Students for Fair Consideration

Crossposted from The Sanctuary

It is sad that most of our social networks and media blitzes are about how disrespectful Joe Wilson was rather than how centrist and inappropriate Barack Obama is with his assertion that all human beings don’t deserve equal access to health care. He has to repeat himself while using the hateful discourse of ‘illegal.’ That’s just low.

I wish Joe Wilson was right and Obama was lying about the fact that undocumented immigrants would not be covered. But Obama is a liar. Just not in the way that Joe Wilson meant it. Once upon a time, he used to be a proponent of single-payer health care — “Everybody in, nobody out.” And now that seems to be out the window. Sorry ‘illegals’ and everyone else who can’t provide proper documentation. And this list also includes citizens:

I am effectively an “illegal immigrant,” since I do not have gov’t papers. Yes, this is because I am trans and a woman. (via @nueva_voz)

I am also who Obama called an ‘illegal’ today. But my family is here legally. Denying me access to health care, would put my health care needs squarely on their shoulders. How is that any change from the status quo?

All this makes me think that if the President had pursued immigration reform before health care, we probably wouldn’t be seeing this hateful fear-mongering heckling. Yet, President Obama has continued to pursue the same failed immigration enforcement policies of the Bush-era like 287g that is ripping apart communities of color.

Anything less than single-payer universal health care is a dismal failure when it comes to providing everyone with equal access to health care. Anything without a public option is not close to tolerable. I wish people were as outraged at Obama’s centrist and hateful otherization of human beings as they are at Joe Wilson being an idiot.

Hi everyone!
I am very excited because I have some good news to share with you!
I have recently form a group of students and achieved one of my goals.
Even though it is a long term goal, I am confident that this will turn out
to be very important and will impact many undocumented students.
The name is C.A.M.B.I.O (Change in Academic Mentorship Believing In Opportunity).
As of now, I have just a few people that have supported me, however, I am
really happpy and motivated! :]

We are often required (by schools) to complete a testimony of our lives in a form of a personal statement. For some, this becomes an advantage as they are able to write about the numerous barriers that have molded their very own personality. Put simply, “how [our] world has shaped [our] dreams and aspirations” (UC Application Question) is a key inquiry in getting to know the face behind the applicant.

The only problem is that as an undocumented student we are still troubled by the legality of our biggest barrier, being “illegal”. When writing this portion of the application we ask ourselves if the very fact that it is “illegal” to be in this country makes it “illegal” to write it out on the application. Well, hopefully this helps…

Being that I am thinking of pursuing a graduate school route, I wanted to know if my most significant struggle was even legal to mention. I contacted Dr. Patrick Jennings (chair of the Sociology Department @ CSU Eastbay) and asked him if I had to worry about exposing such volatile information.

Here is his response:
“We would not voluntarily open a student’s file to anyone outside of the department. Members of the faculty and the staff have access to graduate student records. However, if a file was subpoenaed we would probably be completed to turn it over.”

Of course, this answer might not be able to be generalized to all personal statements, but it is a start! Best tactic to follow, contact the department chair!

Hi everyone. This is Christabelle.  As of now, I am currently helping out with a charity walk event called Guluwalks that a club from my school called Invisible Children will be hosting in Merced.  The event will be in Merced and it will be on a Saturday, October 24th, 2009.  The event mainly consists of a walk around a park and it will be for about 3 miles.  Anyone and everyone is welcome to come and support the event.  The purpose of this Guluwalks is to raise money for the children in northern Uganda in Africa in order to build a Cultural Centre for the purpose of bringing the community together.  It is also to raise awareness about what is happening to the children of nothern Uganda. I will be at the event to help out with the fundraising committee and if you would like to come or have questions just contact me at cnaw@ucmerced.edu or call me at (415)518-8749.  If you would like to sponsor us for this event please do so here. This is the first Guluwalks in Merced and I hope it will improve the quality of life for the children of Uganda. To learn more about the children of Uganda and the Invisible Children Organization, click here or to sign up for the event go to guluwalk.com. Thank you.
Yours,
Christabelle

Since the end of boot camp I  have been trying to brainstorm ideas for what I would like to put together for the program. I have never been the creative one in the family, so let me tell you: my little notepad stayed blank no matter how much I thought of things. I’d wake up… nothing. I’d eat breakfast… nothing. Made my bed… nothing. Ran errands…nothing! Meanwhile, Ms. Karen is already planning out the details of her event and, again, I have nothing.

I have been tutoring elementary kids at my local library for the past three weeks. I love it. If I could tell you about each of the kids you would probably understand why. I love the way you have to make everything a game so they will do it, their curiosity, the way they point out the obvious and notice absolutely everything, the way they try to trick you, the random funny things they say. But surprisingly, I have found it almost natural to work with them  because my mind, like theirs, engages when things are visual, simple, and entertaining.

A couple of nights ago, I opened my notepad again, stared at the blank page and wrote: PLAY. simple. visual. entertaining. A play about undocumented students…

The way that I was swept off my house by a woman that I had just met a couple of months ago stunned me, she was like an angel without wings and she literally took me out of the darkness. My father thought that it had been worthless to apply to UC Berkeley because he knew I was not going. Period. He made me believe that having applied and gotten in had been wasteful, a waste of an opportunity that I could have given to another school near Los Angeles where he would have allowed me to attend, or so he said. Anger was not what I felt, it was a sense of hopelessness, I couldn’t believe that my own father was oppressing me from a higher education, it was not enough that AP classes were scarce or that I did not get to enjoy of any extracurricular activities in high school, he was clipping my wings before they sprouted. After putting all that hard work on getting the UC application in the mail on the postmarked date, when my mother, sister and I rushed into the post office an hour before they closed, when he had promised he would take me there himself and did not happen because his pride would root him to the ground in which he stood with other males that would diss him if he tried to do something nice for his youngest daughter.

We got it in, my ‘ama, and my sister Jeli (pronounced “Heli”), made sure that stamp was placed so that UCs would not reject my application. No doubt they’d call me a procrastinator, but when no one has gone through the process before you, because of the fear of being disillusioned or the fear of being poor and pushed back after overcoming the darkness, it is tough to fight it yourself. Needless to say, turning in that application was an ordeal!!! Exhausting ordeal. Got it in on time and my father did not apologize for almost costing me my ticket to UC Berkeley, the place that I survived just recently, because no matter what happened, despite him rejecting me for a while and not welcoming me at home with open arms but rather with neglect, I overcame.

At first, I couldn’t believe it, I still remember that trip on the plane, the first one inside the country since my first one had been from Guadalajara to Tijuana and then crossed the border trying to fake my slumber. When my angel, the woman that eased the way to Berkeley asked me how I felt on the plane from Burbank to Oakland, I didn’t know how to feel, because it didn’t feel real. Heck, sometimes it doesn’t feel real right now! When she declared that I was free, I didn’t know how to be free, I didn’t know that being away from home was going to help me overcome machismo in a very real scale. My education has channeled through my mother and she has been able to overcome the darkness too, she is no longer with my father who beat her and mistreated her for years and she is now reliving her life, as if a reset button was pressed.

My silence had slowly become a certain type of shout out, not a scream or an imploration but a firm laugh, a yell of freedom and independence. I remember in my freshman year how I did not want to discuss my undocumented status with anyone that didn’t need to know, but now that I’ve come this far, graduated UC Berkeley and maintained myself sane, silence is no longer an option, the need to be HEARD is stronger than me, it is what compels others to help you get through the next step, if you don’t aim for what you need and ask for help, it’d be that much harder. I appreciate it when people ask me what their needs are, their need to be appreciated, understood, comforted, the need to live with dignity, all these things I appreciate, this is why I appreciated when I found the will to talk about my story, if not, life would indeed be much more different. There is nothing wrong with your voice, it is there for a reason. You are in this path for a reason, embrace it!

so I finally came up with a good idea for an event this fall on the issue of immigration. well, at least i think it’s good:)  Next year i’ll be working as advocacy program coordinator for the multicultural center at Santa Clara, and my job is basically to organize events to raise awarness on various social issues. anyways, so the event i’m planning for the fall consists of creating sort of a museum where we’ll have various stations. Each station will tell an immigration story, and these stories will be from all around the world. aside from the stories, each station will have photographs and information on the immigration history of a particular country. The idea is to educate students about the immigration experience told from different perspectives. I’m working on the details, but I talked to my boss and he agreed with the idea. I’m excited I’ll be putting all the things I learned in bootcamp into practice.

I went my whole life, never once meeting another AB540 individual, never having that opportunity to meet a person going through the same hardships as I. Not being able to drive to pick up my friends for lunch or taking my little sister to school. Not being able to work legally to bring food to our already needy table. Not being able to visit my hometown to see my Tios and Tias that I haven’t seen for more than a decade. Not being able to get financial government support to continue my great achievements in one of the top colleges. Not being able to find someone to relate these hardships with. I honestly thought that I was the only one that has these barriers.

Finally, three weeks ago, I crossed paths with other AB540 Latinas. It was a moment that I was waiting for years! I instantly felt a bigger sense of strength, a sense that I had other individuals with me in the fight for our education and fairness. At this point, I thought that all AB540 students were Latinos, that we were the only ones in this struggle…

Two weeks ago, I was proven wrong once again. It’s not a ‘Hispanic’ thing, it’s EVERYONE. I was very honored to meet many other AB540 students of a variety of ethnicities, strong individuals such as I, that are not taking no for an answer.

For a the whole nineteen years of my life, I was in a search to meet others like myself. And before I knew it, I now know more than fifteen individuals who are in the fight for fair education.My story is their story and their story is mine. I will continue my path to strive to get ahead and support them as I know they will for me. We are here to take all steps forward and never taking a step back.

A year ago, I hadn’t realized just how significant my immigration status was to my life. I was a part of the thousands of senior high school students who were in the process of applying to various universities across the nation. I was a part of the thousands who received acceptance and rejection letters. I was a part of the thousands who dwelt over the dilemma and choices of which university to attend and spend the next four years our lives. My joys and sorrows were felt by so many around me. There was a a comfort in belonging in the majority. When the issue of financial aid arose, I found myself a part of only a handful of students. I found myself identifying with a new group, a group which I had realized late in the game: undocumented students striving to pursue higher education.

Seven years ago, my mother, brother, and I arrived in the United States in the hopes of reuniting with our father.  We arrived under the V-Visa created by the Legal Immigration Family Equity Act of 2000.  The V-Visa allows for spouses and children to wait for permanent residency within the United States. And seven years later, my mother, brother, and I are still not permanent residents.  Our new life in America was not as easy as we dreamed it would be. My family suffered through near-homelessness and financial difficulties. Thankfully with Section 8 assistance, my family was able to have a roof over our heads. Since then, my parents had instilled in me the belief that I would be in a position to better my future with the right education. I believed them and poured my heart and soul into my education. I worked hard and found myself being offered acceptances to universities left and right.
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Hi ya’ll!!

Once again, My name is Monica Hernandez, double major in Chicano Studies and Practice of Art at UC Berkeley.

My week and weekend have been extremely busy! I feel like I am burning out already. Last week Marco and myself were shadowed by French TV, a news channel from France that came to the US to make a story on college life. The house manager volunteered me for the project as undocumented students are a very important part of the college experience that shows the US’s hypocrisy. So our cause is going international now!!! They followed me around going from place to place. It reminded me of the project Good Morning America did with RodriChe. The camera even followed me to our RISE meeting, band practice and to the game on Saturday!!!
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