Dorn, Arlene

Biography

When Arlene Dorn-Trowbridge transferred to UCSC from Cabrillo College in 1966, she was in her early 40's, which makes her one of UCSC's most senior alumni. She went on to teach in Watsonville's public schools, where many of her students were from migrant farm worker families. She noticed that each year several students left for Mexico in November, not returning until the following spring. "They were at a great disadvantage," she says, "because they arrived in Mexico too late to enroll in schools there."

Working with education officials, teachers, and parents on both sides of the border, Dorn soon occupied a key role in developing a standardized student progress form that is recognized as an official transfer document by schools in the U.S. and Mexico. In 1975, concerned with the impact on her students that the annual moves between Mexico and California were having during the school year, she initiated a needs study of the parents of international migrant children. She then took a sabbatical leave the following year to pursue her Masters degree in Intercultural Education in Mexico, where she met Señora Irene Anzaldúa, principal of the American School in Mexico City. Anzaldúa put her in touch with officals in the centalized educational system of Mexico. Together, they brought to the California State Migrant Education Department a commitment made by the Mexican Ministry of Education to aid international migrant children jointly with California schools.

This commitment became the basis for the Gómez-Farías Project, a pilot project (designed for replication) that Dorn originated, developed, organized, and promoted. The project was funded for a two-year initial period (fiscal years 1978-79 and 1979-80) by the Department of Education. A process to communicate academic data for the students was jointly developed by the Sectaría de Educación Pública (SEP) of Mexico, and California. Irene Anzaldúa became the coordinator in Mexico, working directly with Dorn.

In January 1980, Dorn solicited aid from various private foundations. The David and Lucille Packard Foundation in Los Altos, California offered a grant toward phase two of the project, now to be referred to as Project MEDIR [Spanish = to measure], for Migrant Education Data International Record. Identification of migrant children took place through the use of a Migrant Student Record Transfer System (MSRTS) among other agencies. In November, 1980, Dorn became full-time coordinator for the remainder of the school year, and the project was placed within the non-profit organization California Mini-Corps, part of the State Department of Migrant Education (in the County Office of Education in Butte County). This office was approved by the State Department of Education to be the fiscal agent for the M.E.D.I.R. project in January, 1981. The Packard Foundation again funded the second year. Districts in which Project MEDIR was implemented were Lodi (San Joaquin County), Planada (Merced County), Cutler-Orosi (Tulare County), Delano (Kern County), Greenfield (Monterey County), Gonzales (Monterey County), Cabrillo (San Mateo County), and Desert Sands (Riverside County). Sites were selected because groups of students were returning annually to the same village. During this time Dorn succeeded in changing the fall-only enrollment policy of Mexican schools, greatly enhancing the possibility of success for the program.

In 1997 Arlene Dorn-Trowbridge was honored by the Mexican government for her work. She lives in Santa Cruz and continues to be active in the community.