My experience this past year as an American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) graduate fellow has changed my life within and outside the academy in more ways than I ever expected. Being the only full-time high school counselor in the University of Redlands School of Education Ed.D. program was not only daunting but also exhausting. However, nothing could compare to the excruciating solitude I continuously encountered within the department as one of the only first-generation Chicanas in the Ed.D. program. When I first began the program, there was one female faculty member and one Latino male faculty member, leaving me yearning for a more diverse and relevant department. When my dear friend Estee Hernández introduced me to AAHHE and encouraged me to apply to the graduate fellow program, I was mesmerized to find an organization that was capable of sharing and understanding my background and the challenges I face as a mujer of color.

Looking back, the AAHHE Graduate Fellows Program was everything that I needed. For the first time in my graduate career, I felt that I belonged and could dismiss the imposter syndrome I carried with me throughout my experience in academia. I was surrounded by hundreds of Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x scholars that quickly became familia. As familias do, my AAHHE sisters and brothers motivated and empowered me by their resiliency and triumphs, and reaffirming the significance our presence has in academia and the developments within higher education.

Over the course of the conference days, the graduate fellows were presented various professional development sessions demonstrating to us how to embrace our worth and our impact within higher education. Amongst the various sessions, we learned how to stop selling ourselves short and instead embrace the unique trajectory we can bring to any future professoriate. I will be forever thankful for the scholars, both the AAHHE graduate alumni fellows and the faculty fellows, in particular my femtor Dra. Amanda Morales, who took their time to share with us their stories, the various decisions they made, and how they had to learn to compromise and navigate in order to be where they are now. Being part of such an astonishing graduate fellows’ cohort has been both an honor and humbling experience. It is thanks to these fellows that I continue to learn and grow holistically in my scholarly career.

As a person who has experienced firsthand the impact of being part of a relevant association, I look forward to continuing to embark on the societal shift to increase the educational outcomes of the Latinx community. As an aspiring faculty practitioner, I will continue to connect the heterogeneous challenges we theorize about to the relevancy of praxis within the K-12 and community college school systems. It is our responsibility to give back to our communities that have assisted us along the way, and AAHHE is certainly one of the communities I look forward to serving in years to come.  •