Communication
Research Interests
My research interests include studying stress, resilience, privacy management, identity, and family relationships of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Specifically, I explore how an undocumented status influences the communication of undocumented immigrants in various contexts (e.g., family). Ultimately, I aim to utilize my research to create new resources and interventions that will benefit undocumented immigrants’ social mobility and interpersonal relationships.
Mentoring Experiences
My experience mentoring undergraduate students has been amazing! Through fostering a mentoring relationship with my students, I have been able to understand their goals and aspirations, so I can better serve them in helping them achieve their goals. This has led to the reward of having the opportunity of paying it forward through mentorship, so eventually my students will also mentor their own students. I strongly believe that doing this will create new paths for students to succeed—especially underrepresented students who experience a disparity of resources. Moreover, another reward of mentoring has been the ability to see my students obtain new opportunities, and I have been able to see them interpersonally and professionally grow with these new successes. One of the challenges of mentoring is making time for my students. They are a priority as I navigate my graduate program—and they will continue to be a priority as I start my career soon— because they are the future, but it’s always challenging to ensure that I give them the time and attention that they deserve given my workload. Nevertheless, although this is a challenge, I am always working to ensure that my students’ needs are met.
What the Award Means to Her
Winning this award means that, as an academic community, we are placing value in mentoring students, which I believe is a necessary criterion to ensuring the success of our students. This is especially meaningful to me given that UCSB is a Research-1 university, and research is our priority.