AGENTS CHANGE
The magazine of the College of Education and Human Development
2020-2021
OF
CONTENTS AGENTS OF CHANGE Message from the Provost
1
Message from the Interim Dean
2
Interim Dean: Juliet Langman, Ph.D. Editor: Libby Castillo Graphic Designer: Coral Díaz
Looking Forward
3
COEHD Through COVID
4
UTSA Receives Mellon Grant
6
Ford Fellowship
7
Strategic Educational Partnerships Face Bold Challenges
8
Dual Language Community Lab Schools
11
COEHD by the Numbers
12
Bold Ideas
14
A Lasting Legacy
16
Govindaraju Endowed Scholarship
17
Urban Education Institute
18
A Future of Possibilities
19
A Year of Growth
20
Contributing Writers: Jordan Allen, Libby Castillo, Stephanie Hamilton, Monica Hernandez, Valerie B. Johnson, Rebecca Luther, Christopher Reichert
COLLEGE ADMINISTRATION Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Undergraduate Studies: Norma Guerra, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Educational Partners: Juliet Langman, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Professional Preparation and Partnerships: Belinda Flores, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Research: Michael Karcher, Ph.D. Assistant Dean for Teacher Preparation: Kristen Lindahl, Ph.D. Assistant Dean for Partnerships: David Thompson, Ph.D. Assistant Dean for Research: Emily Bonner, Ph.D. Assistant Dean: Liliana Gutierrez, Ph.D.
Coping After Tragedy
21
Progressive Changes
22
Spanish Literature Award Ceremony
23
The College of Education and Human Development
Faculty Publications
24
One UTSA Circle San Antonio, Texas 78249 (210) 458-4450 www.utsa.edu/coehd
Agents of Change is the publication of the College of Education and Human Development at The University of Texas at San Antonio. This publication is created for faculty, students, alumni and friends of the college, and it highlights achievements in research, scholarship and community outreach.
Development Officer: Raitza Garcia
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AGENTS OF CHANGE | UTSA | 1
MESSAGE FROM THE PROVOST
The Roadrunner Nation had to pivot quickly and transform how we delivered an academic semester in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our students, faculty, and staff did more than move classes online — they collaborated to create innovative online learning experiences built upon UTSA’s legacy of excellence and bold action. As a result, we reached new heights of success. Last year was unprecedented for more reasons than the pandemic. UTSA awarded a record 7,415 degrees in the 2020 academic year. University faculty secured many more new grants, including $5 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, led by COEHD faculty, to support community partnerships inadvancing racial justice. UTSA was one of 14 U.S. colleges and universities to earn Excelencia in Education’s prestigious Seal of Excelencia. The recognition reflects our faculty’s commitment to delivering high-quality education and, through their research, bridging the space between theory and practice. That work is on full display through COEHD’s partnership on Dual Language Community Lab Schools with the San Antonio Independent School District. The partnership develops and promotes best practices and models dual language instruction that will impact students and education programs across the nation. Finally, I am thrilled to welcome COEHD’s new dean, Dr. Mario Torres. A President’s Distinguished Professor, Dr. Torres will leverage COEHD’s existing success and find new ways for students, faculty, and staff to be agents of change. He is an accomplished leader and educator who will empower our students and faculty, and help UTSA become the top-tier Hispanic-Thriving public research university that San Antonio deserves.
KIMBERLY ANDREWS ESPY, PH.D.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Peter T. Flawn Distinguished Professor
2 | UTSA | AGENTS OF CHANGE
Message from the
INTERIM DEAN Welcome to the 2020-21 Agents of Change Magazine for the College of Education and Human Development, formerly known as Spectrum. 2020 was a year filled with change, not only for the college but for our world. 2020 was also filled with challenges that we are proud to participate in addressing, hence the new bold name of our magazine. A world pandemic, social unrest, and intensifying political division, and the complete restructuring of schools and schooling tested our strength, resilience and patience. Through it all, the COEHD community worked diligently to make the bold and necessary changes to pivot the way we teach, learn, celebrate and engage. In the 2020-2021 academic year, we welcomed 12 new faculty members, named 3 new department chairs and graduated 572 students. Additionally, we bid farewell to former COEHD Dean, Margo DelliCarpini, Ph.D, who was named chancellor of Penn State Abington.
In this issue, we celebrate our accomplishments of the year, we reflect on the past, we turn our gaze into the bold future.
Throughout the challenges and uncertainties of the year, I am proud of the work and services faculty, staff, and students were able to continue to provide to each other, to students and to the San Antonio community. Our faculty was able to quickly shift to online teaching as well as embracing new technologies and practices in order to instruct future educators to teach in a virtual environment. After the killing of George Floyd, our country faced months of protests and social unrest and we participated in helping to take a critical look at racial inequality. Despite the many challenges of the year, COEHD faculty was not only able to continue their research, they created new programs, developed a complete array of online courses and were able to secure important funding including an integral $5 million Mellon grant for racial justice efforts. In this issue, we celebrate our accomplishments of the year, we reflect on the past, we turn our gaze into the bold future. It was an honor to serve COEHD as Interim Dean from January through July. During that time, I was able to witness the strength, the resilience and the humanity of the individuals who make up our college. Now, we turn our gaze to the future and the bold new leadership of our new Dean, Mario Torres, Ph.D. We are excited to see what our future holds.
JULIET LANGMAN, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the College of Education and Human Development
AGENTS OF CHANGE | UTSA | 3
LOOKING FORWARD Message from the Dean
Hello, my name is Dr. Mario Torres and I am pleased to be the new dean of the College of Education and Human Development. I am joining the college at a time of promise and change. We are focusing on safe return to in-person activities, and I am eager to meet the talented group of students, faculty, and staff of COEHD, as well as our community partners and generous donors. As a San Antonio native and UTSA alumnus, I look forward to giving back to the community and university. I am proud to have the opportunity to join UTSA, a premier Hispanic Serving Institution, at a point when the university is accelerating toward becoming one of the premier research universities in the country and perhaps the world. Throughout the pandemic, we witnessed the impact and significance that education and mental health wellness has in our communities. Looking back to when I was a student at UTSA, it was the encouragement of several faculty that helped instill my passion for education research. To this day, it serves as a powerful reminder of the life-changing impact educators and educational leaders at all levels can have on students. I have dedicated my research to students’ rights, the ethics of education reform and discipline policy, and organizational inclusion. I realize the importance of remaining adaptable in a rapidly changing
technological world. As program chair at the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M from 2010 and 2013, I led the effort to create the current fully online master’s program for school principal preparation. I am proud to have served as co-director of the Texas A&M University Administrative Leadership Institute, an annual conference for Texas school leaders focusing on critical issues in K–12 education. I look forward to the many years to come at UTSA and COEHD and I am elated to be returning to the Roadrunner family. There is so much promise and potential in what we as a college can achieve. Together, along with our community partners and donors, we will chart a course to help advance the university toward R1 status, while maintaining our commitment to supporting social mobility for generations of San Antonians and Texans.
MARIO TORRES, Ph.D
Dean of the College of Education and Human Development
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COEHD Through COVID 2020 was a momentous year full of tragedy and triumph. Professors and students from the College of Education and Human Development reflect back on the last year and discuss some of the challenges they faced, successes they made, and lessons they learned.
Stacy Speedlin Gonzalez is an assistant professor of practice of counseling and a graduate of UTSA. She earned her M.S. in 2010 and her Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision in 2015. Speedlin Gonzalez teaches with the Department of Counseling and serves as the interim director of the Sarabia Family Counseling Center.
WHAT WAS GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE WHEN THE PANDEMIC STARTED? I recall the email on that Wednesday during spring break, when everyone else did, that we were not coming back and so of course my initial thought was, ‘Oh my God. I’ve never done anything virtually, I don’t know how we’re going to do this.’ I didn’t even know that Zoom existed at that point. So, with several days without sleep, staying up all night thinking about how to support the students and to assure them that we were going to get through this. In my personal life, my wife, Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, actually was the first court to have someone come in who reported that they were exposed to COVID-19, so she had to lock her court down which meant we had to go home; we were actually quarantined before anyone else was quarantined, which was a very frightening thing at the time – all we knew was that people were dying of COVID-19 and so I didn’t know if we were going to go home and die. So, you know, aside from that, things were going okay academically; I continued to teach my classes, I continued to try to be available for my students.
Mark S. Giles is a professor with the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. He has served UTSA for the last ten years and was formerly the director of the AAS program. The Cincinnati native enjoys the Texas weather and is active in UTSA campus life and highly engaged at the university. His number one priority is helping his students achieve success.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE OVER THE LAST YEAR? On a personal level I think it’s just checking in with family, being concerned and being at a disadvantage – you couldn’t visit people. You had to learn new ways to communicate and stay in touch. Worrying about things like getting a haircut or not; those kinds of things seem very silly or mundane, but those became issues. On a professional level, I think there has been consistency because we all suffered through this together and I think the students have really helped me by staying focused and staying dedicated to doing well, continuing to pursue their degrees. That students see the value in getting their education, and that a pandemic was not going to stop them from achieving their goals is, to me, very inspiring. I shouldn’t have any complaints. If they can do what’s necessary, I can do what’s necessary.
Angie Watts is a fifth-year doctoral student working on her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Originally from Reliance, TN, she currently works at UT Health San Antonio full-time, for one of the Ph.D. programs in biomedical science.
WHAT DO YOU FEEL WAS YOUR GREATEST SUCCESS IN THE LAST YEAR? I finished up my classes in the spring of 2020 and then, over the course of the summer and last fall, I passed my qualifying exam, I advanced to candidacy, and I had my research proposal approved. Those were all huge steps towards my degree, so that felt like a huge accomplishment to be able to get those things done.
WHAT ARE SOME LESSONS THAT YOU FEEL YOU CAN DRAW FROM THESE SUCCESSES AND APPLY AS YOU GO FORWARD IN 2021? I think I’ve definitely learned to give myself grace and to listen to body and my mind. Rather than just sitting and staring at your computer not getting anything done for hours on end, step away from it and give yourself a break and give yourself space to process all the things that are happening around you. I think that’s been the biggest lesson for me. I just kept trying to push myself because I felt the pressure to keep moving, and I had to learn to give myself space to process things.
AGENTS OF CHANGE | UTSA | 5
Student Views
SABINE LOHMAR, 24 M.S. Clinical Mental Health Counseling
LUIS E. NUÑEZ, 25 M.S. Clinical Mental Health Counseling
YOLANDA (YOLI) SÁNCHEZ, 43 M.A. Bicultural Bilingual Education
As a transfer student to UTSA in the spring of 2020, I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to step on campus, meet my fellow classmates, start conducting research, and begin forming connections with my professors. Of course, I didn’t end up making it onto campus. Instead, I was thrown into the world of online schooling and was forced to adapt and adjust my expectations of what graduate school would look like. Never setting foot on campus, not meeting any of my classmates face-to-face, and being unable to form those close personal connections with professors was incredibly difficult for me. However, I wouldn’t be in a counseling program if not for my ability to be resilient and find the good in tough situations! By the time spring rolled around, I had completely adapted to this “online learning thing.” I made a commitment to never miss an online class, to always have my camera on, and to actively participate just as I would have in person. Through this experience, I do believe that I have come out stronger and more adaptable. I have learned just how much disconnection can drive and push us out of our comfort zones. Although the remainder of my program will be entirely online, excluding my internship, I still feel that I will walk away from UTSA with many connections with classmates and professors, who have shown extraordinary commitment to making online learning feel more personal and have been transformative in my development as a future mental health professional. Through it all, I truly would not change my experience as a CMHC student at UTSA.
I think about the impact that COVID had on me in terms of all aspects of my being: mental, physical, and spiritual. When the pandemic started, I was in a stage of my life where I was tapping into a vision in of myself succeeding in my career. However, I was also going through a season of healing and hurt, and I felt lost. When told to stay indoors and avoid large gatherings, most people would go crazy – but I was already isolating myself from friends and family to an extent, wanting to dive deeper into my own being, with ample time for introspective expansion of my psyche. I lost my job for a while. At the same time, I dove further into the psyche and the expression of the self through meditation practice, forest baths, and mixed media art projects. These were the outlets I clung to, to nurture my being and ensure my wellness through the pandemic. Although it was possibly the year that I felt most alone, it was also the year in which I felt most connected. As the fall approached, I found myself aligning with the Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) program, and I realized it was going to be a brand-new educational experience, especially for someone that prefers hands-on, in-person learning. Taking classes through Zoom is tolerable, but I felt the lack of that authentic human connection we get through gathering on campus. Overall, I feel the CMHC program is a great place to be right now. I see the effects that this past year has had and will continue to have on the well-being of society, which I believe are crucial for the healing of the collective consciousness, and the generations to come. I am looking forward to the rest of my time in the program, hopefully actually being on and experiencing campus. Paz, amor, y salud always.
I had started graduate school in the Fall 2019, so when COVID started I was barely in my second semester in school. I had chosen to attend in-person classes so that I could enhance my networking skills along with my new learning and – boom – we were quarantined. I am originally from the Valley, as was customary during Spring Break, I was heading back to visit family. My greatest challenge was to keep me grounded and focused on my personal well-being. It was definitely a LEARNING year, but I think in a way my profession helped me to cope with the ever-changing vibe of this COVID year. From being a guiding beacon to my students and their parents switching into remote learning to being a virtual teacher and student to become a hybrid teacher all within that year and learning all the new ways to navigate that world, it sure places a huge responsibility and pressure on just one person. My greatest success has been finishing my degree with flying colors, having a successful school year with minimal COVID struggles (just 1 student positive case and just 4 students quarantined), being named Distinguished Educator (Teacher of the Year) for Spring Meadows Elementary-Judson ISD and most definitely having my support system grow stronger while I was going through all of this. One lesson I take is to always be assertive and vigilant about what life throws at you, that way you can learn how to navigate that situation with clarity and focus, but most of all with love and support.
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UTSA Receives $5M Mellon Grant for Racial Justice Efforts by Rebecca Luther
In January of 2021, UTSA was awarded a three-year, $5 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the university’s community partnerships in advancing racial justice. The grant, administered through the Mellon Just Futures Initiative, supports visionary, unconventional, experimental and groundbreaking projects that address the long-existing fault lines of racism, inequality, and injustice within democracy and civil society. UTSA’s project—Democratizing Racial Justice (DRJ) —will be a transformative, community-based People’s Academies for Racial Justice. Through the People’s Academies, selected community fellows and faculty fellows will collaborate on a public-facing project each year of the grant as determined by that cohort. Grant funding will further support community dialogues with key scholars working in fields related to social justice. “The DRJ project was conceived to leverage our department’s and UTSA’s own interdisciplinary strengths in the humanities, ethnic studies and intersectional gender studies, and then build on those strengths through the external partnerships,” Alejandra Elenes, Ph.D. professor and chair of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies said. “DRJ was developed as an academic-community collaborative—and one that will serve as a model for innovative humanities and ethnic studies education in the region.” The project was developed by Jackie Cuevas, Ph.D. associate professor and assistant chair of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies and director of the Women’s Studies Institute; Alejandra C. Elenes, Ph.D. professor and chair of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies; and Rhonda M. Gonzales, Ph.D. professor and chair of the Department of History. The project also includes Kirsten Gardner, Ph.D., associate professor of history along with two faculty fellows Sonya Alemán, Ph.D., and Jerry González, Ph.D. Additionally, multiple students have active roles in the project as research assistants and interns. The project also involves two post-doctoral fellows, Carolina Arango-Vargas, Ph.D. and José G. Villagrán, Ph.D. Project partners include the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures, which will manage and promote an online repository of DRJ archives, including oral histories, public murals or other materials. The nonprofit Esperanza
Center, led by director Graciela Sanchez, will serve as the anchor community organization for facilitating the People’s Academies. Northwest Vista College will serve as institutional partner for the companion Educators’ Academies for Ethnic Studies and Sandra Garza, Ph.D., coordinator of the Mexican American Studies Program at Northwest Vista College, will serve as project liaison for participating Alamo Colleges District campuses. “These academies represent a path-making effort to bring together activist-scholars, students and community members to formulate community-centric, ethical collaborations where people of color remember histories, respond to community needs, conduct collective research and imagine thriving futures where racial justice is possible,” said Cuevas. UTSA is one of only 16 universities in the U.S. and the only institution in Texas to be awarded a grant through the Just Futures Initiative.
Since January 2021 In conjunction with Alamo Colleges held first ethnic studies educators academy. Attended by 25 local/national higher education faculty. Hired four staff members to coordinate initiatives: Allison Baca, Justine Cantu, Yasmín Codina, Viviana Guillen. Launched a website to feature project achievements, events, and highlights.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT:
https://racialjustice.utsa.edu/
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Professor named Ford Foundation fellow, continues work despite pandemic
Claudia García-Louis, Ph.D., assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies.
by Christopher Reichert Though 2020 presented many challenges, one COEHD faculty member was presented with a special opportunity. In May of 2020, Claudia García-Louis ,Ph.D., an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies, was named a postdoctoral fellow through the 2020 Ford Foundation Fellowship Program. The Ford Foundation program, which is administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, awards about 130 fellowships annually at the predoctoral, dissertation, and postdoctoral levels. Between 1980 and 2017, only 2% of the fellowships have been awarded to individuals in the education field. “I am extremely proud that this was my first time applying and I was awarded it because it’s extremely rare to receive it on the first goaround. I’m still pinching myself,” García-Louis said. “I think being selected for such a highly competitive fellowship is an affirmation that hard work pays off.” During García-Louis’ fellowship, which will last for a year, she’ll be researching her project, “A Chicana Feminist Approach to Disaggregating Hispanic Ethnicity in Higher Education: An Analysis on Latina/o/x Students’ Sense of Belonging.” “The research is formed through my own experiences. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where there weren’t a lot of Latinos,” she said. “And so, what I experienced is what a professor in the field of cultural studies calls deculturalization, which forces students of color to assimilate, often at the cost of their language and culture. I want to understand how those experiences at the K–12 level impact Latinx students in college.” Despite receiving the fellowship amidst a world pandemic, social distancing, and uncertainty, she pushed through and continued her research in a virtual environment. Within the first year, she was able to collect over 30 hours worth of interviews and focus groups. She began implementing new methodological approaches to data collection which included:
reflections, participant led facilitations, letter writing (to self and parents), as well as reacting to images/prompts with Zoom icons, to name a few. “I hope these approaches will allow me to illuminate the diversity within the Latinx nomenclature,” she said “as well as to identify the many (and often unknown) ways Latinx students and their families navigate belonging and academic success at high enrolling/high graduating Hispanic Serving Institutions.” Her research will continue throughout the fall of 2021, but so far, one of her biggest findings has been that geography plays a significant role when it comes to local politics and how students are treated and seen by others (both on campus and in society). “Very often, Hispanic students are portrayed as being at the lowest ranks in academic performance, but those are deficit perspectives that negatively impact Latinx students,” García-Louis said. “We must understand how deficit perspectives at the K–12 level influence Latinx relationships with education at the college level. So, what I wanted to understand is how those experiences at the K–12 level—in terms of being forced to assimilate and give up one’s culture, language and identity—influence students at the higher education level,” she said. “Particularly their relationship with how they see themselves in higher education and their overall academic potential.”
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Strategic Educational Partnerships Face Bold Challenges
UTSA Early Birds on the Rise Under the leadership of the College of Education and Human Development, the Instructional Outreach Program is dedicated to offering pathways to success for pre-college students. The program, led by Abel Gonzales, Ph.D., director, and Jillian Woolard, program manager combines first class academics, exceptional student support measures, as well as an innovative collaborative approach to refocus and reframe the dual credit discussion in the San Antonio community in regards to ‘grow your own’ dual credit models.
UTSA continues to develop innovative programs that engage students in our community and prepare them for the transition from high school to college. Over the course of the previous decade, college experience programs within COEHD have grown dramatically. As a longtime K-12 partner, our local school districts have turned to UTSA’s Early Birds Dual Credit Program to develop instructional pathways that integrate rigorous university coursework with high school endorsement pathways.
“Grow your own models aim to cultivate high performing undergraduates who enter full time studies with the academic and social skills necessary for success in their respective academic areas of interest,” Gonzales said. “By curating immersive dual credit experiences, students feel supported both academically and socially as part of the Roadrunner family.”
“Programs like UTSA’s Early Birds Dual Credit Program are providing students with the opportunity to earn significant college credit prior to high school graduation,” Jillian Woolard, programs manager, of the Instructional Outreach Program said.
Early exposure to research activities and networking events within their academic areas of interest provide confidence in their degree track choices. The program also provides targeted college preparatory services to assist in the transition from high school to college, including immersive dual credit orientations, undergraduate application, scholarship, and FAFSA assistance, monthly college preparatory workshops, as well as academic writing and research tutorials. In 2016, UTSA offered a single dual credit course with one local private school. At that time there were a total of 16 students participating in the UTSA Early Birds Dual Credit Program. This past year, UTSA increased participation into 10 San Antonio high schools. In the fall 2021 semester, the program is projecting an enrollment of over 400 students.
Participating high school students also receive critical support from both the high school and university faculty and staff throughout their participation. As part of their participation, students are provided comprehensive immersive activities to prepare them for their future degree pathways. These programs are increasing access for students from our surrounding community to university coursework, while developing their academic and social readiness that will be critical in their college persistence. “The demand for such programs has grown across the State of Texas as local school districts have focused on retooling instructional pathways that integrate more rigorous academic coursework options for students,” Gonzales said. “In addition, these dual credit courses allow students to earn college credit at no cost to the student while establishing a strong foundation for future academic success.”
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CAST School Partnerships Since 2017, UTSA has provided its top-tier expertise in education to support the career-themed schools known collectively as CAST (Centers for Applied Science and Technology). UTSA’s involvement in the CAST Schools began with the CAST Tech Early College Academy, the first of its kind in San Antonio. The UTSA Early Birds Dual Credit Program, and its partners, have collaborated to build innovative university level dual credit pathways for high school students interested in business, computer engineering, computer science, and information systems related careers. This program allows students to satisfy many of the core course requirements of their future degree plans while simultaneously enrolling in major specific exploratory coursework. Participants attending CAST Tech High School, within San Antonio ISD, have the opportunity to earn up to sixty university level dual credit hours, significantly lowering the cost of, and time to, undergraduate degree completion. This spring, CAST Tech High School graduated its first cohort of dual credit participants. Forty-five CAST Tech graduating seniors have been admitted to UTSA as freshman for fall 2021, and twenty-three selected UTSA as their university of choice. This represents an over 50% retention rate among admitted dual credit students.
Originally intended for teacher candidates set to begin their first year of teaching, the SBI helps bridge the gap between student-teacher and teacher. Over time, it has expanded, now serving as a full professional development institute for teachers of all experience levels. While some sessions are specifically for teacher candidates, focusing on topics such as certification exams and classroom management, others are intended to be useful for teachers with varied experience. As ATE Research Center coordinator Emily Young explains, “we saw value in blending the professional development for those practicing teachers with the teacher candidates, having that opportunity to learn alongside what they’re going to become – teachers.” Though the Institute looked different the last two years, having switched to a virtual setting due to the pandemic, the move had unexpected results, particularly in terms of attendance. “We have teachers participating from all over the nation, since we’re virtual,” Young said. In fact, last year’s SBI was attended by roughly 400 teachers, nearly four times as many as the Institute typically sees. While Young hopes next year’s Institute will be in person, coordinators are already exploring how to combine live and virtual elements to achieve the best of both worlds.
UTSA’s partnership with the CAST Schools is expanding with the inception of CAST Teach opening in August 2022. CAST Teach will be an innovative high school of choice for future educators, in partnership with Northside ISD, COEHD and CAST Schools. CAST Teach will serve as a university lab school supporting research along with innovative curriculum and future teacher preparation. CAST Teach is a grow-your-own teachers’ approach, and high school students are expected to earn up to 42 Dual Credit Hours that can be applied to a bachelor’s degree in education. Upon high school graduation, CAST Teach students will have the opportunity to enroll in the COEHD-NISD Teacher Residency program. The school presents a unique opportunity to develop and empower its high school students, so that they in turn, as future educators, have a bigger impact on generations to come.
Summer Bridging Institute
by Christopher Reichert and Libby Castillo In its 18th year the Summer Bridging Institute (SBI) hosted by the Academy for Teacher Excellence (ATE) continues to provide teachers with personal and professional development opportunities.
Though designed to offer professional development opportunities for both current and future educators, the SBI is so much more. It offers attendees the opportunity to create connections and build a community of educators and experts in the field. Shared passions for self-development, education and community is the glue that binds attendees and has made the SBI a success for 18 years. Building on the strength of the SBI, beginning in fall of 2021, UTSA will begin recruiting and engaging future teachers from the Alamo Colleges District (ACD) into the Teacher Academy for Future Teachers (TAFT) program. Ultimately TAFT teacher candidates will have the opportunity for a seamless transfer to UTSA. Through the TAFT program, students who begin their academic careers with ACD can co-enroll at both institutions and take classes from UTSA faculty while attending their ACD school. Benefits of the partnership include: qualified students are guaranteed admission to COEHD, participants will be placed in cohorts, will have access to COEHD student support resources and participate in the Academy for Teacher Excellence’s Summer Bridging Institute, and access to services both at UTSA and ACD.
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UTSA Child Development Center by Libby Castillo and Valerie Bustamante
After closing its doors in March 2020 due to the pandemic, UTSA’s Child Development Center faced the difficult challenge of keeping up with quickly-changing protocols, continuing communication to parents of students, and ensuring a safe return for staff, faculty and students. Under the direction of newly appointed director, Pamela E. Ray, Ph.D., the center remained steadfast and re-opened its doors on January 5, 2021. The center was not only successful in safely re-opening its doors, in fall of 2020, the center received a Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) grant of $315,000 from the U.S. Department of Education to support its new initiative, the Aim High Childcare Project. The Center’s first goal is to recruit, select and enroll children of student parents who are working to complete their education at UTSA. The initiative also aims to provide extended services to student parents, such as extended child care hours during the week before finals. The grant will allow the center to provide a subsidized portion of the child care tuition to full-time undergraduate and graduate students who maintain a specified GPA and meet income eligibility guidelines. “We want to be able to provide this service to help them out while they are taking classes to graduate,” Ray said. “This is the ultimate benefit of having a child development center at an institution of higher education because the campus is preparing the whole family from cradle to career.”
In addition, the center will embark on a partnership with Education Service Center, using a grant from the Children’s Learning Institute, to work with the teachers in the preschool classrooms to enhance quality but also help the teachers prepare the children for school. Ray added that she looks forward to seeing the center maintain accreditation, retain its quality teachers and support the university’s strategic goal to expand quality child development services with a center at the Downtown Campus, and in the future, a new building for the Main Campus center. “We further envision a close teaching and learning connection with students and faculty researching early childhood education in the college. These are COEHD’s bold dreams for the future of the Child Development Center,” said Juliet Langman, interim dean of COEHD.
Prefreshman Engineering Program by Monica Hernandez
This past year upended our way of living, working, and socializing. As stay-at-home orders for COVID-19 were set in place, schools across the country closed and sent students home, turning learning from a brickand mortar environment into a virtual world. The Prefreshman Engineering Program (PREP) was no stranger to adaptability, having been in place for over 40 years. However, the pandemic caused PREP a myriad of challenges, beginning with transitioning from an in-person program to a 100% virtual model. We planned, implemented, and executed the first virtual PREP in the summer of 2021. Given Zoom fatigue for future teachers and PREP participants, many previous PREP participants wanted to spend their summer doing outside activities, as opposed to a virtual program. While this caused a delay in recruiting and hiring, PREP’s first ever virtual summer kicked off without a hitch in mid-June 2021 with over 500+ students and all staff in place.
“PREP’s adaptability and quick transition showcases the inclusive community we’ve built. While major changes and challenges happened this past year, PREP remained true to its mission and centered on student impact and success,” said Dr. Krystal Peralez, Executive Director of PREP. During this past year, bright spots have also emerged within PREP, specifically around funding and research. In June 2021, UTSA announced that the Senate Bill 1 (SB1) passed, which included Special Items funding once again for PREP. This funding supports the efforts of all those involved with PREP and will be impactful for the students it serves. Success with the program was also found through emerging research. Conducted by former UTSA professor Dr. Guan Saw, PREP published two reports highlighting the program’s impact, student success, and program satisfaction. While this past year was a challenge for all, PREP managed to turn lemons into lemonade - just in time for summer.
AGENTS OF CHANGE | UTSA | 11
UTSA Partners with SAISD to establish Dual Language Community Lab Schools by Libby Castillo The College of Education and Human Development (COEHD) and San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) are partnering to lead three Dual Language Community Lab Schools. As part of Senate Bill 1882, signed into law during the 2017 Texas legislative session, the partnership aims to create a dual language model lab school network that will advance the preparation of teachers, principals, counselors, school psychologists, and others dedicated to educating bilingual students in San Antonio. Housed at Bonham Academy, Irving Dual Language Academy, and Twain Dual Language Academy, COEHD directors, faculty, graduate students, clinical students and clinical teachers as well as teachers, students, parents and administrators in the three schools will serve as a model for practice and research into the value and best models for dual language instruction. Drawing on the shared expertise of practitioners in the schools and researchers and teacher preparation faculty, the lab school will serve as a site for innovation and a model for dual language programs across the nation. “Each of these schools is considered a dual language model school and there is a genuine commitment to dual language by the leadership, teachers, staff and community,” said Belinda Flores, UTSA associate dean of Professional Preparation and Partnerships. “Across COEHD, faculty and staff have expertise in the areas of bilingualbicultural/dual language education to support and promote these innovative practices.”
of knowledge around culturally sustaining pedagogy and teaching,” said David Nungaray, principal of Bonham Academy. “At Bonham this partnership will enrich our pillars of dual language, environmental science and fine arts and open many doors for our staff, students, and community. We envision our 1882 partnership to be a model for the nation and for urban education in unifying a community vision with strategic, community-based partnerships. Our staff looks forward to building upon and establishing new collaborations with UTSA professors and staff to further enrich our students’ lives, and to growing in our own learning as mentors to future educators. This 1882 partnership represents the power of partnership and will build a pipeline for future dual language educators and leaders.” The 1882 partnership is just one of the many partnerships between UTSA and San Antonio School districts. As an urban serving, community-engaged university, UTSA is dedicated to student success and creating pathways to a college education. As a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), the partnership furthers UTSA’s goal of becoming a model Hispanic thriving university by serving the Hispanic community through strategic educational partnerships. “Through a long-standing relationship with SAISD, the partnership solidifies COEHD’s mutual commitment to social justice, bicultural-bilingual and equitable education. In addition, these partnerships support UTSA’s Bold Futures Initiative and COEHD’s partnership initiatives for optimizing opportunities, transforming lives, and creating endless possibilities for learners, faculty and staff alike,” says Juliet Langman, interim dean of the College of Education and Human Development.
The partnership was developed to close the gap between educational theory and practice in the classroom. “There has long been a call to transform educator preparation to ensure that all students have educational opportunities to achieve their potential,” Flores said. “Through this partnership, COEHD intends to tackle these challenges and find solutions to help these students achieve their maximum potential.” As part of the partnership, COEHD faculty and students as well as teachers and students in the schools will engage in research to identify best practices for educator preparation programs, to examine the role of EC-12 culturally and linguistically efficacious and responsive teaching and leadership practices, and to examine contexts and practices that lead to exceptional biliteracy and academic outcomes. “Engaged research, directly tied to education practice is at the heart of COEHD’s research missions” said Juliet Langman, Interim Dean. “The partnership places COEHD with other research colleges of education in a space for innovation and discovery.” “UTSA is a proven partner with a long history in SAISD, having helped to prepare generations of bilingual teachers while bringing a depth
JUANITA SANTOS will serve as executive director of the
Dual Language Community Lab Schools. In her 28 years in education, Santos has served as a classroom teacher, as an instructional coach and as an assistant principal in Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. In addition to her varied experience in the classroom, she has worked as an administrator at several Title 1 dual language campuses. Most recently, she was principal for Rayburn Elementary School in the Harlandale Independent School District.
12 | UTSA | AGENTS OF CHANGE
COEHD by the Numbers
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT:
https://www.utsa.edu/ir/content/dashboards/
AGENTS OF CHANGE | UTSA | 13
Degrees Awarded FALL 2020 - SPRING 2021
286
265 21
UNDERGRADUATE
MASTER
DOCTORAL
Research Expenditures
$5,374,940 SEPT 2020 - JULY 2021
Student Enrollment FALL 2020
SPRING 2021
1,157
1,045
UNDERGRADUATES
UNDERGRADUATES
938
870
MASTER
MASTER
227
207
DOCTORAL
DOCTORAL
We are Proud of... FACULTY DIVERSITY
Hispanic/Latinx
40%
White
35%
African American
9%
Asian
2%
International
3%
Other
11%
Female
72%
Male
28%
STUDENT DIVERSITY
Hispanic/Latinx
62%
White
25%
African American
6%
Asian
2%
International
1%
Other
4%
Female
85%
Male
15%
14 | UTSA | AGENTS OF CHANGE
BOLDIDEAS by Valerie B. Johnson and Libby Castillo
In its second year, COEHD’s REGSS department continues to make its mark as a key player in UTSA’s commitment to inclusivity Established in 2019, the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies (REGSS) was born from student, community, and university activism. Since its inception, the department has remained committed to working with the UTSA and San Antonio communities to strive towards equality and social justice within the university and society as a whole.
robust background in social, cultural, human rights, and women studies experience, she brings to the department a wealth of knowledge and expertise.
In the fall of 2020. Alejandra Elenes, Ph.D., joined the Roadrunner family from Arizona State University to serve as chair. With a
The REGSS department continues to make strides in the community by providing courses important to current social discourse. Elenes
Elenes joined the department during a year fraught with challenges from a world pandemic, intensifying political division, and social unrest in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.
has big plans for the REGSS department and is eager to continue the already growing legacy of the department. “My long-term vision is for REGSS to become a national model for decolonial and intersectional scholarship and community engagement,” Elenes said. “I will advocate for the department seeking the necessary resources we need to serve our students. REGSS has an important role in the implementation of UTSA’s strategic plan and as a Hispanic Serving Institution.”
Special Guest Speaker As part of the Black Lives Matter: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality class, the College of Education and Human Development together with Academic Affairs invited former NPR Host and Special Correspondent, Founding Director of “The Race Card Project” and Washington Post Opinions Contributor, Michele Norris to speak to students and UTSA community. Students from the class spearheaded the speaking engagement and were invited to come up with questions to ask Norris, with some students moderating the special event. “Our Black Lives Matter class wanted Michele to come because of her background and what we wanted to learn from the experience,” Xiolani Turner, a student from the class said. “Our class has had many guest speakers, and we really enjoy being able to see different perspectives from several different people just like us.” Norris offered students an in-depth perspective of both her personal and professional experiences and spoke about the many powerful stories people share through her Peabody Award-winning initiative, “The Race Card Project,” which fosters conversation among individuals about their differences. “Guest speakers are an important part of a student’s learning experience because we get a different view on things. It’s not straight from a textbook or lesson plan,” Turner said. “Michele Norris was an amazing speaker and having her here made our entire class feel so warm.”
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Responding to Social Unrest On May 25, 2020 an incident occurred in Minneapolis that sparked a momentous shift in the way race and inequality are viewed in our country and around the world. George Floyd was killed during his arrest after police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. The incident, caught on camera, led to months of protests and sparked conversations about social justice and the need for change. In response to the growing conversation, the African American Studies program in the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies developed a new class; offered in fall 2020 Black Lives Matter: Race Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality. Led by Karla Broadus, director of the African American Studies program, the course was created to discuss the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement and its historical and sociocultural contexts. “It’s very important that we talk about Black lives and everything that’s involved because a lot of our students don’t understand the academic, cultural and sexual connections to the topic,” said Broadus. The course, which drew students across different disciplines and ethnic cultures, discussed current affairs and examined equality and social justice issues in academia, society and beyond. Differing views were also represented through the diverse speakers who often joined the class. Faculty from the REGSS department,
From pop culture, to Mexican American Studies, one course receives national attention In the fall of 2020, a course created by Sonya M. Alemán, an associate professor of Mexican American Studies caught the attention of the nation. The course, Selena: A Mexican American Identity and Experience, within the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, centered its focus on former Tejano singer, Selena Quintanilla-Perez. The inaugural class, with almost 30 participating students in its first semester, explored various topics relating to Selena’s career, image, music, the Spanish language and Mexican American identity. “This has been a dream for me for a long time because it engages the things that I already am interested in and have spent time studying, researching, writing and talking about,” Alemán said. “Issues about race, class, gender identity,” she continued, “about the racialized experience of being a Chicana and Mexican American—I just knew that
community members and experts in the field often visited the virtual course to share their experience and knowledge with the class, including NPR Host and Special Correspondent, Michele Norris. This wasn’t the first Black Lives Matter class at UTSA. One was previously offered in 2017 in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts. However, Broadus said she felt it was important to have a resurgence of the course within the African American Studies program in response to the social conversation. “I hope students can go out and deal with the social justice issues and maybe be better employers or employees when they leave this institution,” Broadus said.
all of that could be untangled and unpacked through the lens of looking at this iconic figure. Selena embodied all of those things in some aspect of her life and career.” The class not only centered on Selena but also offered the opportunity for exclusive guest lectures and special guests. Students were treated to guest appearances from Coca Cola executive Elisa Gonzalez-Rubio who worked alongside Selena, and even had the chance to participate in a panel discussion with executive producer Jaime Dávila and San Antonio native and actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira of the Netflix show Selena: The Series. Of the panel, Alemán stated, “anytime you can enrich your already existing relationship with Selena and her legacy I encourage everybody to take it,” she said. “We are all looking for moments of joy during these really challenging times. It’s been a hard year and even a small moment like this panel are needed.” The course was well-received by students and was virtually successful in reaching Aleman’s goal of providing students with a greater appreciation of who they are, who their community is and why Selena has remained a legend 25 years after her death. Christina Farias, a student of the class said, “this class has not only made me prouder to be a Latina but has taught me to embrace who I am and where I grew up. The way Selena took the Tejano scene by storm, made it her own, and how she continues to impact the Tejano community to this day inspires me to follow my dreams without any fears of worrying what people may think of me.”
16 | UTSA | AGENTS OF CHANGE
A lasting
LEGACY by Libby Castillo
Professor Emerita, Bertha Perez, Ph.D., is known for her lifelong personal and professional commitment to improving literacy. Through the Bertha Perez Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Biliteracy Research she is continuing her life’s mission. Her contribution to the College of Education and Human Development (COEHD) was matched by H-E-B and used to create a professorship in support of biliteracy research. On September 1, 2020, Lucila Ek, Ph.D., was selected as the recipient of the Dr. Bertha Perez Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Biliteracy Research. Born in Yucatan, Mexico, Ek immigrated to the U.S. at the age of four. She attended public schools in Los Angeles where she became aware of disparity in the quality of education between working-class immigrant and other children. This fueled her concern for issues of equity and access in education. “I first started reading Dr. Perez’s research when I was a grad student,” she said. “One of the first book reviews I did was actually on one of her books, Becoming Biliterate and I remember being star struck when I came to UTSA and I saw her in the elevator. So now to have the Dr. Bertha Perez Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Biliteracy Research is really a great honor and it really just shows how things come full circle.” In 2019, Ek became the Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) of the Sarah King Elementary-UTSA’s Turnaround through a Research Partnership Project (SKE-UTSA), and was able to add a biliteracy focus. Ek joined fellow COEHD faculty and students from two departments including: Sam DeJulio, Ph.D., Co-PI; Sarah Aguire, project manager; Iliana Alanis, Ph.D.; María G. Leija, Ph.D.; Gilberto P. Lara, Ph.D., and Kenya Vargas, Graduate Research Assistant. “Our goals for the research were to support in-service bilingual teachers in dual language classrooms and foster children’s biliteracy development,” she said “Our service goals were to support the teachers in lesson planning using multi-cultural children’s literature and to work with the children on their oral language, reading and writing skills to develop their biliteracy.” Legacy is a theme for Ek. Her father was one of her very first literacy teachers who taught her to read and write in Spanish, Ek said, “Part of the endowment will allow me, in a way, to honor his legacy because education was so important to him.”
Our goals for the research were to support in-service bilingual teachers in dual language classrooms and foster children’s biliteracy development. – EMERITA , BERTHA PEREZ, PH.D.
In 2020 the team carried on, working on what they could. They shifted from data collection at Sarah King Elementary, to focus on data analysis and dissemination of their research. In February of 2020 the team presented their work to the annual conferences of the San Antonio Area Association of Bilingual Education (SAAABE) and the Literacy Research Association (LRA). With the roll out of COVID-19 vaccinations, and as the world begins to return to a degree of normalcy, Ek and the team already have their eyes set on furthering their research through a partnership with UTSA and San Antonio Independent School District. “It is just a dream to be an endowed professor and carry on the legacy of an amazing scholar,” Ek said. “There are so few of us Latina Ph.D.s, Latina full professors and Latina Endowed Professors, so it is such an important goal to keep opening and furthering that pipeline.”
AGENTS OF CHANGE | UTSA | 17
A Young Woman’s Legacy Lives on to Benefit UTSA’s Special Education Majors by Jordan Allen A beloved sister and daughter, Samjatha Govindaraju was a cherished member of her family. Some described her as a person who others naturally gravitated toward. Although she struggled from a disability that left her unable to speak or walk, she never let that get in the way of her joy for life. Always smiling and laughing, Samjatha was able to light up any room with her cheerful and magnetic spirit. To honor her memory, Samjatha’s family decided to create the Samjatha Govindaraju Endowed Graduate Scholarship for students in the UTSA College of Education and Human Development (COEHD). The endowed scholarship supports students who are pursuing a master’s degree in the field of special education. From her first day in kindergarten to her high school graduation, Samjatha had a wonderful experience with the educators in San Antonio’s Northside Independent School District. Her teachers were some of the kindest and most passionate people the Govindaraju family had ever met. They were always active advocates for Samjatha, ensuring she received the best education possible. The Govindaraju family was so grateful to these educators, they wanted
to create better pathways for more students to pursue careers in special education so that children like Samjatha could have the same positive educational experience. The family’s endowed scholarship was created by Samajtha’s sister and brother-in-law, Swapomthi Govindaraju and Dr. Neeraj R. Nagella, and her parents, Dr. Rao and Mrs. Usha Govindaraju. Dr. Rao Govindaraju currently serves as a professor in the UTSA College of Engineering and says he has witnessed the impact scholarships have on students during their educational journeys. Dr. Govindaraju explained that students on scholarship have more opportunities to focus on their education and participate in extra-curricular activities that enhance their learning because they do not have to worry about unnecessary barriers like maintaining employment while juggling course loads. Recognizing the importance of financial assistance, the family decided that endowing a scholarship in Samjatha’s memory would be the best way to realize their goal of inspiring more students to pursue special education degrees. “Our family decided to fund an endowment because we wanted to make sure that Samjatha’s legacy continues on. It is a simple, onetime gift that will continue even when we are no longer here ourselves. We agreed that this is just a beautiful way to give in remembrance of my sister. Special education teachers were such a big part of her life. We really hope to inspire and foster this new generation of educators,” said Swapomthi. August 31, 2021 would have been Samjatha’s 28th birthday. Her family believes that awarding the scholarship to a future special education instructor this fall would be the perfect gift for Samjatha.
18 | UTSA | AGENTS OF CHANGE
UEI
TOP SUCCESSES SINCE 2020 by Nicole Foy
The Urban Education Institute (UEI) was launched in 2019 as a presidential initiative within UTSA’s strategic plan. President Taylor Eighmy announced the downtown institute, directed by Dr. Mike Villarreal, as a key component in UTSA’s growing urban-serving mission. The UEI produces improvement-focused, collaborative research to raise educational attainment, advance economic mobility and help people reach their potential in Bexar County and the surrounding 23-county area in South/Central Texas. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the UEI pivoted and began research into how distance teaching and
Teaching & Learning in the Time of COVID-19 For the Teaching & Learning in the Time of COVID-19 project, researchers interviewed 3,000 college faculty, public school teachers, parents and older high school students. The UEI hired 27 UTSA students, trained them in qualitative research methods and paid them for their work. Many of them had lost their own jobs during the economic downturn. It was experiential learning at its finest – training students and serving the community during a time of intense need. The Urban Education Institute has produced a number of Research Briefs to share their work with the community. These include briefs on: u
School Mobility
u
Improvement Science
u
College Access
u
Youth Employment
For more information on these reports, please visit: https://uei.utsa.edu/
learning were reshaping Texas’ then-virtual classrooms, public school systems and the Alamo Colleges District. The four resulting reports were (and are still being) used by school, college and community leaders to plan, act and respond throughout the time of transition and tumult.
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A Future of Possibilities Educational Psychology Department Looks to a Promising Future Post Pandemic by Christopher Reichert 2020 was a year of uncertainty, struggle, and triumph; for the Department of Educational Psychology, it was also a year of possible new beginnings. With new programs, funding opportunities, and faculty projects currently awaiting approval, the department has its sights set on continued growth and development. The first is a new Ph.D. program in school psychology, which department chair Sharon Nichols, Ph.D., says will prepare a new generation of scientist-practitioners to work in a variety of settings from schools to hospitals, while being eligible to earn both state and national licensure. This program is in its final stage of approval, and the department hopes it will be able to admit its first cohort in fall 2022. The department is also working on a new master’s degree. It currently offers a masters in school psychology and a masters in educational psychology, which has two distinct concentrations. This proposal would seek to split those concentrations, resulting in an M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). According to Nichols, ABA trains practitioners to treat children with developmental disabilities, specifically those with behavioral challenges. In addition to new programs, the department is also anticipating the approval of new grants. One is called DEEP Impact, a continuation of the Deaf Education and Educational Psychology Learning in Texas Project that launched in 2017. This grant allowed UTSA to partner with deaf educators from the UT Health Science Center. For UT Health students earning their Master of Deaf Education and Hearing Science, this partnership gives them some training in school psychology. Conversely, it provides UTSA’s school psychology students with specialized training in deaf education. The department was also awarded $250,000 through the university’s strategic investment fund grants. This money is intended to support the development of an augmented reality lab for ABA training and supervision. “We’re so excited about this opportunity and to Dr. Neely’s efforts securing this grant. It’s going to be a very interdisciplinary effort,” Nichols said, “especially when it’s all up and running. That will hopefully lead to other grants and innovative cutting-edge projects utilizing that technology.”
2020 has also been a year of successes for several of the department’s faculty. Nichols, for one, was elected vice president of Division 15 of the APA. However, shortly after, she was selected as a co-editor of a new academic journal, tentatively titled Educational Psychology for Policy and Practice. Feeling this could present a conflict of interest, she and the division decided she would step down from her role as vice president and focus on the journal instead. This means Nichols is once again in an all-too-familiar situation. “The APA requires newly proposed journals sponsored by APA divisions go through a lengthy approval process before the division to start it in earnest. So far, we’ve made it through the first three rounds of approvals.” The department and its faculty have seen numerous other successes over the last year. Castro-Villarreal’s master’s program was awarded for innovations in its admission process (htps://education.utsa.edu/ news/2021/innovation_in_admissions_award.html) and was a 2020 Excelencia in Education program finalist. In addition, she notes there are a significant number of her colleagues also involved in grant work, such as Leslie Neely, Ph.D. Neely is the director of the Child and Adolescent Policy and Research Institute. She runs Project PLAAY (Parent-Led Autism treatment for At-risk Young infants and toddlers), which seeks to identify and treat children at risk of developing autism spectrum disorder, as well as the Autism Research Center Lab.
20 | UTSA | AGENTS OF CHANGE
A year of GROWTH
by Christopher Reichert
Telehealth services and camps for children with autism, the creation of an inclusive math ecosystem for school-age children, and crisis response and bereavement services for children are just three of the Bank of America - Child and Adolescent Policy Research Institute’s (BA-CAPRI) projects that have not only survived the COVID-19 pandemic but have continued to thrive. Supported by a Bank of America endowment, the COEHD-affiliated institute, is led by Leslie Neely, Ph.D., and administers grants focused on research and services for children elementary aged and younger. Over the past year, affiliated research faculty received funding for six proposals totaling over $2.5 million. ABA TEACHER, directed by Neely and Hannah MacNaul, Ph.D., provides education and supervision opportunities for teachers looking to become behavior analysts. This project aims to serve the 850 children in Texas with or at-risk for autism by providing behavior analysis services via telehealth, outpatient therapeutics, and in-class support. Notably, the project offered a summer research program “Camp Durango,” which aimed to address pandemic-related losses by embedding social-communication and adaptive skills training into the context of fun summer camp activities for over 160 children with autism. For more information, visit https://www.abautsa.com/. The Community Math Project (CMP), directed by Emily Bonner, Ph.D., and Crystal Kalinec-Craig, Ph.D., aims to form an inclusive math ecosystem that provides evidence-based academic support through community centers in low-income neighborhoods. The CMP pairs prospective teachers with parents of elementary-aged children to develop content support for students at home, while also providing summer tutoring and support to students themselves. The CMP is a collaboration between UTSA, Northwest Vista College, and San Antonio community centers. Another innovative project supported by BA-CAPRI is the Sutherland Springs Crisis Response led by Derek Robertson, Ph.D., which was prompted by the massacre that took place at the first Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX, on Nov. 5, 2017. Major accomplishments of this program include: UTSA’s partnership with the Child Bereavement Center to open Paloma Place, a new counseling center in Floresville, TX; crisis training and consultation for young children in over 40
schools in the affected area; and over 2,000 counseling hours to more than 335 victims and survivors. Becky Huang Ph.D. and her colleagues from North Carolina State University run the Bi-Lingual Reading Comprehension Project, which focuses on developing new techniques for English learners in grades 3-5 who struggle with reading comprehension. The researchers will spend the next four years working with over 450 children to help them strengthen their language and literacy skills while building new knowledge of interesting topics in disciplines such as science, social studies, and literature. The instruction developed in this project can add to the instructional repertoires of ESL educators and literacy specialists who work with elementary students in developing their reading comprehension in English as a second language. The CS4SA-HS Project just completed its Summer Institute with its first cohort of 12 middle and high school teachers in the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD). This project prepares in-service teachers to integrate computer science into their classrooms to increase Latinx participation in CS and other STEM areas. The Summer Institute focused on building a foundation of computer science knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy for teachers to create and advocate for more CS opportunities in their schools. The project will follow the teachers over the next academic year to investigate how the program increases Latinx participation in computer science at the secondary level. This project’s principal investigator is Timothy Yuen, Ph.D., with co-investigators María Arreguín, Ed.D., Amanda Fernandez, Ph.D., Crystal Kalinec-Craig, Ph.D., and Priya Prasad, Ph.D., and senior investigator, Emily Bonner, Ph.D. Finally, there is the Parent-Led Autism Treatment for At-risk Young Infants and Toddlers Project, or Project PLAAY. This project aims to identify infants and toddlers at-risk for a future diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and create a radical, innovative parentassisted treatment program. Over 100 families have participated in the project and received diagnostic, child intervention, and caregiver training services. Project PLAAY is conducted in collaboration with The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, Harvard University, and The Autism Treatment Center as a community effort to improve the quality and access of services for families in the San Antonio area. For more information, visit http://www.projectplaay.org/.
AGENTS OF CHANGE | UTSA | 21
Coping after Tragedy BY LIBBY CASTILLO
Four years after Texas’ deadliest mass shooting, the work of the Department of Counseling is having a lasting impact. The town of Sutherland Springs, TX was left devastated after a tragic mass shooting in 2017 claimed the lives of 26 people. COEHD’s Department of Counseling was one of the many organizations who stepped in to provide multiple levels of support to the grieving community. Their efforts are carried on today through the thousands of school counselors and campus-based mental health professionals who received the department’s crisis training and education. The UTSA Department of Counseling partnered with the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas to establish Paloma Place, a mental health center for grieving members of the community, located in Floresville, Texas. Under the supervision of counseling faculty, UTSA staff and doctoral students provided on site counseling and neurofeedback services to children and adults of all ages, and training to school personnel on best practices for responding to community trauma and loss.
These practices are now available for future training to provide school counselors and other mental health professionals the competencies and processes needed in the aftermath of loss of life events. Thelma Duffey, professor and chair in the Department of Counseling, served as a consultant to the Newtown community following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. She and several UTSA Department of Counseling faculty provided training and consultation to municipal
leaders, school district administrators, teachers, staff, and impacted family members. They shared “lessons learned” with the Sutherland Springs and surrounding communities through various town meetings and trainings. Elias Zambrano, Ph.D., UTSA retired professor of practice, organized the school training component. Zambrano brought together district counseling leaders utilizing various models of crisis response to coordinate a training protocol for impacted school districts. This resulted in an intensive two-day training for school-based crisis teams. Through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and a $150,000 donation from Whataburger, UTSA’s Academy for Crisis and Trauma Counseling (ACTC), under the auspices of COEHD’s Department of Counseling, was able to provide free services, programs and training to the community and schools. Additionally, mental health counseling services were coordinated with the Sutherland Springs Coordinated Response Collaborative consisting of other area mental health agencies who also received VOCA grants. Derek Robertson, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Counseling served as Principal Investigator of the VOCA grant. Clinical mental health counseling services were offered at Paloma Place the counseling center opened in Floresville through its partnership with the Children’s Bereavement Center of San Antonio. Additionally, mental health counseling services were coordinated with the Sutherland Springs Coordinated Response Collaborative consisting of other area mental health agencies who also received VOCA grants. “Crises of all kinds occur every day and impact community members of all ages and stages in life. While one can never prepare for the shock of a traumatic event, counselors can support their communities when such events occur,” Duffey said. “The goal of training and timely intervention is to help communities navigate complex loss and mitigate its devastating impact.” The work of the ACTC has set in place a training protocol and related resources to assist campuses to respond to critical incidences when they occur. Of the training, one school counselor and member of a response team said, “we all have the same training so we can count on others following the same steps. No matter when we are informed of the situation, we can access the documents and start the next day prepared and ready to go.”
22 | UTSA | AGENTS OF CHANGE
Progressive Changes by Libby Castillo
In 2020, the pandemic drastically changed the way we communicate and interact. With social distancing rules and guidelines set in place, in-person gatherings, celebrations, and functions were moved online, including our education system.
Focusing on culturally-relevant and technology-mediated approaches to learning and teaching, the course of study places and emphasis on instructional design, games and learning, virtual worlds, educational robotics, new literacies, youth cultures, and digital storytelling.
Almost all courses within UTSA made the temporary and necessary switch to online learning. At the same time, the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching (ILT) began laying the groundwork to transition two of its master’s degrees to a fully online format beginning in the fall of 2021.
The program is designed for students seeking to expand their knowledge of learning technologies, instructional design, and multimedia development for learning, as well as those seeking leadership roles in these areas.
“Some of programs had already been preparing to go online to reach a broader audience,” Ann Marie Ryan, Ph.D., department chair of ILT said. “These programs also were a great fit for online learning given their curricular and instructional focus.” The Master of Arts degree in Learning, Design, and Technology (formerly Instructional Technology) offers students the opportunity for an advanced study and professional development program in the field of learning and teaching with technology. The degree focuses on the understanding, design, and application of learning environments and activities supported by current and emergent technologies, in both formal and informal settings. “There is no better degree program to be online than one designed to help you to teach and learn using technology,” Ryan said. “During the pandemic, teachers across grade levels through to university learned the challenges technological environments and the breadth of available tools. This program equips educators to understand the theories, content, and skills necessary to teach and learn with technology.”
The Master of Arts degree in Special Education, another program being offered fully online, is designed for students seeking an opportunity for initial, additional, or advanced preparation for educating individuals with disabilities in an inclusive classroom. This program is designed for not only special educators who wish to gain advanced knowledge in their field, but also general educators who wish to learn to implement effective practices for students with disabilities receiving an inclusive education in their classroom. “It is essential for teachers to focus on the strengths and assets of their students and match those with the curriculum frameworks and instructional strategies that can help them meet their goals,” Ryan said. “This degree will help teachers support their students in reaching their aims and in turn assist teachers meeting their professional goals as well.” The College of Education and Human Development and its departments remain committed to the student experience and engaging in current educational best practices. The transformation of these courses from in-person to fully online will allow graduate students the flexibility and feasibility to fit their higher education goals into their busy schedules.
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COEHD Helps Continue Annual SPANISH LITERATURE AWARD CEREMONY Amidst Pandemic by Stephanie Hamilton
On April 30, 2021, the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at UTSA hosted a virtual ceremony in which The North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE) celebrated the winners of the children’s and young adult literature award, Premio Campoy-Ada, for 2020. The award is named after distinguished children’s authors and scholars Dr. F. Isabel Campoy and Dr. Alma Flor Ada. This prize was established in order to recognize notable literature written in Spanish for children and youth in the United States and Puerto Rico. It recognizes works that stand out for the originality of their idea, their artistic and literary achievement, and their excellent use of the Spanish language. The ceremony, which celebrated winning authors from 11 different categories, took place in both English and Spanish. It included speakers from UTSA and ANLE as well as an appearance by authors Campoy and Ada. UTSA’s involvement with the Premio Campoy-Ada goes back to 2017, when a memorandum of understanding was established between UTSA and ANLE to host the awards ceremony each year for the next five years. The first awards ceremony took place in March of 2017 at UTSA’s Downtown Campus. “It was a lovely success as it dovetailed with the National Latina/o Children’s Literature conference that our department hosted,” said Patricia Sánchez, Professor and Chair in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at UTSA. UTSA was set to host the 2019 awards ceremony. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, the ceremony had to be moved to the state bilingual education conference in California (CABE). “After that, we were able to regroup and host the 2020 awards ceremony this past spring,” Sánchez said. Dr. Howard Smith, who was initially involved with the ceremony taking place at UTSA, said, “I am very happy that Dr. Patricia Sánchez has picked up the award and that she has, again, been the steamroller, the lead, the quarterback to carry on this very important award.”
“As a Hispanic Thriving Institution in the heart of South Texas, where Spanish is as ubiquitous as the air we breathe, it only makes sense for our university to host an awards program like this one,” Sánchez said. “We must continue to show future generations of bilingual speakers in this region the value and love that the Spanish language deserves.” Sánchez hopes that the Premio Campoy-Ada will become just as recognized as the Tomás Rivera Book Award that is given out by Texas State University. The award, named after the distinguished alumnus, was created in 1995 to honor authors and illustrators who create literature that depicts the Mexican American experience. “Both children’s book award programs have different aims and reach different audiences,” Sánchez said. “However, the Premio Campoy-Ada directly speaks to the abundant dual-language programs our city offers its residents.” Sánchez said that moving forward, the awards will be given out every two years. The next event will take place in the spring of 2023. “I believe we will make it a hybrid event as many recipients and attendees enjoyed the ease of participating without having to travel,” Sánchez said. As part of their agreement with ANLE, the Department of BiculturalBilingual Studies has also established the Alma Flor Ada and Isabel Campoy Collection of Spanish Language and Bilingual Children’s Literature at the UTSA Libraries. The collection includes winning books from all past and future award years. The department is also in the process of creating a webpage dedicated to the award.
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