Cal State Fullerton alumnus Joe Cordero’s journey from young Chicano activist to successful public servant exemplifies how community support and his CSUF education changed his life, enabling him to overcome obstacles and dedicate his career to public service and advocacy for equality.

Cordero comes from the barrio of Chino, a city where he and his family have deep roots. His great-grandfather moved to Chino in 1900, and his grandmother was a member of Chino High School’s first graduating class of 1918.

As the son of farm laborers, Cordero’s working-class upbringing did not include encouragement to pursue higher education. As a high school activist and lowrider in the 1970s, he was active in the Chicano movement and advocated for civil rights and educational justice.

During that time, increasing numbers of Chicanos and Latinos chose to pursue higher education. Although attending college wasn’t initially in his plan, Cordero quickly realized that to be an effective advocate, he needed to lead by example.

“I came to the realization that if I was going to advocate for equity in education and for more representation in higher education, I needed to follow my own advice,” Cordero said.

Cordero’s growing passion for higher education was met with challenges, including a defining moment in high school when a representative from Pepperdine University visited the campus. His request to attend the information session was met with resistance as his teacher told him he would be “wasting everyone’s time”. The interaction left an indelible mark on him and strengthened his determination to make a different life for himself.

“Part of my motivation was that I came from a family that had a lot of social problems,” Cordero said. “Also, it was to make my mother proud. I was raised by a single mother. … I wanted to break this cycle of social failure within our family.”

Cordero remembers a number of students from Chino at the time attending Cal State Fullerton. So he applied to CSUF, where he was accepted through the Educational Opportunity Program. The program provided the classes, counseling and support he needed to achieve his goals.

“I could not have succeeded without EOP because it really helped me realize my potential,” Cordero said. “They believed in me. … They give you advice, and they model what a good, successful college student needs to do.”

Cordero decided on criminal justice as his major and was a member of the MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán; Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán) group on campus. In 1978, he became the first in his immediate and extended family to graduate from college, a milestone that inspired several family members to follow in his footsteps and pursue higher education.

“I kind of became a trailblazer,” Cordero said. “I didn’t know the effect it would have. The next generation (in my family), they’re the ones who started going (to college).”

After graduating from CSUF, the early years of Cordero’s career took him from a management position at the Buena Clinton Neighborhood Center in Garden Grove to the Friendly Center in Orange. During that time, he also went back to school to get his Masters in Public Administration –

from none other than Pepperdine University.

Looking for a new challenge, Cordero joined the UCI Medical Center, where he managed the patient transport and interpreting services departments. He later moved into human resources and created a recruitment program aimed at increasing the number of bilingual healthcare staff at the health center.

Cordero then headed south to San Diego in 1989, where he held staff positions at UC San Diego and Cal State San Marcos before arriving in San Diego County to eventually assume the position of director of ethics and compliance. In this role, he was able to draw on his expertise in human resources, advocacy, public administration and criminal justice to lead one of the few counties in the country with an ethics and compliance program, serving as one of the county’s highest-ranking Chicano chiefs.

Now six years into retirement, Cordero still lives in San Diego, remains a lowrider enthusiast and hasn’t forgotten his humble beginnings. He continues to advocate and is committed to giving back to the university that gave him his start by supporting CSUF’s Abrego Future Scholars, a scholarship program created to increase college enrollment among first-generation and historically underrepresented students.

“I’ve always been a big believer in paying it forward because whatever we accomplish, we don’t do it alone,” Cordero said. “We do it on other people’s backs.”

He will always have great pride as a graduate of CSUF, as Cordero believes that his degree truly changed his life.

“It broke the cycle of social failure,” Cordero said. “It broke, to some extent, the generational poverty in my family, and it prepared me for my career. It was an important part of my life and my journey, and I would not have been able to accomplish what I accomplished without my degree from Cal State Fullerton. “