Freedom University Honors the Graduating Class of 2023

Last weekend, Freedom University held our graduation ceremony in honor of the Class of 2023!

Our son jarocho music ensemble, Son de Sueños, opened the ceremony with a lively performance of La Bamba. Our Executive Director, Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis, and Chair of the Board, Mr. Charles Black, welcomed the students, their families, and their community of loving teachers, tutors, friends, and supporters. At the entry to the ceremony was a laminated copy of the “Human Right to Education” course class project: a co-written “Proclamation in Recognition of Right to Higher Education for All” that outlined the class’ moral, economic, social, and political arguments for in-state tuition and equal access to higher educational for all people, regardless of their immigration status.

The proclamation boldly states:

WHEREAS, we support in-state tuition and equal admission access to Georgia public  universities for all students who have graduated from Georgia public high schools, including those who are undocumented; and 

WHEREAS, according to the American Immigration Council, undocumented immigrants in Georgia contributed $564 million in federal taxes and $355 million in state taxes in 2018, thereby contributing to the public universities in Georgia from which they are either denied admission or in-state tuition; and

WHEREAS,  twenty-three states and the District of Columbia currently grant undocumented students in-state tuition, while Georgia is one of only three states in the country—in addition to South Carolina and Alabama—to have a form of admissions ban segregating undocumented students from public higher education; 

WHEREAS, segregation in all of its forms, particularly in education, harms all people in a democratic society, because, in the words of Justice Thurgood Marshall, “Unless our children begin to learn together, then there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together”; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v. Doe (1982) that undocumented people are “people in any ordinary sense of the term,” and thereby have the right to equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that education is a human right and that “higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit”; and 

WHEREAS, education is a public good that ensures that every human being is able to develop into their fullest potential and participate constructively in the world as engaged global citizens; and

WHEREBY, we recognize the tireless efforts of the staff, faculty, and undocumented students of Freedom University, an Atlanta-based freedom school that advances undocumented students’ human right to education and cultivates beloved community to end modern educational segregation in Georgia; 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT PROCLAIMED THAT WE do hereby declare this 21st day of May 2023 as “Right to Higher Education for All Day” in support of equal access to public higher education for undocumented residents in Georgia.

Before accepting their Certificates of Completion at Freedom University, students were honored to listen to the powerful words of this year's commencement speaker, Ms. Gaby Pacheco.

Gaby was the first undocumented Latina to testify before Congress and was instrumental in advocacy for the DACA program in 2012. As one of the most fearless undocumented youth leaders, Gaby was one of four young people to walk from Miami to Washington, DC, in 2010 on the Trail of Dreams.

From her many years as an advocate for immigrant justice, Gaby shared words of wisdom to the graduates - all but one of whom are women - and shared a heartfelt thanks to the parents in the room for their courage in fighting for their children.

The highlight of the ceremony was when students, one by one, went down a long line of hugs from their professors and mentors, and gave a speech on their favorite memory at Freedom University and the most important thing they learned. The common thread through their many testimonies was the centrality of joy in community, and reclaiming their sense of dignity, power, and inherent worthiness as human beings.

The ceremony, with all of its joy, was also bittersweet. It was the last day our beloved music professor, Eduardo Garcia, would be with us. Eduardo moved across the United States, from San Diego to Atlanta, for the sole purpose of teaching the 400-year old Mexican folk music tradition of son jarocho to Freedom University students. For two years, Eduardo has been an integral part of our faculty team, and we especially loved him for his talent of writing rhyming versos for any occasion and sharing dad jokes at the perfect moment.

We closed the ceremony with a performance of La Morena, with an estribillo (chorus) written by our music teachers, Eduardo and Emiko, and all of the son jarocho students. Eduardo sang it clearly to the audience several times, so they could join in and sing their hearts out in harmony.

Together, we sang the following chorus together one last time:

Ayer fuimos caminando

bajo de este sol ardiente

sabemos que trabajando

seremos independientes

hoy estamos lidereando

¡somos mujeres valientes!

(Yesterday we were walking

under this burning sun

We know that by working

we will be independent

Today we are leading

We are brave women!)

…

Photos by the incredible Terrell Clark (http://terrellclark.com)