Leveraging Corporate Matching for the WIN!

When Wesley Yao first arrived at Mt. SAC as a water polo player, he couldn’t have guessed how the next two years would determine the course of his entire life. At the WIN, a program that was originally designed as academic support for student athletes, Wesley learned how to apply the same passion he used in water polo to school work. Now, he’s in a solid career with an employer who supports and even encourages philanthropy, and he wants to give back to the place that gave him so much. 

Like so many Mt. SAC alums, Wesley is the child of immigrants, and it means everything for him to succeed and make his parents proud. The path that the WIN put him on changed the trajectory of his life. It was there that he began considering exploring a STEM career. When he arrived at Mt. SAC, he tested into intermediate math, but as his math skills and confidence improved, he kept taking more advanced classes until he was at calculus. By the time he left Mt. SAC, he was not only a water polo player but also an honors student, the 2009 student of distinction, and a future software engineer. 

When the WIN began 20 years ago, it was the first of its kind at a community college. Four-year institutions had support programs for student athletes, but no other community colleges had implemented them. Mt. SAC was already turning our athletes into Division I calibre players, and we wanted to turn that same attention to the student aspect of being a student athlete. Today the WIN is the thriving heartbeat of the Mt. SAC campus. It is available to all students and provides not just tutoring and studying services, but on-site counseling, computer access, resume help, and much more. These days, when a community college wants to start an academic support program for student athletes, they use the WIN as a model. 

Wesley gives all the credit for his success to the WIN, but the program’s director Erica Ledezma is quick to point out that Wesley worked very hard to earn everything he has, as do all the students who come through the WIN. She explains that the student athletes who come to Mt. SAC are gifted at their sports, and while they’ve been taught how to excel athletically, they haven’t necessarily been shown how to apply that same drive in the classroom. The WIN bridges that gap and shows student athletes that they have to practice math the same as they have to practice their sport. 

While being a software engineer is a demanding career, Wesley knows it would be harder if not for Mt. SAC. He is grateful for the skills of hard work, time management, prioritizing, and believing in his own abilities that being a student athlete and studying at the WIN instilled in him. Wesley is currently employed at Microsoft, and he is eager to take advantage of the company’s philanthropic matching program. He feels fortunate to work for an organization that prioritizes giving of time and money. Volunteering is built into the culture, and Wesley has been tutoring low income children in the Seattle area. His gift to the WIN is a two-to-one match, and it will help the WIN change the lives of many people just like Wesley.