PorColombia: A Lifetime Experience

October 23, 2009

By Carlos Macías

When freshmen go to their first PorColombia (PC) meeting, they don’t know what to expect. They may think PC is a social club, like a party central, others just want to connect with people that share their cultural identity. Others may just be looking for a future novio, novia, or something in between. But once they get a taste of the potential to grow, the opportunities to learn from, and the people to share with, they feel excited and waste no time in becoming active members.

As their college career advances, PC members see first hand the results of their hard work, and their passion for Colombia starts transforming into action. And make no mistake, living your college years surrounded by amazing peers and accomplishing so much in your academic, social, cultural, and philanthropic life is something that gets embedded in your memory and stamped on your heart. To prove these assertions, we got a hold of a handful of PC alumni and asked them to briefly summarize what PorColombia means to them.

Community Service

For Carolina Gallego, who graduated from New York University (NYU) with a degree in Biology, PorColombia is one of the most important milestones in her life so far. But being an active member of NYU’s PC chapter, and eventually its president from 2008 to 2009, awakened in Carolina the strong commitment to help the Colombian community in the United States change its negative image in front of the world’s eyes. “PC opened the doors to a different world for me, a new world that helped me grow as an individual and as a leader as well,” Carolina says. But her experience in the organization gave her even more. “For me, PC is more than a student group, it is a family and it will always be present in my life.”

The Pioneers

This 2009-2010 academic year marks the fifth anniversary of PC. The idea of creating the organization came out after a handful of adventurous and dedicated college students went to the first Colombian Student Congress in the Spring of 2004 held in Yale University. “PC started with a spark of passion between college students that one day decided to put indifference aside, and started sharing the image of Colombia that each of us carry in our hearts, to talk with candor about its problems, and looking for solutions even if we live thousands of miles away,” says Federico Guzman, a graduate from George Washington University (GWU).

After the congress and elaborating on the idea of creating a student-run organization, on February 25, 2005, PorColombia was born. Since then, it has transformed itself into a maturing collective with 8 university chapters and more than 200 members. “In a nutshell, PorColombia conjugates talented individuals and their fervent desire to help Colombia grow prosperous and successful” says Jose Felipe Andrade-Sinning, former PC National president from 2006 until 2008. Andrade-Sinning and Guzman belong to that group of visionaries that started chapters at GWU and Baruch College respectively, laying the foundations that enable us today to keep growing.

Native Fervor

Those who have met Laura Palau can tell you that she is a proud ambassador of anything Colombian. After graduating from NYU in 2008, Laura moved to Los Angeles following a career opportunity but she never broke her ties with us. “PC is a living, breathing piece of Colombia’s beating global heart. I remember when PC started as a small group of college students who had one thing in common: We loved Colombia and we’re dying to celebrate it, to celebrate us, and where we came from. The group did it right: Fervor came by default, then the constitution, and then momentum! Hence: “De la pasión a la acción!”

Moreover, we just want to leave you with what NYU’s alumni Joanna Arredondo feels about PC:

Porque PorColombia? Why PorColombia?

Por Amistad                                                     For Friendship

Por Solidaridad                                                For Solidarity

Por La Familia                                                 For Family

Por La Juventud                                              For our Youth

Por La Justicia                                                 For Justice

Por La Pobreza                                                Against Poverty

Por la Fortaleza                                               For Strength

Por el Fututro                                                   For our Future

Por El Amor                                                     For Love

Por La Paz                                                      For Peace

POR COLOMBIA!                                           FOR COLOMBIA!

Round Five for the DREAM Act AS/COA Online 04/03/09

Enactment of the DREAM Act would allow some undocumented students to gain legal status. (AP Photo)

In a first step to bring immigration reform back to the front burner, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Rubin (D-IL) and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) in the Senate on March 26. A similar bill called the American Dream Act was submitted in the House of Representatives in a bipartisan effort. Yet, despite domestic debate over immigration in recent years, the controversial initiative has not reached the national spotlight. As an example, during President Barack Obama’s interactive town hall meeting held on March 26, none of the top ten questions voted on by more than 3.5 million people were related to immigration reform.

The DREAM Act offers a two-step legalization process for children described as “1.5ers.” As Washington Post columnist Marcela Sanchez explained in a 2007 article, “One-point-fivers are neither first-generation immigrants, adults who immigrated to the United States; nor are they second-generation, children born here of immigrant parents.” According to the National Immigration Law Center, students who came to the United States before turning 16 at least five years before the bill’s enactment could gain conditional permanent resident status if they have clean criminal records and attain high school graduation or college acceptance. To upgrade from conditional to permanent status, participants must then finish two years of college or serve a minimum of two years in the U.S. military.

How many people would benefit from the measure? Research from 2003 by the Pew Hispanic Center published in a Congressional Research Service report estimated that “each year 65,000 undocumented immigrants graduate high school who have lived in the country for more than five years.” In 2006, the Migration Policy Institute calculated that roughly 360,000 undocumented high school graduates would benefit from the measure that year alone. The Center for Immigration Studies reported in 2007 that 2.1 million could qualify for legal status under the DREAM Act.

The legislation was first introduced in 2001 and rejected four times. But the fifth round may be the charm. As the Orlando Sentinal’s “Hispanosphere” blog points out, “[N]ow Democrats have control of U.S. Congress with a president who has expressed support and voted in favor of this legislation in the last go-round.”

Whether consideration of the DREAM Act represents near-term action on comprehensive immigration reform remains unclear. In a recent visit to Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that immigration reform is “a high priority” for Obama’s administration. “We believe strongly that there have to be changes made, and we hope we will be able to pursue those in the coming months,” she said. In early March, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a San Francisco church crowd that “we cannot wait any longer for fair and just immigration reform.” However, during this week’s visit to Costa Rica, Vice President Joe Biden warned Central American leaders that the ailing economy hinders immediate action on U.S. immigration reform.

Read the article as originally published at the AS/COA website.

Suicide on the Rise among College Students The Ticker 4/18/05

Suicidal tendencies among college students are increasing, according to a new study published in the journal of the American Association of Suicidology. Results show that from a sample of 1,865 students interviewed at four major universities, five percent had attempted suicide while in college.

Several universities and colleges around the nation are beefing up their counseling services to manage the rising numbers of students suffering with…

Click here to read the entire article.

Campus Diversity on the Rise in U.S. The Ticker 2/28/05

African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American and American Indian students have boosted college enrollment more than 50 percent in the last 10 years, according to the “Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-first Annual Status Report,” released last Monday by the American Council on Education.

The report found that between 1991 and 2001, the college enrollment for minorities rose by nearly 1.5 million to more than 4.3 million students.The annual report is widely recognized as the national source of information on current trends made by minority students and is funded by grants from the Coca-Cola Foundation and the GE Foundation. “Although the number of minority students pursuing higher education degrees has risen over the years, this report shows that much work lies ahead to narrow the large gap that still remains,” said GE Foundation President Bob Corcoran.

Even with the significant increase, minorities were not enrolled at the same rate as white students. Forty percent of African-Americans and 34 percent of Hispanics attended college, compared with 45 percent of whites.“Diversifying the nation’s higher education institutions continues to be one of the most important challenges facing our society,” stated ACE President David Ward in a press release.

A new group included in the annual report represents college students whose race/ethnicity is unknown. When colleges ask applicants about their ethnic background, the form always states that the question is voluntary and that the information will be kept confidential. So why are many students choosing not to check a box? The ACE researchers said they do not know exactly why in 2001 more than 938,000 students declined to identify their race.

Some admissions officers speculate that because of Affirmative Action, maybe some white students think they stand a better chance of acceptance by not marking “White” on their application. Or some Latino students may not feel comfortable when asked about their ethnicity, believing that being Latino is enough. Other theories suggested that some minority students are fearful that common stereotypes may hurt their chances of admission.“Race is an artificial barrier created in America…based in the ‘fear of change’ of conservative right-wing organizations,” stated Arthur Banton, a Graduate History Major at City College. Banton acted as moderator to a follow-up discussion of the first film in a series called “Does Race Matter?” held last Tuesday at the Vertical Campus.

Baruch is a clear example of the shift of college demographics in the last 10 years. For the sixth consecutive year, it has been named the most ethnically diverse institution of higher education in the US by the U.S. News & World Report (2005).During February, the USG is promoting a month-long event called “Celebrate Diversity” – a series of film presentations, discussion panels, dance performances and museum tours intended “to broaden our cultural understanding and bring the Baruch community closer together,” said a brochure distributed by the USG.

However, the increasing trend of students rejecting the idea of race altogether, raises the question whether it should really matter at the time of a college application, a job interview or even inside our college social networks.

Read the article as originally published at Baruch’s The Ticker.