Aspiring professor pursues dual IST graduate degrees

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — By the time Antonio Girona receives his doctorate degree, which he expects to earn in 2025, he will have been a student in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) for more than a decade.

Girona, who earned a bachelor’s degree in information sciences and technology in 2018 and is simultaneously pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in the college, considers himself a lifelong learner. He has an objective to learn as much as he can through his research and education to be able to impart that knowledge on others, with his ultimate goal of one day becoming a professor.

“I have been the beneficiary of professors who have inspired me. And I’ve always wanted to inspire others, to teach others,” said Girona.

One of those instructors who inspired Girona is Dave Fusco, associate teaching professor at IST. Girona had initially gone to work in industry after receiving his bachelor’s degree, intending to later pursue his master’s. But he found that the corporate environment wasn’t the right fit for him and had the desire to start his path toward becoming a professor. He came back to IST, where Fusco helped Girona narrow his path.

“Since I didn’t have much research experience, Dr. Fusco suggested that I start with a master’s to get my feet wet and gain those skills and abilities, since doing research is a very different skill set,” said Girona. “Dr. Fusco guided me and was a really good mentor during that time when I needed to start that process.”

Fusco continued to serve as a mentor throughout Girona’s studies. Girona assisted Fusco, the college’s former director of master’s programs, on a project researching information and online chatter about the college’s master’s program to help inform future marketing and recruiting efforts. Girona then went on to strengthen research skills in the college, working alongside experts in a few diverse domains who he also deems as mentors. Girona has worked to determine how to best disseminate health information to refugee camps in Africa, with Carleen Maitland, professor; and is currently working with Priya Kumar, assistant professor, to explore how applications can be better designed with children’s privacy in mind.

“I want to do research that has a positive impact on the bubble of what we understand is knowledge. I want to add to that, expand that bubble, and make my mark,” said Girona. “That’s what’s really motivating: the ability to do research that you enjoy and also has a potential impact.”

Girona is also currently working with his doctoral adviser, Professor Lynette Yarger, to understand students’ perceptions of algorithmic hiring bias.

“Dr. Yarger has guided me throughout my studies and was ultimately one of the people who pushed me to pursue my doctorate, encouraging me to work with her to bring out a lot of my research ideas that I am currently working on,” said Girona. “Her work and who she is as a person, combined with her helpful guiding presence, is ultimately why I wanted to collaborate with her.”

In his dissertation, Girona is working under Yarger’s guidance to explore how remote work is changing organizational structures, especially as companies deploy monitoring technology to ensure employees are productive at home, and how it may alter employees’ privacy and perceptions. He is especially interested in understanding how marginalized individuals experience remote work — specifically Black and Hispanic workers in the technology industry.

“It’s a worthwhile endeavor for me to pursue, especially because I’m Hispanic and can understand from a personal level how tech workers feel during this time,” he said. “And, from my past work, I can understand the organizational perspective, where the company wants to ensure employees are actually working because they’re paying them to work; but there’s also this other human element of it, where remote employees are letting coworkers into their personal space and may be starting to lose their professional selves, or at least the selves that other people saw in the workplace.”

He added, “There’s now this small window into your life, especially if there are things in the background (during a virtual meeting) that allude to something that you like culturally, or who you are as a person. And now coworkers who you would maybe not consider friends, but just colleagues, are getting a more personal side of you that you might not want them to experience.”

Research isn’t the only way Girona hopes to make an impact. He looks forward to one day drawing on the teaching foundation he built as a learning assistant and teaching assistant at IST to educate the next generation of students.

“As a learning assistant, it was a very valuable experience to be on the other side of the desk, so to speak, to understand the learning difficulties that students had with the material and being able to be able to help them through a problem,” said Girona. “It really helped me to understand that there’s a lot more that goes into being a professor.”

Girona hopes to participate in the teaching fellowship at Penn State, where he would have the opportunity to teach his own course under the guidance of an instructor.

For Girona, reaching his goal of becoming a professor will bring his academic career full circle. A change-of-campus student who began his college experience in the computer engineering program at Penn State Abington, Girona took an introductory course in IST and decided to change his major in his first week of classes.

“I realized that IST is exactly where I want to be, because so much of it is interdisciplinary — it’s not just technology and computers; it’s also about the people that use and interact with the technology,” he said. “All those things were very fascinating, and it offered a balance between what I enjoy about technology and the human element.”

Someday soon, Girona hopes to introduce young students to the same academic program that is situated at the intersection of information, technology and society.

“I very much enjoy being in the classroom environment, speaking with students and helping students, and it goes back to my desire to inspire others,” he said. “I want to do research, but I also want to teach because I want to inspire, to help create new knowledge, and be able to disseminate that knowledge to others.”