Marialexia Zaragoza

Higher Education
University of Pittsburgh

Born and raised in Riverside, California, Marialexia is the daughter of immigrant parents from Jalisco and Michoacán, Mexico; she is a sister, a TiaNina, and an advocate for her first-generation and Latinx comunidades. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a minor in Chicanx studies from California State University, Fullerton, where she was also a McNair Scholar. She is currently a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Higher Education program at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on understanding how Hispanic Serving Institutions can better serve their students through their implementation of High Impact Learning Practices, as well as analyzing the ways in which Latinx students change, create, and influence institutional policy. Marialexia approaches her work through an asset-based and social justice lens that aims to disrupt traditional notions of who institutions believe to be holders and producers of knowledge.