Bilingual education scholar earns prestigious CDIP fellowship

Kevin Perez (’19, ’21) was not raised to value bilingualism. Growing up in Riverside, California, he attended school at a time when bilingual education was restricted in the state. At home, his father — an immigrant from Mexico — believed focusing on English only was the best pathway to success.

It came at a cost.

"As I was growing up, there was this part of my identity that I wanted to mask or not engage in because I didn't want it to be othered or seen through a deficit lens,” he explained.

Perez’s experience as a San Diego State University graduate student ultimately provided a shift in mentality that not only connected him back to his heritage language of Spanish, but set him on a path to become an up-and-coming scholar in the field of bilingual education. 

In October, Perez was named one of five SDSU-affiliated recipients of the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) — a California State University fellowship that provides financial support, mentorship and professional development to promising future faculty members.

"SDSU was such a special and unique place,” he said. “I think it really ignited this sense of critical perspectives on education and looking at education as a center for social justice. Having that foundation has propelled me to make a commitment to the academic work that I want to do."

Perez first came to SDSU in 2018 as part of a grant-funded Department of Dual-Language and English Learner Education (DLE) grow-your-own program to help school district classified staff earn teaching credentials. At the time, he was working as a bilingual instructional assistant helping identify English Language Learners at Centralia Elementary School District in Orange County. 

"I had such a positive experience in the cohort model at SDSU,” he recalls. “It was the first time in a classroom where I felt a strong, deep sense of community. My colegas and I still keep in contact to this day on a group text. It's really created such a positive impact in my life and made me aspire to continue the work I’m engaged in."

After earning his credential, Perez worked as a sixth grade dual-language teacher in La Habra School District while simultaneously pursuing his master’s degree from DLE. While he loved teaching, opportunity beckoned in 2021 — he was accepted into a Ph.D. program at New York University and he packed his bags for the Big Apple.

Now officially a doctoral candidate in the fourth year of his program, Perez examines the potential of harnessing bilingual teachers’ identity as a pedagogical approach in Dual Language Immersion programs. 

"I think about ways of centering teachers and having opportunities to tap into their lived histories, their intersectionalities and what they bring into the classroom in the service of supporting the development of linguistically diverse learners,” explains Perez, who also  prepares future dual-language educators as a lecturer at the City College of New York. 

“I think we're missing that piece in the conversation right now in bilingual edu."

As a CDIP fellow, Perez said he is excited for the opportunity to connect and collaborate with like-minded scholars doing similar work. That includes the DLE faculty who made such an impact on him: his faculty sponsor for the fellowship is Associate Professor Alberto Esquinca.

“Kevin has a bright future ahead of him,” Esquinca said. “Not only is he a talented and knowledgeable scholar, but also his wealth of life experiences as a first-generation college student means that he will be a mentor to many future bilingual teachers. Any academic department would be lucky to have him. I'm thrilled to be collaborating with him in this program.”

Perez, meanwhile, said he would love to one day return to his home state to make an impact on bilingual education.

 "My goal is to get other heritage learners who have been deprived of their language to go through the process of reclaiming their language and making sustainable ways for students to claim their languages so that they don't have to go through it too,” he said. “It feels good to support students in that journey."

Perez adds that he has already won one notable convert to the side of bilingualism: the father who once thought English-only would help his son succeed.

"I kind of poke fun at my dad now,” Perez says smiling. “I'm like, ‘Dad, I literally got a full ride to NYU because I'm bilingual."