During lunchtime, Mariluisa Minera occasionally visits her school’s Dream Center at Woodrow Wilson High.
It’s a space that “feels like a community,” said Minera, a senior.
“They all understand each other. Sometimes it’s really hard to explain to others what you’re feeling because they’ve never been in your shoes,” Minera said.
Dream Centers on high school and college campuses provide information and resources to undocumented students and those who come from mixed-status families.
But while Wilson High is home to a Dream Center, many schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District are not.
That’s why students have been urging the district — at recent walkouts and at board meetings — to implement these centers across all LAUSD campuses.
Their calls come at a time of heightened anxiety. President Donald Trump rolled back policies that protected sensitive places like schools and churches from immigration enforcement. During walkouts in February, students called for transparency on protocols if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents enter their schools.
As uncertainty mounts, students say Dream Centers aren’t just about resources — they’re about visibility, connection and safety.
“Having that community allows us to find people like us and connect with other people and not feel misjudged,” said Minera, who was a core leader during the recent walkouts. “It’s hard to explain to others our experiences, not even just students that are immigrants, but students that have immigrant parents or that weren’t documented before.”
Dream Centers at LAUSD
LAUSD board member Rocío Rivas, who represents parts of Central and East L.A., has expressed her support for Dream Centers after a number of students at a March board meeting demanded they implement those resources across district campuses.
“Dream Centers are a vital resource in ensuring immigrant students and their families feel supported, connected, and at home in LAUSD,” Rivas said in a statement.
Britt Vaughan, an LAUSD spokesperson, said Dream Centers at district schools have been started by students and are student-led. He said students interested in starting a Dream Center at their school “should work with the schools directly.”
Among district campuses that have Dream Centers are Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Woodrow Wilson, and Santee high schools. These centers have relied on nonprofit funding and donations from school staff and community organizations to provide snacks, furniture, and other necessities.
Lincoln High’s Dream Center serves as a model
At Abraham Lincoln High School, the Paula Crisostomo Dream Center – which is believed to be the first such center in the nation to be housed on a high school campus – has pushed the topic of immigration “front and center,” said Art Licon, the sponsor of the student-led center.
“The fact that you have a space for this, you’re going to end up dealing with this issue one way or another,” Licon said. “You’re keeping the topic on the agenda, on the campus.”
“In our campus, immigration and the immigrant community is not on the periphery,” Licon added.
Information surrounding “Know Your Rights” and new immigration laws are common topics of discussion at the center, Licon said. These are issues that may not necessarily be covered in their history and chemistry courses, or in student clubs, Licon explained.
“Sometimes those things fall through the cracks… This is a safe space where students can come in and discuss this,” Licon said.
This month, the Paula Crisostomo Dream Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Student groups like the Black Student Union also meet at the Dream Center.
“The Dream Center plays a permanent role in showing to the students that their presence at our school is official and legitimate,” Licon said.
Other campuses, like Wilson High, are now modeling their own Dream Centers on that same vision.
A new resource hub at Wilson High
At Wilson High’s Dream Center, which hosted its grand opening in May 2024, each weekday provides specific services for students, said community schools coordinator Elizabeth Seamans.
Organizers with Soñadores Unidos, the student leadership club that began the Dream Center, gather at the center for meetings, as well as other organizations like Urban Visionaries and students with the Black Student Achievement Plan.
A psychiatric social worker provides mental health services at the center, which is also used by a “Healthy Start” navigator to enroll students in Covered California or to offer food or clothing.
The idea for the Dream Center at Wilson came after a campus needs assessment found that students yearned for more access to resources for those who are undocumented, Seamans said.
At the Dream Center, conversations with the social worker involve students sharing what they miss about their home countries, whether it’s their grandparents or their overall way of life. It’s also a place where they can pick up red cards and information about immigration clinics. Schoolwide, a meeting was also held with students to disseminate necessary immigration-related information.
Principal Gregorio Verbera said students see the Dream Center as “their space.”
“It’s critical to their mental health. It’s critical to their academic success, their sense of belonging at the school,” he said.
Verbera spoke about the possibility of the Dream Center “scaling up” and having it staffed like a college center. Currently, the Dream Center at Wilson is open during key times when school staff is available to supervise, Verbera said.
“While we have a lot of willing individuals here, they give up their lunch to be there with the students,” he said.
Thinking long term, Verbera said they’d have to explore funding opportunities at the school and district level to be able to provide staffing.
Empowering through education and visibility
For ethnic studies teacher Angelica Reyes, the Dream Center at South L.A.’s Santee Education Complex “sends a clear message to the students that they’re loved and welcomed.”
“It also allows for students to be more comfortable to ask for the things that they need,” said Reyes, adding that she’s had students questioned by ICE.
Santee’s Dream Center provides “Know Your Rights” guides, as well as emergency family plan packets and guardian affidavit forms in case immigrant parents are taken by federal immigration agents. Reyes noted that students also advocated for a school-wide assembly to learn about LAUSD’s protocols in dealing with ICE.
“For the longest time, people were told to be quiet about their immigration status. That’s been something dug into our communities. This really offers space for children to see themselves as more than just immigrants,” she said.
Reyes, a DACA recipient, said she has encountered immigrant students who didn’t see a college education as a possibility. Those perceptions shifted once they learned of her background, Reyes said.
“That visibility is just transformative. I truly wish I had something like that in high school, because it’s so crushing, especially now hearing the rhetoric around immigration. It’s absolutely transformative for our kids and for their families,” she said.