RESEARCH AND PEDAGOGY ARTICLES

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THE BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN HIGH-QUALITY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE FACULTY IN TEXAS
ERIN DORAN
Erin Doran is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Iowa State University and serves as the Director of Research and Evaluation for Catch the Next. She completed her doctorate in Educational Leadership at the University of Texas at San Antonio in May, 2015. Her dissertation, which focuses on one college’s implementation of Integrated Reading and Writing (INRW), won the Dissertation of the Year Award from the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC). Erin continues her research on reading and writing in community colleges and how to best serve Latina/o students in particular.

CREATIVE WORK

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TWELVE STUDENTS IN SEARCH OF A COURSE OF STUDY AND CLINKING GLASSES
MANUEL DEL VALLE
In October 1948, Manuel del Valle was born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents. Born in East Harlem, he spent most of his time growing up in the housing projects. He graduated from Brooklyn Tech in 1966, having majored in their college preparatory program. After high school he was selected as one of forty-seven students from throughout the country for a post-graduate year at the Yale Transitional Year Program. He subsequently entered Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he had the opportunity during his second year to work in New York through the Edwin Gould Foundation for Children and the Chicago-based Cooperative Program for Educational Opportunity in recruiting minority students for colleges. In the fall of 1969, del Valle attended Princeton University, where he majored in history, Latin American Studies, and Afro-American Studies and from where he graduated in 1971. He was subsequently awarded a John Hay Whitney Fellowship, which he used for the study of law at Yale Law School. He was at Yale from 1971 until 1974, when he graduated with a juris doctor degree. Currently, del Valle is an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association on their Commercial, Employment, and Labor Panels; he is also an adjunct professor of Law at the Interamerican School of Law in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he teaches courses on Federal Trial Advocacy, Federal Motion Practice, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and Advanced Legal Writing.

MINIMUM WAGE
MARIANO STEPHENS
Mariano Stephens is a sophomore at Yale University studying Global Affairs. He was born and raised in Austin, Texas. He is particularly interested in research related to Latin American politics as they relate to international security. At Yale, he works as a Communication and Consent Educator, and serves as the Treasurer of the Yale College Democrats.

BOOK REVIEWS

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SEEKING ONENESS ALONG THE RÍO GRANDE: A POET’S COMING-OF-AGE
ALLEGRA VILLARREAL
Allegra Villarreal is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College. She enrolled in community college after receiving her GED at age sixteen and ultimately transferred to the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, where she would earn a joint honors B.A. in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies. After graduating, she enrolled at Oxford University, shifted her academic focus, and was awarded an M.F.A. in Creative Writing in 2008. She taught ESL in Mexico and the Czech Republic before returning to the U.S. where she taught English at Mount Hood Community College and South Texas College before joining ACC. She also works as the Director of Professional Development for Catch the Next, a non-profit organization that seeks to help underrepresented students succeed in college.

AN ALLURING PERSPECTIVE: THE PURSUIT OF LIBERAL ARTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
DIANE LERMA
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Diane Lerma graduated from Our Lady of the Lake University with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work. She had previously earned an Associate of Arts degree from San Antonio College. After OLLU, Lerma enrolled in graduate studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio and graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Education. Lerma is now a tenured faculty member in the Behavioral Sciences department at Palo Alto College, a community institution serving a large Mexican American constituency. She has served as Faculty Advisor for various student club organizations, where she instills positive learning experiences for first-generation students. She has taught in the Alamo Community College system since 1998. Recently, she was selected to attend training with the Puente program at the University of California at Berkeley. Lerma has presented at various conferences promoting the Dream Catchers Program in Texas, based on the award-winning Puente framework. Moreover, she assisted in coordinating the first Dream Catchers student transfer motivational conference held at the University of Texas at Austin. After serving as a Dream Catchers mentor coordinator, she published, “Catching Dreams: A Collection of Inspiring Puente Mentor Stories” (2013). Lerma’s career in higher education has been dedicated to improving college-going success rates for Hispanic students.