Jenifer Alvarado Rivadeneira ’26 wins the 2026 Claire Gaudiani ’66 Prize

Jenifer Alvarado Rivadeneira ’26, an English, Latin American studies and sociology triple major and scholar in the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts from New York, New York, was awarded the 2026 Claire Gaudiani ’66 Prize for her honors thesis and senior integrative project, “Civil Disillusionment: Citizens’ Perceptions of Governance in Guayaquil,” at Connecticut College’s 108th Commencement on May 17.

Named for Connecticut College’s eighth president, the Claire Gaudiani ’66 Prize for Excellence in the Senior Integrative Project is awarded annually to the student with the best senior integrative project in one of the College’s interdisciplinary centers. 

Alvarado Rivadeneira’s thesis examines political perceptions in the Pacific community of Guayaquil, Ecuador, where she served for two summers as a legal intern in a local attorney’s office. Using a mixed methodological approach, Alvarado Rivadeneira integrates quantitative survey data on civic knowledge, institutional trust and personal experience with a qualitative analysis of anonymous political street art to reveal civic disillusionment as a defining feature of contemporary civic life in Guayaquil.

Situating these present-day perceptions within a broader historical and structural context, Alvarado Rivadeneira strongly demonstrates how civic disillusionment emerges as a rational response to sustained inconsistencies between constitutional promises and lived experiences. She ultimately concludes that rebuilding trust will require not just structural reform, but also consistent and visible accountability that aligns with citizens’ civic expectations.

“Jenifer does an excellent job of analyzing a complicated and shifting political reality,” said Associate Teaching Professor of Hispanic Studies Jessica Koehler, who served as Alvarado Rivadeneira’s thesis adviser. “She effectively shows the patterns of corruption and other factors that have led to the disillusionment of Guayaquil’s citizens, and her discussion of the street art that she photographed provides a genuine representation of their lived experiences.”

In a letter recommending Alvarado Rivadeneira for the Gaudiani Prize, Associate Professor of German Studies and Faculty Director of the Toor Cummings Center Suzuko Knott said her thesis is “a truly innovative, insightful and interdisciplinary” work that “embodies the core mission of CISLA to educate students to become interculturally competent, socially engaged and politically informed leaders.”