Angela Arce

Angela was born and raised in the San Diego area in the city of Chula Vista, California. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles for her undergraduate education, where she majored in Public Affairs. Angela’s passion for activism and policy was ignited in high school, where she interned for former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, proposed bills that the Assemblymember carried on her behalf, and worked with civil rights leaders such as Bobby Seale and Dolores Huerta to help mobilize civic engagement and voter efforts.

Angela was radicalized at UCLA after stepping into leadership roles at grassroots, student-led, and cultural organizations. She immersed herself in a multitude of Asian American Studies and other ethnic studies courses that highlighted social justice, policy advocacy, and political engagement issues. She served as the Communications Associate for Samahang Pilipino Advancing Community Empowerment at UCLA, creating content to help historically underserved high school and community college students access higher education at the UC level. In this role, she also tutored Pilipinx American students from disadvantaged backgrounds and worked hands-on to support them with college applications, scholarships, and the education system in general. After graduating, Angela continued her work as the Social Media, Web, and Marketing Intern at the UCLA LGBTQ Campus Resource Center.

Angela, the daughter of two immigrants, faced many trials and tribulations during the college application season. Although both of her parents obtained their education in the Philippines, she lacked the necessary resources and knowledge of the American education system and had to navigate the college application process alone as a 1.5 generation student. Her mother, the sole member of her family of eight to earn a degree, adamantly believed that pursuing college was of the utmost importance and instilled that sentiment onto Angela at a very early age. Raised by a single mother and growing up in a low-income household, she was hyperaware of the transformative power of higher education and its potential to break the cycle of poverty. Deeply relating to the plights and struggles of students experiencing impostor syndrome and the dire need to create a better life for their families, Angela seeks to empower marginalized students like her through her work with the Campaign.

Angela graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor’s in Public Affairs

Your role in one sentence: I assist the Communications team in sharing and promoting the mission and vision of the Campaign through social media, email newsletters, publications, our website, and more.

When I am not at work helping students get to and succeed in college I am… singing, songwriting, acting, taking film photos of friends, maintaining my Duolingo streak, reading, journaling, going to therapy, binge-watching the latest movies and shows, obsessing over pop culture, and being chronically online.

If not higher education then what cause? Art activism, promoting civic engagement, destigmatizing mental illness, and intersectional justice.