Rocio Rivera next to Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway
  • May 6, 2026

  • From Palmdale to global policy spaces, UC Irvine social sciences commencement speaker Rocio Celeste Rivera, '26 political science and international studies, builds a path defined by purpose, persistence and perspective

    • -----

Rocio Rivera standing in front of the Irish Parliament, "Leinster House" in Dublin.

When Rocio Celeste Rivera first imagined college, she saw it as a gateway. Not just to a degree, but to a wider world. That sense of possibility has guided her ever since.

Now a political science and international studies double major at UC Irvine, Rivera has turned that vision into reality. She has studied abroad five times, interned with the Irish Parliament, worked at the United Nations in Geneva, and served in a U.S. Senate office. As one of this year’s School of Social Sciences commencement speakers, she is thinking carefully about what message she wants to leave behind.

“I wanted to represent the experiences of my fellow students,” Rivera says, “and also give them a message that I would want to receive.”

For Rivera, that message balances honesty with optimism.

“I wanted to acknowledge the reality of what we’ve experienced, while also offering hope that we can still make an impact,” she says. “It’s important to recognize the struggles we’ve overcome and the resilience we’ve built. Those are the things that will allow us to become change makers.”

Politics was never off the table

Rivera grew up in Palmdale, a high desert city about two hours north of Los Angeles. She is the oldest of three children born to immigrant parents from Mexico and Guatemala. In her household, politics was never a topic to avoid.

“I never really had the conception that politics was a taboo topic,” she says.

That comfort with difficult conversations pointed her toward political science. At UC Irvine, she found a professor in her very first quarter who deepened that interest. Political scientist Daniel Brunstetter's courses on the ethics of war and the philosophy of dehumanization gave Rivera a framework for questions she had long been turning over in her mind.

“Never have I met a student who has taken as much advantage of the opportunities UC Irvine offers to learn as Rocio,” Brunstetter says. “She pursued every opportunity available to her.”

He has watched her path unfold ever since.

“Motivated, curious, humble and bold are just a few words that describe her,” he says. “She’s an inspiration to all who arrive at UC Irvine and wonder where their journey might take them.”

Rivera went on to write her honors thesis under Brunstetter's guidance, examining dehumanization as an early warning sign of political violence and asking whether recognizing that pattern could help prevent atrocities that institutions have historically struggled to stop.

Rocio Rivera in front of the Alley of Flags at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. What it means to move through the world

After just one quarter on campus, Rivera left for Paris. It was her first time outside the United States, and the learning curve was steep. She had never used public transit in a foreign city, didn't speak French, and had a food allergy to navigate in a country where she couldn't always read the menu. She figured it out and then kept going. Rivera completed five study abroad programs in total, moving through Paris, London, Oslo, Dublin and Geneva, and each one required her to rebuild her footing in a new place.

For Rivera, one of the surprising challenges of studying abroad is explaining it afterward. She still finds herself at a loss when people ask her to sum up the experience.

"A lot of people since I've been back have asked me, 'Oh, how was it? What was your favorite part?' And you just can't condense it that way, because it's entire months of my life."

She describes the experience as something far more disorienting and more expansive than most people expect, a chance to learn not just from classrooms but from cities that carry centuries of history she couldn't find anywhere on the West Coast.

There was a moment early in Rivera's Dublin internship, walking the halls of the Irish Parliament, when she had to remind herself to keep it together. She was interning for Senator Fiona O'Loughlin and couldn't quite believe she was there.

"I'd never been in a government building of that sort, like Parliament, and I was walking around with my badge, and I couldn't believe it. I couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy to be there. I tried not to smile too much, because I've got to focus on my work, but every little thing excited me," she says.

What surprised her most was what that feeling turned into. Rivera had always hoped to find work she cared about, but in Dublin, she found something unexpected.

"When I worked in Dublin, in the Irish Parliament, it was the first time I really felt, 'Oh, work can also bring me joy,' because I truly loved what I was doing," she says. "I didn't know it was possible to have a job where I looked forward to going to work. That's something I strive for, that sense of joy."

Rocio Rivera standing in front of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. The work that waits

When Rivera returned to UC Irvine, she brought her international experiences back into campus life. She worked as a resident adviser in Middle Earth housing, helped other students navigate the study abroad process as a peer adviser and held roles in ASUCI. On school breaks, she returned to Palmdale to substitute teach in the district where she grew up, working with students from the same community that raised her.

After graduation, Rivera will attend King's College London to pursue a master's degree in peace, conflict and international law, with plans to attend law school in the future. She is drawn to immigration law in particular, motivated by what she has watched play out in her own community and in the news.

"Right now, we're seeing challenges to healthcare and education and birthright citizenship and all these different things," she says. "I want to be able to understand and utilize the law as a way to protect communities and fight for justice."

For Rivera, all of it leads back to the same place.

"I always come back to the same thing," she says. "I want to be in a place where I'm able to make tangible change for the communities I grew up around, for first-generation immigrant communities, people of color."

On commencement day, Rivera will take the stage to deliver the message she once wished someone had given her, that the struggles were real, the resilience was earned, and that the world, as she discovered walking the halls of a Dublin parliament building with a badge and a grin she could barely contain, is very much within reach.

-Jill Kato for UC Irvine School of Social Sciences
-pictured: Rocio Rivera outside of Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, courtesy of Luis Fonseca, UCI Social Sciences. Rivera standing in front of the Irish Parliament, "Leinster House" in Dublin. Rivera in front of the Alley of Flags at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Rivera standing in front of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. 

 

Related News Items

Archive

Connect with us: