Alumnae devote careers, lives to education in Merced County

By Luciana Chavez

When getting to know these featured alumnae for Women’s History Month, it became immediately clear that Andrea Cruthird-Mays and Ana Boyenga both heard a clarion call to education long ago.

With Cruthird-Mays currently serving as a Merced County Office of Education College and Career Coordinator and Boyenga as Atwater Elementary School District Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, that bell continues to toll for them decades later.

Merced College as Touchstone

Cruthird-Mays had some challenges to overcome in her youth as a first-generation student and person of color whose parents struggled with drug use. She said while growing up, she learned everything a parent should not do.

Cruthird-Mays was on the verge of not graduating from high school when her ROP graphic arts instructor Carol Kamerer pulled her aside to say, “I know you’re tough on the outside, but you have so much potential inside.”

Those words pushed her through high school and eventually to Merced College, where Cruthird-Mays, by then a young mother, enrolled in a child development course to learn how to parent. That class changed her life.

Cruthird-Mays loved working with young children so much she would hang around the Child Development Center (CDC) during breaks. The energy and support there felt so different from her childhood, when she was told she wouldn’t amount to anything.

Eventually the CDC staff, led by director Marilyn Scorby, and Cruthird-Mays’ mentor, Stacy Rodner, recognized her passion working with children. Rodner eventually helped Cruthird-Mays get a work study job at the CDC.

“The work inspired me, and that’s why I’ve never left early childhood education,” Cruthird-Mays said.

She had a purpose that helped her finish an AA in child development and then matriculate to Stanislaus State to earn a BA in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Exceptional Youth while also also serving a 10-year stint as a full-time teacher at the CDC lab classroom.

After transitioning to the Merced County Office of Education, Cruthird-Mays also earned a Master’s Degree in Education from Stan State.

“My journey was not traditional, but it was persistent,” Cruthird-Mays said. “I believe deeply that education is not about becoming equal, but about becoming who you are meant to be.”

At MCOE, she now guides Adult Career Technical Education programs, probation contracts to support justice-impacted youth and adults, and workforce development. Cruthird-Mays also remains an adjunct childhood development professor at Merced College.

She was able to lean into that connection when she teamed with Merced College faculty to align MCOE’s Foundations in Early Education program with the college’s Child Development pathway. Through this collaboration, 12 MCOE units were approved for Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) for an AA degree, and MCOE transcripts with those credits now also serve as certification of skills for employment.

Cruthird-Mays appreciates the professional life she chose and the one that chose her. It leads to moments like the one a few years ago, when one of her Merced College students came to her because she was failing.

Cruthird-Mays gently took her hand and said, “‘Let’s just you and me figure out how to get you to pass with a C.’ If I hadn’t done that, she said she never would have passed.”

Now that student works for the Atwater Elementary School District as a preschool coordinator, molding students of her own.

“Yes, I do see myself in those moments,” Cruthird-Mays said. “I knew she needed a different message. By encouraging her to not fail, it changed everything for her, just like it did for me.”

Hometown Hero Delivers Solutions

Born at the old Bloss Memorial Hospital and raised in Atwater, Ana Boyenga has put an indelible mark on her hometown as a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent within the Atwater Elementary School District these past 32 years.

One high point of that journey occurred in October 2025, when Boyenga was named the Merced County Office of Education and Educational Employees Credit Union School Administrator of the Year.

“I was so humbled and honored,” Boyenga said. “Because you’re just someone who goes to work every day. You’re not expecting to be noticed. I love helping and serving.”

Boyenga was recognized for launching a dual language immersion (DLI) program at Juniper Elementary School and creating the HEART (Hope Engagement Achievement Restoration, Transition) Academy, a groundbreaking effort to support student social-emotional well-being.

While birthing the DLI program, Boyenga, a former student who had struggled to learn English, became the experienced administrator who empowered Juniper students to learn a second language: English speakers learning Spanish and native Spanish speakers both reinforcing their Spanish fluency and supporting new Spanish speakers.

“Now when I visit Juniper, I hear them make connections and it gives me goosebumps,” Boyenga said. “That’s what the program was meant to do.”

The HEART Academy provides safe spaces for students who had previously shown unsafe behaviors to learn new ones. Using $11.1 million from the California Community Schools grant, the district created small classes that meet for a part of each day, strengthen self-regulating skills, and then students go back into their classes better prepared to handle challenges.

“That’s when I started liking school—when teachers gave me that time and attention,” Boyenga said. “The comfort and relationship pieces are so important for the HEART Academy. Kids need to know you care about them; then they can do anything.”

Boyenga grew up in Atwater. She graduated from Atwater High and Merced College. While living at home, she earned bachelor’s and master's degrees from Stanislaus State. Because she has long found things to challenge her in her own backyard, she has never felt compelled to leave. She believes in Atwater.

“I love it,” Boyenga said. “It’s my community.”

Speaking of challenges continuing to land on her doorstep, winning the administrator of the year award inspired Boyenga to run for Merced County Superintendent of Schools this year.

“All of the work I’ve done in my career has come about so similarly,” she said. “At some point, you get a call and then another asking you something. Then maybe the next topic is something you can do, like running for superintendent. I just try to be a humble student and put myself out there to share what I know.”