Cal State San Bernardino is the latest of 20 colleges and universities nationwide to joinTheDream.US, a privately funded scholarship program for undocumented-immigrant students.
Scholarship recipients are eligible for grants that cover up to 100 percent of tuition, fees and books. To qualify, students must attend one of the 20 participating institutions.
“This program offers a wonderful opportunity for students who would be shut out of higher education despite their academic successes, qualifications and financial needs,” Cal State San Bernardino President Tomás Morales said in a statement. “This initiative will help our university provide our students with the opportunity to achieve their academic and career goals, and in turn benefit our society as they become contributing members of the workforce in their communities.”
The founders of The Dream.US are Donald Graham, CEO of Graham Holdings Company and former publisher of The Washington Post; Carlos Gutierrez, commerce secretary under President George W. Bush, and Henry Muñoz III, national finance committee chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
The scholarship fund has raised $33 million since September, The New York Times reported earlier this month. It was formally launched in February.
Among the deep-pocketed contributors to TheDream.US are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, the Times reported.
Scholarship students must demonstrate financial need and must have graduated from high school with a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5 or graduated from a community college with a GPA of at least 3.0. They must maintain a cumulative 3.0 GPA while receiving the scholarship. The recipients also must qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama administration program that grants protection from deportation for many undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.
More information on qualifications are here.
Undocumented students in California already are eligible for state-funded aid, under a law that went into effect last year.
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Story can be found here: http://blog.pe.com/multicultural-empire/2014/08/13/cal-state-san-bernardino-scholarships-for-undocumented-students/