Graduate Student Success- Education
Stories from Education Graduates and Alumni
Do you have a success to share with Marquette University's Graduate School? We'd love to hear from you. Tell us about your new job, presentation, publication, or any other award or honor you've recently received. We will post your story here and on the Marquette University Facebook and Twitter pages.
I WANT TO SHARE MY SUCCESS STORY
Vilma Fermin - Educational Policy and Leadership
Vilma Fermin, a second-year master’s student in the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership and Trinity Fellow at Marquette University, dedicates her time and energy advocating for equitable education and community development. Her identity and passion to empower others stems from her Jesuit educational experience which has motivated her to study educational policy and seek roles which allow her to take her passion to action.
In June 2023, Fermin was invited to serve as the first alumna on the Board of Trustees at St. Ignatius School in the South Bronx of New York. St. Ignatius School is a tuition-free Jesuit middle school dedicated to supporting low-income students that is committed to providing guidance and support to students from middle school through college. Reflecting on her academic journey, Fermin says, “It was the place that ignited my curiosity and nurtured my passion for education access. It also introduced me to Jesuit values that centered the importance of community and caring for the whole person.” Her role on the board as a trustee allows her to give back to the school that played such a significant role in her life, furthering its mission by supporting alumni in their educational pursuits and beyond.
Fermin’s high school and college experiences continued to spark her passion for service and advocacy. She attended The Ursuline School, a private, Catholic high school in New Rochelle, New York, and was heavily involved in service, noting the school’s motto, Serviam, which means “I will serve.” She then went on to attend Saint Joseph’s University, a Jesuit college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where her passion for advocacy and community development was truly ignited. Fermin profoundly notes; “Service moved from practice to action and immersion. I participated in weekly service programs and immersion trips that allowed me to experience community authentically.”
After graduating in 2020, Fermin participated in a year of service with the Amate House, a nonprofit developing young adult leaders into life-long social justice advocates. Fermin reflects; “During my year of service, I lived in an intentional community and practiced the tenants of service, community, faith, social justice, and stewardship. Care and connection have been at the core of my experiences and have profoundly shaped how I show up in, and for the communities I am a part of.
Now living in Milwaukee and pursuing her graduate degree at Marquette University in educational policy, Fermin is making her mark on the local community through her research at the Wisconsin Policy Forum as the Norman N. Gill fellow. In this role, she is studying how federal relief funds, nearly $2.4 billion, were spent across school districts in Wisconsin to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. The project provides a retrospective analysis of how the one-time federal relief aid was utilized to support education throughout the state, noting “this research will explore what we know about the actions that schools took to impact student recovery from the pandemic.”
In addition to her academic and research commitments, Fermin, as a Marquette University Trinity Fellow, serves at the Milwaukee County Office of Equity. In her role as the Human Rights and Advocacy Fellow, she supports data analysis and strategy development to address community needs. “I am passionate about education access and hope to work at the intersection of community and student development,” she shares. Fermin believes that for youth to thrive, their communities must also thrive, a lesson she learned throughout her Jesuit education, where she witnessed the profound effects of investing in both students and their communities.
When she is not busy with her studies or internships, Fermin enjoys staying active by running alongside the Lakefront and Oak Leaf Trails, and crocheting bucket hats as a relaxing and creative outlet.
Saúl Lopez - Educational Policy and Leadership
Saúl Lopez, a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership, is an Arthur J. Schmitt Fellow who studies Latinx student experiences in Midwestern higher education institutions that are — or strive to be — Hispanic serving institutions. HSIs are federally designated higher education institutions with at least 25% Hispanic undergraduate students enrolled full-time. Lopez uses qualitative research methods to examine how these institutions can best serve and support Latinx students.
A primary goal of the Arthur J. Schmitt Fellowship is to further students’ formation as leaders working for positive social change. Lopez credits the fellowship with allowing him to spend more time focusing on his research and pursuing leadership and community engagement opportunities, which keeps him quite busy.
Lopez is an adjunct instructor in the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership and co-operates the blog Cafecito414 with his colleague, Dr. Gabrial Velez, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership. The two use their Milwaukee-based blog to share their thoughts on coffee, which includes a Coffee Map that highlights different coffee shops they love, as well as interviews with people from the Milwaukee coffee scene in an effort to highlight shops and positively promote the city.
Lopez is a Milwaukee native himself, and he connects his love for the city and his higher education experience as a qualitative researcher to his work on the blog by valuing the power of stories and lived experiences, which he feels creates meaning through community.
Lopez encourages all lovers of coffee to check out Cafecito414 to learn more about Milwaukee’s vibrant coffee scene. When Lopez isn’t researching or writing, you may find him at Oscar’s Pub & Grill across the 16th Street viaduct enjoying great food or playing soccer with his friends at Doyne Park.
Maddie Hahn- Educational Policy and Leadership
Maddie Hahn has been awarded the Berry Fellowship at the Wisconsin Policy Forum for the 2020-2021 academic year. Working under the guidance of senior researchers at the Forum, her research will focus on the English Learner (EL) academic achievement gap in Wisconsin. Specifically, she will be conducting a comparative analysis of EL achievement based on their enrollment in schools that offer distinct bilingual-bicultural programs. Throughout the application process, Maddie sought out advice and insight from various EDPL faculty, and she thanks them all for their support and guidance.
Jennifer Gaul-Stout- PhD, Educational Policy and Leadership
In her 4th year, Jennifer presented her paper at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching in Atlanta, Georgia. Her presentation, How Activist are Made: Understanding Activism and Scientific Literacy represents a cross case analysis of two communities where very different industrial movements have threatened health and quality of life in local communities. She discovered that the process of engaging in defending one’s community in the face of socio-economic controversy was similar across both cases. Together these two case studies lend important insight into the enactment and development of scientific literacy in contexts of socio-scientific activism. Examining the enactment of scientific literacy in two contexts where science takes center stage in social and political controversy promises to contribute evidence and nuance surrounding widely held suppositions about contributions of scientific literacy to enhancing citizens’ personal and political lives. Further, noting the characteristics of scientific literacy as it is enacted in contexts of socio-scientific controversy provides insight into how school and informal science might contribute to more effectively preparing citizens to engage scientific issues in the public sphere.
Jennifer will go on to present two papers at the Urban Affairs Association Conference in Toronto, ON.
