Being a Cal State Fullerton grad isn’t a requirement to work for the city of Downey, but the Titans who do are in good company.
About a half-dozen people on Assistant City Manager Vaniah De Rojas’ team are CSUF alums, and that’s in addition to two of the city clerk’s staff, the public works director, the police chief and an intern.
Herself a Titan who’s worked for Downey for six and a half years, De Rojas ’09, ’11 (B.A. business administration, MBA) knows who’s a fellow alum because she brought some of them on board.
“I think they really developed us to be good stewards of the world,” she said of her alma mater. When she’s hiring, “I go for whoever’s the best of the best — they all just happened to be from Cal State Fullerton.”
The Titans at the city of Downey share a love for serving the community, but they arrived at their careers by different routes.
De Rojas knew since getting paired with a city manager in a high school program that she wanted to work in government, and CSUF was where she went to prepare.
The post-graduation payoff was a job with a range of responsibilities: managing budgets, planning for the 2028 Olympics, implementing a workshop that teaches young women life skills, and working with residents who need a pothole fixed.
De Rojas’ job “can go from something really big to something very small every day,” she said.
A few steps from De Rojas’ office on the third floor of City Hall, Deputy City Clerk Agustin Estrada ’16 (B.A. political science) helps put together city meeting agendas and respond to public records requests, and at election time, he assists candidates with paperwork and other requirements to run for office.
Captivated by a political science course, Estrada transferred to CSUF to focus on it. In his six years with Downey, elections have been a favorite part of his job, but he also loves meeting community members.
“It’s a constant reminder of how there are still so many great people doing such selfless things and participating in their own way,” he said.
City Hall’s third floor is also where one of CSUF’s newest graduates, Axel Perez Beltran ’25 (B.A. public administration), handles public information, social media, and the city’s branding and marketing — and last fall he got to help coordinate the relocation of a full-size space shuttle prototype to the city’s space center.
He came to CSUF to study business administration and discovered that he enjoyed working for the community. So he talked to a campus career counselor about public sector opportunities and was able to land a job in Downey before he graduated.
Working in local government, “I can see that direct impact,” he said.
The Downey City Hall Titans say CSUF prepared them well for careers serving the public.
Assistant to the City Manager Marlon Ramirez ’15 (B.A. accounting) was drawn to the university by its high standards and real-world application of the skills its students learn. “I knew that by going there and graduating from that rigorous program, it would lead to opportunities,” he said.
For students still searching for their future direction, De Rojas said most local governments have an array of jobs to fill.
“If you are looking for a career where no day is the same and you get to work on a variety of projects that are going to have generational impacts for your community, this is it,” she said.