DREAMers on Grounds kicked off this week’s DREAM Week with a general body meeting Monday evening. The meeting featured Deepti Athalye, CAPS associate director of Counseling Services, who highlighted identity and mental health within the immigrant community.
DREAMers on Grounds is an organization driven by the mission to “create a more inclusive environment and an overall safe space for undocumented students through education and advocacy” according to the group’s Facebook page. The group is directly related to protecting students affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA, which allows certain unregistered immigrants who entered the country as minors to have a renewable deferred action from deportation and be able to acquire a work permit.
In September, the Trump Administration took steps to begin phasing out the policy initiated by former president Barack Obama in 2012.
Kirandeep Gill, a third-year College student and public relations chair for DREAMers on Grounds, said the organization hosts DREAM Week as a way to fulfill the group’s mission of advocating for and including undocumented students at the University.
“DREAMers on Grounds hosts DREAM Week every [year] to garner attention to our mission of making U.Va. a more inclusive and overall safe space for undocumented students through education and advocacy,” Gill said. “The week will be characterized by events helping the University community become better allies for undocumented students.”
Nearly 20 students attended the general body meeting and engaged in conversation with Athalye and each other about topics such as the experience of the immigrant minority, chronic stress, university life for immigrant students and roles of immigrant students in both the family and the community.
Athalye talked about the lack of representation that exists for the immigrant and undocumented community at both the University and within popular culture, stating that underrepresentation is a real concern and has a deep impact on people of all identities.
“Lack of representation is a real issue and sometimes it impacts us in a conscious way,” Athalye said. “It affects all of us whether or not we identify as an immigrant or a minority.”
Athalye also led a conversation on the culture existing in the minority community around the idea of seeking help. According to Athalye, many immigrant students are “growing up with this idea that you need to take care of yourself, and asking for help is difficult.”
Numerous students said there are barriers that prevented them from getting the mental or academic help they needed — including stress over legal concerns, the complexities of the health system and a family-encouraged mentality of resilience and pride.
Natalia Heguaburo, a third-year College student and recruitment chair for DREAMers on Grounds, said the DREAMers on Grounds executive board chose a mental health conversation to kick off DREAM Week because it was an idea that many members wanted to see become a reality.
“We’ve really wanted to do a mental health general body meeting for a while, so that’s why we chose mental health for DREAM Week,” Heguaburo said.
The conversation was the first of the series of events slated to happen during DREAM Week. Other events during the week include a pan dulce bake sale to raise emergency funds for Creciendo Juntos — a local Latinx advocacy non-profit group — an UndocuAlly training and the “I Am an Immigrant” event co-sponsored with Latinx Student Alliance.
Heguaburo said that UndocuAlly training in particular is one of the main community outreach events of the week.
“Basically we go around to different organizations, whether they’re sororities, fraternities, Student Council, just organizations on Grounds and administration,” Heguaburo said. “We basically teach them how to be an ally for the undocumented community, some stigmas surrounding the undocumented community, things like that.”
The week culminates on Friday with the beginning of The Improving Dreams, Equity, Access and Success Conference, a conference welcoming immigrant students and related alliance groups throughout Virginia in the ongoing advocacy for equal opportunity in education. The University will be hosting this year’s conference for the first time.
Gill said the group hopes to see the University community take action to become more involved with DREAMers on Grounds throughout the week, and that support from the community thus far has been an encouragement for the organization.
“We hope to see the community take these opportunities to become more involved and learn from their peers,” Gill said. “We really appreciate the support from fellow students and faculty throughout this past year and anticipate a great week.”
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