“How have your experiences as a Latino affected your work as a psychologist and researcher with children and families from diverse backgrounds?” An incoming student in my graduate program recently asked me this question. I replied almost automatically. “I know what questions to ask, and I know what to listen for.”  In my response, I intended to highlight the significance of shared experiences. In working closely with others, such commonalities guide us to important but frequently overlooked issues (knowing what questions to ask) and make us more aware of and receptive to the nuances in responses (knowing what to listen for). In many ways, my experience at the thirteenth annual national conference of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) reflected this transaction.

I was fortunate to attend the 2018 AAHHE conference as a member of the AAHHE Faculty Fellow cohort, and I spent a considerable amount of time working closely with other junior Latina/o faculty members and graduate students. We participated in various structured and unstructured events, but each drew from our deep, shared cultural experiences. Among other things, this included discussions of our personal histories (including those of our families) and journeys to academia, the experience of being isolated at times in higher education, and the sources of support that we have depended on. These discussions were comforting, invigorating and affecting. In the moment—with the other faculty fellows—these discussions felt familiar, but they were profoundly different from those I have experienced at other professional conferences. The reason is that the AAHHE Faculty Fellows program pushed us to ask the right questions of each other and gave each of us a community of people who knew what to listen for.

The faculty fellow experience through AAHHE had a meaningful impact on me. A significant part of my research has focused on evaluating how emerging models of school service delivery may better benefit culturally and linguistically diverse students, as well as appropriate ways of adapting “best practice” for use with diverse students. Regarding my research, my experience at AAHHE was validating; being in a community of individuals who genuinely understood the value of my work was reinforcing.

However, surrounded by scholars with expertise in issues of education and work with Latino/a students and families, I was also faced with the realization that I could do better. I could ask better questions and be more proactive in increasing the reach and impact of my work. Other faculty fellows provided me with explicit recommendations for further focusing my work, as well as encouragement to adopt new research methods that will reach a wider audience.

Personally, learning about the experiences of other faculty fellows was restorative. Too often, we are made to feel that we should suppress our stories, but the faculty fellows program highlighted them and lifted them. I am grateful to the AAHHE organization for this opportunity. I encourage other faculty members and graduate students to be engaged in AAHHE, and I support the sponsors that made the experience possible. •