Scripps College alum Kristie Valdez-Guillen is making a difference in her Los Angeles area community as an activist featured in a recent article by Fusion.net. Valdez-Guillen credits her Scripps education as instrumental in understanding issues of environmental inequality, where Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, and European immigrants in the Unites States are disproportionately exposed to the harmful effects of living near hazardous or health-threatening conditions, such as those Valdez-Guillen is concerned about in her own community. Following her graduation from Scripps in 2013, Valdez-Guillen returned home and helped start the Marina Pando Social Justice Research Collaborative, a program that supports first-generation college students of color who want to conduct social justice oriented research.
