Southern New Hampshire University has announced a $20 million dollar program that will help up to 1,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients achieve their higher education dreams. Because undocumented youth are barred from federal financial aid due to their immigration status (though some states do offer access to some state-level aid), this will be life-changing for applicants:
Southern New Hampshire University is getting support from The Shapiro Foundation, an organization which primarily assists children and refugees and TheDream.US, the largest scholarship program for Dreamers. TheDream.US provides over $100 million in scholarships to 3,000 DACA students at 75 partner colleges in 15 states.
“As an institution of higher education, we are in the business of hope,” said Paul LeBlanc, the university’s president. “We have hundreds of thousands of young people who have known no country but the U.S., but that are denied the financial support that gives them access to higher education”:
The university will offer the assistance over the next five years for DACA students to pursue degrees through one of the university’s online programs. The scholarship program will cover many more students than the others because the university estimates the tuition is about 25 times cheaper than what a student might pay to attend a traditional, four-year university.
And, students like Luanna Viera, a DACA recipient originally from Brazil, are already signing up. “A high school senior whose parents are both undocumented, Vieira said she was considering skipping college until she found out about the Southern New Hampshire program”:
“I was speechless. I almost cried to be honest,” Vieira said when she heard about receiving a scholarship. “I was giving up on college because of the cost. It was like a sign from God that I can go to college.”