News Brief: Alessandra Bazo Vienrich Awarded Racial Equity Research Grant

Assistant Professor of Sociology Alessandra Bazo Vienrich was recently awarded a Racial Equity Research Grant by the Spencer Foundation to examine how high school counselors in Massachusetts advise racially and/or ethnically minoritized immigrant students who are undocumented. 

Until recently, Massachusetts, like most states, denied undocumented students access to in-state tuition and financial aid, says Bazo Vienrich, which makes it challenging for high school counselors to advise them about postsecondary educational opportunities. 

Through a survey and interviews, Bazo Vienrich will explore the level of awareness counselors have about the policies that impact undocumented students’ postsecondary educational opportunities, how they perceive their role in shaping undocumented students’ postsecondary educational opportunities, how they describe the factors that enable or constrain them in accurately advising undocumented students and how their racial/ethnic identity shapes how they advise undocumented students.

The Racial Equity Research Grants program supports education research projects that contribute to understanding and ameliorating racial inequality in education, while the Spencer Foundation has been a leading funder of education research since 1971 and is the only national foundation focused exclusively on supporting education research.