Circle of education
Ben Atienza
Fourth-year student Ben Atienza leads Student Alumni Association
What Ben Atienza wants most this year is for UC Irvine’s alumni to know how much they are wanted - and needed - by today’s Anteater students.
That’s why the Philippine-native accepted the nomination from his Student Alumni Association peers of president for the young organization. A formal student effort founded in 2003, SAA was created to develop future alumni and community leaders while providing opportunities for students to interact and network with each other and alumni.
“It’s important to us, as students, for our alumni to be involved,” he said. “We want to know how they ended up where they are, we want their advice.”
SAA's 20-person council, an integral part of the association, works with alumni and community leaders to make a difference today and tomorrow for UC Irvine.
Atienza said that this year his efforts will focus on increasing the club’s visibility on campus through some of its now-annual traditions, like Dinners for 12 Anteaters. D12, as the students refer to it, works to connect alumni and students while enjoying an off-campus meal; something college students can never get enough of.
“Last year’s D12 was so inspiring for me,” Atienza said. “To be able to talk with alumni in such a comfortable setting meant so much to me.”
A fall event, D12 connected more than 300 students and alumni throughout Orange County on a single night. Alumni are asked to open their homes and host casual dinners for up to 12 students.
Atienza, who also works as a campus representative, likes to share with UC Irvine’s prospective students and their parents the inner-workings of the campus’s circular architecture – a dynamic that he hopes can be repeated between students and alumni.
“I explain to them that UC Irvine is designed with inner and outer rings – or roads – that help to signify a student’s academic progression from undergraduate to graduate student. The inner ring being where freshman start their education.”
That progression from inner ring to outer ring is similar to the culture Atienza and SAA are creating between students and alumni. As students transition to alumni, his hope is that graduates embrace their new role as active members of the alumni family there to guide future generations of Anteaters.
Active himself, Atienza is a member of the business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi and is interning at a Costa Mesa law firm. After graduation, he hopes to be among UC Irvine’s first class of law students where he can complete his juris doctorate with a focus on family law and estates.
That would be the second time he’s made UC Irvine his first choice. As an entering freshman, Atienza said the school’s criminology department’s reputation, distance from home and his parents’ endorsement made his choice easy. Atienza, the eldest and only son of four, felt UC Irvine was far enough from his home near Sacramento, but close enough for frequent visits with his three younger sisters.
And when it’s time for him to walk across the stage at the Bren Events Center like so many Anteaters before him, he hopes that he’s made a difference.
“I want to be remembered as somebody who made the most of his time here, as someone who helped other students become involved members of a life-long community.”
— Michelle Williams, UCI Alumni Association
