Lifting others as she climbs

Ella Rae Bautista Columbres ME ’24 spent her last day as a student in the Master of Education in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs (PASA) program in a room she had been in before, but this time around, she was the one giving a presentation. As a student at Farrington High School in Honolulu, she participated in USC Bovard Scholars, a prestigious college-prep program for high-achieving seniors, and had attended a summer session in the very same lecture hall.

Columbres applied to USC as an undergraduate—USC was her dream school—but she wasn’t accepted. Undeterred, she continued her education at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa on a full-ride scholarship and graduated in three years.

She majored in education with a goal of returning to her high school to teach students in the community where she grew up.

Columbres completed her early years of schooling at a private school in the Philippines. Some of her friends in public school “didn’t have the resources to have a notebook” and were juggling the responsibilities of taking care of siblings in multigenerational households, Columbres says. This was one of her first exposures to the deep, systemic inequities in education.

When her family relocated to Hawai’i in 2012, Columbres enrolled in public school for the first time. The differences were stark. For one, rather than teachers rotating so students could stay together in a cohort, students moved to different classrooms. It was also her first exposure to diversity, and she was “scared to socialize.” Academics, however, came easy. “Lessons that were taught in the sixth grade [in Hawai'i] were taught in fourth grade in the Philippines,” Columbres says. But when she became a USC Bovard Scholar her senior year, she was exposed to many resources unavailable in her community. She was shocked to discover that public schools in the U.S. could have such drastic differences in funding, resources, and outcomes for students. She was determined to do something about it.

While finishing her studies at UH Manoa, Columbres fulfilled her student-teaching requirement at her former high school, teaching 10th and 12th grade. “A lot of [the students] wanted to pursue engineering, but come senior year, they didn’t meet certain requirements,” Columbres says. As a result, many had no choice but to go straight into the workforce. It was these kinds of experiences that led Columbres to USC Rossier’s PASA program.

Columbres graduated in spring 2024, but USC remains a significant part of her story. In October 2023, she secured a full-time position as a career adviser at the USC Career Center, where she had previously interned. While she intends to work in career services for several years, she eventually hopes to earn her PhD.

Just as she has focused on giving back to her community, she feels the same commitment to lifting up her family. This past September, she helped her parents move from Hawai’i to Los Angeles. It’s her turn, she believes, to take care of them. Her mother retired as a preschool teacher’s aide, and her father left his job at 7-Eleven. “They will retire, and I will be the main provider,” she says.

The responsibilities she’s taken on weigh heavily at times, but USC has given Columbres a sense of belonging and community. The university has helped her find the courage to make this permanent move, with her family, to L.A. Columbres points to the support she’s received from Assistant Professor Cory Buckner. “He believes in us wholeheartedly,” she says. “If Dr. B. can believe in us 100%, why shouldn’t I believe in myself this way?”

She’s grown used to this positive mindset and knows many people are rooting for her success. And when times get tough, she says, “I can hear Dr. B in my head: ‘You can do it. You know you can. You just have to show up.’”