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SoHE Graduate Student Spotlight

Jennifer Navarro Chavez Co-Authors Paper on Venezuelan mothers and their young children’s oral storytelling patterns to process immigration journeys to the U.S.

Jennifer Navarro Chavez, a PhD student in the Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) graduate program, has recently co-authored a paper with my advisor Dr. Andrea Buhler-Wassmann and collaborators from NYU, Loyola Chicago, & UCSC on Venezuelan mothers and their young children’s oral storytelling patterns to process immigration journeys to the U.S.

What work did you complete to achieve this accomplishment?

Engaged in collaborative research (developing research questions, methods, writing and editing draft of publication).

What does this accomplishment mean to you for your scholarly career?

I am honored to have been invited to collaborate on this project and exposed to the writing and publication process during my first year. I am also grateful to the families who allowed us to read their beautiful stories and offered us insight into their lives and personal experiences. I am looking forward to the future projects about Latine families, especially during a time when this research is most needed.

What does this accomplishment mean to you personally?

As a first generation Latine scholar, navigating graduate education is extremely challenging, but these moments serve as reminders of the valuable work happening for underrepresented populations. Engaging in research on communities I identify with, alongside an advisor who leads through a strengths focused approach, reaffirms why I love this work.

What drew you to your specific area of study, and why is it meaningful to you?

My research adopts a critical and intersectional framework to uplift and represent Latine populations. Specifically, I examine parent-child storytelling patterns to understand how they foster identity construction, cultural wealth, and learning. This work is deeply meaningful to me because it allows me to unapologetically center an underexamined subgroup of multicultural populations. My identities as a first generation Latine scholar and daughter of immigrants directly shape my core values and research, particularly in understanding how culture and identity influence parenting practices and positive well-being.

What impact do you hope your research will have on your field, community, or the world?

Although extensive research has focused on these families, they are often positioned through deficit-based frameworks that overlook broader sociopolitical contexts. My goal is to expand representation for communities of color using asset-based approaches that highlight how sociocultural factors shape development and well-being. At a time when families of color, including immigrant populations, face targeted hostility, my research serves as a form of resistance that centers these communities without filtering their authentic voices. Through this work, I aim to join the growing movement of first-generation Latine women scholars who once believed graduate education was out of reach, using my trajectory to invite and mentor future Latine researchers.

Have you received any grants, fellowships, scholarships, or awards during your time here? If so, how did these opportunities support your research, grown, or professional development?

• Promising early researcher award
• HDFS program scholarship
• SoHe advanced opportunity fellowship