Ms. Cruz is in her last year of her Master's in International Studies at UP Diliman. Her key research areas are soft power, middle power states, and migration in the Middle East. She has presented and written papers on the development of soft power in Northeast Asia, gender and sexuality in the Middle East, and responses to migration in the Gulf States. In addition to her work in International Relations, Ms. Cruz also holds a Master’s degree in German Philology from the Universität Bielefeld.