About Lupita

Lupita Romo-González (she/her/ella) is a Ph.D. candidate at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara, where she also earned her M.A. in Education in 2023. She is a first-generation college student from Salinas, California and is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrant parents from Jalisco, México. From a young age, Lupita's parents instilled in her the value of educación and the importance of doing well in school. Lupita recalls her parents making every effort to show up to school-related events and seek resources that would support her educational journey, in spite of language barriers and their unfamiliarity with the U.S. education system. 

Lupita enjoys going on runs by the ocean, exploring local parks/hiking trails, and traveling. 

Higher Education Journey

From the moment Lupita first heard about college, she became determined to pursue a higher education. Without much knowledge on what the process was like to get to college, she joined the PUENTE Program at her local high school. Lupita is grateful for the guidance and support she received from her Puente teacher and counselor and how ultimately her involvement in PUENTE brought her to enroll at UC Berkeley. While at UC Berkeley, Lupita majored in Sociology and minored in Chicanx/Latinx Studies and Public Policy.

​Her dedication to continue advocating for education equity is demonstrated through her continuous involvement with the PUENTE Program as a project assistant, her participation in the Puente at Berkeley organization, her role as a Higher Education Policy Fellow with the Leadership Enterprise for Diverse America (LEDA), among her various research projects and advocacy roles. ​

Research Interests

Lupita’s research interests are primarily motivated by her personal experiences in the education system as well as her engagement in advancing education equity in various capacities. At this time, she is a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, working towards developing a dissertation project that will further explore how students of first-generation and Latinx backgrounds navigate institutions of higher education and how families and institutions can work together to better support this experience. She is interested in utilizing Chicana/Latina Feminist Epistemologies in her research and ensuring that her collaborators’ voices and experiences are at the center of her projects. Lupita is committed to continue advancing education equity and access to higher education for students and families of Latinx, first-generation and immigrant backgrounds.