Posts Tagged: deferred action for childhood arrivals

To pursue her dream of helping others and becoming a practicing nurse, Rosa Ruvalcaba Serna advocated for Dreamer nursing students in Arkansas.

Hispanic student enrollment in higher education has doubled in the last decade. Where are these students going, what do they need, and how do Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs) fit into the equation? On Episode 03 of dotEDU, John Aguilar of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and our hosts explore those issues and more.

Growing up in San Diego, Marco Ortiz Sanchez slept in blankets on the floor—his family didn’t own any mattresses. He came to this country with his parents when he was just six months old and is now a sophomore business administration major at the University of California, Irvine.

Brayan Montes-Terrazas stood up and became the voice for fellow DACA students on campus as the president of Dreamers United at Colorado State University.

Mariana Sarmiento Hernández is using her experience as an undocumented student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to carve a path for others in a similar situation as the resource coordinator for the Office of Diversity Initiatives.

Kebin Lopez should have had a difficult decision before him: choosing between the multiple law schools that accepted his application. Instead, the decision was made for him when two institutions in Georgia rescinded their acceptance due to his DACA immigration status.

Yael Balbuena and Deya Garcia are Dreamers advocating for better access to higher education in Arizona, where DACA recipients are ineligible for in-state tuition.

Carlos Mendez-Durantes is a PhD student and Ford Foundation fellow studying cancer treatments at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California. As a DACA recipient, Mendez-Durantes and other researchers like him face an uncertain future when it comes to continuing their studies.

Jin Park is a senior at Harvard University and the first DACA recipient to receive a Rhodes Scholarship.

Cynthia Torres is a DACA recipient and founder of a student organization called The Friendly Immigrant at Missouri Southern State University, which brings together undocumented students and their allies to raise awareness and funds for DACA-recipient students.

DACA status helped Linett Isela Lopez pursue her goal of working with disadvantaged elementary school students, but now her dream is at risk. Like many other Dreamers, she has bounced between hope and fear as the future of DACA remains in limbo.

Lack of funds nearly kept Daniela Gaona from achieving her dream of attending graduate school at Johns Hopkins University (MD) for a degree in mental health counseling, as dreamers are ineligible for federal financial aid or even state aid in some states. But emergency aid from her institution arrived just in time.