By working with underrepresented populations and currently serving as the Coordinator for Student Involvement, Porcha Ingram strives to give students tools to support individuals in need, creating tomorrow’s leaders.   

Ingram received her bachelor’s in public relations and joined a public allies program shortly after graduation, where she was placed at a non-profit agency that supported victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

“While at the non-profit agency, I worked with women who had been abused and hurt all their lives and being there with them at the hospital visits, being there with them through the court system and then seeing them advocate for themselves and their children changed my life,” said Ingram.

Working at this agency helped Ingram discover her passion for working with college students.

“Throughout my time there, I did a lot of work with colleges in the area and that was what sparked my interest to work at a university. It inspired me to do this work at the college level because it helps people [understand] that it’s happening everyday and we don’t even realize it,” she said.

Ingram went back to school and studied at USD to obtain her bachelor’s in higher education leadership. Ingram stayed in the San Diego area after graduation and later became the Coordinator for Student Involvement in Student Life and Leadership at CSUSM.

Ingram assists and supports students to help coordinate different events and programs on campus and encourages students to be involved as much as possible.

“My direct interest is to be an advocate for student leaders. My goal is to support our student leaders and discuss advocacy and how they can be supporters for themselves and for others,” said Ingram.

“As an undergrad I was heavily involved in so many things and at times I would get bogged down and think, ‘How is this going to help me in the future?’ But now that I’m on the other side of that, I see how everything was so intertwined and how in different job situations, I have been able to fall back on those experiences,” said Ingram.

In the long run, Ingram said that she hopes to fight stereotypes and encourage young women to aim high and know that they can achieve success despite the negativity that surrounds them.

“Being a woman of color, I want to lead by example and I think there’s so much in the media that are against women of color that tell us that we can’t be as good. There have been things in my life that I’ve gone through and I’m still pushing forward. So if I can do it, you can do it,” said Ingram.

As an advocate for student leaders, Ingram is striving to support them in anyway she can. By doing so, she said that she hopes to inspire others to do the same and build each other up in the process.

She said, “We need to empower each other rather than highlight the negativity we see daily, because in the end, empowerment will overcome all things.”