As is the experience of so many of my colleagues within the Latinx community, I do not draw from a network of family and friends who have connections to higher education. I have worked and studied full time since I was 17 years old and have worked for almost 15 years as a Spanish teacher in a predominantly Latinx public high school. I have not only researched but lived the experience of the societal issues that prevent Latinx students from reaching higher education by navigating higher education while holding full-time employment and as a teacher who works to prepare students for higher education trajectories.
I successfully defended my dissertation in fall 2018 from Claremont Graduate University. While completing my Ph.D. is an accomplishment in and of itself, my ultimate goal has never been to simply obtain my own schooling, but to continue to teach and serve the community at all education levels, including the university level. The transition from K-12 teacher and graduate student to the professoriate requires a new set of skills and networks on my part, however. Like the high school students I teach, I am a first-generation college student and have essentially navigated the path of higher education as best I could. And while working and studying simultaneously have allowed me to develop my own resilience and persistence in addition to providing me with greater insight into the educational pipeline, I am keenly aware of the disadvantage in which it has placed me in terms of the specific qualifications needed to enter the professoriate, such as publications, conference presentations, relationships with faculty, etc.
For this reason, and through the support and encouragement of my committee member and mentor Dr. Gilda Ochoa, I applied to the AAHHE Graduate Fellows Program. I needed the mentorship, support and guidance of seasoned faculty and other doctoral students who have navigated similar paths. The opportunity to spend time with the other graduate fellows has given me a cohort of like-minded individuals committed to serving our community, with whom to share joy and challenges, something that was unavailable to me previously as a graduate student. My time with the AAHHE Graduate Fellows at the annual conference offered me uninterrupted time to be completely immersed in the world of higher education. The faculty fellows provided insights and advice on how to transition into the professoriate and to sustain one’s commitment to and work for the community as a lifelong practice.
As I continue as a high school teacher and now also a part-time lecturer in educational foundations at California State University, Los Angeles, I will take with me the lessons learned from the AAHHE community throughout my future endeavors in educational service to the Latinx community. •
Place your job ad in our classified page on the HO print & digital Edition