El Camino faculty member Cynthia Mosqueda has recently been named the Full-Time Faculty of the Year award by the Faculty Association of Community Colleges (FACCC).

“It’s a very humbling experience,” Mosqueda said about winning the award. “It’s nice to be recognized by your colleagues, peers, and friends.”

As faculty coordinator for the First Year Experience Program (FYE), Mosqueda has been an important part of a program that has received past accolades and recognition for exemplary program status through the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges and by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.

“It’s been an honor serving with her,” associate dean of counseling Cesar Jimenez said. “She demonstrated a phenomenal amount of time and dedication to her colleagues and students and takes the time to work tirelessly to assist the students. She has a natural ability to establish rapport and make meaningful change.”

Despite this being the first time Mosqueda has won this particular award, she has been individually recognized in the past, being named National Advocate of the Year in 2014 by the University of South Carolina’s National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.

“There’s a number of things that keep me inspired,” Mosqueda said. “I’m fortunate that I get to work with first-year students every year through the First Year experience program.”

A former student of EC, Cal State Dominguez Hills and UCLA, Mosqueda joined the staff of El Camino College as a First Year Experience/Learning Communities Counselor in 2001 and was named a “Woman of Distinction” in 2005 by the El Camino College Women of History Committee in recognition of her community service.

“It’s been an honor to work with someone who has been such a pioneer in the student services field,” student services adviser Jaime Gallegos said. “She is constantly trying to push for new initiatives and finding new ways to serve our students.”

A strong advocate for community college issues, Mosqueda has served two terms as a board member for the FACCC, as well as a facilitator for the National Great Teacher Seminar.

Her most recent award was presented at the FACCC’s 2018 Advocacy & Policy Conference, on Saturday, March 4 and Sunday, March 5 in Sacramento, California.

“I’m really excited as we start to see a new wave of students coming into academia, as well as all the new initiatives hitting the community colleges,” Mosqueda said. “I like change and especially if its going to help a student in the end.”