Jéssica Pereira

MALAS

Jéssica Pereira was born and raised in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She obtained from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro a Bachelor's degree in Physics and a Master's degree in Materials Engineering thanks to the outstanding "FAPERJ Nota 10" graduate fellowship of the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. During her academic journey, she had the opportunity to participate in scientific research while also working in education.

For almost two years, Jéssica was a tutor for undergraduate physics courses at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She observed how education could not only change individual scenarios but could also empower rural communities in the state of Rio de Janeiro with well-educated workforces. After taking classes in Sociology and Spanish at UNM, she decided to start a new graduate journey in the Social Science field at the Latin American & Iberian Institute.

Jéssica now hopes to contribute to our understanding of how specific public policies can improve access to quality and inclusive education for the Latinx community, especially for women. She believes that quality education can be crucial to reducing gender and racial injustice in society. Paraphrasing Paulo Freire, who was a Brazilian educator and philosopher, when education is liberating, the oppressed don't dream of becoming the oppressor.