$25 Million Fund for “DREAMers” Scholarships Announced

Scholarship

Amid the disheartening new developments about House Speaker Boehner and the GOP’s continued unwillingness to tackle immigration reform, there has been one piece of good news for the immigrant community. Recently, the website “thedream.us” announced that it had raised $25 million to help fund college scholarships for undocumented youth who qualified for Obama’s Deferred Action status program, commonly referred to as the “DREAMers.”

Despite now having the ability to reside in the U.S. in a legal (albeit tentative and temporary) immigration status, individuals who came to the U.S. as children and have met a number of other requirements can apply for “deferred action.” Deferred action status allows them to work and reside in the U.S. legally, but they are still barred from most federal and state benefits such as financial aid for college. Further, a majority of states don’t allow them to receive in-state tuition, so the costs of pursuing a higher education can be daunting.

While this $25 million will not come close to meeting the needs of the estimated 65,000 individuals who may otherwise be applying for traditional financial aid for their educations, it will certainly put a dent in many students’ college costs and open the doors to higher education to a larger pool of the DREAMers.

I’m informing all my potentially eligible clients about this new fund, but if you have questions about how to apply you can visit the scholarship fund’s website here.  If you think you might qualify, don’t wait – the deadline for this year’s applications is March 31, and there will be 2,000 scholarships available for the 2014-2015 school year.