Melissa Maddux and Adriana Ruvalcaba
The Runner Staff

Elizabeth Ascencio, a CSU Bakersfield alumna and member of the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority, died of cancer on Feb. 17.

She was 24 years old.

A memorial service will be held on campus in the Student Union Multipurpose Room on Sunday, March 6 at 3 p.m. The service is open to all students.

Ascencio was born on Nov. 27, 1991. She was a business administration major focusing on management and graduated from CSUB last spring. She is remembered by many as a friendly, outgoing young woman.

Gloriann Ruiz, Phi Sigma Sigma’s adviser and a financial aid assistant at CSUB, was in the chapter with Ascencio when Ruiz was a member.

She said Ascencio was a personal friend and touched the hearts of everyone in the sorority.

“She was very outgoing, always the life of the party,” said Ruiz. “She’s the type of person that if she had a problem, you wouldn’t even know unless you were like super close to her because she always had a smile on her face. She was friendly with everybody.”

Ascencio would frequently participate in community service activities with her sorority and would partake in fundraising events such as Relay for Life. Ascencio had made it a priority to bond with other sorority sisters. Ruiz said in a sorority with over 50 girls, making personal relationships with everybody can be difficult.

Even so, Ascencio would still take the time to build connections with fellow members.

“She wasn’t like a clique-y person,” said Ruiz. “She would always be the type of sister that saw you, she’d talk to you (and) she’d welcome you. She had a warmth about her that you would always want to approach her for anything really.”

Sorority sister Deslyn Joseph, 21, was a good friend of Ascencio and remembers her positivity and kindness.

Fellow sorority sister Vanessa Gutierrez, 23, said Ascencio was one of the reasons why she wanted to join Phi Sigma Sigma. During the recruitment interviewing process, Ascencio helped her break out of her shell.
She remembers Ascencio as a person who had “a fun side, always laughing and smiling.”

“(She was) always there for anybody that really needed her — a phone call away or anything like that — that is what I will miss about her the most,” said Gutierrez.

She will also remember Ascencio for her enthusiasm and outgoing personality. Gutierrez said that towards the end of last year, Ascencio found out she had cancer and was getting treatment thereafter.

The news of Ascencio’s cancer diagnosis came as a shock to many members. Around the same time she had attended a wedding and looked fine.

“She looked like she was happy and we were all hoping that things were going to get better, so it came as a shock,” said Ruiz.

Ruiz encourages everyone at CSUB to attend Ascencio’s memorial service.

“She touched a lot of people on campus and even if you didn’t know her, if you want to show support, because it is hard to lose someone so young. Especially someone that was just here walking the halls with everybody and in classes with people,” said Ruiz.