Student Adventures Around The World

STUDENT JOURNALISTS - El Paso/Ciudad Juarez

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It's one of the most hotly debated topics in the United States: Immigration. Now with funding from a grant by the Meadows Foundation, four senior journalism majors at SMU are looking at immigration from all sides in a series of stories from El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

The students, whose work will be broadcast on SMU-TV, are:

  • Garrett Haake (top right) is a senior journalism major from Spring, Texas.
  • Ashleigh Hendricks (top left) is a senior journalism and political science major from Grand Prairie, Texas
  • Myra Arthur (bottom right) is a senior journalism major from San Antonio, Texas
  • Gabe Travers (bottom left) is a senior journalism major from San Diego, California

The Meadows Undergraduate Student Research/Creative Activity Fund (MUSRCAF) provides annual funding for grants to support student creative activity, scholarship, and research. The MUSRCAF Grants are designed to support both individual and collaborative student research and creative activity in diverse ways including, but not limited to, providing funding for travel, materials, equipment, and support services.  This funding is intended to encourage and provide support for Meadows students to explore and expand their creative and research skills beyond the classroom.

SMU-TV, Charter Cable Channel 19, is SMU's campus television station. It broadcasts throughout the Park Cities to 15,000 homes.

March 22, 2007

I crossed into Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, riding in the captain seat of a blue minivan, crunching the remnants of a month’s worth of snacks beneath my feet, which were no doubt used to keep a car full of kids happy. There were toys strewn from front to back, and a Disney movie blaring from the drop-down screen in front.

It was a scene from any other family road trip, but this trip I was going with the Rueda family to visit their grandmother. Most of us go to Grandma’s for a big, hot meal and an onslaught of hugs and kisses. But for little Athena and Amelia Rueda, they have to pass through a checkpoint run by border patrol and present their passports just to see their Abuelita. Read the full blog.