Today, we’d like to introduce you to Kirin Macapugay.
Hi Kirin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As someone who grew up in one of San Diego’s most under-resourced communities, I learned early on what I did not know could hurt me.
Because of my lack of finances, I was grateful to have the community college system. I received a strong education at Southwestern College and transferred to San Diego State University, where I completed a Bachelor’s in Psychology and a Master’s in Social Work. After 20 years, I decided to go back to school for a doctoral degree in social work, which I will complete at the University of Southern California by the end of this year, 2024.
My journey in working education began working in the elementary school I attended in Paradise Hills, the Victoria Summit Juvenile Court School in Chula Vista, and Bonita High School before contributing to various nonprofits in neighborhoods throughout San Diego County, always with the aim of strengthening our most under-resourced communities.
I have had the great honor of developing initiatives from life-saving technological systems for pregnant mothers at a nonprofit hospital, financial education for lower-income military families, and small business programs for refugee and new immigrant communities via social service organizations to voter registration and engagement and campaigns for coalitions focused on social, economic, and racial justice.
In 2017, I stood alongside several women who were way more amazing than I was as we were awarded San Diego Civil Rights Woman Leaders by RISE San Diego. I mention this because none of this work is done for recognition or gratitude, so when the community wants to give me flowers, it is humbling.
I have served on public commissions for the cities of Chula Vista, San Diego, and the state of California, more importantly–leaving the door open for others to lead in these capacities. I currently serve on the Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs and chair the Higher Education Committee. In 2022, this commission passed historic legislation creating the first state-funded higher education program in the United States that serves low-income, first-generation, and underserved Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander higher education students. This program has served students in 51 colleges and 23 universities throughout California.
My higher education career began as a part-time lecturer for the San Diego State University School of Social Work in 2014, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in understanding and practicing social justice, community organizing, and community development as I worked in nonprofits full-time. In 2016, students awarded me the Professor of the Year award. In August 2017, I made a significant life move, joining San Diego City College.
As the only full-time, tenure-track professor of social work/human services in the San Diego Community College District, I overhaul and build curriculum, create new education to career pathway programs, manage a half million dollars worth of grant-funded programs I secured, ensure compliance with accreditation standards, manage a team of faculty and counselors, establish external relationships for the college to benefit our students, and serve on committees to allocate state and federal funding.
My expertise has helped me bring positive exposure to our programs on PBS, NBC, CBS, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and National Public Radio, amongst other media outlets. In December 2020, after consistently positive reviews from my students and peers, I was offered tenure.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I was fortunate in that my parents instilled the goals of a college education in me. However, the costs were, and are still high. When I was still a student at Morse High School, I learned I could take college classes with my parents and counselor’s permission. Kudos to my then-counselor, Mr. Anderson, who always supported my paperwork to leave campus early as I had enough credits to attend classes at Southwestern College.
I took enough college courses through my junior and senior years to have 12 college units by the time I graduated from high school. Even though I had the grades to, I did not have the financial means to attend university straight out of high school, so I continued at Southwestern College until I was accepted to transfer to San Diego State University. I recall a full semester of 15 units cost around $250 at the community college. Fortunately, around the same time I transferred, I was able to utilize CalVet, a tuition program for dependents of retired military veterans, easing the costs of university tuition, books, and supplies.
To this day, the greatest obstacle to higher education for people is still finances, so accessibility and affordability are issues I continue to advocate. I appreciate how much the community college system, the largest provider of higher education to low-income, Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, provides that access, so I smile when I think about how the universe landed me in this line of work as a community college educator.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe you can tell us more about your work next?
Thanks to a partnership with the San Diego Housing Commission and the City of San Diego, I co-created a first-of-its-kind program preparing and educating people to work in the field addressing homelessness. Program for Engaged Educational Resources (PEER) is a holistic program involving a course (Human Services 75) with a curriculum constructed by experts in social services and homelessness prevention.
PEER provides students with academic counseling, job coaching, resume reviews, interview skills, and partnerships with more than 30 organizations in San Diego County, offering positions for job fairs and opportunities for students. In Fall 2024, students may pursue the Certificate of Prevention in Homelessness Prevention, exclusive to San Diego City College.
The Certificate of Achievement in Social Work at San Diego City College is also a new program I created that not only addresses the region’s goal to bolster the number of trained behavioral health workers but also prepares completers interested in pursuing the well-established San Diego City College Associate of Arts Degree in Social Work that has been serving the region. The program also includes academic counseling and potential for accessing support, including tuition, childcare services, and textbooks from the San Diego Workforce Partnership.
Based on the San Diego Behavioral Health Workforce Report, San Diego County is facing a significant behavioral health (BH) worker shortage. This report estimates that 17,000 BH professionals will be employed in 11 key occupations in 2022. This is 8,000 workers short of the 25,000 needed. These statewide projected shortages were all before the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Since 2020, community need for behavioral health services, workforce shortages, and wage competition from other industries have intensified, intensifying the long-standing workforce shortage to crisis levels.
San Diego City College is one of six colleges participating in the Southern Border Region counties to strengthen social work pipelines through strategic, collaborative, and innovative efforts focusing on targeted outreach, recruitment, and retention.
As one of three colleges in the region offering a social work program, San Diego City College is adding to the Associate of Arts Degree in Social Work (the combination of district general education courses) the one-year Certificate of Achievement in Social Work, providing students skills for employment upon completion as well as the pathway towards an associate and bachelor’s degree. Students may begin petitioning for the certificate in the Fall of 2024. Classes are stackable toward the associate’s degree in preparation for transfer to social work.
In 2022, I co-created the Inclusive City Achievement Network or ICAN program, making San Diego City College an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). The support enables the college to improve and expand its capacity to serve Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander students and low-income individuals.
This includes a Learning Community of Practice that aggressively works toward addressing disproportionate impacts on Asian, Pacifika, and low-income groups through a comprehensive, culturally responsive approach to student success. ICAN includes academic counseling, professional development, and community engagement through cultural and educational events.
I have students who grew up in foster care or are regaining their footing after years of incarceration. I have students who are the first in their families to attend college. I have students who are military veterans, who are single parents, who are caring for their aging parents, who are undocumented, and who are living out of their cars. I have helped my DACA students leave CARES funding and find resources, and I have written as many letters of support to probation and parole officers as I have grad school admissions. I celebrate all these students equally.
I have students who experience hearing and vision impairments who utilize wheelchairs and interpreters. I have students currently incarcerated and taking classes with us online. I believe in reducing barriers to education. Eliminating barriers to opportunities is how I exercise justice in my classrooms and beyond. I absolutely love witnessing my students’ journeys. I never had “college professor” as a career goal for me, but it has become one of life’s best surprises.
Before we go, can you talk to us about how people can work, collaborate, or support you?
I am grateful to the leadership in my school and San Diego City College, all of my colleagues in our district and beyond, our partners at San Diego State University and the University of Southern California, and the numerous organizations who believe in the talents of our students at San Diego City College.
Contact Info:
- Website: kirinmac.com
- Instagram: @professorkirinmac
