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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Do you know someone at UTSA who is achieving great things? Email us at social@utsa.edu so we might consider your submission for an upcoming installment of Meet a Roadrunner.

Events

Friday, April 25, 11:00 a.m.

Día en la Sombrilla

Día en la Sombrilla, formerly Fiesta UTSA, is a festival hosted each spring as a part of Fiesta® San Antonio events. Sponsored by Roadrunner Productions, the event features music, food, confetti, games, event t-shirts, and more.

Sombrilla Plaza, Main Campus

Wednesday, April 30, 12:00 p.m.

Using Covidence for Systematic Review Screening

Covidence is a systematic & scoping review tool used to streamline the process of screening and reviewing articles. Using this software, research teams can easily import studies, perform automatic deduplication, and extract data using templates. This workshop will show attendees how to start a review in Covidence, add collaborators, and get started on screening.

Virtual (Zoom)

Wednesday, April 30, 4:00 p.m.

Tabular Data with Python

In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to Pandas, a Python tool for working with data easily. It makes it simple to organize and analyze information when data is organized and categorized, like spreadsheets or tables.

Group Spot B, John Peace Library

Thursday, May 1, 8:30 a.m.

Klesse College Tech Symposium

Each fall and spring semester, students convene at the Main Campus at UTSA with booths, ideas and prototypes. A crowd of judges, local organizations, students, faculty and sponsors walk around and talk to the students about their projects and ask questions. Students get the real-life experience of "pitching" their project with hopes of getting funding or support to move to the next level.

UTSA Convocation Center, Main Campus

Thursday, May 15, 6:00 p.m.

Doctoral Conferral Ceremony

Join the doctoral candidates for the Doctoral Conferreal Ceremony and celebrate their accomplishments.

Arts Building Recital Hall, Main Campus

Sunday, May 18, 10:00 a.m.

UTSA Commencement Ceremony One

Celebrate the graduates from the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, College of Education and Human Development, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design and University College.

Alamodome

Sunday, May 18, 5:30 p.m.

UTSA Commencement Ceremony Two

Celebrate the graduates from the College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and College of Sciences.

Alamodome

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Spotlight

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The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.

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The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.