Research Symposium

BIO

Kaylee Vasquez is a second-year undergraduate at Florida State University, double majoring in International Affairs and Criminology. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, she aspires to become an immigration attorney, advocating for immigrants' rights and human rights. On campus, she serves as a Community Ambassador at the Center for Leadership & Service, raising awareness about local social issues. As an intern at the FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, she advocates for immigrants and assists with legal status adjustments. She also holds leadership roles as the Social Advocacy Chair for the Hispanic/Latinx Student Union and Fundraising Chair for the Dominican Student Association.

As a former Global Scholar at FSU’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement (CRE), Kaylee developed a capstone project on the Social and Solidarity Economy in Morocco to improve immigrants' socioeconomic standing. She also presented "Service and Sustainable Futures in Morocco and Beyond" at the 2025 Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement.

Her experiences fuel her commitment to legal advocacy, social justice, and community empowerment!

The Interpretation of Expectation: A Cultural View of Generational Development

Abstract

We investigated the pressure to succeed that children of Latino immigrants feel due to expectations placed on them regardless of whether they are voiced or not. This research aims to raise awareness of the physical barriers that aren't recognized by professionals that Latinos face in their daily lives. As universities' Latino populations rise, institutions need to ensure their Latino population's success by recognizing cultural barriers and provide necessary assistance and guidance. . We gauged the level of expectations placed and the resulting pressure that children felt by analyzing transcripts of 8 dyad interviews and identifying themes that were present. These themes included whether family-centric values, cultural influence, cultural pride and heritage, etc. were present. Analyzation of the transcripts were completed by adapting the Dyad Matrix Method proposed by Collaço et al., 2021. The results suggest that regardless of the explicitness of parental communication regarding expectations, all children experienced familial pressure to succeed.. Moreover, this pressure did not change regardless of previous educational background. Moreover, it suggests that Latinos from all walks of life are struggling in university spaces due to a cultural barrier. ideally, this research will be published in hopes to disseminate this information publicly, thereby allowing for these concepts to be acknowledged and solutions to be put into action.

Keywords: Cultural; Hispanic/Latino; Education; Family.