BBL at UTSA

Felicidades to the newly minted Dra. Alpha Martínez-Suárez, who successfully defended her dissertation today on bicultural-bilingual faculty!!! Committee members include: Dr. Belinda B. Flores & Dr. Lilliana P. Saldaña (co-chairs), Dr. Patricia Sánchez, and Dr. Margarita Machado. 🎉👏🏼🎊

Many congratulations to Ph.D. candidate in CLL, Genevie Rodriguez-Quiñones for successfully defending her dissertation proposal!! Her committee members are: Dr. Lucila Ek (chair), Dr. Patricia Sanchez, Dr. Sylvia Mendoza, Dr. Idalia Núñez, and Dr. Jorge Solis.

BESO (bilingual education student org) end-of-year ceremony!!! Congrats to all the grads!!! And all the members for their awards & accomplishments!!! 🎓🧡💙¡¡¡Felicidades!!!

Please join us in celebrating Christina Soliz’s MA special project! She defended/presented on April 15th with Dr. Martinez and Saldaña on the committee. 🥳

🎉 Huge congratulations to Dr. Mary Bethel, one of our proud former BBL graduates, on accepting an offer as Professional-Track Lecturer of Literacy at Texas A&M University–San Antonio beginning Fall 2026!

We are incredibly proud to see Dr. Bethel continue her outstanding professional journey in higher education. She has built a highly successful career as a school teacher, educator, and trainer in different school districts in and outside of Texas, making a meaningful impact on students, colleagues, and schools across our community.

Now, she brings that wealth of experience, leadership, and commitment to preparing and inspiring the next generation of Texas educators. What an exciting and well-deserved next chapter!

Please join us in celebrating Dr. Bethel and wishing her continued success as she keeps shaping the future of literacy education in Texas. 👏

TexasTeachers GraduateSuccess BBL UTSA SanAntonio UTSAalumni UTSAproud

Huge congratulations to our MA student Tina (Tuyen Dam) on the successful defense of her master’s thesis last Thursday, April 23! Her thesis, GenAI and Critical Literacy Skills in Academic Writing: A Systematic Literature Review Study of College-Level ESL/EFL Students, explores timely and important questions at the intersection of AI, L2 writing, and critical digital literacy.

We are especially proud to celebrate not only this major academic milestone, but also Tina’s recent acceptance into the PhD program at Georgia State University with full funding. An outstanding and well-deserved next step in her scholarly journey. Thesis Committee: Dr. Sidury Christiansen (Chair), Dr. Kevin Hirschi, Dr. Bedrettin Yazan

Please join us in congratulating Tina on her remarkable achievements and wishing her continued success ahead! 👏

CriticalLiteracy TESOL AppliedLinguistics AcademicWriting FutureScholar UTSA

Congratulations to Diana Estrada for successfully defending her qualifying examinations!! Her committee members were: Dr. Lucila Ek (chair), Dr. Jorge Solis & Dr. Gilberto Lara.

Congratulations to Juan Flores for successfully defending his MA in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies comprehensive exams! Committee Members: Dr. Lucila Ek (chair) and Dr. Isabel Martínez.

Congratulations to Ana Michelle Treviño, for successfully completing her special project for her master’s degree in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies! Her committee members were Dr. Lucila Ek & Dr. Lilliana Saldaña.