Sparta High School’s Nicolas Gomez earns a 4.2 GPA in his honors-courses-laden schedule, and he still finds time to participate in karate and track. He speaks both English and Spanish, a legacy of his parents, naturalized citizens who emigrated from Latin America over twenty years ago.
He speaks eagerly of his future, since he knows that he can fulfill his dream of attending a good college and becoming a civil engineer.
Like Nicolas, Anna*, a pretty seventeen-year old brunette, excels in high school. The soccer forward not only serves on her high school’s Student Council but also participates in the peer leadership group.
But Anna is quiet about her future – she knows she will not have the same opportunities as Nicolas. Anna probably will not be able to go to college. She will not be able to get a driver’s license like her friends, and she will not be able to find a good job.
Anna, like 65,000 other high-achieving high school students, is an immigrant without papers. She and her family used passports to travel to America legally in 1999; they hoped to apply for Legal Permanent Residence and eventually citizenship.
“With September 11, everything changed for us,” Anna’s mother, Clara*, explained.
“When we came here, we have dreams, especially for [our kids]…we always push them to finish school. We have hope that one day we will be citizens,” said Clara.
Anna knows that until then, college is a much harder goal, despite her good grades and extracurriculars.
Her older brother Miguel* was accepted into Rutgers, but the family couldn’t afford the higher out-of-state tuition they would have to pay. Scholarships didn’t help, either; even though he earned them, he couldn’t accept any, because he did not have a social security number.
“When we work, we pay taxes, but nobody expects that,” said Clara. “They think we steal, but that’s not true. We pay taxes; we work just like any other American.”
“It’s very frustrating to know there are so many possibilities, but you can’t get them,” said Maria*, a high-achieving, undocumented Sparta High graduate.
These students represent over one million high schoolers across the United States who are children of undocumented immigrants. They did not choose to come to America – their parents did – and they have lived almost their entire lives here.
“I left when I was seven, so I don’t remember much,” said Anna. In fact, many undocumented children barely speak Spanish anymore, so forging a successful life in their native country is not a possibility.
Schools are often unaware that they are enrolling undocumented students.
“If they’re residents of Sparta, we have to enroll them…as far as what parents are revealing, that’s not something we typically track. As far as visa cards or green cards, we don’t have to check that,” said Stan Abramavage, the Director of Guidance for Sparta High School.
Maria wishes her American peers understood all of the opportunities available to them; she doesn’t comprehend why so many American students do not go to college.
“Education is something nobody can take away from you.”
*Names have been changed.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Before anything, I'd like to let people know that two of my articles - the first and the fourth -- have been published so far. They've made it into the Sparta Independent and some of the other local Straus News papers, thanks to JoAnn Baker. At Bruce Schimmel's suggestion, I posted the links to each of those articles beneath their corresponding post on this website. So, the link to the first article is posted as a comment under the post that includes the first article, etc.
It's strange to think that I only have one week left officially in this project. (of course, I hope to follow up with people and keep in touch, as well as continue learning about the subject.) I didn't really know what to expect when I started, and I was nervous; despite my previous journalism experience, I'd never undertaken a project of this magnitude. I definitely learned a lot more about research in general, and I'm very happy with the knowledge I've gained -- both in terms of immigration and also, of course, journalism.
I'm going to save what I've learned about Northern New Jersey immigration (and the broader migration picture)for my final post, but I'd like now to address some of what I've learned journalistically. Stylistically, Ms. Baker has been a fantastic resource. I hadn't written for a newspaper for a while before this summer, and I had definitely developed a more academic style, so I really appreciated learning some of the finer points of how to write for a paper.
One of the most enjoyable aspects for me was being able to have confidential sources. Since many of the people I wanted to talk with were undocumented immigrants, I was definitely concerned with how I would protect them; I was thrilled that Ms. Baker was willing to trust me enough to extend to me that privilege. It also taught me a lot about having other sources of information to verify knowledge/facts gained from the confidential sources -- I hadn't really considered any of those details before.
I also learned the importance of persistence and following up with people. In the past, most people were eager to talk to me for articles I had to write, but that wasn't always the case this time: several people would not return my calls. Moreover, I had several cases where officials often just forgot to call back. I've always been the type of person who doesn't like to bother people, so I had to overcome my reluctance to "pester". Being persistent certainly paid off; it got me interviews with county officials and a couple of migrants who had been initially hesitant to talk.
Finally, I learned a lot about leads. Most of my previous work experience consisted of profiles and features -- it didn't require a lot of digging. This time around, though, I definitely had to rely on incoming information and move from one fact to another. Many of my stories and ideas emerged from small asides or afterthoughts that people would make in conversations. For example, that's how I learned of the Costa Rican family that I interviewed, and they're going to be the focus of the final article.
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who's been involved and made this possible!
It's strange to think that I only have one week left officially in this project. (of course, I hope to follow up with people and keep in touch, as well as continue learning about the subject.) I didn't really know what to expect when I started, and I was nervous; despite my previous journalism experience, I'd never undertaken a project of this magnitude. I definitely learned a lot more about research in general, and I'm very happy with the knowledge I've gained -- both in terms of immigration and also, of course, journalism.
I'm going to save what I've learned about Northern New Jersey immigration (and the broader migration picture)for my final post, but I'd like now to address some of what I've learned journalistically. Stylistically, Ms. Baker has been a fantastic resource. I hadn't written for a newspaper for a while before this summer, and I had definitely developed a more academic style, so I really appreciated learning some of the finer points of how to write for a paper.
One of the most enjoyable aspects for me was being able to have confidential sources. Since many of the people I wanted to talk with were undocumented immigrants, I was definitely concerned with how I would protect them; I was thrilled that Ms. Baker was willing to trust me enough to extend to me that privilege. It also taught me a lot about having other sources of information to verify knowledge/facts gained from the confidential sources -- I hadn't really considered any of those details before.
I also learned the importance of persistence and following up with people. In the past, most people were eager to talk to me for articles I had to write, but that wasn't always the case this time: several people would not return my calls. Moreover, I had several cases where officials often just forgot to call back. I've always been the type of person who doesn't like to bother people, so I had to overcome my reluctance to "pester". Being persistent certainly paid off; it got me interviews with county officials and a couple of migrants who had been initially hesitant to talk.
Finally, I learned a lot about leads. Most of my previous work experience consisted of profiles and features -- it didn't require a lot of digging. This time around, though, I definitely had to rely on incoming information and move from one fact to another. Many of my stories and ideas emerged from small asides or afterthoughts that people would make in conversations. For example, that's how I learned of the Costa Rican family that I interviewed, and they're going to be the focus of the final article.
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who's been involved and made this possible!
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