Dr. Javier Arjona-Baez

Dr. Javier Arjona was born in Monterrey, Mexico, less than 150 miles from the Texas border. As a young boy, family vacations to the Texas coast were very common. That in part sparked his interest in learning English and the U.S. culture. Later In his life while studying mechanical and industrial engineering at the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) he participated as a Spanish conversation tutor during summer school helping the American students at </span >the </span >ITESM Spanish program. This was his first one-to-one teaching experience with people from another culture and who spoke a different language, and it was very important for his future career as an educator. After earning his Master's in Mechanical Engineering degree he became an instructor of mechanical engineering at the ITESM and later at the Universidad de Monterrey. After 10 years as an educator and becoming the father of 2 children he moved to Houston to pursue his doctoral degree. His third child was born in Texas. Dr. Arjona joined the Department of Engineering of the University of the Incarnate Word in 2009.