We could all use a little inspiration — someone or something that challenges us to be our best, insisting "You can do it!"
For Cindy Cordova — who becomes the new president of UCLA Staff Assembly on July 1 — a giant dose of inspiration came in the unlikely form of 12 grueling weeks of leg squats, sit-ups, push-ups, deadlifts and worse in UCLA Recreation’s Bruin Health Improvement Program (BHIP).
Cordova signed up for the inaugural session of the free employee health-and-fitness boot camp in March 2010. Her goal was to be able to "out-squat a 20-year-old" by the time she turned 40 that summer, she noted as a BHIP blogger for UCLA Today.
Her wry sense of humor emerged as she described her aching muscles "lathered in Bengay" and "a recurring dream … that someone is putting my thighs in a giant shredder." She observed how her BHIP coaches used the word "skills" rather than "exercise." "If they say ‘exercise,’" she blogged, "we’d all moan and groan, but ‘skill’ denotes something new and exciting, like juggling or fire-swallowing."
Not that Cordova had been an unmotivated slug up until then. She had earned a B.A. in English literature from Cal State Northridge in 1994, taken a job in the Cal State University systemwide Chancellor’s Office and worked her way up to assistant to the university’s executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer. In 2007, she moved to UCLA, joining the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies as assistant to Aime Dorr, former dean and now provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the UC Office of the President.
All along, however, Cordova thought of herself as the quiet type, not cut out for bigger things. But that was before the sweat, strain and sheer survivalism of BHIP."It was hard core," she said. "It changed me." Physically, she honed a fit, healthy body that she maintains in BHIP follow-up classes at UCLA's John Wooden Center as well as at a gym near her home in Long Beach. She has also become a runner thanks to her partner, Timmie Brann, a personal trainer who turned her on to half-marathons.
Cordova worked her way up to 145-pound deadlifts in BHIP three years ago.
BHIP's influence was also psychological. "It boosted my self-esteem," said Cordova, who went on to land a coveted spot in UCLA’s Professional Development Program, a demanding, yearlong training and networking program run by Campus Human Resources to cultivate UCLA’s future staff leaders.
Having reached her fitness goals in time for her 40th birthday, Cordova took a week off from PDP to celebrate in an unusual way: traveling to Romania to pursue her longstanding dedication to volunteerism. (UCLA Today profiled her in 2009 as a Bruin Angel, serving as friend and tutor to a homeless girl.)
"For my birthday, my friends were all saying, ‘You have to have a big party,’" Cordova recalled. "I didn’t want a big party. So I convinced them, ‘Instead of a party, why don’t you just donate to the cause?’" The gift cash she received covered travel expenses to the small town of Turtova, where she volunteered at a clinic for kids with Down Syndrome and other severe disabilities. "We played with them, fed them and loved them for eight hours a day." Next month, she's making a "dream trip" with Brann to Kenya, where they'll volunteer at an orphanage outside of Nairobi for two weeks, then head out on a four-day safari.
Cordova is now assistant to Dr. Jonathan Hiatt, vice dean for the 2,500-plus faculty at the David Geffen School of Medicine, where she handles projects like conducting searches for faculty chairs for the school’s 23 academic departments and managing an annual orientation conference for some 150 junior faculty.
And she dove headfirst into Staff Assembly, where two years ago she was elected to the executive board as vice president for special projects and, last year, as president-elect.
"I’ve taken on more leadership than I ever would have" before BHIP, she said. That program also led her to a True Bruin epiphany of sorts: "It made me realize everything this university has for staff," she said, from the Healthy Campus Initiative, of which BHIP is now a part, to a variety of campus cultural and educational offerings. "This place is magic."
In her new role as Staff Assembly president, Cordova will oversee events like the annual All-Staff Picnic later this summer and will emcee the Chancellor’s Town Hall in the fall. One of her hopes for the coming year is for the organization to sponsor a 5K run/walk on campus to inspire more staff to get fit. She will also represent UCLA staff on the systemwide Council of UC Staff Assemblies.
In her BHIP blog, Cordova made an observation about her peers during those tough workouts that might also benefit Staff Assembly members. "I look around and see people … all trying to better themselves. There’s strength and power in numbers."
