Behind the Scenes

Paola Muñoz Rojas (she/her) is a senior college and career success coach, facilitator, and feminist scholar. She’s worked to leverage data, social capital, and institutional resources across key stakeholders to propel 500+ FG/LI and BIPOC students into their academic/career pathways over the course of 6 years. Above all else, she hails as a first-gen South Bronx native. She obtained her Master of Arts in Anthropology and Education, International and Transcultural Studies at Columbia University’s Teachers College. She completed her master's thesis on the intergenerational healing practices employed by WoC peer facilitated support groups and social movements in NYC. Previously, she completed her Bachelor of Science in Human Development, with minors in Inequality Studies, Latinx Studies, English, and Education at Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology.

For nearly two years as a Career Success Manager at Project Basta, she coached Fellows in obtaining jobs while addressing financial security, debunking meritocracy, and affirming cross-functional and transferrable skill sets that are community/culturally based. She has also worked as a Senior College Success Advisor at Bottom Line while co-leading the Affirming Student Identities Committee and their Healing Spaces pilot initiative. Her more creative advocacy can be found through her columnist pieces in the HuffPost and Bold Latina.

You can catch her facilitating support groups and coaching dialogue spaces at universities through the Cornell Intergroup Dialogue Project and Columbia Sister Circle, as well as identity based affinity spaces for non-profit staff. Paola has also worked as a McNair Research Scholar with Cornell and Columbia faculty across Human Development and Anthropology Departments exploring research on mitigating gender discrimination in the workplace, police “shoot-don’t-shoot” interventions, public pedagogy in Ithaca, and the impact of sense of purpose and positive racial/ethnic identification on buffering against stereotype threat. She’s also worked as a bilingual RA under Dr. Carmen Martinez-Roldan theorizing the role of public schools and communities as decolonizing entities post Hurricane Maria.

Most recently, she will be working with former advisor Dr. Amina Tawasil at Three Thousand Moons providing career advising and financial literacy workshops. She currently sits on two nonprofit boards for iMentor and Future Leaders in Action, and will be joining KIPP Forward full-time as Manager of Undergraduate Career Services.