I was born and raised in Santa Ana, California, to Mexican parents who came to the U.S. in hopes of providing a better life for their children. I grew up surrounded by classmates and community members who were Latinx, but when I started my Ph.D. program at Indiana University, I was one of two Latina doctoral students and very quickly became the only Latina in the program. The isolation that came with being “one of a few” and then “the only one” is what led me to seek out the Graduate Fellows Program of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE). I am a higher education scholar whose work sheds light on the experiences of Latina graduate students, administrators and faculty on college campuses — getting to experience AAHHE and be in community with other Latinx graduate students and faculty has helped nourish me in many ways.

While my professional goal is to become a faculty member, my ultimate goal as a scholar is to do work that is impactful and can improve the educational experiences of those coming behind me. The biggest takeaway from being involved in the AAHHE Graduate Fellows Program was the opportunity to be a part of the 2019 cohort of graduate students, a group of individuals who all have similar goals. We very quickly built a bond and sought to encourage and support each other as we prepared to return to our own campuses. None of us come from institutions where there is a critical mass of Latinx graduate students, so being able to gather together as a larger group to share our struggles, celebrate our achievements and develop roadmaps to reach our career goals as a collective is something that has become a highlight of my personal doctoral experience.

What I did not expect to come from my AAHHE experience were the connections that I was able to make with current Latinx faculty members. Going into the AAHHE conference, I knew that one of the major goals of the organization is to strengthen the higher education pipeline for all Latinx wanting to enter, but the level of care and commitment provided by all the faculty involved in the graduate and faculty fellows programs was overwhelming in the greatest way. Without hesitation, all of the faculty who presented a session or struck up conversation during breaks offered their guidance and support in any way they could. If they knew we were dissertating, they would provide words of encouragement; if they found out we were planning to enter the faculty job market soon, they offered to share their job search materials or to review our own materials. The faculty of AAHHE truly embody what it means to “lift as they climb” and have set the example for us coming behind them.

Over the course of five days, the AAHHE Graduate Fellows Program made a lasting impression not just on my doctoral student experience but on my future career trajectory. It has strengthened my commitment to the work that I do and has showed me que si se puede! •