Doctoral Students receive Honorable Mention for President's Dissertation Year Fellowship

Fifth-year doctoral candidate Mariela Rivas (left) and fourth-year doctoral student Stephanie Soto-Lara (right) have been awarded 2020 President's Dissertation Year Fellowship Honorable Mentions and $1,000 in support of their research.

​Rivas, who is advised by Professor Mark Warschauer and Assistant Professor Rachel Baker, is specializing in Learning, Teaching, Cognition, and Development (LTCD). Soto-Lara is specializing in Human Development in Context (HDiC) and is advised by Professor Sandra Simpkins and Chancellor’s Professor Emerita Deborah Lowe Vandell. 

For her dissertation, Rivas is researching how to improve college success among underrepresented college students in STEM courses and focusing on low-cost interventions that can help all students succeed, through study skills training and formative assessment using interactive response systems. ​​Soto-Lara's research focuses on educational trajectories of underrepresented youth.