Alondra Meza Camarillo is a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame majoring both in Political Science and Arabic, with a minor in Theology. Meza Camarillo is passionate about deepening her knowledge about the causes of forced migration within the Middle East. This interest was sparked as a result of her learning of the coup d'état's that have occurred within Latin America, and experiencing the unrest surrounding the recent border "crisis" in the US. She would like to further this interest by accompanying refugees during her time at Notre Dame, learning to communicate with them in their native language, to truly understand the predicament they're in. To her, listening to people's stories is the ultimate way to approach crafting policies and legislation that 1) highlights the humanity of those it was crafted for, and 2) best meets their needs -- something she hopes one day to do.
During the summer of 2023, Meza Camarillo spent time mentoring children of migrant-farm workers through the college admissions process in Florida. Work, she believes, is at the front lines of motivating the next generation of voters and policy makers to push America past the complicated divisions its current immigration system falls victim to. Alondra continued to volunteer in the South Bend community, accompanying immigrant community members in preparing to take the US Naturalization exam.
When she's not contemplating the ways to pour love into the aspirations briefly described above, Meza Camarillo enjoys exchanging songs with strangers, and finding new things to add to her ultimate MUST-TRY bucket list. "Begin developing my research skills" has happily been ticked off her list.