Juan Bran-Gudiel is a fourth-year transfer student at UC Santa Barbara working to get his B.A. in Chicanx Studies, considering a minor in Counseling, Clinical, and Social Psychology. Being in the foster system and formerly incarcerated, Juan is inspired to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. He hopes to work with at-promised youth who are impacted by multiple systems. He hopes to be a credible messenger for these youth. Juan is doing amazing work connecting the local community to the university, outreaching to youth, and advocating in the statewide Underground Scholars Initiative. Juan is the Gaucho Underground Scholars (GUS) Recruitment Coordinator; he has worked tirelessly to help formerly incarcerated students transition into UCSB. Recently he worked to develop the warm-handoff system to ensure a calm and safe pathway into the university. He is also a personal research assistant working with a professor investigating how resources impact students’ college performance. He is also working as a mentor to incoming freshmen through the PROPEL program. Juan is part of the board of directors for a new honor society at UCSB known as the Alpha Alpha Alpha society. He is always on the go, as he is also a father to two beautiful kids, while earning a 3.9 GPA. In the future he plans to earn his Phd. in order to work towards bridging the gap of systemic impacted youth and higher education.
