Students for Fair Consideration

I write today because I am saddened. My friend, who is also an AB-540 student, is two quarters away from graduation but will have to drop out due to the fee increases.

I start to wonder, is this some sort of “natural selection” type of task where only those than can afford to go on, do so? I mean think about it, out of the 400 or so AB-540 students in the whole UC system, what makes us different? I think that all of these hurdles are making us look for alternative ways to reach our goals. The fact that this social institution inhibits many of us from paying the financial need makes us compete for the limited economic resources that are available. Not only that but in the end, who can go on to a graduate school or professional school? It is us privileged few.

I wish that I had an easy solution to my friend’s position but what can I do besides advocating for our rights and suggesting that she apply to the few scholarships that are out there for her?

What will we (the few privileged AB-540 students who are still here) do to help others?

This past weekend was definitely a great one. I spent my weekend with a group of powerful and inspirational Latinas, a weekend where I was able to once again reconnect with more AB540 students. It’s very rare to find this space, a space where I was comfortable speaking of my situation and where I was trusted in return to hear theirs. It is a space where I was able to relate and express those feelings that I constantly hold on to. The feelings of being angry with our educational system, the feeling of unfairness. It happens every so often where I am able to release these emotions and it is something that I should practice more often. I want to commit myself to speak out more often when I get the chance with another AB540 student. It is a time that is very crucial to me to move on forward with these negative occurrences surrounding us. Everytime there is an opportunity to reconnect with individuals such as ourselves, we need to take it. Believe it or not, it really does ease the negative mentality and emotions that we carry…

New America Media, News Report, Seth Sandronsky , Posted: Feb 05, 2010

“In dreams, immigration officials rushed in and arrested me,” said Ju H. “I woke up sweating. My heart was pounding.”

Eyes tearing, the 20-year-old immigrant without citizenship documents from South Korea and current community college student in the San Francisco Bay Area continued telling his story to advocates, lawmakers and students at a crowded Capitol summit in Sacramento on Wednesday.

He described barriers to federal and state help for himself and others like him seeking education at four-year institutions. The walls to such schooling would fall with passage of the federal Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, first introduced in Congress in 2001.

DREAM Act for California Immigrant Students Gets Push

So far our event planning is awesome! We have hooked up with SPEAK (Undocumented Students advocate group), Sigma Lambda Beta, and KASA (Korean American Student Association). We are getting a lot of support from our student government and hope to have a successful event! How are everyone else’s events/projects going??

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_87/ma_congressional_relations/42959-1.html

“The tide seems to be turning in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, despite populist trends that might suggest otherwise…A study conducted last month by University of California, Los Angeles, Professor Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, for example, finds that any deportation plan of America’s undocumented immigrants would cost our country’s gross domestic product a whopping $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years. Conversely, if we embrace comprehensive immigration reform, we add $1.5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product over the next 10 years. Hinojosa-Ojeda also projected that the economy would benefit from a temporary worker program, which would raise the GDP by $792 billion.”

Enough!

My choice is to rejoice

In the liberation of my own voice

The sound of struggle is what keeps me silent

My screams of injustice might as well be whisper.

But I tell you NOW

There is not louder sound to wake up to,

Then a whisper………

Of truth

So I ask you now to WAKE UP!

Wake up to the sound of your own voice

Stand tall and with a deep breath

Inhale knowledge

Inhale compassion

Inhale truth

Then exhale

Exhale, so your voice carries for all to hear.

Speak to the innocent

So our children will shine

Love, patience, soon you’ll find

God lives in a child’s eyes

Speak to the wise

Learn from where you come from

Relearn your traditions and vow to them alive

Honored to walk a mile in their shoes

Learn to appreciate,

Without them is no you.

Speak for the forgotten

Your voice will reach through the bars that hold them

My brothers, our broken English helps us spit in the face of

the system that enslaves us

Stay true to your convictions and you can never be

spiritually convicted

We are with you always and your fight will not die with us.

If youcan hear my voice,

YOU CAN NEVER BE SILENT AGAIN!

I wanted to share this with everyone so long ago, but I was not sure about it. Now, I’ll never be silent again!!!!! Yoshi

The College Board Advocacy & Policy Center and The California Legislative Tri-Caucus (The Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, the California Latino Legislative Caucus, and the Legislative Black Caucus)

Invite you to

Stand Up for the DREAM
February 3, 2010
9:30 – 11:30 am
State Capitol, Room 3191
Sacramento, CA

A summit to raise awareness about the plight of undocumented students and promote the DREAM Act as an effective, bipartisan solution. Distinguished panelists will include representatives from the legislative caucuses, scholars, educators representing K-12 and higher education, community activists and students.

Speakers include:

Senator Gilbert Cedillo, Chair, The California Latino Legislative Caucus

Assemblymember Warren Furutani, Chair, Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus

Assemblymember Sandré Swanson, Chair, Legislative Black Caucus (invited)

Edward Hernandez, Chancellor, Rancho Santiago Community College District

Al Mijares, Vice President Western Region, The College Board

Save the date and register early to reserve your space for this free event.

To register, please email jdonovan@collegeboard.org

with your name, affiliation, and email address.

To learn more, visit www.collegeboard.com/dreamact.

(Ambassadors: I’ll be going to this event. Let me know if you want to go, and need help with a ride. Kathy)

I am excited that school started as it will be my last semester here at Cal. Luckily, I got all the classes I need and don’t need to be worried about waitlisted courses.

Budget cuts are really driving everyone crazy because it lowered the number of classes offered this semester. Most of the students I know are waitlisted in not one but up to three courses. For many, this is can mean they are not going to graduate because of a class that was full, and for others it is a missed opportunity to develop an interest.

The first day of class, both of my art classes had about 40 people, half of which wanted to add and were not allowed to add because of the limited number of seats per class. These art classes were pretty much for majors only, meaning that those who wanted to experiment or learn something different were not allowed because they were not declared art majors. To me this is sad because I feel like if I was one of those students who was denied the opportunity I would not have discovered my interest in art.

I was not an artist from birth like some artists. It was my interest in exploring a different field aside from music that led me to take an intro to drawing class. If I had not been allowed to take it because I was not an art major, then I would have never discovered the artist in me.

“Look at those illegals,” my friend said jokingly while he was dropping me off to the Bart Station. He pointed at two Mexican immigrants standing against the fence. Although it was a joke, I was extremely angry. Yet, I was defenseless and vulnerable. I simply laughed with him and stayed casual as if nothing happened. Once he dropped me off, I wondered if he would treat me differently if he knew that I’m also “illegal.”

Too Much At Stake for Complacency – A Call to Action for Immigration Reform

By Joe Rodriguez

San Jose Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14224527

Malin Tom is an “emotional man,” which explains why he kept his journey through Angel Island mostly to himself for 60 years.

“I did not want to cry in front of people,” says Tom, now 81 and living in Santa Clara. “It is a sad story. I was so scared and poor. I was ashamed, and Chinese don’t talk about their shame.”

But he could not resist a granddaughter’s plea a few years ago. Would he talk to her classmates about passing through the “Ellis Island of the West”?

“My granddaughter gave me courage.”

And when Tom finally spoke it was as if a dam holding back immigrant tears had cracked, replenishing the soil of American history with bittersweet truth.

On Thursday, a ceremony in San Francisco will commemorate — 100 years to the date — the opening of Angel Island’s immigration station. The government will swear in 100 new American citizens. Some of the nation’s top immigration officials will speak, as well as people who actually went through the island in San Francisco Bay, including poet Nellie Wong and her sister from Sunnyvale, Lai Webster.

The speakers won’t sugarcoat the island’s checkered past. Angel Island was different from its welcoming counterpart in New York Harbor.

About 500,000 immigrants passed through the island from 1910 to 1940. Of these, 300,000 were detained, a third of them Chinese. While most were ultimately allowed in, many, like Tom, waited months in a torturous limbo while their backgrounds were investigated.

“Angel Island was really there to keep people out, not to welcome them,” says Judy Yung, a University of California-Santa Cruz professor emeritus of American studies and author of two books on the subject. “We need to remember that. How can we use the lesson of Angel Island to live up to our ideal as a nation of immigrants?”…

Read the whole article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14224527