Education

Actress Eva Longoria Obtains Master’s Degree in Chicano Studies

2013-05-23T18:45:23+00:00

Eva Longoria has just obtained a Master’s degree in Chicano Studies from California State University. The 38-year-old actress already holds an undergraduate degree in kinesiology from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. The former ‘Desperate Housewives’ jetted out of the Cannes Film Festival after flashing a little too much skin to go to receive her diploma in person yesterday. Longoria has always been politically active working on President Obama’s re-election campaign and most recently advocating for comprehensive immigration reform. She has said in several interviews that she wants to become better prepared to take on issues important to the Latino community.

HISPANIC STANDOUT: Felix Contreras Overcoming It All to Get Ahead

2013-05-23T15:53:50+00:00

Felix German Contreras has quite a list of accomplishments to add to his name: NJ Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society President, pre-med aspirant, amongst others, but the one he is most proud of is “Immigrant Dreamer”. The 22-year-old college student is just getting started on the road to a medical career but that journey could of never started for Contreras. Contreras and his family emigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic when he was 6-years-old looking for a better life. The beginning of their immigrant journey was rocky often defined by neighborhood violence, incarcerated peers and rampant drug use everywhere Felix turned. All of this would have been enough to derail anyone but not this immigrant dreamer who kept looking for the “catalyst to achieve.”

Ronald McDonald House Charities Awards More Than $300k in College Scholarships

2013-05-21T20:13:33+00:00

On Saturday, Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of Southern California awarded $328,000 in scholarship funds to 104 exceptional high school seniors from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. The scholarships were presented during a recognition luncheon at the legendary Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, where recipients were recognized and applauded by their parents, school counselors and Southern California McDonald’s Owner/Operators. RMHC of Southern California awarded the scholarships through its four programs including: (RMHC)/African American Future Achievers, RMHC/Asian Pacific American Students Increasing Achievement (ASIA), RMHC/Hispanic American Commitment to Educational Resources (HACER) and RMHC/Scholars. The selected 104 recipients may apply their scholarship funds towards tuition, fees and other appropriate educational expenses.

From Gangster’s Daughter to Teacher: Watch Pearl Arredondo’s Inspiring TED Talk

2013-05-17T23:13:46+00:00

Pearl Arredondo grew up in East Los Angeles, the daughter of a high-ranking gang member who was in and out of jail. Many teachers wrote her off as having a problem with authority. Now a teacher herself, she’s creating a different kind of school and telling students her story so that they know it’s okay if sometimes homework isn’t the first thing on their minds. Pearl Arredondo helped establish a pilot middle school that teaches students to be good communicators in the 21st century. She is also featured in the short documentary film TEACHED Vol.1: “The Blame Game,” and is a role model for young Latinas seeking to make a difference in their communities.

Education Coalition of Latino Policymakers Address Needs of Latino Students with Congress

2013-05-17T01:03:03+00:00

Latino public officials from across the country, representing more than 13.6 million Latino students (ages 5-21) currently enrolled in American schools, will gather in the nation’s capital next week to discuss the impact of sequestration and strategies for improving Latino student success with members of Congress and the Administration. The Latino Elected and Appointed Officials National Taskforce on Education members will meet with federal education leaders in Washington D.C. from May 21-22, 2013 as part of a two-day visit to the nation’s capital. The Taskforce is the only national, bipartisan education coalition of Latino leadership in the country, including school board members, higher education system leaders, and state legislators, representing a broad cross-section of leadership in the Latino education community. The Taskforce was established in 2009 to address federal education issues that have a significant impact on the success of our nation’s Latino students. As part of these efforts, Taskforce members will meet with members of the Administration, Department of Education and Congress to address a variety of issues and concerns, including the need for increased funding to foster the development of early childhood education programs that serve children and families, improved access to higher education for Latino youth and the creation of a more seamless transfer pathway for students from community colleges to four year universities. The 26 member Taskforce is led by co-chairs Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education President, Monica Garcia and State Delegate, Ana Sol Gutierrez of Maryland. The Taskforce is part of the NALEO Education Leadership Initiative (NELI).

72 Percent of Spanish Teachers Go On Strike

2013-05-10T01:05:39+00:00

The State Platform for Public Schools on Thursday labeled the general strike staged at all levels of the educational system in Spain “a total success,” while officials said a low number of educators and students took part. The group organized the strike to protest the reforms being finalized by Education Minister Jose Ignacio Wert. Union representatives affiliated with the group, which organized the strike and protests across Spain, said 72 percent of teachers and support staff took part in the strike, while the Students Association reported that 90 percent of students, teachers and parents supported the labor action. The Education Ministry, however, said the general strike had less than 20 percent support. The strike started Wednesday night with informational meetings and other gatherings. No arrests have been made in connection with the protests, National Police spokesmen told Efe. The Education Ministry is putting the finishing touches on the reform package and could submit it Friday to the Council of Ministers for approval. The reform package would then be sent to Parliament for debate, officials said.

UCLA Establishes Center to Study Health, Poverty in Latin America

2013-05-03T01:07:20+00:00

UCLA’s Blum Center is a research institute that seeks to contribute to improving the health of communities with few economic resources in Latin America. “The Blum Center (aims to have) UCLA professors and students collaborate with their professional colleagues in Latin American to share knowledge to promote health in Latin American countries,” Michael Rodriguez, a professor of family medicine and the director of the center, told Efe. The center was founded with a donation of $1 million by Richard Blum, a wealthy businessman and member of the board of regents for the University of California system. “The Blum Center arose from an idea of Richard Blum, who in chats with UCLA Chancellor Gene Block told him that he wanted to contribute to eradicating poverty in the world,” Rodriguez said. Block placed at the regent’s disposal the support of UCLA professors and students and proposed to Blum that he begin working in Latin America. “To study poverty we’re creating a one-year course in which students from all disciplines can sign up in their first year of study, and we were surprised that 70 students signed up,” Rodriguez said. “At the end of the course, (the participants) told me: ‘the class is nice, but we think that this class should work with a research center to go to the communities, because we want to learn more,’” he emphasized. The professor said that Blum’s vision along with the poverty studies students’ desire to learn more were the two elements that Block joined together and thus the research center was born.

North Carolina Immigrants Press for In-State College Tuition

2013-05-02T02:06:07+00:00

Pro-immigrant groups in North Carolina stepped up their pressure Tuesday on state legislators to approve a bill that would allow undocumented students to pay resident tuition at public universities and community colleges. The organizations mostly addressed the 10 members of the lower house’s Education Committee which is currently debating HB 904. The bill stipulates that undocumented students who have graduated from high school and have lived in North Carolina for at least two years will pay tuition at the rate of residents. Undocumented students currently pay more than double for their classes because they are considered foreigners. The campaign “Let’s Learn NC,” composed of a coalition of state organizations, has been coordinating their efforts since February in seeking the support of lawmakers for HB 904. If HB 904 is passed, North Carolina will join states like Maryland, Rhode Island, Oregon and Colorado that have recently started allowing undocumented students to pay the same college tuition as residents.

14 Masked Students End Protest in Presidents Office at University After 12 Days

2013-05-01T22:07:32+00:00

The 14 masked individuals who occupied the office of the president of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, for 12 days to protest the expulsion of five students and demand changes at the institution abandoned the building on Wednesday. The demonstrators, who never identified themselves, accepted an offer Tuesday night from UNAM officials to have talks on May 9. The masked protesters read a statement just after 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, justifying their actions and saying their goal was to defend access to a free public university education. The president’s office was occupied more to protest reforms implemented at the School of Sciences and Humanities than to demand reinstatement of expelled students, the protesters said. The five students were expelled on Feb. 5 from the School of Sciences and Humanities for vandalism at its campus in Naucalpan, a Mexico City suburb. The masked protesters pulled down the posters they had put up at the UNAM’s landmark building and hauled away the blankets, books and papers they used during the occupation. Some students had called on the protesters in recent days to end the occupation. The UNAM is Mexico’s largest university and one of Latin America’s leading higher education institutions.

Unemployment in Spain Hits 27%, Under 25 is 57%

2013-04-25T18:01:23+00:00

Spain’s unemployment rate hit 27.16 percent in the first quarter of this year, with the number of jobless people topping 6 million for the first time amid an economic downturn that started in 2008, the National Statistics Institute, or INE, said Thursday. More than 6.2 million people were jobless during the period, with 237,400 workers joining the ranks of the unemployed during the first three months of 2013, the INE said in its Labor Force Survey. People younger than 25 were hit the hardest, with the unemployment rate for this segment of the labor force coming in at 57.22 percent in the first quarter, representing 960,400 people. Foreigners were the second worst-hit group, with the jobless rate for this segment at 39.21 percent and 1.3 million people out of work, the INE said. The high level of joblessness among foreigners is prompting some emigrants to return to their home countries, with some groups, such as Ecuadorians, taking advantage of repatriation plans created by the governments of their nations. Spain’s work force lost 322,300 workers between January and March, with 16.6 million people employed and the labor force participation rate at 59.68 percent, the INE said. The high unemployment rate is an indicator of the severe economic recession that Spain entered in 2008 and has been affected by the austerity measures implemented by the government to reduce the budget deficit. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government approved labor reforms in 2012 aimed at spurring job creation, but the measures have not yet yielded results. The government plans to implement new measures Friday to boost the economy, which the Bank of Spain estimated contracted 0.50 percent in the first quarter, an improvement from the 0.80 percent drop in gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Hooded Protesters Overtake Mexico’s UNAM President’s Office

2013-04-22T20:30:19+00:00

A group of “people with their faces covered” occupied the office of the president of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, over the weekend to protest the expulsion of five students and make several other demands, officials of the Mexico City-based university said. “People with their faces covered have once again attacked the UNAM,” the Office of Directors of Schools, Institutes and Centers said in a statement. The building was occupied on Sunday, two days after students staged a protest march at the UNAM, Mexico’s largest university and one of Latin America’s leading higher education institutions, officials said. The university provides adequate channels for students to seek a redress of grievances and lodge complaints, the UNAM said. About 200 students from the School of Sciences and Humanities, one of the UNAM’s university preparatory schools, marched down one of Mexico City’s main avenues last Friday to Ciudad Universitaria, the institution’s main campus. Some 15 hooded students burst into the building that houses the president’s office and occupied it to demand the reinstatement of five students from the School of Sciences and Humanities’ campus in Naucalpan, a Mexico City suburb, who were expelled for vandalism on Feb. 5.

Foot Locker, DoSomething.org Announce Recipients of Scholar Athletes Program

2013-04-19T02:07:55+00:00

Foot Locker Foundation, Inc. and DoSomething.org unveiled today the twenty recipients of the Foot Locker Scholar Athletes Program. Each student will receive $20,000 in college scholarships, totaling $400,000. Now in its second year, the scholarship program honors students who demonstrate academic excellence and exemplify strong leadership skills both in sports and within their communities. This year’s 20 winners will join the program’s inaugural class of 20 Foot Locker Scholar Athletes, which will total 40 scholarship recipients in its second year. Amanda Brazell, Las Vegas, NV Bethany Morrow, Yuba City, CA Chandller Putnam, Orchards, WA Cody Burtscher, Glen Rose, TX Derrick Estell, Miller, MO Erin DiMeglio, Fort Lauderdale, FL Felix Ruano, Los Angeles, CA Hannah Pierce, Irvine, TX Jelani Butler, Newark, NJ John Bender, Spring, TX Juliana Carvajal, Ephrata, PA Katherine Zimmerman, Williamsville, NY Luis Mata, Houston, TX Luke Putney, Atlanta, GA Myles Johnson, Bradenton, FL Patrick McMahon, Orland Park, IL Ronald Terry, Richmond, VA Sara Rusta, Denver, CO Swarnjit Boyal, Yuba City, CA Vivian Hao, Franklin, TN Click here to read more on these exceptional winners.

Bud Light Donates $20,000 to Hispanic Scholarship Fund

2013-04-19T02:13:20+00:00

Bud Light Donates $20,000 to Hispanic Scholarship Fund to Commemorate Men’s Mexican National Team Tour Bernardo Meza and David Henson of Anheuser-Busch present $20,000 to Claudia Quezada of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. Bud Light, official sponsor of the men’s Mexican National Soccer Team, is donating $20,000 to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) to commemorate the team’s American tour and today’s game against Peru in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.

Spain’s Cervantes Institute to Establish Observatory at Havard

2013-04-17T14:13:35+00:00

Spain’s Cervantes Institute announced Tuesday that it will establish an observatory for the study of Spanish in the United States at Harvard University, which will help consolidate the expansion of the language in a country with close to 50 million inhabitants who speak Spanish. The project is sponsored by Emilio Botin and the Grupo Santander, which will contribute 1 million euros ($1.3 million) to it over the next four years. Insitute head Victor Garcia de la Concha said these are crucial years for the consolidation of Spanish as the second language for international communication, which means that even greater efforts must be made. Garcia de la Concha and Harvard’s president, Drew Gilpin Faust, are scheduled to sign the accord on Friday. The executive director of the Cervantes Institute at Harvard will be Francisco Moreno, professor at the University of Alcala and ex-director of the Cervantes Institute in Sao Paulo and Chicago. The new Cervantes will be located in the heart of Harvard at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The goal of the observatory is to become the international point of reference for analyzing the progress of the Spanish language in the United States. The center will also carry out cultural initiatives, conferences and lectures as well as having the participation of Cervantes Prize winners and Latino writers living in the United States. By 2050 the United States is predicted to be the leading Spanish-speaking country in the world, ahead of Mexico, with more than 132 million Hispanics, or 30 percent of the population.

Virtual College Fair for Latino Students Taking Place on Tuesday April 16

2013-04-14T23:02:06+00:00

The College Board and CollegeWeekLive invite Latino high school students and their families to Destino: Universidad (Destination: College) — a free bilingual virtual event on Tuesday, April 16 from 5 to 8 p.m. EDT. WHO: High school students, parents, guidance counselors WHAT: Destino: Universidad Online College Fair for Latino students & families WHERE: www.CollegeWeekLive.com. Free. WHEN: Tuesday, April 16 from 5 to 8 p.m. EDT WHY: Watch live video presentations, get your questions answered, chat with admissions reps and college students. 5–6 p.m. Comparing Aid Awards Myra Smith, Executive Director, Financial Aid Services, The College Board 5–6 p.m. Taller de DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) Luis Pérez, Gerente del Programa Manager 6–7 p.m. Making the Right Choice: Selecting a College Emma Rutland, College Counselor, Uplift Education 6–7 p.m. Como Elejir una Universidad Denise Castaneda, Director of College Admissions, Uplift Education 7–8 p.m. DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) Workshop Luis Pérez, DACA Program Manager 7–8 p.m. Comparando Ofertas de Ayuda Financiera Alex Paredes, Project STEPS, Van Nuys Middle School FUTURE DATES: Thursday, May 2, 2013 Wednesday, June 12, 2013 Destino: Universidad is a collaborative effort among universities, colleges, school districts and community-based organizations to provide Latino families with college planning resources. To register for free for Destino: Universidad, go to CollegeWeekLive. If you have questions, contact .

Apply For Southwest, HACU’s Education Travel Program

2013-04-11T02:47:44+00:00

Southwest Airlines, in conjunction with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), today announced that they are accepting applications for their annual “Lanzate! / Take Off!” education travel award program. Online applications will be accepted through May 15, 2013, at www.hacu.net. The program is geared toward Hispanic college students with economic need who travel away from home to pursue higher education. All applicants must complete an online application including an essay describing their inspiration to pursue a college degree. A panel of judges comprised of college professors and education advocates from across the nation will gather this summer to select the 2013 travel award recipients. To view the criteria for the 2013 award program, please visit: SWAmedia. Each student that receives and award will be eligible for up to four tickets for use by the student and/or a family member traveling to/from the university. “Southwest Airlines is excited to, once again, work with HACU to impact the lives of students throughout the country. In our ninth year of the Lanzate! travel award program, we have heard the inspirational stories of students who are giving it their all to achieve their educational dreams,” said Christine Ortega , Southwest Airlines Manager of Community Affairs & Grassroots. “By providing these students the opportunity to stay connected with their families through roundtrip travel on Southwest Airlines, we are breaking down a barrier that could keep them from making those dreams a reality.” More than 1,000 Southwest Airlines roundtrip tickets have been awarded to students across the nation since the program’s inception in 2005.

Peña Nieto Says “No Going Back” on Education Reform in Mexico

2013-04-06T18:37:21+00:00

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said Saturday that his government is open “to dialogue and to hearing different views” with regard to educational reform, but insisted that “the law is not negotiable” and “there’s no going back on what was enacted to improve the quality of education.” At a press conference during the Boao Forum on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, Peña Nieto said that “Mexico must take steps to transform education and other areas.” “Otherwise we’ll be stuck in passivity and inertia, which are not going to help improve our lives,” he said, and making use of his trip to the Far East, pointed to that region as an example. “Asia has developed significantly in recent years…and we have to ask ourselves why Mexico can’t do the same,” the president said. The Mexican leader made that statement following protests this week in which thousands of Mexican teachers took part, demanding the repeal of the educational reform measure enacted last February. Some 8,000 teachers from several states in the country staged a protest march Thursday from the Zocalo, the main square of the Mexican capital, to the Interior Ministry. In some cases the protests ended in clashes with the police.

Costa Rica to Bring Internet Access to Every Public School

2013-04-06T02:04:06+00:00

The government of Costa Rica announced Friday a plan to install access to the Internet in every public school in the country in order to reduce the digital divide and have better teaching tools. At present 4,800 public schools have access to the Internet and this year will reach 100 percent with the installation of the service in the 151 that still do not have it, the state-owned telephone and electric company ICE said in a communique. The connections, most of them broadband, are part of a joint project of ICE, the Public Education Ministry and the Science and Technology Ministry. “We are committed in matters of education to reducing the digital divide,” Education Minister Leonardo Garnier said in a communique, in which he also noted “the importance of this firm for the future of education in Costa Rica.” Costa Rica, a country of 4.5 million inhabitants, has around 940,000 students in public school. The investment of Costa Rica in education is 7 percent of GDP and nearly 98 percent of the populace can read and write, according to official figures. More than 90 percent of children complete primary education and 86 percent go on to attend high school, though the dropout rate at the secondary level is 11 percent.

Number of Minority Business Professors in U.S. Has Quadrupled Since 1994

2013-04-05T02:04:36+00:00

The number of doctorally-qualified minority (African-American, Hispanic-American, and Native American) professors at U.S. business schools has quadrupled since 1994, due largely to the efforts of The PhD Project, an award-winning program aimed at increasing diversity in America’s business management ranks. The quadrupling occurred recently when Dr. James Alvarez-Mourey received his PhD in Marketing from the University of Michigan and became the 1,176th minority business professor in the U.S. When The PhD Project started in 1994, there were only 294 doctorally-qualified minority professors in business schools across the Unites States. Dr. Alvarez-Mourey has earned the unofficial title of “Dr. Cuatro.” He defended his dissertation: “Like a Cold Glass of Water on a Hot Summer Day: Essays Exploring Differential Sensitivity to Non-conscious Cues in Consumer Contexts” and has accepted a faculty position at DePaul University. “The true beauty of this milestone is that it is an achievement that, quite literally, includes each and every one of us (in The PhD Project) and our respective accomplishments,” said Dr. Alvarez-Mourey. “What a great honor it is to be Dr. Cuatro. I am sure I echo the words of many when I say that the support and guidance from friends, mentors, and colleagues in The PhD Project were instrumental in helping me achieve what once seemed impossible for someone in my family. I look forward to giving back as much of myself as I can as we work together to find Dr. Cinco!” said Dr. Alvarez-Mourey.

Univ. of Arizona Shares 150 Years of Mexican, Mexican American History Online

2013-04-04T02:06:47+00:00

A new digital collection at the University of Arizona Libraries makes accessible more than 150 years of news coverage documenting the voice of the Mexican and Mexican American community. Curated, researched and digitized by librarians and archivists, in consultation with UA professors, the collection features 20 significant Mexican and Mexican American publications, many in Spanish. The newspapers and magazines were published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s. A celebration will be held April 24 from 6:30-8 p.m. in Special Collections to debut the Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press Collection. The Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press Collection is publicly available to encourage discovery and scholarship by students, researchers and community members. The publications capture the historical record of the Mexican and Mexican American community during significant times including the Gadsden Purchase, the Mexican Revolution, the Great Depression and Mexican repatriation, World War II, the Bracero program and the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. Also, materials within the collection are optimized for online information seeking and archived for long-term digital preservation. Led by a team of three UA librarians – Kollen, Mary Feeney and Verónica Reyes-Escudero – the collection emerged as a collaborative research, archives, community and digitization project supported by the University Libraries in partnership with the UA journalism school and Mexican American studies department.

Hispanic Education: California Migrant Head Start Program Can be Model

2013-04-02T21:45:16+00:00

Long before President Obama triggered a new national interest in universal preschool earlier this year, a Central Valley-based Head Start program for children of migrant workers has been breaking down barriers that have kept Latino families out of early learning programs. Data suggests that Latino children, who now make up more than half of children under 5 years old in California, have historically enrolled in early education programs at lower rates than their peers in other ethnic groups. “We know from 20 years of research that a lot of Latino parents prefer to use home-based care, and that preschools appear to be excessively formal and sometimes not inviting institutions” to those parents, said University of California, Berkeley education professor Bruce Fuller, who has spent years studying early education issues in the Latino community. “Formal” and “not inviting” are not terms that could be used to describe the child development center in Hughson, a small agricultural community nine miles southwest of Modesto. Four portable classrooms sit facing a play area with a jungle gym and a swing set. On a recent morning, the center was filled with 52 children ranging in age from newborn to 5 years old. One of the reasons parents give for feeling welcome at the center is relatively simple: Spanish is spoken here. And it’s not just that an effort is made to communicate with parents in Spanish, but also that children are instructed in both Spanish and English. In the preschool classroom at the Hughson center, 3- and 4-year-olds sat in a circle on the rug listening to teacher Gabriela Mora reading the story of the three little pigs, or los tres cerditos. The kids were glued to the drama of the huffing and the puffing and the blowing down of houses. Mora was reading in Spanish, but when she paused to ask questions, kids answered in both languages. “Que hicieron Paco y Pascual?” Mora asked her students in Spanish. Translation: “What did Paco and Pascual do?” Asking open questions about what characters have done or what is about to happen is an effective way to engage young children in reading, Mora said later.

Shakira Seeking Nominations for Her Early Childhood Provider Awards

2013-04-01T16:35:45+00:00

Colombian superstar Shakira is seeking nominations for the ALAS-IDB early childhood awards that she co-created. The ALAS-IDB awards are given out by the ALAS Foundation that was co-founded by Shakira and the Inter-American Development Bank. The awards recognize the best in early childhood development and innovative programs benefiting children under 6 years old. Educators, writers, thought leaders amongst others throughout Latin America and the Caribbean are urged to apply. The awards were created last year by Shakira with 700 nominations received. Shakira and IDB will give out awards in several categories including: Best Childhood Center, Best Educator, Best Publication and Best Innovation. ‘The Voice’ judge is a long-standing advocate of early childhood development for the poor in Latin America and also serves as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She has invested in rebuilding public schools in her native Colombia, accessing education for underserved Latino immigrants in the U.S. and creating scholarships for Latin American students. Click here if you are interested in nominating an organization or individual.

Hispanics of NASA Tell Youth: Follow Your Dreams

2013-03-30T14:13:00+00:00

NASA’s Michela Muñoz Fernandez and Erika Podest urged young people to pursue their dreams, however difficult they might seem, since it was their own persistence that won them careers in the space agency. “If you have a dream you’re set on, nothing is impossible. Neither of us are from the United States, we come from far away, but I think if you’re determined to get something you want, everything is possible,” Muñoz said. Podest, an earth science specialist, and Muñoz, a researcher and systems engineer, shared their NASA experiences on the first Google+ Hangout in Spanish organized by the space agency, which seeks closer ties with the Hispanic community. Have good training, specific goals and family support was the advice they gave students and their parents who followed the conference live. “Parental support is really vital for motivating youngsters to get ahead in areas they like,” said Podest, for whom her mother was always “the motivating force in my life and who has always urged me to follow my dreams.” Podest confessed she also had other models among Latin American space pioneers like Costa-Rica born Frank Chang-Diaz, one of the astronauts with the most missions and hours in outer space in history. The Panamanian’s work in the earth sciences division at Jet Propulsion Laboratory includes a project using data from satellites to study ecosystems of the Amazonian wetlands, for the purpose of better understanding their contribution to the global carbon cycle. Muñoz is part of the Juno mission, which was launched in 2012 and is scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2016.

Cecilia Preciado Burciaga, Chicano/Latino Student Champion, Dies at 67

2013-03-29T04:46:11+00:00

Cecilia Preciado Burciaga, mentor and advocate to countless minority students and the first high-ranking Latina administrator at a top university, has died at age 67 from lung cancer. In her 20-years at Stanford University, Cecilia served in various positions, including Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, and Assistant to the President as Director of the Office of Chicano Affairs at Stanford. In her position, she became very active in the support and formation of the Chicano community at the school, including the creation of El Centro Chicano, a Chicano/Latino student center. In 1994 she left Stanford, some say fired, by then-provost Condoleeza Rice. Her students were so upset they staged protests and a hunger strike to keep her. From Stanford, Perciado Burciaga became a founding dean and associate vice president at Cal State University Monterey Bay. From 1994-2010 she served on the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. The Los Angeles Times: noted “She taught hesitant young women and men, many the first in their families to attend college, that they belonged and could thrive at the elite private school, and later kept more than a few from dropping out. She soothed nervous parents, persuading them, in Spanish and English, that the university was a safe place for their children and that it would open their eyes to new worlds.” Preciago Burciagas other legacy was her endless campaigning for universities to hire more minorities and for the creation of more diverse college campuses. Preciado Burciaga was married to Chicano artist and writer, Jose Antonio Burciago until his death in 1996 and is survived by the couples two children. She grew up in Chino on a dairy farm where her parents, both Mexican immigrants, worked.

NHU Names Dr. Gladys Ato as New Provost

2013-03-29T02:08:24+00:00

The National Hispanic University (NHU) announced today that Gladys Ato, Psy.D., has been named the university’s new provost. In this role, Dr. Ato will help advance NHU’s teaching and learning environment as well as develop new initiatives that support the university’s mission and vision that every student will graduate. She will also oversee academic programs, including curricula, academic policy development and deployment, and academic integrity. Dr. Ato most recently served as chief academic officer and vice president of academic affairs at Argosy University, San Francisco Bay Area, overseeing the undergraduate and graduate academic programs. Prior to joining Argosy, she held several clinical positions throughout the Bay Area including in early childhood education centers, secondary schools, and at San Francisco General Hospital through the University of California, San Francisco. Currently, Dr. Ato serves as the board president of the Instituto Familiar de la Raza in San Francisco and the board vice president of the Kids’ Turn organization in San Francisco. She is a highly involved member of the Hispanic community, having provided therapy, consultation, assessment, crisis intervention, and case management services primarily to low-income, underserved individuals. Dr. Ato holds a Psy.D. and M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Baylor University and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego.