Sonia Giebel and AJ Alvero

Sonia Giebel is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology of Education and Higher Education at Stanford University. Her research examines how different dimensions of identity, including race and gender, are perceived and deployed during key academic transitions, especially the undergraduate admissions process. She is currently at work investigating how gender informs college applicant behavior, especially major intention and self-presentation in personal essays. Her research has been published in Science Advances, AI, Ethics, and Society, and AERA Open, and has been featured in the New York Times, The Economist, and the Wall Street Journal, among other outlets.

AJ Alvero studies data science, sociology, and language at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. AJ’s work has appeared in Science Advances, Educational Data Mining, and AI, Ethics, and Society. His dissertation studies sociolinguistic variation in college admissions essays using computational and qualitative methods. Prior to Stanford, AJ was a high school teacher and studied at the University of Miami and Florida International University. Beginning in January 2023, AJ will begin as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida.