Author: Donovan Dennis
In front of a small kitchen stockroom and surrounded by late-night snacks, Homer Umaguing greets students and makes coffee orders with a genuine smile. Umaguing, who has been working for the Berkus Coffee Cart and Campus Dining since 2008, found a home at Occidental following a recommendation from Victor Chico, the campus Postal Operations supervisor.
“He spent the last ten years asking me and asking me,” Umaguing said, “I decided to give it a shot.” Umaguing has worked with Campus Dining at the Tiger Cooler and the Coffee Cart ever since.
Umaguing immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in 1972. He cites the diversity and prevalence of minority populations within the city as particularly appealing qualities of Los Angeles. “We visit all the minority areas, Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo—it’s great to see so many cultures around us,” Umaguing said.
Following work at other service establishments around the L.A. area, Umaguing followed Chico’s advice and set out for a job with the college.
“It’s a great school with great benefits,” he said, mentioning the medical and dental insurance offered to employees, as well as retirement and 401k plans.
More importantly for Umaguing, however, is the opportunity for his daughters to be able to attend college at Occidental. After five years of continuous employment with the school, Umaguing’s children can attend the college at no cost. His golden five year anniversary approaches this September.
“I want my kids to come here,” he said, noting that although he had not reached the required tenure when his eldest daughter, who is currently 19 years old, enrolled at the University of California at Irvine, he hopes his other two daughters will receive an undergraduate degree at Occidental.
“I heard a story about a young lady who came to Oxy without anything,” Umaguing said, “She didn’t have a backpack, pencils, notebook or anything. But she came to Occidental, went to medical school and now she’s a doctor at Huntington [Memorial] Hospital. I want that for my daughters. I gave them a brochure and said, ‘You see? See what you can accomplish?’”
Umaguing has high hopes for his daughters and aims to impress the importance of earning a college degree upon them, but he has no preference for the fields they pursue.
“As long as they get a degree and are happy—happy and comfortable, I’m perfectly happy,” he said.
His middle daughter, age 16, currently studies French in high school, and Umaguing noted the college’s study abroad program as a desirous reason for her to attend school here. “I want her to go abroad, to go to France,” he said.
Umaguing believes the diversity of the college nicely reflects the diversity of Los Angeles at large and sees the prevalence of minority students as one of the college’s strongest assets.
Because of the unique location of the coffee cart, Umaguing often interacts with all types of Occidental students.
“We see you guys, we say hi—we get to know you—we care,” he said.
The caring sometimes extends after-hours, as he noted they sometimes end up staying a little later than open hours to accommodate last-minute customers. “I don’t want anyone going hungry,” he said, “I know what it feels like to go hungry, and I don’t want anyone to experience that. We will take care of them.”
Caring and community radiate from Umaguing, but in his eyes, it just reflects both the Campus Dining and greater Occidental communities. “Most of us are from out of the country. We came here, and now I have three kids who are to have a better life and an education,” Umaguing said, “We have a great community, and help each other out whenever someone needs something.”
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