During the 2023 spring semester, Yahir Flores met with then-Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) President Jaime Arellano to discuss issues that affected Cal State LA’s immigrant students. As a community organizer, Flores had grown accustomed to being brushed off, with the standard response being, “We’ll get back to you.”

Instead, Arellano surprised Flores by extending an invitation to join ASI.

“I didn’t take it seriously,” Flores said. “I figured these roles and channels of involvement through the structured shared governance process weren’t meant for people with my background or my status. That’s why I turned to community organizing. I felt like being surrounded by folks who felt the same way I did was the best way to take action and the way to reclaim that we matter, that what we do is of importance.”

Two years later, Flores is completing his second year as ASI president, with a list of accomplishments that have benefited the 22,000 fellow students he has served. He is also graduating with double undergraduate degrees in political science from the College of Natural and Social Sciences and Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies (CLS) from the College of Ethnic Studies. He will attend graduate school at Cal State LA in the fall, with an eye toward continuing the work he started with ASI.

After his initial hesitancy, Flores took up the offer of joining ASI. He was first appointed to the Legislative Affairs Committee. Within the next six months, he would serve as the state lobby corps officer, diversity and inclusion officer, and, after a shakeup of student leadership, ASI vice president. At the end of the 2023 spring semester, the student body voted in Flores for the first of his two terms as ASI president.

Flores has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Cal State Student Association, providing a voice for more than 500,000 students in the California State University (CSU) system.

He proved to be a quick study in advocacy and diplomacy.

“I learn by seeing,” he said. “I attended various events to gain a better understanding of what the campus culture is like, what the student demographic is, what the students say are their concerns. I positioned myself to be present in and out of campus so I can learn how to support our students.”

Flores said the priority of his first term was to build a stronger relationship with the university administration.

“Students were concerned about the disconnect between the administration and the student body,” he said. “There were disagreements with students wanting this and admin saying no, or admin saying this and students saying no. I wanted to bridge that gap. We’re not always going to see eye to eye, but rather than going back and forth without any solutions, we built a relationship and cultivated a sense of understanding where we can walk out of a meeting and say the best interests of students and the campus were served.”

The open dialogue between ASI and the administration helped produce some of ASI’s top accomplishments during Flores’ two terms, which include:

• The off-site relocation of Commencement: ASI worked with the administration to move Commencement from campus to an off-site venue that would provide a more memorable experience to students and their families. The 2024 Commencement was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and the site for this year is the historic Shrine Auditorium.

• More campus involvement from President Berenecea Johnson Eanes: Flores said he requested that President Eanes, who began her tenure at Cal State LA in January 2024, to be visible on campus. Said Flores, “President Eanes positioned herself and her cabinet to meet and engage with students, attend events. They’re here to build community with us.”

• Increased student representation in university-wide committees and task forces.

• More collaborations between ASI and the Erika J. Glazer Family Dreamers Resource Center, the Veterans Resource Center, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, and other on-campus affinity and identity centers.

• New events such as “Eddie’s Rodeo Roundup” and “Eddie Fest” that invite Cal State LA’s commuter students to celebrate on campus.

Blanca Martinez-Navarro assumed her role as Cal State LA’s associate vice president for student life and dean of students in the same semester that Flores began his ASI presidency. She has seen him evolve over his two terms as president.

“A second term [as student government president] is uncharacteristic at any institution,” said Martinez-Navarro. “I’ve always told him he was in a unique situation. He was very intentional in bringing in the university’s senior leadership into ASI spaces, which allowed our students to understand the roles that each of our division heads play. It showed them how institutions operate.”

Flores, along with four younger sisters, was raised in East Los Angeles after his family immigrated from Mexico. He graduated from James A. Garfield High School during the pandemic-shortened school year of 2020.

COVID-19 also had an impact on his first year at Cal State LA as social distancing and online classes left him feeling “kind of lost.” He could not decide on a major, jumping from biology to anthropology to sociology to Latin American studies to geography to geology.

After his first year, Flores began to spend more time on campus and became more involved with Cal State LA activities. He finally decided on the double major of political science and CLS around the same time he became involved with community organizing and ASI.

Flores said his skepticism in joining ASI stemmed from his upbringing in working-class East Los Angeles. He said he had always felt like an outsider and did not feel he could make an impact working within student government.

“My parents are both immigrants,” he said. “It’s always been rough not feeling like we were prioritized as a community, and we weren’t given many opportunities to be in conversations that acknowledge our struggles. Our experiences living in a Mexican community in Los Angeles didn’t always feel like they mattered.”

In the fall, Flores will return to Cal State LA to begin work in the Master of Public Administration Program. Flores once aspired to be a lawyer, but his experiences with ASI redirected his career trajectory.

Being in ASI “was a transformative experience,” he said. “When I think of myself in a courtroom, I don’t feel any passion, but I feel that passion when I think of myself as a professor or an academic affairs professional. Ultimately, I’d like to return to the CSU and have an impact working day to day in support of students.”

Photo: Associated Students, Inc. President Yahir Flores, second from left, was among the Cal State LA delegates to visit Washington, D.C., during the CSU Hill Week in April. From left to right, Cal State LA Chief of Staff Victor Rojas, Flores, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, President Berenecea Johnson Eanes, and Executive Director of External Affairs and University Relations Omar Gonzales. (Credit: Omar Gonzales/Cal State LA).

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California State University, Los Angeles is the premier comprehensive public university in the heart of Los Angeles. Cal State LA is ranked number one in the United States for the upward mobility of its students. Cal State LA is dedicated to engagement, service, and the public good, offering nationally recognized programs in science, the arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education, and the humanities. Founded in 1947, the University serves more than 24,000 students and has more than 250,000 distinguished alumni.