“We’re all DREAMers,” explains one we’ll call “Dulce,” a high school junior brought to the United States at age 3. Dulce was referring to legislation under consideration by the U.S. Congress, called the , which would offer a path to citizenship for children who were raised in the United States without legal documentation.

If identifiable names were not used, Dulce agreed to be quoted for this article, along with Willie, who was brought to the United States at age 6, and Raul, who came “half my life ago” at age 8. All three are students at , dual-enrolled at Blue Ridge Community College. All three have visited ��ݮ����, Bridgewater College and James Madison University, with the intention of being university students in the next few years.

Raul and Willie both hope to become engineers. They’re studying pre-calculus, though Willie also hopes to explore art. Dulce’s first career aspiration was for health or medicine. Volunteering at , she’s shadowed a nurse, dietitian and midwife (even observing a birth), but also thinks she might pursue immigration law. Following local college visits via SLI (pronounced “sly”), Dulce leans toward “a small school, a religious school” while Raul feels drawn to JMU, where he’s spent time with his student-mentor, Sergio.

EMU was first university sponsor in the Valley

Dulce, Raul and Willie were the first at Harrisonburg High School tapped for the Scholars’ Latino Initiative program, launched locally in 2012 with EMU as its first university sponsor. Since its founding in 2003, SLI has grown from its base at the Center for Global Initiatives at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to encompass five locations in North Carolina and Virginia. Shenandoah University is now part of the Shenandoah Valley chapter of SLI, coming aboard in 2013 in partnership with a Winchester (Va.) high school.

SLI focuses mainly on academically successful, underprivileged Latino students. SLI chooses the students it serves when they are in grade 9, via a competitive application process. While all SLI students are expected to perform well in school, those students nominated by the selection committee as “scholars” have additional expectations for leadership development, community service, and contact time with mentors. The Shenandoah Valley chapter of SLI currently has 15 members, seven named as “scholars.”

The program’s keystone is mentorship. Dulce, Raul and Willie have each worked for a year with a JMU Centennial Scholar who was matched to them by gender. If all goes as planned, following a three-year partnership, the graduation dates of the high school students and their university mentors will coincide.

Mentoring of students includes practice interviews, volunteer service

All SLI students participate in practice sessions for interviews, college preparatory courses and workshops, and where needed, English language study. They’ve volunteered at a soup kitchen, , and nonprofits where they assisted in interpretation.

Sophomore Aracely – born in New York to Salvadoran parents – says after-school SLI sessions provide needed time on computers. Jose, born in Honduras, mentions accessibility to scholarships.

The high school juniors recently observed an advanced Spanish class taught at Bridgewater, where Dulce considered the students “pretty good for mostly non-native speakers.” In the upcoming year, SLI students will make site visits to other Virginia colleges and universities.

Sandy Mercer, recent SLI coordinator at the high school, said SLI students “have challenged, inspired me, and always found a way to make me laugh. I’ve already seen some beautiful, transformative things happening, and watched student leadership give vision and hope to other students and their families.” In October, as Mercer prepared for relocation to Florida, SLI students gave her a party, with souvenirs and hugs, while welcoming Hannah Bowman as the new SLI high school coordinator.

From UNC-Chapel Hill to EMU and further

, a professor with interdisciplinary credentials in history, politics, religion and leadership, said that before he founded SLI in 2003 at UNC-Chapel Hill, he tried to ascertain what factors are valued by college admissions officers. “It wasn’t board scores or GPA,” he said. “Public service and the challenging nature of programs were very high on the list.” In 2008, Kaufman moved to the faculty of the University of Richmond, where he continues to be involved in immigration and education matters in addition to his scholarly research, teaching and publications.

One of SLI’s biggest challenges is helping undocumented youth – the majority of those served by SLI – find pathways to higher education or employment. DACA (the federal memorandum, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) currently lets most undocumented students remain in the United States, but they still face tough hurdles in gaining admission to colleges and finding the funding to complete their degrees.

SLI’s students have interacted with area government officials, though Kaufman said that immigration reform itself is not the organization’s objective.

EMU professors and administrators have served on SLI’s 12-member Shenandoah Valley board and helped arrange campus visits. As an SLI partner, EMU promises that SLI students who meet admission requirements will be accepted and receive tuition assistance.

Program relies on donations

SLI board member , EMU’s executive director of development, credits EMU with being “the model school by being open to Latinos,” specifically those lacking documentation.

Mercer agreed, “EMU has been proactive, long before other universities were.”

The board has made fundraising its top priority. Says Helmuth: “We invite anyone who shares the vision and mission of improving collegial education opportunities for Latinos of need to make a contribution through the website at .”

Nevertheless, Castillo, a national leader in advocating for immigration-law reform, says “deferred action” falls far short of addressing the plight of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. For Castillo, the solution lies in enacting the , along with larger immigration reform and community support.

DREAM (which stands for Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors) and Obama’s have parallel criteria to permit minors brought illegally to America to remain in the country after they become young adults. The criteria include:

• having arrived before the age of 16

• having lived in the U.S. for more than five years

• being between 15 and 35 at the age of applying

• no criminal record

The big difference between the two is that DACA is short term, while DREAM offers the hope of a permanent solution. DACA provides those eligible with work permits and is only valid for a two-year period, putting childhood arrivals at risk of deportation in the future.

“Deferred Action is very temporary, and it’s not a path for legalization,” Castillo says. “There’s still that risk that a new president could come in and cancel this program at any time.”

Castillo has been campaigning for the DREAM Act because it would permit “conditional legal status” – and a pathway to eventual citizenship – for those who meet certain criteria in terms of educational achievement or military service.

While thrilled to see any movement whatsoever in the direction of reform, Castillo feels DACA was a political move on President Obama’s part, timed to garner the votes of Latinos in the presidential election.

Brought from Mexico to the United States at age 6, Castillo has been fighting for immigration reform since graduating magna cum laude from EMU with a social work degree. Unable to work legally, she decided to speak up on behalf of herself and other undocumented young adults, despite the risk of deportation and separation from her loved ones.

Castillo has been covered in the , , , and , a network that produces the second-largest amount of Spanish content in the world. She has spoken before governors, members of Congress and state legislatures, and university students, sharing her experiences and advocating legislative change. She has received an honorary doctorate from the University of San Francisco for her efforts.

The issues faced by immigrants like Castillo go beyond inability to find legal employment. Without a social security number, they cannot get driver’s licenses, apply for government-backed student loans, or even get admitted into most colleges, even if someone pays their way. James Madison University, for example, does not take undocumented students. These difficult realities motivate Castillo to go wherever she can – as close as churches and schools in the Shenandoah Valley to educate residents, as far south as Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to rally against “low-profile” deportations, and as far west as the University of Hawaii in O’ahu, where she discussed how to achieve equality for all immigrant youth, regardless of their legal status.

In October 2012, Castillo and supporters of immigration reform achieved a victory on the local level. Castillo spoke at the Rockingham (Va.) County Government Building on the topic of 287G, a contract signed between local government and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Though the ostensible purpose of 287G was to deport high-level criminals, Castillo and her allies found that of the 297 individuals deported under 287G, only 12 percent were high-level offenders.

Thanks to mass emails, phone calls, flyers, and informational meetings, over 100 came to an Oct. 24 rally to ask that 287G be terminated, including many from EMU.

Professor Carol Snell-Feikema of EMU’s , who attended the rally, said afterwards that she was thankful for Castillo’s “gifted voice, speaking on behalf of those most affected.” She added that Castillo “presented solid empirical evidence, as well presented the human side of the issue. She spoke from the heart, told personal stories with real impact, and did a great job of summarizing our work of interviewing Latinos in the community on the real-life effects of 287G in their daily lives.”

ICE wanted Rockingham County to extend 287G for three more months, but Rockingham County took no action at the meeting, causing 287G to end.

Supporters of 287G could attempt to reinstate it in December, and there is ever-constant work to do when it comes to local law enforcement, let alone that of the state and federal level. Castillo does not see herself giving up the struggle anytime soon for more humane laws.