Shows
¿Qué pasa, HSIs?HSI Emergingness in KansasWith over 400 campuses emerging toward 25% enrollment of Latine students and 600 institutions already meeting the threshold, we must talk about what it means to emerge as a campus that truly serves Latine students. Emergingness is the intentionality that goes into embracing servingness, and it is happening across the U.S. In this episode we welcome Kansas to the mic to learn about HSI work going on at Wichita State University. Dra. Sara Mata, Executive Director of Hispanic Serving Initiatives at WSU, is joined by two students, Valeria Paunetto and Dimas Gonzalez, who talk about the HSI movement on their campus...2025-05-181h 02¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Solidarity Across Multiple MSI DesignationsIn this episode we get in (racial) formation with Dra. Kristine Jan Cruz Espinoza, an assistant professor of Counseling and College Student Personnel at California Lutheran University. Dra. Espinoza’s research revolves around racial and organizational classifications, focusing on MSIs; particularly dual and multiple designated MSIs. She lays out the landscape of these institutions drawing on her dissertation titled, “Let’s get in (racial) formation: A three-paper exploration of dual- and multiple-designated Minority-Serving Institutions.” We talk about the complications, but also call on educators in these institutions to work in relation and solidarity across racialized lines. The call to action i...2025-05-0454 min¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Transformation Teams Leading HSIsWhat happens when a group of 15 change agents from across campus come together to build an HSI movement? That was the guiding question for a small grant project funded by the Student Experience Research Network (SERN). With the grant we launched “HSI Transformation Teams” at two community college campuses–Santa Rosa Junior College and Fullerton College. In this episode we talk about how the teams came together to transform HSIs in practice, in community, and with the purpose of fostering collaborative research-practice-policy partnerships. Members of the transformation teams learned about HSI scholarship and engaged in participatory action research to develo...2025-03-091h 03¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Building a Graduate-Going Culture at HSIsWhat is a graduate-going culture? Drawing from the college-going culture research, I define a graduate-going culture as one where faculty, staff, and administrators are dedicated to promoting students’ aspirations for graduate school, including planning and preparation. I argue that HSIs should prioritize building a graduate-going culture that provides students with the awareness, knowledge, and skills needed for pursuing and successfully entering graduate programs, including master’s, doctoral, and professional programs. This is essential to HSIs where a large percentage of students are first-generation to college and therefore first-generation to graduate school. The development of a graduate-going culture can be liber...2025-02-0952 min¿Qué pasa, HSIs?The New England HSI MovementLet’s welcome New England to the mic! In this episode we learn about the HSI Movement taking place in Massachusetts and across the New England region. Our guests include Dra. Elisa Castillo, the Assistant Vice President of Hispanic and Minority Serving Initiatives at Salem State University, and Julissa Colón, the Founding Director of El Centro at Holyoke Community College. These mujeres are fierce and claiming their role as leaders in the HSI movement. They describe the New England Hispanic and Minority Serving Institution Conference which was funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education and tal...2024-11-031h 24¿Qué pasa, HSIs?¿Si No Yo, Quien? HSI Directors Leading the WayThis episode features Dra. Cyndia Morales Muñiz who serves as Senior Director of HSI Initiatives at University of Central Florida (UCF). Dra. Muñiz led efforts that resulted in UCF becoming a federally recognized HSI in 2019. She now works across the university to develop a centralized vision for maximizing this designation in a way that meaningfully serves students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members from diverse backgrounds. In this episode we learn how she leverages her HSI director role to lead the HSI movement on campus, start conversations about servingness, and encourage faculty and staff to get involved wi...2024-10-0654 min¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Historically Black [emerging] HSIsWhat is a Historically Black [emerging] HSI? This episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? breaks it down and delivers the message you didn’t know you needed to hear. We know that HBCUs are unapologetically Black-serving, historically and authentically, but HSIs aren’t. In this episode we talk about what HSIs can learn from HBCUs with a focus on liberatory curriculum and empowerment pedagogies. We also talk about how HBCUs are good servers to Latine students, and especially Afro-Latine students. Importantly, we talk about the complexities of being an HBCU AND an emerging HSI, and whether it is federally possible to be...2024-08-251h 14¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Summer 2024 Charla with Dra. Garcia & Allen “AC” WilliamsGuests:
Gina Ann Garcia (she/her/hers), Professor of Higher Education, UC Berkeley https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginaanngarcia/
Allen “AC” Williams (he/him/his), Assistant Director for Retention Initiatives, University at Buffalo https://www.linkedin.com/in/acwp95/
Episode Description:
This is a short episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? available in both audio on your favorite podcast apps and video on our YouTube channel. Join our host Dra. Gina Ann Garcia and our production manager Allen “AC” Williams as they talk about the summer 2024 listening lists and share the tea on some...2024-07-2124 min¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Noncredit institutions are HSIs too: A conversation with President Tina KingIn this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we learn about San Diego College of Continuing Education, a noncredit college that enrolls more than 25% Hispanic students, yet is unqualified for HSI eligibility due to the federal definition. Dra. Tina King, president of SDCCE, talks about how the college enacts servingness despite HSI ineligibility. We talk about her equity-minded approach to leadership and her unwavering commitment to students. She also talks about her life growing up as a proud Afro-Latina born to a Black father and Mexican mother from Jalisco. Despite her pride, she also shares her experiences with anti-Blackness in th...2024-05-1951 min¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Lessons in Grassroots LeadershipIn this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we engage in lessons in grassroots leadership with Dra. Leticia Villarreal Sosa, a scholar activist who serves as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Professor in the School of Social Work at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She shares stories of the risks and challenges that grassroots leaders face while trying to transform their campuses into Latine-serving spaces. As a social worker who centers feminist teachings and racial justice in her work, enacting servingness comes natural to her, yet she has faced numerous struggles and strong opposition along the wa...2024-05-051h 06¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Brown Table Talk with President OlivoIn this episode we transform the ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? microphone into a brown table talk with one of our favorite HSI leaders Dra. Cynthia Olivo, who is the 10th president of Fullerton College. Dra. Olivo’s career spans nearly three decades, serving in many roles including Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Student Services at Pasadena City College and Associate Director of Admissions and Student Recruitment at California State University, San Bernardino. In this plática we learn about how she has served as a champion for equity and academic excellence for students, how she has worked towards organizational chang...2024-04-071h 08¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Elevating Managerial Professionals & Support Staff in ServingnessIn this episode Dra. Karla Silva talks about her research with managerial professionals and support staff at HSIs. Her findings indicate that these practitioners are often the people on the ground implementing servingness at HSIs, yet they are overlooked in the servingness research, not invited to the HSI conversations on campus, and don’t feel like they are part of servingness efforts. They also feel overworked and underpaid, yet the majority are women and Black, Indigenous, People of Color with a great level of commitment to serving minoritized populations. Karla shines an important light on this essential group of st...2024-03-101h 08¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Spaces of Empowerment: HSI Student EquiposThis episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? features Dra. Dez Zuniga, HSI faculty lead for the Abriendo Caminos project at Pasadena City College (PCC), along with four members of PCC’s Student Advisory Equipo. The Equipo is an HSI initiative with significant impact and influence at PCC, led by Latine student leaders who participate in committees and working groups to help build a campus culture for serving Latine students. Our guests share their many successes and challenges along the way, guided by the love of their femtor Dra Dez, who embodies servingness as an HSI advocate on campus and creator of t...2023-10-221h 12¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Advocacy for Undocumented Students at One Emerging HSIWe turn the focus to one emerging HSI in this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? to learn about how one campus has prepared to become an HSI. Our guest, Dra. Sandy López serves as the Director of the Undocumented Student Resource Center at Northern Illinois University (NIU), an emerging HSI in Illinois. Sandy has over 30 years of experience serving students, staff, faculty, and school business officials as an elementary school teacher, academic advisor, teaching consultant, administrator, and most importantly as a mentor and student advocate. Dra. López talks about her work as an unapologetic educator activist who is h...2023-10-081h 00¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Embodying Servingness: UCR Chicano Student ProgramsSeason 3, Episode 3 takes us to the next level of understanding servingness. In this plática, I talk to 5 educators, activists, artists, poetas, and storytellers who take us on a journey to understanding the embodiment of servingness, meaning it is lived out daily in all practices and ideologies at Chicano Student Programs (CSP) at UC Riverside. CSP has been embodying servingness for 50 years by design. The campus and the entire UC system can and should follow CSP, and so should our listeners. Dra. Arlene Cano Matute, a community based scholar, practitioner and mother serves as the Assistant Director of CSP w...2023-09-241h 30
Grad School Femtoring: Inclusive Grad School Stories, Personal Development, and Productivity Tips for First-Gen BIPOCs207: Equity and Justice in Hispanic Serving Institutions with Dr Gina Anne GarciaThis week, I am thrilled to have Dr. Gina Ann Garcia with us who talks to us about equity and justice in Hispanic Serving Institutions.
Dr. Garcia is a professor in the Berkeley School of Education. Dra. Gina's research centers on issues of equity and diversity in higher education with an emphasis on understanding how Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) embrace and enact an organizational identity for serving minoritized populations. She is the author of Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges & Universities as well as Transforming Hispanic Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice. She is also the host of the...2023-09-1556 min¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Poderosa Leading a Hispanic Serving Community College (HSCC)In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we learn with Dra. Angélica Garcia who serves as president of Berkeley City College (BCC), a Hispanic-serving community college in California. Dr. Garcia is passionate about issues of access, equity, and student success in higher education. For nearly two decades, her professional experiences have included teaching and administrative roles in non-profit organizations, secondary education, and higher education. She believes that community colleges serve as pathways to liberation for historically minoritized communities and promotes this in institutional reform efforts. Come learn with this poderosa on how to lead HSIs through an anti-racist len...2023-03-191h 13¿Qué pasa, HSIs?HSI Consciousness in the BorderlandsThis episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? features Dra. Cynthia D. Villarreal, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Northern Arizona University. She is a fronteriza studying the borderlands of higher education, HSIs, organizational culture, equity in decision-making, and Chicana feminisms in higher education. Dra. Villarreal is a storyteller and uses countertestimonios to critique and transform higher education. In this episode we talk about faculty hiring experiences at HSIs, HSI consciousness, and the path to servingness conocimiento.
Dra. Cynthia D. Villarreal (she/her/ella), Assistant Professor, Northern Arizona University
Twitter: @CynDVillarreal | Lin...2023-03-051h 05¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Learning with ESCALA Educational ServicesIn this multi-guest episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? I talk to the dynamic duo from ESCALA Educational Services Inc., Dra. Melissa Salazar and Dra. Maribel Jiménez about the history and evolution of ESCALA and the ways that they support HSIs. ESCALA is a consortium of higher education consultants who are committed to closing equity gaps for Latinx students in HSIs by way of faculty training and development. They work exclusively with HSI educators and do their work through a Latinx-centered approach. In this episode they talk about the challenges of implementing servingess in practice and the unique challenges tha...2023-02-121h 19¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Campus Climate & Liberatory Outcomes at HSIsIn the third episode of season 2 of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? I engage with Dra. Marcela Cuellar who is an Associate Professor at UC Davis. Dra. Cuellar talks to us about the importance of doing research with emerging HSIs and elevates her research about campus climate in HSIs. She also shares her work conceptualizing a Hispanic-Serving Research Institution (HSRI) identity and helps us further understand liberatory outcomes, or what she calls empowerment outcomes, and why they are important indicators of serving. This episode offers a wealth of knowledge about Dra. Cuellar’s research which examines higher education access, experiences, and outc...2023-02-051h 13¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Racial Conflict & Complications of Latinidad in HSIsIn the first episode of season 2 of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? I talk to Dra. Blanca E. Vega, Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Montclair State University, about a variety of important topics including racial conflict as an organizational dilemma in HSIs, supporting Black students in HSIs, and complicating Latinidad in HSIs. Her research situates racism as one of multiple barriers that can impact higher education experiences and success, not just for students but also for administrators and faculty. In this episode we talk about her research on racial conflict, policymaking concerning undocumented students, Latinidad in higher education, and HSIs as ra...2023-01-221h 17¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Using Strategic Planning to Drive ServingnessFor the final episode of the inaugural season of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? I talk to Dra. Maribel Jiménez about one of the most significant processes that all higher education institutions engaging in, the strategic planning process. Yet Maribel centers HSIs in her conversations about strategic planning while acknowledging that the process is mostly race-neutral and dominated by white ways of practicing higher education. She shares insight into making this process about Latinx students and HSIs, guided by the findings from her dissertation. As a practitioner and alumna of an HSI, Yakima Valley College, she also discusses her insights int...2022-11-131h 17¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Leading and Enacting Servingness con CariñoAs we continue down our journey to learn about servingness, this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? features Dra. Marla Franco who is the inaugural Assistant Vice Provost for HSI Initiatives at the University of Arizona. She shares insight into the intentional ways she implements servingness con cariño and offers best practices. She shares details about the HSI Fellows Program, which has not only become a vehicle for advancing servingnesss on campus, but also serves as a retention tool for faculty and staff on campus. She also talks about the AZ HSI Consortium and the importance of having a col...2022-11-061h 11¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Queering HSIs and Serving LGBTQIA+ Latinx StudentsThis episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? features a dynamic duo, Dra. Yolanda Cataño, Executive Director of the Alliance of HSI Educators (AHSIE) and Dr. Ángel de Jesus González, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Southern California, who extend notions of servingness to queer and trans Latinx peoples at HSIs. They talk about the importance of centering the intersectional identities of Latinxs at HSIs and share findings from three articles they have published about queering HSIs. While centering LGBTQIA+ people in their storytelling, they talk about their own experiences attending HSIs, describe the complexities of data-driven decision-making at co...2022-10-301h 15¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Serving Indigenous Latinx Students at HSIsIn this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? I talk to Dra. Gabriela Kovats Sánchez who is a Faculty Scholar for the Native Resource Center at San Diego State University and lecturer for the department of American Indian Studies. She offers a wealth of knowledge as she works at the nexus of research and praxis in her formal roles within the university and voluntary roles in the community. Her research focuses on the experiences of diasporic Indigenous Latinx students and nuances the way we think about Latinidad. Her research, pedagogies, and community engagement are deeply tied to her long-time inv...2022-10-091h 19¿Qué pasa, HSIs?State Policies & ServingnessIn the third episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we continue talking about policy with a more focused look at state-level policies and how they affect servingness. Our guest Dra. Ishara Casellas Connors is an assistant professor of government & public administration at Texas A&M University. Her research examines the implications of DEI policies for advancing racial equity for minoritized students. In this episode we talk about how these DEI policies can help or hinder servingness with HSIs. She also talks to us about how these policies allow for or hinder institutions to focus on intersectional servingness, and gives us a...2022-09-251h 06¿Qué pasa, HSIs?Federal HSI Policies & ServingnessIn the inaugural episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? I talk to Dra. Stephanie Aguilar-Smith, an Assistant Professor of Counseling and Higher Education at the University of North Texas, about federal HSI policies and servingness. Her research examines educational policies, higher education as a hierarchical stratified system, and the ways that these trends shape HSIs. In this episode we explore the complexities of federal policies that shape servingness and learn about the motivation of HSI grant seekers when they pursue this stream of funding. This episode is also part of HSI Week 2022, a week dedicated to the celebration and acknowledgement of...2022-09-121h 00