Oscar Patron is a PhD candidate in Administrative and Policy Studies in the School of Education (SOE) at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). He completed his BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U of I), double majoring in Sociology and Latinx Studies. As an undergraduate student, Oscar worked at the Latinx Studies department, further developing his passion and commitment to bettering the educational experiences of the Latinx community. Oscar’s passion for research started from his participation in the Ronald E. McNair Scholars program while at the U of I. As an aspiring professor, Oscar has worked in a variety of roles while at Pitt––from being a teaching assistant to serving on the SOE’s academic and student affairs committees. Upon his arrival at Pitt, Oscar joined his advisor’s, Dr. Gina A. Garcia, research team, where they conducted a mixed-methods multi-site investigation examining the leadership development of Latinos in college. They are now working on a study on the development of Hispanic Serving Institutions by specifically exploring what it means to construct and enact a Latinx serving identity across several institutions in the Midwest. Currently, Oscar is a visiting pre-doctoral scholar and research associate in the Race and Equity Center at the University of Southern California (USC), where he is working on a project with his mentor, Dr. Shaun Harper. While at USC, Oscar is completing his dissertation, which investigates the resilience processes that queer Latino collegians undergo in relation to their social identities and surrounding contexts
