7.26.23

On the Rise

As powerfully different as their individual life stories and professional backgrounds are, Cheyla Clawson ’00/06, director of the School of Performing Arts and assistant professor of dance; Ana Lazarín ’08/10, director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) for the College of Engineering; and Sara Mata, executive director for Hispanic-serving initiatives, speak with one voice when it comes to the importance of Wichita State’s priorities of providing not only accessible and affordable education to all students, but also equipping them with tools for success: herramientas para la prosperidad.

Mata, Lazarín and Clawson report that the rise in the number of Hispanic students at Wichita State mirrors national increases in college enrollment for this population group. According to findings released this June by the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly one in five college students ages 18 to 24 identify as being of Hispanic or Latinx origin, with origin referring to a person’s heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth or the country that their parents or ancestors left before arriving in the United States.

When WSU’s fall 2022 enrollment numbers showed that 16 percent of Shocker students identified as Hispanic, the university crossed the 15-percent threshold for becoming what’s termed by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) an “emerging” Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). To receive official HSI designation, not-for-profit degree-granting colleges and universities must have at least 25 percent Hispanic or Latinx undergraduate full-time equivalent (FTE) student enrollment and be DOE certified as such.

“This is my dream job,” says Dr. Mata, who holds four degrees from Oklahoma State University, including a doctorate in social foundations. She came to WSU four months ago after serving as dean of students and co-director of Hispanic initiatives at Newman University and in various positions at the University of Oklahoma, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and at OSU. Originally from Arkansas City, Kan., her family has roots in Kansas going back 100 years.

“Right now, one of the things we’re knee-deep in at Wichita State is strategic planning with an emphasis on HSI,” she says. “I look at it as a mirror – we’re purposefully looking at ourselves to see where we can improve. Where are the gaps in student support? How do we improve graduation rates? Our efforts are not only for Hispanic students because what we’re looking at and working together to improve will serve all of our students.”

en aumento

Once an institution attains HSI status, Mata explains, it is eligible to apply for significant federal funding in the form of scholarships and services through DOE Title V grants, as well as funding for HSI-related programs from other agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Endowment for the Humanities, for example. The HSI designation, she says, will open up opportunities for WSU that will be passed along to the whole student body.

As Shirley Lefever, WSU executive vice president and provost, puts it: “We put a lot of emphasis on the word serving here at Wichita State. It’s not simply about the increasing number of Hispanic students here. It’s really about what are we doing to make sure our students are successful.”

Lazarín, who has earned two degrees from Wichita State, a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and a master’s degree in education focused on counseling, was appointed director of DEI for her alma mater’s engineering college at its Engineering Student Success Center (ESSC) in 2022. In this role, she collaborates with university and community partners to follow through on the center’s objective of supporting underrepresented and underserved students in the college. “As a first-generation Latina grad, I’ve gone through many of the obstacles that our underrepresented students encounter,” she says. “It’s my greatest passion to support and encourage underserved students, to help them succeed – especially as they pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

Although on the rise, en aumento, the percentage of Hispanic students enrolled in STEM fields remains relatively low and Hispanic Americans continue to be underrepresented in the STEM workforce, Lazarín reports. But the first-gen STEM grad is determined to effect change, one student at a time. She focuses on recruitment and retention – which includes the Shocker Engineering Academy, a student group supported by the NSF Kansas Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program – and K-12 outreach with its on-campus Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, a national event that takes place during National Engineers Week each year. She also advises the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and is co-advisor for the Society of Women Engineers.

ADELANTE

Like Mata and Lazarín, Clawson is an interdisciplinary collaborator known for her social and cultural studies and explorations. A choreographer, dancer and sociologist, she holds two master’s degrees, one in sociology from Wichita State and the other in modern dance from OU. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in dance from WSU. It was during her undergraduate days on campus, she says, that she first explored her own Mexican American heritage.

“I was adopted,” Clawson explains, “and it wasn’t until I was an undergraduate at Wichita State that I took a deep dive into my cultural heritage.”

That kind of exploration is one of the most valuable aspects of getting a higher education, says Yolanda Camarena ’80, former higher ed administrator and noted community advocate who is a member of the WSUFAE National Advisory Council and of the Kansas Hispanic Education & Development Foundation. “College is the opportunity for you to figure out who you are and who you want to be. Part of that is finding out more about your ancestry, to study about it, to learn the history – because it truly does shape who you are and why.”

Mata agrees wholeheartedly. Working from her campus base in Hubbard Hall with WSU colleagues like Edil Torres Rivera, professor of counseling and director of Latinx studies who on July 1 became the 72nd president of the American Counseling Association, the first Latinx male and first Puerto Rican to be elected to the ACA’s top position, she sees individual examples – every day – of how a sense of pride in one’s heritage and history is foundational to moving forward, adelante. “We want our students, many of whom are first-generation, to be proud of who they are and where they come from,” she says. “We want them to learn about their backgrounds – and who some of our heroes are.”

It was 1973 when Camarena enrolled at Wichita State. “I struggled so much trying to figure out about college, how to go to college,” she says. “I didn’t understand any of the system, and I was looking for where do I fit. There weren’t the services then that there are now.” She did develop a college-navigation system, helmed primarily by her older sister Chris Barrera ’77 and James J. Rhatigan, who was then dean of students. “For whatever reason, Dean Rhatigan took me under his wing and really gave me the confidence I needed. He taught me how to find my voice – especially for social justice. This was the time when Chicano studies and African American studies became big on college campuses, and I became involved in student government. We were doing boycotts and sit-ins and challenging the administration – everything that you did when you were in college in the ’70s.”

Rhatigan, now WSU emeritus senior vice president, remembers Camarena as a student. “Yolanda was part of a very small emerging Hispanic population of students,” he says. “Even though she was having doubts about her place in the world, she was a natural leader, a woman of character. She was – and is – a great example of servant leader.”

NUESTRAS VOCES

Camarena and her husband Gene, president and CEO of La Raza Pizza Inc., one of the top 150 largest Hispanic-owned companies in the United States, are both action-oriented, hands-on champions of breaking through the financial and cultural barriers students of color may encounter on their way to a college degree. In 2020, the couple – who collectively hold four college degrees: one from WSU (Yolanda), one from the University of Kansas (Gene) and one each from Harvard – set up the Shocker Adelante Scholars program with a $1 million gift to Wichita State.

“As our community becomes more diverse, Yolanda and I wanted to take a very holistic approach with the Shocker Adelante program,” Camarena says, which in addition to scholarships includes support for student mentoring and academic advising, as well as recruitment and faculty enrichment. But the most important thing, the Camarenas say, is simply the welcoming spirit of the university itself. “The Adelante scholars are very involved on campus and in the community – they’ve found their own voices.”

And that, Mata, Clawson and Lazarín say, makes all the difference.

Subhead/Sidebar Title:

Yolanda Camarena and the Road Taken

YOLANDA (Barrera) camarena ’80 and her sister Isabel Christina Barrera ’77 were the first two in their family to go to college. They excelled at Wichita State. But as first-generation students, it took some time to learn the lay of the collegiate landscape.

“I didn’t even know what college credits were,” Camarena says with a smile. “And I didn’t know what I wanted to do.” So she looked to her sister as a guide and chose elementary education. But after student teaching, she discovered classroom teaching wasn’t for her and opted for another career path. Higher education administration was the road she took.

Her career features posts as director of admissions at Newman University in Wichita and associate director of graduate programs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, from which she earned a master’s degree in public administration and education policy. While at Harvard, she became a founding member in the development of the Journal of Hispanic Policy.