Contact: Gaby Pacheco
EMAIL: [email protected]
SCHOLARSHIP FALL 2014 STUDENTS NOTIFIED
TheDream.US Scholarship offers over 500 applicants, scholarships.
Arlington, Virginia. (December 15, 2014) — Today, the first and largest national scholarship program for DREAMers, TheDream.US notified over 500 applicants of their selection to receive TheDream.US Scholarship. During the application period, nearly 1,700 applications were received and evaluated by Scholarship America and an independent Selection Committee using an objective scoring process. The Selection Committee is composed of evaluators from the DREAMer community, philanthropic, education, business, and non-profit sector.
“Today is an exciting day for TheDream.US. We will send emails to over 500 DREAMers telling them that they have been awarded TheDream.US Scholarship. This is a day that will truly change the trajectory of their lives and the lives they touch” said Candy Marshall, president of TheDream.US
Applicants have until January 1, 2015 to confirm and accept the award– names and the partner colleges that the students have selected to attend will be announced then.
To be eligible for a scholarship from TheDream.US, DREAMers must qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA); must have graduated from a U.S.-based high school with a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher (or achieved a GED diploma with an equivalent score); and must demonstrate financial need. Scholars are selected based on their academic potential and demonstrated motivation to succeed.
TheDream.US scholarships help cover a student’s cost of tuition, fees and books, and range in size, depending upon the demonstrated financial need and tuition cost, up to $25,000 per student. DREAMer scholars must maintain a cumulative 3.0 GPA, remain enrolled in a Partner College and maintain their DACA status in order to continue to be eligible to receive the scholarship.
TheDream.US founders, partners and donors are determined to help talented students pursue their educational goals. TheDream.US launched with an initial $25 million scholarship fund from philanthropic and business leaders across the country, including the Graham family and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Joining this effort are The Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation, The Coca-Cola Foundation, The Gilbert and Jacki Cisneros Foundation, The PepsiCo Foundation, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, through Startup:Education, and through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation we received gifts from Pierre and Pam Omidyar as well as a generous anonymous donor. In addition to these philanthropic gifts, over 200 individuals have donated over $30,000.
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TheDream.US is led by Candy Marshall, who was a director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she helped build the foundation’s global programs, and Gaby Pacheco, a DREAMer—and a DREAMer advocate—who was part of the 2010 march, the Trail of Dreams, from Miami to Washington DC, an event that helped broker the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program.