Research Blog 13- The Interview

I decided to choose Professor Ebelia Hernandez, a professor at Rutgers University. She is very knowledgeable about Latinos in Higher Education and is currently doing some research on it. I am actually involved in one of the research programs she is conducting called “RU Latina”, where she interviews the same group of Latina girls at Rutgers over four years getting their experiences and tracking their progress. She is also currently doing two other research projects, one that is like RU Latina, but instead she talks to guys of all ages in college, not necessarily starting her interviews from the beginning of their college experience. The last one she is currently in involves, getting the surveys that Rutgers sets to all the students and figures out the statistics of Latinos and how they are answering these questions and if the statistics have the same meaning that they would for different cultures. Much like the SAT, there is some controversy that that exam might not be helpful to Latinos or really a good predictor of Latino success in high school. I learned that one thing that she didn’t expect to see as an influence in Latino College students was the impact that religion had on their decision. She gave great information about the Latino society at universities and her take on everything. One thing that she brought up that I thought was very important was the importance of building a network with faculty. She thinks that many of the statistics would change is Latino students made ties with faculty because they have someone to look up to, someone to give them advice about school, and it also helps in understanding the material better, lastly it is a great asset for someone to know a professor for recommendations.