Claudia M. Castillo-Lavergne is a Ph.D. Candidate studying Human Development and Social Policy with the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Her research examines the developmental and educational pathways of historically minoritized young people with a focus on how young people make meaning of their intersecting identities both in the moment and across the life course within a variety of learning contexts and disciplinary domains. She also conducts place-based community-engaged research to examine the types of identity resources made available across learning settings, such as science and math classrooms, that support and/or constrain the learning and possible futures of historically marginalized young people. More broadly, her research takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining how young people are racialized, politicized, and historicized in different learning settings and what these processes mean for identity development and learning around what is possible for themselves and their communities. Her projects at Cornwall involve supporting high schools in their attempts to improve high school graduation rates and supporting the development of stronger policies to support the mathematics education of children now scoring in the bottom-quartile.
Mrs. Castillo-Lavergne’s dissertation is entitled, Constructing Possible Futures – How do Latinx women make meaning of their futures across learning contexts and how does this process change overtime?
Previously, she has worked in education and developmental research spaces, higher education, and local government in New York City, Chicago, and Evanston. She has an M.A. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University, a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) in International Economic Policy and Management from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Spanish from Rutgers University, New Brunswick. Her Ph.D. Will be in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern. Born and raised in Colombia, Claudia immigrated to the United States at the age of 11 with her mom and sister. She grew up in West New York, NJ—an immigrant community predominantly made up of people from Latin America and the Caribbean.