Alexandria Belen Coronado graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2021 with a major in Political Science and an emphasis in Pre-Law with a minor in Anthropology. Prior to attending EWU, she graduated from Columbia Basin College with an Associate of Arts degree. She was involved in the Honors Program at EWU as well as the International Affairs Community. Her areas of research interest revolve around the ever-growing economic inequalities and other issues of justice in the United States. For her EWU McNair Summer Research Internship, Alexandria did research on the food and housing insecurity of undergraduate college students under the mentorship of Dr. Lindsey Upton. She then went on to collaborate with former McNair Director Dra. Christina Torres García and fellow McNair Scholar Lizeth Bañuelos in the summer of 2021 on The Implication of COVID-19 for First-Generation, Low-Income Students in WA State, which they presented at Council for Opportunity in Education’s 40th Annual Conference.
Alexandria was accepted into the Master's Program in Public Service and Administration at Texas A & M, the Master's Program in Political Science at Saint Louis University, and the PhD Program in Political Science at the University of Alabama with full funding, where she began attending in Fall 2021. She returned to present on her experience as a graduate student and in research for our summer 2022 cohort.
2020 Research Mentor: Dr. Lindsey Upton
Research Title: Impacts of COVID-19 on Food and Housing Student Resources at Universities in the State of Washington
Abstract: Food and housing insecurity are generally defined when an individual faces uncertainty of being able to access adequate resources to fulfill healthy living needs (Gallegos, Ramsey, & Ong, 2014; Coleman-Jensen, Steffen, & Whitley, 2017). We often overlook places where food and housing insecurity are experienced, including across college campuses. This study seeks to address the lack of current research on the comparative analysis on food and housing support services in higher education. Attention will be focused on the impact the COVID-19 global pandemic has had on public university food and housing programs in the State of Washington. In-depth interviews with university administration and student representatives will be conducted to examine the impact on these resources that address the issues of food and housing insecurity among university students.
