click here for the PDF (pg. 7-11)
click here for accompanying multimedia
The Eye Magazine | 11/08/2012
Cinthya was fifteen when she packed her bags, thinking she was visiting the United States to see Disneyland. But upon arriving in Los Angeles, she realized that her parents had not booked a hotel room. She was not going back.
During these years, few resources existed for undocumented students in the United States. So when she enrolled in UCLA four years later, Cinthya helped found Improving Dreams, Equality, Access and Success (IDEAS), a support network for undocumented students inside and outside UCLA. Cinthya continued trailblazing in the budding national arena, up until she became the first undocumented student accepted to the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. A few days before graduation in 2010, Cinthya died in a car crash.
The tragedy came at a moment of poignance for Cinthya. Columbia’s policy on financial aid forced her to defer acceptance until it was no longer possible. She then had to use all of her savings, max out the credit cards of her friends and her friends’ parents and set up a fundraising website, “Project Cinthya,” in order to attend. Once a student, Cinthya found few people to talk to about the issues closest to her, so she focused primarily on schoolwork. Cinthya seemed happiest when she was with Tam, her closest friend in the undocumented movement at UCLA and a doctoral student at Brown.
…
Naomi Cohen | journalist 