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About My Dream, My Journey / Mi Sueno, Mi Camino: May 24-25, 2022
My Dream, My Journey (MDMJ) Conference / Mi Sueño, Mi Camino Migrant-Inclusive Youth Conference seeks to re-center wellness via a culturally responsive epistemology. With this event, Migrant Education staff from across western Washington will create a space for migrant youth to look within as well as outwards and ask important questions about identity and relationships within our community and society.
Who should attend?
- Migrant Students in Grades 6-12 & Migrant Out-of-School Youth
- This is a two-day, virtual conference opportunity for migrant-identified youth from school districts across western Washington State
- If you reside within a school district that participates in the Migrant Education Program (MEP), please coordinate with your district’s Migrant Education staff to enroll student participants
- If you are an MEP district and are interested in learning who your migrant students are please contact Enrique Lopez
- If you do not have a Migrant Education Program in your school district, please reach out to any member of the NWESD Migrant Services team.
THE HEART OF THE CONFERENCE
a poem co-written with western Washington Migrant Youth
I am struggles and I am successes
I am my parents, my family, my friends and my community
I worry about immigration status but I am not an immigration status
…some don’t accept my culture
I am inspired when I see my identity and culture
…when I listen to young speakers and presenters
…when I listen to people who share my culture
…when I feel welcome, that I belong
…when I have FUN.
I am my food, my music, my knowledge, my power
I am encouragement
I am my achievements and ideas
I need a place where I feel respected, where I feel welcome
I need a safe environment where I can be myself
I need a place where I am not judged
…a place where I can find joy with those teachers and staff that always have an open door
…place where I can look forward to finishing school, going to college
I hope I learn new things and am able to teach others or be able to share the knowledge I learn
I hope for inspiration, I hope for motivation and happiness
…because motivation runs low sometimes
To feel uplifted and motivated to graduate
I overcome stereotypes
I seek new knowledge and to share the knowledge I learn
I commit to keep my mind open, to uplift others and listen
I commit to give the respect that I need from everyone
I am my dreams, and see a brighter future
Welcome
Lummi Blessing Day 1
May 24
Althea Wilson Weaver
A Lummi blessing song and words from our elders Steve Solomon and Cynthia Wilson
Mexica/Aztec Opening Day 2
May 25
Martin and Flora Garces
We will be sharing our life journey as Aztec/Mexica people/community/dancers and our continued journey walking the red road. Youth will witness an Aztec/Mexica opening ceremony and will be inspired through words of inspiration and encouragement to help guide their educational and life journeys.
Presented in Spanish with interpretation available in English, Mixteco, & Mam
Keynote speakers
Jeff Duncan Andrade, Ph.D. - Day 1
A Professor of Latina/o Studies and Race and Resistance Studies at San Francisco State University. He was a founder of the Roses in Concrete Community School, a community responsive lab school in East Oakland, and has been a classroom teacher and school leader in East Oakland (CA) for the past 28 years. Duncan-Andrade’s pedagogy has been widely studied and acclaimed for producing uncommon levels of social and academic success for students. He lectures around the world and has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters on effective practices in schools. He has written two books and his third book with Harvard Press is due out in Spring 2022. In 2016, Duncan-Andrade was part of the great educators invited to the White House on National Teacher Appreciation Day by President Obama, and in 2019 he was chosen as the Laureate for the prestigious Brock International Prize in Education. In 2021, he was selected to join the Board of Prevent Child Abuse America. Duncan-Andrade has also been ranked as one of the nation’s most influential scholars by EdWeek’s Public Influence Rankings.
Duncan-Andrade’s transformational work on the elements of effective teaching in schools is recognized throughout the U.S. and as far abroad as New Zealand. His research interests and publications span the areas of youth wellness, culturally and community responsive pedagogy, trauma responsiveness, curriculum change, teacher development and retention, and cultural and Ethnic Studies. He works closely with teachers, school site leaders, union leaders, and school district officials to help them develop community responsive classroom practices and school cultures that foster wellness, self-love, confidence, and academic success among all students. Duncan-Andrade holds a Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Studies in Education and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature, both from the University of California – Berkeley.
Presented in English with interpretation available
David Olmeca - Day 2
A bilingual hip-hop artist, producer, activist, and scholar who has been featured in Complex Magazine, Billboard, NPR, Huffington Post, Noisey, and Democracy Now. His work has been featured in various documentaries on PBS, BBC World, as well as, featured films. He has written music for tv shows including Sons of Anarchy, new series, The Mayans on FX, and toured Latin America, the U.S., and Europe.
He is faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the Interdisciplinary Gender and Ethnic Studies Department teaching Latin American History, Latinx in the U.S., and a course entitled Hip-Hop & Social Justice, looking at the intersections of Hip-Hop culture, aesthetics, and social impact.
In 2019, just before COVID-19, Olmeca became a Kennedy Center Artist Fellow. He then found RaowRaow, an artist collective and media production company to address mental health and representation for communities with access barriers.
Olmeca tours as a performing artist and scholar with a lecture entitled, Latinx Identity & Power and a performance entitled, Hip-Hop Stories of A New America.
Presented in English with interpretation available
Choose your Own Adventure! Session Descriptions
Presenters
Althea Wilson Weaver - Lummi Nation
I’m the daughter of the late “Cluxten”, James Wilson.
My father’s mother was Margaret Solomon of the Lummi Nation.
I’m an enrolled Lummi Tribal Member, located in the unceded
territory of the Lhaq’Temish people, known as the Lummi people.
My mother is the late Roberta Hunt Wilson she is the direct
descendant of Anislaga Mary Ebbetts who was Tlingit from the double-headed Raven Clan.
I started weaving in 2006
It is a gift that was passed down to me.
As with any gift, it is important to take good care of it,
by praying, while I make things with cedar,
and harvest in a good way
James Jackson Harvester - Lummi Nation
James Jackson is a Lummi Nation Tribal member and lifelong fisherman of the Salish Sea. He learned to weave and harvest cedar in his natural territory Komo Kulshan (settler name Mount Baker). This is also where he retreats to pray and contemplate his world with the Creator. James is the Son of Althea Wilson, of Lummi Nation and his Late father Bennett Lee Jackson, a direct descendent of Chief Joseph of The Nee-Me-Poo (Nez Perce). His late Grandfather Cluxten, James H. Wilson and Roberta Hunt Wilson, Tlingit/ Qualicum B.C. James has Skippered on the lingit canoe “the Raven ” from The One People Canoe society of Juneau, Alaska. During the Canoe journeys in the Salish Sea. Going from tribe to tribe in celebration of the revitalization of the highways and byways of the coast Salish people. He is a humble and strong leader and teaches connection through the ethnological transfer of understanding within the consciousness of the natural world around us.
Martin & Flora Garces - Calpulli Ameyalmazatl
Calpulli Ameyalmazatl, a group of Aztec/Mexica Dancers/Family began in Oregon in 2004 and has remained until these times. Our obligation and love is to learn the steps and the meaning of each step in the dances that our ancestors left us, which connects us with ourselves and with all of nature and the universe. Even the processes and ways of respecting, honoring, and giving thanks to people, all of nature, the cosmos, and the diversity of ways of thinking. We respect and honor our relationship with our grandparents/ancestors who are our guides.
Laura Bohórquez García
Laura Bohórquez García is from Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico, an im/migrant, former first-generation and undocumented student, and current first-generation professional. Laura’s awareness and approach to community building, higher education, and advocacy come from her communities and families’ funds of knowledge acquired through generations of abundance, wisdom and the agricultural work in various aspects of the apple and cherry industry in central Washington State. Laura is a content creator and entrepreneur who is centering healing, reflecting and unlearning through the Interrogating Undocumentedness Program, and platforms such as Inner Work Collective Freedom. Laura currently serves as the Director of an undocumented student center in California where she continues to advocate for and center liberation and healing while challenging what education equity and access looks like in her day to day. Laura is learning to roller skate, is a plant mom of more than 35 plantitas, and a Danzante.
Patrick Camangian, Ph.D.
Patrick Camangian Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Teacher Education Department at the University of San Francisco. He is the Coordinator of the Urban Education and Social Justice Credential & Master’s program. His scholarship examines critical pedagogy and transformative teaching in urban schools; action research, critical literacy, culturally empowering education, and urban teacher development. Currently, he is turning to both critical theory and research in the health sciences to inform his research findings on complex traumas and urban education. Camangian has been an English teacher since 1999, continuing in the tradition of teacher-research, applying critical pedagogies in urban schools.
Veronica Xochitl Valadez, Doctoral Student
Veronica Xochitl Valadez is a daughter of Mexican farm working immigrants with over 20 years of experience teaching critical and culturally responsive education in K-16 classrooms. She is President, co-founder, and lead curriculum specialist of Ehecatl Wind Philosophy; an education consulting agency that is dedicated to helping school districts implement authentic, transformative, and sustainable Ethnic Studies programs. Veronica has a strong educational background in Ethnic Studies and Chicana/o Studies and has been a traditional Aztec/Mexica dancer since 1996. She is a scholar-activist, a visual artist, and a doctoral student who is currently working towards earning a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from CSU San Bernardino.
Jefferson Greene
Raised in a time when language and culture weres already fading, Jefferson Greene of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation was still being groomed to teach the generations to come. Culturally and Academically educated, Greene has remained involved in several arenas around spirituality, education, entrepreneurship, music, culture, fatherhood, community development, and arts. He is currently an Ichishkín Language & Cultural Liaison serving tribal members both on and off the reservation, incorporating cultural harvesting, song, dance, story, identity, communication, and goal orientation into students’ upbringing just as he had from his elders.
Miguel Villegas - Una Isu
Miguel Villegas Ventura (also known as Una Isu), is a trilingual Ñuu Savi (Mixtec) rap artist, Indigenous migrant rights activist, organizer, Tu’un Savi (Mixtec) language instructor, and dancer who has been featured in programs such as Univision (Aquí y ahora), National Geographic, La Jornada, Radio Bilingüe, Excélsior TV, and Imagen TV. His work has been documented in universities such as El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (El Colef), The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Stanford. He has been mentioned in books: Voces de jóvenes indígenas oaxaqueños en el Valle Central: Forjando nuestro sentido de pertenencia en California, Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race and Revealing Rebellion in Abiayala: The Insurgent Poetics of Contemporary Indigenous Literature. Anthropology courses offered by Professor Lynn Stephen at the University of Oregon use Una Isu’s songs as a window on understanding issues regarding immigration history and the U.S.-Mexico relations, Mexican and Central American immigration, farmworker movements, and cultures.
College Success Foundation
College Success Foundation coaches and supports students from low socioeconomic backgrounds to prepare for and graduate from college as transformational leaders in order to forge a just and equitable society.
Jesus Chucho Ruiz
Jesus “Chucho” Ruiz Vai Sevoi – Eudeve (Opata) Tlamanalcah is the son of Leonor and Juventino, partner of Maria Molina Vai Sevoi, and father of 6 children. Over the past 20 years, Chucho has transformed the lives of countless youth through a La Cultura Cura approach through grassroots organizing and youth engagement and later as an employee of Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC). Additionally, Chucho has served as a central facilitator of la tradición through his affirmation and maintenance of Nahua cultural practices and way of life, commitment to social justice, and obligation to the Tucson community, Chucho has served as a central facilitator of la tradición Nahua within the Calpolli Teoxicalli, a constellation of Nahua familias in Tlamanalco. Chucho has always answered the call to meet the needs of the Chicana community as a cultural advisor, authentic community leader, and “barrio intellectual”. Chucho has worked to create indigenous solidarity by building intertribal relationships with indigenous communities across Turtle Island. In the last 5 years, Chucho has been intentional in engaging men and boys through his work with CPLC, implementing A Call To Men’s LiveRespect Healthy Manhood curriculum in several local high schools, and also collaborating with local organizations Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse specifically with Emerge’s Men Education Program as a co-facilitator. During the COVID 19 pandemic Chucho began the CHANTLACAH O.G. (Homies, Original Gente) Virtual hangouts for young men/male-identified youth of color to discuss healthy manhood.
Azucena Rodriguez
Azucena Rodriguez is a 4th year School Counselor in the Mount Vernon School District. She is a daughter of immigrants from Michoacán, Mexico, and is a former first-generation college student. Azucena graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 2013 and knew that she wanted to return to serve the community that which helped foster her curiosity and passion to think critically about social justice issues. By age 16, Azucena was committed to becoming a school counselor, a career that focuses on academics, social emotional learning, and career/college readiness through advocacy, equity, and family engagement efforts.
Dr. Alex Mazatl Ojeda
Dr. Alex Mazatl Ojeda (he/him/his) is the Associate Dean of Student Equity at Los Angeles Valley College and is a lecturer in the Criminology & Justice Studies Department at California State University Northridge (CSUN), and Director of CSUN’s MOSAIC youth mentoring program. Dr. Ojeda’s roots are grounded in Durango and Sinaloa, Mexico. As a first-generation, formerly incarcerated educator, son, brother, tito, artist, organizer, and huehuetzonqui (“Aztec” drummer), Dr. Ojeda’s research includes developing the Continuation High School-to-Community College Pipeline. He has spent over 20 years studying and researching Pre-Columbian cultures throughout Mexico, Central America, Canada, and the U.S. and disseminates his findings to his community in Northeast Los Angeles. Dr. Ojeda currently resides in Tataviam Territory (Pacoima, California).
Adrian Arenas - Latino Built
LatinoBuilt is a Non-profit Organization with the broad mission of empowering, developing, and advocating for Latino-owned Construction Businesses. Overcoming systemic barriers and building community. We represent the Latino minority group within the construction sector in the public agenda conversation.
Futures NW Guest College Panelist Representatives
FuturesNW aspires to live in a region where one’s income, race, or ethnicity cannot be a statistical predictor for academic success, and where every person has equitable access to post-secondary education, training, and opportunity. Our mission is to level the socio-economic playing field by supporting students from under-served communities to achieve their career and college dreams. Our multifaceted approach helps families navigate systemic barriers that challenge accessibility to post-secondary education. We do this by providing mentorships, personal and academic support, comprehensive financial aid literacy, and college/training/career advising to succeed in college and beyond.
Conference Resources & Materials
