With the award of a prestigious national scholarship, Luz Castro ’17 will travel to Argentina this fall to study social movements and human rights.
Castro received a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, which announced its recipients this month. The scholarship is awarded to undergraduate students of limited financial means to add diversity to the students who study and intern abroad.
“As a first-generation college student in a low-income household, I never put much thought into studying abroad because of the economic barriers that my family has encountered,” Castro said. “However, as a Gilman Scholarship recipient, I will have the opportunity that, just a couple of days ago, was out of my reach.”
With help from the award, Castro, a student majoring in Spanish and political science, will be able to fund her semester abroad in Argentina. With a research-based institution in Buenos Aires, Centro de Estudio de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES), she will study Argentine social movements and human rights as well as improve her Spanish-speaking skills.
“By exploring the urban and rural regions, I will examine environmental, peasant, and gender movements, which will then help me develop a research paper on the role women play in creating social change in their communities,” Castro said.
This year, Castro also earned a competitive summer internship with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. After graduation in 2017, Castro will pursue an active career in politics.
“I know that by interacting and learning the methods of organizing and community building from women in Argentina, I will gain a globalized perspective that will help me with the work I do as a community organizer here in Los Angeles,” Castro said.
