I have found myself in many different learning spaces during my time as an educator — I have worked as a lecturer, and ensemble director, private lesson instructor and as an academic facilitator. Over the past four years, I have had the privilege of working with community college students in my hometown, Porterville in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Of my immediate family, I was the first to complete high school, let alone a university or graduate degree. It is not to say that my education wasn’t valued or my accomplishments recognized, but rather, that I grew up in an environment that emphasized other values over academic achievement.
I hadn’t even entertained the notion of going to college until my first year of high school, when I saw the entry requirements for the California State University and UC systems on a poster in the counseling office. I thought to myself “I can do that” and set out to build a roadmap to get me into the CSU. From then on it has been a steady stream of setbacks (it took me 6 years to finish by BA, working and commuting sometimes 70 miles each way) and achievements (I’m in a doctoral program!). Still, I keep working away, my educational goals clear as they were then.
My Personal Mission
To help students validate their experience of the world through music.
Areas of Research
My current research focus on the use of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP). In CSP, educators use students’ cultural experiences to maintain a connection to their culture or cultural understanding of music. Though CSP is a fairly recent development in teaching, it is grounded in the practice of many established music pedagogues.
I am focusing specifically on the experience of California community college music students. Geographically, my work centers on students from the rural parts of the San Joaquin Valley, where I grew up and now
work. My research is praxial, based on my classroom work over the coming years. My ultimate goal is to develop strategies to further the pursuit of equity and cultural learning in the California community college system.
Though this past few years have been turbulent, I am energized by the potential for the future of music education. Pedagogical change is our future, and I will continue to teach with these ideologies at the forefront.
Student Success
To achieve the greatest success, I encourage my students to help set their own learning goals, as I have found that inclusion in the learning process is the most effective way to develop engaged learners.
I committed to being an ally for gender equality, BIPOC students, persons with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ students, and all students who have been marginalized by systems of power and injustice.