The Praxis Project Inc

Freedom University is a modern-day freedom school for undocumented students in Atlanta, Georgia. We provide tuition-free college preparation classes, college application and scholarship assistance, and leadership development for undocumented youth banned from equal access to public higher education in Georgia.


OUR MISSION
Our mission is to empower undocumented youth and fulfill their human right to education.  We believe that all human beings have a right to education, regardless of where they were born or what man-made borders they may cross. We uphold Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to education and that higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.


OUR HISTORY
Freedom University opened its doors in 2011 following the passage of Georgia Board of Regents' Policy 4.1.6, which bans undocumented youth from attending Georgia's top public universities, and Policy 4.3.4, which bans undocumented students from in-state tuition. Georgia's 24,000 DACA students pay state and local taxes to fund the universities they cannot attend. And while more than 20 states allow undocumented students to attend public universities or qualify for in-state tuition, Georgia is the only state to ban DACA students from admission to its top universities and from in-state tuition. These policies effectively target and exclude undocumented youth, and usher in a modern era of educational segregation in the South.


WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO
To fulfill the human right to education of undocumented youth in Georgia, Freedom University welcomes undocumented students ages 17-25 and provides them with free college preparation courses in a safe learning environment. Our students arrived in the United States as young children from countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela, Jamaica,  Mali, Ghana, and South Korea. Many of our students' families moved to Atlanta in the mid-1990s to build the roads and infrastructure for the city to host the 1996 Olympic Games. While most of our students attended K-12 in Georgia public schools, many realized they were banned from public universities in Georgia as they neared their high school graduation.

Freedom University provides our students with rigorous courses in human rights and legal studies, mathematics and science, and music and the creative arts to fulfill their love of learning and prepare them for admission to selective universities throughout the United States. Our teachers are professors at local Atlanta universities, who volunteer their time to teach, mentor, and learn from undocumented students who are deeply committed to their education. Every year, as a result of our educational programs and college tours to welcoming colleges across the country, 1 in 3 of our students earn full scholarships to college. Freedom University graduates are now students and recent graduates of universities such as Emory University, Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, Smith College, Oglethorpe University, Berea College, and Eastern Connecticut State University.


OUR STRATEGY FOR CHANGE
While Freedom University is committed to helping our students reach their dream of higher education, we also work to change an unjust  system that accepts the labor of undocumented immigrants, but denies their human rights - including the human right to education.

Our strategy for social change is multidimensional:

First, we provide educational programs that incorporate human rights and social movement leadership training to empower our students with the knowledge and skills they need to strengthen and lead the undocumented student movement.

Second, we organize creative actions of civil disobedience in the Kingian nonviolent tradition that pressure the Georgia Board of Regents to repeal Policies 4.1.6 and 4.3.4.

Third, we create campaigns with student allies to secure fair admissions policies at colleges across the country. For example, in 2015, we led the Freedom at Emory campaign that successfully pressured Emory University to accept academically-qualified undocumented students and provide full need-based financial aid.

Finally, we engage with the United Nations and partner with other international human rights organizations to hold the state of Georgia and the U.S. government accountable to international human rights norms.

Through our educational programs, local direct actions, national admissions policy campaigns, and international human rights advocacy, Freedom University is working to secure fair college admissions policies across the country and transform the public debate on undocumented student access to higher education.


HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR WORK
Because we do not charge our students tuition or fees of any kind, our sustainability relies on the generosity of everyday folks across the country. Your donation will have a direct impact on our students' lives.

Funds donated to Freedom University will be used to support:

1) Books and classroom supplies.

2) College tours to welcoming colleges across the country.

3) Tuition and book scholarships to our graduates.

4) Hiring of additional DACA staff members.

5) Other critical costs to keep our doors open to undocumented students.


From all of us, thank you for your love, generosity, and support.


Sincerely,

Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis, Executive Director
Arizbeth Sanchez, Community Engagement Coordinator
Lily, Jose, Lidia, Gabriela, Connie, and Sam of the Student Committee



To learn more about our work, visit www.freedom-university.org


Freedom University is organized under the fiscal sponsorship of The Praxis Project, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Freedom University is an underground school for undocumented students who’ve been banned from equal access to public universities in Georgia. Our name was chosen for two important reasons: one, to honor the legacy of the Southern Freedom School tradition of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and two, to highlight the best school acronym in the world: FU Georgia.

Our mission at Freedom University is to educate and empower undocumented students and fulfill their human right to education.

While we are accustomed to fighting for human rights and fighting against xenophobia and racism in the Deep South, we find ourselves fighting a whole new battle against a deadly global pandemic. We quickly adapted and moved our classes online, but we need your help.




We’ve been able to protect our students’ right to education, but it has also become apparent that this pandemic will exacerbate existing inequalities in our community. Two weeks ago, in order to get a clearer picture of what our students were facing in this pandemic and how we as a community could better support them, we asked them to participate in an “FU Coronavirus Community Needs Survey.”

The results were staggering:

- 89 percent of our students and their families lack health insurance;
- 50 percent of our students and their families don’t know where to go or whom to trust in seeking medical treatment;
- 56 percent of our students live in households of five or more people;
- 84 percent of our students are working or have at least two family members working outside the home on a daily basis. Most are working in the food industry, in grocery stores, and in hospitals, putting their families at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19. 
- The majority of our students and their families are not eligible for federal relief programs, even if they pay federal taxes through their Individual Tax ID Number (ITIN). This means that many of our students and their families will not receive any federal financial assistance during this time.