FRIDAY: Women We Admire – Jocelyn Surla Banaria
September 5, 2017 •
Bring your lunch and join Jocelyn Surla Banaria, assistant director of the UC Academic Senate, for the next talk in the Women We Admire series.
Date: Friday, Sept. 8
Time: 12-1 p.m.
Location: Franklin Lobby 1
If you can’t attend the talk in person, join via Zoom: https://UCOP.zoom.us/j/6987568179 or 408-638-0968 (toll charges apply),*4 (from a UCOP office phone), Meeting ID: 698-756-8179
Before working for the Academic Senate, Banaria worked in the Academic Planning unit here at UCOP. With a career of over 25 years in higher education administration, she has committed her career to improving higher education and access for students.
Banaria was born in Pampanga, Philippines. When she was two years old, she immigrated to Chicago, Ill., then lived in Fremont from third grade to high school.
She graduated from UC Berkeley as a Development Studies major with the goal of working for the United Nations or in the Philippines. As a shy student, Banaria was selected to be an orientations counselor at Cal where she was required to engage with many individuals, from students and parents to administrators and faculty. This is where her passion started — the passion for helping college students.
Banaria worked at Cal and Cal State Hayward (now Cal State East Bay) helping students in choosing their courses and starting clubs. She also completed a master’s degree in counseling with an emphasis in higher education. Her master’s thesis focused on college recruitment for Filipino Americans. Banaria then completed her Ph.D. in education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her award-winning doctoral dissertation looked at how Filipinos and Native Hawaiians succeeded in college.
At UC Berkeley, she analyzed data for the Admissions and Enrollment Office, advised student groups and was the administrative assistant for the director of student activities and services. She was also a counselor for first-generation, low-income students at the Educational Opportunity Program at Cal State Hayward. And at the University of Hawaii she was a research assistant and a program manager for a federal grant recruiting math and science teachers.
Banaria lives in Alameda with her husband and three daughters. In her spare time, she develops women’s leadership programs, coaches young people on college admissions and plays softball.
