Peggy Sue Carris is a fifth-year doctoral student and Graduate Diversity Fellow studying the sociology of education, race, and ethnicity. Her current research explores the cultural mismatch first-generation students experience in higher education and its impact on their sense of belonging. She examines the role of institutional selectivity, analyzes how social class background and cultural norms predict belonging and influence educational outcomes, and examines whether attending minority-serving institutions (e.g., HBCUs, HSIs, and PBIs) mitigates the cultural mismatch they experience. She focuses closely on the intersecting identities of first-generation college students, considering factors such as their socioeconomic status, gender, and racial and ethnic identities, all of which shape their distinct college experiences. She is also actively engaged in research investigating the repercussions of COVID-19 school closures on the academic performance of Latine 3rd through 8th-grade students, particularly examining the pandemic’s impact on their rates of chronic absenteeism and its correlation with academic setbacks. Her previous research examined educational inequalities in the U.S.-Mexico Border region. She found that test score disparities between Latine and White 3rd through 8th-grade students widened with proximity to the Border.