Hispanic Scholars Honored for Dissertations

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Princeton, N.J. (March 3, 2010) —

This press release is also available in Spanish.

Three Hispanic scholars will receive cash awards from Educational Testing Service (ETS) at the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) annual conference in Costa Mesa, California, on March 6. The awards recognize dissertations chosen from more than 50 entries, as part of the third annual competition sponsored by ETS.

Theresa Segura-Herrera, Ph.D., from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will receive the first place "Kurt M. Landgraf Outstanding Dissertation Award," named for the ETS President and CEO. Her dissertation is titled "An Examination of Psychological Well-being for Latino/a Students." Segura- Herrera is an Assistant Professor of Counselor Education at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.

Accepting the second place award will be María Martiniello, of Harvard University, for her dissertation, "Linguistic Complexity and Differential Item Functioning (DIF) for English Language Learners (ELL) in Math Word Problems." Martiniello is an Associate Research Scientist at ETS, where she leads the English as a Second Language sub-initiative under the Research & Development Division's Strategic Initiative of English Language Learning.

Ryan Edward Alcántara of the University of Southern California will receive the third- place award. Alcántara won for his work, "A Learning Model of Policy Implementation: Implementing Technology in Response to Policy Requirements." Alcántara is Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at California State University, Fullerton, overseeing budget, human resources and technology for the division.

In addition to the Dissertation Competition, ETS is also sponsoring this year's AAHHE Institute that focused on "pathways to success" for Latinos in higher education. "Our awardees have not only walked that path, they are among many who overcame the challenges — who blazed the trails," says Yvette Donado, Senior Vice President of People, Process and Communications at Educational Testing Service. "On behalf of ETS, I join you in saluting them and wishing them every success."

"AAHHE is proud to partner with ETS in honoring Hispanic graduate students who have dedicated their dissertations, as a requirement for fulfilling their Ph.D. programs, to issues about Hispanics in selected disciplines," says Loui Olivas, President of AAHHE. "These newly minted scholars are on a fast trajectory as they pursue their careers."

The finalists will be recognized during the 6th Annual AAHHE National Conference Awards Luncheon in Costa Mesa, California on March 6, 2011. In addition to the awards, the three finalists will also receive:

  • A monetary award — $5,000 for first place, $2,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place
  • An AAHHE/ETS plaque
  • Support to attend the 2010 AAHHE Conference to present their dissertations in an individual concurrent session
  • The opportunity to submit an article based on the dissertation to the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education

In addition, ETS will invite the first-place winner to publish the essence of the winning dissertation in ETS Policy Notes and to showcase the research at an ETS-hosted seminar in Princeton, New Jersey.

For further information on the AAHHE and annual dissertation competition, visit www.aahhe.org.

About ETS

At nonprofit ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® test and The Praxis Series™ assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org

About AAHHE

The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, Inc. (AAHHE) is a professional association of Hispanic faculty and administrators at U.S. colleges and universities. AAHHE supports the development of Hispanic college professionals and is dedicated to increasing the pipeline of Hispanics in higher education, bringing issues pertinent to Hispanics to the attention of the larger academic community, and recognizing the achievements and accomplishments of Hispanics in support of higher education. AAHHE has created a Graduate Fellows Program and a Junior Faculty Fellows Program to provide guidance, instruction and mentors to help young Latinos and Latinas who are higher education professionals navigate the complexities of higher education and increase their preparedness for positions of leadership in higher education. In addition, AAHHE bestows six annual awards to individuals who champion Hispanic higher education issues in the areas of leadership, faculty research, teaching, support, fine or performing arts, and literary arts or publications. For more about AAHHE, visit www.aahhe.org.