Starting a doctoral program at the University of Pittsburgh immediately following my undergraduate program allowed me to see firsthand the reality described by the statistics that filled much of the articles I read about Latinas/os pushed out through the cracks of the educational pipeline. Indeed, entering the doctorate proved to be an entrance into a white academic space: with students and faculty. My start at Pitt left me longing for what I experienced at my first American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) gathering at the annual 2015 American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference in Chicago. In fact, because of that introduction to AAHHE’s professional familia, I saw that the quality of AAHHE’s work would provide the right foundational support for my further matriculation in the field of education. 
At AERA in Chicago, I noticed that AAHHE members appreciated the importance of sitting together as a way to foster fellowship, support and camaraderie. Several of the fellows who interacted with me, offering me advice about the doctoral process and the importance of my own research agenda, especially inspired me. Simply being a part of such a gathering was significant because not only did I find myself interacting with such an organization, but I was also being encouraged to follow the academic path I was already traveling. That single gathering affirmed my belief that helping other Latinas/os is one of the most important responsibilities of our community. 
After this experience in Chicago, I was determined to be part of AAHHE and officially join this familia. To my surprise — at the Chicago Cubs’ World Series game one in Cleveland — I received a call congratulating me on my acceptance into this year’s AAHHE graduate fellows program. The AAHHE conference was like nothing I had seen or been a part of before. I was filled with so much joy that there were this many Latina/o scholars in academia and that we were in the same struggle to help Latinas/os move forward. 
I have become interested in researching the importance of space and place set aside specifically for Latina/o students while attending predominately white institutions. Indeed, searching for a place dedicated to Latina/o students at Pitt left me empty-handed. The closest thing I found was a taco stand, which had no affiliation with the university. It served as the culture center for my fellow Latina/o students at Pitt and as a hub for the small Latina/o immigrant population in the surrounding area. It was through this experience that I became interested in analyzing how Latinas/os create place, especially within an institution that has close to nothing for us. I understand that originally institutions of higher learning were built for a privileged few, not for us, and they have continued relatively unchanged. As a collective result of these experiences, I am interested in looking at the issues pertaining to this lack of place so that we can build these needed areas. •