Liliana Graciela Astiz, a sophomore in NYU’s Liberal Studies Program, is one of 40 students from across the nation to be selected by PBS’s award-winning documentary series “American Experience” to take part in the 2011 Student Freedom Ride. 

PBS “American Experience” has organized the 2011 Student Freedom Ride to retrace the 1961 bus rides of hundreds of black and white Americans across the Deep South in violation of Jim Crow laws. Marking the 50th anniversary of this historic journey, students will retrace the steps of the original Freedom Riders as they journey from Washington, D.C. to Jackson, Miss. from May 6 to May 16. 

Astiz, who lived in New Mexico’s Gila National Forrest for the first five years of her life, sees an “innate correlation between the treatment of nature and the exploitation of minority groups.” This fall, Astiz will begin her concentration in water sustainability in changing climates at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. 

The experiences of the 2011 student freedom riders can be accessed here.

PBS will premiere the documentary “Freedom Riders” by award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson on May 16, 2011.