Carlos Saavedra, an immigrant from Peru, came to the United States in 1998. Facing the harsh reality of immigrants in the United States, and suffering from the flaws of a broken immigration system, he always felt as if there was always something wrong, but no one was working to fix it. Until in 2001, one of his high school teachers challenged him, along with a group of classmates to discuss these issues and potentially act to make their own situation better. That's when the campaign for Equal Access to Higher Education for Immigrant Students started. Carlos took advantage of this opportunity not only to work towards improving the lives of immigrant students in Massachusetts, but also to find his calling in life, community organizing.  After 2 years of campaigning, Carlos, with the help of other students went on to found The Student Immigrant Movement (SIM).  SIM is a statewide organization that identifies recruits and develops student leaders across the state to collectively realize their full potential, define their own identity and become fully engaged in every aspect of society that affects their lives. SIM has been very successful since it's formation in allowing immigrant student to access higher education institutions. As the lead organizer of SIM, Carlos was chosen as the 2006 Recipient of the New Bostonian Youth leadership award presented by the Mayor's office of New Bostonians. To this day, Carlos continues to lead the organization, along with a team of organizers, to fight and to obtain justice for our immigrant community.