Why FSU?

I have deep roots in Florida, and when I found that FSU's Department of Political Science is among the highest-ranked in the US, it sparked my interest. After learning more about the program, the faculty and their research agendas, and the long history of academic quality and commitment in the area I wanted to have a career in, I was set on coming to Tallahassee.

Motivation to pursue a graduate degree

After attaining two bachelor's, one in Political Science and another in International Relations, I started to work in policy, specifically as a data analyst for road safety. At that time, I also began to lecture as an adjunct professor at my university. I realized that I loved teaching and doing research, so pursuing a doctoral degree was a logical next step. When the pandemic struck, and after being in lockdown for more than a year, I had enough time to think about what I wanted to do with my life and decided to apply to FSU.

Importance and/or impact of research and work

I specialized in international security and civil-military relations. Latin America has a difficult history to grasp from a traditional security perspective, with prevalent violence and conflict within countries but not between them. Indeed war has been rather the exception than the norm in Latin America, yet we still have military forces, many of which headed dictatorships at some point. My research seeks to answer what is the right place for the military in the current state of affairs given the individual, regional, and world realities that we now face.

Career aspirations

I want to become an academic in a thriving and competitive environment where research quality is of the highest value. However, I do believe that the scientific discoveries we find have to jump out of peer-reviewed publications and generate an impact in people's lives. I hope to do that by teaching future decision-makers on substantive and methodological topics that they will use throughout their careers to make better choices.

Advice for anyone considering graduate school

Have clear goals. Graduate school is daunting and presents continuous challenges. It is easy to get sidetracked and intrigued by a ton of different and new things that you are exposed to. But the single most important thing is to accomplish the goals that you set for yourself when you applied. Having clarity in those goals is the most important thing to keep you on track, to keep you going, or even to make the difficult choice that graduate school is not for you after all.