Newly appointed Dean of Students Raquel Oliva-Gomez has had an unexpected career that led her to Lick-Wilmerding High School. Born and raised in the same neighborhood as LWHS, she attended St. Finn Barr School from first to eighth grade and Lowell High School. Outside of LWHS, Oliva-Gomez enjoys spending time with her husband, two children and her dog Miso.
Oliva-Gomez attended City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and earned a degree in aeronautics, a field relating to air travel.
During her two year program at CCSF, Oliva-Gomez was the only woman in her classes. She explained that this was “exciting, but also really challenging. There was that cool factor as soon as I got there.” Additionally, there were many challenges that Oliva-Gomez was forced to deal with that others did not consider. For example, the gloves the students used were always too large. She explained, “we had to work with the school and the folks who were ordering things to make sure that they had enough stuff for me to be able to use. I think that [was] the first time I really realized that there were equity issues in that field.”
She then went on to work in aeronautics at United Airlines before transitioning into the role of being a school administrator. This may seem like quite a stretch, but for Oliva-Gomez, the process was gradual.
While working at United Airlines, she reached out to a program called Junior Achievement of America. The program brings in speakers from all different professions to talk to high school, elementary, and middle school students. Oliva-Gomez first came in contact with the program in high school when speakers came into her Economics class. While working at United, she reached out to see if they would want her to become a speaker. “I reached out to Junior Achievement of America again, I was like, hey, is there an opportunity for me to get in some classes to talk about women who want to be in a male dominated field?” she explained. For four years, Oliva-Gomez would go into classrooms and talk about her experience working in a male dominated field.
That planted a seed of passion for working with children. Soon after, Oliva-Gomez began volunteering with the Youth Justice Program of San Francisco, where she mentored kids who had been detained in a juvenile hall.
After that Oliva-Gomez got her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and sociology. A little while after she obtained a master’s degree in education.
At the time, Oliva-Gomez was working with students who were concurrently earning their GED’s and associates degree from a two year college, which was really fulfilling. “But it wasn’t the same as that excitement and curiosity that the elementary middle school kids had, the college kids were pretty focused and they kind of knew what they wanted to do. And so I was like, okay, I need a middle ground,” she said.
This led her to work as a counselor at a high school. She then went on to become a dean and a principal. She explained her reasons for being a Dean of Students, saying, “it’s really where I felt that I was best serving students.” She particularly enjoys the position because it allows her to have a lot of face time with students. “Being able to listen to students about their experience and focus on how to meet their needs so they can be successful while meeting the schools overarching goals.” She said it is “both fun and rewarding.”
