UTSA Meet a Roadrunner: Alumnus Paul Rodriguez plans to do research

UTSA alumnus Paul Rodriguez
(Photo by Deborah Silliman Wolfe)

By Jo Ann Jones
Communications Specialist, College of Education and Human Development

(Jan. 1, 2014) -- Meet Paul Rodriguez. He was the first doctoral student in the UTSA Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies to pursue a higher education emphasis

Rodriguez began his doctoral program in fall 2010. After three-and-a-half years of study, he said his degree is something he is very proud of.

“It feels good to be the first graduate,” said Rodriguez. “I think that it’s great that the Higher Education Administration emphasis is becoming more popular. Each year we’ve had more interest in it.”

The UTSA faculty is likewise very proud of Rodriguez.

“We [were] very excited to have Paul Rodriguez as our first higher education emphasis graduate,” said Gloria Crisp, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS). “We expect that the higher education component of the ELPS department will continue to grow and develop over the next few years.”

Now an alumnus, Rodriguez hopes to secure a postdoctoral fellowship or a tenure-track assistant professor position at a research university.

“It’s been really great here at UTSA,” he said. “The professors have been outstanding. The ELPS department has provided me a lot of material in terms of going to conferences, presenting at conferences, producing research, getting involved in different scholar programs, and now helping with the job process.”

Following in Rodriguez’s footsteps are 37 doctoral students and 154 master’s students currently pursuing an emphasis in Higher Education Administration through the UTSA College of Education and Human Development’s top-tier degree programs.

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