Francesca (Cheska) Dolor is a professional counselor and educator raised in Tracy, CA. Cheska received her undergraduate degree in Psychology with a minor in Asian American Studies from UC Davis in 2017. As a first-generation college student, Cheska’s college journey was paved with confusion, self-doubt, and struggle. However, she found solace within the Filipinx American community at UC Davis. It was through her involvement in these communities that Cheska grew to explore and fully embrace her identity as a Filipina American daughter of immigrants. Notably, Cheska learned that Filipinx Americans at UC Davis were victims of vast educational inequities. Inspired to make a change in her community, Cheska began working with Bridge: Pilipinx Outreach and Retention, a student-run and student-initiated retention project that aimed to uplift and serve Fil Am students at UC Davis and in the wider Northern California community. Cheska became passionate about serving fellow Fil Am students through workshops, events, retreats, and other forms of intentional, culturally-relevant programming and decided to continue her career in student services after graduating. 

 

In her first post-graduate role, Cheska served as an AmeriCorps member for College Track San Francisco (CTSF) through the Bay Area Youth Agency Consortium. She managed a caseload of over sixty high school seniors and supported them in managing their progress toward graduation, applying to best fit colleges, and meeting their academic and personal goals. This work showed Cheska that she loved working with students on a one-on-one basis, and she decided to apply to graduate programs in college counseling during her AmeriCorps term. After her term, Cheska was brought onto the permanent team at CTSF as the Student Life and Wellness Coordinator. This position taught her how much she loves teaching! Cheska had the privilege of teaching three sections of a semester-long advisory course for high school freshmen in which she taught academic, career, college, and life success skills. 

 

Cheska began her journey toward becoming a professional counselor at San Francisco State University in 2018. In order to gain a quality education regarding supporting students of color within our broken educational systems, Cheska also decided to pursue a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Ethnic Studies. In her first year internship, Cheska served as a Counseling Intern at SFSU’s College of Health & Social Sciences Student Resource Center and SOAR Trio Program, where she managed a caseload of twenty first generation, low-income, and/or students with disabilities. Cheska continued serving the Fil Am community during her second year internship through City College of San Francisco’s Tulay: Filipinx American Student Success Program. In the Fall of that year, she also worked as a Teaching Assistant for an Intro to Counseling course at SFSU. 

 

In moving forward from her graduate program in Counseling, Cheska looks forward to securing opportunities in culturally-responsive community based programs at the college level that are rooted in strong missions. She wants to dedicate her career to serving students like her, those who feel they don’t belong in education, those who are the first in their families to earn college degrees, those with big dreams.