WDVM: Marymount University fundraises for DREAMers scholarship

In its first year of partnering with The Dream.US, an organization that provides scholarships for immigrant DREAMers, Marymount University is fundraising for its own scholarship for DREAMers, who are ineligible for federal funding.

The scholarship is open to all 50 of Marymount’s DREAMers. This fall, six students received The Dream.US scholarships, worth up to $29,000 each. University President Irma Becerra says it was DREAMer students who pushed for an additional scholarship option, which she hopes will amount to $50,000 per student.

“It’s important that we provide a path for students who only know [the] U.S. as home,” said Becerra. “That they can stay here and they can be successful and they can have access to college.

Becerra wants to eventually cover all 50 of Marymount’s DREAMers, to either pay the difference in tuition owed or to help students who didn’t receive The Dream.US scholarship.

Becerra immigrated to the U.S. with her parents at just 8-months-old. At the time, she was considered a political refugee and had access to work and the Pell Grant for university. Today’s DREAMers are not so lucky.

“When I look at them I think of myself,” Becerra said.

Read the original article/watch the video report on WDVM’s website.