Meet Our 2025 Student Grad Speaker
Student Award Winners
Check back for more stories and photos of this year's major award recipients, including winners of the President's Award and DeHart ScholarshipAurelio Cardenas: Pister Award Recipient
The first time Aurelio Cardenas came to De Anza, he didn’t think he belonged in college. He’d been incarcerated as a teenager and young man, before an injury from gun violence left him partially paralyzed in his early 20s.
Now he’s graduating with an associate degree for transfer in History – thanks to his
own hard work, his wife Jessica’s encouragement, and support from De Anza’s Rising Scholars program. This fall, Cardenas will transfer to the University of California, Santa Cruz, after winning the prestigious Pister Leadership Award, which provides $20,000 for college expenses.
“Aurelio has overcome so much just to get here, and he’s grown in remarkable ways,” said James Nguyen, Rising Scholars faculty coordinator. He called Cardenas a powerful example of “second chances, transformation and the incredible things our students can achieve when given the opportunity.”
When Cardenas took his first class at De Anza a decade ago, he felt self-conscious and out of place, and he didn’t want to come back. But a few years after his gunshot injury, he enrolled in De Anza’s Adapted Physical Education program for people with disabilities. There, he found new motivation after seeing a classmate graduate and transfer to UC Berkeley.
Cardenas tried a History class and liked it so much that he decided to enroll full time. He joined the Men of Color Community and then the Rising Scholars program, which provides resources for students who have been incarcerated or involved with the justice system.
The Rising Scholars team – counselor Jesus Ruelas, program coordinator Claudia Guzman, and Nguyen – provided invaluable support, said Cardenas, who called them “game-changers.” With their encouragement, he won a coveted internship last summer at Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute.
Cardenas said his biggest challenge at De Anza was often “believing in myself” – as an older student with a disability and a troubled background. Now his long-term goal is to work with young people as a counselor or teacher, he said. “I want to tell them, ‘If I can do it, they can, too.’ ”