Jose Antonio Vargas
Event date: NOVEMBER 9, 2019 AT 7PM
Event Location: Copperfield’s Book Petaluma Store
140 Kentucky Street Petaluma
Featured Book: DEAR AMERICA: NOTES OF AN UNDOCUMENTED CITIZEN
We’re excited to welcome Jose Antonio Vargas to our lecture series. Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated producer. A leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, he founded the non-profit media and culture organization Define American, named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company.
His best-selling memoir, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, was published by HarperCollins in 2018. This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.
Mr. Vargas writes: “After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.”
A product of the San Francisco Bay Area, he is a proud graduate of San Francisco State University (’04), where he was named Alumnus of the Year in 2012, and Mountain View High School (’00). An elementary school named after Vargas opened in his hometown of Mountain View, California in August 2019.
Tickets: Free, but you must reserve a seat
Purchase online at: https://www.copperfieldsbooks.com/event/copperfield’s-books-literacy-works-present-jose-antonio-vargas
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The Literacyworks Lecture series is a collaboration with Copperfield’s Books to bring nationally recognized authors to the North Bay. Most importantly, it is a fundraiser for the Literacyworks Center and our other programs. Go to http://www.literacyworks.org/events to see our list of 2019 speakers.
Student Spotlight
Center Student Vicente P. Talks about his Educational Goals
After graduating from SRJC’s High School Equivalency Program (HEP), Vicente joined the Literacyworks Center, starting in ESL courses three years ago. His goal is to graduate and transfer to a four-year college in Spring 2020 with an Associate degree in Physics. Vicente’s parents, Liset and Vicente Sr., are also on our program and enrolled in noncredit ESL courses at SRJC. They are both proud and motivated by their son’s academic achievements.
Vicente says that the Center gives him constant encouragement that keeps him pressing forward with his education. He continues to work hard because he knows that someone is ready and willing to invest in his future.
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Vicente describes his educational goals:
Physics has always been one of my major passions, and while I still have a lot to learn, I really enjoy life seeing it from other perspectives. One of my most recent experiences was this summer of 2019 where the opportunity to visit Oak Ridge National Laboratory and stay there for about three weeks was given to me. First, I was astonished that I could be part of such an important activity since I did not know if it was going to be an internship or more likely an apprenticeship. Well, expenses like transportation and dorms were paid. Although I was decided to pay for my food, I was also provided with extra money for it.
The first visit was about 4 days, where I had the opportunity to get trained and disassembled the beamline. I got to know pretty much all the internal components of the machine. After that visit, the second visit was about 2.5 weeks, here is where the real physics began. My daily tasks were as follows: by 7:00 am I had to be ready (already woke up, had taken breakfast, and present in the laboratory) to start with the "Pump out" where basically, I had to open valves to pressurize and cool down a chamber which contained the main pixels for the cosmic ray detection. Around 8:30 am, I was already done with the pump out, and ready to turn on the "duoplasmatron" (neutral beam) source and the main beam source (ion beam). We called it "tunned the beam" (this was my favorite part since I got to learn how to turn on a 220kVolts generator, magnetic field around 2 Teslas generators, and microwave generator). Anyways, by around 11:00 to 12:00 pm I had two options, either start the measurements or go to lunch. Thus, most of the days, I decided to start the runs and by 12:00 pm go to lunch since the runs or collection of data lasted for around 3 to 4 hours. Lastly, by around 6 to 7:30 pm I had to restart the experiment, meaning that I had to shut down the machines, and refilled the chamber with helium. we called this "Helium Transfer". Overall, this was not only a visit to ORNL, but it also was a lesson for life because I got to learn both experimental and theoretical Physics. I might be going back by winter 2020 to assemble everything in another building.
I am so glad to be part of the Literacyworks program since, ultimately, thanks to this program I was able to practice my English skills, as well to connect with other programs like MESA, where I participated in an event called "shadow day" which gave me the opportunity to participate in an "internship."
- Vicente P.
The Center is changing lives and the need is great
The Literacyworks Center year-end campaign to enroll additional students on our program for 2020 has begun. All of our adults are low-income, low-literacy members of our community and are the first in their family to go to college. Many are parents. Their perseverance in reaching their educational goals encourages their children to excel in school and follow their example to attend college.
We are asking you to support a student or more. For a $3,000 gift, you will enable a Center student to reach their goals and stay in school for a full academic year. We do whatever it takes to help our adults succeed in college and invest in their future, but we can’t do it without you. Your gift of any amount creates meaningful change for our students, families, and their communities.
Please go to our Donation page at http://www.literacyworks.org/donate to help our students succeed.
Literacyworks has been determined a 501 (C)(3) organization by the IRS (EIN: 94-3396412).
