Undocumented high school students who want to go to college are getting support in Illinois

On a recent school night at Mansueto High School in Back of the yardscollege recruiters from across Illinois made their pitch to an unlikely audience — an audience whose members have every reason to believe college isn’t for them. The event was the sixth annual college fair organized specifically for undocumented students by the charter network Noble Schools.

“It’s very welcoming because the universities say, ‘Yes, come to us, we have you.’ We will help you pay for this. We give you scholarships. We will build this club,” said Brisa Angel, a college counselor, as she watched her students talk to recruiters. “It’s one thing to see it on a sheet: ‘Okay, these are your options.’ And it’s quite another thing to walk into a trade show and talk to people who say, ‘Yes, we have these resources.’

Kevin Guzman, a student at ITW David Speer Academy on the West Side, said before the event that he doubted college was an option for him because of his immigration status.

“Originally I joined the army because I thought that would be the easy way out. … I would get my citizenship, and I would get a whole bunch of money,” Guzman says. “Now I look at these colleges here, and I think, ‘Okay, maybe, maybe there is a chance for me. ”

For years, undocumented students were told in ways large and small that they did not belong in college. They do not have access to federal financial aid, and in most states they must pay out-of-state tuition without the help of state subsidies.

But in Illinois, undocumented students do a better shot when entering and paying for college. The state is one of 19 where undocumented students can apply for state funding and one of 25 where they pay tuition.

Just as important is the network of adults who work overtime to help these students navigate a maze of paperwork and find a campus where they can get the support they need to succeed. That network includes Angel, who was once an undocumented high school student with college dreams.

Her efforts come as tuition costs and student debt rise and more Americans question the value of college. An opinion poll A Gallup publication in July found that nearly a third of Americans have little or no confidence in higher education.

But the work of Angel and advocates for undocumented students across the state is a rejection of skepticism about college — from one of the communities with the least access to it.

“University is not the only path to success. That is true,” said Aidé Acosta, chief advisor of the Noble network. ‘But do we tell that to all children? Or do we only tell that to black and brown children? Because I refuse to revive gender and racial tropes about our communities, that college is not possible for them.”

Acosta, who was once undocumented, says her parents did not have a college degree and had to work long hours in physically exhausting jobs. She says they wanted something different for her.

“We often talk to students who are discovering what their status means for the first time and feeling hopeless,” she says. “And I always remind them that education is the one thing…that no one is going to take away from you, no matter where you are in life, in the world.”

It’s something students can hold on to, she says, when there is so much — including their legal status in this country — that is out of their reach.