Juan's Opportunity to Study Abroad with DACA

¡Saludos everyone!

My name is Juan Menjivar Reyes, and I am a current undergraduate student at San Diego State University majoring in Liberal Studies- Mathematics working towards a bilingual teaching credential program. A bit of background of myself, I was born in Coyoacan, Distrito Federal, Mexico, and was brought to the United States at the young age of 2 years old. I did not know I was undocumented and unfortunately did not get the same experience as some of my peers growing up getting to visit family outside of the US. Thanks to the executive order signed by former President Barack Obama, I was able to apply for and receive the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012. This allowed me to have a glimpse of hope and thus further my education. I was able to litigate for the Clean Dream Act of 2017 both in the state of California and in the capital Washington D.C. with organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, United We Dream, and Rising Immigrants Scholars through Education. I graduated from San Diego Mesa College as an EOPS scholar, RAZA Grad, and as a Borderless Scholar in 2021 amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

I have recently been accepted to a Study Abroad Summer Program that would help me accomplish my dream of being able to go back to my country of birth and reconnect with family whom I have only met via phone calls and text messages. This includes being able to meet my grandparents, one who is still alive and has been asking when I would go visit him, and my grandma who unfortunately passed away a few years back. I would love to visit her grave and take her flowers in the name of my mother who can not go back to her country. This would be the opportunity of a lifetime for me, and I would like to call on help from the community and everyone to help in accomplishing this dream and turning it into a reality.

This program has a cost of $5,000 and a fee of $575 for the Advance Parole travel application.

For a full breakdown of the cost please visit https://www.california-mexicocenter.org/cmdsummer2023/.

This would only be for the cost of the program. On top of that, I would need to find means for transportation (including flights and buses), lodging, insurance, and food during my stay and ethnographic research week (total stay: May 26 - August 13). As a full-time student taking 15 units, and head of household working 3 jobs in order to survive, I have exhausted all of my savings and resources and would like to ask for your support.

I am a walking statistic in which I should not be alive right now nor be in higher education. I am defying the odds and helping spread the idea of higher education to my community. I would like to ask for your help with donations to help me succeed in this opportunity. Any amount big or small would be accepted. Upon my return, I will continue advocating for the UndocuCommunity as well as the many communities that are under-represented and share my experiences to further push for immigration reform that is long overdue.