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Julieta Garibay Highlight
Where there is darkness, there is also going to be light. But it doesn’t come fast; it comes through a lot of hard work, a lot of commitment.
About Julieta
- She was brought to the United States from Mexico when she was 12 because her mom was running away from an abuser.
- After graduating from high school, she realized she wouldn’t be able to go to college because of her undocumented status.
- She made the difficult decision to move back to Mexico; however, when she arrived, she felt like an outsider because people would tell her she was too “Americanized.”
- When she came back to the United States—still lacking papers—there was a pilot program in place to get undocumented Texans in-state tuition rates for college.
- Went to Dallas Community College and got her associate’s degree in nursing, which had always been her dream job.
- But when she heard about the DREAM Act, she realized she had a new purpose: she started organizing for the cause.
- Co-founded the University Leadership Initiative (ULI) at the University of Texas, Austin, which was one of the first undocumented youth-led organizations in the nation.
- ULI banded together with several other student-run groups to form United We Dream, now the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country.
