A triple Trojan’s journey turning proximity into purpose one degree at a time

Christine Rocha EdD ’26 grew up just minutes south of the USC campus, near Hoover and Vernon in Los Angeles. She could see the school from her neighborhood. But back then, the campus felt unattainable. 

As a student at Manual Arts High School, Rocha joined the ‘I Am’ mentoring program, part of the Pullias Center for Higher Education. Paired with USC graduate students and staff, the program helped students navigate the path to college. “Even though I lived down the street from USC, I felt like I didn't have a reason or felt like I could walk onto campus,” Rocha said, “until I joined the I Am Mentoring program.”

That first step turned into a decade-long relationship with USC. From mentee to mentor, undergraduate student to research project specialist, she earned her bachelor’s, master’s and EdD from the university, making her a triple Trojan. “Being part of the surrounding area, I felt more empowered to use whatever tools and knowledge USC could provide me with so I can make an impact in my own community,” she added.

As an undergraduate studying psychology, Rocha channeled her connection into action and volunteered with the Pullias’ I Am program. As a graduate student in USC Rossier’s Master of Education Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs, she learned from the same faculty who supported her as an undergrad work-study student. What she learned in the classroom reframed everything she had seen in practice.

“It’s not necessarily that these students do not want to access higher education,” she said. “It’s just that there are a lot of systemic barriers.” Understanding the root of those barriers, she said, made her want to do something about them at a greater scale.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she spent a year with the USC College Advising Corps (CAC) and was placed at Bell High School. Rocha worked directly with students to meet college and financial aid application deadlines and answered questions to support a student’s path to college. During her first year of graduate school, Rocha returned to the Pullias Center, this time to lead the I Am mentoring program herself, eventually overseeing up to five partner schools and 100 students per year, while also training mentors to join what she calls the collective effort to support students. “Even the day before the deadline, if you need me to review your essays at 11:30 p.m., I can do that,” she told students, “because I know how important this kind of support is.”

When the pandemic brought the I Am program to a close, Rocha found a new way to contribute. She joined the Promoting At-promise Student Success (PASS) research team at the Pullias Center as a project specialist; a role that, at first, felt like a departure from her practitioner roots. “This role was a little bit different, but I felt like it was just as important,” she said. Whether scheduling interviews, analyzing findings or preparing reports for policymakers, the work was still in service to students just from a different vantage point. “Our research was being used to change policies, to impact student success, even if it was in a different state.”

Encouraged by Pullias Center faculty who saw her potential, Rocha pushed past what she had imagined for herself and pursued her Doctor of Education in Higher Education Administration, a milestone she credits to the people and community around her. “Whether conducting research with skateboarders, organizing complex datasets with the PASS project or conducting her dissertation research on second-year student experiences, Christine brings powerful insights and great heart to all she does,” shared Research Professor and PASS project Lead Investigator Zoë Corwin, Rocha’s longtime colleague and dissertation chair.

“As a first-generation student, I never thought that I would pursue a doctoral degree,” she said. Faculty members urged her to consider how the credential could open doors to fields she had yet to explore. “Maybe the next step is the doctorate program, because then you can step foot into other fields,” she recalled her colleagues saying.

As she looks ahead, Rocha is exploring roles in research administration and student affairs, with her focus on expanding access to college for students in communities like the one she came from. For Rocha, the through line has always been the same: Draw from USC, then give back across the street. “I could literally just cross the street,” she reflected, “and apply what it is that I’m learning in the classroom and make a change in my own community.”