Kathryn Henderson, Ph.D., was shocked when she learned she’d received one of UTSA’s prestigious Lutcher Brown Fellowships.
“I had no idea I’d been nominated,” said the associate professor from the department of bicultural-bilingual studies. But after the initial shock came gratitude.
“Being recognized makes me feel like I’m doing something right and that I am doing something that’s making a difference, so that feels awesome,” Henderson said. “I’m very grateful to have this award and for the way that it inspires and motivates me to continue doing the work I’m doing.”
The Lutcher Brown Fellowship was established in 2020 to help recently tenured faculty succeed in research. For Henderson, this proved serendipitous.
“I recently received tenure, and this provides me the momentum to do my next ambitious project, which is really making a meaningful impact in our local schools through our community partners.”
“The fellowship is also hitting at a perfect time in my career,” she explained. “I recently received tenure, and this provides me the momentum to do my next ambitious project, which is really making a meaningful impact in our local schools through our community partners.”
Henderson says that this outreach and impact through community partners is what aligns her project so well with UTSA’s mission. Her current research focuses on how teachers and administrators implement dual-language programs in ways that serve linguistically minoritized students. This means integrating the needs of students that come from outside the dominant cultural or linguistic group. An example of this could be students who speak Spanish but do not have a Mexican background.
“It’s important to make sure that those students who are speaking different kinds of Spanish and practicing different kinds of cultural norms are also integrated, validated, valued, and welcomed into the dual language classroom,” Henderson said.
In terms of the direct impact of the fellowship on her work, Henderson has a few ideas on how to use the accompanying funding. One of these is supporting her graduate students who assist her research.
“I’m very interested in using this money to fund my graduate students because that matters to me and I think that another way we build our community is by supporting our grad students,” she said.
Henderson also plans to build on her current projects and foster her existing community partnerships so that in the future she can create long-term studies with far-reaching impacts.
“I think this is going to serve as the base to help me achieve that goal, to engage in a research study that makes a big impact nationally, and potentially internationally,” she said.
This acceleration of research aligns with the intent behind the Lutcher Brown Fellowship and moves UTSA one step closer to its strategic vision of increased research funding and eventual R1 Carnegie classification.
For Henderson, the fellowship is both a milestone and a springboard.
“This is definitely an award that remotivates me to keep going and continue to build that vision.”
“I do think in our careers there’s high and lows,” she said. “This is definitely an award that remotivates me to keep going and continue to build that vision.”
-Christopher Reichert
Visit UTSA COEHD's Bicultural-Bilingual department website: https://education.utsa.edu/departments/bicultural-bilingual-studies/