Doctoral Student Uses Applied Sociology to Create Change Locally and Globally 

Through fellowships, fieldwork, and outreach, Lisa Rodriguez transforms sociological concepts into meaningful solutions for local and global communities. 

By: Emily Dougherty | June 20, 2025

Lisa Rodriguez, a fourth-year sociology doctoral student in the College of Sciences, is using her academic path and shared experiences to make an impact in communities through research, outreach, and applied sociology. Grounded in her Puerto Rican heritage, her work spans a number of research areas, including disaster response and STEM engagement among youth. 

A proud Puerto Rican and first-generation college student, Rodriguez began her undergraduate studies at California State University, Sacramento.  A conversation with her microeconomics professor changed her future direction. As part of an English assignment, she interviewed him in his office and midway through their discussion, he looked at her and asked bluntly why she was studying business and marketing. 

“I told him ‘I don’t know,’ and he suggested I explore sociology instead,” Rodriguez says. “He told me ‘You seem more like a people person, I think you’d be more interested in pursuing that degree.'” 

The conversation intrigued her, and she enrolled in an introductory course to sociology. 

“My eyes lit up,” she says. “All of these experiences I thought were just mine were shared. There was a language to describe them. There were people studying them.” 

She says that moment of clarity set her on the path she follows today.  

In 2024, Rodriguez says she served as a Habitat for Humanity International Practicum Fellow in the Dominican Republic, a role focused on disaster response in rural communities. Drawing from both academic training and personal experience with hurricanes, she created workshops that helped residents prepare for the upcoming hurricane season.  

“You build rapport with the community first and then offer resources and work together to come up with viable solutions,” Rodriguez says. “At the end of the day, that’s the point. To help people in these communities.” 

Rodriguez supports the Spatial Sociology GeoBus Mobile Lab, a mobile science lab hosted by the UCF department of sociology. The mobile lab brings STEM tools, such as drones, VR headsets, and robots directly to young students. By removing cost and access barriers, she says this initiative is redefining who sees themselves in science. 

Rodriguez says she feels a shared connection with the students she and the team serve, and she believes this representation plays a crucial role in building young students’ confidence who are interested in science.  

In 2023, she joined a research trip to Belize, where she applied geographic information systems (GIS) to support both local tourism and environmental sustainability. Her team created updated maps that featured small businesses in Hopkins Village, many of which were previously unlisted on digital maps. She says they also mapped coral reefs to guide safer and more eco-conscious tourism in the endangered waters of Southwater Quay. 

Back in Florida, her research continues through the Puerto Rico Research Hub at UCF, where she studies migration patterns between the island and Central Florida. As a Crossing Latinidades Fellow, she spent the past academic year conducting interviews to explore the social, economic, and environmental factors behind these migration trends.  

Rodriguez says she is proud to contribute to a research center that not only produces data but also shares it widely with the communities it studies. 

“The goal is to disseminate knowledge and involve the people who are affected by the information,” she says. 

Across every project, her motivation remains the same: to make education, research, and opportunities available to everyone.  

“Resources create opportunity,” she says. “The ability for these sociological problems to really be solved from the bottom up is the most powerful thing.”