Immigrant Communities | Teach For America

Home Is a Dream and a Cage—but It Doesn’t Have To Be

Immigrants who are DACA-protected or otherwise undocumented should get to choose what and where “home” is.

Astou Thiane

Assistant Principal of Humanities at Canarsie Ascend Middle School

Astou Thiande and President Joe Biden in the White House

The Fight to Keep English Learners From Falling Through the Cracks

COVID-19 has taken an unprecedented toll on English learners. Families, educators, and school leaders are giving their all to keep English learners on track through this unpredictable and challenging school year.

Jessica Fregni

Writer-Editor, One Day

Maria Burke

Illustrator

A colorful illustration featuring students sitting around a table learning English.

Diary of a Social Worker: Making Mental Health for Students a Priority During a Pandemic

Mobile mental health specialist Esther Kwak is adjusting to working from home while delivering urgent mental health services to Houston area students.

Paula Ann Solis

An illustration of a woman in business dress standing with one hand on her hip

Bringing Diversity and Student Stories to Bookshelves

Jennifer De Leon (Bay Area ’02) says not every reader will get the references in her novel featuring a Latinx heroine—and that's fine by her. She's decentering whiteness and decolonizing shelves.

Paula Ann Solis

Illustrations of a Latinx Woman in the wilderness and typing on a computer

When Parents Won't Give Up

A group of Minneapolis parents with roots in Somalia are getting a distinctly American lesson in how education systems work, and just how much strategizing and speaking out it takes to be heard.

Leah Fabel

Nina Robinson

Looking up at a tall apartment building with a school attached to the bottom floor.

‘Resilient and Thriving’: What Immigrants Bring to Education

In honor of Immigrant Heritage Month, Teach For America speaks with three alumni in the immigrant community about their time in the classroom and how they leverage their identities in their careers of impact to fight for educational equity.

The TFA Editorial Team

Teach For America celebrates Immigrant Heritage Month

Undocumented in Color

Atlanta Artist Yehimi Cambrón (Metro Atlanta ’15) brings to life the complexities of the immigrant experience through murals that make this issue, and the people at the heart of this issue, unavoidable.

Paula Ann Solis

A mural against a brick wall depicting the faces of three women.

A Teacher’s Future Hangs on a Supreme Court Case

While he waits for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a teacher serenades  his community.

Faviola Leyva

Help is Here to Know and Protect the Rights of Immigrant Students

TFA Social Innovation award-winner Vanessa Luna, co-founder of ImmSchools is leading an effort to provide educators the resources they need to know and protect the rights of immigrant students and families.

Susan Brenna

Vanessa Luna walking through the streets of New York.

Finding Power in Art

For many people, immigration status—whether their own or their families’—can be a source of intense fear and anxiety. In Arizona, a nonprofit seeks to harness and heal those painful lived experiences.

Faviola Leyva