Thread: Undocumented college students raise tuition money online

Selling education bracelets, 'undocumented' t-shirts and crocheted beanie hats

By Erica Pearson / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Saturday, January 7 2012, 11:51 PM


John Jay College student Angy Rivera doesn’t have a green card — and that means she doesn’t qualify for federal financial aid or loans to help with $2,565 in tuition a semester.

Like some other undocumented students around the country, she’s turned to the Internet to raise the money so she can stay in school.

Using Facebook or the website Chipin.com, they are coming out as undocumented and asking for help, often selling something homemade in exchange for donations.

“At 3 yrs old I became undocumented in the United States,” Rivera, 21, posted on her Chipin page, where she sells handmade “education bracelets” for $5.

“Often times it's hard to ask for help, but now, I'm asking you to place a donation that will help me continue my education.”

Tuition hikes forced her to cut back to part-time. “The few scholarships that I did receive only paid off a semester or two,” she said.

The Colombian-born criminology student has raised only $60 of a $1,000 goal, but some of the money has come from perfect strangers.

New York allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates, but state and federal aid is off-limits. The Board of Regents is pushing to open New York’s Tuition Assistance Program to all students.

Students around the country are in similar straits and turning to Chipin.

In Florida, Juan Escalante, 22, raised $1,000 by sending, “I am undocumented” T-shirts to those who donated $25.

He was able to make his final tuition payment and graduate from Florida State University in Tallahassee last month.

Texas A&M student Jose Luis Zelaya crochets and sells beanie hats, and has gotten so good he thinks he can break the Guinness World Record for most stitches per minute.

He’s sold about $1,000 worth through a Facebook page.

When he was 13, Zelaya left a life on the streets in Honduras to join his mom in Houston.

Last month, he was chosen to give the invocation at his graduation. Now, he’s in an education master’s program.

“It is a pretty heavy burden, but I have been able to do it so far,” said Zelaya, 24. “A lot of people are impressed that I’m a guy and that I’m making beanies for a good cause.”


http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/un...icle-1.1002434

Leave it to an illegal alien to always look for someone else to pay their way.

These kids are being taught that someone else should pay for or give them what they want.

W

Originally Posted by Jean

“It is a pretty heavy burden, but I have been able to do it so far,” said Zelaya, 24. “A lot of people are impressed that I’m a guy and that I’m making beanies for a good cause.”

What a putz!!!

LOL!

The Colombian-born criminology student

Anyone else see the irony here?