June 3, 2026 | Graduate profiles
Each of our graduating students has a different story, but they share a common thread: learning through dialogue and community. In this Q&A series, graduating students from IGR reflect on moments that challenged them, people who shaped them, and skills they’ll carry forward after graduation.
Elisa Vega (MA ’26), a new master's graduate at the Marsal Family School of Education, received IGR's Patricia Gurin Certificate of Merit in Intergroup Relations and a liberatory education cord this spring. In a brief interview, she reflects on how her CommonGround experiences shaped her approach to community-building, facilitation, communicating across difference, and learning with and from others in higher education spaces.
Q: How did the IGR community shape your experience at U-M?
Elisa Vega: I joined the IGR community through my position with CommonGround as my placement for my graduate program in higher education. This placement quickly became so much more than a job, but a place that would become one of the most supportive communities I had during my time at Michigan. I moved to Michigan in the fall of 2024. As the year progressed, we saw the terrain of higher education change as policies shifted. IGR was always a place that I could come to to debrief these changes, mourn the hard parts, and make intentional plans that gave us hope for the future.
IGR was also a place that held everyone and their stories with the weight and care that they deserved. Coming in as an out-of-state student, my experiences were always valued. IGR staff and student colleagues always took the time to listen and learn about who I was and who I wanted to be.
My supervisor, Meaghan Wheat, was the greatest example of the staff member I would one day want to become. Meaghan helped me apply my experiences in CommonGround to my degree as a fellow CSHPE alum. She held my learning and professional experiences with such care and intention in a way that I will forever be grateful for. Other staff members, Roger Fisher, Deborah Slosberg, Jacob Foster, Stephanie Hicks, Christina Morton, Patrick Kazyak-Albaladejo Muñiz, Storm Saddler, and so many more would become other examples of the staff members I would want to become. The IGR community not only gave me a safe place to learn and grow on campus, it gave me an example I can always look back to. I want every place I am a part of to emulate the community that I have had the privilege of being a member of through IGR.
What practical skills from IGR do you feel best equipped to bring into your work as a student, professional, or leader?
The facilitation skills that I have learned through IGR are ones that I know I will bring into every role that I am a part of. As I pursue more professional roles and research experiences, I hope to increase awareness about the Latine college student experience, specifically regarding identity development. I know that the skills that I have learned through IGR such as communicating across difference and awareness of social identities will be imperative to this work. I also believe that this work cannot be done without building community with those that you are learning with and from. IGR has taught me how to pursue the mission of having conversations about different experiences and identities while also working to build relationships and bonds with those around you. I know that these skills will never leave me.
How do you hope to take your IGR experience out into your future?
I hope to continue to work in higher education spaces both as a practitioner and an educator. These roles can sometimes create a power dynamic between staff members and their students where it seems like the knowledge can only go in one direction: from staff to student. IGR always made it a point to push back on this dynamic. Students being referred to as "student colleagues" is the perfect example of this. Regardless of your role or position, IGR staff members always emphasized that we were all learning in a group and learning from and with one another. I believe this is one of the biggest factors that makes IGR as special as it is. It is not just something that staff members "say", it is how they guide their practice. I want to take this into my future both as an educator but also just as who I am in my daily life. It was the moments where I took a step back and gave someone else that floor during dialogues, friendly chats, or deep conversations where I learned the most. I never want to lose that lesson.
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