Video Gallery
Cavazos is a leader in the university’s growth toward becoming a bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate institution, cites nominator Amy Cummins, associate professor, Department of Literatures & Cultural Studies.
“Her efforts have already been transformative and are moving UTRGV in a positive direction regarding translingual writing instruction and border rhetorics,” Cummins said.
As part of this ongoing work, Cavazos received the UTRGV Internal Seed Research Program Grant for the project “Biliterate/Multiliterate Writing Practices in Academic and Community Discourses.”
“Outside of her traditional classrooms, Cavazos has emerged as a dedicated provider of professional development for teaching assistants and other teachers through a variety of workshops she’s designed in multilingual pedagogy, along with more traditional writing pedagogy themes,” said Colin Charlton, chair, Writing & Language Studies.
Cavazos explains her engaged pedagogy as centering on growing intellectually and spiritually with her students by creating the necessary conditions for learning in a linguistically inclusive environment where everyone develops as readers, writers, listeners, and conscious users of language.
“We are models of effective teaching for our students,” she said. “I think about this often because I have a little girl. Her name is Alyxia, and I see my students as her potential future teachers or mentors. I want to ensure I teach in a way that will one day positively impact my little girl and future generations.”
Former student Jacquelyn Ann Medina, English language arts teacher at Donna North High School, said Cavazos creates a student-centered classroom environment, which helps promote autonomous learning and higher order thinking.
“I try to model Dr. Cavazos, and often have been praised by my coaches because I was taught how to lead students into formulating ideas by asking probing questions,” Medina said.
Department of Writing & Language Studies
College of Liberal Arts
Assistant Professor