Abstract
The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) is honored to continue our partnership with the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education (JHHE). Over the years, AAHHE has commissioned dozens of scholarly papers for our annual conference featuring compelling new perspectives and emerging scholars within the Latinx community. These papers are presented at our annual conference and then submitted for consideration as part of this special issue of JHHE (through their blind peer review process). I am proud to have co-authored one of the first AAHHE commissioned papers many years ago with my colleague, Dr. Luis Ponjuan. Eventually, after thorough reviews, our paper was accepted for publication in JHHE (Saenz & Ponjuan, 2009), a paper that helped to launch our scholarly work on Latino males in education. In this way, our commissioned paper series and partnership with the JHHE have provided a unique platform to amplify the voices and careers of so many outstanding emerging scholars within our community, a legacy that continues through the present time.
For the 2021 AAHHE conference, we commissioned three papers, focused on the conference theme of “Sembrando Semillas: (Re)imagining the Contours of Latinx/a/o Communities within Higher Education.” This theme allowed us to explore the ways we are cultivating future generations of scholars and leaders for our Latinx higher education community, especially in these challenging times. Our commissioned papers were initially presented at AAHHE’s first-ever virtual national conference on March 1 to 4, 2021. Our virtual experience enhanced the opportunities for us to reconnect and engage in creative ways and especially to learn from our outstanding commissioned paper authors. One of these commissioned papers is featured in this JHHE special issue.
In their article “Curando La Communidad [Curing the Community]: Using Community-Based Practices to Develop the Next Generation of Latinx/a/o Scientists,” Dr. Felisha Herrera Villareal (San Diego State University) and Dr. Gabriela Kovats Sánchez (San Diego State University) highlight the role of community within the experiences of Latinx/a/o students pursuing degrees in STEM at 2- and 4-year Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). They argue that “community-based perspectives are often missing with STEM disciplinary contexts,” and their study findings highlight the need to emphasize both students’ motivations to serve and the supports grounded in their home communities. The researchers offer implications for the ways in which community validation or dismissal can affect the trajectories of future generations of Latinx/a/o in STEM.
AAHHE is proud to continue our long-standing partnership with the JHHE. Our joint mission to feature emerging and compelling voices within our Latinx community continues, as do our efforts to cultivate new generations of scholars, policymakers, and leaders for higher education.
