Pa’delante Juntos: Exploring a Latinx Graduate Student Organization at a Predominantly White Institution

1:45pm-3:15pm EST

Presenter: Marialexia Zaragoza & Esteban Alcalá

Session Type: Panel Discussion

Topic: Education through the Lifespan

Description

This workshop aims to engage participants in a discussion about the critical role that cultural graduate student organizations play in the experience and retention of racially minoritized students in a selective, predominantly white institution. Through narratives and an extensive review of the literature, the authors hope to convey the challenges, microaggressions, and microaffirmations that are collectively shared via a Latinx graduate student organization. While collective experiences are shared, the session also aims to explore the differences and complexities of being a Latinx graduate student organization. Additionally, this workshop will provide examples of implementations for practice and research to expand the body of literature on graduate student organizations and counterspaces for racially minoritized graduate students. The authors hope to challenge the ideas of independence, competitiveness, and isolation typically found in graduate programs and spaces and reinforce and expand the significance of cultural student organizations to the graduate level.

Facilitators

Marialexia Zaragoza

PhD Student, University of Pittsburgh

Marialexia Zaragoza is a first-generation college graduate from Riverside California, daughter of immigrant parents from México and is pursuing her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh in the Higher Education program. Her research interests include Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) and how they function as an organization to serve their Latinx students, the experiences of Latina faculty at HSIs, and increasing access to and implementing an equity and social justice lens to High Impact Learning Practices at the university level. Her current research focuses on the experiences of Latina faculty as they navigate academia at an HSI and the impacts it has on them physically, emotionally, and on their careers, using counter-narrative methods. Prior to coming to the University of Pittsburgh, Marialexia received her B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Chicana/o Studies from California State University, Fullerton.

Esteban Alcalá

Graduate Student Researcher, University of Pittsburgh

Coordinator of Student Engagement and Support, Carnegie Mellon University

Esteban Alcalá is a first-generation graduate student from San Diego California and Tijuana, Mexico. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh in the Higher Education program. His research interests include Greek Letter Organizations, particularly Latinx Greek Letter Organizations, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Governing board of Colleges and Universities, educational policy, DACA/undocumented students and Transfronterizx students. Esteban received his B.A. in Psychology and minor in Sociology from UC San Diego and M.Ed. in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs from the University of Southern California.