An advisor once said transferrable skills are key, so Alma Ramon exploited hers in the best way. A true “jack of all trades,” Alma’s careers have included: fourth-grade teacher, account executive for an advertising specialties company, an online customer service representative, and a payroll specialist for a retail clothing company.
She later became an Early Intervention Specialist at a subacute medical facility with children ages zero to nearly three years old who are on a respirator and are G-tube dependent. Not knowing her own strength or courage, she learned how to “balance the task of making a real connection with young patients who had little to no control over their bodies, gain their trust and will to engage with me in a prescribed manner and accomplish a set of goals to help their development, cognitive and emotional growth.” Trusting the process, this experience single-handedly changed her life.
Soon after, she became an accounting specialist for a city’s water utilities office. Afterward, her passion for education brought her back to academia, where she worked at a private non-profit university assisting a dean of academic affairs, serving a dual role as a liaison to that university’s human resources office.
Alma brought her talents to Cal State LA in 2015, where she would work in the Office of Institutional Research, the Office of the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, as well as for the first University Diversity Officer on campus. When the former Provost offered her the opportunity to join the CBE, it just so happened to be at a critical time in her life and truly, a matter of the right time and the right place – even though she didn’t know it at the time. As much as she enjoyed the work she was doing, she could not pass up an opportunity “to take on a new challenge in order to grow in my career. It was not an easy choice. Good things never come easy, as they say.” She continued, “Now, in the CBE I can zoom in and be an integral part of a college’s inner workings and hopefully have a positive impact.”
Outside of the office, Alma’s highlight of her life has been witnessing all her children “go from childhood to their current stage in life. There have been many laughs and tears along the way, but I wouldn’t have traded that for anything in the world.” She hopes to one day take them to the Olympics when it's being hosted outside of the United States. In the meantime, she enjoys going for a bike ride, watching a movie, or going out with her loved ones whenever she can.