Thread: NEW HAVEN; St. Rose Rallies Behind Immigrant Students

St. Rose Rallies Behind Immigrant Students
by Allan Appel | November 9, 2007 8:11 AM |

Jose and Mariangel came home to New Haven to dance alongside supporters who helped them overcome a gubernatorial veto and pursue the American dream at college.

There was every reason for members and friends of the Saint Rose of Lima Church Education Task Force to whirl about with Mexican folkloric dances and to sing praises at their first gala dinner Thursday night at Amarante's. Jose and Mariangel, two remarkable kids from the Saint Rose community, were home visiting from school. They got there in the first place because of the task force.

Gov. Rell vetoed a bill earlier this year that would have enabled students like them, who are undocumented immigrants, to qualify for in-state tuition rates at Connecticut colleges and universities. In response, the activist community that lobbied, raised funds, and consciousness about the plight of the thousands of other bright but undocumented students in New Haven and around the country who are getting a bum educational deal while the unresolved immigration debate roars on.

Rell's veto in June occurred on high school graduation day. It meant, that for example, full time tuition at a school like Gateway Community College, which educates many of today's immigrant kids, would cost not about $2,200 but closer to $8,000 to undocumented students.


Led by Father Jim Manship (the tall fellow on the right) and his congregants, the task force was established back in the fall of 2006. With the support of the whole New Haven state legislative delegation, it lobbied for the bill. (Ten states permit undocumented kids to pay in-state rates.) The bill passed, but Rell stopped it. Despite the defeat, the group has already launched on other initiatives to respond to the needs of the kids.

"We had a number of very bright kids from families for whom the whole process of college admission and financial aid was daunting," said Manship. "I mean so many of our immigrant families are from the countryside. They are just happy the kids can go to high school without paying for it, that the parents don't focus on college. And when the kids do, the hard-pressed guidance counselors often aren't aware of the special needs of these kids and don't even know their status. They fall through the cracks."

So Manship and his committee educated themselves on the application and financial process . He strapped on his collar, he said, and personally visited admissions officers, even vice presidents, and aid officials in two dozen colleges in the Northeast, particularly those within the Catholic orbit.

They uncovered a host of scholarships, many not known to the guidance counselors, that are available to non-citizens.

nhi-st.%20rose%20003.JPG"We also discovered," said task force member Terry Freeman, a former Cross history teacher and now teacher of peer mediation to teens, "that many of the officials weren't aware of the scope of the issue -- all these brilliant kids not being able to take the education they got here to the next step to the benefit of their families and the community."

So the action-oriented Saint Lima folks next hosted a conference, deliberately kept under the radar, of college and university officials from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island to discuss opportunities to work with these schools on the plight of the undocumented students, and to build relationships. Some institutions were reluctant. Others were scared, but some courageous. Result: Jose and Mariangel received scholarships, one-half a private school's tuition for one, the other a 25 percent scholarship. The balance has been paid for, for the first semester, through fund-raising from the task force and other contributions. Thursday night's fundraiser cleared more than $4,000.

nhi-st.%20rose%20002.JPGFor reasons of privacy and concern, the kids are not identified. Nor are the college. Both students commute. One, who is living in Hartford, commutes to her school from a room in the convent provided by the Sisters of Mercy of America. Sister Betty Secord (on the left in the photo, with St Rose parishioner and GAVA official Norma Franceschi), runs that convent. She is proud of what she called the prophetic stance her order has taken to support work with immigrants.

What's life like for Jose and Mariangel in college? When her English teacher asked the class, to bring in two articles from The New York Times on any issue for discussion, Mariangel chose immigration, she said. "Yes, I was taking a risk to discuss it, but it is close to me and important. I had established some trust with the students and teacher, and we had agreed that nothing would leave the room."

Jose, a handsome young man from Mexico, but with eyes, he said, that often make his friends think he's from Asia, said that he was struck by how little most of the non-immigrant kids really know about the issue. "They have very little idea how complicated it is, how long it takes to get citizenship, or to alter your status."

Both feel a certain pressure in that they are the first representatives of their community to benefit from this task force. Both are inclined to come back and help others.

nhi-st.%20rose%20004.JPGWhich pleased Father Manship greatly. He was at pains to describe how in this 100th anniversary year for the church, the task force sees its role as working to benefit not only individuals, but the whole community. "We would love them to come back to teach and to help others. Absolutely. The word education comes from the Latin e-ducere, to lead out. We believe that every one has a unique gift that education can bring out from them to the benefit of all. That's the idea."

According to the American Immigrant Law Foundation, whose materials were passed out at the event, 65,000 undocumented children who have lived in the U.S. for five years or longer graduate from high school each year. Only 5 to 10 percent of these go on to college for reasons of the complexity of the process, legal obstacles, the cost.

Is there a downside to this, a burdening of the schools, depletion of financial aid that might have gone to others? According to the same American Immigration Law Foundation's policy center, in Texas, three years after in-state tuition was permitted for undocumented students, there was a very small rise, only 0.36 percent, in the number of students attending the state's public colleges and universities.

The task force plans to work with middle-schoolers at Saint Lima's to begin thinking about the process and at the same time to build relationships with the colleges, whose officers themselves are not always aware of the changing regulations. Manship explained that at the conference many officials were unaware that when students applies for admission or aid without a social security number, they often are classified as international students. In that category, the immigration authorities would have access to their files even though they are clearly not international students. "So these officials went back to their administrators and alerted them to the issue."

nhi-st.%20rose%20005.JPGMayor John DeStefano too was on hand. He congratuled the students and put the efforts of Saint Rose and the task force in larger historical terms.

"We sometimes wish, don't we, that we live in a kind of crucible moment? Like a Rosa Parks moment," he said. "To me, what these kids from Saint Rose are doing is like sitting on the bus where they have been told not to sit. This is a crucible moment. It will change."

When will it change? The mayor paraphrased Winston Churchill: "'Americans can be counted on to do the right thing, but only after they've exhausted every other possibility. But what you are doing here is something genuinely to be proud of."

And the task force will go on at Saint Rose to reach more kids in the years ahead and to raise awareness about the common good that will result. In the meantime, approximately $13,000 remains to be raised to cover Jose and Mariangel's tuition and expenses for the second semester. Those interested in supporting the effort can contact the church and Father Jim Manship: 865-6149; or write: Saint Rose Education Task Force/115 Blatchley Avenue/New Haven, CT 06513.


http://www.newhavenindependent.org/arch ... _every.php


Comment section at link.

Edited to say I left a comment and they didn't didn't publish it.

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