What Can YOU Do with a Whittier College Degree in Sociology and Anthropology?
Fabiola Flores
Graduate from the 2018 class
Fabiola Flores is currently working at the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, conducting research on their Dreamfields, a program that provides a safe place for youth to conduct positive recreational activity.
During her time at Whittier, Flores was a co-chair for the Diversity Council, a leader within M.E.Ch.A, a tutor at the Modern Language Lab, and a peer mentor and community advisor to first-year students. She was also the inaugural recipient of the Martin Ortiz Alianza de los Amigos Fellowship, which funded her internship with the New State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University Department of Epidemiology in New York.
Christina Ibarra
Graduate from the 2017 class
Christina Ibarra was awarded a prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Mexico. The program places selected participants in classrooms to provide assistance to local English teachers. Christina has now returned to LA and now works for Lift, a non-profit organization that works to break the cycle of poverty for families.
Christina enrolls new participants into a national research study about TANF families and employment outcomes. Christina says, “my organization takes a two generational approach to address urban poverty” by focusing on children and parents. She recently shared her work with Lift in Soc 300, explaining to current students how her work combating poverty is relevant to the book Black Wealth/White Wealth.
Gage Smith
Graduate from the 2014 class
Gage Smith chose to major is Anthropology because he enjoyed the ability to learn from the lives of others and share their stories with people like himself. He says, “understanding another culture allows us to see multiple worlds and recognize the humanity inherent in all people.”
While at Whittier, Smith was one of the last members of Fred Bergerson’s School of Life Lessons, and claims he spent more time with his professors than with his peers. He currently teaches at Whittier while he completes his Ph.D. in anthropology at UC Santa Barbara. His dissertation is on Vietnam Veterans.
His advice for current students in sociology or anthropology is “Begin working on a research project that you can develop into a graduate school project now. Do not think that just because you are an undergraduate, you cannot do research. You can lay the foundations for something much larger now. Big things come from small beginnings. Think deeply about the worlds you have access to, and whose stories you can share with the community. Part of what makes learning and teaching at Whittier College so rewarding is the diversity of the students that make it up. Each of you has important stories and worlds to share, tell and share them.
Jasmine Nutt
Graduate from the 2013 class
Jasmin first came to Whittier as a pre-med student but switched to sociology after sitting in on a class. During her time here at Whittier she was a member of the Ionians, as well as the Black Student Union, and served in freshman class council. Her senior thesis focused on the developmental needs of youth leaving the foster care system. she graduated in 2013. She went on to continue this research at USC in her master’s program in social work in their Social Change and Innovation program. she graduated from there in 2018.
Currently, Jasmine oversee two programs at a foster family agency based out of Sacramento as a Program Supervisor. Lilliput, a part of Wayfinder Family Services, offers a vast selection of programs that support the overall stability of youth placed in out-of-home care. Her advice to current students is “This once in a lifetime experience will shape the way you interact and view the world. Being a Sociologist is very much like the saying “Ignorance is bliss”. We see not only the beauty in society, but the areas of growth in which our society may be failing and we as Sociologists will be called to service in a world where the answers are never simple. Please learn yourself, your triggers, your self-care methods, and your boundaries because the work we provide will never be done! Please don’t let this world gobble up your spirit, because your insight and advocacy is needed!”
