Six CCRC Staff Members Earn Degrees from Teachers College

Scholars-in-training have long found a home at CCRC. Since the center’s inception, more than 120 graduate students have contributed to our fieldwork, analyzed datasets, authored essential reports, and balanced their challenging courses and robust research activities. To put it simply, master’s and doctoral students are vital to the work we do at CCRC. As commencement season comes to a close, we’d like to congratulate the six current CCRC’ers who finished their degrees this year:

Tam Do earned his master’s of education in international education development. Do, the senior grants and contracts manager, supports grant administration and financial management at CCRC. His studies focused on finance and planning.

Marty Hernandez, who joined CCRC as a research assistant in January 2019, finished his master’s in higher and postsecondary education with an emphasis on organizational and institutional analysis. Hernandez is currently in the United States Air Force and is returning to San Antonio as a basic training instructor after graduation. He is planning to apply to doctoral programs in the fall and looks forward to continuing his mission to support military-connected students in higher education.

CCRC Research Associate Yuxin Lin completed her PhD in economics and education this semester. Lin’s dissertation investigates why students decide to delay enrolling in college and how that decision affects them moving forward. Lin, who joined CCRC in June 2018, said she is “so proud to have worked with a lot of talented and outstanding researchers” here. She will remain at the center through the summer.

Adnan Moussa, a senior research assistant who joined CCRC in February 2018, earned his master’s in education policy with a concentration in higher education. Moussa focused his studies on how the elimination of developmental education at California State University affected equity. He investigated whether the choice to discontinue remedial coursework further stratified higher education in California by forcing underprepared students, most of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds, to community colleges.

Rina Park, a research associate at CCRC, earned her PhD in economics and education. Park, who has worked at CCRC since September 2013, focused her studies on labor economics and the economics of crime. She is proud to have contributed to the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE), a federally funded center led by CCRC, and to have coauthored a paper with Senior Research Scholar Judith Scott-Clayton about how Pell Grant eligibility affects community colleges students’ labor market and academic outcomes. Park will continue her postdoctoral training at Stanford University.

After she walks across the stage to collect her master’s degree in elementary inclusive education, CCRC Project Assistant Thalia Rodriguez will pack her bags for Brazil. Rodriguez, who has worked at CCRC since October 2017, will teach English as part of the Fulbright program before returning to lead a classroom in her home borough, the Bronx. Rodriguez said her passion for educational equity led her to her degree program, and she remains “committed to being an inclusive educator who centers culturally relevant and responsive practices.”