Karla Montenegro Gonzalez: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining. We will go ahead and start promptly at 9:03, so just hang tight for now.
If you would like to set up your closed captioning it's readily available on your toolbar on the bottom of Zoom so feel free to set it up.
Welcome good morning, everyone. We're going to go ahead and start right on time and 9:03 a.m. Next slide please.
Good morning, welcome to Moorpark College's opening ceremony for Undocumented Student Action Week. My name is Karla Montenegro Gonzalez and I am here
with the Dreamers. At Moorpark College my role here is Dreamers Support Lead on campus and I am really happy to see so many people join us.
Before we move forward, I do want to give you all a Zoom disclosure. So this is an important note for all the events that we're going to be hosting at Moorpark College,
this and the other Zoom webinars have been configured to have high security for your protection and have the option to ask questions and participate with your identity anonymously.
Questions, comments on any other forms of Zoom bombing will not be tolerated. Closed captioning can be found at the toolbar at the bottom of your Zoom so feel free to activate it at any point.
We will be having four portions to this ceremony. This will include an open letter from me, where you also get to participate as a Moorpark College community,
we'll have Dr. Sokenu to giving us some opening remarks, then we'll, we'll have our student leader, Phoebe Ruiz-Juarez, who will be reading a poem for us, and then we'll be having Dr. Gebru with closing remarks and kicking us off for the week.
Next slide.
I will like to start with an open letter from me too all our Dreamers.
Dear Dreamer, I can only imagine that as this times continue to be challenging for many, you may be in constant worry about what's next for you in regards to any immigration policy that may impact you and/or your family or maybe just more in general as to what's to come next.
I know you may be scared, confused, and overwhelmed with information, I hear you.
Whenever the fears of the unknown fill your mind, know that there is still time to rest and breathe and remind yourself that you have already come so far.
Your present circumstances or current feelings do not reflect who you are.
Regardless of who is expressing, not wanting you here or your family,
I am here to reaffirm I want you to here. Moorpark College wants you here.
The California Community Colleges as a whole, want you here and want to hear from you and stand with you.
I am here to tell you today that Black lives matter we stand with Dreamers and with International Students. You all belong. You matter.
We have put together a series of webinars this week in hope that this answer some of the current questions that you have,
with the hopes that this also provides you with the resources that you need to move forward, and I also hope that you could, excuse me, and I also hope that you get to connect with others.
I understand that your experience is very unique and although I don't know exactly what it feels like to go through what you're going through, I am here to listen and see what we can do at Moorpark College for you, because we see you and we want you to be successful.
For the next part of my letter, I would like to invite everyone who works at Moorpark College to add a sentence to this letter expressing your support for our undocumented students on the chat,
so that way, this is not only my letter, but this is also Moorpark College's letter in support toward our undocumented students.
Our hope to say is that this letter will be published in our website after Undocumented Student Action Week.
So please feel free to now open your chat feature and type a sentence expressing
support for on documents and students during this Undocumented Student Action Week. I will give you all about three minutes. So we'll reconnect at 9:10.
Thank you, we have started seeing some sentences come in.
Once again if you just joined us, I am welcoming you to the opening ceremony for our Undocumented Student Action Week.
For this part of the event I am inviting everyone who works at Moorpark College to add a sentence to this letter expressing your support for undocumented students,
that way it's not only my letter, but it's also Moorpark College's letter. We're hoping to publish this letter in our website after Undocumented Student Action Week.
It seems like more sentences are coming through, so I am going to give it about two more minutes.
Alright, Moorpark College, thank you for sending in your sentences, please feel free to continue sending those throughout the chat,
excuse me, throughout the length of the event on the chat. For our next part, I will like us to welcome Dr. Sokenu with some opening remarks. Next slide please.
Oh excuse me, next slide.
Dr. Julius Sokenu: Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for being here with us this morning. I want to first of all thank Karla, and our undocumented student advocates, and all the allies who impact the lives of our students every day. Your commitment, your vision, you're caring, and most importantly, just your presence
in the lives of our students, in the lives of our undocumented students, lives of our DACA students, really in the lives of every single student on this campus,
tells us that the work that we do here matters because we are in the business of human development.
We are not in the business of legalizing, and we're not in the business of othering, we're in the business of human development.
So I thank each one of you as you work with are undocumented students. I thank each one of you that are undocumented students who bring your energy and your focus,
and your hopes and your dreams to our campus as a place to be nurtured, as a place to take flight in your imagination, and as a place in some instances to sort of struggle with your identity and find meaning.
I want to start off by identifying the contributions of undocumented individuals to the U.S. economy,
because I think it's very important to move the conversation from a place of deficit and things that we can't do, or things that you can't do, to acknowledge what you are doing,
and what you are contributing to this nation, and so that we take away the message that you are a drain, or that you are unreliable, because that is a lie and we tell the truth.
So here are the contributions of undocumented individuals to the U.S. economy and this is about a two year old document. It says 13% of the population,
is undocumented, and 13 16% of the labor force is undocumented. 16%. 15% of the total national output
is generated by undocumented individuals. 15% nationwide.
13% of the population,
are immigrants and they constitute 18% of a small business owners.
In our California Community College System 70,000, 70,000 of our students are undocumented.
So when someone says that you don't matter, or when someone says that your voice is not significant, or when someone says that you're illegal,
what I want you to say back to them, what I want you to sit back to yourself, is that you are responsible, your community, the communities that make up undocumented students from all over the world are responsible for 18% of the output of this country.
That means you have a right to an education that is safe, that embraces your culture, and most importantly understands and nurtures your dreams.
So again, as we talk about what value you bring to the experiences of our campus community,
you are resilient in the face of obstacles.
You are determined. You and your families, you and the folks who make up your community are determined to be successful. You are the future of America's success.
We need you for this country, for this state, for this college to be successful, because your success is our success, and it is important to note
that you bring that resilience, that determination, you bring that success, innovation, and all of that makes this great nation, which is a nation of immigrants,
makes this great nation greater.
You are a legitimate person of value.
We stand in solidarity with your struggle,
and I encourage you to bring your full selves to the classrooms, to the chat rooms, to the sports arena, to our clubs, to student government,
I ask you to bring your full selves to those small group discussions whether they're in a physical classroom space, in an online classroom.
I ask you, and I encourage you to bring your full selves to our various programs. Bring your full selves to our students services, bring your full selves to our business operations, because we know,
we know that part of our success is because you're with us, that you bring your cultural influence, you bring your brains, you bring your energy, you bring your determination, and in so doing you enrich our campus culture, you enrich our campus community.
No one is illegal. No one is an alien.
We are all humans in search of meaning.
You are undocumented students are first and foremost to us students.
Your documentation status, immigration status is not what defines you, it is the fact that you are students who are committed to a learning opportunity and a learning experience that defines you.
Welcome you to campus. We want to make sure that while you on campus that you are affirmed,
and that is why we have advocates for you. That is why we have financial aid resources available exclusively for you.
They may not be as much as we would like them to be, but it is an ongoing work in progress. That is why we encourage you and your families
to be part of our college, and that is why we also encourage you and your families to tell us when we are not living up to your expectation. That is our role and responsibility to all our students, but most importantly, our responsibility to you.
Moorpark College has a student's first philosophy, you are that part, you are that integral part of our student first philosophy. If we are not meeting your needs, we are not meeting meeting our commitment to students first.
So we need your voice. So we need you to be actively engaged.
It is a challenge, it is difficult to come out of the shadows, but we embrace you and ask that in your own individual ways, in ways that make you feel comfortable
that you invest in our learning community.
That you become part and full members of our learning community.
In hearing your voice, in hearing your concerns, in you being a part of our campus culture,
we know that we will be a better place. We know that will will be more invested in making the dream of this republic, of this country
a reality for more and more people. I speak to you as an immigrant to this country. I speak to you as someone who has gone through immigration statuses,
and I think it's really important for you to know that you can be anything you want to be. Yes, there are barriers. Yes, there are institutional
hindrances that you will have to overcome, and that I hope that being at our institution is a part of making sure that you ensure your future. So you can show your future success.
But I will not, will not be here, creating a false narrative that it is going to be easy, because I know it's not. But what I say to you is that each success, each success, each semester success, each course success, each program success, each degree,
gets you further and further closer to the dream that brought you to this nation, the dream of those who brought you to this nation, and the dream of those of you who are contributing to the success of this particular nation and this particular state,
which is a state populated and invested
and made dynamic by immigrants and particularly by immigrants from Latin and Central America, particularly for immigrants from Asia and that important investment
aligns itself with investment of our African American, and Native American, and Indigenous peoples communities. We have to see our struggle as intersections. We all need to work together,
Irrespective of racial identity, irrespective of immigration status, irrespective of gender, irrespective of orientation.
We are the future of this nation. You are future of this nation. I thank you for your work, and your struggle, and I promise you that we as a college
are not only invested in your success, but will continuously find ways of better supporting you through your struggle.
Thank you so much. I wish all of you involved in and supporting the Undocumented Student Action Week success and that hopefully as we keep doing this work, the message will be out there that Moorpark College stands with our undocumented student community. Thank you. God bless.
Karla: Thank you, Dr. Julius Sokenu for your opening remarks, I really appreciate them and I cannot reiterate enough how much we really care about all our students here at Moorpark College and we really want to hear your experiences, particularly for undocumented students.
We really invite you to participate in all the events that are going on. For the closing ceremony, you all will get to hear from a former Moorpark College student, as well as a professional
who has gone through different immigration statuses, so I really hope you get to join us and hear those experiences firsthand on Friday.
Now I will like to welcome Phoebe Ruiz-Juarez, one of our panelists here. Thank you for switching the slide. Phoebe, welcome. Can you please let us know a little bit more about yourself?
Phoebe Ruiz-Juarez: Yeah, I just wanted to say sorry for not sharing my screen I'm feeling a little bit under the weather right now.
I'm a DACA student here at Moorpark College. My family emigrated from Mexico City to Simi Valley back in 2004,
I was three, so I've had the privilege of experiencing my K through 12 career in California and now being able to go to Moorpark College as an adult.
Through my time at Moorpark College, I've been able to work with Karla Montenegro Gonzalez through projects with the Dreamers work group. I've met so many amazing allies and other DACA students because of this.
I'm a student assistant in the Student Activities Office as well as Vice President for the Film and Latinx Club.
I'm a second year Film major here at Moorpark College and studying to become a screenwriter. Karla, thank you so much for having me here and giving me the opportunity to speak here today.
And then I have, so I'm reading the poem Things We Carry On The Sea by Wang Ping.
Let me pull it up.
Okay.
Things We Carry On The Sea, Wang Ping 1957. We carry tears in our eyes: goodbye, father, goodbye, mother/ We carry soil and small bags: may home never fade in our hearts/
We carry names, stories, memories of our villages, fields boats/ We carry scars from proxy wars of greed/ We carry carnage of mining droughts, floods genocides/
We carry dust of our families and neighbors incinerated and mushroom clouds/ We carry our islands sinking under the sea/
We carry our hands, feet, bones, hearts and best minds for new life/ We carry diplomas, medicine, engineer, nurse, education, math, poetry,
even if they mean nothing to the other shore/ We carry railroads, plantations, laundromats, bodegas, taco trucks, farms, factories, nursing homes, hospitals, schools, temples...
built on our ancestors backs/ We carry old homes on the spine, new dreams in our chests/ We carry yesterday, today and tomorrow/
We're Orphans of the wars forced upon us/ We're refugees of the sea, rising from industrial wastes/ And we carry our mother tongues
ai, hubb, libe, amor, love, ping' an, salaam, shalom, paz, peace/ xi' wang, 'amal, hofenung, esperanza, hope, hope, hope/ As we drift in our rubber boat from shore... to shore... to shore...
What a beautiful poem. Thank you Karla Montenegro Gonzalez so much for giving me the opportunity to come speak today.
I really wanted to say that, thank you for all those who have written anything in the chat, and thank you, Karla for your letter, it really means a lot to hear your guys' kind words and I will hand it back over to Karla.
Karla: Phoebe, thank you so much for reading and sharing that poem with
us.
So for the next section of our Undocumented Student Action Week opening ceremony. We're going to go ahead and have some closing remarks and the kick off by Dr. Gebru. Next slide please.
Amanuel Gebru: Thank you Karla,
and also want to thank Phoebe for reading the touching poem and sharing your story.
And I also want to just be open and also share a little bit about my story. I came to the United States in 1989,
not knowing what to expect, not speaking the language and having to take ESL classes,
and I can only imagine what our undocumented students are going through.
As a young eight year old at the time transitioning to new culture, a new world,
it was challenging. It was it was a different space, a different environment different community,
and, you know, those are the things sometimes we don't recognize and we don't share our stories because there's a lot of students like Phoebe, there's a lot of students and employees on our campuses
that share some of those stories, that share some of those challenges in transition, so to all the students. I want to let you know that I'm an ally.
I want you to know that I have, you know, maybe a small pieces of those experiences that you struggle with,
but I can only imagine, you know, what you're facing during these difficult times, and the things that you have to do, the shoes that you have to walk through,
to become a student, to become successful. So I want to thank all of our undocumented students for being committed, for being courageous for being persistent on pursuing your dreams,
there's so much uncertainty and difficult and challenging times that we're going through right now,
but I want to commend all of you for your courage. I want to commend you for pursuing your dreams, and for being here, and I also want to remind you that
Moorpark College is a safe community. There's people who truly care and who want you to be successful, who want to provide the support and the resources so that
you can come to campus, you can come to a community where we value you. So I just want to thank you for being yourselves, for being part of our family and that we're all here for you.
And also want to also let you know that
this all wouldn't happen without the leadership of some key people that I would like to introduce, starting with Karla Montenegro Gonzalez,
just can't thank you enough for your commitment, your leadership to make this not only this week happen, but the work that you do behind the scenes
to support our Dreamers students. So thank you for all that you do and make sure you support them, make sure you create a community for them and that you bring people together for this important work.
Karla's, you know, usually, she's in the Administration building in office 123A,
but since we're, you know, online, she's available via phone, email, the Zoom in whatever capacity to help our students, but most importantly to serve as our ally for our campus community to ensure that we have
more than her and the committee that she work with. We need all the champions
that are on this call that are not with us to continue to be part of all the conversations this week, so that they can see
what our students experience. So I want to commend you for your work Karla, and for your leadership and all that you do. I also want to take the time to
thank, you know, the other champions that work side by side with Karla to make sure this work happens because no work is done by one person,
and I'm sure Karla would agree with me that she's got a team of people who are committed and others who will hopefully continue to join us,
as we continue to embark on this work and continue to build on it. So I want to thank Alex Gonzalez, who's one of our counseling assistant,
I want to thank Gregory Balam from Financial Aid, Cristina Garcia from the Counseling and Career Center, Kelly Little from Admissions and Records, Claudia Sitlington from FYE,
SYE, CHESS, and who is our Student Success Supervisor,
Angie Rodriguez who's our EOPS Counselor, Esmeralda Camarena who's also our new EOPS' full time Counselor, Maria Thayer in our International Student office,
and also Alejandra Martinez Castillo, who's in our Outreach office. These are just a few of the people who continue to do the work to do to champion this work for our Dreamer students.
I also want to thank our key partners in marketing and communication,
the fabulous Dina Pielaet, who does marketing communication and coordination to support our efforts, John Loprieno, who wears many hats in this effort, also, who supports this work, Oleg and his, his Institutional Effectiveness team,
Dave Anter our Registrar and then also Gerald Richardson, who's our PACE Student Assistant, who's an ambassador and champion and helping with this work, Jin Kim our FYE Student Assistant and then also district marketing and communication as well.
In addition to that,
these sessions are really supported by the Zoom and closed captioning team, which involves Michael Ashton, who's on this call with us and then also Shyan Diaz, thank you for all that you do. And last but not least, I really want to take time to thank
Dean Khushnur, and then also Lisette who unconditionally make these efforts happen and supporting Karla, and this work group,
all the day to day request and efforts. So thank you for all the work and supporting our team of wonderful staff.
The Ventura County Cover California Human Services agency for bringing their expertise about health insurance for undocumented families, which is critical to this work,
the UFW Foundation team for bringing their expertise to our community, our campus community, also Dean Cabral, who has helped us host Zoom events for Dreamers
before as well. So we share also this celebration with Oxnard College, Ventura College, the Ventura Community Community College District,
and the California community partners as we are all bringing these events to you. Once again our events can be found on our website at "www.moorparkcollege.edu/USAW". Maybe Michael or Karla can put that on the chat, for those of you so that you can have that information.
But we hope that you know to see you in the next sessions where the California Community College partners will be taking about will be talking about
financial aid options for undocumented students and additional information that will help our campus community.
Once again, thank you for joining this opening ceremony and a wonderful warm welcome from our college president and then also from
Karla Martinez for really kicking off this week and all the folks that support this effort. So, have a wonderful week and to our students keep dreaming we are here for you and please, please,
reach out to any one of us, if you need anything. I know we're in a virtual environment and things are different, things may be challenging, but know that we're a phone call, or email, or Zoom away from
talking with you and supporting you in any capacity. So thank you everyone once again, and have a wonderful week.
Karla: Thank you, Dr. Amanuel Gebru for sharing those
words and kicking us off for the week. I know that we're done a little bit early today. So if you just joined us and you did not get a chance to participate in the activity earlier,
we were asking for Moorpark College staff to turn in, to actually type in a sentence expressing their support for undocumented students,
so we're going to go ahead and be here until 9:40 taking in those sentences, but if you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the chat,
or in, excuse me, in the Q&A and we'll, we'll be happy to answer them for this week. I also put in our website for you to see the full programs that we're having,
and at 10 a.m., the California Community College partners will be starting with their financial aid updates.
Thank you everyone for joining.
If you are online with us if you would like to participate in the activity that we did earlier,
we're just asking Moorpark College staff to type in a sentence expressing their support for undocumented students. We're going to go ahead and publish this on our Undocumented Student Action Week website and after this week.
Thanks everyone for participating, this concludes today's webinar.