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Sociology major Rosmery Medrano got an opportunity to study her hometown 鈥� Lawrence, Massachusetts 鈥� and her Dominican American culture in a small field research class.

She found it fascinating to observe how cultural and gender norms played out in the city鈥檚 parks, where men would gather to play dominoes, baseball and basketball 鈥� and women only came to watch their children or wait on the men, she says.

鈥淚t was really interesting to focus on my city, which I thought I knew really well, and analyze it from a sociological perspective,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he thing that really upset me was that the public spaces are a place of leisure, but the women aren鈥檛 really partaking in that leisure.鈥�

Still, Medrano was happy to see that the parks were comfortable spaces for ethnic Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Central Americans and other Latinos to relax and hang out.

鈥淲e saw how happy the people were, how they could make a little corner of the city their own,鈥� she says.

The field experience was part of an advanced class taught by Asst. Prof. Teresa Gonzales, who has a Ford Foundation fellowship to study how Latino and Black people use public spaces in midsized cities to relax, have fun and affirm their cultures. The goal of Gonzales鈥� research is to make public spaces more welcoming for people of color.

Medrano鈥檚 advisor, Sociology Department Chair and Assoc. Prof. Cheryl Llewellyn, helped her choose the class as her senior capstone experience. During her final semester, Medrano will continue working for Gonzales as a paid research assistant. She鈥檚 looking forward to the next phase: interviews with city residents and leaders of community organizations, where her fluency in Spanish will be an advantage.聽

Medrano is graduating in three years after earning multiple AP and dual-enrollment credits in the honors program at Lawrence High School. She spent her first year of college at UMass Boston as a social psychology major before transferring to UML during the COVID-19 pandemic.聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 my first research experience, and the first time I could meet my professors in person and form relationships and connections in person,鈥� she says of the field research class. 鈥淎nd it was a very small class, very tight-knit. We got to learn about each other鈥檚 stories and experiences.鈥澛�

Doing the research with students from different cultures will help her as she pursues a master鈥檚 degree in social work, she says.

Medrano plans to become a medical social worker, helping patients with 鈥渧ery difficult diagnoses, like cancer鈥� and their families to navigate difficult decisions and emotions. She has always wanted to help people and found her calling when a person she loves was diagnosed with cancer.

She believes her generation of Dominican Americans will be the ones to challenge traditional gender roles, as young women like her find fulfilling careers outside the home. She already works as a pharmacy technician.

鈥淚f I had been born when my mom was born, I would have been one of the rebels,鈥� she says.