News and Media
In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Mayor's Hispanic Advisory Board are honoring five Houstonians for their exceptional contributions toward improving the Houston Hispanic community's quality of life. One of our Academic Achievers Program students, Yonatan Mascorro, is the winner in the youth activist category.
Yonatan Mascorro is the recipient of the 2020 Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Youth Activist Award. He has dedicated his time to cultivating young leaders through his personal, professional, and academic experiences. Growing up in the East-End of Houston, Yonatan graduated at the top of his class from Stephen F. Austin High School. During his high school years, he was a program mentor for the Academic Achievers Program, where he mentored and encouraged 25 students to excel in their calculus, physics, and chemistry courses. Within a two-year timeframe, he guided low-performing students to the top 10 percent of their graduating class. Yonatan is now a first-generation college student pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. He is passionate about STEM and giving back to his East End Community. Yonatan is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Latinos in Science and Engineering. In these programs, he organizes various STEM-related events for high school students and encourages them to reach their highest aspirations.
AAP Student Inducted into Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society.
Congratulations to Melanie Salazar for her accomplishments! Only 13 University of Houston students were inducted this semester. 
Congratulations Isis Campos, CMAS Sponsored Mellon Fellow!
Isis Campos is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the Hispanic Studies Department at the University of Houston. For the Fall of 2020 she has accepted a position as a Laura C. Harris Scholar-in-Residence Postdoctoral Fellow at Denison University. Her research focuses on US Latino/a literature, with a specialization in US Central American literature.
CMALS Zoom Backgrounds Now Avaliable!
Click here to download the full size Zoom or Video Conference backgrounds!
Congratulations to 2019-2020 CMALS Graduate Fellow, Guillermo Ortega for accepting a postdoc position with Iowa State!
He received his Ph.D in Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies. His dissertation was titled "Examining the Experience, Engagement, and Persistence for Latina/o student-athletes."
CMALS and Univision Conduct "Texas 2020 Super Tuesday Statewide and Latino Voter Poll"
Click here to see the results.
Dr. Jeronimo Cortina Elected as 2020 Faculty Senate President
Dr. Cortina now heads the Faculty Senate comprised of 134 elected senators representing over 2,000 full and part-time faculty. Faculty Senate leadership transitioned from Raúl Ramos of the Department of History.
Learn more about the senate here.
Dr. Pamela Quiroz selected as 2019 Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Award winner for Education in the Community
CMAS Director, Dr. Pamela Quiroz will be honored as a 2019 Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Award winner at a Proclamation presentation Tuesday, September 17, 2019 at 1:30 p.m at City Hall. Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Mayor's Hispanic Advisory Board will recognize Dr. Quiroz for her work as an educator in the community.
Perchance to DREAM: A Legal and Political History of The DREAM Act & DACA
Michael Olivas, the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law and Director of the Institute for Higher Education Law & Governance at the Univeristy of Houston, as announced his forthcoming book to be published in 2020 by NYU Press.
Fely Aguilar Named New AAP Program Director
Congratulations to Fely Aguilar on accepting the Academic Achievers Program Director position. Fely has been counseling the AAP students since 2010 and continues to give her all to the program.
Dr. Quiroz Selected as Houston Business Journal 2019 Women Who Mean Business Honoree
CMAS Director, Dr. Pamela Quiroz has been named a Houston Business Journal (HBJ) 2019 Women Who Mean Business Honoree. The criteria for selection included, career achievement, contribution to company and city success, community involvement and leadership. All honorees will be recognized in a special section of HBJ's October 4th weekly edition and at an awards gala on October 3rd.
Learn more about the recongition here.
Academic Acheivers Program Alumni Feature
Alice Valdez graduted in 2012 with a B.S. in Electrical Power Engineering Technology and is now working
as a Field Engineer II with Calpine Corporation. She entered AAP as an Austin High School student and was then accepted into the University of Houston and became the first in her family to graduate from a university.
She said this about the program, "No one achieves anything alone. The strong support system I was provided with in the Academic Achievers Program has been instrumental to my success. The AAP staff and mentors helped me find resources, handle difficult situations and stay motivated in pursuing my goals."
Read the full interview here.
Congratulations, Dr. Quiroz!
Director of CMAS and Executive Director of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research, Dr. Pamela Anne Quiroz was selected to be honored by Texas Executive Women as one of their 2019 Woman On The Move.
She is set to be honored along with other distinguished women at their Women On The Move Luncheon set for October 28 at Hilton Americas-Houston. To find out more about this award and how to attend this Luncheon, click the following link.
CMAS Celebrates the Graduation of 13 AAP Students at the Hilton
This past Friday CMAS celebrated the successful graduation of 13 AAP students at the Hilton College Flamingo Room. The graduation dinner was attended by the graduates, their family members, and the CMAS Staff.
Rebeca Treviño even came out of her recent retirement to help present the graduation plaques to the students alongside Fely Aguilar.
We at CMAS are so proud of our students and their achievements and wish them the very best in their future endeavors.
CMAS Staff Attend Latin Women's Initiative Fashion Show and Luncheon
Our sponsors, Latin Women's Initiative (LWI), recently invited the CMAS Staff to attend their 17th Annual Fashion Show and Luncheon at Hilton Americas-Houston.We at CMAS are proud to call Latin Women's Initiative a longtime supporter of our Academic Achievers Program.
To find out more about LWI and their mission, click the following link.
CMAS Sponsors CITGO Take CMAS Staff to Astros Game
Our friends and sponsors CITGO recently invited the CMAS staff to the Astros-Rangers game at Minute Maid Park earlier this month.We would like to thank Jerry Santos and Sandra Arispe and all of our friends at CITGO for inviting the staff to what turned out to be a really fun and exciting game.
We are very grateful for your consistent support in our academic endeavors with our students, faculty, and staff.
Famed Houston Artist, Daniel Anguilu, Completes Two Murals Within CMAS Office
Daniel Anguilu, a prolific local artist whose works have become synonymous with Houston street art, has completed two murals within the CMAS office.
CMAS is extremely proud to support and house the works of Latino-identifying artists like Anguilu.
Be sure to get a first-hand glimpse of the newly done murals tentatively titled Flor Y Canto by visiting the CMAS office during normal business hours.
CLASS Features IUPLR's Latino Art Now 2019! On Homepage
The University of Houston's College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) is currently featuring the Latino Art Now! 2019 Conference on the CLASS homepage with an accompanying press release. 
With statements given by Dean Antonio Tillis of CLASS, UH Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Provost Paula Myrick Short and Director of CMAS and Executive Director of the IUPLR Dr. Pamela Anne Quiroz, the article goes in-depth as to why the conference is a significant and visible showing of the university's mission to maintain and cultivate diversity.
To read up on the press release, click the following link.
Artwork Provided by Lizbeth Ortiz