Flor Lopez ’26, who majored in English and minored in both Spanish and film and media studies, helped reestablish Reed’s Low-SES and First-Generation Student Kollectiv.
By Bennett Campbell Ferguson
October 2, 2026
When Flor Lopez ’26 was a sophomore at Reed, she took a course on film adaptations, which left her exhilarated by the collaborative possibilities of cinema. “A screenplay is just one aspect of it—and you can’t fully understand a film just from the screenplay,” she says. “If you think you can, you’ve missed something.”
You might also miss something if you focus on only one aspect of Flor, who majored in English and minored in both Spanish and film and media studies. Her story is not only the story of an aspiring English teacher and screenwriter; it is the story of a first-generation college student who became a champion for Reedies like her.
“I found myself struggling a lot—and finding a community,” Flor says of her early years at Reed. That community emerged from the Low-SES and First-Generation Student Kollectiv, which she reestablished with the help of the Multicultural Resource Center to advocate for low-income students.
“My first week at Reed, I didn’t really know how to even find books or materials,” says Flor, who ultimately became the Kollectiv’s president. “I wanted to get the Kollectiv started back up again to mitigate this sense of shame and insecurity that a lot of low-income and first-gen college students do struggle with.”
Off campus, Flor has proved to be an equally prolific leader. While working for the Reed phonathon, she mentioned her dream of becoming an English teacher to a Reedie—who subsequently told her about a summer teaching fellowship called Breakthrough.
“Hearing about different opportunities like that through really random ways throughout Reed just shows that there’s opportunity around every corner,” Flor says. She won not only the fellowship, but an Eddings Opportunity Grant, which enabled her to write a screenplay about the experience of growing up as a low-income, first-generation Latina in the United States.
The highlights of Flor’s time at Reed include writing her thesis (an analysis of film adaptations ranging from Greta Gerwig’s Little Women to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio) and taking Hum 220 (which led to her fascination with Charles Darwin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mary Shelley, and Adam Smith).
“I want to continue challenging how I think about the world—to think critically about things, and not necessarily take them at face value,” Flor says. “That’s something that every class here has taught me…and that’s what Reed is all about.”
Flor arrived at Reed as a first-generation student still finding her footing. She graduates as a screenwriter, a fellowship winner, and a champion for the students who will follow her. Your gift helps create the moments that make transformations like Flor’s possible.
