When Justina Rodriguez Carrozzo came to College of DuPage, her goal was clear.

“I wanted a place where my potential would be seen,” she said. “As an international student navigating the American higher education system, I was searching for an institution that would allow me to grow academically and personally. College of DuPage said ‘yes’ at a moment when other doors had closed. That opportunity changed the trajectory of my life.”

When she was 4, Rodriguez Carrozzo moved with her mom to Argentina while her dad remained in Qatar. Some of her earliest memories are of listening to her dad tell stories over Skype while they lived 8,500 miles apart, and stories became an integral part of her life.

Traveling means more to me than visiting a place. I am deeply interested in languages and cultural exploration and am fascinated by how communities express identity through language, food and history.

Justina Rodriguez Carrozzo

“I grew up moving between countries, languages and classrooms where I was often both insider and outsider,” she said. “By 8, I carried a notebook everywhere, inventing lives for strangers and writing rhymes about birds. At 10, I sat in writing classes meant for elders, publishing my first short stories and presenting them at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair. Writing became more than a hobby; it was my way of understanding the world around me.”

Having an uncle who lived in District 502, she moved in with his family and enrolled at COD, where her multilingual background became the foundation of an academic path in neuroscience and multilingualism. Rodriguez Carrozzo immersed herself in campus life, serving as president of the Spanish club Sobremesa, which she helped to reactivate to provide a space dedicated to language practice and cultural belonging, and as operative director for the Chaparral Activities Board, helping to coordinate large campus events and serving as a liaison between committees and advisors.

Rodriguez Carrozzo also developed and presented a research paper on neuroscience, multilingualism and first-year writing instruction at the HCIR (Honors Council of the Illinois Region) Student Symposium.

“I began exploring how cognitive science and linguistics research could reshape writing pedagogy at community colleges, particularly to better support multilingual students,” she explained. “It started in a class but further developed thanks to the support and resources I found. Faculty members from writing studies, psychology and neuroscience offered me feedback, and their mentorship pushed me to revise rigorously, strengthen my evidence and refine my argument.”

Rodriguez Carrozzo earned three credentials at COD—Associate in Arts and Associate in Science degrees and the Professional Writing certificate—and graduated as an Honors Scholar, a member of Phi Theta Kappa and an outstanding graduate finalist. She plans to pursue bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as a Ph.D. at a research university to study neuroscience within a biological framework, focusing on cognition, multilingualism and equitable education.

She also plans to travel the world and sees how it can inform her career.

“Traveling means more to me than visiting a place,” she said. “I am deeply interested in languages and cultural exploration and am fascinated by how communities express identity through language, food and history. I want to translate all my findings into knowledge that is accessible because I see myself as a scholar shaped by community and responsible to it. I hope my research fills gaps as we create better ways to teach.”

As for COD, Rodriguez Carrozzo is grateful for everything she experienced.

“I arrived unsure of my academic direction but leave having a clear goal, supported by faculty who treated my curiosity as worthy of serious inquiry,” she said. “COD taught me that my ideas could contribute to larger conversations. None of this would be possible without the opportunity College of DuPage extended and the resources it provided me to not give up my dream.”

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