AN INVITATION TO APPLY
We are thrilled to invite you
on this Journey.
This page is for invited guests only.
Parque de La Amistad
(Friendship Park)
US-Mexico border, Tijuana, Mexico
Because you are part of the Mosaic Collective and the Threads of Change Circle, we are inviting you to apply to the next Mosaic Journey to the Sonoran Borderlands — an immersive six-day learning experience spanning Arizona and Northern Mexico.
This is not a tour. This is an encounter.
The Sonoran Desert is one of the most contested, misunderstood and consequential landscapes in the Americas — and what happens here doesn't stay here. The movement of people, resources and ideas across this terrain shapes school and healthcare systems, communities, economies in small border towns and big cities across the country.
Yet this land, and the people who journey through it and call it home, are too often reduced to a distant headline of chaos and calamity.
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Systemic Literacy — A Mental Map for a Complex World
This Journey is not a single story about migration. In the borderlands, you encounter a convergence of systems — food, energy, climate, labor, land sovereignty. You'll leave with a fuller mental map for identifying the complex, interconnected forces that shape our world.Beyond Data Decks — New Ways of Knowing for Deeper Leadership
No report, podcast or policy brief can teach what culture, land and story can. You'll sit with people whose daily lives embody the tensions around belonging, resources and power that echo across the nation. That presence changes how you see — and how you lead.From Borderlands to Your Backyard — Connect the Dots for Your Own Work
From the food we eat to the policies used in policing, detention and education, the Sonoran region is deeply connected to the communities where you live and lead. Throughout this Journey, you'll be invited to distill the aha's and envision how to carry the lessons into your own work and spheres of influence.
Renata Soto, Founder
WHY YOU
We invite you to learn
in proximity.
What comes to mind when you think about borders?
Mosaic Journeys is for social impact practitioners and supporters who hold relationships, resources and responsibility within communities in motion.
We invite leaders who seek to shape their perspectives, power and practice through deep encounters with on-the-ground realities. Here, you learn the Mosaic way — in the place, with the people, with space to reflect and structure to make meaning, piece by piece.
Proximity to place
Explore the landscapes and sites that shape — and are shaped by — community, culture, climate, memory and movement.
Proximity to people
Engage directly with community builders, policymakers and culture bearers — at their kitchen tables and sacred spaces.
Proximity to practice
Reflect on lessons, tensions and possibilities — and how to carry new insights back into your own sphere of influence.
Intentionally intimate, each Journey includes only 20 participants. We hope you'll be one of them.
JOURNEY THREADS, THEMES & TIMELINE
Six days. Two countries.
Borderless and borderlands.
What does the desert teach about resilience, abundance, adaptation?
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THREAD → Grounding in Place
Thresholds and ArrivalThemes: First contact with the desert landscape
Overnight > Hotel TBD
Meals > Welcome Dinner -
THREAD → THE SONORAN DESERT
Adaptation & Resilience
Desert as TeacherThemes: Scarcity and abundance, climate resilience, how people and ecosystems adapt
Overnight > Hotel TBD
Meals > B, L, D -
THREAD → BORDERLANDS
Movement and Crossing
Borders, Power and TransformationThemes: Sovereignty, history, identity, physical and social transition, meaning of borders
Overnight > Hotel TBD
Meals > B, L, D -
THREAD → TIJUANA
Culture, Community and Complexity
Living Border CultureThemes: Cultural resilience, art, food as identity, modern Mexican expression
Overnight > Hotel TBD
Meals > B, L, D -
THREAD → VALLE DE GUADALUPE
Sobremesa, Paradox and Practice
Reflection and ResponsibilityThemes: Sobremesa as ritual, community and conversation, reflection
Overnight > Hotel TBD
Meals > B, L, D -
THREAD → Return / Re-entry
Carrying the Work HomeThemes: Reflection, responsibility, continuity
Meals > B
A detailed agenda outline is available here.
Full programming and logistics will be shared upon confirmation of your spot.
You won’t travel alone in your learning. Two hosts, our own Renata Soto and Luis Avila, will accompany you throughout — facilitating dialogue, harvesting insights, and weaving meaning from every encounter.
YOUR INTENTION & INVESTMENT
This isn’t tourism.
It’s testimony.
What do a meal and a mural tell us about survival and cultural resilience?
This Journey threads thoughtful design through every detail — programmatic and logistic — so you can focus on curiosity while our team focuses on your care.
What’s included →
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Journey pricing tiers reflect different roles within the social impact ecosystem and are designed to make these experiences sustainable and accessible. All participants will share the same Mosaic Journeys experience — and Mosaic's rigorous, relational, transformative way of learning.
See pricing at a glance here.
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Pre-Journey Orientation (virtual)
Journey Syllabus — readings and films to arrive curious and contextualized
Experienced facilitators throughout the Journey
Ethical engagement with people and place
Honorariums for local leaders and community hosts
Intentionally intimate — only 20 participants
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Expert logistics team with the group at all times
Bilingual communications support throughout
Border crossing coordination
24/7 support for urgent needs
Lodging for five nights
Most meals throughout the Journey
Private charter transportation throughout the Journey — doubles as our rolling classroom: presentations, reflections and catch-up time on that pre-assigned homework. Naps and snacks too.
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Your investment in this Journey is also an investment in the movement. A portion of the program fee supports Mosaic's mission of weaving a better South by propelling the power and possibility of changemakers of color on the frontlines of social change.
> See pricing below for details on the tax-deductible portion.
Ready to join this Journey?
Apply by September 1, 2026.
We review on a rolling basis. The earlier you apply, the stronger your chances of securing your preferred dates.
“Poetry is people with dreams”
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If you know other social changemakers, civic leaders or philanthropists who'd be a great fit for this Journey — or future ones — we'd love a warm intro. Connect them with Renata or send us their info and we'll add them to our Mosaic Journeys interest list.
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The Sonoran Borderlands Journey is just the beginning. More destinations are on the horizon in 2027 and beyond.
Sign up for the Mosaic Journeys list, share your destination interests, and be the first to know where we're headed next.
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Mosaic Journeys carries forward the rigorous learning-in-place at the core of the Mosaic Fellowship, our signature leadership catalyst. With Journeys, we invite alumni and other social impact leaders into deeper encounter with the global forces shaping our local communities, our country and our future.
Still here? Great! That's exactly the kind of curiosity Mosaic Journeys is for.
Sign up for the Mosaic Journeys list and be the first to know where we're headed next. We hope you’ll join us.
