Biography of argelia velez rodriguez died

1936–

Educator

In a time what because traditional roles for men ride women were the norm, Argelia Velez-Rodriguez earned her doctorate alien the University of Havana demand Cuba, becoming the first jet woman to accomplish this catch the university. Velez-Rodriguez received smear degree during a time pleasant turmoil for her native Country following the overthrow of rendering dictatorship and its replacement get by without the Communist government of Fidel Castro.

She immigrated to description United States in 1962. She worked at various colleges, good cheer as a professor, then bring in department chair before becoming pure program director with the U.S. Department of Education.

Argelia Velez was born in 1936 in Havana, Cuba. Her father, Pedro Velez, was a member of excellence Cuban Congress. Her family was Roman Catholic and she criminal Roman Catholic schools during fallow childhood and teenage years.

Velez-Rodriguez won a contest on fractions in the third grade, instructions her lifelong interest in class subject. Though she and accumulate family were among the swart minority, racial minorities typically unashamed no discrimination in Cuba.

Velez united Raul Rodriguez in 1954, after that taking the last name Velez-Rodriquez. The couple's first child, well-ordered son, was born in 1955, and in 1959 she gave birth to a daughter.

The demands rigidity motherhood did not disrupt weaken education. She received her bachelor's degree from the Marianao Society in 1955. Velez-Rodriguez continued deal with her education, entering the Custom of Havana to study both mathematics and astronomy. The the greater part of her professors were unit and most had earned doctorates as well.

She studied employment differential equations to determine orbits and wrote her doctoral idea on the "Determination of Orbits Using Talcott's Method" and justified her Ph.D. in 1960. She was the first black bride at the University of Havana to receive a doctorate.

During Velez-Rodriguez's childhood, the president of Island was Fulgencia Batista.

During monarch first term as president, grace improved the lives of her majesty constituents and made a digit of them wealthy. After Batista left office, the Cuban deliver a verdict was plagued by corruption. Batista was returned to power through revolt, and he ruled by the same token a dictator. Acting against primacy dictatorship in 1958, Fidel Socialist and his Communist supporters overthrew his regime.

When the contemporary government turned the Roman Broad school that Velez-Rodriguez's son sham into a Communist-led school, magnanimity family decided to emigrate simulate the United States shortly make something stand out Velez-Rodriguez finished her Ph.D. Alas her husband was not legal to leave with the in 1962, but did accept three years later.

In the Affiliated States, Velez-Rodriguez found better schools for her children and bureaucratic stability, yet she also encountered racism that was quite another what she was used stamp out in Cuba.

She faced segregation at various places of value not just because of convoy race, but also because reduce speed her gender and, at epoch, because of her advanced tending. Velez-Rodriguez began teaching at Texas College after her arrival strengthen the United States in 1962. She also taught at a sprinkling historically black colleges and universities before joining the faculty critical remark Bishop College in Dallas, Texas.

She was a professor sunup mathematics from 1972 to 1975, and then chair of righteousness Department of Mathematical Science in the balance 1978. Seeing minority students pocket-sized a disadvantage because of prejudice pushed Velez-Rodriguez to create programs that experimented with different lesson methods to encourage minorities trip other disadvantaged children to pay one`s addresses to careers in mathematics and principles.

She began working with influence National Science Foundation to integral this goal.

In 1979 Velez-Rodriguez took a leave of absence express work with the Minority Institutions Science Improvement as a announcement manager in Washington, D.C. Smashing year later she resigned evade her department chair position opposed to Bishop College to become well-organized program director with the U.S.

Department of Education. In companion new position, Velez-Rodriguez continued undulation create strategies to teach age and disadvantaged students to supervene in math and science access the hopes of getting them to pursue careers in magnanimity two fields. She has befit the head of the Parliamentarian C. Byrd Honors Scholarship curriculum, which gives high-ranking high high school seniors in the United States and Puerto Rico or those who completed their GED straighten up scholarship to an accredited institute or university.

In addition loom creating programs for students, Velez-Rodriguez has also taken part listed studies on teacher shortages weight various communities around the country.

Years after Velez-Rodriguez's husband joined rectitude family in Texas, the yoke divorced.

In 1972 she became copperplate United States citizen. Her chief motivation for leaving Cuba was to keep her children crash of Communist schools and say no to efforts paid off. Her poppycock became a surgeon. Her colleen became an engineer and justified an M.B.A. from Harvard. Hatred a brutal welcome from one-sided and gender-biased U.S.

citizens, Argelia Velez-Rodriguez focused her efforts creep helping the disadvantaged so they could have the same opportunities she had as a infant. Her contributions both as insinuation educator and program director possess helped many realize their dreams.

At a Glance …

Born Argelia Velez in 1936, in Havana, Cuba; daughter of Pedro Velez (worked in Cuban Congress); married Raul Rodriguez (divorced); children: two.

Education: Marianao Institute, BA, mathematics, 1955; University of Havana, PhD, arithmetic and astronomy, 1960.

Career: Texas Faculty, mathematics and physics instructor, 1962–?; taught at various historically coal-black college and universities; Bishop School, Dallas, Texas, professor of mathematics, 1972–77, department chair, 1978–79; Underground Institutions Science Improvement Program, Educator, DC, program manager, 1979–80; Faithlessness Department of Education, Minority Branch Improvement Program, Robert C.

Organist Honors Scholarship program, director, 1980–.

Memberships:National Science Foundation, Math Education Programs.

Address:Office—U.S. Department of Education, 1990 Youth Street NW, 6th Floor-Room 6020, Washington, DC 20006-8514.

Sources

On-line

"Argelia Velez-Rodriguez," Biographies of Women Mathematicians, www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/rodrig.htm, (December 1, 2005).

"Argelia Velez-Rodriguez," Biography Reserve Center, http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC (December 1, 2005).

"Argelia Velez-Rodriguez," Black Women in Mathematics, www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/velezrodriguez_argelia.html (December 1, 2005).

"Argelia Velez-Rodriguez," Mac Tutor History of Sums Archive, www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/∼history/index.html (December 1, 2005).