Lucye Rafferty/The Hoya Georgetown students displayed photos from their Spring Break trip to Mexico in a forum held on Wednesday evening.

While a great number of college students spent their spring breaks partying on tropical islands, 10 Georgetown students chose another option this past March. They embarked on an educational trip to Texas to learn about U.S.-Mexican border issues and the lives of individuals trying to make a living in the U.S. They shared their experiences in a forum held Wednesday evening.

“The objective [of the trip] was to raise our consciousness about challenges the border faces and create awareness about our role as consumers in the global economy,” Jacqueline Lee (GRD GM) said.

Georgetown was chosen as one of 12 universities to send a cohort of students to learn about the Enunciation House program in El Paso, Texas, which works with poor and undocumented migrants in the hope of aiding them in their move to the U.S. The organization was founded in the 1970s and is staffed by volunteers, most of whom are college graduates, who choose to live in solidarity with the poor individuals they serve.

Over the past 25 years, Enunciation House has sheltered 75,000 people in its four houses. The Georgetown group lived with migrants in each house and heard the personal stories of many people who crossed over the border.

“One of the most profound experiences was to live together with migrants at Enunciation House . the stories that we heard were so mind-blowing and gave me a sense of what people go through to be able to feed their families and give their children the opportunities they never had,” Tricia Cuna (SFS ’05) said.

The participants agreed that the anecdotes of hardship and tribulation made the experience all the more personal for them and that they returned feeling closer to the people they met and the immigration experience.

Sabrina Nguyen (MSB ’05) conveyed her impression that, while migrants have several reasons for coming to the U.S., there is a single all-encompassing reason. “The constant is the aspiration for a better life,” she said.

Other program participants spoke about immigration laws, the effects of globalization, NAFTA and the economy, violence against women and civic education. The common theme of the forum, however, was the degree of social, political and economic difficulties faced by those crossing the border in the hopes of a better life. It is very difficult, for instance, to be granted political asylum; approximately four out of five applicants are rejected.

Border awareness participant Emily Conger (COL ’05) shared another example, relaying that the average wage for factory workers on the border is five dollars an hour. Although that implies that they receive a higher wage than many of their Southern Mexican and Latin American counterparts, the cost of living on the U.S. border negates any supposed advantage.

The 10 Georgetown students were chosen from an application pool because of their interest and enthusiasm in border issues, Deanna Cooke, assistant director for the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service, said. After attending a few pre-experience working sessions at Georgetown, the group succeeded in soliciting enough monetary support from campus departments and organizations to cover the majority of the trip’s costs.