By: Diana Colin

Education is key to escaping poverty – that’s why Diana Colin started organizing as a student volunteer. Now she’s the California staff organizer with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).

I started organizing in 2007. At that point, I wasn’t aware what kind of access undocumented students had to college. When I found out about California Assembly Bill 540, a 2001 law that gave undocumented state residents the opportunity to pay in-state tuition for college, I saw I had an open door to get a higher education. But instead of being excited in that moment, I was upset no one had told me earlier this opportunity was available. So I went out into my community — to schools, to car washes, anywhere — and told undocumented people about their options for getting an education.

At that time, I didn’t know I was organizing. Then I was invited to a California Dream Network retreat, which was a campus network run by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). They come together twice a year for workshops, training, and discussions of the immigrant rights movement. Well, I walked into the retreat and saw 200 other students looking up to this amazing woman facilitating the conversation. She was very motivational, she was inspiring everyone, and I found out that she was called an organizer. I’ve been involved ever since.

I went through leadership training through CHIRLA and the California Dream Network. I was born an organizer – I’m outgoing, I like to talk to people – but there’s a science to it. In training, I learned those tactics and techniques.

Before I became an organizer, I felt stuck in my situation. I was in the shadows. I didn’t know I had any power to change anything. I didn’t even know I had the power to visit my elected officials.  It was difficult for me, being extroverted, to think, “I can’t travel, I can’t go to college, and can’t be honest with friends about being undocumented.”

Now, as an organizer, I know my power and I can empower other people. I can show them the possibilities are endless, regardless of their status. I love witnessing that moment when people become empowered. You can actually see it happen. Their body, the way they speak, the way they hold themselves – everything changes – and these are people who were just like I was in the beginning.

There’s room in organizing for everyone. You don’t have to be good at public speaking. There is space in the movement for you, and anything you have to offer is necessary. We’re grateful to have volunteers who do things like make fliers, do data entry, or host canvassers in their home because we could not put on huge rallies or do the other things we do without these people.

When things get hard, I think about our members – the students I work with who ride a bus for four hours just to get to school, or people here in this country alone because they left their entire family back home.  I think about my dad, who was a dentist back home, not being able to do what he loves, what he worked hard for. Their stories inspire me. I work for them, and when I think about how hard they fight, I have no reason to not keep going.