In addition, she also has found time to have two part-time
jobs. She has to. You see, as a person who is protected by DACA and
undocumented, she doesn't qualify for government assistance to go to
college--certainly not at the Federal level. So these students have to
work extra hard to stay in school. She has dedicated two of her undergraduate summers and a full school
year volunteering to teach in Miami and in San Francisco. In both of
these cities, she worked with high-achieving, low-income students
trying to get them into college. You see, Cristina's dream ultimately
is to be a teacher. Last week in my office, Cristina joined 15 other students from
Georgetown who came in as we were debating DACA and the Dream Act on
the floor. I am sure they wanted to hear my speech on the floor but,
just to make sure, we bought a dozen pizzas and the crew seemed to be
pretty happy with that decision. It was an impressive group of
students. Every one of them was a DACA recipient. These young people have so much potential, but they are worried. They
don't know what their future will be with the decision made last week
by the Trump administration to repeal DACA. Congress hasn't acted to
pass the Dream Act, and we should. As for Cristina Velasquez, she will graduate from Georgetown in
December. She has been accepted into Teach for America. Most of us know
that organization well, but for the record, it is a national nonprofit
organization that places the most talented recent college graduates in
challenging school districts in urban and rural areas where they have a
shortage of teachers. Teach for America has 190 teachers working in
these challenging districts who are currently DACA Dreamers. They are
teaching kids all across America. What does it say about us?
Keywords matched
undocumented DACA