One of my favorite aspects of the Schedler Honors College is its encouragement and equipping of students to explore new areas of academics, work, and life. I enjoyed opportunities through our Core classes to complete assignments through creative works such as poems, paintings, or drawings. As an engineering physics major, I truly appreciated these assignments that gave me a chance to practice the arts, and I considered them a great example of how important interdisciplinarity is to the Honors College. Knowing the Honors Capstone project could be in the format and on the topic of the student’s choice, I was excited to choose a creative project – a short animated film. The topic it would be on became clear to me after writing a research paper in my Honors Core II class on the U.S. Migrant Protection Protocols, a policy that required migrants to wait in Mexico while their asylum cases were being processed in the U.S. As I learned more about what conditions and dangers migrants faced during their wait, what caused them to migrate in the first place, and what they experienced during their journeys toward the U.S., I felt it was crucial to share these realities, especially when they were clearly missing from the anti-immigrant narrative that was rising so strongly in the U.S.
To me, telling these stories through animated film would allow me to do so in an accessible yet still impactful way, highlighting the beauty as much as the tragedy of these migrants’ lives. Through the film, I wanted to explore characteristics of migrants’ journeys, including the risks and dangers they experienced. However, I was determined to also showcase migrants’ humanity by exploring their needs, commitments, fears, personalities, and aspirations. I considered this a central component to accurately depicting our protagonists and telling their stories. By using primarily hand-drawn animation for the film, my goal was for the artisanal and emotive feel and look of this style to enhance this concept of humanity we wanted to emphasize, making the most of the artists’ hands literally bringing the characters to life frame by frame.
Through the Experiential Learning Funds Grant provided by the Schedler Honors College, I was able to fund the film’s entirely remote production team. The project became a collaborative effort of artists from around the world, including animators, background artists, sound designers, and character designers. Working on the film with this team to share migrants’ stories made a personal impact on me far beyond what I was expecting. I never imagined having the opportunity to work with an international team on an animated film as an undergraduate, especially one not majoring in the arts. Though the process was incredibly complex at times, it was a privilege to have so many people from different parts of the world support the project through their dedication and beautiful work.
Working with the film’s content itself was the most impactful aspect of the project. Spending so long handling and seeing these stories changed me for life. Seeing the characters and their experiences come to life through the film’s animation, music, and backgrounds repeatedly made their suffering more difficult to witness but their resilience more moving to see. It was especially difficult as production was taking place during a time when the political and social climate in the U.S. became significantly more aggressive towards migrants. However, though it has undoubtedly become one of the most difficult things I have done in my life, I know that the importance of this film as an effort to share a more intimate and thorough portrayal of Latin American migration is undeniable. Seeing the impact the film’s purpose and story had on artists from our team really encouraged me to continue, especially knowing that the finalized film would have an even stronger impact. During the events where I was able to share progress on the film, the audience’s genuine excitement and support for the project similarly encouraged me and meant more than I can express. I am sincerely thankful to the Schedler Honors College for giving me the opportunity and means to pursue this project, which I trust will impact its audience when its final cut is released.
Elizabeth Lopez
Class of May 2026
ELF Grant
Engineering physics major
