Name: Sophia L. Ángeles
Title: Assistant Professor of Education (bilingual)
Department: Curriculum and Instruction
Phone: 814-863-3554
Email sja6261@psu.edu
Office address: Chambers Building
Directory entry: https://ed.psu.edu/directory/dr-sophia-angeles
Seeking to raise her students’ awareness of others’ perspectives, Sophia L. Ángeles arrives as an assistant professor of education (bilingual) in the College of Education at Penn State after having recently earned a doctorate in education with a concentration in urban schooling at the University of California, Los Angeles’ School of Education and Information Studies.
Ángeles’ research examines how immigration and language policies and practices shape the educational trajectories of high school-age immigrants. In addition to her research experience, she has engaged in advocacy and lobbying efforts to protect the rights of English learners and their families while accessing an equitable education through her work with the Californians Together English Learner Leadership and Legacy Initiative.
“My research focuses on the experiences of recently arrived immigrant youth (newcomer youth) and their experiences as they learn to adapt to a new culture, learn a new language, and navigate uncertain futures. I am particularly interested in examining how high schools are preparing them to be college-and-career ready,” Ángeles said. “The work I have carried out in the past couple of years stems from when I was working as a high school counselor and began realizing that students enrolled in English language development courses had very different academic experiences. Being labeled an English learner seems to foreclose students’ access to college-and-career readiness opportunities.”
As she begins her work in the college, Ángeles said she hopes to develop her students’ awareness and appreciation of the rich cultural and linguistic resources multilingual learners possess as well as a deeper understanding of how structural conditions shape the educational experiences of immigrant youth.
“I enjoy designing a learning space to be a community of learners,” Ángeles said. “I want students to see that we all are coming to this space to learn from each other. I value fostering a community where students rely on each other and realize that we all bring something to the table. It’s important for me as an instructor to help facilitate connections between students’ lived experiences and the material that we’re reading.”