2019

I am a planner. For the months leading up to my international experience, I researched and planned for every possible item I might need and for any issue that might come up. What I didn’t plan for though, was to completely fall in love with Thailand.

In our Student Spotlight series, Alex Moreno — a graduate student in special education with an autism emphasis — discusses his classroom motivation and the impact of his program.

My name is Ed'd Bhagwandeen and I’m in the Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education’s Critical Literacy and Social Justice master’s program. I went to Oaxaca with credential and MA students this past June. It was my first extended study abroad experience.

Emelyn dela Peña ’98, ’09 returned to the Golden State this summer to start her new position as Stanford University’s associate vice provost for inclusion, community and integrative learning. It is the next challenge in an impressive student affairs career that has included stops at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis. Emelyn was prepared for this journey at San Diego State University, where she earned a master’s degree in postsecondary educational leadership and instruction and a doctorate through its joint Ed.D. program. Recently, Emelyn chatted with us about her new position in Palo Alto, her passion for diversity and inclusion and her favorite SDSU mentors.

The Mundt Peace Fellowship allowed me and eight other San Diego State University students to spend eight weeks working as interns in various NGOs in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After traveling and working in Cambodia for two months, I discovered so much about the beauty of Cambodia, the Khmer culture, and its history, riddled with both suffering and resilience.

The Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education and three San Diego County community colleges have forged a federally-funded partnership to help close California’s teacher-student diversity gap and meet growing needs for bilingual educators.

Nearly two dozen San Diego-area educators took time out of their summer vacations to attend a free Coding For Teachers workshop led by Dr. Donna Ross, associate professor in the School of Teacher Education (STE). The weeklong professional development opportunity — which was inspired and funded by alumnus Michael Pack '70 — taught teachers the basics of coding so they could pass those skills on to young people in their classrooms.

In July, faculty from SDSU’s Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education (DLE) hosted a group of students on an exchange from Lausanne, Switzerland. The Swiss cohort was here to learn how language education is taught in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Their weeklong experience included seminars and presentations with COE faculty and students, visits to area schools and even an excursion across the border into Tijuana. SDSU students will travel to Switzerland as part of the exchange in early 2020.

It was three days after the San Diego State University College of Education commencement ceremony and Erica Alfaro was going about her business as usual. More than a week had passed since she had posted her graduation photo on Instagram — a remarkable shot of her posing in cap and gown in a strawberry field alongside her farmworker parents. She’d seen the hundreds of likes, given a few subsequent media interviews and then moved on with her life.

Don Dumas ’10, ’16 holds a few different titles at Bonita Vista High School. The graduate of SDSU’s single-subject teacher credential program and Master’s in Teaching Online Program is a history teacher, a varsity boys’ basketball coach and — as of two months ago — Teacher of the Year in Sweetwater Union High School District. We recently sat down with Don to discuss his path from a disaffected high school student to a mentor who inspires young people every day.