East Side Spirit and Pride

Eastside Spirit and Pride (ESSP) is a club in East Los Angeles College, founded by Dennis Sanchez. The club has been involved in East Los Angeles College, and it has also made contributions to the school as well as the surrounding community.

The mission of ESSP is to assist students of East Los Angeles College to realize their potential in successfully transferring to four year universities. ESSP raises funds to create scholarship for students. In addition ESSP has established an irrevocable sense of pride in the school and in the greater community, focusing on East Los Angeles. In addition, ESSP seeks to instill a strong sense of self-esteem in students who have had to overcome great obstacles to attend college.

Professor Dennis Sanchez, an alumnus of the University of Southern California and San Francisco State University found his occupational satisfaction in coming to East Los Angeles College and serving as an English professor because he wanted to give back to the community. He felt that students in ELAC were equally diligent as students at other community colleges, yet they were compelled by their circumstances to overcome much more adversity and sorrows. Therefore, he established East Side Spirit and Pride so that students of the college could develop a veracious sense of pride in their community and heritage.

East Side Spirit and Pride was a major advocate for the restoration football team at ELAC when football had been eliminated due to budgetary constraints.

Professor Sanchez along with the East Side Spirit and Pride members instigated the idea of the creation of a marching band, which could help pervade a sense of high-spirits and joy regarding East Los Angeles College. ESSP collaborated with the President of the college, Ernest Moreno, for the achievement of this objective, making ELAC, one of only three colleges in the entire state of California with a marching band during the time. To this day, the marching band has played an integral role in the atmosphere of the college and regularly performs during special occasions, such as football games and the annual commencement ceremony.

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