The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, or AAHHE, has honored two UCR School of Education graduate students, a faculty member, and two alums with 2022-23 fellowships.

Nelly Cruz and Nathaly Martinez received the 2022-2023 graduate student fellowships. Both are pursuing careers in higher education administration and policy. The association will assist in their preparation for post-secondary education administration and policy. The organization will provide strategies for them to achieve their educational and professional goals and constructive feedback on research projects. It also builds community and networks for Latinx scholars.

Cruz’s dissertation employs indigenous research methods to explore the college decision-making process for indigenous Oaxacan students to promote equitable pathways to college in California. Cruz is of Mixtec heritage, with her parents from a rural pueblo in the Southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

Martinez is a first-generation Xicana scholar whose research examines how Chicanx women in graduate programs view and experience traditional and non-traditional forms of mentorship. She works at UCR as the GradSuccess lead consultant.

Lorena Gutierrez, an assistant professor of teaching at UCR’s School of Education, or SOE, received the faculty fellowship. Gutierrez’s research examines how Latinx migrant and seasonal farmworkers thrive in their educational pursuits despite the inequities they face in K–12 schools. She has probed the schooling experiences of Latinx migrant farmworker youth in K-12 schools and a high school equivalency program in the Midwest.

Two UCR SOE alums also received AAHHE faculty fellowships. They are Arturo Nevarez, assistant professor of liberal studies at Cal State Stanislaus, and Marlene Rios-Hernandez, an assistant professor of Chicana/o studies at Cal State Fullerton.