June 11, 2026
Ray Hinojosa uses his personal story to inspire others as new Ferris State Graduate Studies director
Ray Hinojosa couldn't afford college, so he joined the U.S. Army. That choice — made by a working-class, first-generation Mexican-American kid from Muskegon — set in motion a career spanning two graduate degrees, a tenured professorship at a research university, a YouTube sociology series with 35 million views and more than $5 million in federal research grants. Hinojosa last month became Ferris State University's director of Graduate Studies and a professor of Sociology, returning to West Michigan to do it.
He calls his own path his most persuasive argument for graduate education — proof, he said, that the door is open for Ferris State students who may not see it that way.
Hinojosa grew up watching Muskegon's industrial economy struggle in the 1980s.
"People were getting laid off left and right, poverty was on the rise," he said. "Seeing that suffering — people not being able to make ends meet, not being able to afford health care — led me to think about ways I could jump in."
He joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 1996 as a medical specialist, using GI Bill benefits to enroll at Muskegon Community College and later Grand Valley State University. Working in the emergency department at Hackley Hospital, he grew fascinated by the psychological toll economic hardship took on patients. A professor's question opened a door he hadn't considered.
"I had some wonderful professors who said, 'Hey, Ray, you ever thought about graduate school?'" he recalled. "To that point, I hadn't really given it much consideration."
Hinojosa gave it a go, earning a master's degree in sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2003 and a doctorate from the University of Florida in 2007.
He worked as a federal health scientist at the Department of Veterans Affairs before earning tenure at the University of Central Florida. He returned to Michigan in 2024, drawn by family roots anchored in West Michigan.
Among his credentials, Hinojosa authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and led or co-led more than $5 million in funded research.
As content advisor and co-author of the Crash Course Sociology series, he outlined the 45-episode arc, co-authored every script and approved every episode before release. The series has logged more than 35 million views.
That reach reflects something he sees as central to his work at Ferris State.
"This generation is looking for educational opportunities, but not necessarily ones that require them to go sit in a classroom for six or eight hours a day," he said.
He wants students — especially those who may not see themselves as graduate school material — to take a closer look at what the university offers.
"Ferris State is not just an option — it's an option that has world-class programs," Hinojosa said.
Among those he mentioned: a nationally recognized Master of Health Administration; Pharmacy and Optometry programs with national reputations; and a Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence that became the first program in the nation to earn National Security Agency designation as a Center of Academic Excellence in Secure Artificial Intelligence.
Hinojosa arrives in an era of national pressure on graduate education. Federal support is retreating, he said, with consequences that extend beyond campus.
"We derive our leaders — our business leaders, political leaders, educational leaders — from graduate study," he explained. "When the federal government begins to pull back on those supports, we lose opportunities to cultivate the next generation of leadership."
For first-generation students, veterans and Hispanic students at Ferris State, Hinojosa's arc from Oak Ridge High School in Muskegon to Ferris State's director of graduate studies carries a direct message.
"It's possible for them to find exactly what they need to make that happen here at Ferris," he said. "I did it. If I can do it, they certainly can as well."