Norma Rodriguez's blog

Immigration Leadership Summit-June 27, 2009

4774_90376227861_713467861_1947429_2302573_n

4774_90378992861_713467861_1947500_1809574_n-1

This has been an amazing summer, and I am trying to capture it in all of its amazing awesomeness! A week after completing my finals for my first year of Grad School, I began to work on an Immigration Leadership Summit that Justice Overcoming Boundaries (JOB) was putting on. I had not been as involved as I wanted because I was finishing up my finals. So, I was thrown into putting the summit together. Norma, my tocaya, left to DC and the summit was only half planned. Within the week, I was in full force organizing mode with the other organizer, Pedro. We had to get the conference together. Over 50 people ended up attending, leaders, students, church members, all backgrounds and ages! We had speakers from the National Reform Immigration for America (RIFA) campaign (this is the national Campaign for immigration reform that orgs that we as JOB are affiliated with (GAMALIEL and CENTER FOR COMMUNITY CHANGE) I have worked with organizers from both organization and love the work and partnership that the do! So we had speakers from the National campaign come out of DC, we had organizers from Oakland, Ventura, Los angeles and from orgs such as CHIRLA- come out. 

             We had workshops on media messaging, grassroots organizing, the issues... it was awesome! All of them were being trained on how to be leaders to be able to push a positive and comprehensive Immigration Reform. The time is now. Our president is a democrat, the movement is the most organized it has been in awhile. We are using modern technology- we are on twitter, facebook, we send letters, we call, we text, we organize! I feel the hope! We are growing in our capacity. Our keynote speaker, Shu Ohno, was amazing, his speaking style was great, he spoke about the RIFA campaign- he is the director for the National Immigration Forum. I was reminded about why I do this sort of work when I heard people talking about how excited they were to learn these new tools. When we broke into committees to plan, it was amazing! It all came together. What a day! The day started on having only four hours of sleep because we were finalizing a lot of things the night before. Yohanna, and amazing young AB 540 student, helped co chair the event with me, she is definetely a future organizer in the making! After the Immigration Summit finisheday, my heart was doing cartwheels in my chest, tears of joy were welling in the corner of my eyes, a shiny sheen of sweat covered my nose and cheeks- I felt exhilarated, hopeful and proud... The pics are as we were finishing up the summit, I did the closing, and another one of the co-chairs for the summit- Yohanna and I.

No wonder Tina Fey said Grad students are the worst people

She said it on her show 30 rock and after a year of grad school, I get it. Grad students and academics kinda suck... the world of academia is designed to create drones within very specific fields which only few people understand. It is made to make people interested in writing and reading rather than DOING. There is a huge amount of narcissim in grad school- grad students and teachers alike are ALL about their own research and little else. Grad students make lousy friends- they are too disconnected from the real world... grad students have continuous lame conversations about theory and other bullshit in front of non academics which is super annoying...academic writing is super dry and uninspiring...

so why do I keep on going?
because unfuckenforutnately I need that damn degree to prove that I know something.  And fortunately there are glimmers of hope, those true academic activists, professors and students that apply what they know to the real world and don't keep it reserved to obscure journals that no one but their colleagues read and argue and refute...

In order for academic to truly succeed it needs to be engaged and shared with the real world!
GAH!