112: An Open Letter to Latinx Students Considering a Career in Evaluation

Evaluator education is as much about intrapersonal development as it is the acquisition of content knowledge (LaVelle, Neubauer, Boyce, & Archibald, 2023). When it comes to Latinx students, this evolution frequently unfolds within an environment that is marked by both the pressure of coercive assimilation from advisors and instructors and ubiquitous messaging about the glories of neo-liberalism. For them, justice and equity are not abstract concepts; they manifest in a tension between what is preached by instructors as central to CRE and what they actually experience in their own day-to-day lives on campus and off. Our paper is an open letter of affirmation and encouragement to the next generation. In it, we offer advice for how they can negotiate the apparent contradiction between being asked to uphold the ideals of cultural responsivity and equity in their work while simultaneously experiencing various forms of aggression as students in White-centric spaces.