As a component of the Ascender Foundational training, guest speaker, Dr. Norma Cantu, presented her session ‘Cada Cabeza es un Mundo” via zoom on July 17th. The session’s objectives were to introduce the participants to CTN’s language arts component as well as to read and analyze literary and other texts from a variety of cultural and historical contexts and to examine the influence of myths and oral traditions.

“Reading and Writing practice – literacy – is at the heart of the Ascender framework. We believe in the use of culturally relevant texts and culturally sustaining teaching approaches as a way of engaging our students and empowering them in college and beyond,” commented Allegra Villarreal, CTN Director of Professional Development.  “Dr. Norma Cantu’s books are used in our classrooms as are the activities she has graciously shared with us during our trainings. We feel her insights on both writing and teaching are crucial to our program,” Villarreal stated.

Dr. Cantú is a prominent Chicana/o and Latina/o cultural studies expert and author, and the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Endowed Professor in Humanities at Trinity College.  Cantú is professor emerita of English and U.S. Latina/o Literatures at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her teaching career also includes a 20-year tenure on the faculty at Texas A&M International University in Laredo.