During spring break, the Project MALES staff had the opportunity to share our most recent work at the Texas Education Consortium of Male Students of Color and our “Instructing Males through Peer Advising Course” (IMPACT) service-learning course. Here are some highlights from these events and conversations at two different venues, in California and in Texas:
On Friday, March 10, 2017 Dr. Victor Sáenz, Dr. Luis Ponjuán, Dr. Emmet Campos, and Jorge Burmicky participated in the 12th Annual National Conference for the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. This year’s theme was: “Degrees of Value: Focus on Student Learning” “Títulos de Valor: Enfoque Sobre el Aprendizaje Estudiantil.” The event brought together Latina/o graduate students, faculty, senior administrators, and policy makers with the goal of continuing to address issues and concerns affecting Hispanics; with a focus on higher education. This year, Dr. Sáenz and team members were part of a session titled; “Transformative Praxis: Lessons Learned from Three Years of Work with the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color.” The objective of this session was to facilitate an interactive discussion of the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color, its goals, and emerging themes and trends found in our institutional site visits within the context and landscape of male students of color. Dr, Sáenz and team shared the preliminary findings from our site visits, which highlight student voices in order to better understand the challenges these men face and the impact of programs and services that serve them. Findings were organized under four broad themes: college transitions, academic experiences, campus engagement, and degree completion.
Additionally, on Tuesday March 14, 2017 Jorge Segovia, José Del Real Viramontes, and Enrique Aguayo participated in the 99th NASPA Annual Conference. This year’s conference was organized around NASPA’s guiding principles: Innovation, Inquiry, Integrity, and Inclusion. Jorge, José, and Enrique presented a session titled “IMPACT: Empowering Latino Undergraduate Students Through Service Learning and Mentoring.” IMPACT is a service learning course offered by UT-Austin in collaboration with Project MALES. In IMPACT, undergraduates are immersed in literature that is focused on the academic and social challenges young males of color face within the U.S. education system. The goal of the session was to provide an overview of IMPACT and share the effectiveness of the service-learning course in impacting our Latino undergraduates’ educational outcomes.
The team enjoyed engaging with participants at these national conferences. We look forward to sharing our continued work through the Consortium and service-learning course.
