Immigration Rights and Resources for the Campus Community

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Fortunato J

Portrait of Fortunato J

Advisor

Andrea Delgado

Fortunato J, 2024

Thesis:

Hi, my name is Fortunato! I graduated from the Applied English Studies MA program in Summer 2024. My research was centered around colorism, specifically how it was represented and had evolved in children’s literature. The MA program allowed me to work on my research while also making connections across campus. I would develop that networking more when discussing my research with various faculty and staff, especially when competing in the GradSlam Research Competition. Receiving my M.A. degree allowed me to utilize it as professional development for my resume to acquire my position, helping me in my career aspirations in Higher Education. These days, I work as the Academic Retention Programs Office Coordinator at Cal Poly Humboldt. The writing and facilitating spaces that this program provides are key things I touch on in my current role as a supervisor to a small student staff and writer of many administrative documents. While I don’t read as many children’s books as I did as a graduate student, my research still comes up when discussing belonging across campus. The pedagogies and social justice frameworks I gained from this program are applicable in every space that wants to foster belonging. In addition, my thesis: Exploring colorism in children’s literature: Sulwe and Black is Brown is Tan, doesn’t look too shabby on the Digital Commons website!

Lauren MacDonald Reagan

Portrait of Lauren MacDonald Reagan

Advisor

David Stacey

Lauren MacDonald Reagan, 2014

Thesis:

After receiving my MA at HSU, I held a number of leadership roles in academic support and student success, overseeing peer tutoring, coordinating HSI-oriented tutoring activities, and teaching first-year composition. As the current Director of Tutoring Services at Cal State Monterey Bay, I oversee high-quality, nationally-certified tutoring, peer coaching, graduate student support, and mentoring, with deep partnerships with student disabilities professionals, graduate faculty, and transfer-serving partners. I am also in my first year of the Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership program at San Jose State University. My research interests include socially-just higher education leadership and frameworks for culturally-responsive practices for non-faculty student-serving professionals in co-curricular areas like financial aid and advising, with a particular focus on this at the California State University. As a future leader and higher education administrator, I am interested in understanding and advocating for the appropriate professional learning and growth opportunities for these post-secondary student-serving professionals.

Natalie Raquel Acuña

Portrait of Natalie Raquel Acuña

Advisor

Christina Accomando

Natalie Raquel Acuña, 2024

Thesis:

Hello, my name is Natalie Raquel Acuña, I graduated from the Applied English Studies MA program in May 2024. My MA research project was about counter-stories that can be found within spoken word poetry, titled, Countering dominant narratives in community: The many voices in spoken word poetry. I currently work as Professional Staff on campus at Cal Poly Humboldt. This MA Program allowed me to make connections with the English Department and navigate pursuing a career within Higher Education. The writing, facilitating, and research methods have become skill sets that I use in my current role in Student Support Services. The professors within this program care about their students' professional development and allow students to build connections with their outside world and the classroom.

Rose Fuher

Portrait of Rose Fuher

Advisor

Andrea Delgado

Rose Fuher, 2024

Thesis:

My name is Rose and my project is about how we build digital community through memes. If every picture tells a thousand words then every meme contains a million. I used my project as an opportunity to dig into many different digital rhetorics and practice my video editing, script writing, and performing skills. The result is five videos that each deep dive into one of five interconnected concepts about building and finding community. Those concepts are Bodies At The Problem, Making My Peace, People Gotta Eat, Sustainability, and Master's Tools, Master's House. After graduating I've taken a break from video essaying to work on other projects, but I plan to come back with a new video someday soon!

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