Jessica Monje-Perez '21: Outstanding Contribution to Student Life; Outstanding Senior in Political Science; Outstanding Senior in Social Science; and the Confederation in Oregon for Language Teaching for Spanish 

Jessica Monje-Perez '21 was honored with four awards from Pacific University: Outstanding Contribution to Student Life, Outstanding Senior in Political Science, Outstanding Senior in Social Science, and the Confederation in Oregon for Language Teaching for Spanish. 

Monje-Pérez has been active on campus as the president of the Association of Latinx and Ally Students and as a search committee member for a faculty position in the Spanish program. Off campus she has worked as a program assistant at Centro Cultural and as a student mentor for TRIO Talent Search.

She “has been a dedicated voice to underrepresented perspectives throughout her time at Pacific including first-generation students, LatinX students, and BIPOC students,” her advisers said. “Jessica has grown in her ability to plan activities thoughtfully, lead other students, and be thoughtful and strategic about how she challenges the status quo.”

As a double major in politics and government and in Spanish, Monje-Pérez’s two capstone projects both focused on “internalized powerlessness” in Latinx students. In politics and government, her presentation was called Latinx Students Internalize Powerlessness in a Small Liberal Arts University.

Monje-Pérez is from Portland, Ore. She graduated in May 2021.

She shared the Spanish honor with classmate Martha Méndez Bolaños ‘21, the political science honor with Brittany Miller ’21, the social science honor with Elizabeth Hesser ‘21, and the student life honor with Keagan Weis ’21, Kiera Yap ’21, Chika Matsumoto ’21 and Seema Khatcherian ’21.