Christine was born and raised in Mexico City, where she worked as an English teacher for over 10 years (plus an exciting year she taught in China!). In 2009, she started her MEd in Human Development, Learning and Culture (HDLC) in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education (ECPS). As a graduate student, she was a research assistant for Drs. Shelley Hymel’s and Kimberly Schonert-Reichl’s labs, and co-authored a book review published in English and Spanish. For two years, she was a volunteer cast member of the Vagina Monologues, a production by student-led group UBC VDay that raises funds and awareness to help stop violence against women and girls. In her spare time, she also volunteered at the Intergenerational Landed Learning Project at the UBC farm.

Christine’s grad student life was marked by her student job. She worked as the Coordinator of the Graduate Student Council, advocating for student voice and representation across the Faculty of Education, for two years. One of her biggest accomplishments was to ensure that Education grad students were represented at the UBC-wide Graduate Student Society. She also co-coordinated the American Educational Research Association Grad Student Council’s 2012 community service project: a youth mural in the City of Surrey to promote understanding and diversity, to be installed in the fall.

To end her degree on a high note, she volunteered to be the May 2012 Convocation Speaker, and dazzled everyone at the Chan Centre with a beautiful speech. As you can tell, Christine’s motto is “The best way to have a positive impact is to be engaged.”