On May 31, 2018, Jiménez Moreta delivered the commencement address at the 94th commencement ceremony of Queens College in Flushing, New York. This year, there were over 4,300 undergraduate and graduate degrees awarded to candidates. From these statistics, over 3,200 degrees were Bachelor’s degrees, which is the highest number awarded in a five year period.
In addition, she received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters by Queens College President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. She was the 2017 recipient of the MacArthur “Genius Award,” and she was listed on Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People of 2018.” Pop star, actress and UNICEF ambassador Selena Gomez wrote the passage about Cristina Jiménez Moreta, where she received the Time Magazine distinction.
Most recently, Jiménez Moreta inspired pop star Kesha, when they met at the Time 100 GALA this past April. Kesha expressed that she was moved by what United We Dream was doing, in an effort to empower immigrant youth in America. “They are working to protect and empower hundreds of thousands of DREAMers who came to this country as children and grew up, studied, and worked in the USA, and now face deportation with the scheduled end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program,” Kesha posted on her Facebook page, and noted that United We Dream continues to fight for justice and dignity for immigrants and it helps DREAMers apply for protection.
Kesha dedicated her music video for “Hymn,” to all the DREAMers.
United We Dream is the largest Immigrant youth-led network in the country. For more information on United We Dream, check out its official homepage, and their Facebook page.
To learn more about Queens College, visit its official website, and its Facebook page.
Read More: Queens College is the crown jewel of CUNY.
