Leah fuls

Contributing Writer

ESU has a new professor on campus and her name is Dr. Jasmine Villa.

Villa has a BA in English and American Literature and Chicano Studies.

She also has an MA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies, and a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Texas at El Paso. Her background, upbringing and motivation led her to do great things within the community which she is still a part of today.

She is the Editor-In-Chief of Latinitas magazine. A non-profit organization focused on empowering Latina youth through technology and outreach.

Here, she collaborates with a diverse editorial team, consisting of local, national and international writers to develop and improve the digital content for the magazine.

She also researches, maintains the editorial calendar and develops the digital content.

Villa is not only the Editor-in-Chief of the Latinitas program and magazine, but also a Coordinator for the Youth Editorial Board.

Her position requires her to assist with community outreach, event-planning, and fundraising for the organization.

She also oversees, hires and trains the organization’s local, national and international teen and college writers, editors, contributors and editorial interns.

And finally, serving as the organization’s coordinator and mentor for service learning students.

Villa worked for the Central El Paso Community Organization, where she developed, distributed and translated a college preparation manual for grades 5 to 8 in English and Spanish for an after school program.

Along with this, she also worked in Public Relations and as a Marketing Assistant for the El Paso Association for the Performing Arts.

Her duties in PR and Marketing included assisting the association with event and promotional planning.

Along with these positions, she was also producing and managing the digital content for Facebook, Twitter, and the El Paso Association website.

Villa explained that her experience helps her connect with students.

“My teaching, mentoring, and non-profit experience allows me to connect with students.” Villa said.

“I view teaching as the ability to foster and cultivate spaces and discourses for students to strategically engage and reflect on the rhetorical activity they encounter and produce.”

Villa has traveled all over the country to give presentations in states like Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Colorado, where she spoke about the usage and importance of hashtags today in networking and Ecology.

The professor’s next presentation will be on Oct. 6 in Shippensburg, Pa. Villa’s topic is “Writing is #Lit: Multimodal Composition to Cure the Writing Funk.”

This is a part of the English Association of the Pennsylvania State Universities.

Villa also has a presentation set up for next year. On Mar. 16, 2019. Villa’s subject will be: “Embedding La Cultura: Digital Writing Practices of Latinx Organizations.”

This is a part of Conferences on College Composition and Communication and will be held in Pittsburgh, Pa. Villa has earned a prolific amount of high honors and awards.

Among them is a Latin at Retorica Award and Baker-Hernandez Grants for Graduate Student Research for her profound research.

Some of her most recent awards include: Outstanding PhD student in Service Award and a Community Engagement Award.

Villa currently teaches professional writing, teaching composition and technical writing courses.

Her research and experience have helped to shape her teaching process that she still uses today.

“The foundation of my teaching philosophy is based on having an asset-based approach to teaching multimodality while incorporating project based learning and promotion of critical engagement with technologies to facilitate user-experience, team-building, and project management.” Villa said.

“Teaching a variety of writing courses enables me to apply theories of combustion and research methods centered on digital media production within professional writing contexts.”

Whenever Villa gets a break from her busy schedule, she enjoys traveling and seeing Broadway shows.

With her credentials and experience, Villa has amassed a wealth of writing knowledge and teaching ability. If you see her on campus make her feel welcome and say hello.

Email Leah at:

lfuls@live.esu.edu