myCSUSM
MASP Current Students
Area of Interest:
My research focus is special education. Specifically looking at how institutional polices, resource allocation, and educator decision making shape the type of support students of color with disabilities receive.
Area of Interest:
My topics and research interests include: child abuse, dysfunctional families/homes, what is true communication, bullying, near-death experiences, brain traumas, discrimination, illiteracy, females in technical jobs/STEM, intersectionality, Filipino-Americans and marginalization, colonization, intervention, imperialism, “model minority” stereotyping of Filipino-Americans (US born, immigrants, undocumented), military wives and the challenges of pursuing higher education, parenting/styles, conflict resolution, facilitation, community mediation, parent-teen mediations, roles/jobs Filipino-Americans have been pigeon-holed for in the: military, corporate environments, movies, music industry, theater, and health industry, academia; Juvenile Court and Community Schools (JCCS), K-12 students’ learning styles, differentiated instruction in K-12 in the US, data accountability and full-state reporting in the US, Art & World Cultures, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, Aging Graciously, primary care givers, data-driven decisions in K-12 schools, Life’s Choices (“Adel’s Life Wheel”) using Accept-Remove-Change (ARC) Model towards objectivity, “Emotional Mindfulness,” Art as a healing agent towards emotional mastery, resiliency, and finding one’s “authentic self,” battered women and their daily survival mechanisms and how they got out of from toxic relationships.
Area of Interest:
I graduated from California State University San Marcos in 2024 with a bachelor’s
degree in Sociology. My undergraduate capstone project, “The Impact of Social Support
Networks on the Economic and Mental Well-Being of Single Mothers,” sparked my interest
in understanding the social and structural factors that shape the experiences of families.
My current areas of interest include single mothers and special education, particularly
the challenges families may face when navigating educational systems and accessing
support and resources.
Area of Interest:
I study the experiences of Black women in elite sports environments, exploring how race, gender, and class shape these spaces. I’m also interested in how fandom, social networks, and media influence the culture of sports etiquette, participation, and attendance.
Kristin
Blackburn
Email: black177@csusm.edu 
Area of Interest:
I completed my B.S. in Education Sciences with a minor in Sociology at UC San Diego, culminating in a senior capstone research project exploring the experiences of K–12 teachers navigating immigration enforcement through the lens of institutional policy. My research interests lie with social stratification and mobility, institutions, and the sociology of (higher) education. I am currently examining how the expansion of social networks for first-generation college students might impact mobility metrics. These metrics include long-term career outcomes and prestige, as well as more short-term academic success metrics like retention and persistence. Beyond my academic pursuits, I have a passion for performing, teaching, and entertaining. I have worked as the Color Guard Director at Oceanside High School for 11 years, and have performed in both WGI World and Open Classes for nearly a decade with Vox Artium Performing Arts.
Brittney Garcia
Email: garci1440@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
My name is Gabriel Gonzales and I have two bachelors degrees in Film and Media Studies and Spanish Language and Culture from UC Irvine. I am a sociology of education scholar. My research is interested in examining extended learning opportunities for students outside of the general school day. I am currently researching how for-profit afterschool programs operate between socioeconomically diverse school communities through the lenses of neoliberal policies in education, the school-to-prison pipeline, and Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital.
Area of Interest:
Hello, my name is Jaelin Ivester, and I am working to research the sociological construction of BDSM relationships, using mixed methods of research to engage with the sociological imagination. I hope to use my own autoethnographic data, perform ethnographic work in southern California, and use qualitative and quantitative research methods to gain better insight into how we view BDSM from the perspective of it being a sociological construct.
Area of Interest:
Hello my name is James. I am originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. I did 10 years in the Marines and recently graduated from CSUSM in May of 2026 with a degree in Sociology. I am now in the MASP program, my interest is in policy that is used in public institutions to teach white privilege.Anahi Merino Vasquez
Email: merin018@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
My work is rooted in my identity as a first-generation, trilingual Latina of Oaxacan Indigenous descent and guided by a commitment to equity and decolonial inquiry. I study how Indigenous agency, decolonial sociology, and public sociology intersect to challenge Eurocentric frameworks and expand the ways we understand knowledge, identity, and resistance. Specifically, I examine how epistemic sovereignty can exist within institutions that privilege Western epistemologies while foregrounding lived experience as both method and theory. I aim to continue developing qualitative and community-based approaches such as ethnography, oral history, and participatory research to make sociology more accessible, grounded, and transformative for historically excluded communities.
Brenda Nieto
Email: nieto039@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
I received my bachelor's degree in Sociology at CSUSM. I am also a first-generation student. I'm currently interested in labor alienation among warehouse workers, specifically in the Inland Empire.
Aaliyah Renteria
Email: rente081@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
My research interest focus on Latina students within alternative education. I am looking to explore how institutions respond and cater to the needs and aspirations of Latina students who have been pushed out of their mainstreams school.
Mac
Rihan
Email: rihan015@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
I have a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, where I graduated from CSU San Bernardino. My sociology interests come from the curiosity of understanding why the world is the way it is and wanting to connect and understand on a deeper level. To me, Sociology is more than just an academic study, but rather knowledge that allows me to look at the world with a gentler heart and open mind.
Yuliana Rojas
Email: rojas225@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
My research is grounded in the sociology of religion, gender, and punishment, with a focus on how faith-based organizations contribute to reentry and rehabilitation. Specifically, I examine the reintegration experiences of formerly incarcerated Latina women who participate in Victory Outreach programs. Through this project, I explore whether religiosity itself—or the social networks, resources, and collective identity fostered by these programs—plays a greater role in supporting women’s reentry and long-term stability. More broadly, my work engages with questions of inequality, cultural belonging, and the transformative potential of community-based approaches within the criminal justice system.
Thomasa Santoyo
Email: santo214@csusm.edu
Avalon Schultz
Email: schul131@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
As a nonbinary person in higher education, I hope to not only make education more accessible, but also more intersectional. My research focuses on disability and organizational structures through a public sociological lens. I am specifically examining the relationship between organizational betrayal and first responders with disabilities. My research interests include inequality, disability and crip theory, and all things gender, including expanding research on variant nonbinary identities, gender variance in the workplace, and our understanding of lgbtq+ youth and their self-identity. My future research projects include working with native researchers on a project centering two-spirit individuals and continuing my work with first responders. Foundational to all of my research, I believe in a pedagogy of praxis!
Amira
Sessions
Email: sessi007@csusm.edu
Sarah Simpson
Email: simps117@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
My research is aimed at exploring how the LGBTQIA2S+ navigates the music scene. I want to see if they are represented, if they are discouraged, or if there is a way to make spaces safer for those who don’t identify with the heteronormative ideals. I am a non-binary punk so I focus on trans identity and gender expression in the punk/alternative scene. My other interests are race, gender, sexuality and class in pop culture, how these themes interact with each other, and how does the broader world react to it. In my free time I like to build Lego, craft, and pet every dog I see.
Mar Leeza Tezeno
Email: tezen001@csusm.edu
Jenna Thelen
Email: thele002@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
My research aims to uncover the reasons as to why we do not see more Asian American women in leadership roles within the white collar workforce. I am focusing specifically on various hiring practices, the glass ceiling women of color face in the workforce, as well as cultural beliefs in relation to the workforce.
Rachelle
Zilavec
Email: zilav001@csusm.edu
Area of Interest:
I am from Toronto, Canada. I have an undergraduate degree in literature. I am interested in studying substance use and misuse in relation to young women of college age. I want to understand the impediments of going in to seek guidance and sobriety for these women. I question if sober curious groups dedicated to women might help in some way.