Jessica Persano

Jessica Persano is a third-year undergraduate at UCLA with a double major in Political Science & Geography/Environmental Studies. Her love for research first sparked in high school, where she conducted data collection/analysis and wrote a research paper on the prevalence of ‘gifted kid burnout’ as part of the AP Capstone Program. Since then, she has worked as a research assistant in the UCLA Political Science Department. In addition, she is currently a research assistant in the Wagman Lab, a violence prevention lab within the Fielding School of Public Health. She is also the president of IGNITE at UCLA, a reproductive justice advocacy organization working to improve access to Sexual Assault Forensic Exams (SAFEs) on UC Campuses. Her work with IGNITE sparked her URSP research project, “Exploring Sexual Assault Experiences & Access to Resources among UCLA Students with Disabilities.” Through this qualitative, interview-based study, she hopes to identify barriers to accessing post-sexual assault resources for UCLA students with disabilities. Students with disabilities are a commonly overlooked population who experience sexual violence at excessively high rates but report these instances at particularly low rates. Therefore, Jessica hopes that by identifying the significant barriers to post-sexual assault resources at UCLA, such barriers can be addressed across the UC system and beyond.