Ragon participated in QU in DC with Quinnipiac’s political science faculty during the spring semester of her junior year. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree on May 14, she is anticipating following her personal path to work with the federal government.

QU in DC allows students of all majors the chance to live, work and learn in the nation’s hub for American politics, government, international relations, and national security.

“I am so grateful that Quinnipiac has this program and allowed me to go to DC; because if I didn’t network, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity,” said Ragon of her career plans.

Ragon also credits her QU in DC experience for solidifying one of her paths of academic study at Quinnipiac.

“I came in as an interdisciplinary study major. I wanted to focus on race, ethnicity, and culture,” said Ragon. “However, after I did the QU in DC program, my advisor suggested sociology would be a perfect fit with my aspirations and goals. I took Sociology 101, and I fell in love.”

For Ragon, sociology studies at Quinnipiac have underscored the importance of connecting and interacting with others.

“I believe that talking and interacting, and being with others in-person, is so important. I just love being in a group where we’re talking and discussing. In our courses, we can have a topic, and then we just let the hour take us wherever we go with the material.”

To help foster opportunities for connections among her fellow students, Ragon founded a new Quinnipiac student organization, The Sociology Club, in the spring semester of her senior year. She was elected to serve as its vice president.

“Even if you’re not majoring in it, sociology can be such a great way to talk and interact with others. And I think that majoring in sociology and Spanish, I’m tuned in to adapting to other cultures to be inclusive and share each other’s cultures,” said Ragaon. “I felt we had to make this club happen, so we can all get together and talk. It sounds simple, but the topics that people can bring up, by just meeting someone new, are absolutely amazing. If we have that one day a week to just come together, take a break from homework and our exams, and just meet new people, it brings happiness and new points of view and outlooks to everyday life with each other.”

Ragon’s interest in learning more about the intersectionality of gender and women added up to earning a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies (WGD) at Quinnipiac.

“When my advisor asked if I knew I had all the credits to declare a minor in WGD, I was so surprised, because I actually just took those six courses because I wanted to learn more! So I did the minor with my subconscious, which is awesome!” said Ragon.

In her senior year, Ragon won the 2023 Ronald J. Quirk Spanish Writing Contest sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

“My two great Spanish professors told me about this contest. The topic was, ‘What does it meant to you to be bilingual?’ And I went over the page limit and over the word limit because I can’t just write one paragraph. It’s always been my dream to be able to connect with others while speaking Spanish,” said Ragon.

Ragon’s love of the Spanish language was born while attending two years of high school in Argentina. She says the experience also helped instill leadership traits which she carried with her to Quinnipiac.

“I went to Argentina when I was 15 for an international exchange program. So being that I went to another country alone without my family, and without knowing the language, I’ve been working on my leadership skills since then. I really had to adapt, lead, and not be a follower, just to get through the two and half years that I was there,” she said.

After attending St. Lawrence University in New York as a freshman, Ragon transferred as a sophomore to Quinnipiac, where her dedicated academic efforts led to her recent induction into the International Sociology Honor Society (AKD) with 3.8 GPA. She’s also a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success.

Ragon is the 2023 recipient of the College of Arts and Science’s Joan Phillips Gordon Prize in Sociology and will be the school’s commencement speaker.  

Ragon said she wants her speech to emphasize what Quinnipiac has done to support her and her fellow students, and that they will always be connected to the university.

“I want to let them know how grateful I am for what they’ve given me, and what Quinnipiac did for us. And even though we are going to be graduating, we won’t be leaving the Bobcat nation behind, because once we become a Bobcat, that means a lifetime of blue and gold,” said Ragon.