*One of the first flowers to bloom in the new year is the crocus, a small, colorful and friendly reminder of new beginnings.*

For many professors, Spring semester starts a bit later in January. This gives us time to enjoy the winter a bit longer and also time to plan our courses. I am in the midst of doing just that and I am very excited about three fascinating new courses that I will be teaching. While the subjects are very familiar to me, they also mark a new beginning as they span two departments: Chinacano Studies and African American studies. I hope that this represents a new beginning for others as well.

The first of these courses is on a topic that was the centerpiece of my dissertation – AfroLatine identity. You’ve probably heard the term Latino, even Latinx. Well, I prefer Latine because it is a gender-neutral form of the word Latino and it conforms to Spanish language grammar rules. Just to be clear, I am not the language police, so if you prefer Latino or Latinx, that’s absolutely fine. Anyway, the course explores AfroLatine identity in the context of the Americas, allowing me to provide a good overview the history, psychosocial, cultural, developmental, and racial underpinnings of the process.

This course was actually given to me by the chair of the African American studies department at my institution. She created the course and taught it a few years ago. As she transitioned to academic leadership, she was not able to offer the course. When I approached her with a proposal for my own class, she said that I could take over her course and build on it to make it my own. The level of collegiality and generosity I experience continues to remind me why I work in academia.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, academia is as imperfect as the people inhabiting its esteemed halls, offices, and classrooms. I am so fortunate to have found a space where collegiality and generosity are alive and well. They affirm that there are still many who believe in the central tenets of education and research and do what they can to foster an environment where these ideals can be sustained and grow.

As a former student affairs professional, many of my courses are infused with life lessons. I highlight the big ideas of the course and help students connect them with how they may be brought to life in their world outside of the classroom. This is why I decided to also teach a new leadership course called Communication Skills. This is a new course for me, but I have taught these concepts in other leadership classes. In all my courses, I emphasize the ability to think, write, and speak clearly to be heard and understood. In this course, students will engage with materials and do activities to bring these concepts to life in their own lives.

*Crocuses bloom even before the snow has melted.*

The other class I will be teaching is Introduction to Ethnic Studies. This course really shifts the ground under students’ feet. It informs them of the histories they were not exposed to in the K-12. It provides them with ways to make the course material relevant to their lives and their own personal histories.

For example, one student went home one day and spoke with his family about the unit we did on Latine history in the Americas. He came back the next session and said that his great grandfather fought with Emiliano Zapata in the war of Mexican independence from Spain! This was the first time his father spoke about his own grandfather’s involvement in the forming of an independent Mexico.

It is stories like these that make Ethnic Studies such a transformational topic. It is not separate from the experiences of students, like other subjects can be. It is central to who they are and their family history that informs who they are becoming.

In the end, there will be a lot of cross pollination in all the topics and discussions. In the Ethnic Studies class, students will do a presentation about the themes they discussed in their papers. Likewise, I will use the tools discussed in the Communication Skills class to help students understand how they can become better presenters.

Finally, content from the AfroLatine Identity course will help me weave together the intersections of the Black and Latine experience in the Americas. One example I like to bring up in my classes is the fact that the 19th Century Underground Railroad in the USA not only went up to Canada, but also down to Mexico.

This new year will bring many opportunities for change. I am still in the midst of course preparation for the AfroLatine and Communications courses. It is a change from last semester where I only taught a single subject. These two new courses will introduce change across all three topics.

I am trying to stand as far back as possible to visualize how the three courses can inform one another while also standing on their own. This is how I make meaning of the work that I do. For me to teach effectively, I must first understand. For me to understand, I must first find – or make – meaning out of what I am dealing with.

Every new year brings new beginnings, but these courses represent more than that to me, personally. Not only are they subjects that I am very interested in, but they are also pertinent to the world that is emerging around us. Hopefully my students, my colleagues, the Chicano Studies department, the African American Studies department and the university will find a way to embrace this new beginning as well.

On New Beginnings and My Spring Courses