Three Spartans Named Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Fellows

The path to becoming a professor isn’t always straightforward, especially for aspiring faculty members who are the first in their families to attend college. That’s why the California State University system provides fellowship opportunities like the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) for graduate students with their sights set on careers in academia. During the 2025-2026 academic year, three Spartans have been named CDIP fellows: Alfonso Ayala III, ’24 MA Chicana and Chicano Studies; Stephanie Stiavetti; and Ya-Ting Tsai, ’20 MA Linguistics.

The program offers support to doctoral students by connecting them to faculty mentors who advise them as they complete their degrees, offering grants that can be used toward collaborative activities and attending conferences, and sharing loan opportunities of up to $30,000 over a five-year period. Ayala is pursuing a doctorate in Mexican American and Latino/a Studies at the University of Texas, Austin, while Tsai is completing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford. Stiavetti, who is earning a doctoral degree in counselor education and supervision (CES) at the University of Nevada, Reno, was eager to share her story with the CDIP program thus far.

Though not an alumna of SJSU, Stiavetti contributes to San José State by serving on the Institutional Review Board (IRB), an administrative body designed to guarantee that the research done on campus is done ethically and safely to protect research participants. The CDIP fellowship offers her the opportunity to work with Jason Laker, who serves as department chair of counselor education at SJSU, and has previously served as the vice president of student affairs.

“Dr. Laker’s extensive knowledge of both my field and the greater academic landscape will undoubtedly prove critical in helping me realize my CSU faculty career goals,” Stiavetti says. “In addition to CDIP training and the different degrees of financial support the program offers to doctoral students, I am very excited to hopefully take part in the Pre-Professor Program, which helps CDIP fellows understand the details of faculty life at CSU campuses.”

Stiavetti has two pie-in-the-sky goals: One is to develop new counseling programs in the CSU system that are rooted in accessibility, and the other is to start a community nonprofit that focuses on early screening and interventions for severe mental illness. She explains that after working in community mental health with some of the most vulnerable populations in California, she realized that if many of her clients had received psychiatric help 20 or 30 years earlier, they may have had different outcomes.

“I am a disabled first-generation student from a disadvantaged background, and I have fought hard to get where I am,” she says. “In addition to my own resilience and hard work, I am also here because of the support of mentors who believed in me along the way. These individuals shared information with me that I never would have gotten access to without their help, and it has made a huge difference in what I was able to accomplish.”

She hopes that the CDIP fellowship, and the opportunities it brings, will allow her to act as a role model for fellow Spartans.

“If you feel that who you are is not represented in academia, you can be a part of changing that,” she says. “One key point is gaining access to those who are already at the table — experienced mentors who are willing to explain what you don’t know. Don’t be shy! Finding a mentor can feel intimidating, but there are people out there who are willing to help you get where you want to go. A major part of my academic goals is to be that support for others going forward.”