tl;dr: If you're interested in and able to contribute to a scholarship fund to help worthy undocumented H.S. students attend college, please click on the
International Dreamers fund and make a donation!
Longer version: You guys will know that I don't post a lot of personal stuff here, but you see, I have this sister. (I know! I'm full of surprises!) Anyway, I am posting because my sister is a completely awesome person (much better than me in almost every way.) (Those of you who know me, picture my sister as me if I were, like, incredibly laid back and played bass guitar in a surf band. I know, you can't picture it, but I got all the nervous energy and she got all the musical talent.)
Anyway, my sister teaches at the International School, which is currently trying to raise money for college scholarships for undocumented students. The International School is an amazing place that exclusively serves recent immigrants to NYC from, literally, all over the world: my sister has students from Yemen, from Senegal, from Haiti, Gabon, Tibet--they are so amazing that the NYT
did an article on them and Angelina Jolie was so moved by the article that she apparently was looking to tell their story in a movie. My fantastic and incredibly chilled out baby sister is always reading thick tomes about the culture and history of all these different parts of the world so she can literally understand who her students are and where they're coming from. It's incredibly incredibly challenging teaching because many of these students have absolutely no education from their own countries and aren't literate in their native languages, but here they are in New York City and they're 14 and so into school they go. These teachers are CRAZY HEROES.
And sometimes teachers and students working together manage to overcome these amazing challenges and these students get into college, sometimes really selective colleges-- but here's something they can't overcome: because of federal restrictions, undocumented students aren't eligible for any financial aid. So after all this work, some of them can get into college but can't pay for it!
So if you're in a place to donate to charity, please consider the
International Dreamers fund! It's a worthy cause! End of PSA!
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