Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Issue date: 3/25/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy Photo

erty and 16 other Maryland students crossed the border into Mexico last week, there were no MTV cameras, no wet T-shirt contests and no beaches. Not even a bartender in sight.

Docherty, on a spring break trip to El Paso, Texas, where students learned about immigration issues by speaking to immigrant mothers, migrant workers and border patrol officers, only noticed Mexicans begging for money from underneath a bridge.

"It was poignant to see tourists throwing change off the bridge through the fence. That's how you feed birds; you throw something down and they pick it up," Docherty, a junior government and politics major, said, recalling the group's passage back into Texas after a brief visit to Mexico. "It was a pretty powerful thing to see - them looking up at us from below."

The trip, sponsored by the Alternative Spring Break program, put a human element on the national immigration issue that is far removed from the lives of most college students. But unlike most of the popular spring break program's trips, the students participating didn't build homes or volunteer.

Teaming with the nonprofit organization AVANCE Inc., which offers classes to immigrants in an effort to break the cycle of poverty throughout Texas, the students spent a week focusing almost wholly on education rather than immediate action.

They immersed themselves in the unique border culture of El Paso - a mixture of Mexican and American influences - touring factories, discussing issues with politicians and talking with migrant workers.

But after the students returned to Maryland on Saturday, many said they're interested in taking action in College Park's surrounding areas, especially in the heavily Salvadoran community of Langley Park, just down the street from the university.

"There really are so many immigrants living so close. We don't embrace that enough," said junior American studies and communication major Alyssa Schimmel.

Sophomore biology major Tuyen Phan, a co-leader of the trip, said the program's inspirational result showed that learning can be another way of serving a community.

"You can go somewhere and build houses and volunteer in a homeless shelter, but I do think that learning about the issues first is another way of doing community service," Phan said. "You learn what is out there already and think about what you can do to not necessarily fix the situation, but to take what you learned and educate others as well."

But to Docherty, perhaps just as important as taking action in the immigrant communities is following the lead of the teachers he met in El Paso and passing the knowledge to his peers.

"The teachers at [AVANCE] are community leaders," Docherty said. "We don't really get that [in College Park]. We have teachers and professors that put in their time and go home. The teachers over there never leave that role. The program would be nothing without the teachers."

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