The life ASI board of directors chair

Don’t smile.

She laughs and questions, “How can anyone take a picture without smiling?”

Her desk is covered with photos of family and friends. Post-It notes expressing love, kindness and humor from loved ones and professionals stick above her desk. Titan pride stickers and fliers, pinned, are included in her collage.

She wears a white top with ruffles running vertically down the front center, tucked into a gray pencil skirt, topped off with a light purple cardigan accenting the combination. Her shoulder-length, dark-brown hair, pulled back, accentuates her eyes, attracting eye contact from passers-by.

With a vanilla latte in her hand, you think she’s a typical student walking pass you on her way to class and, like most students, you think she doesn’t know what Associated Students Inc. is all about.

But Ya-Ya, a nickname derived from the difficulty of pronouncing her name by little brother Kevin Canchola, is better known as Aissa Canchola, 22, chair of ASI Board of Directors.

With a double major in political science and American studies and a minor in sociology, Canchola’s fifth year at Cal State Fullerton encompasses an internship at the Office of Government Relations, five classes, and ASI meetings. As if these responsibilities weren’t enough, her position requires her to be so involved that she is also the chair of California State Student Association and the ASI representative of the College of Social Science and Humanities, not to mention a senator on the Academic Senate.

“She always has determination and drive, always asked why and how can we do things better,” said Jaqueline Valencia, 22, her best friend.

Driven. This is Canchola.

“Her personality and drive makes ASI run at a different level and that makes everyone else want to push yourself,” said Matt Badal, 20, ASI vice president of finance.

But Canchola needed to build a backbone. She had fears of being walked over in the politics of the real world.

“I’m most afraid of getting in there and being torn to shreds,” Canchola said. “And even experiencing politics on a small level on campus, you need to have a backbone.

“I used to sit in the corner and cry, and that’s something you can’t do,” she added.

Canchola was handed down the “drive” from the fact that she is the first to attend college in her family, her curiosity, her roots, her mother and most respectfully, her father. When her father died, Canchola became self-aware from soul searching and inner exploration.

“The experience made me grow up over night,” Canchola said. “After my dad passed away, I turned everything around. I want to push myself.”

If someone told her in grade school she would be in Washington, D.C. during her fifth year of college, she would reply, “Yeah, right.”

“His passing pushed me and knowing he is with me all the time is heart warming. I’m not afraid to fail at things anymore,” Canchola said.
Canchola stays close to her Mexican roots.

“We both have that connection with our roots. That’s what brings us together,” Valencia said.

Her ultimate dream is to start her own nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. and she hopes to give back to the Latino community, especially young women.

“Latinos are one of the most fastest growing population in the U.S. and have 2 percent activity in the political system, and women are even smaller,” Canchola said. “You get an education not to get rich and a super cool job, but to give back. It’s a way for our ‘gente’ (people) to get better.”

Canchola said her biggest accomplishment is her little brother making it through high school and getting into college.