From Costa Rica to Stan State

Dr. Esteban Montenegro, is a new assistant professor working in the Psychology and Child Development department at Stanislaus State.

Originally from Costa Rica, life would later guide him to move to other places and eventually end up in Turlock where he now spreads his knowledge to Stan State students. Having the possibility of being an instructor brought back the chance to switch gears and discover who he really was. He realized that Stan State gave him the chance to execute that passion for teaching and work with underrepresented communities. 

Where did you earn your degrees?

Psychology major at the University of Costa Rica, master’s degree in cognitive sciences. Educational psychology with a concentration in research methods and statistics at Texas Tech University where I got my PhD. I describe my work as Quantitative Psychology, application of stats in psychological problems related to human behavior, cognition and latent variables. 

What is your teaching philosophy?

I see the students as future colleagues. I see myself in the classroom as a science communicator. I want to motivate people to feel that they can love science. I really care about diversity, culture, gender, and I embrace that in class. I appreciate when students correct me. I try to find data sets that reflect real world problems and/or minority and underrepresented communities problems.

Will you tell me  a little bit about your teaching background?

I started teaching at University of Costa Rica, then taught classes for master’s and PhD students at Texas Tech University. 

What would you like students to know about your teaching style?

I would love [students] to know that they can suggest topics and can always suggest what they need. Teaching is bi-directional. They can use memes everywhere if they want to. Fun, humor and emotions are important in class. I care about skills that they can translate for options for jobs or academic growth. Being a professor that cares about the emotions of students is also important because how someone feels is the way you’ll allow yourself to intake information during class.

Will you tell me a little bit about your research background?

Focusing on trying to find better methods and a better way to analyze data when you have latent data or variables.

What will you like the Stan State community to know about your research?

I love collaboration between fields and disciplines and that I am open to collaborate in publications and scientific articles or research projects.