Antonia Martin Latino Educators Scholarship

My great grandmother, Abuelita ma, taught me how to tend to the earth and all living beings around us, caring for the plants, our waters, the animals, and all people in our community. I was taught we are all interconnected through kin relations with one another. Our relationality to the earth and people is rooted in Zapotec values of guelaguetza/reciprocity and tequio/service. These values are a way of viewing the world and a way of being; these values have been woven into my teachings, and they are a part of who I am. My Zapotec teachings have taught me to think of myself about others, in relation to my community. Abuelita ma reminds me to care for myself and those around me, and to be a good ancestor because all of our actions create ripple effects for the future. I am on the journey to pursue a doctoral degree in education to ensure future generations of first-generation college students have access to resources and support to navigate higher education systems. My excitement toward higher education was also met with the challenge of learning to navigate the university as someone who identifies as a first-generation college student and Bini’ Zaa, an Indigenous Zapotec Latina woman with family roots in Oaxaca, Mexico who is also proudly Queer. I found myself seeking for spaces where I could find a sense of community within my undergraduate campus at UC Santa Cruz. Fortunately, I came across the Ethnic Resource Centers during my first year, ameliorating my experience and empowering me to continue my degree. In this space, I met others like me, where I could embrace and nurture aspects of my identity. At first, it was hard for me to feel like I belonged at the university because I struggled with my writing in English, and I felt like I was not to the same writing level as other students. The Centers became key to motivating and equipping me with the tools to grow as a student who cared deeply about her community. Today, I weave my lived experiences closely into how I engage in my professional role as a student affairs practitioner and scholar directing a center for Native American Indigenous students. My pursuit of an Ed.D in Organization and Leadership at the University of San Francisco is with the larger goal of fomenting access and equity for underrepresented students in higher education. I would like to serve students whose community imbues them with the same aspirational cultural capital that my Zapotec community gifted me in pursuing a career in higher education. Being Zapotec, knowing how to speak some Zapotec, Spanish, and English allowed me to recognize that knowing more languages means I can serve more people with the knowledge I have acquired. By informing myself of organizational structures in education, I hope to influence campus policies in a dissident manner that can reach students who, similar to my experience as a first-generation student, can have a transformative university experience. As an Indigenous educator, I value the interconnectedness with other communities as minority people in education, and as an elder in training, it is my responsibility as a student affairs practitioner to think of large-scale solutions to address the experiences of minority students. Education is a powerful tool to empower future generations to serve communities to improve society, and through my pursuit of a doctoral degree in Education I hope to do that, to create more opportunities for students to reach their full potential to create positive change.