At the 10th Annual American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education’s National Conference in March, Dr. Estela Bensimon will receive the Outstanding Latino/a Faculty in Higher Education: Research/Teaching (Research Institutions) award.
“I was very touched by this award because it signals in many ways acceptance by a community of Latino(s) and Latinas,” says Bensimon, a professor of higher education and co-director of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California.
Bensimon has worked hard to advocate for the Latino community. Her journey began in Patagonia, Argentina, in a town with a population of about 7,000. There were no televisions, so she became an avid reader, listened to series on the radio and frequented the movies to see American films on weekends.
At the age of 12, her family relocated to the United States, where her outlook on education changed tremendously. In Cherry Hill, New Jersey, she was the only Spanish speaker in her high school.
“Education went from being a place of fun, engagement and great enjoyment to a place of wanting to, in many ways, avoid it,” says Bensimon.
She only applied to one school, Montclair State University, where she went on to receive her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
While her greatest aspiration was to become a teacher, the state of the country led her down a different path.
