Seniors Erin Schumaker and Jared Iacolucci weren’t completely prepared for what they saw during their recent mini-term at the Mexican-American border. But that hasn’t prevented them from helping people living in limbo between the two countries.
“We’d talked about everything on the way there,” said Schumaker, an English literature and Spanish student. “But going there, you get perspectives you can’t get in a book or classroom.”
Learning about the fate of some immigrants who are deported from the United States was particularly eye-opening.
Schumaker and Iacolucci explained that once detained by border patrol, undocumented immigrants can spend lengthy periods of time in ill-equipped centers without enough food or water. Others are dropped off in border towns where, lacking the means to return home, they become stranded.
“This is not something you think happens in the U.S.,” said Iacolucci, a history major. “Seeing it first-hand makes you want to do something to help.”
Iacolucci, Schumaker and another classmate, Kaitlyn Evans ’09, are recent winners of the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Projects for Peace award. The $10,000-prize will support the team’s efforts to research life in border towns and raise awareness of the plight of people there.
In July, the three will fly to Phoenix, where they’ll purchase a used car that will take them to the Migrant Resource Center in Naco, Mexico. The car will be donated to the center, located just south of Tucson, when they return home in September.
During their stay, the students will live at the facility with the migrants. They hope to forge relationships that will make the second part of their project possible.
“We’re going to compile a book of personal stories printed along side the migrants’ own art, photographs and poetry,” said Evans, an English major with a photography background.
“We want to show what the reality of deportation can be like and put a face on this important issue,” Schumaker added.
Evans didn’t participate in the borderlands mini-term, but she’s had similarly powerful international experiences that have prepared her to work there.
“I spent my mini-term in South Africa, where we interviewed prisoners and spent time learning how to get oral histories and how to ask questions,” Evans said. “This, and tutoring children here, has really helped me learn how to relate to people.”
Iacolucci, Evans and Schumaker plan to pursue publication of their book once it’s finished. With a little guidance from Professor Victoria Martinez, who specializes in border studies and inspired the students to work there, they plan to shed new light on the complex immigration situation.
“This is so close to home, but it’s an issue people are not as aware of as they should be,” Iacolucci said. “We really hope our work changes that.”
Davis Projects for Peace, designed to encourage motivated youth to create and implement ideas that promote peace, is now in its third year. It’s also the third year Union students have been named recipients.
Last year, Kara Lightman ’09 received support for her work with women in Cambodia, and in 2007, Karyn Amira ’08 was aided in her efforts to curb landmines in the same country.
To learn more about the program, which supports 100 projects annually, click here.