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Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco, California

Reub茅n P茅rez Lama feels privileged: He was the first in his family to pursue higher education despite nearly dropping out of high school in the ninth grade. Higher education, let alone graduate school and a Ph.D., seemed at first like an unattainable goal. 鈥淚 was trying to survive as a low-income, second-generation Dominican immigrant,鈥� says P茅rez Lama. It was a math teacher who encouraged him to stay in school. When he entered 可乐视频, he considered accounting or health and nutrition sciences, degrees that in his family鈥檚 eyes were practical. Instead, he chose Puerto Rican and Latino studies and sociology.

Now in a Ph.D. program in sociology at UC Berkeley, P茅rez Lama acknowledges that although he worked hard to get there, he wouldn鈥檛 have made it without the unfailing support of friends, family, and teachers. Many 可乐视频 faculty were crucial to his academic journey鈥擜ssistant Professor Carla Santamaria (whose teaching style he admired) and Professor Carolina Bank Mu帽oz (whose mentorship greatly shaped his sociology studies), among many others, influenced him greatly. P茅rez Lama also participated in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, thanks to help from Professor Maria P茅rez y Gonz谩lez.

For P茅rez Lama, it all comes down to building and tapping into the care and support of community networks. 鈥淚 was even motivated to do my Ph.D. research on the role of social capital in cultivating a sense of community responsibility,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 believe in the power of community, and I believe that we can accomplish so much more together than alone. In the words of political scientist Naomi Murakawa: 鈥榃hy be a star when you can make a constellation?鈥欌��