VIDEO: 11th Annual Arizona-Border-Mexico Experiential Learning Trip | FALA Intersession | March 4-8th, 2024
FALA students spent 3 days volunteering with Rancho Feliz in Agua Prieta, Mexico creating art projects at a Migrant Shelter, Building an addition to a house, High School exchange at Centro de Atencion Multiple Laboral, packing and distributing #150 bags of groceries, serving lunch and doing art projects at Centro Comunitario, and making food with local families. We hiked the desert near Nogales with Tucson Samaritans, learned firsthand about prevention through deterrence, and put out water & food on migrant trails. We ended the trip on Friday with a Borderlands/Sierra Club seminar in Tucson. The goal of the trip is for FALA students to have the opportunity to better understand the complexity found in the issues surrounding the Arizona-Mexico border. The human, legal, economic, environmental, political, and cultural costs of the failures of immigration policy will be at the center of this exploration. While many perspectives within the debate on immigration will be analyzed on the trip, our priority will be to examine the human rights concerns within the status quo. Hands-on experiences with several groups that are working on the border to reduce suffering and injustice are the focus.
We are grateful for the Martin Springer Institute for underwriting this trip with a teacher grant.
-Janeece Henes, Trip Coordinator