Breakout - Education

Yanar is the founder and CEO of El Paso Leadership Academy (EPLA), a public charter school for sixth-to-eighth graders in El Paso, Texas. “Ninety-two percent of our kids are below the federal poverty line and 98 percent are Latino. Many are immigrants, given our proximity to the border,” Yanar says. “Look down our street and Mexico is within eyesight.”

Born and raised in El Paso—and Latino like the majority of his pupils—Yanar is a social entrepreneur on a mission. “Students will make the decision to attend college in seventh grade,” he says. “That decision is largely based on reading level, but their success depends on how socially and emotionally prepared they are.” Students who are significantly behind in their reading when they enter sixth grade—which the majority of EPLA’s students are—have a higher statistical likelihood of being incarcerated than attending college. Yanar seeks to reverse this trend. “What drives my passion is ensuring low-income Latino students have the same shot at success as their middle- and high-income counterparts,” he says.

Beverley Argus-Calvo, Ph.D. is associate dean for graduate studies and research for the UTEP College of Education (CoED). Argus-Calvo currently serves as an associate professor in the CoED’s Educational Diagnostician program in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Services. Argus-Calvo began her education career as a teacher for learning disabled students in 1983. Since then, she has worked with children with special needs in elementary and secondary schools in the United States and Mexico. She worked as an educational diagnostician in New Mexico from 1997-1999. Argus-Calvo’s research and professional interests include binational education, extended learning, early college high school programs, music and arts based programs for elementary children in underserved communities, and working with families of children with special needs along the United States-Mexico border. Her work has been published in respected journals such as the College Student Journal, Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, and the Rural Special Education Quarterly, books and international scholarly publications.

Argus-Calvo is currently collaborating with colleagues from UTEP and the UACJ, the UACH, the CCHEP, and the CIESAS on research projects addressing education and children in vulnerable settings.

A business owner, counselor, and consultant who is passionate about removing barriers to employment and education; and improving quality of life of individuals with disability through scalable and affordable evidence based customized solutions via leading-edge computing and social media technologies.

I am the Educational Outreach Manager for a federally funded TRIO program for the economically disadvantaged. The UTEP Upward Bound program serves first generation, low students who are committed to putting forth the effort required to achieve their lifelong ambitions. By delivering effective instructional and experiential processes, Upward Bound balances access and excellence in collaboration with the university’s mission as a Hispanic-serving institution.

I earned a Doctorate of Philosophy in Educational Leadership and Administration from New Mexico State University. As an advocate for high-achieving first generation students, my research investigates the self-perceptions of successful “at risk” students. Research shows that educational resilience is a significant variable relative to persistence and graduation rates. Moreover, a student-centric model is likely to encourage persistence to the baccalaureate. Developing and maintaining factors that affect student success (integration into university environment, advising quality, and faculty happiness) are significant variables contributing to increased postsecondary completion rates. While faculty and staff have responsibilities of professionalism towards students, student-based factors (motivation, commitment to seriousness, self-assessment, and goal clarification) are critical to student success.