Help Silvia to help students!

Update 1: please see link for updates 1.

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Hello! My name is Silvia Gomez de Soriano and I am a Xicana mentor and activist for East and local high school youth and families.

On March 10th I will be going on a cross-cultural Sister City service trip and I need your support!

I'm going to work on a mosaic mural project at an elementary school in Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Madison's Sister City. While there, I will be facilitating Tepatitlán high school students to help the elementary students with the mosaic project as well as making new meaningful connections.

As many of you may know, my passion is working with high school students. I enjoy helping find ways to encourage and empower them. Living here in the Midwest can be challenging to maintain our cultural traditions. Many of the students who I work with have grown up here in Madison and have never had the opportunity to visit Mexico. They have never experienced the rich culture, beautiful art, complicated history and customs of Mexico. Madison lacks programming for our Latinx students. One of the ways that I have helped students reconnect with their culture is through the Xicano Institute for Education and Self Determination, which I co-founded with Dr. Jorge Rodriguez. All of the students who have attended said they learned about their self identity and cultural roots while in this program.

While in Tepatitlán, I will be organizing what I hope becomes an annual cultural exchange program with students from Tepatitlán and East HS. I will be meeting with their superintendent and school leaders to organize a safe, educational, and fun program for students. My goal is for this program to teach East High School Raza students about their culture and heritage. My wish is for them to return with more knowledge and a stronger sense of cultural pride.

I will not be paid by MMSD during the 3 weeks while in Tepatitlan. I will be taking time off without pay. This is not a vacation, nor medical leave, and MMSD does not pay me any vacation time. Your support would be greatly appreciated.

Gracias!