Valeria Rigobon

Why FSU?

I'm following the funding and the faculty from the Department of Psychology who want to see me grow!

Motivation to pursue a graduate degree

I want to stay in academia so that I can research the populations I have always cared about and mentor students the way I have been mentored and encouraged throughout my undergraduate career.

Importance of your research or work in action

My research focuses on the use of skills and mental resources by bilingual speakers while reading their different languages of fluency. I hope my work can help create a better understanding of improved teaching methods for English language learners at earlier stages of reading development.

Advice for students considering graduate school

I urge students considering graduate school to seek out every financial and networking opportunity. For Hispanic students, use your background as an advantage and apply for everything you are even remotely eligible for. There is a whole community of people who not only want to see you succeed, but also want to fill your experience with as many resources as possible, both during and after you earn your degree.

Career aspirations

In the future, I hope to pursue a postdoc at a different university after obtaining my graduate degree and gaining some teaching experience at FSU. I also plan on continuing to present at research conferences on the national and international scales. One of my more specific goals is to extend my research past the English-language reading and into reading difficulties among Spanish-speaking populations. As a bilingual Latina, being able to serve both populations and live abroad for some of this investigation is something I have already begun to plan for with inquiry into other fellowships and post-graduate opportunities, such as Fulbright. Overall, I aspire to be a professor, researcher, and mentor.