A PERSONAL INVITATION
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
We are extending a personal invitation to join Mosaic Changemakers on our inaugural Mosaic Journey, an immersive learning experience taking us to the Sonoran Borderlands — six days 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. It is an Indigenous sovereignty story. A migration story. A civil rights story. A climate story.
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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1) Sharpen our understanding of the interconnected forces and geographies shaping the systems we work or invest in;
2) Spark new questions and ideas that travel back to the communities and causes we lead, and
3) Shift how we understand proximity — as a practice, and as a responsibility — and what it asks of our leadership today.
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
You will receive detailed programming and logistics upon confirmation of your spot.
You won’t travel alone in your learning. Two hosts, 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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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.
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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.
Ready to join this Journey? We'll be thrilled to have you and will hold your spot until April 5.
“Poetry is people with dreams”
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We've penciled in a second Sonoran Borderlands Journey for November 16–21, 2026 — to be confirmed based on demand.
If those dates work better, let Renata know and we'll add you to the list. Go ahead and hold those dates. We'll be in touch.
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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 forces shaping our communities and our shared 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.
