¿Qué pasa, HSIs?

We are committed to centering student voices on ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? This episode provides the opportunity to learn about the Using Our Voices to Transform HSIs project at California State University, Sacramento (Sac State). The project, funded by the College Futures Foundation, explores Latinx/e student perceptions of servingness at Sac State and aims to interrogate how university policies, programs, and practices support Latinx/e stu...

In 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 S...

This episode is packed with MSI-HSI-AANAPISI knowledge! Whether you are at a dual or multiple designation campus or not, this episode is for you! Our guest Dr. Mike Hoa Nguyen is an assistant professor of education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and the principal investigator of the MSI Data Project. He has extensive professional experience that informs his research, having ...

In this episode Dra. Karla Cruze-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...

We make our way to the Midwest for this episode, learning with the HSI Network of Wisconsin. HSI-NOW is a coalition of leaders from colleges and universities across the state of Wisconsin with a mission to collectively develop the ideal conditions to serve, educate, and advance Hispanic/Latino* students to create equitable opportunities in higher education. In this plática, I talk to 2 members of the network who share the origin st...

In this episode we elevate the voice of one alumni of an HSI who calls themselves a critical friend to the institution. Throughout this episode we grapple with the tensions of calling on HSIs to change the structural ways they serve students while acknowledging some of the progress being made. I talk to Carlos Benitez Cruz (they/them) who is a PhD student in Community Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Carlos refl...

We kick off another season of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? with our friends from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Dr. Michael Benitez, Jr. serves as the Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion and Dr. Del Real serves as the Executive Director of HSI Initiatives and Inclusion. In this episode we talk about the strategies they have used to advance servingness both on campus and across the state of Colorado. They talk about using HSI gr...

For the final episode of season 3 I talk to Vanessa Varela, Assistant Professor in Education, and Jason Meyler, Associate Professor of Spanish at Mount Mary University, a small women’s college HSI in Wisconsin. In this episode we dive into HSI NOW efforts in Milwaukee, the evolution of servingness at Mount Mary University, and the importance of acknowledging language and multilingualism in servingness efforts. Our guests highlight ...

This multi-guest episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? is full of knowledge sharing. I had the opportunity to talk to 5 members of Cabrillo College’s HSI Task Force, who shared their journey to making an intentional HSI. They talk about the accomplishments of their HSI Task Force, share tips for gaining support on campus for HSI efforts, and talk about the secret sauce to servingness work, which includes grassroots leadership and support fro...

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we think outside of the normative constructs of higher education learning with and from Dr. Joe Louis Hernandez who is the Director for the Rising Scholars program at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC). Dr. Hernandez is a Streetwise Scholar who attended Mt SAC, Cal State LA, and Cal State Long Beach, all of which are HSIs, having profound effects on his educational journey. But more so than the in...

This 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 th...

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we continue down the path of understanding and conceptualizing STEM servingness with scholars from the Research and Equity Scholarship Institute, affectionately known as RESISTE, at San Diego State University. Dr. Felisha Herrera Villarreal is the director of the institute and widely published scholar who has procured external funding to support STEM servingness and STEM pathways research. Her sc...

We 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, ac...

In this episode, Aaron Cortes talks about how efforts to create pathways to college for Latine/x students is a part of servingness. Creating pathways is essential to access to higher education, yet institutions must do this work with the student and their families at the center. Aaron serves as the Director of the STEM initiatives (STEAM Pathways) at the Center for College Access and Success of Northeastern Illinois University (NEI...

Season 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...

In this episode we focus on servingness in math and mathematics spaces on campus. I talk to Dr. Luis Leyva, associate professor of mathematics education & STEM higher education at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Omayra Ortega, associate professor of mathematics & statistics at Sonoma State University, and Ronimar López-Bazán, a first generation nonbinary Chicane mathematics graduate from Sonoma State University. Luis, Omayra, &a...

In the first episode of season 3 of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? I talk to Dr. Whitney Pirtle, Associate Professor of Sociology and McArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights at the University of California, Merced, where she also directs the Sociology of Health and Equity (SHE) Lab. As a formative critical race scholar, her research explores issues relating to race, identity, inequality, health equity, and Black femin...

For the final episode of the second season of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? I talk to Katia Paz who serves at the inaugural Associate Provost for Hispanic Initiatives & International Programs at Montclair State University. Dr. Paz is a part of the Provost’s senior leadership team and is a professor and founding chair of the Family Science and Human Development Department. In this episode we discuss some of her challenges and successes in enacti...

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 hig...