Nancy Del Rio of Live Oak High School
– Vanessa Perez of Live Oak High School
– Yesenia Ochoa of Yuba City High School
– Alonso Morgado of Yuba City High School
– Christian Carreon-Guzman of Yuba City High School
– Jose Torres of Yuba City High School
– James Miller of Yuba City High School
– Linette Elaine Rojas of Yuba City High School
– Marlen Cuevas of Yuba City High School
– Manreet Bains of Yuba City High School
– Mia Beltran of Yuba City High School
– Nancy Tena Aguirre of Yuba City High School
Mainly sunny. High 94F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..
Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 58F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: June 14, 2024 @ 9:16 am
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