2016 Recipient of the Elizabeth Martinez Scholarship Award.

Student at the Graduate School of Information Science at UCLA

2016 Recipient of the Elizabeth Martinez Scholarship Award

Student at San Jose State University's iSchool.

2016 Recipient of the Dr. Karin Durant Scholarship Award.

Student at the Graduate School of Information Science at UCLA

Mr. Luna is a graduate student in the Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University and holds a B.A. in English with emphases in Teaching and Creative Writing and a Minor in Sexuality Studies from University of California, Davis. Currently he is the resident techie and bilingual library assistant at the Moreno Valley Public Library. Mr. Luna is dedicated to promoting social justice and addressing issues of educational inequality. As an undergraduate, he worked as a community leader, student retention specialist, and language tutor for international scholars. His interest in libraries and librarianship was sparked by the fields many intersections with cultural studies, politics, technology, modern democracy, and law. Currently Mr. Luna’s research interests are the social impacts of library institutions and their policies with particular regard to children of immigrants and English Language Learners. Mr. Luna shared, creatively, that he looks “forward to all the travesuras he can get into with a MLIS”

Sally Gomez is a graduate student in the Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University. She works full time as a librarian trainee at a rural library branch in Fresno County serving a diverse population of Latinos. Upon graduation, Sally hopes to continue as the Orange Cove Branch Librarian where she hopes to develop programs for the Spanish speaking community. Sally holds an undergraduate degree in mass communications and journalism from California State University, Fresno. When she is not working or studying, she enjoys running and is currently training for the inaugural Two Cities Marathon in Fresno on November 9th, 2008

Raymundo Andrade is a graduate student in the Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University and a 2007 Spectrum Scholar. With thirteen years experience of working in either a public or academic library since completing high school, Raymundo has come to realize his "passion for assisting the Latino and Spanish-speaking community" in both the academic and public realms. As a member of the Cataloging department in the William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University (from where he also obtained his undergraduate education), he has frequently volunteered to represent library staff during special events for LMU's department of Chicana/o Latina/o Student Services. In addition to working with student services, Raymundo is active with the Latino Staff Association to further promote the interests of the Latino community at LMU as well as volunteering with REFORMA. After completing his graduate studies, Raymundo looks forward to working with Latina/o communities through his work as a librarian

Concepcion Flores is a student in the Library Tech Program at Pasadena City College and will soon begin her graduate studies at San José State University. As a Library Aide at the Whittier Public Library, Concepcion has worked with children and created a bilingual story time program “Saturday Storytime” garnering positive responses from the community. She has also been very active in her library’s Outreach Program and has been working with preschoolers in Whittier to expose them, and their families, to the benefits and resources of the public library. Concepcion has also taken the initiative to implement the first “Día del Niño” program at the library in order to highlight the collection of childrens’ Spanish and bilingual books. Upon completion of her graduate studies, Concepcion plans to “add more programs [to WPL] that target the Latino community” as well as extend the current bilingual story time program in order to reach more families and increase awareness of the Whittier Public Library

Maribel Álvarez is a graduate student in the Library and Information Science program at San José State University. Her first experience working in a library came when she volunteered, as a high school student, at her local branch and was then inspired to continue helping the many bilingual students who frequented her branch by working as a Library Aide. She was fortunate enough to work directly with children of immigrant parents in the “Poco a Poco” program which was a partnership between the County of Los Angeles Public Library, WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) and the First Five Foundation. Maribel came to the realization early in her college career that she wanted to become a librarian due to the fact that she “loved helping my library kids.” While completing her graduate studies, she works as a Library Assistant and aids in the purchasing of world languages for the collection. Once she is a full-fledged librarian, Maribel hopes to implement bilingual story times as well as an English learning center to “help children grasp the English language using familiar Spanish words.”

Elizabeth Martinez Scholarship

San Jose State University

Alejandra Alfaro serves as the Upper School Assistant Librarian at the Polytechnic School. She graduated from UC San Diego in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in human development and is currently completing her master's degree in library and information science from San Jose State University. Before joining Poly in November 2018, she was both the library and tech assistant at the Academy of Our Lady of Peace in San Diego. Alejandra also has years of experience in a public library setting, having worked many roles within the San Diego Public Library system.

Dr. Karin Duran Scholarship

San Jose State University

Christopher is a librarian assistant at Fuller Theological Seminary where he helps build media and comics studies collections as well as plan pop cultural themed events for the school community. Recently, he put on film screening of Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics and talk-back with Director Fredrick Aldama.

Elizabeth Martinez Scholarship

San Jose State University

I am currently in my second year and am looking forward to working as a youth service librarian.