1. She LOVES to cook!
Catrina loves sharing her proud Filipino heritage through her cooking, and loves bringing dishes to share at potlucks or parties. She is always experimenting with how to make classic Filipino dishes allergen free, vegan, or vegetarian. Her favorite dish to make is pancit, a rice noodle dish with soy sauce flavors and hearty stir-fried vegetables and meat. Cooking is a longstanding tradition in her family and several of her relatives run food and catering businesses in the Philippines.2. She is a world traveler!
Catrina has traveled to several countries, including France, Mexico, Japan, Italy, Hong Kong, Germany, and Spain. She loves exploring different countries and learning about their customs, traditions, and values. Her dream destination is Peru, where she is determined to climb Machu Picchu.3. Self-proclaimed geek!
She loves to read comics and play video games in her free time. Her favorite video game series is The Legend of Zelda and her favorite superhero team is the X-Men. She keeps her fingers crossed in order to get a badge for San Diego Comic-Con every year, but has had no luck so far.4. Catrina is a UC Davis alumna.
She graduated from UC Davis in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Community and Regional Development. Her major focused on studying how communities shift due to migration patterns, cultural trends, legislation, and accessibility to community resources. One of her biggest projects involved proposing and planning the creation of a youth development center for underserved communities in South Sacramento for the nonprofit organization Ubuntu Green.5. Catrina loves switching up her hair.
In the past, she has dyed her hair red, teal, blue, and even purple! Eventually, she would like to dye her hair pink.6. She is a major foodie.
Catrina loves exploring new restaurants, bakeries, and specialty food shops. Her rule of thumb for trying new food places is to order something off the menu that she does not know how to make at home.7. She used to sport a giant earring collection.
Growing up, people used to recognize Catrina by the quirky earrings she would wear to school, including fish bone earrings, giraffe earrings, vampire teeth earrings, and flashy 80s lightning bolt earrings. Her earring collection has been significantly reduced since then, but at one time she had owned over 25 pairs!How Catrina is making a difference in the College of Education:
“I want students to walk into my office and chat with me so that I can prove to them that attaining a Master’s Degree and furthering their education is an attainable goal and that when you fall, you can always get back up. When you’re the first in your family to graduate high school, go to college, or try anything past what you know, it can be scary. Most of all, it can feel like you’re alone and have no one to reach out or talk to. I want to be a resource for those first-generation graduate and undergraduate students to connect to so that they don’t feel that they are alone in navigating academia. It’s amazing what students can do once you show them how much potential they truly have and encourage them to explore it.”More Stories: 7 Things You Didn't Know About COE Faculty and Staff