Diné College’s School of Diné Studies and Education Receive Donation of Research Journals
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Adrian Lerma: (928) 724-6672
Crystal Cree: (928) 724-6669
March 08, 2021
TSAILE, Ariz. — Marisa Castellano, Ph.D., who has spent her entire career in academic research in education has donated her personal collection of academic journals to Diné College which spans 20 years.
This donation to the Navajo Nation’s college contributes to Diné College’s initiative to boost students’ research potential and support their academic endeavors in the field of education. “By providing opportunities for our students to do research using these journals, more students will earn degrees and apply their talents to improve their community,” said President Charles M. Roessel.
Dr. Lawrence Isaac Jr., Dean of the School of Diné Studies and Education, agrees this donation is a great contribution to the School of Diné Studies and Education. Despite online access to the college library’s extensive collection of research journals, including JSTOR Arts & Science I-XV, some students read better with a text in their hands and prefer a hard copy to a monitor.
Marisa Castellano, Ph.D., has donated her collection of scholarly academic journals to the School of Diné Studies and Education. Her collection includes the American Education Research Association’s: Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Review of Education Research, the American Education Research Journal, as well as, journals from the CTE field (Career and Technical Education Research).
Professor Castellano has been in the education research field since the early 1990s. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her career includes working at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University for six years and then at the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education at the University of Louisville for ten years. She finished her academic career at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and has spent the last five years conducting CTE program evaluations and providing evidence-based technical assistance to school districts interested in improving their college and career readiness efforts. She has worked in New York State, Washington State, California, Minnesota, Ohio, and Missouri. During her career, she accumulated an extensive collection of research journals spanning the last several decades of educational examination, exploration and research methodology.
She has published articles on K-12 school reforms and community college issues as well as CTE. Her most noteworthy studies were two 5-year, mixed-methods studies of career and technical education (CTE) student outcomes that tracked student progress from their 9th grade year through high school graduation (Class of 2002 and Class of 2012) and their postsecondary education or work plans. Scholarly articles and technical reports from her work can be found on the ERIC digital library: https://eric.ed.gov/?q=castellano&ff1=autCastellano%2c+Marisa.
“As I retire from publishing research in scholarly journals, I wanted to find a home for my education research journal collection, which spans the last 20 years of the study of education,” said Dr. Castellano. “I really wanted them to find a good home rather than recycling them—what a waste that would be of valuable work in this field. I wanted to find an institution with students who could benefit from them. I feel Diné College is the right home for the journals.”
Efforts to encourage research expands opportunities for innovation making it possible for students to engage in research with ease of access. In the broader sense, it provides a transformative learning experiences that foster self-reliance, leadership, creative problem solving, and life-long learning at Diné College.
Dr. Castellano’s donation is just the latest example of her career in leading research and policy studies of secondary and postsecondary career pathway efforts: “My hope for this donation is that it helps education students conduct research that earns them advanced degrees and that they use those degrees to improve education in the Navajo Nation. If this happens for just one Diné student, I would be humbled to learn about it.”
To donate to Diné College, contact Development and Alumni Officer, Adrian Lerma at alerma@dinecollege.edu or visit our Giving Page on our website: https://www.dinecollege.edu/giving-new/
