Blooms of Diversity
(Continued)

Judith Jackson-Fossett earned a Ph.D. at Princeton with the aid of a fellowship program for students from minority groups. Today, she is a tenured faculty member of the College's English and American studies and ethnicity departments. She is active in the USC Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, which promotes graduate training for underrepresented minority students. Photo credit: Phil Channing Click here for high-resolution photo.

“Part of our commitment as faculty should be to strive for a diverse future professoriate,” she said, echoing Starr. “That can be done by carefully working with our students.”

Judith Jackson-Fossett, associate professor of English and American studies and ethnicity, agrees.

Since arriving at USC College 10 years ago, Jackson-Fossett has been active with the university’s program aimed at encouraging undergraduate students from underrepresented groups to pursue a Ph.D., especially in fields lacking diversity. Jackson-Fossett is a member of the steering committee of the program, now called the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program.

Similar fellowship programs enabled Jackson-Fossett to return to graduate school in 1990. She had first considered earning a Ph.D. while an undergraduate student at Harvard University, after encouragement from teaching fellows and professors. Then after graduation, she postponed the decision and followed many of her classmates to Wall Street for a job as a financial analyst.

“But I missed using all of my brain,” she said. After securing fellowships, she earned her graduate degree at Princeton University.

At USC, Jackson-Fossett has never missed a commencement exercise. As one of four African-American women tenured in the College, she considers the ceremonies another opportunity to educate.

Each year — as she walks across campus with other faculty members to the graduation ceremony wearing her orange and black Princeton cap and gown — she is stopped by several well-wishers.

“They all want to congratulate me because they think I’m getting my Ph.D.,” Jackson-Fossett said. “None of them considers that there might be a black woman professor. … For me to go unrecognized as a professor when I’m wearing a robe speaks to the need to diversify.”

The value of role modeling for students of color is only one benefit of having a black woman instructing a class. It is a win-win proposition for all the students, she said, explaining that in L.A. preschools, there are many African-American and Latina teachers. Later, students see fewer teachers of color.

“By the time students get to my classroom, it has been years since they have had a woman of color as a teacher and they don’t know what to think,” she said. “On the first day of class, I always arrive two minutes late — so they won’t think I’m another student.”

Ever the educator, Jackson-Fossett said that just by being at the university, she broadens the horizons of her students by giving them and their parents something to think about.

“We’re helping our students and their families understand that going to a professional school, being a doctor or a lawyer or a banker, isn’t the only thing that they can do. We want them to see life in higher education in the same way.”

Before deciding to become a professor, sociology doctoral student Glenda Flores considered a career as an elementary teacher. "As a Latina, it's all that you know that you can be," she said. Her research focuses on the recent 30 percent rise in Latina school teachers in her hometown of Santa Ana. Photo credit: Phil Channing Click here for high-resolution photo.

Her parents and counselors in high school and college encouraged her to be an elementary school teacher.

“As a Latina, it’s all that you know that you can be,” Flores said. “It’s rare to see a Latina attorney, or a Latina firefighter. But elementary school is a place where you can see Latinas.”

Flores is researching Latina teachers in Santa Ana, investigating the reasons behind a nearly 30 percent increase of Latina teachers in the past decade by interviewing them about their career choice and occupational experiences.

“There are two great advantages [in my doing] this study,” Flores said. “The first is my Latina subjectivity and the other is my insider position. I’ve lived in Santa Ana my entire life, worked in the district and was going to be an elementary school teacher.

“I heard one of my participants actually say that the reason many Latinas were going into teaching was because they thought that was all they knew and all they thought they could be,” she continued. “It was at this point that I saw my Latina subjectivity as a complete strength because it allowed her to speak freely with me and my experience resonated with her response.”

Back at the Ramirez home, Antipatro showed a visitor the stitches on the badly cut middle finger of his right hand. The 63-year-old gardener had injured his hand while at work trimming a hedge.

“It’s my first accident in 36 years, so that’s not bad,” Antipatro Ramirez said. “It could have been worse. I could have lost the whole finger.”

The accident also gave Hernan Ramirez a close look at the kinds of on-the-job injuries gardeners face daily and provided other insights into their workplace. First, the injury underscored the work ethic of gardeners such as his father, who got stitches and returned to work the following day, despite warnings from his doctor to keep the wound clean.

It also highlighted other “dangers” associated with the job. For instance, after Antipatro sliced his finger in Westwood, he drove his truck home to South Gate and left it there before heading to the hospital. He didn’t want the expensive equipment in his truck to be stolen if he parked at the hospital.

“Dangers on the job will be a large part of my thesis,” Hernan Ramirez said. “I’m working with Pierrette [Hondagneu-Sotelo] to fine tune my questions to gardeners about possible injuries.”

As Hondagneu-Sotelo observed: “Without diversity, departments would not have the richness that comes from scholars whose life experiences give them not only the drive, but the passion and particular insights to delve deeply into original and innovative projects.”