testing students

You can't fatten a pig by weighing it. You can't make a kid smarter by testing it.

College is essentially a time of growth, of change

"College is essentially a time of growth, of change. The major part of that change takes place in you. If the college you go to is any good, it will hit you like a ton of brings.  It will lead you to question every conclusion you have ever reached; it will lead you to deny lots of assumptions and remake them; it will refuse to answer many of your questions, because you are asking the wrong things.  It will shake your strong beliefs and blow tons of cold air into all your warm hideouts; it will laugh at your emotions and cry at your humor.  It will be a though and cruel place only because it cares for you but seldom bothers to show it.  It will torture you into the best you think you can do and, by mocking the results, make you do better.  For perhaps the only times in your lives, you will know, existentially, that life of the is soul-zided. You will stretched till you squawk.  And if you are not -- transfer."  By Father Timothy Healy

beautiful autumn

Another Colorful Fall - Iowa State University 

camp follower

Sunflower - Iowa State University 

Lunch Time

Lunch Time - Squirrel on the Iowa State campus. 

The eight most common stereotypes about Latinos

By the year 2050 Latinos will constitute almost one fourth of the U.S. population (102.6 million).  How do you define a Latino and who is included in this group?  Latinos face many challenges including the fact that they are often labeled as a single group without consideration that they come from different countries in Latin America, each with a unique culture and language.  In my discussion I will go over the eight most common stereotypes about Latinos (based on a survey that we took in 2011), and provide data to prove incorrect the stereotypes/myth.

1.     “All Latinos are ‘illegal aliens’”

2.     “All Latinos are Mexican”

3.     “All Latinas get pregnant before they graduate high school”

4.     “All Latinos are part of a gang and are violent”

5.     “Latinos don’t want to speak English”

6.     “Most Latinos are uneducated; they don’t value education”

7.     “All Latinos are a source of cheap labor who work in outdoor jobs”

8.     “Latinos have strong family values; family comes first”

Conference aims to improve outcomes for Latino students

Conference aims to improve outcomes for Latino students

By Lynn Cambell

AMES, Iowa – Nearly 200 school administrators, teachers, and students from across Iowa will get together this month to strategize ways to improve the outcomes of Latino students in both high school and college.

Iowa’s Latino population increased by 95.8 percent, or 79,706 people, from 2000 to2012, according to the State Data Center of Iowa.

But the four-year graduation rate for Hispanic students in Iowa’s class of 2012 was 77.48 percent — nearly 12 percentage points lower than the 89.26 percent graduation rate for all students that year, according to the Iowa Department of Education.

“We are concerned about the educational progress of our Latino students,” said Larry Ebbers, a professor in Iowa State University’s School of Education. “We know that there is a high number of Latino students that tend to drop out of high school, particularly males.”

The second annual Iowa Latina/o Education Initiative Conference will be held Oct. 16 at the Des Moines Area Community College’s FFA Enrichment Center in Ankeny. The conference is free, but participants must register by Oct. 10.

The event is co-sponsored by the Community College Leadership Program, Iowa State University along with its College of Human Sciences and School of Education, and Iowa community college presidents. 

“The theme is access, choice, and completion,” said conference coordinator Michelle Robinson, a graduate assistant in the School of Education who is assistant director of the Community College Leadership Initiative Consortium. "Latino students may be able to gain access to college but the more important question is do they have access to the tools necessary for degreecompletion?"

The conference will provide an opportunity for educators to share best practices.

One of those programs is called “Juntos: Together for a Better Education.” Through the program, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach specialists have worked with high schools, communitycolleges, and businesses to help 108 Latino youth and parents increase their understanding of how to successfully graduate from high school and pursue higher education.

“Program evaluation data reveals that after participating in Juntos, parents feel more confident in working with their child’s school and improved in monitoring their youth’s homework, talking with their youth about school, college or other future plans,” said Kim Greder, an Iowa State associate professor in human development and family studies who’s also a family life state program extension specialist.

Cristobal Salinas Jr., a Latino graduate research associate in the School of Education, is coordinating volunteers and staff for the conference. He said it is an opportunity for participants to learn about the emerging challenges and needs of the Latino community, with a focus on Latino students.

“The state of Iowa needs to promote Latina/o success,” Salinas said. “Higher learning institutions need to recruit and retain Latina/o faculty and staff to provide mentorship and help reduce the gap of Latina/o undergraduate and graduate students.”

The keynote speaker for the conference will be Loui Olivas, president of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. Other speakers include Maria Harper-Marinick, executive vice chancellor and provost of Maricopa Community Colleges, and Felix Aquino, vice president for academic affairs at Oklahoma City Community College.

Iowa State University is also playing a role in other conferences aimed at improving outcomes for Latinos.

ISU President Steven Leath will be the keynote speaker and a panelist at the 3rd Annual Latinos inAgriculture Leaders Conference, Oct. 11-13 in San Antonio, Texas. He will give the keynote address at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 11 entitled, “The Future of Agriculture and the Role Universities Like Iowa State Will Play.”

Later that afternoon, Leath will be joined by other university presidents and academic officers for a general panel discussion with conference participants on issues facing agriculture and opportunities for Latinos in agriculture.  

Improving outcomes for Latino students benefits the state as a whole, Greder said.

She cited research showing that students who failed to complete high school cost the state $87 million in reduced state tax revenues over their lifetime, and more than $1.8 million per year in additional welfare costs. In addition, those who fail to complete high school will face higher unemployment, have increased health issues, and in Iowa are incarcerated at a rate 10 times greater than their peers.

Retrieved from: http://www.hs.iastate.edu/2013/10/01/latino-conference/

Make a life

Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

2013 Academic Advising Award

"Cristobal does double duty for the College of Design as the Multicultural Liaison Office (MLO) and as an academic advisor.  Students have stated that Cristobal is not only their academic advisor helping them define the path that helps them to be successful but is also a mentor, best friend, guardian and much more.  He considers everyone to be equal. Cristobal has developed programs and events that promote awareness, understanding and appreciation of diversity at Iowa State and the College of Design.  He advises around 100 students but he’s also the “go to” person when other students’ advisors are unavailable.  Cristobal is very generous with his time making sure that all students get the attention needed.  This often requires working well beyond his normal workday and may include visiting a class to ensure a student who is struggling is attending.  He has a great rapport with the students and they are comfortable talking with him about their academic concerns.  He approaches the students with compassion, patience, and provides sound advice to help students make informed decisions.  He is frequently sought to present, lead workshops, and contribute to conversations across campus.  Requests for his participation and presentations speak to his expertise in this field and the respect he’s earned as a professional.  The College of Design is fortunate to have him as part of our staff and to present him the 2013 Academic Advising Award."

Dean L.G. Rico,  College of Desing

Who Are You?

If you do not know who you are, anyone can name you. And if anyone can name you, you will answer to anything.

insightful quotes

If you've come to help me you're wasting your time, but if you've come
because your liberation is tied up with mine, then let us work
together."                                    ~Lila Watson

"The most common way people give up their power is by 
thinking they don’t have any."     ~Alice Walker

"If people don't have their own vision, 
    all they can do is "sign up" for someone else's.  
          The result is compliance, not commitment."
                                              ~Senge

"Change in the middle looks like failure."    ~Kaleel Jamison

"In the journey to social justice, small steps sometimes lead 
to unexpected leaps of progress."             ~Robert Thurman

"Those who think it's a level playing field usually have box seats." 
                                                         ~Anon                                   

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways
you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all 
the people you can, as long as you ever can.  ~John Wesley

"Touching the present moment is the door to everything."
                                              ~Thich Nhat Hanh
 
"Cut your chains and you are free, cut your roots and you die." 
                                              ~African Proverb

Cutting your chains is a liberation attempt, cutting your roots is a
suicide attempt.                         ~Nana

"When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion."      
                                              ~Ethiopian Proverb

"The true meaning of life is to plant a tree under whose shade 
you do not expect to sit."           ~Nathaniel Henderson-

No ray of sunlight is ever lost, but the grain which it awakes into 
existence needs time to grow; and it is not always granted to the sower 
to see the harvest. All work that is worth anything is done in faith.
                                              ~Albert Schweitzer 

Multicultural Liaison Officer

CRISTOBAL SALINAS JR.

Multicultural Liaison Officer
Academic Adviser
International & Design Open

Degrees and expertise
BA, University of Nebraska, Kearney, Spanish Education and English as a Second Language
MEd, Iowa State University, Higher Education/Student Affairs

About Cristobal
Cristobal Salinas Jr. is the College of Design's multicultural liaison officer (MLO). He works directly with prospective and current students from diverse backgrounds, especially those from underrepresented groups.

Cristobal can help you find resources to inform your decision about attending Iowa State University, such as university-wide programs and services as well as programs and services within the College of Design that cater specifically to the needs of multicultural students. This includes information on scholarships, student organizations and academic support. Once you arrive at Iowa State for your first year, Cristobal can guide you through the application process at the end of your Core experience with workshops and one-on-one support.

In addition to his duties as MLO and an academic adviser, Cristobal serves on the college and university diversity committees, the Fraternal-Hazing National Associate Member Education Committee and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Search Committee.

Cristobal graduated from Schuyler Central High School in Schuyler, Nebraska, where he participated in student government, speech, drama (one-act plays) and choir. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Education and English as a Second Language with a minor in dance from the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 2010, and in May 2012 he completed his Master's in Education degree in Higher Education/Student Affairs with an emphasis in student affairs and leadership and learning from Iowa State.

Before joining the College of Design in late November 2011, Cristobal was a George Washington Carver graduate assistant in the ISU Office of Multicultural StudentAffairs and the coordinator for the ISU Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies' 2011 Interview Days. He is a member of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity.

Cristobal previously interned in the office of U.S. Senator Michael F. Bennet of Colorado during summer 2009, and State University of New York-Brockport doing leadership development and social justice training during summer 2011. He danced for Center Stage Dance Company in Schuyler, Nebraska, and taught Spanish courses at Elsik High School in Houston during the 2009-2010 academic year.

What led you to become an MLO?
I wanted to work at the university level to help educate and influence students to pursue a higher education.

What are some of the highlights of your role as an MLO?
As a student affairs practitioner and an educator, my goal is to help multicultural college students to increase their success in higher education. I strongly believe that providing academic advising, mentoring, leadership opportunities, and a safe zone where students can express themselves, helps them achieve their full potential and develop their personal and professional identities.

What do you enjoy most about working with prospective students?
I enjoy helping students to discover and create future plans. It is rewarding to me when students take leadership roles and succeed at various levels within the university or their community.  

What is your favorite place on the Iowa State campus?
I enjoy spending time in the Parks Library Reading Room. It's the perfect place for me to read my favorite book, do research and meet with my friends.

What do you do for fun away from campus?
I like to go out for sushi with friends and visit my family in Nebraska. Also, because Ames is so centrally located, I have had the opportunity to travel to Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Iowa City while attending Iowa State.

Retrieved on August 2013 from: http://www.design.iastate.edu/popupHTML/show.php?PID=20 

Things that I do for students outside my job description to ensure their success.

Things that I do for students outside my job description to ensure their success.

1. Arrange student's internships with public agencies and private companies.
2. Arrange the transportation of students to conferences and professional events.
3. Celebrate important dates in the lives of the students at Iowa State University.
4. Collaborate with Native American Nations through educational programs.
5. Delegate for educational scholarships through the ISU Foundation.
6. Deliver medical, sport, and school supplies to rural areas in Latin America.
7. Design informational packages for upcoming freshman and graduate students.
8. Develop and deliver study abroad programs in the design field.
9. Drive students to medical appointments around the state of Iowa.
10. Encourage students to apply for scholarships, fellowships and graduate education.
11. Encourage students to become international entrepreneurs in the design field.
12. Encourage students to organize their curriculum of classes and balance their lives.
13. Encourage the students to participate in student organizations.
14. Establish educational programs in secondary Iowa schools.
15. Establish partnerships with Hispanic Serving Institutions.
16. Extend the network of students through educational trips to Iowa industries.
17. Facilitate courses on diversity dialogues and learning communities.
18. Help in the preparation of cultural dinners for ISU and the Ames community.
19. Help new graduate students search for homes in the city of Ames.
20. Help students who have been dismissed by the university to get back to ISU.
21. Monitor the progress of the students after their dismissal from the university.
22. Motivate the students when they are feeling distressed by the academia.
23. Network with industry personnel to assure careers in the design field.
24. Organize professional seminars for non-traditional students.
25. Organize professional symposiums and conferences for the ISU community.
26. Organize retention oriented activities for the students throughout the year.
27. Participate in national and international student organizations.
28. Partner with science bound to encourage young students to get an education.
29. Produce recruitment information for the college and the office.
30. Promote tolerance for the views of other cultures and their beliefs.
31. Proofread documents, projects, and professional presentations.
32. Provide academic advice to students and their families.
33. Provide the necessary materials for students to be successful at ISU.
34. Provide college materials to students with financial difficulties.
35. Provide information for students through judicial processes.
36. Provide emergency transportation services 24/7 to students and their families.
37. Search, write, and submit grant documents for additional funding.
38. Serve as a listening ear when the students are in need to talk about their situations.
39. Serve as a mediator during conflict management situations.
40. Serve as a translator for agricultural investors from Latin America.
41. Serve as an ambassador for new students coming to Iowa State University.
42. Serve as chair in several diversity committees at Iowa State University.
43. Support the participation of students in professional development areas.
44. Teach students how to be successful at Iowa State University and beyond.
45. Train students to collect, analyze, and present scientific data for symposiums.
46. Translate a variety of documents for the Hispanic population in Ames.
47. Visit families and their children in Iowa rural communities to talk about ISU
48. Visit schools, meet their directors and talk to the students in large auditoriums.
49. Volunteer for the Iowa Games, the Special Olympics, and other events.
50. Write a variety of letters of recommendations to enrich the student's experiences at ISU. 

And many more. . . 

Iowa State Sunset

  

Lake LaVerne is one of my favorite places on campus. This picture was taken on a cold-winter afternoon. 

NASPA Case Study Competition

 

Tuition freezes then increases

 Excellent example of when tuition freezes then increases.

Lagomarcino

One of my favorite locations on campus, Lagomarcino, Iowa State University. 

College of Design

College of Design at Iowa State University. Where I spend 2 years working as the Multicultural Liaison Officer.

Your Educational Process

If you are returning to campus, welcome back! If this is your first year at college then, welcome to your home away from home! Every semester you enter new classrooms, get to know and interact with new faculty and staff. Everyone has new expectations for you in the classroom, and everyone wants to you succeed.

Amidst all the excitement of the new school year, do not forget you have responsibilities. Enjoy the scholarship and leadership opportunities that are offered to you inside and outside the classroom.
I remember that my first year in college gave me the opportunity to reflect and think on what to expect inside and outside the classroom, and how can I be successful during the next four year of my undergraduate career.

Earning an education (associates, bachelors, masters, or doctorate) is a process. In this process you need to learn about yourself and by your new environment. Here is my own advice on how to be successful on our your educational process:

1.     Get to know your faculty.  Ask questions. Do not be afraid to ask for help when needed. Make sure you get to know them; they are humans just like you. As they will help you be successful inside the classroom, they could possibly help you be successful in the future by writing you a letter of recommendation for a job, internship, and/or a graduate program.

2.     Bond with your classmates. Your classmates will share with you similar experiences during your academic years. You will find out that you all are different, but yet you will find many similarities. Those similarities could be within your interest to scholarship or leadership.

 3.     Be intentional with your experience. Be intentional with the relationships that you make, with the opportunities that are provided to you, and with the work that you do. If you join a student organization, make sure it is something that you are passionate about, something that you want to invest time in.

4.     Look for a mentor(s) that will help you navigate the system. Follow their advice.

5.     Find your support within your family and friends. There will be times that you are no longer motivated to continue with the educational process. Be honest to yourself, to your family, and friends.

6.     Reflect and ask yourself: Why do you want your educational (college) degree? Have a clear statement of why you want to earn your education.

7.      Familiarizes yourself with resources available to you. Connect with the faculty and staff they can provide you with more information about the resources that are offer to you.

8.     Learn how to balance your personal life, student life, and professional life. Some of us have to work and go to school at the same time. Be open minded to change, but have the discipline to schedule time for yourself (go to the gym, watch your favorite TV show, etc.), schedule time for all your other responsibilities including (studying, reading, writing, attend to meetings, meet with your professors, etc.).

9.     Accountability. Know what do you want to accomplish every semester and every year, give yourself a date to check on your progress.

10.   Responsibility. Responsibility, you cannot scape it. Be prepared to know the material and submitted projects assigned when you walk into the classroom.

11.   Focus on your goals. Reality is that some of us will not complete the educational process. The goal is for all of us to finish our educational process and graduate.

12.   Allow the process to change you. You will be challenged inside and outside the classroom at different levels within your personal values and believes. You will have the opportunity to work with a diverse group of individuals; do not be afraid to differences.

13.   Always ask yourself: “What’s my purpose?” 

Best of luck on your educational journey!

Pleasure of a smart

The greatest pleasure of a smart is to pretend to be an idiot in front of an idiot pretending to be smart. 

"Silent" and "Listen"

"Silent" and "Listen" have the same letters...coincidence or not?

One Today

Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco, read his poem “One Today” at the swearing-in ceremony, January 21, 2013. Here is the full text of the poem as written.

One Today

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning’s mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:
equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,
the “I have a dream” we keep dreaming,
or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won’t explain
the empty desks of twenty children marked absent
today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light
breathing color into stained glass windows,
life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth
onto the steps of our museums and park benches
as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk
of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat
and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills
in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands
digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands
as worn as my father’s cutting sugarcane
so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains
mingled by one wind—our breath. Breathe. Hear it
through the day’s gorgeous din of honking cabs,
buses launching down avenues, the symphony
of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,
the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,
or whispers across café tables, Hear: the doors we open
for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,
buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días
in the language my mother taught me—in every language
spoken into one wind carrying our lives
without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father
who couldn’t give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together

Living in a Postcard