Help Fulfill the American Dream: Support for College

In 2014, I was tired. I had been an undocumented organizer in the south and felt the brunt of the rise of Nazi-like white supremacist militants throughout the east of the United States, including north to south.

A group of kind and wonderful professors in the rural ruby red Republican stronghold of Athens, Georgia approached me after I spoke on my experience of being an undocumented immigrant and a national organizer in the south. They suggested I should apply to college. I told them, "No. I have been rejected many times for my undocumented status." They insisted, I said I would think about it.

I decided to apply to college, I picked three and was awarded a full-ride scholarship to attend the most environmentally friendly college in the world: Hampshire College. I was shocked and felt tremendously horrified. Was this a joke or indeed "the American dream is fine and alive." I had orientating instructions from the professors to create a serious and remarkable college application, they were my rock, I will be grateful forever.

In my talk, I shared how I became Student Body President of North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Georgia, Honored by the National Society of High School Scholars, President of Junior Achievement of Georgia Secretary of BETA Business club and received the only Gold Metal given a year for my "tremendous sense of service and most hours of community service to the school."

I did all this while facing homelessness in my senior year of High School. After only 1 year and half after arriving in the USA and also still learning English. I remember that I had the honor of giving the baccalaureate speech at the North Star Church in Kennesaw, Georgia. But just like I encouraged my fellow students with all my might, especially shooting at inspiring them to "continue your education and attend college" I had accepted that I was not going to college myself because I had been informed "even though you paid taxes we cannot provide any kind of financial aid because you are an illegal alien." Then I spent many days hiding from my ex-classmates who looked for me asking me where I was going to college, I would give a different story every time to avoid sharing that all colleges I applied for said they could not offer me any financial aid because I was "an illegal alien."

My ability to detach myself from my classmates and lower my expectations for the future is something to further study but I largely expressed my desire to continue my education many times under duress and was received with the same answer: no.

My determination to succeed moved me to get three jobs, one at a fast food restaurant cleaning dishes, a second one loading material at a construction material company as well as selling electronics on eBay all so I could save money and pay to attend a community college even when I would have to pay at three times the rate a student with citizenship pays.

Now you can understand why I had given up college, it was traumatizing to have been rejected once again but Hampshire College gave me the opportunity to fulfill my AMERICAN DREAM.

In my first year, I started to choose classes that would let me graduate as a Constitutional Law Scholar. I was elected as the First Latino Student Body President of Hampshire College, I regularly played tennis, I was riding horses in my equestrianism class, was voted in as Treasury Secretary and Representative to the Five Colleges Consortium.

But in a trip to Georgia from Massachusetts, I was engulfed in flames after an explosion burned everything on its way to the area where I was asleep. I jumped out of the second floor fracturing my vertebrae, leaving me immobile from the back down with shattered feet's bones and a shattered left wrist. I fought for my life for many days until I was finally released from the hospital with only one wish. Go back to Hampshire College. After only one semester, I was back at Hampshire College even while all seemed more difficult because I was still healing from a deadly explosion, I was grateful to Hampshire.

After Donald Trump became President, I battled him by organizing and humanizing immigrants, his opinion of others is irrelevant but his rhetoric must be combated and beaten to what it is: vile and embarrassing. I left Hampshire College, the movement to free migrant children from prisons along the southern border needed my God-given abilities more. Sadly in a trip to Georgia, I was detained and imprisoned in six different jails to stop the growing movement across states for my release. I was forced to sign "my voluntary departure."

Today, I have taken the steps along with Hampshire College to return with a Student Visa but immigration needs the proof that I can pay in full for the next year of college up front.

I have won many scholarships awarded by Hampshire College and count my income towards the final amount of Tuition, Room and Board, Food, transport and personal expenses and I am $19,769.00 short.

In order to get a Student Visa, I have to come up with this amount of money up front to be granted passage into the United States.

If you received this asking for a donation, please donate what you can but please even more so share it with those who might be able to help my plight.

No matter the trials and tribulations life has put me through, I always get back up thanks to my community. Please donate what you can.

If you would like to send a donation for me directly to my college, I can help you with that info. Just ask.