As part of the University of California’s Mexico Initiative, the Education Working Group designed awork plan that identified key collaborative efforts that would lead to “a more seamless system of California-Mexico educational collaboration so that the many students we share now and in the future can realizetheir aspirations on both sides of our border.”1 Working group members Adela de la Torre (UC Davis), AnaCelia Zentella (UC San Diego) and Amy Kyratzis (UC Santa Barbara) served as the planning committee, incollaboration with Mexico Lead, Lourdes de Leon (CIESAS), for the implementation of a binationalsymposium that would “allow researchers, policymakers and teaching personnel to share and update research agendas, programs and effective practices with a final outcome of published selected working papers and a funded pilot project.”
The inaugural Binational Symposium on the Education of Indigenous Mexican Students in Mexico andCalifornia was held in Oaxaca, Mexico on April 22 and 23, 2016. Eighty-two students, communitymembers, researchers, professors, and administrators participated in this convening. The Symposiumaimed to cultivate binational educational partnerships to effectively support and serve Mexican indigenousstudents by offering a platform to critically examine issues, share solutions, and identify collaborativeinterventions.
