"Sociology helped me understand that the struggles and invisibility I’d experienced were structural.” 

Jasmine Rivera is a proud first-generation student and mother of two children, Antonio-Jose and Selena, and she is earning her PhD in sociology. As a woman of color who has been deeply impacted by poverty and incarceration, Jasmine is committed to dismantling the social inequalities that have affected her family and others. 

Jasmine has overcome many challenges throughout her life. When she was 17, she became the sole provider for her household after her father’s death. As an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, she struggled with housing insecurity despite working multiple jobs to support herself and her son. These challenges inspire her to make systemic change that will help others who are struggling. Jasmine is passionate about the field of sociology because it has helped her make sense of her experiences. She explains, “Prior to finding sociology, I’d seen the issues my family faced as individualized and isolating. Sociology helped me understand that the struggles and invisibility I’d experienced were structural.” 

Jasmine is committed to using her degree to advocate for marginalized communities. Her dissertation will focus on Latino residents of low-income neighborhoods’ experiences with criminalization. She is particularly interested in how people’s experiences of surveillance and criminalization affect their everyday lives and life trajectories. She says, “Through participatory action research, my goal is to work with communities to advocate for changes at the community level that will help people personally in their everyday lives.” Jasmine’s mentors describe her as exceptionally hard-working and praise her willingness to “go the extra mile” for her students. One mentor writes, “Jasmine has a tremendous amount of potential as an educator, scholar, and community activist.” 

CEW+ commends Jasmine’s tenacity and vision and names her a Mary Malcomson Raphael Scholar.