Dream Pursuers

 

In our new world of trying to stay healthy, we find ourselves looking for a way to help our most vulnerable students hoping to continue their education in the fall.

 

The Dream Pursuers Club provides a space for undocumented students at Back of the Yards College Prep to support each other as they navigate unique challenges in high school and the college application process. One especially great barrier that students face is access to funding for college: ineligible for Federal financial aid and with increasingly limited access to scholarships, undocumented students often struggle to fund their college goals.

 

 

When the club’s first members approached graduation three years ago, students joined together to raise funds and establish our own scholarship for the undocumented Seniors graduating from BOYCP. In that first year, we gave away $5000 in scholarships to two graduates. For our second graduating class, we surpassed that goal, awarding a total $8000 among five graduates. Last year we had an amazing amount of support and were able to gather $15,000 in scholarships for 6 graduating Seniors who had been with the club and supported our fundraisers since the very beginning.

 

This year, we were aiming to again surpass our donations from last year and raise a total of $18,000 before we were all blindsided by COVID-19!

 

Our scholarship sends our students off to college with the confidence that comes with knowing that their school and community are invested in their success. We hope you will join us in supporting our soon-to-be-graduates as they pursue their dreams in college and beyond, no matter what that may look like in the fall of 2021!