As a Chicana born and raised in the Inland Empire of Southern California, I grew up surrounded by Latinx comunidad. They were not my blood relatives, most of whom are back in Mexico, but nonetheless they are the tias, tios and primos that rooted me on throughout my K-12 education. I felt the absence of that comunidad when I left home to attend a predominantly white institution in Pennsylvania for my undergraduate education, and again upon entering the mostly white field of environmental and ecological studies. I had envisioned returning to California as a homecoming—one in which the bright sun, heat and homestyle Mexican dishes of my childhood welcomed me back. I was sorely disappointed to find very little of that at UC Santa Cruz. The cultural shock did not end there. I applied to graduate school with the hope of one day becoming a professor. However, there are no Latinx faculty in my graduate department and few prominent Latinx scholars in my field. I began to despair that even if I could make it through the long, lonely years ahead of me to my doctorate degree, there might not be a place for me in academia when all was said and done.

That all changed when I met Ibette Valle, the current co-chair of the AAHHE Graduate Fellows program. She welcomed me into her community of graduate students of color in the psychology department, many of who are Latinx. Ibette also encouraged me to apply for the AAHHE graduate fellows program, telling me her experience as an AAHHE graduate fellow had allowed her to connect with other Latinx scholars. I followed her advice and received the opportunity to attend the 2019 AAHHE conference as a graduate fellow. The graduate fellows program was a whirlwind of meeting new people, attending workshops and talks, presenting an ongoing research project, and getting my baile on. My cohort consisted of 18 Latinx graduate students plus alumni of the program at various stages of their doctorate programs.

I am a shy person at first, and I did not know anyone at AAHHE going into the conference. I was also one of the youngest and the lone STEM graduate student in my cohort, but I instantly related to the struggles my cohort members faced on their own academic journeys. I was especially inspired by the Latinas I met throughout the conference. I admired how unapologetic they were in expressing their whole selves in academia, which often demands that women of color shrink themselves into assimilating to the dominant culture. I walked away feeling so grateful for the bonds I forged with my AAHHE graduate fellows community. I was deeply nourished by the comunidad I gained, reinvigorating me to persist in my doctorate program and renewing my faith in the possibility of a future for myself in academia as a faculty member. I have always been motivated by my comunidad, and now I am not only working for them but also with them. •