Beyond Dreamers: Undocumented Youth Imagining Futures

Sofya Aptekar is a professor of urban studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. In addition to the newly published Beyond Dreamers: Transitions to Adulthood in an Uncertain Age (Russell Sage), she is a co-author of Lend & Rule: Fighting the Shadow Financialization of Public Universities (Common Notions), and the author of Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat (MIT Press) and The Road to Citizenship: What Naturalization Means for Immigrants and the United States (Rutgers University Press).

Cynthia Carvajal is the inaugural Director of Undocumented & Immigrant Student Programs at the City University of New York central office. She is a scholar and practitioner at the intersection of immigration and education. Originally from Zapopan, Mexico she immigrated to East Los Angeles, CA at the age of five. Her personal and professional goals are grounded in her experience as a formerly undocumented immigrant, student, and community member for twelve years of her life. She previously served as the inaugural director for two immigration focused spaces: John Jay’s Immigrant Student Success Center, the first center of it’s kind in NY and the CUNY-Initiative on Immigration and Education. In her current role she helps campuses assess their immigration support services and helps them open Immigrant Student Success Centers at their campus. Under her leadership, 4 additional centers have opened across CUNY.