Moorpark College faculty, students take pride in diversity

Campus strives to be inclusive for all



STAND UP—Moorpark College President Julius Sokenu displays a sign to support LGBTQ+ students at the school’s graduation. Courtesy of Dina Pielaet

STAND UP—Moorpark College President Julius Sokenu displays a sign to support LGBTQ+ students at the school’s graduation. Courtesy of Dina Pielaet

When Dina Pielaet came out as gay, some of her loved ones were far from supportive.

Now, four decades later, Pielaet dedicates herself to ensuring that others do not have to go through what she went through alone. She said she’s proud to contribute to a Moorpark College institution that is supporting members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“We want you as a student to feel as safe and loved as we say you are,” said Pielaet, Moorpark College’s marketing, communications, and web design coordinator, and advisor for several of the organizations that support LGBTQ+ students on campus.

“Saying it is one thing—doing it is another, so we want to be a group of doers.”

Spectrum club

When Moorpark College’s LGBTQ+ student organization, known as the Spectrum club, started about 20 years ago, students held meetings in secret to protect their identities. Now, it is a safe space for students and their supporters.

The club was less active last year due to COVID-19 but it is once again gaining momentum with a new group of advisors, including Pielaet and Kelly Rae Little, an admissions and records technician.

Working in education, Little said, has taught her that above all else students want to feel a sense of belonging and safety.

“I want to make sure that students know that they are not alone and that they are seen and that they are important and that they matter,” Little said.

Through her role with Spectrum, Little said she hopes to create a welcoming, open-minded environment for all students where they can normalize conversations surrounding the LGBTQ+ experience.

“We need to be moving away from these archaic perspectives that are no longer serving us and that we no longer fit into,” Little said. “We are all human, and what a waste of time to tear other people down.”

Mary Poitier, Associated Student Government president and returning student, said she hopes to become more involved in Spectrum next year because she believes it is critical, that no one is excluded from the fight for equity.

“The importance of being an ally, to me, is bringing people together and involving everyone in decision making,” Poitier said. “To bring peace, to bring togetherness, everyone has to be included.”

The freedom to be oneself, Poitier said, is something she does not take for granted, and—like many of the students who participate in Spectrum—she takes the steps to ensure her activism is more than performative.

“I want to be me, so I should expect somebody else to want to be who they are,” Poitier said. “I want to be an ally all year round because I see the importance in loving people for who they are.”

Poitier applauds Moorpark College as one of the nation’s most inclusive institutions of higher education because she said the administration works constantly to serve students’ needs.

“I don’t think they ever feel comfortable in where they are,” Poitier said. “They are always seeking to find out what else they can do, and that’s what I love about Moorpark.

The college also aspires to create a Pride Center—a safe space where students can study and socialize while learning about and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community.

During the past school year, Spectrum advisors created the Out/Ally Network. Composed of about 40 faculty and staff members who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community or as supporters of that community, the organization is forming a list of members on the school’s website so students can always have someone they feel comfortable relying on.

As someone who has received death threats due to her sexual orientation, Pielaet—who refers to the network she helps advise as “a collection of people and a commitment”—said she believes it is critical for LGBTQ+ students to feel safe in their educational environment.

Rebecca Hernandez, business office assistant, learned about LGBTQ+ activism because of her son, who is transgender. She said she was inspired by the faculty and staff at the Ventura County Community College District, who helped her son change his name and pronouns.

“To see him navigate the school system as a transgender student opened my eyes to a lot of the challenges they face,” Hernandez said. “I wanted to pay it forward and help other students in the same way he was helped.”

As a member of the Out/ Ally Network, Hernandez said she strives to make her office an escape from the discrimination LGBTQ+ students like her son experience on a daily basis. She does her best to ensure that she and her colleagues provide students with helpful resources and make them feel comfortable.

“They have enough to go through—they don’t need any more judgment,” she said. “If we all put ourselves in their shoes, we would have more empathy.”

Allison Case Barton, Student Health Center coordinator, helps organize the college’s Safezone training, a voluntary program that teaches students and employees how to support members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Case Barton has seen the exhausting impact of everyday microaggressions, the subtle and sometimes unintended instances of discrimination toward marginalized groups that she said can damage students’ mental, physical and academic well-being.

“A student who is afraid to be ridiculed or put down or hurt in some way because they don’t know if people are going to respect them is a big part of what makes life miserable,” Case Barton said.

That is why faculty and staff who have completed the Safezone training and are committed to supporting LGBTQ+ students display emblems in their classrooms and offices so that those students can feel more comfortable approaching them in both academic and non-academic situations.

As part of Moorpark’s preferred name policy, the college is also creating a guide for faculty, staff, and students in preparation for the upcoming semester so that individuals’ chosen names and pronouns are respected.

The school emphasizes that people need to respect and accept others for who they are regardless of whether they understand or approve. Through Safezone training and their other day-to-day efforts, staff members said they hope to teach community members how to better interact with marginalized populations.

“I hope we are entering a time in our lives where it doesn’t matter,” Pielaet said. “I’m not a he or a her or a who or a what: I’m just me.”

Pielaet said she never feels like a token, but is instead appreciated for who she is and what she does. She is especially grateful to work alongside President Julius Sokenu.

“Moorpark College celebrates the contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals and community,” Sokenu said. “As an out gay man of color, an educator, and a father, I am committed to fostering an equitable and inclusive learning and work environment that supports our students.”