Jon Ray A. G. Email & Phone Number

Jon Ray "J.R." Guevarra (He/They/Siya) is a 2nd Generation Filipinx American born and raised in the occupied Ramaytush Ohlone land also known as San Francisco. Growing up in the Outer Mission and Excelsior districts he has rooted himself in his communities. A scholar, educator, researcher, and forever student; he received his Bachelor of Arts in Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in the Fall of 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic. During his time at SFSU, he first declared his major as History intending to teach history courses at the high school level in SFUSD. However, galvanized by the 2nd Ethnic Studies Strike and a few intro courses during his first year at SFSU Jon Ray switched his major from History to Asian American Studies; committing now to teach Ethnic Studies, specifically Asian American and Filipinx American Studies, at the college or university level. From this moment forward he began to invest more and more time into his campus community advocating for the centering of voices of People of Color (POC) where he could. In pursuit of this Jon Ray established two organizations holding positions of leadership in one of them from when he joined until he graduated. The first being Epsilon Sigma Rho Multicultural Fraternity, Inc.'s Theta Chapter, and the second being the campus' Multicultural Greek Council. Eventually, he was voted in as the President of the United Greek Council overseeing all the Greek Organizations on campus. The experiences through these three organizations informed his leadership philosophy and his overall work ethic. In his last two years at SFSU Jon Ray applied for and was accepted to join Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) as one of their volunteer teachers. PEP is a grassroots nonprofit organization founded in 2001 that centers a transformative decolonizing curriculum and pedagogy focused on Filipinx/a/o American Identity, History, and Experience. For the past three years, he has been teaching at their James Denman Middle School Site with their 8th Grade students. Since joining PEP Jon Ray has been able to deepen his skills in curriculum building, pedagogical praxis, and Participatory Action Research. Jon Ray is currently working with Peer Resources as the Program Manager supervising four staffers in charge of their own projects (Youth Council, Alumni Internship, and Rising Educator Pathway). He plans to start the pursuit of his Master of Arts in Teaching with Credential - Urban Education and Social Justice (MAT - UESJ) at the University of San Francisco (USF) this Fall.