Lumos Scholar Aaron Kleinschmidt asks potent questions and shares his experience volunteering at a migrant shelter in Mexico 

Upon graduating from Belmont with degrees in Spanish and international politics, Aaron Kleinschmidt (‘23) was awarded both the Fulbright Award from the US Dept of State and the Lumos Travel Award, a Belmont-specific program that funds students seeking an international work or research experience. After spending a year in Spain teaching English through Fulbright, he began his Lumos experience working with the FM4 Paso Libre migrant shelter in Guadalajara, the second-largest metropolitan area in Mexico.  

Kleinschmidt’s work at the FM4 Paso Libre shelter in Guadalajara showed him the dangers migrants and refugees face when traveling in search of safety. The shelter provides several types of care to in-transit migrants, including necessities like food, water and shelter, medical care, legal aid and cultural outreach. Supported by the UN Refugee Agency, FM4 offers a moment of respite on a long and dangerous journey. 

The three primary human rights laws throughout most of the world are the right to life, liberty and security. According to Kleinschmidt, the organization’s name suggests a fourth and reflects its mission. 

“FM4 means free passage with dignity and justice on the journey,’” he said. “It’s this idea that you could migrate when and where you needed to with minimal resistance.” 

FM4 Paso Libre opened in 2010 as just a soup kitchen. Over the following decade and a half, it has grown exponentially in capacity as it has received more funding, serving nearly 60,000 migrants and refugees since first opening its doors. 

Kleinschmidt served as a full-time volunteer at FM4 for his Lumos experience. Working early mornings and late nights, he led volunteer teams and organized their tasks based on what was needed for that day. He would also work in each of the four main areas of the shelter: puerta (door), cocina (kitchen), alberque (shelter) and ropería (wardrobe). 

The most intense experience was working the puerta, he said, because that was where newcomers were interviewed to see if they could be allowed into the shelter. “It was a very intense job, and kind of scary. I don't like having people's fate in my hands, but I suppose someone's going do it, right? So if it's going be someone, I guess it can be me.” 

In the final month of his volunteer stay, Kleinschmidt’s role mirrored that of a more traditional internship. He learned from the shelter’s full-time staff, contributed to its social media and performed event planning work for the organization. 

Lumos Learning Moments 

Many themes and learning opportunities arose throughout Kleinschmidt’s time in Guadalajara. From learning how to navigate a situation where you are an authority figure over someone twice your age and with quadruple the life experience to the shared responsibility of the volunteers, migrants and salaried employees to keep the shelter running, Kleinschmidt gained valuable insight into how to ethically and respectfully collaborate across cultural barriers.  

Kleinschmidt was also confronted with the reality that a person’s country of origin makes a world of difference in international travel, sparking the image of the double-edged (or one-way mirror) border in his mind. 

“As a Lumos recipient and a US citizen, I had the pleasure of not contacting my consulate a single time or submitting any paperwork at all,” he said. “But I have friends in Mexico who have everything in line to travel out of the country but have to wait months for an appointment at the consulate. They get asked invasive questions and end up getting denied a visa. It doesn't always happen that way, but this sentiment started bothering me. 

If this is how it is for folks who are just looking to travel for leisure, how much harder is it for someone who's picking up their whole life and wanting to travel to the US?” 

All of these experiences return Kleinschmidt to the initial question, and one of the shelter’s slogans: are we all migrants? He views the answer as a strong message of solidarity between himself and those he was serving. While he may not have shared every experience with the migrants in transit at FM4, he understands the feeling of leaving a place he knows for a chance at something better.  

The connection formed by that mutual understanding is why Kleinschmidt sought out Lumos, and what the Lumos Travel Award hopes every one of its recipients can experience.