Project MALES is pleased to announce the 2020-2021 Graduate Scholars Program (PM-GSP) recipients. After receiving an impressive pool of applications from across the country, the following scholars were selected to join the 2020-2021 cohort: Jesse Enriquez (University of California, San Diego), Ángel Gonzalez (San Diego State University), Shawn S. Savage (Boston College), and Breauna M. Spencer (University of California, Irvine).
The mission of PM-GSP is to support the academic and career advancement of emerging scholars whose research is focused on the educational outcomes of male students of color.
In addition to joining the Project MALES network, scholars will be matched with a Faculty and Research Affiliate mentor and will receive a $500 dissertation award. This year, PM-GSP was able to fund four scholars who amass an impressive array of accomplishments.
Ángel Gonzalez
Son to immigrant parents, Miguel Ángel y Guadalupe, Ángel Gonzalez is a first-generation queer Latinx scholar from South Central-East Los Angeles. Ángel is a third-year doctoral candidate in Community College Leadership (CCLEAD) at San Diego State University. Their research agenda includes 1) conditions, experiences, and outcomes in community colleges for minoritized students with an emphasis on LGBTQ+ and Latinx students and professionals. Ángel’s Faculty and Research Affiliate mentor is Dr. Antonio Duran.
Shawn S. Savage
Shawn S. Savage is a doctoral candidate in curriculum and instruction in the Teaching, Curriculum & Society Department in Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development. Shawn’s research investigates the experiences of racially minoritized boys, young men and adult men across their educational and professional lives. Currently, he operationalizes Afrocentricity through critical race methodology, BlackCrit, and community cultural wealth to explore the strengths and successes of Black males, and related institutional and systemic imperatives.
Jesse Enriquez
Jesse Enriquez is a Ph.D. student in the Education Studies Department at UC San Diego. His research seeks to understand the conditions, experiences, and outcomes that facilitate the success among historically marginalized students with an emphasis on a) Latino/x men in higher education, b) community college students’ pre and post-transfer experiences, and c) exploring the role that 4-year institutions play in creating a transfer receptive culture for students of color.
Breauna M. Spencer
Breauna Marie Spencer is a 5th-year Sociology doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine. Her research agenda is tailored to examining the academic and psychological health and well-being of Black and Latino men enrolled in STEM undergraduate and graduate degree programs in order to identify how to improve their retention rates and graduation rates.
We would like to thank the leadership of our Faculty and Research Affiliates who have served on the reviewing committee: Drs. Joshua Childs, Edwin Hernandez, Gilberto Lara, David Martinez, Cristobal Rodriguez, Sarah Rodriguez, Nydia Sanchez, and Marissa Vasquez. Furthermore, we would like to thank Drs. Eligio Martinez and José Del Real Viramontes for their leadership as PM-GSP Co-Chairs.
Once again, congratulations to our newly selected cohort of PM-GSP scholars on their well-deserved success.