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Ju is an undergraduate student at U.C. Berkeley. He was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1989 and came to the United States at age 11 with his mother and sister. It was not until he was applying to colleges as a senior in high school that he learned a secret his mother had kept from him for years: Ju is undocumented. Nationally, there are an estimated 1.9 million young people who were brought to the United States as children by undocumented parents and who are denied many rights and opportunities that their peers take for granted. Since learning about his status, Ju has become an outspoken advocate on behalf of undocumented students and their families.
Angel was 12 when his mother hired a coyote to bring the family across the Mexico-U.S. border in 1999. They settled in Florida and planned to stay only briefly—to work, save, and then go back to Mexico for a better life. Today, Angel juggles several part-time jobs while attending law school in San Francisco. He has been active in the gay and lesbian rights movement since coming out in high school.
Meet Gabriela, a third-year student at UC Berkeley. After arriving in the United States from El Salvador as a teenager, she lived with her father and his girlfriend near Los Angeles while learning English and completing high school. A dedicated student and campus leader at Cal, Gabriela is active in promoting rights and opportunities for young people who were brought to this country as minors with undocumented parents. Currently, these students are ineligible for financial aid and have no path available to citizenship or successful careers. Each year, approximately 25,000 undocumented students graduate from California high schools. Across the country, the total number is 65,000. Gabriela spoke to us between classes at Berkeley.
Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa is a neurosurgeon and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Known as “Dr. Q.” by his students and friends, Alfredo performs more than 250 brain surgeries each year, directs a world-class research laboratory, and has been the focus of numerous media profiles and interviews. Alfredo came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant when he was nineteen years old. He spoke to us of the years he spent building a better life for himself and his family in this country, a journey that took him from the farm fields of the San Joaquin Valley to Harvard Medical School.
About
First-Person Stories
The Haas, Jr. Fund is developing this series because we believe in the power of listening and the importance of seeing the world through others' eyes.
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Dave Eggers of
Voice of Witness
As we set out on our path to gather these first-person stories, the Haas, Jr. Fund turned to Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Dave Eggers.
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