TAMUK Student Honored to Participate in Fellows Program
Texas A&M University Kingsville
KINGSVILLE (News Release) - Matthew Almaraz, a junior at Texas A&M University-Kingsville recently had the opportunity to participate in the Catto-Lecount Fellows Program for Equity and Inclusion, a virtual meeting provided by Pennsylvania State University. The program exposes students to doctoral study in the discipline of history. A Kingsville native, Almaraz, is majoring in history and English and minoring in philosophy.
“Most importantly, I got out of this program a family and network of professors, graduate students, alumni and fellows that I plan on keeping in touch with so they can help me move forward,” Almaraz said.
“Overall, I learned a lot about what it means to be a history graduate student and the necessary steps it takes to become one,” he said. “More specifically, I learned about the graduate opportunities in history and African American studies at Penn State University.
“The biggest takeaway from the program was that attending graduate school and earning a Ph.D. is not as difficult as it seems if you study what you are passionate about, go to the right school and surround yourself with people who care about your success,” Almaraz said.
“The faculty and staff at Penn State did an amazing job of demystifying the graduate school admissions process and educating me about the academic profession,” he said.
“I got out of the program exactly what I hoped for,” he added. “Before attending the program, I thought that attending graduate school and earning a Ph.D. was not only laborious, but that it also was going to be expensive.
“After attending this program, I learned that in graduate school, you do have a lot of work to do, but you also have a support system that will guide and help you. I also learned that there are a lot of universities out there that offer full funding for you to earn that Ph.D.,” Almaraz said.
“This means that you can focus all your time on your schoolwork and not have to worry about working a job outside of academia. It addition to full funding, there are also opportunities for graduate students to become teaching assistants and research assistants.”
“Matthew is a highly motivated and intelligent student,” said Dr. Jeffery Glick, associate professor and chair of the history, political science and philosophy department. “He is committed to his intellectual growth. This is revealed in both his extensive participation in class and the care with which he constructs papers. Few students take as much time to polish their written work as Matthew does. His papers are among the best my students have written in terms of their clarity, their organization and the comprehensiveness of the content.
“We are quite proud of Matthew’s academic achievements generally and his admission into this selective program specifically. I hope that Matthew will share what he learned with other students here at Texas A&M-Kingsville,” Glick added.
