Prior to attending a national conference of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), I was only sure of my research intentions and the work I wanted to do for my community. My professional goals were an unknown, and I had no idea what to expect the next term, let alone the next five to ten years. As a second-year Ph.D. student in social psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I knew I had to keep going but couldn’t quite grasp that it was a marathon, not a race to the Ph.D. It felt like a race because from my vantage point, very few psychology researchers around me were doing social justice work for the Latinx community, and that number dwindled to nonexistence when it came to research advocating for the migrant and seasonal farm-working community I come from. Attending AAHHE as a graduate student fellow provided me with clarity in the form of inspiration, a welcoming family, resources and a wake-up call that couldn’t have come at a better time.

My introduction to AAHHE was through my academic hero, Dr. Rebecca Covarrubias, an AAHHE faculty fellow alumni whom I am fortunate to call my graduate advisor. With her encouragement and support, I applied and was honored to be selected as a fellow in 2018. Aiming to address structural inequities for working-class Latinx first-generation college students through research, I attended AAHHE with the goal of meeting potential mentors who sought similar forms of institutional change.

To my appreciation, I was introduced to incredible scholars, both graduate students and faculty, who use research to highlight our community’s voice in such beautiful ways that are not included in my graduate curriculum. To say I was inspired is an understatement. I also gained family; we laughed, we shared vulnerabilities and we validated each other. Our introduction to the “rules of the game” of academia by AAHHE alumni was trajectory-changing. What was once a hazy five-to-10-year future became a very clear image; I was hit with the reality of what the consequences of my sprint to the finish line was going to do to my future. Namely, my health would suffer if I did not remember to care about my health and my happiness to the same extent that I care about social change and bringing resources to my community. This lesson, along with helpful tips to support a healthy move toward a career as a faculty member, helped me identify which career paths would bring me happiness.

I have AAHHE to thank for many positive changes to my goals as a scholar, and the journey I will take to achieve those goals. I am still in my early years of my doctoral program, so a specific career path is still to be determined, but I can confidently say that I am ready. I am ready for what is to come as I face academia with community, collaboration, and a wide network of AAHHE scholar activists who will shift the norms of educational spaces to better reflect and recognize our motivations and strengths. •