Ramon Aquino: First Generation Immigrant to Inspiring Art Student Leader
By Jessica Collins
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Courtesy of Pencil Mileage Club: Ramon Aquino, pictured above, presenting to the Pencil Mileage Club during one of their weekly meetings.
Ramon Aquino animates an entire room.
As president of CSUF’s Pencil Mileage Club and ASI Board of Directors for the College of the Arts, he encouraged art students to attend the Student Affairs forum to find a new dean for the college on March 13.
He was determined to advocate for the visual arts department. He wanted to ask the job candidates what resources they plan to provide the department to improve the art programs at CSUF if they were hired.
“This is super important as the Dean controls a lot of what happens in the college and visual arts department and is nothing to take lightly, especially with issues that currently affect us,” Aquino said.
Lack of funding, artistic resources, and classes are the issues Aquino was determined to address to help the visual arts department. He was determined to create resources within the College of the Arts at CSUF.
He began advocating for the visual arts when he came to CSUF in 2019. When Aquino came to the university, he came as a first-generation Mexican immigrant from Tijuana wanting to learn animation.
Courtesy of Pencil Mileage Club: Ramon Aquino, Angela Reyes and Pencil Mileage Club promoting their club at Discover Fest 2022.
At his previous school in Tijuana, Aquino did not have access to many visual art classes or resources to explore his passion for animation. Without the proper resources, coming to CSUF made him feel behind as an art major.
“As a freshman, I felt like I didn’t really have the foundational skills that lots of my peers taking those courses at the same time as me had at that time,” Aquino said.
To combat this, Aquino joined the Pencil Mileage Club to find resources and a community of students within his college. The club helped art students connect with each other as well as other campus resources and industry connections.
It was the place that changed Aquino from an art student to an art student leader with a passion for resource advocacy.
Since then, Aquino has become president of the club, ASI Board of Directors for the college, and Resident Advisor for the Arts Floor in Juniper Hall.
To create more resources for the visual arts department, Aquino has turned Pencil Mileage Club into a hub of connections, outreach, and engagement for the visual arts department.
Edward Tobar, fellow PMC Arts Inter-Club Council Officer, said that Aquino has used PMC to create more industry outreach events and art resources for visual arts students to use that the College of the Arts would not provide.
“We create so many student opportunities by providing some of these events since they don’t really do a lot in terms of scheduling industry events or resources outside of the student body,” Tobar said.
Throughout his four years at CSUF, Aquino has used his campus positions to create resources and events for visual art students when the College of the Arts has not.
Angela Reyes, PMC vice president and close friend of Aquino, said that he uses the club to present department issues to administration to create college wide change for future CSUF art students.
“We are the biggest art club in the school, and he uses that power to emphasize and present those messages to the authorities in the school, such as the dean, the chair, and the provost,” Reyes said.
Aquino plans to continue this style of leadership for the 2023-2024 school year as newly reelected ASI Board of Directors for the college and PMC president.
Courtesy of Pencil Mileage Club: Ramon Aquino, Angela Reyes, and Edward Tobar pictured above attending a Pencil Mileage Club social event.
Aquino is a CSUF success story that is full of perseverance and advocacy. As a Mexican immigrant with limited access to the visual arts, he used his past to motivate his future in how he contributed to his campus community.
He used his past to advocate for his future classmates to give them the resources that he never had.
Before graduating in Spring 2024, he hopes to work with the new dean of College of the Arts to create yearly events and updated resources for the visual arts department through the university as well as his club.
Aquino animates an entire room with the opportunities that he never had.
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