Intertwined perspectives
Born in Santa Cruz, California, Stephanie Garcia-Mora started at UC Irvine in 2022 as a political science major. Initially interested in going to law school, she was keen to major in something that taught students to question the world around them and examine how social norms can create different outcomes.
"I'm a first-generation student, which I am very proud to say," says the fourth-year undergrad. As a daughter of immigrants, Garcia-Mora says that she takes a lot of their experiences with her at UCI. "It’s part of my identity as a student."
In her third year, she took a sociology course that focused on immigrant detention and surveillance. "A lot of the dialog within that class was focusing on the strong Latino community and how a lot of these experiences are racialized," she says. "Research can describe some of the experiences that I have lived in, and many of the experiences my community and family have lived in, and I didn't really recognize that or have the language to describe that in the academic context. I was drawn to sociology because it gave me the words to describe what I was going through. It made me feel much more connected to my roots and my culture."
It also inspired her to tackle research herself. "I think I have a lot to bring due to my lived experiences," she says. Deciding that she wanted to officially conduct research in the sociology department, she declared it a second major. "I was welcomed by different faculty who wanted to see their students get into the world of research, and that made the transition so much easier."
The two majors create complementary perspectives. Whereas political science taught her about different political systems, she says, sociology showed why those systems existed and how many policies we see today are shaped by societal standards. "They intertwine a lot."
In addition to an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) project with sociology professor Richard Arum's team in the Measuring Undergraduate Success Trajectories (MUST) lab — for which she's investigating gendered internship experiences and their effect on labor-market stratification — Garcia-Mora is currently wrapping up a Campuswide Honors Collegium project in the department, under associate professor Irene I. Vega. "She always motivates me and reminds me that this is something that I am good at," says Garcia-Mora. "Sometimes I have these feelings of imposter syndrome within the world of research, so she has been really reaffirming that this is a space for me."
Garcia-Mora's honors research is focused on peer-to-peer empowerment among Latina scholars and how cultural organizations at UCI influence their tracks toward graduate school. It's informed by her own time at UCI. In her second year, she joined the Chicana/Latina sorority Phi Lambda Rho, of which she's currently the president. Both the chapter and Garcia-Mora herself won awards from UCI Sorority & Fraternity Life this April.
"At UCI, I have been really well supported by peers, and primarily other Chicana/Latina women," she says. "I want to go to grad school, so I wanted to see how community and peer-to-peer networking, peer-to-peer relationships, can make that pathway a little bit smoother and also increase motivation for students and understand their place in higher education." There's no doubt that the welcome she received from so many other Latinas in higher education made her own academic journey easier.
"Seeing and growing in that community made me really inspired to continue taking my education seriously and also mentor other students," she says. "A lot of the experiences written for Latinos in higher education are tokenized and often focused on hardships and obstacles, which I think is important, but I really like that my research is focusing on empowerment. It's really nice to see how community is really important, and it really positions students to help one another and succeed."
Garcia-Mora is currently applying for jobs for a gap year, mostly at universities in Southern California, where she hopes to advise students. She intends to apply to California Ph.D. sociology programs this summer. "UCI has prepared me for that future by giving me a lot of mentors and showing me how that opportunity is accessible for somebody like me," she says. "It has prompted me and given me a lot of opportunities to partake in research and also just have conversations with faculty who see that that's something that I can do and believe in me. It's given me a lot of opportunities, in general, to expand my research experience, whether it be in a lab or within the honors department, and also the relationships and networks to feel inspired to do that."
Long term, she aims to be a professor at an R1 institution. "I have loved my experience in research and really want to give that research lens and opportunity to other students and also increase representation in academia." She says that UCI helped her better understand what it means to be a professor and what the road would look like to get there.
This past fall, she was part of the cohort for LeadHER, a program offered by the School of Social Sciences and Women of the Dean’s Leadership Society. She received mentorship from a variety of women whose journeys have differed. "It was such a transformative experience. I really extend a lot of my gratitude to the School of Social Sciences," she says. "It was such a rewarding experience to be a part of within my fourth year, because I'm making my transition out of UCI. I was left with so many feelings of motivation, inspiration, and overall, a lot of care."
"I'm going to miss the community a lot," she says, from her peers to the accessible faculty, who helped her navigate the institution. "As a first-generation student, I was able to gain a lot of insights and a greater understanding of higher education. A lot of the obstacles that I was facing, I didn't have someone to necessarily know how to guide me until I started cultivating those relationships with faculty."
Looking forward to her graduation in June, she's feeling "really excited," she says. "I know that this is not the end for my academic career, because I really want to go to grad school. So, I'm excited for the next chapter in my life, and excited to use this last quarter to reflect on all my accomplishments."
-Alison Van Houten for UCI Social Sciences
-photo by Luis Fonseca, UCI Social Sciences