Dear our loved ones and community,

I’m reaching out to ask for support for someone very dear to me. My best friend, Melissa, and her wife, Erica, need our community right now more than ever.

Erica is a queer, Latina PhD student and a DACA recipient. A real Dreamer. She and Melissa were married last November, and if you know them, you know how much love, kindness, and care they bring to the people around them. Erica is one of those rare people who makes everyone feel welcome and seen. She is warm, generous, and would do anything for anyone.

Erica completed her master's in May of 2021 and started her PhD in Mathematics that fall at the University of Texas at Arlington. She completed two years in the program and then decided to take a break, always with the goal of returning. This allowed her to move in with Melissa while Melissa was finishing up the last year of her PhD and to pursue teaching full-time, which was her true passion. Erica has been excited to return to the program this fall while continuing to teach full-time at the university. Because Erica is a full-time lecturer at UTA, she was planning to utilize the Employee Tuition Assistance Program, which would cover almost all in-state tuition costs. However, in June of this year, the Texas Dream Act was invalidated, which caused undocumented students and Dreamers, including Erica, to unexpectedly have to pay out-of-state tuition starting this fall. This recent change would cause Erica and Melissa to have to pay $2700 out of pocket unexpectedly, or Erica would have to defer her studies, making it so she won’t be able to stay on track with the program she has poured so much into. While this has been happening, she is one of the caretakers for a loved one who is fighting an aggressive form of cancer. She is carrying so much, and yet she keeps showing up for others with grace. She's giving so much and is in dire need of our support.

Melissa and Erica never ask for help. They are the people who quietly hold everything together for everyone else. But this time, they desperately need community support.

I’m hoping we can come together to lift some of the weight off their shoulders. Every dollar counts. Whether you can give a little or a lot, it all adds up and will help Erica stay in her program and keep going after her dreams. If donating isn’t possible right now, please consider sharing this with others who may want to help.

Let’s show Melissa and Erica how loved they are, and remind them that community care is real. We're all in this together.

Sincerely,

Ali Dilley