DID YOU KNOW?

You can see KU professor Marta

Caminero-Santangelo on YouTube,

talking about her research on

Latino identity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUdHVYZyUCU

Rising by Degrees, a radio documentary produced by

American Public Media, tells the story of Latino students working

toward a college degree.

http://

americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/latino_college/index.html

May 2010­

UPCOMING EVENTS

May 15, 2010 KU-Multicultural Scholars Program Graduation Banquet & Ceremony www.msp.ku.edu

June 5, 2010 Latino Faculty and Staff Council will be going to the KC T-Bones game.

Contact: Alex Hernandez-Castro lfsc@ku.edu

June 17, 2010 2010 Greater Kansas City Hispanic Scholarship Fund Awards Banquet Rockhurst High School

Contact: Leanne Breiby 816-268-3262 or breiby@gkccf.org

The Hispanic Alumni Chapter of the KU Alumni Association

sponsored the inaugural Graduation Banquet for Hispanic

graduates on April 30th.

Chancellor Gray-Little provided a congratulatory welcome and best wishes on behalf

of the KU community. Several KU administrators, KU alumni, family, and friends of

the graduates attended the banquet ceremony. After dinner, the graduates were treated

to a message from KU alum – Ms. Monique Garcia, Wichita KS (B.A. degree in ’95

– Political Science and Spanish) - ―Embracing Your New Journey‖. Each of the

graduates received a bronze Jayhawk and lapel pin; along with the Kansas University

Endowment Association providing a one year free membership to the KU Alumni

Association. The Hispanic Alumni Chapter will be hosting the Graduation Banquet

on an annual basis. On page 3 is a listing of the KU graduates for spring/summer

2010 and pictures from the banquet. Congratulations to all of our graduates.

Ambassador for KU: A Full-Time Effort

Toni Casados, longtime Garden City educator and

community member joined the KU family last

May as a half-time ambassador and recruitment

coordinator for Southwest Kansas. We are

pleased to announce that Toni has been offered

and accepted the position as full-time - effective

June 2010.

We look forward to having a full-time presence in

SW Kansas. With the expanded appointment we

will be better positioned to provide increased sup-

port and services. We also anticipate an increase

in the amount of time and coordination with the

schools, planning for informational fairs, orienta-

tions, one-on-one advising, and continue strength-

ening relationships with the Community Colleges

students, administrators and support staff in SW

Kansas.

Toni will continue be located at: KU Medical Center’s Health Education Center in

Garden City, KS. She can be contacted by either: email – tcasados@ku.edu or by

phone: (620) 275-0259.

The Hispanic Alumni Chapter will be hosting a weekend on the Hill – September 25th.

Please mark your calendars and plan to join us for a fun weekend!

(KU vs. New Mexico State- football)

May 2010

Guest column by Dr. Larry Day

In the October 2009 issue of La Vision, sixth year pharmacy major Veronica Nieto had

this advice for arriving KU freshmen, ―Be who you are when you come here. Be true to

yourself and you’ll be happy.‖

Claude M. Steele, author of Whistling Vivaldi And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect

Us (New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2010) vastly expands the scope of Veronica

Nieto’s words of advice. Steele says that allowing people to be who they are and to be

true to themselves is of major importance in building a successful postracial society. But,

he says, that’s not easy.

Steele’s research dealt with identity contingencies and ―the role they play in our lives, in

the broader society, and in some of society’s most tenacious problems.‖ Steele maintains

that identity contingencies are part of Society’s DNA, and they affect things like perform-

ance on standardized tests, memory capacity, athletic performance, and the level of com-

fort people have with people of different groups.

A core identity contingency is stereotype threat. Steele says we know what other mem-

bers of our society think about major groups and identities in society. We know that a

bad stereotype about one of our own identities could be applied to us—being old, poor,

rich or female, We know ―what people will think‖ if we do anything that fits the stereo-

type. Steele says that the threat of being stereotyped happens to us all perhaps several

times a day.

According to Steele: ―A critical policy implication…is that unless you make people feel

safe from risk of these identity predicaments in identity integrated settings, you won’t

succeed in reducing group achievement gaps or enabling people from different back-

grounds to work comfortably and well together.‖

Here are a three of Steele’s specific suggestions:

By changing the way you give feedback you can dramatically improve minority

students’ motivation and feedback.

By improving a group’s critical mass in a setting, you can improve its members’

trust, comfort, and performance in the setting.

By allowing students, especially minority students, to affirm their most valued

sense of self, you can improve their grades even for a long time.

Steele seems to have put Veronica Nieto’s advice to KU freshmen on a very large canvas

indeed. He says it’s hard work making society let people be who they are, and be true to

themselves. But it can be done.

The Spring 2010 edition of the University of

Kansas Continuing Education community

college Outreach Newsletter is now avail-

able at the following link:

http://www.continuinged.ku.edu/

newsletter/Spr10_Outreach_Newsltr.pdf

Helping Latino Students

Stay on the Road to

Graduation

Ford Motor Company Fund and the

League of United Latin American Citi-

zens (LULAC) are partnering to ad-

dress the high school dropout rate

among Latino students across the coun-

try. Under the new program, ten LU-

LAC Councils will receive grants to

develop projects that provide local so-

lutions that tackle this important issue.

Deadline: May 21, 2010. For more

information about Ford Driving

Dreams through Education, or to sub-

mit a proposal, visit www.lulac.org

President Obama

nominates KU alumna

President Obama has nominated KU

School of Law Alumna and Arizona

district judge Mary Murguia for a va-

cancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for

the Ninth Circuit. (Muguia graduated

from the KU School of Law in 1985

and earned bachelor’s degrees in Span-

ish and Journalism from KU in 1982)

Born and raised in Kansas City, KS.

Mary is one of seven children (4 of

whom hold law degrees) and is the

twin sister of Janet Murguia, president

and chief executive officer of La Raza.

Larry Day was a professor of journalism for 22 years in the William Allen

White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at KU. He was selected

twice as a Fulbright Scholar, for research in Argentina and Colombia. His re-

search focused on international communications and professionalization of Latin

American journalists. He directed workshops for journalists and lectured at

universities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1994 he taught at

the University of Havana as part of a University Exchange Program.

Dealing with Stereotypes in a

Postracial Society

Lindsay Abbott, Silver Lake, KS Libby Allen, Lawrence, KS Erin Alonso, Topeka, KS Caroline Andrade, Belchertown, MA Luis Aranda, Champaign, IL Mario Argueta Jr, Lawrence, KS Josephine Arzola, Kansas City, MO Alfonse Baki, Overland Park, KS David Barbosa, Overland Park, KS Sandra Bartlett, Lawrence, KS Rachael Beaumont, Lawrence, KS Astrid Beltran, Rockford, IL Luis Betancourt, Olathe, KS Marilyn Bland, Dodge City, KS Alfonso Bortone, Olathe, KS Stephanie Bray, Olathe, KS Anamaria Buckmelter, Plano, TX Ciara Bujanos, Edmond, OK Francisco Carrera, Olathe, KS Marcus Carrillo, Wichita, KS Ashley Cedeno, Lawrence, KS Joshua Cervantes, Shawnee, KS Jesus Chacon, Liberal, KS Charles Coffey, Saugus, MA Fabian Conde, Overland Park, KS Dante Corimanya, Wichita, KS Jess Cornejo, Wichita, KS Alejandra Couchonnal, Overland Park, KS Briana Cowell, Shawnee, KS Maria Cuevas, Topeka, KS Oscar Cuevas, Lawrence, KS Kaitlin Cummings, Overland Park, KS Andrea D'Achiardi, Shawnee, KS Bryce Davin, Baldwin City, KS Monica Delaorra, Overland Park, KS Jonathan Delgado, Lawrence, KS Julian Dominguez, Leavenworth, KS Alexander Donoso, Lawrence, KS Mary Duarte, Hutchinson, KS Matthew Dunlap, Horton, KS Teresa Eden, Shawnee, KS Sonya English, Overland Park, KS Nicole Faught, Bolingbrook, IL Jonathan Fernandez Duque, Lawrence, KS Jamie Ferris, Lenexa, KS Adan Flores, Tucson, AZ Elsa Fraire, Liberal, KS Rachel Frische, Overland Park, KS Aaron Froelich, Overland Park, KS Ashleigh Garcia, Topeka, KS Brent Garcia, Lawrence, KS Gloria Garcia, Andover, KS Jessica Garcia, Lawrence, KS Joel Garcia, Lawrence, KS Brian Gardner, Wichita, KS Cassandra Garza, De Soto, KS Monica Garza, Dallas, TX

Anna Geselbracht, Mission, KS Jose Gil Lara, Overland Park, KS Michael Gomez, Orland, IL Megan Gonzales, Topeka, KS David Gonzalez, Los Angeles, CA Juan Gonzalez Jr, Kansas City, KS Nancy Griego, Shawnee, KS Rosamaria Grimm, Wichita, KS Rachel Gruenbacher, Lawrence, KS Ariday Guerrero Santamaria, Olathe, KS Michelle Gutierrez, Albuquerque, NM Gregory Guzman, Wichita, KS Melissa Halder, Gardner, KS Viannella Halsall, Miami, FL Sergei Hepner Pena, Lawrence, KS Glenda Hernandez, Lawrence, KS Kimberly Hernandez, Hutchinson, KS Jeffrey Herrera, Prairie Village, KS Tavis Highfill, Overland Park, KS Maxwell Hinman, Wichita, KS Deborah Holland, Wichita, KS Amy Howell, Gardner, KS Karina Jimenez-Hernandez, Overland Park, KS Cassandra Julian, Eagan, MN Talia Kipp, Bonner Springs, KS Nicole Kovacs, Overland Park, KS Vanessa Lawrenz, Herington, KS Spenser Linares, Wichita, KS Kendra Long, Guilford, MO Raquel Lopez, Lenexa, KS Sonia Lopez, Kansas City, KS Natalia Maida, Prairie Village, KS Diana Marcolino Underwood, Wichita, KS Jennifer Marroquin, Lawrence, KS Ashley Martinez, Hutchinson, KS Eric Martinez, Garden City, KS Carlos Mashek, Lawrence, KS Angelique McNaughton, Topeka, KS Jurrell Medina, Hugoton, KS MiKayla Meier, Topeka, KS Jennifer Mendez, Shawnee, KS Amber Messmer, Kansas City, KS Katherine Mestas, Grand Junction, CO Noel Montelongo-Jacquez, Dodge City, KS Ashley Montoya, Kansas City, MO Ruby Montoya, Garden City, KS Mary Morales, Overland Park, KS Selia Moya, Kansas City, KS Jose Nicolas, Lawrence, KS Veronica Nieto, Mission, KS Christopher Orosco, Lawrence, KS Shawn Ortega, Topeka, KS Shrilon Ortiz, Kansas City, KS Alyssa Padilla-Esperance, Leavenworth, KS Nicholas Pappas, Belen, NM Gabrielle Perez, Lawrence, KS Katherine Perez, Wichita, KS

Nicholas Peterson, Austin, TX Amanda Pierce, Lawrence, KS Kali Platt, Paola, KS Richard Pool, Osage City, KS Gustavo Queiroz, Lawrence, KS Krysta Ramirez, Olathe, KS Thomas Ramirez, Overland Park, KS Jesus Rangel-Montelongo, Kansas City, KS Rachel Raya, Hutchinson, KS Frank Redondo, Kansas City, KS Temple Richardson, Lawson, MO Amanda Rivera, Lawrence, KS Michael Rivera, Ft Leavenworth, KS Natalia Rivera, Shawnee, KS Jessica Roark, Tonganoxie, KS Dagoberto Rodriguez, Fairfax, VA Jose Rodriguez, La Puente, CA Natalie Rodriguez, Belleville, IL Nathan Rodriguez, Lawrence, KS Peter Rodriguez, Lawrence, KS Sofia Rodriguez, Leawood, KS Marissa Rozman, Lawrence, KS Lisa Ruiz, St. John, IN David Sanchez, Wichita, KS Gilberto Sanchez, Lawrence, KS Maritza Sanchez, Plano, TX Sarah Sanchez, Olathe, KS Juliana Schafer, Saint Louis, MO Meghan Seever, Mission, KS Sapna Shah, Wichita, KS Aline Silva, Sao Paulo, Brazil Bruno Simoes, Lawrence, KS Colby Smith, Lawrence, KS Brien Smith-Martinez, Lawrence, KS Erin Solis, Wichita, KS Sasha Sosa, Emporia, KS Michael Soto, Pomona, CA Monica Soto, Lawrence, KS Flor Souter, Gardner, KS Lauren Spurgeon, Lawrence, KS Celina Suarez, San Antonio, TX Marcelino Sumaya, Dodge City, KS John Sutherlin, Kansas City, MO Ashley Tacadena, Lawrence, KS Marcel Tassara, Seattle, WA Marlene Tate, Harlem, MT Nicole Torres, Cypress, CA Jason Torres-Bodman, Lawrence, KS Hilda Troncoso, Kansas City, MO Ana Vargas, Guadalajara, Mexico Gianpierre Villagomez Saldana, Lima, Peru Michelle Walter, Lawrence, KS Lauren Wickliffe, Olathe, KS Kimberly Willard, Mission, KS Hannah Zachritz, Topeka, KS

May 2010

2010 Hispanic KU Graduates