By Lidieth Arevalo, CMSC News - November 12, 2015
We are happy to announce that the California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program for Winter 2015, will offer 30 Dreamers and 6 staff directors from 19 different colleges and universities in the Los Angeles area, a unique 3-week Travel-Study opportunity to visit Mexico from December 17, 2015 to January 11, 2016 with most expenses covered by a grant from JUNTOS PODEMOS to the California-Mexico Studies Center (CMSC). Moreover, we anticipate that at least 4 to 6 similar programs will be created after this trip as our participating students and staff directors will take leadership into implementing similar programs at their colleges and universities to give even more Dreamers the opportunity to study abroad and to return to their country of birth.
The California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program (CMDSAP) - Winter 2015 is a demonstration project that builds upon the CMSC California-Mexico Dreamers Program (piloted during Spring Break 2015), and originally conceived to offer 25 DACA-protected students from various colleges and universities in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, a 24-day travel-study experience in Mexico City and Cuernavaca, Morelos. Moreover, the program will offer students the opportunity to visit family and/or discover Mexico on their own for 8 days. After their individual travel, the participants will return to Cuernavaca where they will study at the Centro Tlahuica de Lenguas e Intercambio Cultural (CETLALIC). In addition, while studying at the CETLALIC Institute, the participants will benefit from a 14-day home-stay living experience with Mexican host families.
The California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Winter 2015 program application launched on August 22nd of 2015, and by the given deadline of September 15, 2015, the CMSC received close to a total of 250 applications from students all over Southern and Northern California as well as individuals from as far as Florida, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, and Virginia. Given that we received such high number of applications for very few spots available (a 1 out of every 10 ratio), the selection process was extremely difficult to make; thus, the CMSC opted to take 5 more Dreamers as well as 6 staff directors from different colleges and universities, overriding the original number of 25 participants that the Juntos Podemos grant ought to cover.
Nonetheless, the CMSC is happy with the selection of participants and anticipates that more student-run programs will be created from this demonstration project as it will directly affect the colleges and universities the selected students represent.
The 19 different colleges and universities that will be represented are reflected on the image below:
The Program objectives for the CMDSAP Winter 2015 are:
- Improve upon the success of the CMSC’s pilot, as a model for Dreamers Study Abroad Programs
- Establish the framework of a replicable model for U.S. institutions of higher education
- Continue and expand video and photo documentation of Dreamers’ human stories
- Prepare Dreamers as ambassadors of the model, for them to replicate similar programs
- Train the participants to become advocates and providers of DACA/DAPA services
- Allow the Dreamers to spend 8-days in their communities of origin with their relatives
- Offer participants CSULB class credit and certification as DACA/DAPA advocates
The CMSC challenges Dreamers, program directors, and AB-540/DACA allies to initiate a dialogue with other students, faculty and administrators at their colleges and universities, about creating a similar program at their campus and rest assured that the CMSC will provide assistance and guidance to create your own opportunity, based on the model of our program.
Note: All students that previously applied and were not selected, have already been added to our data base and will be considered and informed for future programs, either programs that the CMSC hosts, or the resulting projects and programs that will be created by the participants of the California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program - Winter 2015.
Therefore, we encourage you to add our email: californiamexicocenter@gmail.com to your contacts list, to ensure delivery of our newsletters and announcements for future programs.
Visit the original application we launched on August 22nd, 2015: http://california-mexicocenter.org/dreamers-study-abroad-winter-2015/
Sin Raiz (2015) Documentary
The following is a student-produced documentary reflecting the Spring Break 2015 California-Mexico Study Abroad experience that impacted the lives of 14 CSULB DACA-mented students.
Description: This is a short documentary about the lives of 14 undocumented students (also known as DREAMERs) whose parents brought them to the United States since a very young age, some of them living in the USA for over 20+ years, and through a Chicano Latino Studies class/program at the California State University Long Beach, these students had the chance to visit their home country for the very first time. They were able to fly to mexico and come bac k to the United States through a special USCIS permit called Advance Parole. They were excited to fly "home" for the first time, only to find a huge cultural shock which made them question their true identity. Follow them on this journey.
