Larry Sanchez reminiscence - September 18, 2022

Yeah my name is Larry Sanchez um graduated in 1994 and I attended Loyola Marymount from 1990 to 1994 and I'd just like to share a little bit about, you know, my identity and race, gender and religion. I'm catholic. I'm born and raised in southern California from

to Peruvian parents came here in 1970 went to catholic high schools and catholic grade schools my whole life, modern day high school Loyola marymount. Then after 94 I graduated I went to go get my masters at santa Clara University, another Jesuit University, I majored in civil

engineering and I currently live in Las Vegas Nevada and um I've been in Las Vegas for about 2025 years now uh but I was born and raised in Southern County. I miss it, I miss the weather more than anything. But one thing I was gonna share

was you know being at Loyola at that time for me was was a very um I wouldn't say I opening but more of an experience of just trying to understand uh my studies and where I fit in society socially. Um and as I was going through

my years I would sometimes feel like I was, I couldn't really fit in but what I was what I didn't realize I was starting to gain strength on my identity and where I came from being race, being hispanic origin here in southern California. But other than

that I realized that one of the important things that I liked about Loyola was very diverse, very open and the students and the faculty were very very helpful in helping me identify and stay true to my, to my roots which at the time I didn't really

know what what they were. So um as far as um you know my experience here it was it was amazing only because um I could honestly say that the environment here makes you feel like a family, you feel so at peace and you feel like you're

very very safe. Um one of the things I used to do when I came in as a freshman is at the time my parents couldn't afford room and board. So what I would do is I would commute every day so there came a point where I

had to sleep in the back of my car in the parking lot so I could make my next day class at 8:00 AM. So a lot of people are like what are you doing? And I'd say you know what I live in santa ana California for

me to travel an hour and an hour back was too much. I gotta wake up in six hours anyways. So finally what I did like towards my senior year I applied for becoming a resident advisor and became an R. A. At Kendrick and so I got

my room and board finally paid off so to speak. But meanwhile throughout those years I um I would crash at my buddy's place or whatever on campus and that's the part of the family atmosphere that I kind of took for granted and I understand that they

would pay for it but they didn't want another fellow civil engineer to be left hanging. So they brought me in and say sleep on the couch, crash here tonight, no big deals. You know we got you and I'm like crap. Right So those are some of

the fond memories that I that I had and uh you know you're growing up, you wanna uh see life in a different light and to be honest with you uh the Rodney King and the O. J. Simpson thing came on here and I remember being on

campus and then campus was closed within 24 hours of that happening so everybody had to evacuate campus. That was one of the that was a big thing and you know those are types of things that make you grow. I was here for the northwards earthquake where

the whole campus was rocking and shaking. I was here as an R. A. On a sunday I think it hit and I couldn't even walk down the hallways to get out of the building but luckily nothing catastrophic that happened here on campus but good stuff. I

really enjoyed Las I flew down for just to be here from Las Vegas just to enjoy these times and see some of the faces and some of the different departments hoping I could run into some teachers. I haven't seen any yet But so the last thing

I'd like to say is Loyola. The reason why I picked Loyola marymount to attend here because it really helped me focus on what I wanted to major in. I wasn't ready to be at a big school. I needed something small because um call it what you

will if you want to call it um being sheltered, I needed something where I could feel like I was a part of a university and this was just at the time small enough for me to understand where I was going to go and how I was

gonna do it and graduate with a bachelor's degree. But not only that it was the people, the faculty where the people who interacted with me and help me uh finish those years which is very very important because there's so many distractions you're young, you don't really

know your true identity. And I think after I graduate from Loyola it just helped me re establish what my roots are, made me a more grounded person and I come back today because I go this is where it all started because I was kind of lost

when I came out, I graduated from high school, went to cal state Long Beach for one year and then to make a long story short, this helped me really focus on the major and finish and I'm really appreciated that Loyola, I made a lot of friends.

Uh so it was good times here. I can't I can't deny that the students, our faculty students are beautiful. I have nothing bad to say. We all have defects, but at the end of the day I think they embraced you with that, which is really cool.

Great question. Um I would say um dr William Trott was a great professor and I mentioned his name only because he was a guy who was like a genius, but he knew how to relate to students who weren't on his level. So he could break things

down to plus two for you and at the same time be on a genius level of thinking, which is kind of weird how you can, you know, have that range like he had and he was a funny guy and he understood that we were young and

we're still trying to figure things out and hopefully stay out of trouble, which for the most part we did, but you know, graduating and establishing what we wanted to do in our career and you know, always had a good thing to say about him. Really good

person