Rebeka (Beka) Cabrera (she/her/ella) is a sophomore in Trumbull College majoring in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (ER&M). Originally from Brooklyn, NY, she has been interested in education for a while now, especially as she has “continued to learn about how schooling has been used to marginalize peoples but also how marginalized peoples have turned education into a source of empowerment.”
Beka decided she wanted to apply to the Ed Studies program in the fall of 2021, while taking Education and Empire (EDST 255). “That class really helped me develop my interest in education as a site of struggle,” she reflects. “I see my academic interests in ER&M and Ed Studies heavily overlapping, and I am especially interested in what liberatory pedagogy looks like and how oppressed peoples reimagine education to serve their communities both inside and outside the formal school setting.”
About the YES community, Beka says that she is “so grateful to be around people with interests and passions related to mine while also coming with such a wide range of perspectives.” Looking ahead, she is excited “to continue learning, growing, and collaborating with the members of this community.”
This summer, Beka will be interning for the National Coalition on School Diversity. “I’m not really sure what the future holds,” she says, “but I hope to do work in education that empowers the communities that I am part of and love.”