For Latino Students, the Fight is Within |
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| escrito por Carolina Peña | |
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Put yourself in the shoes of Susana* [Pomp and circumstance playing in the background] You look radiant in your cap and gown and feel like you are a carbon copy of those picture-perfect-looking graduates you see on college catalogs. You begin to line up along with other graduates. You fake a smile. Pose for pictures. Continue in line towards the stage. Announcer says: Susana Catalina Martinez. You make your way to center stage, pause nervously, fake another smile, grab your diploma. Keep walking. Graduation day is one of the most anticipated, memorable and proud milestones of any student. Yet for undocumented students like Susana, graduating from high school or community college brings them face to face with the reality of unaffordable tuition costs that "non-resident" students face when applying to most college or universities. It doesn’t matter if you were raised in the U.S., resided in the same county all your life, paid taxes, volunteered and engaged in civic action, obtained a perfect 4.0 GPA and have no criminal record. Undocumented students, by no fault of their own, are at a disadvantage. But they are not silent. Maryland Senate Bill 167, commonly known as the "In-State Tuition Bill", would grant Susana, and countless other students, the opportunity to pay reasonable tuition costs and obtain a college degree. Currently, annual tuition and fees is about $8,000 for residents and about $25,000 for non-residents at the University of Maryland, College Park. What does $17,000 mean? Making college tuition $17,000 more expensive for immigrant students not only means they can hardly afford to go to college but it means that college-ready students are more likely to drop out of high school, engage in risky sexual behavior, gang activity and seek minimum-wage jobs. Some may wonder- what’s the point of working hard to earn good grades if they won’t pay off later or make college affordable? Here is my advice to you: Do not give up!If you don’t stand up for yourself, who will? Who will support a student with below-average grades, who is pregnant, or engages in criminal activity? I don’t know any senator or council member who will. Over the past couple of years a significant number of students have taken to the streets with signs and petitions in favor of the DREAM Act and the In-State Tuition bill, but I am convinced that the battle needs to be fought within: in your heart and your head. When you feel like it is not worth studying anymore or when you feel like dropping out or faking illness to miss classes, you must fight these feelings. Remember, each day is a fight for motivation and hope even when you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. This can be a difficult battle to fight because it can feel lonely. But let me assure you- YOU are NOT alone. Countless other students are at the top of their class and carry the same burdensome question about how to afford college. They are in the battle daily, studying hard, searching for scholarships, seeking tutoring help, volunteering and often working too. So when the tide turns and legislation passes, where are you going to be? Will you have the academic standing to access the opportunities that will become available? Or will you stand by watching your peers take your spot in college because you wasted your high school career? In this ever-competitive world where students from India, Colombia and China are competing for the same jobs because of their access to the internet, we, living just minutes from the most powerful city in the world, cannot afford to let opportunities fly right by us. As Latinos, bilingual and bi-cultural, we have more to gain because companies are looking to hire people with our profiles. They question is, will you be half-awake and in your pajamas when the door of opportunity comes? I hope not! I hope you are able to say- Good Morning! and ¡Buenos días! I am a marketable young Latino and I am ready to work. *Susana is a fictional name. Carolina Peña es escritora independiente y anfitriona del programa televisivo Generacion Latina que se transmite en el canal 16 MMC-TV de Montgomery County. Visite su página Web en www.generacionlatina.org |
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