Undocumented, Unafraid: South-side high school strives to support undocumented students in college attainment
By Esbeida Castaneda-Franco
Sin Papeles, Sin Miedo translates to “Undocumented, Unafraid.” This is Back of the Yards College Prepartory’s Dream Pursuers club motto, and it represents just what they stand for.
Dream Pursuers is a club that supports undocumented students. It was created in 2016 by Aarón Ortiz who was a counselor at the time and Back of the Yards. Teachers Isela Ponce and Laura Dignani helped Ortiz create the club. They recognized the need for more support for undocumented students and invited students to join.
Dream Pursuers members standing next to their poster. Dream Pursuers has awarded a yearly scholarship to undocumented students at Back of the Yards College Preparatory since 2016. (Photo provided by Back of the Yards College Preparatory’s yearbook.)
“I would recommend others to join even if they are not undocumented because they can be allies,” said Estefania Zavalija. Zavalija is a member of the Dream Pursuers club. Her mother is from San Luis Potosí and her father from Guanajuato. She migrated to the United States with her mother when she was eight years old.
According to Migration Policy Institute, as of 2016 the estimated number of undocumented students (ages fifteen to nineteen) who reached high school graduation age are 125,000 yearly in the U.S. Almost 98,000 undocumented students graduate yearly from U.S’ high schools. Despite these numbers, the College Board estimates that only five to ten percent of undocumented students actually attend college.
At the time, counselors knew who was undocumented and they specifically invited undocumented students to come together and planned the very first coming out day for the College and Career Fair Day in Spring 2016. Once the club started, students took on leading and guiding it, Yessenia Hernandez was the President in the first graduating class (Class of 2017) then President Citlali Perez and Vice President Diana Duarte in the Class of 2019.
Dream Pursuers club logo. (DREAM PURSUERS)
Having a club like Dream Pursuers in high schools is very important because it provides a safe space and alot of support for undocumented students. Dream Pursuers helps undocumented students navigate through the college process and help them find scholarships. Undocumented students are not able to apply for FAFSA(Free Application for Federal Student) or any government aid assistance to help them pay for college, leaving undocumented students with the cost of college, while citizens have access to federal loans.
So, Dream Pursuers has its very own scholarship which any undocumented student in Back of the Yards College Preparatory can apply for. Within the class of 2019, five undocumented graduates were awarded a total of $15,000 in scholarships. “ This helped me because it contributed to paying off the financial gap that I still had for the college I wanted to go to,” said 2019 Dream Pursuers scholarship recipient Citlali Perez.
Class of 2019 student’s graduation cap. (DREAM PURSUERS)
Having a scholarship that is only open to undocumented students in a highschool creates a bigger chance for students to get it compared to a national scholarship that many students are competing to get. The Dream Pursuers scholarship helped Perez pay the financial gap in order to go to college and not have to pay with her own money because of all the scholarships she was awarded.
Not being able to get financial aid from the government due to undocumented status makes it difficult to pursue higher education because of the cost. So, many undocumented students decide not to go to college and work instead. Having a club in each highschool to help undocumented students get scholarships could raise the rate of undocumented students’ college enrollment and attendance across the nation.
“ I would recommend people to join so that they can be informed and take all the opportunities that they are presented with,” said Angelica Cervantez, a current member of the Back of the Yards club. Dream Pursuers meets every Monday and looks forward to be part of larger projects in the future to help undocumented students.