Standing on the convocation stage in Ian Beddis Gymnasium, Sayuri Gutierrez (BA ’16) was thinking about her grandmother.<\/p>\n
In particular she thought about her grandmother\u2019s battle with cancer, and the phone conversation they had the last time they spoke. It was 2010 and Sayuri, attending high school in St. Catharines at the time, was unable to travel back to her native Mexico to visit her dying grandmother because of unresolved immigration issues with the Canadian government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said our goodbyes through the phone,\u201d she recalls, \u201cand she made me promise that I would continue my studies and graduate from university.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody from the family had ever graduated from post-secondary education, but that wasn\u2019t what nearly caused Sayuri to break the promise she made to her grandmother.<\/p>\n
Problems had started when her father Hermelindo \u2014 who had come to Canada as a seasonal agricultural worker \u2014 developed kidney disease that kept him from working. Then, the day after the rest of the family came to visit him, Sayuri\u2019s brother was hit by a car while riding a bicycle, and ended up in a coma for weeks.<\/p>\n
The family stayed in Canada and Sayuri and her siblings went to high school as the Gutierrez family sought asylum on humanitarian grounds. In 2010 the family couldn\u2019t return to Mexico to visit her dying grandmother, or they wouldn\u2019t be allowed to come back to Canada.<\/p>\n
Then in 2012 they were deported anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I thought I wasn\u2019t going to be able to fulfil that promise I made to my grandmother, it made me sad and disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s plight made national headlines and caught the eye of the migrant advocacy group Dignity for Agricultural Migrant Workers, along with Brock professors Richard Mitchell and David Fancy, former Vice-Provost Kim Meade, Director of Student Awards Rico Natale and the Brock University Students\u2019 Union.<\/p>\n
The Brock group organized an award for children of migrant workers, and Sayuri was its sole recipient. The result was her four-year education fully paid for through the generosity of others.<\/p>\n
That grassroots response\u00a0was enough to turn the tides of deportation, and the family was allowed to stay in Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few weeks later we received news that our permanent status had been approved,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was amazing. You have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell, the Child and Youth Studies professor who helped engineer the scholarship, said graduation day was a very special moment.<\/p>\n
“The network of supporters for this project was considerable,\u201d he recalled, \u201cand as Sayuri passed by to receive her degree, I was reminded of commitments in our Strategic Mandate Agreement to these kinds of transdisciplinary projects \u2014 the sharing of University resources with community partners to address the complex issues of the 21st century.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrock’s partnership in support of Sayuri’s education has already given Niagara \u2014 and the country \u2014 huge dividends, since her family are now living here and on their way to becoming full citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The past four years weren\u2019t easy for Sayuri, who plans to continue her education with the ultimate career goal of helping children of other farm workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very challenging and overwhelming,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I found a lot of people to help me through the years, and there were always people supporting me.\u201d<\/p>\n
When her name was announced at Convocation in October, a huge cheer went up from her parents, siblings and fianc\u00e9e. For everyone it was a mission completed, a promise kept.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter so much our family has been through, it\u2019s a feeling that is hard to describe,\u201d Sayuri reflected. \u201cIt was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for next steps, her grandmother would be very pleased to know that Sayuri is now working to save money so she can return to Brock to obtain a master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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