Bridging Cultures in Learning: My Journey as a Latinx Doctoral Student in Science Education
My name is Regina Ayala Chavez; I have two last names because that is the tradition in Mexico. My first last name is from my father, and the second is from my mother. Having two last names is hard in this country because people are not used to it, so they think “Ayala” is my middle name, but I wear my two last names with pride even when it makes bureaucracy harder.
I moved to the United States with my husband when I was 27 years old. Two years after I started my doctoral program in science education at North Carolina State University, I faced significant challenges regarding my background. I had studied English in school since I was a kid, but learning in a classroom and needing to use it to express my ideas was totally different.
I remember two main challenges when I started the classes: reading fast enough and learning about the U.S. educational system. I had difficulties keeping up with my peers; I couldn’t read as quickly as they did, so I didn’t finish the paper every time the discussion started. This was very discouraging until one Mexican professor told me that it doesn’t matter if I can’t keep up, that I speak two languages, and that was also valuable. He helped me with some techniques to read faster and focus only on the crucial things in the articles. Thanks to him, I improved my reading and felt more capable of keeping up with my peers.