From Community College to LGBTQ+ Community

Devon Rojas is an incoming PhD sociology student at Harvard Griffin GSAS where he plans on researching LGBTQ+ inequality in organizations. He discusses the personal experiences that have informed his work, his path from community college to graduate school at Harvard, and how he looks forward to connecting with the School’s LGBTQ+ community. 

Hurdles of Inequality 

I’m from Fallbrook, a small town in California. I didn’t come out until I graduated from high school. When I did, I longed to be part of a larger LGBTQ+ community. I wondered how I could find those spaces. What did they even look like? And what did it mean for me to be LGBTQ+?  

After high school, I went to San Diego Mesa Community College (SDMCC). There was an LGBTQ+ organization there, but it wasn’t very big at the time, and I wasn’t very involved.  

After I finished at SDMCC, I transferred to the University of California San Diego (UCSD). There, I joined an organization called oSTEM—out in STEM—an LGBTQ+ club for students in the sciences, technology, engineering, and math. I became one of the organization’s student leaders.  

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Devon Rojas is an incoming PhD sociology student at Harvard Griffin GSAS.

oSTEM was a pocket of acceptance for LGBTQ+ people at UCSD, but the larger organization had a lot of decision-making power and held the resource strings. As one of the group’s leaders, I often acted as a liaison between our students and the university. That gave me a greater awareness of the resources necessary for student success. Importantly, it helped me distinguish the unique and diverse needs that our LGBTQ+ students sought. We were tied to the engineering school and often worked with the administration, which relied on us to think about ways it could be more inclusive. So we would give them a list of things to do. They agreed to some but didn’t want to do the others and suggested alternatives instead.  

Navigating that process made me interested in how groups and individuals negotiate their sometimes-differing interests within organizations. It got me thinking about how an institution’s leaders and policymakers have their own ideas of what the place should be—ones that may differ from folks in the LGBTQ+ community and perpetuate inequality. It’s those dynamics that I hope to explore in my research at Harvard Griffin GSAS. 

From STEM to Sociology 

My undergraduate degree is in physics so studying sociology at Harvard is a big shift for me. I’ve studied STEM my whole life and it just seemed like a natural trajectory for me. Once I got involved with oSTEM, though, it made me reconsider my plans for graduate school.  

I applied for a pre-doctoral fellowship at Stanford and conducted research with their organizational behavior faculty. It was a great way to move from physics to sociology because it gave me a broad understanding of sociology, organizational theory, and the research process. It allowed me to situate myself in a new field. 

The Stanford fellowship also helped me with the graduate school application process. Faculty encouraged us to apply to top PhD programs—the fellowship was marketed as a pathway to them. Faculty mentors gave us lots of advice and direction for applying and letters of recommendation. We also leaned on past cohorts who had gone through the process and could provide helpful advice on how best to write a statement of purpose, interview with prospective programs, and more. 

That was crucial. A lot of the places on my application list were top 10 schools. I didn’t think I’d be accepted because I went to community college and had a different academic trajectory than many people in my fellowship program. I had absolutely no expectations of getting into Harvard Griffin GSAS—I told myself I’d be fine even if I didn’t.  

When I got the acceptance letter from Harvard, I honestly did a double take. I thought I had maybe read the note too quickly and imagined those magic words telling me I had been accepted. But sure enough, it was real! I immediately called my partner and family and we celebrated over the phone. 

Research Focus 

I am looking forward to being part of the academic community and finally getting to focus on my research at Harvard Griffin GSAS. I have been thinking about LGBTQ+ inequality in organizations since I was an undergraduate. I have done some reading and written a little bit about it but, ironically, the process of applying to graduate school requires so much time and energy that it doesn’t really leave you much time to focus on your research! 

Being in a new place is very exciting. I have lived in California my whole life. I love it and I’m a little scared of winter on the East Coast. But I’m really looking forward to being in a new environment—I can’t wait to be in a more walkable city with better public transport. I’m also looking forward to exploring the geography of the Northeast. I'm excited about seeing seasons change. Most of all, I can’t wait to connect with the Harvard Griffin GSAS LGBTQ+ community!