Valentina Toledano returned to California in June after spending the academic year abroad. The first-gen undergraduate double major in political science and language science with a minor in anthropology was part of the UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) which allowed her to spend nine months in Spain taking Spanish linguistics and cultural anthropology courses at the Universidad de Complutense de Madrid. Her experience solidified the interdisciplinary lens she saw in her studies while affording her the opportunity to travel to nine countries, including Italy and the Netherlands, with friend and UCI alumna Elizabeth Montoya.

“Language and politics are connected. There’s always a political side when we communicate,” she says.

A unique mind

Toledano identifies as a disabled woman of color. She has had to learn to self-advocate throughout her academic journey. When Toledano was a toddler, her mother noticed she was experiencing sensory overload and had a strong preference to be alone. At about three or four years old, she was diagnosed with autism.

Growing up in Santa Ana, CA, Toledano says she received the message that traditional “success” was not intended for her. She was excluded from honors classes in elementary school and remembers invalidating remarks from teachers and doctors. Instead of being discouraged, she sought to prove others wrong by exceling in school and becoming a positive role model in her community. 

“She is a student with grit and tremendous motivation. She embodies UCI’s values,” says Jeanett Castellanos, social sciences associate dean of undergraduate studies and teaching professor.

Long T. Bui, global and international studies associate professor and Summer Academic Enrichment Program (SAEP) director, agrees. He met Toledano through SAEP and has been impressed with her ever since.

“The interdisciplinary capacious nature of her studies demonstrates someone who thinks outside the box and boundaries,” he says.

Inspired by her own experience, Toledano wrote about the ways disabled women of color cultivated an online community using social media information during the Covid-19 pandemic for her SAEP research project. In the coming year, she’ll work with Castellano as part of the Social Science Honors Program where she will examine online activism related to disability justice by UC Irvine students who identify as BIPOC women with disabilities.

“Valentina is the type of person who is never satisfied with learning for the sake of learning but applying what she learned to the world at large, especially one as troubled as ours. In my eyes, she is a genius with a unique mind,” says Bui. 

A thoughtful leader

Toledano not only pushes herself intellectually, but also as a leader and as a person. For two years she worked at the Student Outreach and Retention Center (SOAR) to facilitate programs to serve students’ mental and financial needs. As a peer educator for SOAR’s Pathfinder Program, she mentored 12 undergraduate students from historically underrepresented communities. The following year she was hired as a coordinator and collaborated with the SOAR assistant director, Joey Leon, to maintain a 10-week budget, train Pathfinder Peer Educators, and support the event planning of Puppies and Pathfinders, an end-of-the-quarter event to help students to destress before finals.

During the pandemic, Toledano spent her weekdays remotely teaching people who are incarcerated in California and Scotland, volunteer efforts that were part of the campus organization Prison Education Project (PEP). Here she had the opportunity to work again with Bui who is a faculty advisor in the program.

“I really had to push myself out of my comfort zone by public speaking and sharing my story,” she says about this experience.

Toledano has also been an active student leader in the Student Achievement Guided by Experience (SAGE) Scholars Program. She found the program to be immensely helpful in equipping her with professional development skills and she is now paying it forward by serving as a program mentor. Toledano is especially grateful for Neda Moayedi and Cecilia Levya Chavez who run the program and who have supported her in obtaining UCEAP and UCI Study Abroad Center scholarships and for help with her post-graduation plans.

Overcoming

Looking at her academic and public service record, it’s hard to believe Toledano has been encumbered by anything, let alone a disability or a wavering of confidence. But she almost didn’t apply and attend UCI for fear that a big university wouldn’t be a good fit.

As a high school student, Toledano assumed she would attend a community college or California State University system school. It wasn’t until a high school counselor informed her that she could attend a UC school that Toledano, a first-gen, low-income student, considered applying.

“The counselor told me that there’s so much opportunity and such a big community at UCI. Anything you want to do is available there,” she says.

But even after she was accepted, Toledano was hesitant. She didn’t attend Celebrate UCI, the annual admitted student open house, because she didn’t believe she’d actually attend. It wasn’t until she went to the Student Parent Orientation Program (SPOP) that she was convinced she made the right decision.

“I think it was early signs of imposter syndrome kicking in,” she says reflecting on that time. “I had convinced myself I wouldn’t fit in.”   

Community pride

Not only did Toledano fit in, but four years later she has proven herself to be the best kind of leader—someone who is candid about her vulnerabilities while inspiring others with her actions.

“The uncertainty of not knowing what I was going to do was contributing to my imposter syndrome. Now that I know what I want to do after I graduate, I feel confident,” Toledano says.

Post-UCI, she plans to attain a Ph.D. in anthropology with a concentration in linguistics anthropology. She’s interested in museum curation and how language in museum exhibits can uphold stereotypes.

“I want to make my Santa Ana community, my parents, and my younger self proud,” she says.

With intelligence, grit, and altruism, Toledano will no doubt succeed and make everyone in her Anteater orbit proud.

-Jill Kato for UCI School of Social Science
-pictured top to bottom: Valentina Toledano, courtesy of SAGE Scholars Program. Valentina with SAGE alumnus Elizabeth Montoya, in front of the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain, courtesy of Hector R. Valentina (back row, third from left in pink) presented her research findings at the 2022 Summer Academic Enrichment Program (SAEP) Symposium, courtesy of UCI School of Social Sciences. Valentina (in a pink shawl) at the SOAR End of Year Celebration with fellow Pathfinder Peer Educator Program mentors, courtesy of the Student Outreach and Retention (SOAR) Center.