Five months ago, students Micaela Lara and Silvia Leon traveled from their home at the University of California, Santa Cruz to help New York immigrant students graduate from high school and go on to college.

Lara and Leon, seniors majoring in community studies and education, came to the Big Apple to intern and work at The Mexican Educational Foundation of New York, or MexEd, which is a non-profit organization devoted to providing academic support with their after school programs and personal support through their mentoring program to Mexican and other immigrant students. The program is small and works out of a cramped office at Baruch Collge but in the last nine years their impact has been strong in young immigrant's lives, they said.

"In the after school program they talk about college access, writing essays, we'll take them on college outreach programs," said Blanca Ibanez, director of Mex Ed. "It's a variety of things, not only to expand their horizons as individuals but continue pushing the academic....education is probably one of the best ways for social mobility. If you get educated, you're more likely to get a job with status."

Mex Ed was created by Professor Robert Smith as an outgrowth of his doctoral work and MexEd services 15 to 25 students a year, said Ibanez.

"What lead us to New York was the Mexican community," said Leon. "People over here are from South Mexico like Puebla." In California many Mexicans come from Jalisco, she said.

Lara and Leon both said that they discovered the diversity of Mexico during their stay in New York. They didn't hear the word Chicano as much as they do in California. And people in New York wear darker more neutral colors than on the west coast, they said.

"When we researched for an organization to come here," said Lara. "...we were focused on education and empowering youth....We found Prof. Smith and the Mexican community here and his research."

Lara and Leon consider writing a paper or creating a short film because they became curious as to why a Mexican immigrant would travel across the border to then cross the continent to come to New York instead of staying in the west or south west of the country.

As role models and examples to the students of MexEd, Lara and Leon are young Chicanas who have taken advantage of their own educational opportunities that they've been provided, which enables them to show students that access and upward mobility is available, even if a student's status is illegal.

"The best way we got to learn about the diversity of Latinos here," said Lara, "is obviously through socializing and getting to know people....the Mexican youth have adapted to Carribbean Spanish...here, I don't know it's a little different."

MexEd does not only cater to Mexicans alone but also to all immigrant groups. They work closely with teens at Washington Irving High School in Manhattan and in the South Bronx.

Lara remembered her parents, both migrant farm workers who were originally from Mexico, describing the impact an organization like Mex Ed can have on a young Latino.

"We would be in the fields, harvesting the crops and my dad would say 'mija this is why I want ...for you to get an education and get something better.'"