My name is William Ramos-Ochoa, and I am a second-year doctoral student in the educational leadership program at Mills College and a 2018 AAHHE Graduate Fellow. My doctoral research focuses on the racial identity development of young men of color, seeking to understand how the creation of culturally affirming counterspaces play in the high school to community college transition for this population. More specifically, my work examines how educators in alternative high school settings can create healing spaces (mental, spiritual, physical) for youth to thrive in higher education, using Gang of Brothers as a case study. Gang of Brothers is an organization I co-founded while employed as a Gateway to College counselor for out-of-school youth. My goal is to co-author research with my students as a form of solidarity and to start a research center where students from the “hood” can gain applicable skills through participatory action research.

As a doctoral student in educational leadership with an emphasis on community college research, my scholarship focuses on the educational trajectories of young men of color transitioning from K-12 into higher education, specifically into community colleges. Guided by critical theories of race and community cultural wealth with a participatory action research approach, my dissertation project centralizes the racial identity development of students in Gang of Brothers, seeking to understand how the creation of culturally and contextually relevant spaces for young men of color in higher education can help them thrive. Implications from my work would ideally lead to students building the necessary confidence and receiving the cultural affirmation they require to successfully complete their personal and social goals within higher education. Developing research focused in these areas is essential to creating the necessary social and institutional change needed for Latinos to advance their education. Upon the completion of my dissertation study, I seek to continue and expand this line of work in a faculty position at a community college where I can mentor and support students who are also interested in Latino-related, higher education-related research.

Through the AAHHE fellowship cohort and the overall AAHHE community, I gained professional and personal experiences that have helped me be more effective working with students from my community. The primary purpose of education is to ultimately free the mind and the body from generations of hate, oppression and power dynamics that continue to affect the success of our communities. AAHHE showed me that I am not the only scholar and community activist wanting to better our communities, and that we are stronger by building support and community for each other in our academic and personal journeys. I have met intelligent and amazing scholars whom I can proudly call allies and friends for the rest of my life. The AAHHE Fellows program has given me the opportunity to explore various professional and personal trajectories that I did not think were feasible in my journey as a young Latino scholar and community member. •