Innovative Ideas. Impressive Action.
Education policy doctoral student leading changes in support of students of color.
Kristine Jan Espinoza is driven - not only for her own success, though. She wants fellow students of color to succeed in higher education and is forging a path through higher education policy to make that journey easier.
As a Ph.D. student in the higher education program, this award-winning student leader has always been passionate about Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and community engagement. Having navigated through different MSIs as a community college transfer student from Long Beach City College to the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and now as a doctoral student at UNLV, Kristine knows what it’s like for students of color who need mentors with similar backgrounds. She continuously advocates for increased investments in what MSIs can do for communities of color, as demonstrated by her recent appointments.
Community Engagement as a Graduate Student Fellow
To Kristine, community engagement is about responsible partnership. As one of the six graduate students selected from across the country, she’ll join the first cohort of graduate student fellows with the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement. Kristine wants to understand how colleges and universities involve and collaborate with their local communities.
She is involved in community scholarship and service experiences with the aim of maintaining community engagement as a key element of the MSI experience. Her interest in institutional diversity among and within MSIs, particularly institutions meeting more than one MSI designation, which includes identifying Carnegie Classifications, prompted her to apply to be a graduate student fellow.
As a graduate student fellow, Kristine will provide administrative support to two review teams during the Tier One review process. This includes scheduling group review meetings, drafting minutes, and reviewing and editing feedback documentation reports.
Funding for the Future
Kristine is taking her appointments further as she is one of two graduate students selected nationally for a state finance policy summer internship with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO). Building her knowledge of MSIs, she applied to the SHEEO internship to learn more about the higher education finance side of MSIs, all while advancing the conversation around best investing in these important institutions and the students they serve.
Her interest in education finance was seeded during her master’s program and continued in the Ph.D. program. Kristine worked at the Hawai’i State Legislature for the former chair of the Senate Ways and Means appropriation committee. This experience marked her initial interest in funding investment at the state and national levels for colleges and universities.
Kristine has been part of a research team generating policy briefs (1, 2) covering updated funding data on Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs). Data from these policy briefs have been cited in U.S. Congress and other advocacy efforts for increasing federal funding for AANAPISIs.
As an intern for SHEEO, she will help construct the funding project dataset for the Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) Data Project, recently featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. Her responsibilities will include collecting and analyzing financial data for MSIs, drafting written materials, and constructing data sets and visualizations.
On the Rise
Kristine’s commitment to MSIs and community engagement has propelled her to rising star status. These opportunities not only reflect her research interests but also provide valuable experiences that will prepare her for future goals, which include serving as a potential Carnegie Classification reviewer and securing a higher education faculty position. Having had mentors of color who believed in her before she believed in herself, it’s without a doubt that Kristine will uphold the same standards for her own mentees.