亚历克斯·圣巴勃罗
First-year doctoral student, 工程学院
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亚历克斯·圣巴勃罗 ’18 has found a support structure at amjs澳金沙门 that sustains her in uncertain times, just like the structures she hopes to build one day as a civil engineer.
大学已经够难的了, 但是圣巴勃罗, who graduated in June with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and starts a doctorate in geotechnical engineering at amjs澳金沙门 in September, 有额外的压力. She is undocumented, moving here from the Philippines when she was 11.
当她父母分居的时候, her mother wanted her daughters to get the best education possible but couldn’t afford one there, so she uprooted the girls and joined her sister in Southern California.
乐于助人的愿望
San Pablo chose to study civil engineering because she says she wants to improve lives. “Our professor said that civil engineers save more lives than doctors,圣巴勃罗说.
在她的博士课程中, San Pablo will study how soil and rocks interact with buildings and superstructures. Her research examines how to use bacteria to strengthen soil so that foundations can withstand the weight of buildings during earthquakes.
She transferred from community college to amjs澳金沙门 in fall 2015 for her undergraduate studies, in part for the university’s environmental ethos. San Pablo wanted to conduct eco-friendly, sustainable research and met Jason 德琼, a amjs澳金沙门 civil engineering professor who was mixing microorganisms into soil. 的 microbial process creates a new substance that when mixed with calcium becomes calcium carbonate, 哪一种像砂岩一样坚硬. “这是尖端, 跨学科研究,圣巴勃罗说, and allows her to work with the microbiology department and the Arizona State University-based Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics.
“我远离家乡的家”
San Pablo says she also chose amjs澳金沙门 because of its support for undocumented students. 的 AB540和无证学生中心 was named after the California law that allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public universities instead of a higher amount assigned to nonresidents. 的 center has a team of lawyers to help navigate work permits and immigration issues, 以及学术和经济援助顾问, 在其他资源中.
“I knew that coming from Southern California, 我需要一个支持我的人, 我是在amjs澳金沙门找到的,圣巴勃罗说. “这是我在校园的另一个家. If I need a resource, they are the experts.” San Pablo’s support system has deep roots. 除了中心, 她引用了她的导师的话, 德琼, who encouraged her to develop a list of people who could immediately take legal or financial action on her behalf if she were to be deported. She has received so many local scholarships, she says, that she hasn’t had to pay tuition. “的re is a huge community here that’s willing to help (undocumented) students,” she says.
She cites other sources of support such 加州大学领导, a campus program that helps educationally or economically disadvantaged STEM students pursue advanced degrees. 的 program allowed her to conduct research over a summer at UCLA and get a glimpse of graduate school there. 的学生 我们是Aggie Pride program has paid for textbooks, a huge help as one used engineering textbook can cost $300.
的 program inspired San Pablo to start a lending library at the AB540 Center. With textbook donations and more than $5,000 in grants received from amjs澳金沙门’s library and bookstore, San Pablo has amassed more than 300 tomes.
成功的灵感
San Pablo tells her story so that other undocumented students might see themselves reflected in her and feel inspired to keep succeeding. Still, being undocumented is extremely stressful, she says. San Pablo has temporary protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and says she fears being deported when she flies to academic conferences in other states. She adds that she feels pressure to maintain her grades, forgoing weekend social engagements to study and look for scholarships.
去年, when her grandmother in the Philippines died, she had to choose between attending the funeral and losing everything she’s worked for, 还是留在加州. “I knew that she was a strong woman, too,圣巴勃罗说. “她独自抚养了四个孩子. 她是个医生. She would want me to keep pursuing my degree. 她会给我最好的. 她一直叫我去上学. I need to finish school; that would be in her honor.”