Pioneer Alumni Spotlight

Mark Almeida

Life After East Bay

Mark is a Bay Area native and legacy of Cal State East Bay with both his father and brother graduating from Cal State Hayward. He was heavily involved as a student on-campus while attending Cal State. After graduation, he began working at the university and worked his way up to being the youngest chief housing officer in the CSU system. He now serves as the Associate Vice President, Student Affairs and Auxiliary Services. He earned his master’s degree in organizational leadership from the University of San Francisco. While away from work, Mark enjoys playing sports, hiking, traveling, and most importantly spending time with his family.

Question 1

Why did you decide to attend Cal State East Bay?

My dad(first generation college student) and brother both graduated from Cal State Hayward. I originally attended Chabot College to play baseball and transferred up to East Bay as a second year after getting hurt. My brother was involved in Student Life and more specifically the Orientation program as an Orientation Leader then intern and would always tell me great things about Cal State Hayward. There were so many opportunities at Cal State East Bay to get connected so I started off with a job at the bookstore. It was such a great experience which allowed for connections across campus including one as a fraternal member of Delta Sigma Pi. The bookstore back then was basically a club as it was one of the larger employers of student assistants. I felt connected to the campus the very moment I stepped foot on it and partly that was due to my brother who came before me sharing his stories/connections. It was close enough to home where I could still very much be active and supportive of my aging grandmother.

What is your fondest memory of Cal State East Bay?

My fondest memories at East Bay would be crossing over as a fraternal brother of a fraternity and working at the bookstore. Crossing over into brotherhood is such an amazing experience and one you will never forget as those members of the fraternity become family for life. The bookstore had wonderful staff that made you feel like you belonged. It was always a student first experience and you became part of the bookstore family.

If you want to give advice to pioneer students, what would that be?

Life is never long enough, take the chances and opportunities that may feel out of reach as you will never know the outcome if you don't try.

Tell us about your career path and how Cal State helped you to achieve your goals.

My career path was not always higher education in fact my goal was to move to Chicago and become CEO for Kraft Foods. I had been doing a part job as a merchandiser prior to attending Cal State East Bay and really liked the company. During my time at East Bay, I took an internship with Safeway Corporate and after the internship was offered a full time job but it just did not feel right. The campus connection and student interactions were too great on-campus to leave the field of higher education. I truly loved helping others and specifically our students here at East Bay. My supervisor at the time pushed me to apply for a position in Parking and Transportation so I did. Then he pushed me again to take the next step as he saw something in me that I may not have seen myself. It has truly been that way the people here at East Bay push you in ways that help you better understand yourself and where you want to go with your career.

Tell me about a time when you faced a challenge while attending this school. How did you overcome it?

Catalog changes prior to graduation that would have impacted the timeline to graduation. I contacted the College of Business and Economics and they walked me through the process of changing catalog years and reassured me I would still graduate as planned.