March 25, 2022
In less than three years, Ilyne Castellanos has transformed from an uncertain Everett Alvarez High School grad into a third-year student majoring in global development at the University of California, Berkeley – with two scholarships and three internships beneath her wings.
The word she continually reaches for in describing that metamorphosis is “mentor” – both having one and being one. She’s been especially guided by the advice of Hartnell College TRIO Director Manuel Bersamin, who told her, “Apply for everything.”
“Someone else can tell you no. The selection committee can tell you no, but you shouldn’t be the person to tell yourself no,” Castellanos said. “That’s something I learned through the communities at Hartnell.”
Castellanos was drawn to Hartnell in 2019 by the Salinas Valley Promise program, which
not only provides two years of free tuition regardless of family income but also mentorship
– now from peers but at that time from a community mentor. Hers was Deputy Monterey
County Counsel William Litt. 
“He inspired me to apply at other schools that I probably wouldn’t have applied to if I didn’t know him,” Castellanos said. “That was a great experience.”
She also benefited from peer mentorship in the TRIO program from fellow student Estefania Villicaña-Albañil, now at the University of California, Los Angeles. Villicaña-Albañil was, like Castellanos, a semi-finalist for the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. “She was super helpful and helped me with all of my applications,” Castellanos said.
In turn, she served as a peer mentor for both the Salinas Valley Promise and the TRIO, which serves low-income and first-generation students. Castellano’s father is a truck driver and her mother is a preschool teacher planning to complete her bachelor’s degree at Cal State Monterey Bay. Both are immigrants from Mexico.
Castellano’s internships have included developing nuclear safety instruction for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Safety Administration, where she met mentor Paloma Richards, a member of the senior leadership team in the Office of Nuclear Incident Policy and Cooperation. Since August 2021, she has been a part-time administrative assistant in the UC Berkeley School of Law.
She said she found her footing at Hartnell, along with crucial support that pointed her toward her seemingly unlimited future.
“There’s so much help at Hartnell for first-generation students who are in the same boat as me,” Castellanos said, “who don’t know how the whole college thing works. I was definitely in the right place at the right time.”