May 1, 2025

Media Contacts:
Vanessa Saldivar, Interim Executive Director, HSI Initiatives, 509-682-6720, vsaldivar@wvc.edu
Marcine Miller, Executive Director, Public Information Office, 509-682-6582, mmiller2@wvc.edu

U.C. Berkeley professor and leading HSI scholar Dr. Gina Ann Garcia presented “Centering Student Voices at Hispanic Serving Institutions” at the Wenatchee Valley College Dean’s Day on Friday, April 25.

Garcia’s keynote speech addressed how HSIs can better serve Latine students and other students of color. She discussed current research about students at HSIs and how faculty and staff can center student voices to bridge equity gaps.

Organized and sponsored by El Corazón, WVC’s Center for Teaching and Learning, the keynote is part of a broader initiative supported by the Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions (DHSI) grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education. DHSI grants are aimed at expanding educational opportunities for and improving the academic attainment of Hispanic students.

“This event provided a beautiful opportunity to come together as an institution to reorient to our north star - our students,” said Vanessa Saldivar, WVC’s interim executive director of HSI initiatives. “Dr. Garcia ardently calls us to center our students, especially the roughly half that come from minoritized communities that are actively being targeted by discriminatory policies and hateful rhetoric. This is a critical moment for our community and for our college, as we deepen our understanding of, and our commitment to, our HSI identity.”

In her keynote speech, Garcia spoke of the barriers to education that different student populations face, and how WVC faculty and staff can break down these barriers in the classroom and on the college's campuses by understanding and elevating the lived experience of students from diverse backgrounds. Garcia invited WVC faculty and staff to “be unafraid educator[s] who work with and for all students.”

Garcia is a professor at U.C. Berkeley’s School of Education. Her research centers on issues of equity and justice in higher education with an emphasis on understanding how HSIs embrace and enact an organizational identity for serving minoritized populations. She explores the experiences of administrators, faculty, and staff at HSIs, and the outcomes of students attending these institutions. As an equity-minded scholar, she tends to the ways that race and racism have shaped institutions of higher education.

With a student population that is 45 percent Hispanic, WVC has been designated as an HSI by the U.S. Department of Education. To receive this designation, institutions must meet eligibility requirements and have an enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic students. WVC is focused on supporting students from all backgrounds and providing educational opportunities to underserved student populations across North Central Washington.

 

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Wenatchee Valley College enriches North Central Washington by serving educational and cultural needs of communities and residents throughout the service area. The college is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion for all students and employees and provides high-quality transfer, liberal arts, professional/technical, basic skills and continuing education for students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Visit our website, wvc.edu.

Wenatchee Valley College is committed to a policy of equal opportunity in employment and student enrollment. All programs are free from discrimination and harassment against any person because of race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a service animal by a person with a disability, age, parental status or families with children, marital status, religion, genetic information, honorably discharged veteran or military status or any other prohibited basis per RCW 49.60.030, 040 and other federal and state laws and regulations, or participation in the complaint process.

The following persons have been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies and Title IX compliance for both the Wenatchee and Omak campuses:

To report discrimination or harassment: Title IX Coordinator, Human Resources, Wenatchi Hall 2322M, (509) 682-6445, title9@wvc.edu.

To request disability accommodations: Student Access Manager, Wenatchi Hall 2131, (509) 682-6854, TTY/TTD: dial 711, sas@wvc.edu.