Four siblings to share CSUMB commencement honors

By Mark Muckenfuss

Cal State Monterey Bay student Adriana Gutierrez is bringing her entire family to Commencement on Saturday, May 16, for her graduation. Three of them, like her, will be receiving diplomas. 

In what may well be an Otter first, Gutierrez, 24, and her sister, Joanna Lopez Gutierrez, 31, will receive master’s degrees, while two of their younger siblings, Diego, 21, and Gisselle Gutierrez, 19, will be honored with bachelor’s degrees.

If that were not enough for the Porterville family, Gisselle’s twin sister, Jazmine, graduates the day before CSUMB’s ceremony with a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State. 

It seems the only thing stopping the Gutierrez family from having more graduates this year is that there are no other siblings. Five kids, five degrees, just like that. And four of them are Otters.

“It’s been a really cool ride,” said Adriana, speaking for her CSUMB siblings. “We’ve all really thrived here on the campus.”

She started it all, coming back to the city where her education started. Abel Guiterrez, Adriana’s father, served in both the Marines and the Army. He was stationed at Fort Ord from 2005 to 2007, and Adriana went to preschool and kindergarten in Seaside. 

“My mom [Leonor] says, ‘You started kindergarten here, and you’re back, finishing up your education,’” Adriana said. “It’s definitely a full-circle moment.”

That education included a bachelor’s degree in forensic behavioral science from Fresno State, after which she found a job working with trauma-exposed children aged 3-18.

“I loved the work and decided to go back and get my master’s in social work,” she said. “I had heard a lot of great things about the program here at CSUMB.”

When she attended Admitted Otter Day in 2024, she convinced Diego and Gisselle to come along with her. They liked what they saw.  

“Diego applied and got in, and Giselle said, ‘I’ll come along,’” Adriana recalled.

Then the three began encouraging Joanna to join them. She was living and working in New York at a bioresearch job, but was ready for a change. She enrolled in the online MBA program. 

“We started all together in the fall of 2024,” Adriana said. “We had this fantasy of all graduating together.”

A fantasy that is about to become a reality. 

The Gutierrezes are a potent example of CSUMB’s commitment to social mobility – the campus has been ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 among Western regional universities for the last three years by U.S. News and World Report in that category. 

Adriana says her immigrant grandparents didn’t have the opportunity to complete elementary school. 

“They worked in the fields all their lives,” she said. “Our parents only finished high school.”

Her grandparents, she said, are anxious to see their grandchildren receive their diplomas in Saturday’s ceremony.

“It feels good to see that excitement in their faces,” Adriana said. “It’s going to be emotional for them to see how far our family has come. It’s a big, big moment.”

It’s the culmination of an ethos the Gutierrez children grew up with. 

“There was a big push for us to pursue higher education,” Adriana said.

As a high schooler, Adriana found out about a dual-enrollment program with a local college and took advantage of it. By the time she graduated from high school, she had earned her associate degree. Her younger siblings followed suit. 

While they support one another, Adriana said they also push each other.

“It has been a little bit competitive,” she said, adding that she doesn't expect this graduation to end that. “It’s like now, who’s going to get their PhD first? We use it to encourage each other.”

She suspects that Diego, an enrivoronmental science, technology and polcy major who has been accepted into CSUMB’s Master of Environmental Science program, will be the first to cross that finish line. But, she adds, “I don’t doubt we will all come back for doctoral programs, just to say we did it.”

With her Master of Social Work degree, Adriana will take a job serving mental health needs for marginalized communities in the Sacramento area as an associate clinical social worker. Gisselle, a psychology major, is leaning toward the social work field, Adriana said, and Joanna has no immediate plans related to her degree.

Adriana expects the siblings will continue to support one another as they did when they were all students.

“It’s been really awesome,” she said. “We’ve all leaned on each other. To be at the finish line, all together, is really inspiring.”