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Kermin Martinez-Hernandez

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ISSUES CONFRONTING MINORITY GRADUATE STUDENTS: EXAMINING THE ISSUES AND

RESPONSES THROUGH CASE STUDIES

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Issues confronting minority graduate students:

Examining the issues and responses through case

studies Kermin J. Martínez-Hernández, Ph. D.

Assistant Professor St. Fisher College

Rochester, NY

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Web Cast Format• Introductions and Background of the Web Cast Goals – 5

minutes• Presentation of the case study and pre- reading discussions

– 5 minutes• Break-Out Group discussion facilitated by the moderator –

20 minutes• Overall Group Discussion - 10-15 minutes• Presentation of real-life solutions from case study person

and his/her learning experience and advice – 5-10 minutes • Wrap-up discussion and lesson learned – 10 minutes

Web Cast Goals

Participants will:– discuss a case study about challenges

encountered by an underrepresented minority graduate student

– discuss the case study and its implications for teaching, retention and mentoring

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Motivation

• Development of a series of workshops about real-life struggles from diverse people (e.g., African American, Native Americans, and Hispanics) in graduate school.

• Stories have been invaluable and inspirational to motivate and advice younger scientists in their future career.

Overall Outcomes

• Educate the CITRL network about situations that diverse URM’s went through in grad school and how they become successful afterwards

• Provide tools to help students handle struggles in their graduate school journey

• Motivate others to continue in graduate school • Provide a resource that others can use to have open

discussion about diversity issues

Case Study: Academic Probation due to a Bad Grade in a Grad Course

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Break-Out in Groups20 minutes

Instructions:• Who wants to be facilitator of the break out group? Any

Volunteer? • Read the case study• Discuss the following questions:

1. What issues does this case study raise?2. What questions for our overall group discussion come to mind as you read the

case?3. What could the instructor do in this situation? Generate several possible

responses.4. What might the student do in this situation? Generate several possible

responses.5. What might be the consequences of these responses?6. What issues related to diversity were ignored by the professor, the student’s in

Juanito’s course, and by Juanito?

Case Study: Academic Probation due to a Bad Grade in a Grad Course Juanito Rafael Escobar-García was a brilliant Hispanic student in his second year of graduate school, a first generation of Bolivian-American. He was meeting all the expectations to become a successful student. He was “pumped” and happy about his accomplishments so far in grad school even though he was the only Hispanic in his department. Last semester, Juanito decided to take a graduate course that he believed would help him to understand his research better. However, the course was in a different department in a novel area of research where he did not have all the background knowledge. In addition, he was the only Hispanic in the class. Regardless of knowing that and upon encouragement by his advisor, he decided to take the chance and register for the class. At the beginning of the semester he felt confident about the class and thought that everything would go as planned (e.g., learn new concepts, techniques, and have fun in the class). At the same time, he was working really hard in his research while taking this class to continue his momentum in his research and working in a publication manuscript. While time passed by and the midterm was approaching things started to become shaky. He studied hard and met with Caucasian colleagues to study, but he still felt behind because the colleagues study styles did not work for him, and had a bad sentiment about the midterm. He took the midterm exam and he did not obtain a good grade, he got a C-, a grade not well accepted in graduate school. He started to freak out about the class and spoke with the course professor; the professor mentioned that he has another chance to do better in the class, the final exam. To his disadvantage, Juanito was unable to drop the class, because he needed the credits to be full-time and to keep his teaching assistantship, so he decided to stay in the class. He was hoping that he would catch up with the class in the remaining half of the semester, but he was unable to. The same story happened in the final exam and he got a C in the class. Due to his bad grade in the graduate course, Juanito later received a letter from his Department Chair telling that he was in academic probation and lost his teaching assistantship. Everything went blank in Juanito’s mind and he was clueless about what to do?

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Overall Group Discussion• Write something you thought was very useful

about the case study?

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Possible Discussion Questions

1. What assumptions did Juanito make about the class? And what were the consequences?

2. If you were in Juanito’s situation, what would you have done? Why?3. Do you think that the course professor provided good advice to

Juanito? Why or why not?4. Is the central problem(s) a learning style issue, ethnicity issue, a

teaching/classroom climate issue, or something else?5. Do you think that Juanito’s ethnicity has something to do with what he

went through?6. Do you think the instructor’s ethnicity might have had something to

do with what Juanito went through?7. Name one new strategy for success in graduate school you learned in

the discussion of today’s case.

Juanito’s Solutions• Sought help immediately (professors, PI,

administrations)• Took another class during summer to improve

GPA• Secured hourly funding from his PI to get

some income in the meantime

Juanito’s Learning Experience

• Take courses VERY seriously• Classes and grades are more important than

research• Realize your background weaknesses• Address them while taking the course, it is

YOUR career

Summary Reflection

1. What did you learn from the case study? 2. What would you do differently? 3. What would you advise others to do if

confronted with a similar situation? 4. How will this case study motivate you to

continue in graduate school? (for grad students)5. How will this case study help you in mentoring

minority students? (for faculty/administrators)

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ISSUES CONFRONTING MINORITY GRADUATE STUDENTS: EXAMINING THE ISSUES AND RESPONSES THROUGH CASE STUDIES

Kermin Martinez-Hernandez

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, St.

John Fisher College

www.cirtl.net

UPCOMING CIRTL EVENTS

BUILDING AN ACADEMIC CAREER

COFFEE HOUR SERIES

TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE STEM CLASSROOM COFFEE HOUR SERIES

To sign up to hear about these and other CIRTL events, email info@cirtl.net.

CIRTLCASTSERIES

Teaching at a Primarily Minority Institution

March 28th, 2013, 12-1pm CT

Facilitated by:Tabitha Hardy, Post Doc, University of Alabama

at Birmingham, Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA)

FellowKeri Mans, Post Doc, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Institional Research and Academic

Career Development Award (IRACDA) FellowImani Goffney, Assistant Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, University of Houston

Teaching and Using Writing Skills in the STEM Classroom

March 20th, 2013, 1-2pm CT

Facilitated by:Michelle Sulikowski, Professor, Department of

Chemistry, Vanderbilt UniversityKathryn Miller, Professor, Department of Biology, Washington University in St Louis

Brian Chabot, Professor, Dept of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University

No more CIRTLCasts this semester

Please check back in the fall for next year’s CIRTLCast Series

Thank you for attending the CIRTLCast Series , we hope to see you again next fall