GRACE CATHEDRAL (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Valerie Francisco-Menchavez describes her journey from Filipino immigrant, undocumented student, to tenured professor of Sociology at SF State. Francisco-Menchavez describes her migrant upbringing and how the sense of community she found there inspired her to work for care workers and share their stories. Find relief from election anxieties and listen to Valerie’s endearing story of hope and perseverance.
Valerie was in high school when she first discovered that her own community could be a subject of scholarship. She went to a Filipino American youth leadership program that took place at Stanford for a whole immersive week.
“We slept in the dorms and ate at the mess hall and these doctoral students who would become professors, they taught us Filipino American history,” Francisco-Menchavez said. “And one of those professors is the late Dr. Dawn Mabalon, who eventually becomes a History professor at SF State in the future. Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, who is an Asian American and Asian American Studies professor at SF State right now, they were like our workshop teachers — how lucky, how grateful I am to meet these Filipinas from the Bay area. And Dawn was from Stockton and who had these ambitions, too. We’re going to be studying to be professors.”