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You no longer live here

Community organizer finds her passion away from home

by Stephanie Garza

When I was a student at the University of Notre Dame, I once went home to Texas for a vacation. Adapting to university life had been hard, and I wanted to stay home. But my father said: “It’s time for you to go back to school. It is where your dreams are. You no longer live here.” Luckily my father would not let me take the easy way out.

Stephanie GarzaI had been suffering culture shock. Not only did I have to adapt to being away from home and not making the grades I expected, I was in a place where Hispanics were few and far between. You could count Latinos on one hand. It was hard. It tried my spirit.

But, supported by my family’s steadfastness, I continued and went much further than even my family would have dreamt. I have since studied abroad in Puebla, Mexico and ventured into parts of Mexico my family has never seen. My father is from Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and my family has not traveled much. The furthest north anyone in the Garza family had ever been was Houston, where I was born and raised.

I served the immigrant community in Cicero, Illinois during a summer internship project through the Institute of Latino Studies of Notre Dame and was also blessed with the opportunity to spend a summer in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services.

I now reside in Chicago and work as a community organizer seeking justice and change for immigrant families. Notre Dame gave me the opportunities for academic and professional advancement, while also nurturing my spiritual growth.

I view my current career as a vocation where I integrate my faith active in the work for justice.

Though far away from Texas, I am home now and probably closer to my family than I had ever been.