The Adventures of Ro

Day 7; Tour de Dreams

4th Annual CA Tour de Dreams (540 miles from UC Berkeley to UCLA)

Who are the Dream Riders?

Students from all across the nation who come together every year to embark on a 540-mile bike tour known as the California Tour de Dreams. 2012 is the fourth annual Tour de Dreams, predicated on raising scholarships for underrepresented and historically marginalized students. We cycle to raise awareness about the rising cost of higher education and to show students that with a

42 miles, not up to where I want to be but it’s a start. Beautiful ride.

Been up for nearly two hours, only got about 3 hours of sleep last night. 

I just want today to be over, I just want all of next week to be over. I want to believe and hope that everything is going to work out and they won’t discover my secret, just yet.

I’m heading for San Francisco and will be staying till Sunday! 

Thankfully my new job is only 10 mins outside of SF, right after I’m done filling out my paperwork I have a short bike ride back into the city. 

Tapas dinner with some good great friends. 

Rock climbing in the AM tomorrow and music in the park soon afterwards. 

I plan on finishing my weekend on a 50 mile bike ride from UC Berkeley down to San Jose with other participants of the Tour de Dreams! 

Keep on moving -Ro

I can’t wait till this is trailing us during our 540 tour de dreams ride! :D :D :D 

30 miles, 2 hours and 1008 calories

Tomorrow, 40 miles.

In the name of undocumented immigrants’ educational rights, students from all over California left UC Berkeley Friday morning on a 540-mile bike ride to UCLA, paved with press conferences at various schools and cities.

The second annual “Tour de Dreams” - originally conceived by a collective of UC and CSU students - will last nine days and include, at its largest capacity, 27 riders and seven volunteers. Riders seek to raise awareness about the struggles of undocumented students, push for federal legislation that would make such students eligible for financial aid opportunities and raise funds for their education.

Compared to last year, there are 11 more riders, a reversed direction in travel and renewed determination since the legislation advocated has not left the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee since its March 2009 proposal.

The DREAM Act, which the bikers are trying to bring to a vote by November, according to spokesperson Blanca Hernandez-Nunez, would grant six-year conditional citizenship to people who had been living in the U.S. before the age of 16 - and for five consecutive years prior to the law’s passage - and are now entering the military or at least two years of higher education. The act would allow them more, though still limited, financial aid opportunities, such as student loans and work study.

“You are not eligible for federal scholarships, loans or grants, so it is hard knowing that every semester, you have to fight for funds,” said one undocumented UC Berkeley sophomore who has lived in California since 1994. “You either have to try and get a private scholarship, even though you are eligible for so little, or you have to try and get a job over the summer, which could be even harder because they might not want to hire you since you don’t have a Social Security number.”

In order to apply for a job, the student said he provided his Individual Taxpayer Identification Number rather than a Social Security number. He did not want to name the job for fear that his employer would not rehire him.

The student is active in Rising Immigrant Students through Education, a group that teaches prospective UC Berkeley students about AB 540, a 2001 law that grants undocumented California residents in-state tuition if they attend a California high school for at least three years.

Annelisa Luong, the only other UC Berkeley student participating in the ride this year, said the fact that RISE is mostly Latino may be off-putting to undocumented students, compounding their feelings of isolation.

“Forty percent of UC system’s undocumented population is Asian or Pacific Islander,” she said. “I want to fight the media image that ‘Oh, this is a Mexican thing.’”

As the campus organizing coordinator for REACH! - an Asian or Pacific Island Recruitment and Retention center - Luong said she hopes to make the center a resource for non-Latino undocumented students.

“The least we can do is support our peers who are trying to do good things, trying to contribute,” she said.

Keith Hubbard, a student at De Anza College in Cupertino, Calif., said he is riding in solidarity with all people who had to undergo immigration-related struggles, including his ancestors.

“I understand I am privileged,” he said. “I am fourth generation, so at one point we were undocumented. I am using the ride to honor that.”

- This is an article that was written about Tour de Dreams last year, I’ll be participating this year. I can’t explain how grateful I feel to be part of something so amazing. We’re hoping to have our first conference next week, I don’t know exactly how many of us are out of San Francisco but my first duty is to work on getting housing for 50+ people since there are talks about moving the start location to San Francisco. I will keep you all updated!! -Ro