:: DREAM UNIVERSITY ::

My First Day of DREAM University - Lily Huang

Yesterday afternoon we, the Student Immigrant Movement of Massachusetts, announced at our press conference that we are joining undocumented immigrant youth from across the country—Florida, Wisconsin, Texas, New York—and building our own university in front of the White House. 

We want our education and we want to reach our full potential and better ourselves, our families and our communities. 

But because we can’t go to public colleges with In-State tuition rates or even if we go to the top private colleges like Harvard and Brown and can’t become doctors and lawyers because of our lack of a nine-digit numbers, we built our own.

Our hearts are burning with urgency to come together, to inspire one another, to build our momentum and to fulfill our Dreams now. We built DREAM University in front of the White House to learn and educate ourselves, to build our community and movement and to fight for the DREAM Act NOW.

And our DREAM University and our movement to push the DREAM Act are becoming bigger and stronger. DREAMERs put up our University and changed public space in front of the White House for the second day in a row. In 99 degree heat and smothering humidity, we only become more dedicated and realize our sacrifices are needed to pass the DREAM Act. When the Park Rangers made us move our impromptu protest and sit-in from the shaded park to the streets, we became more energized and we committed to learn in the streets.

Imagine walking up to the White House and seeing more than 30 youth sitting on the cardboard seats on the cement and holding wildly decorated umbrellas.

Imagine seeing the teachers and the professors are youth just like the students, sharing their knowledge and empowering one another.

 Jose Luis taught our first class on “Building your Team” and facilitated role plays and discussions on the importance of structure, roles, and responsibilities in our meetings, our organizations and our movement. After a quick lunch of PB&J, ham sandwiches and turkey sandwiches and short rest from the mid-day sun, we quickly ran back to class. Carlos led a workshop on sharing our stories of self. Colette said that she thinks she is finally getting her story down and now she realizes how important that is, to understand herself and to connect with others. 

Throughout our classes, visitors came up and signed our petition, grabbed our fliers and listened in. The Washington Post and the Chinese media interviewed us. We are now organizing and planning for tomorrow, the next week and the future until the DREAM Act is passed.

We know that the DREAM Act is the right thing to do. In fact, more than 70% of Americans support the DREAM Act support the DREAM Act. But we need to know: Will you join us? Will you support us? Will you join this moment’s civil rights movement and fight for our education?

Welcome to Dream University

Over the past decade, young American immigrants have journeyed through our high schools, unaware of the hurdles ahead of them, as they walked across graduation stages only to find that the door to higher education and opportunity was shut, and all that was left for them was to go underground, to continue to live in the shadows.

The U.S. Congress and the Administration have trampled on the universal right of all to have access to higher education, and year by year defer the dreams of thousands of students who know no other land but this land, and seek to set their roots and bare its fruit.  

This June thousands of Dreamers across the country again walked across the stage with every desire to continue their education, yet as the heads turn down and dismay begins to creep in, the leaders of the United We Dream Network sound a school bell in the distance, opening the doors to a new opportunity—an opportunity to be the inaugural class of the first ever university for all who seek the Dream of going to college but are denied based on status; a university founded on the mission that passing the DREAM Act this year is no longer an option, but a MANDATE, by a generation; a university founded on the principle that expanding the right to higher education to all in this country regardless of nation, creed, or status, is long overdue.

On July 14, 2010, the gates to higher education will be opened wide, as all those Dreams deferred are accepted and cordially invited to Washington DC to be the inaugural class of DREAM University.