May 5, 2015 - 05:23
As I had mentioned before on my welcome page, I mainly wanted to use this page to identify the main issues concerning undocumented students and education. I believe that by doing so, we can have a clear understanding as well as a starting point to look back on as we continue to address these issues and push for change.
Personally I believe that education should be a human right, unfortunately that is not the way our education system works in this country. So now that we have taken the time to think about these issues, its time to ask ourselves the big question- “What Now?”
First, we should not overwhelm ourselves by believing that we must do something drastic to create “change” in the next couple of minutes or even days! We are in the middle of witnessing a movement, and movements have been known to take time. Now having a better understanding on the situation undocumented individuals are currently facing, I am ready to stop being a witness and start voicing my opinions. For instance, a majority of my family members are undocumented and now that I am old enough to understand the various implications that play a role, I am ready to help my siblings apply for their citizenship so that they can continue to raise my nieces and nephews without the fear of being taken away and separated from our family.
Meanwhile on a bigger scale, I noticed that a good portion of advocates for immigration reform especially concerning education comes a lot from undocumented students and their allies. I plan to continue onto graduate school in the Fall of 2016 in hopes of pursuing either Education Policy or Higher Education. Both programs tend to focus on the structure of higher education and education in general, I hope that through my learning I can acquire the skills and knowledge I need to continue raising these issues and partaking in events/activities that allow me to meet new people and continue voicing my concerns to the public.
At the moment, this is the “What Now?” for me and I look forward to see how much I continue to grow and the progress undocumented students have been making toward higher education access.