I am super proud to announce that my good friend, colleague and mentee Jonathan Guajardo passed his oral exams for his Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Texas Tech. It has been an honor to sit on his committee. I have to say as a professor of the practice I have not been allowed to be on our students committees, so being on his committee had a ton of meaning as it’s the first time I have been on one. (it’s a department rule they have, granted I can be in other departments and colleges in the university, go figure).
I have had the pleasure of working with graduate students for years at Texas A&M, such as Anthony Ramirez, Rick Pulos, David Dockery, Maria Martha & Valentina Arduen. I even got to hood Anthony at his graduation, which was a deep honor.
Working with Johnny over the past 16 years, since has 19 years old has been a journey. Through and through he has always stepped up with anything put in front of him. Along with many friends from UIW and our mutual best friend Christian Rios, our academic journeys while 10 years apart has been in step. I had the pleasure of teaching Johnny at UIW from 2010-2014 where he obtained his B.A. and M.A. As an undergraduate and graduate it was amazing to see his colleagues and himself operate under a polymath like model, doing:
- News Production/Journalism
- Narrative Film Production
- Digital Media Studies
- Student Government (Johnny was Student Body President 3 years)
- Event Planning & Production
- Projection Mapping
- DJ’ing (His DJ name being DJ DaJohnnyG)
- Museum Curation and installation
For his masters project he created a website where he researched the lineage of alternative pedagogy from which he was learning. Called The BMC Effect, his website explored Black Mountain Colleges Effect on higher education, then explored the ACTLab’s impact on alternative pedagogical approaches and worked his way into the Convergent Media program he was attending at the time at the University of Incarnate Word.
Through this UIW experience, sadly I will say our biggest bonding moment was when his colleague and fellow student Cameron Redus passed away in a very tragic manner by the UIW police. This journey would lead Johnny to mobilize along with his fellow students to host demonstrations and public speaking events where he would directly engage with the greater San Antonio community and national media. At one point he was at a Pro-Life rally giving a speech and then the Black Panther rally addressing Cameron’s passing.
Johnny gained real life experiences through the pedagogical approaches and he would go on to institute himself in the future. Though before doing this, he would go on to take his experience in convergent media and go full time running GA Media Productions for 4 years. He would gain clients like Nature Sweet Tomatoes, AARP, ESPN, SXSW, Texas Golf Insider and many more. He officed out the Milam building in downtown San Antonio and developed a whole crew of sub contractors.
His entrepreneurial experience during this time would grow. Along with his production company he also started the San Antonio Sentinel, a hyper local news paper that covered politics, arts and entertainment. Through this experience he would meet the leaders of San Antonio and Bexar county and develop relationships that would have him grow as an entrepreneur, civic engagement and academic.
And then in 2019 I convinced Johnny to apply to be a professor at Texas A&M as a lecturer. I knew at the time he was considering many opportunities for his next step in life. He had applied to the Ph.D. program at Texas A&M’s Department of Communication & Journalism and did not get in, one month before I asked him to apply. Luckily I was able to convince him and next thing I know, Johnny and I are working together at Texas A&M, forging a new lab which would become the Creative Media Lab.
Over the next 7 years we would develop the Creative Media, Johnny specifically would develop entrepreneurship in new media curriculum and have a course put on the books COMM 377 Entrepreneurship and New Media. He would also teach multiple FYEX – 101 First Year Experience Hullabaloo U courses where he mentors new A&M students and provides their first experiences of the university.
Jonathan would be promoted to assistant professor of the practice and recently was promoted to associate professor of the practice. During this journey, 4 years in, he would decide to begin looking at Ph.D. programs again and after much consideration chose Texas Tech’s Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration. Once he began the program I observed him quickly gaining knowledge about higher education administration and applying it right away. From the way he carried himself in the classroom to faculty meetings, he was gaining a confidence and ability to communicate his ideas that I was surprised when we recently obtained his promotion to associate professor of the practice. Within the Creative Media Lab I was began advocating for Johnny to have an official role in lab as to this point, he was supporting through his service for the department. At the time I was the director of the Creative Media Lab and our department offered us a Coordinator and Associate Coordinator position for myself and Johnny. Having learned from Johnny and my academic mentors Sandy Stone, Andrew Garrison, Joe Straubhaar and Brandonly Wiley, I asked the department if they could make our titles “Co-Coordinators” in an effort to bring equity to the titles as I felt Johnny’s level of involved and importance to the lab was that significant (if not more). Our department chair supported this and he became the Creative Media Lab Co-Coordinator which he carries to this day. During his graduate program he would attend Texas Tech University and experience on-campus boot camps where he and his colleagues would be immersed in a rapid learning environment and team building. He would come back fired up, telling the tales of the events inside and outside the classroom ready to implement his teachings. We would use his teachings to further expand the lab, using his organization leadership skills to develop programming, plan events, solicit funds for support and the physical build expansion of our lab. Through these experiences at Texas Tech he would select the topic of 3rd spaces in the digital realm as his dissertation topic.
Johnny asked me to be on his dissertation committee. He quickly began working away on his dissertation with Texas Tech professor Jon Mcnaughtan Ph.D. as his dissertation chair and Texas Tech professor Stephanie Jones Ph.D.. As we met for his proposal approval it was great to meet the professor who had a major impact on Johnny’s educational trajectory and hear their perspectives and approaches. Johnny’s dissertation was no easy task, having to obtain IRB approval from two institutions and garnering a pool of interviewees as well as observations. It was great watching him go through this rite of passage. It definitely has taken me back to the stresses I went through, watched Corina go through and so many others. Being a committee member at his defense two weeks ago was an honor and something I really enjoyed. His oral defense and dissertation approval have both now been signed off on, having given a great presentation and updating and addressing the concerns of all committee members. I am proud to have Johnny as a friend and colleague and love that I can now introduce him as Dr. Johnny G…. Aka Dr. Guajardo. Kudos Johnny! Well deserved and well earned.