A time to support UTRGV women

In observance of Women’s History Month, The Rider interviewed an alumna and an associate professor from UTRGV to share their journeys to success. 

According to the Women’s History Month website, the celebration started off as only a week in 1982; originally named Women’s History Week. It wasn’t until 1995 that the whole month was celebrated.

Gisel Garza, UTRGV alumna with a Bachelor and Master of Science in biology, was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and is currently a doctoral student at Texas A&M University.

“That was a very big honor,” Garza said. “I remember feeling the support at UTRGV; even when I was an undergraduate student when I first expressed interest in research. That really built a foundation for me going on to apply to Ph.D. school and receiving the NSF.”

Garza said Teresa Patricia Feria Arroyo, associate dean for Faculty Success and professor in the School of Integrative Biological and Chemical Sciences, was one of the reasons she wants to pursue being a conservation biologist.

“I had expressed interest to her that I wanted to do research, and she was really supportive with that,” she said. “Seeing her and seeing how inspirational of a conservation biologist she is and seeing that this is a possibility for me, especially her being a fellow Latina, really inspired me.”

Garza said it is important for Women’s History Month to be celebrated.

“Women in STEM aren’t super common, especially Latino women in STEM,” she said. “I can’t tell you the conferences that I’ve gone to and it’s mostly men … that makes me even more inspired to be a woman in that role. Women have been the pillars of our society forever.”

Christian E. Zúñiga, associate professor in the Department of Bilingual & Literacy Studies and director of the Center for Bilingual Studies, said if it were up to her, Women’s History Month would be celebrated all-year long and not just one month.

“Women have played such an important role in so many fields and it isn’t until recently that some of them have started to get credit,” said Zúñiga, who has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. “Fifty years ago, it would’ve been unheard of for someone of my background to have a Ph.D., to be a professor.”

She has been a part of two research projects in which she seeks to prove the importance of bilingualism and the impact it has on education.

The associate professor said she has always been interested in the idea of being bilingual and has an appreciation for that skill.

“I’m very thankful to my family and my community that fostered that love for both languages and my development in both languages; through that, I became a bilingual teacher,” Zúñiga said.

Her message to women and girls who want to pursue higher education is: Identify a mentor.

“Acknowledge their wisdom and their guidance and use it to build upon the confidence that you have as a younger generation because y’all are the ones who are going to eventually fill our roles just as I am filling the role of the people who came before me,” she said. “Find those mentors, find the women that you feel comfortable with that make you want to be the best version of yourself.”