Alex Lin

Ph.D. Student
Department of Education

Email: alin13@uci.edu

Biography

Alex Lin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education with a specialization in Educational Policy and Social Context.  In 2003, he completed his Bachelor's Degree at UC Riverside with an emphasis in Political Science and Theatre. Before entering the program, Alex has had extensive experience as an instructor including a year teaching English in Japan and Social Science at an Irvine middle school.

The opportunity to work at Equal Access, an international relief program, inspired Alex to understand how education can profoundly improve the welfare of peoples’ lives. The organization was mainly involved with developing literacy programs to help marginalized people in a number of third-world countries. Although the center mainly operated in downtown San Francisco, it specialized in sending public radio broadcast of educational programming to rural and remote areas of Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Laos, and Cambodia. As a liaison to Nepal, Alex was exposed to the unstable political climate stemming from various factions clashing for control of the government, which resulted in widespread violence and displacement of civilians from their home. Because of the government's tight control of the media, broadcast of these educational programs were vital to informing women about birth control and civic virtues. The highlight of his stint at Equal Access was completion of a $50,000 grant to community centers in Nepal to provide support for radio programming and staff for 12 million people across Nepal.

As a first year student in the doctoral program, Alex had the fortunate experience of working with Dr. Pilar O' Cadiz and Department Chair Deborah Lowe Vandell in an after-school assessment program covering various schools throughout California. Moreover, he co-authored a paper with Dr. Gilberto Conchas and Dr. Leticia Oseguera that involved studying high-achieving African American students and their career aspirations in the post-Obama presidency. In his most recent experience, Alex worked with Gilberto Conchas on conducting external evaluations across community-based programs in Southern California under the California Community Foundation. This year, he is working with Dr. Josh Lawrence on a number of different studies that examine literacy and word generation programs across the nation. 

Alex’s primary research interest lies in evaluating the quality of out of school programs with particular attention to literacy and civic engagement outcomes. With a strong interest in education policy, Alex is passionate about furthering his understanding in how education can promote opportunities for students to serve and play an integral role in their communities.