Fall2022 | Issue VI

National Hispanic Heritage Month

By Madeleine Paley

Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15. This includes celebrating histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. This observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week and was expanded in 1988 to cover a month-long period. The beginning date of September 15 is the anniversary of independence for the Latin American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Other countries, such as Mexico and Chile, also celebrate these independence days in mid-September (September 16 and September 18, respectively). Columbus Day or Día de la Raza also falls within National Hispanic Heritage month, on October 12. 

While National Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate, it is also an opportunity to support future generations through investments in educational programs and resources. The National Hispanic Heritage Month webpage outlines kids and family events, performances, panels and content available via streaming. To learn more about opportunities to support local Latinx-owned businesses in San Diego county, please see the San Diego Tourism Authority Blog, Walk the Block blog and the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

At UC San Diego, the Latinx Leadership Program empowers students with leadership skills and exposure to real life entrepreneurial experiences. The program is open to all Latinx students with priority given to trans, nonbinary and womxn-identifying students who will receive leadership training, coaches, and assistance with summer internship opportunities. The program is run by the Office of Innovation and Commercialization through The Basement.

UC San Diego is making progress toward becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). With nearly 20% full-time Latinx undergraduate student enrollment as of Fall 2020, UCSD is now considered an Emerging HSI. The university’s goal is at least 25% full-time Latinx undergraduate enrollment, making the university eligible for HSI designation by the U.S. Department of Education. Throughout this month and all year, it is important that UC San Diego reflects on the importance of Latinx and Hispanic faculty, students, staff and researchers.  

National Native American Heritage Month and the Importance of Land Acknowledgment

By Madeleine Paley

Land Acknowledgment: The UC San Diego community holds great respect for the land and the original people of the area where our campus is located. The university is built on the un-ceded territory of the Kumeyaay Nation. Today, the Kumeyaay people continue to maintain their political sovereignty and cultural traditions as vital members of the San Diego community. We acknowledge their tremendous contributions to our region and thank them for their stewardship.

November is National Native American Heritage Month. Beginning in 1990, this heritage month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. National Native American Heritage Month is also a time to educate the public about tribes and to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present. To learn more about National Native American Heritage month, visit the official government webpage and the National Congress of American Indians webpage. To learn more about the work being done at UC San Diego, visit the Native American Heritage Month blink page and Intertribal Resource Center webpage. To join Native/ Indigenous Community Group Meetup offered through the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, visit their webpage and see an article written through Scripps where two members of the Native American community at Scripps discuss their heritage and the importance of representation in their work and careers.

The University of California San Diego is built on the unceded territory of the Kumeyaay Nation, land that has immense history. Today, the Kumeyaay people continue to maintain their political sovereignty and cultural traditions as members of the San Diego community. UC San Diego acknowledges their contributions to this region and hold great respect for the land and the original people of the area where our campus is located.

It is important for all members of the UC San Diego community to understand the history that has brought us all to reside on this land. The Native Governance Center highlights that, “land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense, or historical context: colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to build out mindfulness of our present participation.” To learn more about land acknowledgment and how to develop a land acknowledgment statement, visit the Native Governance Center resource page.

For questions or additional information on either article, please contact the Research Affairs Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee at vcr-edi@ucsd.edu. 

Meet OIC’s David Favela

By Shane Moise

David Favela is a UCSD alumnus, a native-born San Diegan and first-generation American. He currently serves as the Director of the UCSD Build to Scale Program in the Office of Innovation and Commercialization. In this role, he leads partnerships between UCSD, corporate partners, mission-driven investors and the existing ecosystem of startups and entrepreneurship through the UCSD Talent Foundry Accelerator. This venture is designed to provide underrepresented communities access to build on an existing ecosystem ready to assist them in scaling their tech startups, leading to opportunities that support economic recovery related to the impacts of disenfranchisement. David is also the Founder and CEO of Border X Brewing LLC in Barrio Logan, the first wholly owned Latino brewery in San Diego. The brewery has become a catalyst for a grass roots driven Barrio renaissance, with a dozen new, community-owned businesses established and flourishing in the area.

• Welcome to UC San Diego - again! Can you share some notable points in the arc of your life that have led you to where you are now? From my earliest memories, I realized how important economics and opportunities were to quality of life. My parents immigrated looking for a better life, an opportunity to make a living and to provide for his family. This initial experience led me to study economics and history to better understand the processes and systems at play. With this focus on Economic Development, I was selected as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and attended Princeton, where a professor urged me to take my interest into the private sector and make positive changes there. And I did! Working for HP Inc, I was able to bring technology and opportunity to Guadalajara Mexico and helped develop the Silicon Valley of Mexico, creating thousands of high paying jobs. Even now, as CEO of Border X Brewing, I am equally proud of the grassroots, entrepreneurial renaissance that grew in Barrio Logan after we invested in our taproom there. As I move into my current role, as director of Talent Foundry, I look forward to identifying and working with 100 of the most promising Diverse Founders in San Diego as they develop their businesses and we work together to scale.  

• Your mission with the Talent Foundry Accelerator is to connect, empower and build. In the current social and political climate, what are the best ways that community based innovators can accomplish this? Our goal is to help guide and inspire the entrepreneurs over years to help them achieve their business scaling goals. We are different from other programs in that we are not about one program, or class, but a long term strategy to help these founders “Cross the Chasm” between an idea or project, to a truly sustainable and scalable company. We intend to use the best product and business model development processes used by world class companies, including HP Inc, where I led many business development programs. We intend to bring the full portfolio of regional and national ecosystems of business support programs to ensure our founders receive the precise support, precisely when they need it. This includes accelerators, incubators, boot camps, seminars, mentors, grants etc. that are offered by governmental, non profit and even for profit companies like Meta, Google and others. In addition, we recognize that having the right mindset, a healthy self awareness and belief in oneself are equally if not more important than the “hard skills” learned in classes. We will seek to address these challenges through inspirational story telling, social events and creating a more robust network of support services like bankers, accountants and lawyers.

• What are the core values that you bring to the Talent Foundry Accelerator? How do you feel those values resonate across the larger San Diego community? I believe that every person is uniquely gifted with innate and acquired talents and that our life's goal should be to find, explore, and develop these talents to their fullest expression. When we all do this together, we create a powerful network of self actualizing, powerful individuals who improve our collective quality of life. Any kind of discrimination against any individual not only negatively impacts the individual, but deprives our society, our nation of their talents. I believe now, more than ever, as our demographic trends evolve, San Diego and our nation as a whole, fully understands that actively developing everyone’s talents and potential is not charity, not even equity issue or social justice, (although it's the right thing to do), it is an absolute imperative for the ongoing, sustainable economy and resulting quality of life. I feel supported, excited and hopeful for the work we have ahead of us!

• You have a history in San Diego and have been both a partner to communities as well as a part of them. Are there any trends you see for the future of social or impact driven entrepreneurism? And how do the hard sciences like engineering, physics, and life sciences play into that dynamic? As a born and raised San Diegan, I have seen the different business cycles that have developed here, and how they impact the region. In the 1980’s with the growth of the defense and aerospace industries, my father worked in construction helping build many of the communities the economy was developing. In the process, his steady employment was what allowed him to raise 7 children, all who graduated with college degrees. In my lifetime I have seen how biotech, life sciences and telecommunications have grown even larger creating more opportunities for those prepared to work in, or be part of that boom. Unfortunately, these benefits have not accrued equally to all residents of San Diego. Many have been left out of this boom and are becoming economic refugees as home prices and cost of living increases outpace salaries. I hope to play a part in creating more linkages between these communities and the economic engine that continues to expand. The hard sciences are the foundation of this economic boom and we need to integrate those through education and business. 

• Please describe and share one of the most valuable lessons gained from a mentor in your journey. During my time at HP Inc, the most influential mentor was Glen Hopkins, SVP of HP Technology platforms. As HP sought to leverage the treasure chest of patents and IP, I worked closely with him on determining what business strategies could emerge from our portfolio. He was instrumental in helping us answer core questions like; Do we lease, license or develop a new business around our IP? And if so, how do we test our theories? That’s where I quickly understood the MVP process, or Minimum Viable Product. Instead of executives arguing on potential of new businesses, we sought to develop experiments, where we could actually get real world data on ideas and their potential. His wise words to me were, “Learn fast, learn cheaper”, which meant, avoid spinning up complex, expensive business models that consume time and resources, without any grounding in reality. Instead, strip it down to its essence, test it with consumers, the market, etc., and learn fast. 

Project Implicit

The mission of Project Implicit is to educate the public about bias and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the internet. Project Implicit scientists produce high-impact research that forms the basis of our scientific knowledge about bias and disparities. To take a Implicit Association Test (IAT) and learn more about your implicit biases, visit https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html. 

UC Learning E-courses:

Equitable access to professional development and training is a priority for the RA EDI Committee. To access these courses, log into UC Learning Center and select the “Find a Course” icon and search for one of the following: 

• UC Policy on Gender Recognition and Lived Name
• Gender Recognition: a Focus on Transgender, Nonbinary, and Intersex Awareness

If you have a question or would like to share a story, event or cultural

celebration, please contact us at vcr-edi@ucsd.edu or submit anonymously via the feedback form on our website.