Educators for Fair Consideration, a San Franciso-based nonprofit organization working to empower undocumented young people, has awarded a $35,000 matching grant to U-Lead Athens, a local nonprofit that helps Athens-area students with varying immigration statuses prepare for, apply to, and pay for college.
The E4FC grant augments the $35,000 raised locally through a number of individual donations, and the $9,000 raised by the high school students served by U-Lead Athens who park cars on University of Georgia football gamedays at Oconee Street United Methodist Church, according to JoBeth Allen, a University of Georgia emeritus professor and a co-director of U-Lead.
The $70,000 in local and E4FC grant funds provides scholarships to U-Lead participants who will be heading to college in fall 2017, Allen said. She speculated Thursday that the increased support from E4FC is an indication of the nonprofit group’s confidence in U-Lead Athens, in part because the initiative operates with no overhead costs.
U-Lead Athens is an all-volunteer organization where undocumented high school students and recent graduates who lived in the United States for most of their lives gather weekly at space provided by the Oconee Street United Methodist Church to work with mentors from the University of Georgia’s Undocumented Student Alliance, UGA faculty, the Clarke County School District, and elsewhere in the community.
U-Lead scholars attend the University of North Georgia, Piedmont College, Agnes Scott College, Young Harris College, North Georgia Technical College, Athens Technical College, Emory University, Berea College, Eastern Connecticut State University, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Smith College. Scholarship awards are based on a number of factors, including other assistance obtained by students to help fund their collegiate endeavors.
Under rules adopted six years ago by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, undocumented students are effectively barred from attending the University of Georgia and other top-tier public universities in the state. According to Allen, it can be particularly expensive for undocumented students to attend the state schools where they can be admitted, because they have to pay out-of-state tuition rates that are about four times higher than in-state rates.
Tatiana Pinto, one of the students who received help from U-Lead Athens, and who was awarded a full scholarship to Atlanta’s Agnes Scott College through the separate Golden Door Scholars program, has high praise for U-Lead Athens.
“U-Lead has been more than just a place to help me academically, it’s been a second home,” Pinto, a Cedar Shoals High School graduate, said in a news release announcing the latest E4FC matching grant.
