LA Upstander: Heydy V.

Heydy participated in a youth leadership workshop for I Learn America (ILA), a project that brings students together to tell their stories of migration. Students who have worked on the project now share, encourage, and support other students in writing and sharing their stories. The upside to the pandemic was piloting a "no classroom walls” workshop where students from different states (Boston, Florida, Colorado, California, New York) now have been gathering via Zoom to continue the work since July of 2020. Heydy has also been able to participate in workshops that include teachers who are considering the ILA project for their class/school.

Most recently Heydy was on the Youth Team for ILA for an annual poetry festival; she led a workshop for the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex Dream Center sharing youth stories in a campus-wide workshop. She has become a strong advocate for undocumented students to come out of the shadows and share their story.

Heydy has also been working with Students Deserve, a student-led grassroots effort to enact systemic change for racial justice in LAUSD. She has supported the building of a coalition of teachers and students to advocate for the needs of undocumented students in the district and build alliances between Black Lives Matter activists and the immigrant rights movement. She is a model of what grace, intelligence and strength look like. Her voice is so strong and confident that you feel inspired by her presence.