WASC Testimonials

Karen Pérez

CSUDH Graduate, Spanish, Language and Literature option, May 2007
McNair Scholar

I graduated May 2007 in Spanish Language and Literature. I applied directly into the Ph.D program. I was in the McNair scholars program. That’s the program that helped me! I am first generation college student. I am from Lima, Peru and came to America when I was 19. I didn’t speak English. I started taking ESL classes. I met my husband and got married right away. I started a family. I worked and studied together since we got married to be able to support my family and continue my education. I come to school part-time and worked full-time. The how I came to Dominguez Hills is through a recruitment process. I was at Cerritos College and I was taking my General Electives. I didn’t know anything about college. I was just going because all the other young students from ESL at night were going to college. so I said well I'll try this. Then there was recruitment for Dominguez Hills. One of the staff members took the time to explain to me what it would take to get a bachelor’s degree. I said I liked that idea and I visited the campus. I was happy to see students like me. That really connected me to the campus. I applied and I was admitted. Because I was an adult part-time student and had a family, I really didn’t get involved into activities at school. I didn’t think I would have time. Until there was another recruitment event and that was for the McNair Scholars Program. They told me that I was getting my bachelor’s but I could get a Ph.D and I could teach at a university level. Then I thought maybe I can do that. I really liked being at the university. I applied and I got into the program. That completely changed my life. I got really involved in school and activities and I made time for that while holding my full-time job and coming to school part-time. I can say that this program really worked for me.

What are your educational goals?

To get my Ph.D in Spanish Literature, teach at the university level and to publish the classics of the Spanish Literature.

What does it mean to be a McNair Scholar?

To me it means to be a serious scholar. Someone who is academically inclined, who is responsible, who is accountable for his actions. Someone who is a role model or a mentor for other students. I think because of the structure of the program, a McNair Scholar is an achiever, and it will always be.

How has the program benefited you?

The program has done wonderful things for me. It really guided me by the hand into the whole process of getting into graduate school. It has taught me how to conduct research. Has paired me up with a faculty mentor here, Dr. Benito Gomez, with whom I conducted a research project. We published together our research in the foreign languages department magazine, Vita Flumen. That was a wonderful experience for me. The program has also paid for the conference I have gone. It has paid for my research. The program has supported me also morally throughout my whole academic life at Dominguez Hills.

How does the McNair Scholars program make research skills and graduate school attainable for first generation college students?

The program is designed in a structure that way. The whole purpose of the program is to prepare you to get into graduate school. The first thing it does is give you hands on experience on a project conducted here or at a UC of your choice. There are funds for you to do that. Research projects many times result into a publishable paper. In order for you to conduct your research, it teaches a research in methodology course, which is only for McNair Scholars. That teaches you how to conduct research, and then you get hands on experience on your research project that turns into a publishable paper. That provides funding for you to present your research project at other conferences. Even if they are out of state the program will fund you. If it’s really one of the schools you want to get into to it also offers preparation for GRE. It is very challenging. The program prepares you for it and it pays the fee. So you just have to worry about taking the GRE. It also provides workshop and seminars for you to prepare different and various topics. How to apply to grad school, how to finance your college education, how to survive in grad school. Different workshops that really help see what is coming so your not surprised. At the end it pays for all your application fees for you to apply to more schools. The program basically guides you by the hand. Whatever academic level you are in, it gives you the tools that you need to get into grad school. It guides you through the whole process, turns you into a scholar, and at the end coaches you once you’re applying and getting your responses from the schools. Helps you select the program that is best for you and at the end if you have many schools to choose from, it helps you to negotiate offers. Even at the end once you’re in, you’re still connected to the program, you still have that network, and you become a mentor for other students in the program.

How can programs like McNair raise the profile of CSU Dominguez Hills by producing a more diverse college faculty of tomorrow?

If you see the whole McNair group it is a very diverse group itself. All of those students go and get prepared for grad school. They get into grad school programs like my promotion, my generation, my group, all of us that graduated from Dominguez Hills, all of us that graduated from McNair Scholars got 100% entrance into graduate programs, which is wonderful. That is a colorful and diverse group of students that are seeking the same thing I am seeking, a graduate degree, a Ph.D to comeback and teach at a university. I want to comeback to Dominguez Hills or another institution. They are helping to create that diverse faculty that every campus is guided towards. I think that Dominguez Hills, through the McNair Scholars program, it is really producing that diverse faculty of coming years of tomorrow. I am really walking proof that a student with a background like mine. You wouldn’t think that someone who is sewing in a factory would really be able to get into a graduate program. Going through that program has really helped me to do that and I am really thankful for that.