USFCA Department of Leadership Studies

👏👏👏Congrats to this year’s graduating O&L MA students! The capstone showcase was a joyful celebration featuring their brilliant field projects and theses 🎉🥳🎊

📚 O&L elective offered this fall & open to all students 📣

How should we, as educators and leaders committed to justice, understand and respond to this political moment?

Dig into this question in the timely and critical Fall 2026 course, O&L 698/798 Authoritarianism and Education Reading Group: History, Theory, and Lessons for Leadership taught by Dr. Danfeng Koon.

🏳️‍🌈🎓 Hosted by , tonight was the 18th Annual Lavender Commencement Ceremony, where DLS Professor Genevieve Negron-Gonzales did the honor of hooding and stoling Andres Chaidez Garcia.

Andres (they/them) will be graduating this spring from with a Master of Arts (MA) in Higher Education & Student Affairs (HESA).

👏🏼 Congratulations, Andres, M.A.! We are so proud of you and look forward to seeing your continued impact in higher education and beyond.

👏🏼 Congratulations to the soon-to-be Dr. Abdon Rwandekwe for successfully defending their dissertation!

🎓 Abdon is a Ed.D. student in the Organization & Leadership (O&L) program. Their dissertation is titled: FOSTERING COLLABORATION FOR MISSION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: QUALITATIVE CASE STUDIES OF MODELS OF JESUITS AND NON-JESUIT ADMINISTRATORS, FACULTY AND STAFF MEMBERS’ PARTNERSHIPS AT ARRUPE JESUIT UNIVERSITY (AJU) IN ZIMBABWE AND CENTRE DE RECHERCHE ET D’ACTION POUR LA PAIX/UNIVERSITÉ JÉSUITE D’ABIDJAN (CERAP/UJA) IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE.

💚💛 We are so proud of you, Dr. Rwandekwe!

🎓 Doctoral Dissertation Defense? ✅ Passed!

👏🏼 Congratulations to Catholic Education Leadership (CEL) Ed.D. student and soon-to-be Doctor Rita Atienza. Her dissertation is titled: "THE INFLUENCE OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION ON PERSONAL CATHOLIC IDENTITY FORMATION IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD: PERCEPTIONS OF FILIPINO CATHOLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS."

💛💚 Way to go, Rita! We are so proud of you and inspired by your steadfast commitment to the Catholic education and Filipino communities. 🇵🇭

🎓 The 2026 M.A. in Higher Education & Student Affairs (HESA) graduating cohort invites you to 2 of their end-of-year events:

1️⃣ Capstone Presentations, held on Tuesday, May 19th from 10 am - 3 pm via Zoom
2️⃣ HESA Recognition Ceremony, held on Wednesday, May 20th from 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm at the Handlery Room located in Lone Mountain 100

💛💚 Congratulations, graduates! We are so proud of you.

🎓 You are cordially invited to the O&L MA Capstone Celebration!

Join us as graduating masters’s students present their capstone projects. All are invited to attend. 💚💛

🗓️ Friday, May 8th from 6 - 8 pm via Zoom at tinyurl.com/OLCapstone

🙌🙌🙌The soon-to-be Dr. Claudio Rodriguez successfully defended his dissertation, Becoming Rising Stars: Latinx Student Affairs Staff Experiences in Higher Education and the Invisible Burden We Carry with Us. We know Dr. Rodriguez’s research will significantly improve the experiences for Latinx student affairs staff working hard every day supporting students! 🎓🎉🥳Congratulations Dr. Rodriguez 🎊👏🎓

Introducing our newest doctor of education 📣📣📣: Kara Piastrelli! Her dissertation offers critical insights of how organizational conditions constrain educators’ ability to offer a robust and supportive learning environment for multilingual learners with suspected dis/abilities. Join us in congratulating the soon-to-be Dr. Kara Piastrelli 🎊🎓🙌🎉🥳👏

🗣️ Attention students!
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