TheDream.US[1], the nation’s largest college access and success scholarship program for DREAMers, today announced it has awarded over 1,200 scholarships worth $30M to support immigrant students attending college this fall. Since 2013, TheDream.US has helped nearly 3,000 DREAMers afford a college education. Despite the United States being the only country they have ever known, DREAMers receive no federal assistance to pay for college, have limited access to state aid, and often face paying out-of-state tuition.
“We know these scholarships will change the trajectory of our Scholars’ lives and the lives they touch,” said TheDream.US President, Candy Marshall.
The scholarships come at an uncertain time for the nearly 800,000 DREAMers who are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Although President Trump has stressed the DACA program and DREAMers need to be handled with “compassion and heart,” the long-term fate of the program remains in question.
“While we worried that the fear and uncertainty would negatively impact the number of DREAMers applying for scholarships this year, we instead saw a record number of qualified applicants,” added Candy Marshall. “Thanks to the support of our founders and partner organizations, we redoubled our efforts to support as many deserving and motivated students as we could.”
“We believe that everyone should have access to higher education. DREAMers are part of our community and through them we continue to build the legacy of the American Dream – one graduate at a time,” said Carlos Gutierrez, former Secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush and co-founder of TheDream.US.
Supporters of TheDream.US share the belief that DREAMers deserve the opportunity to get a college education, including former Washington Post Chairman Donald Graham and investigative journalist Amanda Bennett (both co-founders), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Pershing Square Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Bill and Steve Graham, and the Omidyar Network.
About TheDream.US
Co-founded by former Washington Post chairman Donald Graham; finance chief of the Democratic National Committee, Henry R. Muñoz III; former Secretary of Commerce for President George W. Bush, Carlos Gutierrez; and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Amanda Bennett, TheDream.US is the nation’s largest college access and success program for DREAMers. Its goal is to enable over 4,000 highly motivated DREAMers to graduate with career-ready degrees over the course of the next decade.
[1] TheDream.US is a project of New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3), which executes a range of public interest projects focused on conservation, education, and global health.
