Not the Only Ones: Tam and Cinthya’s Memorial

“In their honor we will pass the DREAM Act soon and very soon.”
– Kent Wong

When I saw Matias at dinner on Sunday, he looked tired and weighed down with grief over the loss of two of his best friends. Despite this, he offered some advice and shared what he’d learned as a former chair of IDEAS (an advocacy group for undocumented students) and as an organizer for the DREAM Act. Before leaving, he reminded the new crop of student leaders of the memorial service for Tam Tran and Cinthya Felix.

“It’s in the Grand Salon right now, but we’re trying to get a larger venue.”

That didn’t surprise me. The Grand Salon fits 160 people and the event page on Facebook already showed a couple hundred who planned to attend. By morning, he venue was changed to Moore 100, a lecture hall which seats 419 people.

I showed up at 3:20. The room was already filling up. I found a seat next to my friend, Jessie, and waited for the memorial to begin. Soon, all seats were filled and latecomers crowded around the doors or sat in the aisles.

Kent Wong, the director of the UCLA Labor Center emceed. First he introduced Tam and Cinthya’s best friends, Dana and Susan. The two spoke together about the foursome’s bond. “We came as a four-pack,” Dana said about the group that could have been the poster children for diversity at UCLA. Susan and Dana reminisced about their Monday night fried chicken dinners and retold silly anecdotes about the two women many knew as filmmakers and advocates for undocumented youth. Susan told us that Cinthya outreached to high school students even though she really didn’t like kids. Everyone laughed. The full lecture hall broke out in laughter again when Heather admitted that many thought that she and Tam were a couple because they both had short hair and were inseparable. Dana and Tam worked on their papers together. “When we got stuck with writer’s block, we’d just switch papers,” she admitted sheepishly to the crowd which included administrators and faculty. “But it was okay, because we were the same person.”

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Escuela, Política, Randomness

Tam & Cinthya

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4576582&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

A Dream Deferred. from Jeesoo Park on Vimeo.

Dear Friends,

It is with great sadness that I regret to inform everyone of the passing of Tam Tran and Cinthya Felix. These women were nationally active in the undocumented students Civil Rights Movement through their fight for the DREAM Act. Both were UCLA undergraduates and as graduate students Tam was a Doctoral Student in American Civilization at Brown University, while Cinthya was studying Public Health at Columbia University. These women were amazing activists and put themselves at great risk to fight for this just cause. Cinthya was a working class student from East Los Angeles, California and attended Garfield High School and Tam’s family had been displaced as a result of the Vietnam War and was from Garden Grove, CA. There is much more information in the links below about their lives.

more

Like many who have written about Tam and Cinthya’s passing, I didn’t know them personally. I knew of these two young leaders by simply being a fellow UCLA student leader and a supporter of the DREAM Act (both the federal and California versions).

Still, I was inspired by their courage to speak out and tell their stories.

Even though Tam and Cinthya passed on way too soon, I have no doubt they will continue to inspire more DREAMers.

A memorial service will be held on Monday May 17 from 3-5 pm in the Kerckhoff Grand Salon at UCLA.

Escuela

Six years later

“I’m so excited! I haven’t been back here in ten years,” my co-worker said with an enthusiasm I didn’t expect after traveling for nearly 8 hours.

“I haven’t been back since oh-four,” I offered.

We rolled our bags out of the Detroit airport, which we both agreed look different and much nicer from our previous visits. After checking out the rental car, we drove to Ann Arbor. As we entered his former college town, my co-worker excitedly listed the dives and restaurants he fondly remembered from his undergrad days in the late 90s. I listened, looking out the windows and trying to remember if any of the campus and city looked familiar.

I almost came to Michigan for grad school. I applied to five schools and was admitted to each, but soon Michigan and UCLA became the frontrunners.

During my trip to Michigan, Nahui, my host and good friend from UCLA, told me, “You know where you’re going. You’re just in denial.”

She wasn’t entirely right. I was didn’t make my decision until I spoke to another friend in the same shoes. After that it was all clear, sort of. But a week later, I still asserted on my blog that I’d yet to make a decision. The next day, I had it all figured out:

it’s official
04.07.04 // 4:55 p.m.

I’m not going anywhere. UCLA is the place for me.

Six years later (to the day), I leave Ann Arbor and return to LA. I’m not entirely sure I made the best decision. I certainly don’t regret it, but anyone who has read this for a while knows I’ve had a tough time in my program. I don’t blame the faculty, resources or even my peers. They’ve all been supportive. I’m just not sure I was mature enough or even ready for a PhD program.

Maybe I could have used the time in the [fully funded] Master’s program and additional work experience I would have gained afterward. Would I even be interested in a PhD at that point? Who knows.

Oh well. No sense in mulling over this now. Real life isn’t a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I can’t go back and see what would have been different if I chose Michigan over UCLA. I just know it would be different.

Escuela

Extracurriculars

After lunch, I walked over to Murphy Hall to visit Marilyn. I worked closely with Marilyn over the last two years as vice chair and then chairwoman of the Student Fee Advisory Committee. Despite lots of headaches over budget cuts, I enjoyed my time on the committee. I learned much more about the student fee (and thus make more use of student services I pay in advance for) and university decision-making structure. The work satisfied my interest in higher education issues as well as my own need to feel like a student leader.

When I got to Marilyn’s office, I saw the current chair in the conference room. I had no idea that this week’s committee meeting was about to start.

Laila asked me, “So, are you just a student now? No appointments or anything?”

I laughed. “I’ve never been just a student.”

I can’t see myself just going to class and doing research. Instead, half the time I’ve been in graduate school, I’ve held down two jobs and several student leadership positions. Some positions were demanding and required a lot of meetings and travel. I received a respectable stipend compensating me for my time and other perks (friendships, office on campus, connections, lots of frequent flyer miles and knowledge about higher education politics). I miss that work sometimes and still find a way to connect with those friends.

This year, I’m working two jobs and serving as a graduate student representative to a systemwide committee overseeing undergraduate eligibility and admissions. I spend one Friday a month in Oakland looking at way too many tables with tiny numbers. The work fits nicely with my old job where I researched the same issue.

I’m pretty sure all these extracurriculars have delayed my time to degree. On the other hand, these activities have also kept me in school. In the times I’ve most wanted to leave graduate school, I reconsidered after knowing I’d have to give up my student leadership duties and would miss the great people I’d met through those networks.

Marilyn invited me to stick around for the meeting. I stayed for 45 minutes, until it was time to return to work (job2, in case you’re wondering).

Escuela, Política

I think you’ve got your fees mixed up

I was tapped to write a few paragraphs on why fees at public universities should remain low, well lower. It’s been a long, long time since we’ve had low fees.

It was tough to limit myself to 200 words as I can write much more from different perspectives: graduate student in higher education familiar with literature on affordability, accessibility, financial aid and diversity; former board member with the UC Student Association; former chair of the Council on Student Fees and UCLA Registration Fee Advisory Committee; and just plain person concerned about the future (ha!).

I kept my argument focused to concerns that UC is moving to a model similar to the University of Michigan or University of Virginia, two “public Ivies” that enroll only about two-thirds of their students from in-state and have a much lower proportion of low-income students (based on who gets Pell Grants).

I didn’t get into the discussion on why Californians should fund “UC’s gold-plated facilities — the UC Santa Cruz Pilates studio comes to mind.”

Oh, that red herring.