On October 23, 2025, Dr. Amanda Earl, Visiting Assistant Professor of Teaching in International and Comparative Education, Jonathan Beltrán Alvarado, ICEP doctoral student, and ICEP alumna Laura Itzel Carbajal Montalvo from Teach for America, delivered a panel presentation highlighting the significant presence and experiences of Mexican students in the New York City Public Schools (NYCPS). Melissa de León, the Principal of the International High School at Lafayette, moderated the presentation. Principal de León is an experienced educational leader of a school that belongs to the International Network for Public Schools, a nationwide initiative centered on supporting immigrant students’ K-12 experience and success in college, career, and beyond.
The panel took place on the opening day of the 8th Binational Education Week and 2nd Community Plazas Summit, organized by the Mexican Consulate General in New York, the Institute for Mexican Studies at the City University of New York (CUNY), and the Institute for Mexicans and Mexicans Abroad at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. One of the goals of the week was to highlight the role of the Consulate’s Plazas Comunitarias program, which has established community learning centers that provide vital educational hubs for Mexicans over the age of 15 and living in the US and Canada to begin, continue, and/or complete their basic education.
The day began with welcoming remarks from key officials, including Marcos Bucio Mújica, Consul General of Mexico in New York, Félix Santana Ángeles, Consul of Communities, Melissa Aviles-Ramos, Chancellor of NYCPS, Armando Contreras Castillo, Director General of the Instituto Nacional para la Educación de los Adultos [The National Institute for Adult Education] (INEA), and Mtra. Tatiana Clouthier, Head of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IMME). During the first panel of the day, Héctor Enrique Vasconcelos y Cruz, Mexico’s Ambassador to the United Nations, and José Higuera-López, Director of the Institute for Mexican Studies at CUNY, discussed at a broader level educational perspectives and opportunities for the Mexican community in the United States (US).
Representatives of the ICEP program were then invited to share their expertise on the “migrations, adjustments, and trajectories” of Mexican students in our City with the leaders of the Plazas Comunitarias from across the US who were present for the 4-day Summit. Jonathan Beltrán presented demographic statistics on the educational attainment of Mexicans in the NYC DOE; Dr. Earl emphasized the importance of leveraging students’ family and Indigenous languages and funds of knowledge as a means to promote academic achievement, highlighting the Latinidad Curriculum Initiative for NYC K-12 public schools as an pioneering example; and Laura Carbajal, a former Zankel Fellow, emphasized the important role of schools in promoting students’ multilingualism and intercultural experiences through sharing examples of her work at Ellis Prep. Academy.
Overall, the panel on migration, adjustments, and educational pathways for social mobility underscored how a strengths-based approach based on multiculturalism and multilingualism can help education leaders achieve systematic change if they validate, nurture, and channel all the ways of knowing of the students and their families. In the Q&A, members of the audience mentioned feeling inspired by the examples of work being done in NYC, and shared how it might inform some of their work with Plazas Comunitarias across the US.
ICEP participation in this event exemplifies the commitment of our Faculty, students, and alumni to share knowledge, inform, and promote meaningful dialogue among local, national, and international education stakeholders beyond the university.