+
upworthy

They voted on a $2.50 per semester fee to help immigrant students. The results are in.

Why the students of Loyola University Chicago are exactly who the world needs.

There are roughly 1.8 million young people who were brought to the United States as children and who continue to live here as undocumented citizens.

They call themselves DREAMers — a shout-out to the DREAM Act, a bill that if enacted would allow them to apply for legal status and, eventually, citizenship if they went to college or served in the military. Supporters have been trying to get the DREAM Act passed since 2001.


The students of Loyola University Chicago got tired of waiting for Congress to act.

So they decided to step up. If their undocumented peers wanted a Loyola education, they didn't want anything to stand in the way. In spring 2013, they passed a declaration that basically said just that:

It was a great start. But then they were all...

They wanted a way to deliver that support. Sure, it would cost money (more on that below), but they had some pretty great reasons to go for it.

1. Loyola University Chicago is a Jesuit school.

That means they're of the Society of Jesus, whose mission is “the service of faith and the promotion of justice." And Jesuit schools have a "storied history" of not being jerks to immigrants. Denying education to someone who can't afford it? Not the way of the Jesuit.

2. Loyola's staff — including the president — already agrees the university should do more for undocumented students.

In fact, Loyola Chicago's president, Rev. Michael Garanzini, co-signed a letter in support of the DREAM Act with a whole group of university heads in Illinois.

3) Nationally, only 5%-10% of undocumented high school graduates go to college.

Certainly it's not helpful that the federal government refuses them student aid, which is pretty low when you consider education is a globally recognized human right.

Again, remember that DREAMers were brought to the U.S. as children, and for all intents and purposes, the U.S. to them is home. It's just not a very welcoming one ... for now.

Gaby Pacheco, program director for TheDream.US, a scholarship program for undocumented youth, knows first hand how uncertain a higher education is for undocumented students:

"I'm a DREAMer. I went through high school preparing for college but knowing I might not be able to go."

Pacheco was lucky enough to attend college, but she knows a lot of folks who never got a fair chance at it. And she wants others who aren't undocumented to understand why this is also their challenge to overcome. "College is not cheap," Pacheco says, "not just for the undocumented, but for everyone."

The Action

Organizers with the Latin American Student Organization and the student government hustled all over campus giving dozens of classroom presentations. They also gathered over 750 signatures to get a question on their student government elections ballot that would make the anti-immigrant wing of Congress cringe (you know who you are):

“Do you approve of the addition of $2.50 each semester to the Student Development fee to support undocumented Loyola undergraduate students who demonstrate financial need but do not qualify for federal financial aid (FAFSA)?" (Read the full resolution.)

Wait ... only $2.50 per student per semester!?

According to Flavio Bravo, former student body president of Loyola Chicago, the fee is "essentially the equivalent of bus fare in Chicago." How could the cost of bus fare possibly make a difference?

Well, when you have 10,000 students chipping in, it can make a big difference. In one academic year, the fee alone would generate $50,000 in scholarship funds. And with donations from faculty, alumni, and other good-hearted people with money to give, the possibilities would be even greater.

The Outcome

On the day of the vote, the measure passed with 70% approval from student voters.

70%! (Holy geez, right?)

"Magis" (pronounced mey-jis) is Latin for "more" or "better."

This was an entirely student-led effort.

These young people prove to us that compassion can translate into meaningful change. It all started with just 15 students who believe human lives shouldn't be left in political limbo. And frankly, they give zero sh*ts about "citizenship" when it comes to doing the right thing.

"The Loyola students have done something amazing," says Don Graham, CEO of Graham Holdings Company and co-founder of TheDream.US. "DREAMers will be benefiting from their work for years. We hope other college students will be inspired to help DREAMers as well. The payoff will be huge."

So what's next?

Bravo says the fight's not over. They hope their work can help build momentum for smart immigration reform at the highest levels of government.

In the meanwhile, they want to replicate this initiative on campuses around the country. Adriana Robles, president of Loyola's Latin American Student Organization, is optimistic because she knows you don't have to be undocumented to identify with the struggle:

"Other students — particularly non-immigrant students — should work to model this initiative at their own schools. In one way or another, we all come from an immigrant background. It is up to us to advocate for our undocumented sisters and brothers who are more than deserving of a university education."

Like what you just read?

If you really like it, share this with a college kid. And if you really, really like it, feel free to make a donation to the Magis Scholarship Fund. Every little bit helps.

Community

How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

True

Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

Keep ReadingShow less
via Pexels

A teacher lists his class rules.

The world would be a much better place if humans weren’t so … human. We all fall short of perfection. Common sense is, sadly, not too common. And there’s one guy out there who always manages to screw things up when things start getting good.

Call it Murphy’s law. Call it the great “reason we can’t have nice things.” Call it entropy. It feels like a whole lot of pain could be avoided if we all had just a little bit more sense.

But what if there was one rule that we all agreed to follow to make everyone’s life better? What would this magical rule be?

A Reddit user who goes by the name P4insplatter came to this realization and asked the AskReddit subforum, “What simple rule would fix the world if everyone actually followed it?” They received dozens of simple rules that if everyone got behind would make the world drastically better.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sandra Maria/Youtube, Official Lives & Music Videos/Youtube

You can't not sing this song.

The music of Queen has a profound visceral effect on everyone. Few pieces of art can cause complete strangers to put aside their differences and come together in song, but by golly, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of them. It would be cheesy if it weren’t so absolutely beautiful.

This pertains even to non-English-speaking countries, it appears. Recently, thousands of Harry Styles concertgoers in Warsaw, Poland, began cheering as those iconic beginning piano notes penetrated the air.
Keep ReadingShow less

Movie critic Roger Ebert speaking his mind at the Sundance Film Festival.

It’s been ten years since the world lost Roger Ebert to cancer, and his voice is sorely missed. Ebert had a pure love of cinema, and even though he was a film critic in a sweater with a Pulitzer Prize, he wrote and spoke in a way accessible to every man.

He didn’t care if a film was a Hollywood blockbuster or art-house fare; what mattered was whether it deserved his highly-coveted “thumbs up.”

Ebert was an extremely gifted communicator whose interests went far beyond film. In his later years, he often mused about music, politics, and American cultural events with the same eloquence, thoughtfulness and wit.

Keep ReadingShow less
@over40slbmom/TikTok

Feeling nostalgic yet?

It seems like so many iterations of unfettered joy from our childhood haven’t made it to the modern age, and playgrounds are no exception.

Gone are the days of metal slides that scorched the derriere in the summertime, seesaws that doubled as human catapults and the notorious merry-go-rounds that separated the weak from the strong. Good old fashioned character building—safety be damned!

As it turns out, a few of these old relics are still standing. And footage of kids playing at one of these bygone parks is filling adults—particularly Gen Xers—with sweet nostalgia.
Keep ReadingShow less

A couple shares why they decided to leave the United States.

Although it is difficult to tell if there is a trend of Americans moving out of the country, rough estimates show that around 8 million currently live in other countries—double the 4.1 million living abroad in 1999.

The most popular countries for Americans to move to are Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom, in that order.

A big reason why some are leaving the U.S. is that an increasing number of employers allow people to work abroad. Others are choosing to leave because of cost of living increases and “golden visa” programs. Golden visas offer the chance to get a foreign residency permit by purchasing a house or making a significant investment or donation.

Keep ReadingShow less