Honors blog editor Gia Clarke had the privilege of interviewing Honors Program alumna and McNair scholar Vanessa Cruz. She is currently an assistant professor of political science at Indiana University. This past weekend, she received the Midwest Latina/o Caucus Early Career Award.
Tell me a bit about your career journey and what you research!
I was an undergraduate student here at DePaul, was in the Honors Program, and majored in political science and economics. I was very excited to join DePaul because it’s a liberal arts school, it’s very teaching focused, and I knew that professors would be very invested in the individual success of each student. And that proved to be true. Now I am a professor. I’m an assistant professor of political science at Indiana University, I am a faculty affiliate through the center for research on race and ethnicity in society, and a faculty affiliate through the Latino Studies program. I study race in American politics. Specifically, I center the experience of Latinx immigrant communities and their various forms of civic engagement and political participation in the U.S. My other areas of focus are in political psychology, the role of emotions in politics and general American politics.
What is the award you’re receiving this weekend?
This weekend, I am receiving an award through the Midwest Political Science Association’s Latino Caucus, where they’re honoring me with an Early Career Award. And they give this award to junior faculty who are still assistant professors that haven’t gotten tenure yet. They’re trying to spotlight our work because we’ve made an impact apparently, and so we’re nominated by colleagues in our subfield within Latino politics: people that are studying political behavior, that are studying social movements. It’s a huge honor to be recognized by my fellow colleagues; people that are doing work in a similar area feel that I’ve somehow deserve this award. Last year, I won the Ford Foundation Fellowship at this stage as a professor. They have been an incredibly supportive institution for me throughout my educational career. I consider myself, of course, a DePaul alumni, a Michigan alumni, but also an alumni of the McNair Scholars Program and the Ford Foundation. Those major networks have been super supportive to me throughout my career.
What was your experience like as a first generation college student?
I think that the McNair Scholars Program helped me join graduate school programs with my eyes fully open and aware of the under-representation of first generation students and students of color in academia. I was well aware of those statistics, and knowing that knowledge is power, right? So I learned to not internalize moments that might have felt like they were very individual. Maybe very individualized moments of micro aggression or maybe individualized moments of isolation, and just realized, “Okay, this is part of a broader pattern where we’re not seeing enough diversity within the graduate school pipeline.” So it helped me stay afloat- to know that information, to know that I was part of a very supportive network of other people who were invested in my success to get me into graduate school. My DePaul mentors, riding on that support. Rose Spaulding, I remember her helping me with my graduate school applications, giving me feedback, and when she wrote my letter of rec, she made it a point to share her letter of rec with me to remind me in these difficult moments when you’re in graduate school when you’re confronting a lot of criticism, because graduate school is all about polishing your ideas and you can’t polish ideas without constructive criticism. And so, in those moments where you might be in a low, she said, “You should read this letter to remember that you’ve got what it takes to finish your PhD.” I definitely read that letter many times and still do because it’s really inspiring to know that people see a lot of potential in you and that you can live up to that potential. But, you can’t do it alone.
How has the Honors Program helped prepare you in your career field?
The Honors Program created this beautiful love for learning, love for writing, helped dive really in depth with our ideas, and taking ownership over our contributions even in the classroom as undergraduate students. I think that especially in the writing side of things, it really set me up to be prepared for the caliber of the type of writing I would see in graduate school and the writing I would have to produce on my own. I am grateful that I had an experience where I wasn’t just exposed to Scantron exams. In undergrad, I had these massive blue books and massive papers that I’d have to print out at the end of each quarter I could build on something, on my own ideas, my own reading of the literature and how that jived with reality. How are these theories aligning or not aligning with what we encounter in everyday interactions? In everyday society? The Honors Program was really instrumental in my success for sure.
Anything else you’d like to mention about yourself?
It’s really important for students to lean on the advice of their mentors and people that they respect to help them, to show them the ropes of where they want to be. Always take advice from people whose lives you’re trying to emulate. If they are generally happy, and you want to be in their same position, I think it’s good to get advice from that type of mentor because maybe they have a mindset or a way of framing things in difficult moments in their career where they see it as an opportunity to grow. My time at DePaul was not easy by any means. But I felt like there were a lot of moments of growth. Pushing through those moments was really important. That’s kind of my main go to, as I’ve propelled in my career and my own book projects and writing work. If you can push past those moments of growth, of those learning curves, you’ll take a lot of pride in being able to contribute something new that you can take ownership over.
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