Southwestern College’s graduation season lasted a little longer this year.
The main ceremonies were held in late May in Chula Vista, but Thursday night 64 graduates and their Mexican families celebrated for the first time across the border.
The event was held in the schoolyard of the Preparatoria Federal Lázaro Cárdenas campus.
Southwestern College's presiding board president, Roberto Alcantar, came up with the idea as the school continues to develop more opportunities for binational cooperation.
“This is what collaboration looks like. This is what a binational community looks like. It’s not putting up walls, it’s not pushing back against opportunities for everyone in the region. It’s about building the bridge," Alcantar said.
In the audience: family members who for political or personal reasons could not cross the border to see their loved ones graduate.
Pedro Ernesto Araujo is one of the graduates who was born in Tijuana but grew up in San Diego County.
Araujo enjoys singing mariachi music and performed in his cap and gown, but he graduated with a certificate in crime scene investigation that he will use to become a police detective someday.
His Mexican grandparents and his father were in the audience Thursday.
“I’m really happy that this is happening here," Araujo said. "Because that means for a lot of people, as well, that their families cannot cross and this will help them a lot."
Southwestern College administrators are committed to the binational benefit of education.
In April 2022, the college signed an agreement with the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California to explore study-abroad programs and give students at that university the opportunity to attend school while paying in-state tuition here.
Assembly Bill 91, now in the California Legislature, would expand that opportunity to all low-income community college students living within 45 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Christine Baeza Castillo is proud and grateful to have completed an associate's degree in international transportation logistics. Her 93-year-old grandmother from Tijuana attended the ceremony.
“I’m trying to withhold myself from crying. It's going to ruin my makeup. But I’m super excited and this means the world to me. The fact that they did this and I’m part of it for the first year. It’s an opportunity that I get to share with my grandmother," Castillo said.
Her grandmother has lived in Tijuana for over 60 years and has never been able to travel to the United States for her other graduations.
