Nidia Bañuelos

Nidia Bañuelos is an Assistant Professor of Adult, Continuing, and Higher Education. She studies the design and implementation of new postsecondary programs for working adults, as well as the assets that low-income students with caregiving responsibilities bring to their education. She has a special interest in the history of “non-traditional” learners and the institutions that serve them. She is currently the Principal Investigator for the Networks and Cultural Assets Project (NCA), which administers survey and interview instruments measuring college students’ community cultural wealth (CCW; Yosso, 2005) and social networks. They’re currently working on a project (NSF Award #2201545) in collaboration with the University of Texas System LSAMP to identify the cultural assets and social support Latine STEM students use to pursue their academic and career goals. The study, which is a longitudinal, mixed methods design, is the first (to their knowledge) to combine CCW with ego network analysis—allowing them to see what network structures (e.g., density, homophily, size) nurture students’ CCW, STEM identities, and career values. The overarching goal of the NCA is to share research with local educators and to assist with the development of asset-based programming and institutional support for STEM Students of Color. In the case of their UT partnership, their research helps to identify institutional shortcomings and provide evidence for institutionalizing NSF-sponsored STEM equity programs.