Name of the subject: Jorge X

Age : 32

Position: Graduate student and PhD candidate

Field of expertise: Biology

General background:

It is widely known in the social psychology literature how discrimination

and was and still is a persistent phenomenon in all societies across history and

cultures. The US is not the exception and there is a long history of

discrimination and marginalization of women and minorities. Such social

problems still persist nowadays (although in more subtle ways) and are

experienced by certain populations as well as some people in the science and

academia. Despite this and other barriers (e.g., SEE), many individuals manage

to succeed and achieve their goals while others remain behind.

Having this in mind, I conducted my project on resilience in people who

face challenges in academia. By challenges, I mean those issues (e.g.,

discrimination, poverty) that go beyond the typical difficulties of any academic

domain. A lot of research has been done on resilience but little is known about

how some people in academia face their issues and thrive despite adverse

circumstances. By doing a case study, I attempted to gain insight into the life

and challenges of a person who has faced this kind of problems and also
understand how this experience may relate to others in similar circumstances.

Because of the difficulty in finding a large sample of subject and the

limited scope of this study (e.i., class assignment), my sample will be one

academically successful graduate students and PhD candidate. I would refer to

her as Jorge. Jorge is a biological scientist who studies computer simulation of

evolutionary processes. I knew of Jorge from my undergraduate education,

when he and I worked in the same lab. The interview is a plausible research

approach because will allow me to explore significant detail to understand the

nature, characteristic and consequence of intrinsic and extrinsic protective

factors that may be in play. I will prepare a semi structured interview that

focus on: Identifying intrinsic and extrinsic protective factors, inquiring about

the origin of such protective factors, determining the consequence of protective

factors.