About Dream Summer
Dream Summer is an annual, 8-week, national fellowship of the UCLA Labor Center’s Dream Resource Center (DRC). Through Dream Summer, the DRC has provided over 1,000 fellowship opportunities to immigrant youth and allies and has partnered with over 265 social justice organizations across the country. Dream Summer:
- Empowers immigrant youth and allies to be the next generation of social justice leaders through leadership and professional development, movement building, and on-the-ground experience in social justice organizations.
- Creates a safe and healing space for immigrant youth and allies to connect and build with one another.
- Promotes an intersectional, cross-racial, and intergenerational approach to social justice that addresses the needs of immigrant communities.
Fellows are placed within social justice-based host organizations and work closely with their host organization to incorporate and strengthen the role of immigrant rights issues alongside the organization’s social justice work. Over the summer, fellows engage and lead social justice efforts by aligning the call for immigrant rights alongside the unique challenges of queer and transgender communities, Asian and Pacific Islander communities, Black immigrant communities; the ongoing mass incarceration and criminalization of people of color; worker rights; and health care access for all.
Dream Summer 2023
Dream Summer 2023 is set to be a virtual/hybrid experience. Retreats will be hybrid and will follow COVID-19 regulations and safety, placements will be determined based on host organization guidelines. Each placement is different, and each host organization will have their respective COVID-19 protocols in place.
We will do our best to pair fellows with an organization that meets their preference of working remote, in person, or hybrid; however, we cannot guarantee accommodations for all fellows. Given the developing changes of COVID-19 we expect host organizations to accommodate the safety of our fellows. We will notify participants immediately of any changes.
Dream Summer Dates
June 20 – June 22, 2023: Hybrid Opening Retreat
June 23 – August 10, 2023: Placement
August 10, 2023: Last Day of fellows at Host organization
August 11 – August 12, 2023: Closing retreat
Fellow Application
New Application Deadline: January 20, 2023 at 12 PM (noon) PST
Dream Summer fellows receive a $7,000 fellowship award, leadership and professional development training, and become part of a national alumni network of over 1,000 social justice leaders. Dream Summer is open to both experienced social justice leaders and those who wish to begin or strengthen their involvement in social justice.
The fellowship is open to all immigrant youth, regardless of immigration status (undocumented youth, youth with DACA or TPS, etc. are all welcome to apply). Applicants do not need to be students at UCLA to qualify for the fellowship.
If you are interested in becoming a Dream Summer 2023 fellow, please review the linked Application Guide and FAQ document below. You can submit your application through the linked application portal below. The deadline for prospective fellows to apply has been extended from January 6 to January 20 at 12 PM (noon) PST.
For questions that are not addressed in the Application Guide or FAQ document, please contact Dream Summer coordinators Gaby Gil and Jessica Olivares at ucladreamsummer@gmail.com.
Fellow Virtual Information Session
On November 17th, the UCLA Dream Resource Center hosted a virtual information session for prospective fellows that included important details about the fellowship application process, fellowship experience, impact of COVID-19 on the fellowship, and a section for questions and answers. Watch the session here.
Host Organization Application
Application Deadline: December 23, 2022 at 11:59 PM PST
For Dream Summer 2023, the DRC is seeking to partner with organizations that address issues intersecting with the experiences of immigrant youth such as educational access, health, labor, mass incarceration and deportation, and the unique experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, Muslim, and LGBTQ+ undocumented communities.
If you are interested in becoming a Dream Summer 2023 host organization, please review the linked Host Organization FAQ document and Supervisor’s Responsibility Guide. You can submit your application through the linked application portal below. The deadline for host organizations to apply has been updated from December 5, 2022 to December 23 at 11:59 PM PDT.
- Host Organization Application Portal (APPLY HERE)
- Host Organization FAQ
- Host Organization: Supervisor’s Responsibility Guide
For questions that are not addressed in the FAQ document or guide, please contact Dream Summer coordinators Gaby Gil and Jessica Olivares at ucladreamsummer@gmail.com.
Host Organization Virtual Information Session
On November 9th, the UCLA Dream Resource Center held a virtual information session for prospective host organizations that included important details about the fellowship application process, commitment, and a section for questions and answers. Watch the session here.
