Sonoma State University’s designation as a federally recognized Hispanic Serving Institution has helped garner two U.S. Department of Education (ED) grants to enhance diverse students' preparation for and success in teaching, nursing, and health careers.
EDUCA: Educadores Diversos Unidos para Crecimiento y Aprendizaje
Sonoma State was one of only 26 universities nationwide to receive a grant from the ED’s Augustus F. Hawkins Center of Excellence Program. The Hawkins Program was established to increase and retain the number of well-prepared teachers from diverse backgrounds.
“This is very exciting for us, because Hawkins is one of the most prestigious grants in teacher education,” said Laura Alamillo, Dean of the College of Education, Counseling, and Ethnic Studies. “It is held in high regard by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.”
At SSU, the $3.18-million Hawkins grant will support broadly defined diversification of the teacher workforce, said Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Rhianna Casesa, Director and Coordinator of SSU’s Teacher Residency and Bilingual Authorization Programs and Associate Professor of Literacy Studies and Elementary Education.
The funds will enable Sonoma State to expand scholarships for students in teacher credential programs and provide for cultural/language competency training and mentoring/support programs for current and future teachers.
“Our proposal has a rural education focus, because access to teacher preparation programs in rural areas has been limited. Many students there see online education as the only way they can become teachers,” Alamillo said.
Dr. Paula Lane, Co-PI, is Rural Residency Programs Coordinator and Director for the project. She will support the development and implementation of a residency program for future teachers in Mendocino County.
Grant-funded scholarships of up to $12,000 each – supplemented by stipends of up to $34,000 through the host district – will enable students to enter rurally based teacher residency programs in Ukiah and Round Valley, Alamillo said. Students in Sonoma State’s existing residency programs in Marin, Sonoma, and Napa Counties can receive scholarships of up to $6,000.
“Because we are extending our footprint into more rural communities, we plan to offer an online version of our bilingual authorization program, which allows teachers to teach bilingual students in bilingual and English-only classrooms,” Casesa said.
“We also want to better prepare teachers to serve the needs of Native American students and families, particularly in Ukiah and Round Valley, where those populations are larger,” Alamillo said.
“Preparing a diverse teacher workforce is important because we know that students respond well to teachers who have similar life stories, look like them, and speak their language,” Casesa said. “Yet teachers from underrepresented groups often leave teaching because they feel so isolated. It’s one thing to get diverse people into teaching, but we want to keep them there.”
Casesa said current and future teachers and educational leaders will be supported by developing affinity groups, including Male Educators of Color; Bilingual Educators Support Organization (BESO); LGBTQIA+ Educators Group; Black Educators Network; Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders Educators; and Indigenous Educators.
PUERTA Project Grant
SSU’s Preparando Hispanic Estudiantes Realizando Their Ambitions (PUERTA) 2.0 project was awarded $2.73 million from the ED’s Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) Program. The grant will provide 100% of funding for the PUERTA project to increase the number of Hispanic students in pre-professional health, nursing, and teaching pathways.
PUERTA is a collaborative effort by the College of Education, Counseling, and Ethnic Studies; the College of Science, Technology, and Business; and the Division of Student Affairs, supported by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. The 2024-29 PUERTA grant is the second for Sonoma State under DHSI; the first was a $2.75-million, five-year award in 2017.
“PUERTA 2.0 is critical for our campus,” Alamillo said. “We are continuing some of the best practices from our initial PUERTA work but extending these initiatives by including a clear focus on career pathways into the most needed service professionals in our community.”
“The new grant will enable a coalition of campus and community college partners to increase the academic achievement and professional development of Hispanic students in health, nursing, and teaching through targeted activities,” said Dr. Kelly Estrada, PUERTA 2.0 Project Director and Professor of Literacy Studies and Elementary Education.
Those activities will include equity-based data system integration with analytics focused on student success metrics; academic and student support services for pre-professional students in health, nursing and teaching tracks; pre-professional mentorship programs for underrepresented transfer students; and increased access to hybrid learning opportunities for matriculating and transfer students, she said.
“We are excited to create pre-college affinity groups to diversify our professions. One key marker of success for young people is access to positive and caring adults in their lives,” said Dr. Orlando Carreón, Co-director of the PUERTA project and Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership.
“We also need the cultural wealth that our bilingual/bicultural students bring, such as their bilingualism and capacity to interact with cariño (authentic care) in professions that focus on the wellness of our communities. Our mentoring project is a win-win,” he said.
“With the PUERTA funding we will continue working with our K-12 partners to make it clearer for students how they can go into the healthcare and education fields. We are building strong pathways for students from middle to high school, to college, and into appropriate graduate programs,” said Elisabeth Wade, Dean of the College of Science, Technology, and Business.
Research reported in this press release is supported by the following grants. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.
Preparando Hispanic Estudiantes Realizando Their Ambitions (PUERTA) grant from the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) Program, U.S. Department of Education, #P031S240316. The project is solely supported by this funding in the amount of $2,731,436.
Diverse Educators United for Growth and Learning in Northern California grant from the Augustus F. Hawkins Center of Excellence Program, U.S. Department of Education, #P428A240018. The project is solely supported by this funding in the amount of $3,180,944.