Vanessa Delgado, UCI sociology Ph.D. candidate, has been named co-recipient of the American Sociological Association 2021 Cristina Maria Riegos Student Paper Award. The honor, awarded by the Latinx Sociology Section, recognizes the first-generation college student for her paper, “Decoding the Hidden Curriculum: Latino/a First- Generation College Students’ Influence on Younger Siblings’ Educational Trajectory." In it, Delgado examines how Latino/a/x immigrant families work together to bridge resources, share capital, and transmit knowledge about navigating U.S. schools. Her work uncovers the critical role Latino/a/x children of immigrants play in selecting what schools their siblings attend, ensuring their younger siblings complete their homework assignments while translating between school officials and parents and promoting various pathways post-high school. She explored this topic in a recent op-ed for CalMatters highlighting how older Latinx siblings supported their younger siblings during the shift to virtual learning. She’s currently working on her dissertation which explores how Latinx children of immigrants serve as brokers for their parents - how legal status and the transition into adulthood shapes the ways children of immigrants support their parents.

Delgado earned her undergraduate degree in sociology at Washington State University where she discovered her passion for research as a McNair Scholar. At UCI, her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, the Eugene Cota Robles Fellowship, a UC Consortium on Social Science and Law Summer Fellowship, an Economic Self-Sufficiency Policy Research Institute Fellowship, Data Science Initiative Fellowship and two UC MEXUS grants. She’s also been awarded the Outstanding Department Service Award from the Department of Sociology, the Svetlana Bershadsky Graduate Student Community Award, AGS Debbie Davis Graduate Student Award, the Dynamic Womxn of UCI Spotlight Award, and the UCI School of Social Sciences Order of Merit Award for Outstanding Service. This year, she received a Kugelman Citizen Peacebuilding Research Fellowship from the UCI Center for Citizen Peacebuilding and a UCI Center for Organizational Research Grant to explore how advocacy organizations facilitate the inclusion of Latinx immigrant parents in Los Angeles schools. She plans to graduate in June 2022 and pursue an academic career.

Joining Delgado in receipt of this year’s Cristina Maria Riegos Student Paper Award is Isabel Garcia Valdivia, a graduate student at UC Berkeley. They will be among those honored at the ASA annual meeting to be held virtually August 6-10.