Meet Three of the School of Education’s Newest Ph.D. Students

The newest Ph.D. students in the School of Education are asking research questions rooted in their experiences in classrooms, universities and communities. Their interests span language learning and food insecurity to technology use and the socioemotional impacts of AI. Across three students’ topics, they share a goal: to turn what they learn into practical support for the people and communities that inspired their research.

Analee Scott

Analee Scott first observed how language learning can help people find community through her work teaching immigrant adults and organizing local English classes. A master’s graduate with degrees in Spanish, international relations, and teaching English as a second language, she holds a deep passion for supporting and uplifting multilingual speakers. This interest led Scott to take on the role of senior community director at UC Berkeley’s Graduate & Family Living, where she quickly observed that university resources often centered around students, leaving their spouses and children to figure things out on their own. “It made me want to help these families feel like they belonged there too,” she said.

To create those opportunities, Scott secured funding and launched the Village International Program (VIP) for more than 500 international families at UC Berkeley’s University Village. She then recruited and trained volunteer language facilitators, collaborating with them on curricula that supported residents’ English learning. Alongside these language exchanges, Scott also arranged community events to give families the opportunity to learn more about Berkeley life and share their experiences moving to California.

As VIP grew, Scott began thinking about how to evaluate its effectiveness and reach more families. Pursuing doctoral research offered a way to build on her experience and answer those questions. “My work is more practical than theoretical,” she said. “I knew that I needed to pursue a doctorate in education because it’s practical. The scholars are always applying their research.”

Scott found her way to UC Davis through connections she made in VIP. UC Berkeley researchers participating in the program introduced her to education scholars who could help assess and refine her work. Through these connections, Scott spoke with UC Davis alumni who described the School of Education as a welcoming and supportive graduate community—a particularly meaningful prospect as she prepared to welcome her first child. “Once I started talking to UC Davis alumni, I started seeing them everywhere in the education field,” Scott said. “They all said the same thing: I would find the right community for me at UC Davis.”

Cristian Reyes

Cristian Reyes seeks to understand how universities can better support underrepresented students—a question rooted in his own college experience. A first-generation student and child of a farmworker community, Reyes struggled with imposter syndrome and culture shock after completing his first year of college virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, ultimately landing on academic probation during his sophomore year. Reassessing his goals, he switched from biology to child development, a field he felt more passionate about.

Fellowships with education policy and advocacy organizations like EdTrust-West, Today’s Students Coalition, and many more helped steer Reyes’ interests toward higher education policy. After completing his bachelor’s degree, he pursued a master’s in higher education counseling and student affairs and began investigating how university support services contribute to student success.

Through his own involvement and through conversations with students who had benefited from Hispanic-serving institution initiatives and campus basic needs programs, he came to understand his own challenges as part of a broader experience. “My story is one of several realities for first-generation Latinx students,” Reyes said. “But pursuing a Ph.D. gives me the skills and ability to create research that could change the reality for all students.”

This goal brought him to UC Davis to work with professors Marcela Cuellar and Kevin Gee. He hopes to use data and students’ firsthand accounts to examine how universities support underrepresented students, particularly those experiencing basic needs insecurity. Students’ stories remain central to his work, helping him understand where support falls short and how it could improve.

Jiatong Fan

Before pursuing a Ph.D., Jiatong Fan wanted firsthand experience with the students her research supports. After earning her master’s degree in language and literacy at Harvard, she returned to China, where she designed STEM curricula at TAL Education Group and eventually co-founded a children’s museum that offered bilingual, STEM, social-emotional learning, and arts programming for Pre–K and elementary students.

Fan then joined Peking University’s affiliated high school and spent five years teaching writing, leading the independent research and experiential learning program, and serving as director of college counseling. Each role offered deeper insight into student learning, from their work in the classroom to preparing for college.

Across these roles, Fan became interested in the emotional side of language learning. “I watched many of my students struggle with anxiety and depression while practicing writing and speaking,” she said. “I just kept asking, ‘How can this pressure be released?’”

By the time she applied to UC Davis, Fan felt she had the practical foundation to pursue this question through research. Now she hopes to explore how educators can help students develop language and writing skills while lowering the anxiety and discouragement associated with that experience. Her interests also include technology and AI literacy, especially as they relate to students’ motivation and emotional well-being.