Making a Difference in the College of Education

Our COE students and alumni are receiving grants, recognition, and committee appointments that will contribute to the futures of children and adults in a wide variety of educational areas. These students and alumni are making a difference!

---

Three joint SDSU/CGU doctoral students, Wonyoung Cho, Vannessa Falcon, and Melissa Navarro, have been awarded Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) Mini-Grants.

Wonyoung L. Cho

The CDIP Mini-Grant will be used to partially fund my dissertation project and professional development. My dissertation will be on the experiences of multilingual mental health professionals to draw implications on how counseling education could better support multilingual practitioners and culturally relevant practices for non-English speaking clients. The funding from the mini-grant will be used to obtain materials as well as services for data collection and analysis. It will also fund a part of my professional development through membership in professional organizations where I hope to disseminate my findings.

Vannessa Falcon

I applied for the CDIP Mini-grant in order to fund expenses for my dissertation project, such as books, equipment for audio recording and transcribing. I anticipate defending my dissertation proposal this fall. My dissertation proposal is a photovoice grounded theory study focused on exploring the transborder cultural identity formation process of Trasfronterizo college students from the San Diego-Tijuana Border Region.

I’ve had the privilege of learning extensively about qualitative methods under the guidance of Dr. Frank Harris III and Dr. Marva Cappello at SDSU, who also serve as committee members for my dissertation project and I’m very excited to apply what I have learned to my dissertation work. I am also very grateful to be a recipient of the CDIP Mini-Grant, and I highly encourage all SDSU graduate students to apply to the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program.

Melissa Navarro

My mini-grant proposal is to assist with my dissertation work of exploring how K-8 critically conscious dual language science teachers working with emergent bilingual students from low socioeconomic status practice their critical consciousness via the four tenets of dual language education: ideological clarity, pedagogical perspective and clarity, access for all, and equitable spaces (IPAE) (Alfaro & Hernandez, 2016).

I will be using the funds to assist in interview transcription, purchasing qualitative analysis software and dissertation editing services. The goal of my dissertation is to document concrete examples on how critically conscious teachers teach science in Spanish and capitalize on the assets of emergent bilinguals. Then, to disseminate my findings at various conferences and through journal articles.

For more information, visit the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program.

---

Autumn Sannwald, a student in the Preliminary Specialist Credential in Mild/Moderate Disabilities Program, was recently appointed as the 2017-2018 Educator Preparation Student Liaison to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

Each year, the Executive Committee of the Commission appoints one student enrolled in an educator preparation program to serve as a non-voting liaison to the Commission. The Educator Preparation Student Liaison serves as an advisor on the views and experiences of students to the Commission.

Congratulations Autumn!

---

Child and Family Development Alumna, Alethea Arguilez, named Executive Director of the First Five Commission

Alethea Arguilez, M.A., a 1996 graduate of the Child and Family Development (CFD) Department, was recently named the Executive Director of San Diego County’s First 5 Commission. First 5 San Diego promotes the health and well-being of young children during their most critical years of development, from the prenatal stage through five years of age. Programs and services are funded through San Diego County’s portion of the State’s Proposition 10 tax revenues and are based on local needs and priorities. The overall goal of the First 5 Commission is to help ensure that every child in San Diego County enters school ready to succeed.

Ms. Arguilez has worked in the field of early childhood education in a variety of capacities for over 20 years. While a student in the CFD program, she completed a field experience course at an infant toddler center operated by the Neighborhood House Association’s Head Start program and was hired as an infant toddler teacher upon graduation. She went on to serve in a variety of capacities at Neighborhood House, including perinatal home visitor, literacy specialist, Early Head Start program specialist, and the Director of Administrative Services.

Most recently, Ms. Arguilez was the Director of Child Development for the Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee where her responsibilities included oversight of multiple contracts governing regulations for early childhood programs and working with key community stakeholders. She is a board member of the California Head Start Association and a representative on San Diego’s Local Planning Council. She recently completed a Masters Degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of San Diego.

---

Tanesha Moore’s Aztec Experience, President of the COE Student Council

Tanesha Moore, a Liberal Studies student and the President of the College of Education Student Council, shares her Aztec Experience and the reason why she decided to apply for the liberal studies major at SDSU.

Read more about Tanesha Moore’s Aztec Experience.

---

Joint SDSU/CGU doctoral student Ana Gabriela Kovats is one of the first recipients of SDSU's University Graduate Fellowship Awards.

This is an inaugural fellowship that provides a $25,000 stipend to support exemplary graduate students who have earned distinctions for their work. The fellowship includes two full-years of funding, inclusive of one year of support from her faculty nominator, Dr. Felisha Herrera Villarreal.