One of Moorpark’s newest counselors, Eddie Beltran, has entered our campus with over nine years of professional experience working with and helping students achieve their academic goals. Beltran has earned his Masters from California Lutheran University with Science in Counseling and Guidance.
“I believe education is a critical vehicle and important precursor to social change and upward mobility for all communities,” said Beltran.
Beltran has had experience teaching through the P-20 pipeline, which represents educations beginning in preschool following up to the completion of college. With almost having ten years as an educator, Beltran is currently putting his efforts not only towards the students but into a research study, called GPS, that is new to the campus.
“My effort is to provide a student-centered approach to counseling,” said Beltran. “That promotes access and achievement for all students.”
Guided Pathway to Success (GPS), is a program created to give one-on-one help to incoming freshman who need the extra guidance. Many of the freshman involved may be first generation college students whose families may or may not understand how the college system works. The students who are involved in the program will receive an extra amount of attention from the Moorpark counselors involved, like Beltran, with choosing classes and following up on class success throughout the semester.
“I feel that I have two bigger roles with counseling on campus, one is with our GPS, essentially it is a first-year-student guided program which is really helpful for students trying to transfer into the college experience,” continued Beltran. “It really resonates for me because I had my own struggles as a first year student. I’m hoping I can make the students transition better and more smooth. Additionally, I work with the rest of the student population largely in the health sciences, education and communications.”
Beltran strongly supports the GPS program, because he has his own personal experience of entering college as a first-generation college student. He hopes to have the positive impact that will encourage other students just like him to continue and strive to complete their academic goals.
Some of Beltran’s hopes when meeting with a student who often may need a little more encouragement, guidance or instruction, is to meet the student where they are. Beltran states ‘whether that be inspiring them, re-inspiring them or just support that will translate into them being successful are the pieces that I get very excited about and why I love sitting in this seat’.
“My current area of study has further prepared me to be an advocate within my own community,” said Beltran. “And provide resources to students within a framework that bridges counseling and education.”
Along with sharing stories, with the variety of students Beltran gets to meet, he has hopes in being able in help co-instruct their experience to work through the issues and continue walking the students down the right direction to success of reaching their goals.
Outside of his work, Beltran is in-the-midst of building his new family. He and his wife of two years, are currently expecting their second child together. Beltran’s new and growing family has recently joined the Moorpark community both in and out of campus.
“We are very excited about moving into the Moorpark area, being part of that and the college has been great,” continued Beltran. “It feels right, as if we are in the right place at the right time I could not feel more blessed.”
Beltran has had nothing but a very eventful year, moving into a new home, raising his first daughter and celebrating his second anniversary with his wife who is currently expecting, along with pursuing his educational doctorate in higher educational leadership at California Lutheran University.
“Being a first-generation college student, I decided to do research on that population specifically for students who are interested in stem careers,” says Beltran. “But more specifically on campuses who are a Hispanic-serving institution.”
Moorpark College is now designated as a Hispanic-serving institution, therefore Beltran is doing his best to bridge both the institutional support and some of the other factors that lead to success and the first generation piece. Trying to empirically substantiate support to see what works best so he can evaluate for future programs is what Beltran has claimed is his incentive with this research.
In and off campus, Beltran has put his best foot forward to help benefit the people around him including his family and the students of Moorpark College. He is one of the campus’s newest counselors who we look forward to hearing more about as his research study continues.
