Undocumented immigrant activist Dr. Paz Maya Olivérez will speak at Vista Grande Café Thursday at 7:30 a.m. as part of Cal Poly’s Provocative Perspectives series. Olivérez is the executive director and founder of Futuros Educational Services, a non-profit organization that provides mentoring and scholarships to low-income and immigrant students.
One-fourth of the nation’s undocumented immigrants reside in California, constituting 8 percent of the population, Olivérez said.
Yet, undocumented students who have excelled academically in high school, but who are not legal residents, are ineligible for financial aid. The financial restriction is a barrier for students, through no fault of their own. They have no path to citizenship or success, Olivérez said.
“A lot of times the assumption is that these kids are unready to go to college,” Olivérez said. “Now folks are realizing some of these kids are high school valedictorians.”
Olivérez lecture is a part of the Provocative Perspectives series. The series has been at Cal Poly for seven years and brings a broad cross section of experts to speak about their thoughts and ideas on current and controversial issues that can effect Cal Poly students, faculty and staff, said Cornell Morton, Cal Poly vice president for academic affairs.
“The primary purpose of the series is to support and encourage campus-wide dialogue on issues related to student success, intellectual freedom and diversity,” Morton said.
Olivérez’ presentation will focus on student success with immigration reform. She first got involved in education as a K-12 teacher. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the late ‘90s, she found that even as a teacher she could have an impact. While teaching, she saw a lot of systemic issues that motivated her to pursue educational policy, she said.
“The school I worked in at the time was extremely dysfunctional and the students in the community were not receiving the quality of education they should,” Olivérez said.
In 2008, Olivérez founded Futuros Educational Services. She said she was motivated to start her non-profit because she thought there wasn’t any organization that focused on the needs of undocumented students.
“Our goal is to focus on that specific population because we know they have a very specific set of needs,” she said.
As a new company they continue to fundraise because undocumented students aren’t eligible for financial aid. With funds, Futuros is able to offer scholarships, application assistance fundraising for college, and group workshops related to preparing for college and applying to college.
Besides establishing Futuros, Olivérez has also been instrumental in developing AB 540, The College and Financial Aid Guide for Undocumented Immigrant Students. AB 540 qualifies undocumented students to be exempt from paying significantly high out-of-state tuition at public colleges and universities in California. Where the law was a big step in terms of accessibility, in-state college tuition is still thousands of dollars.
“Although students have greater access than they did, it is still really tough,” Olivérez said.
To address the plight of undocumented students where AB 540 lacks, Congress must ensure the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act goes forward, she said. The act provides access to financial aid and a thoughtfully mapped-out path to citizenship for qualified students.
One such student affected by these laws is Nancy Guarneros. Guarneros didn’t find out until her senior year of high school when she went to apply for her driver’s license that she was an undocumented immigrant. Her mom was reluctant to tell her that she brought her over from Mexico when she was 8 months old. She hasn’t been to Mexico since.
Guarneros first met Olivérez at an AB 540 conference in 2005. At the end of her presentation, Olivérez gave out her contact information.
“I did eventually call her, she was so nice,” Olivérez said. “We met up at a coffee shop, she helped me apply for scholarships and to transfer schools.”
Guarneros has now graduated with honors from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Because she is in the country illegally she couldn’t legally work while attending UCLA. She paid her tuition through tutoring and babysitting. Guarneros is currently in her masters program at UCLA.
“I feel like I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I have without (Olivérez’) support and help,” she said.