Did you catch Speaker Chopp telling America’s story on the opening day of session?
America Yorita-Carrion was an honors and an International Baccalaureate student with a 3.8 GPA at Davis High School in Yakima.
At the young age of 9, America and her siblings helped their family put food on the table by working in the agriculture fields. As she filled her buckets with apples, pears, and cherries, she dreamed of a better future full of possibilities. She dreamed of going to college.
America had the grades, the heart, the desire, and the determination to succeed in college. What she lacked was a way to pay for it.
She was able to make her dream come true thanks to a scholarship from the College Success Foundation.
Unfortunately, thousands of students like America are denied their dreams because they aren’t eligible for financial aid from the state.
The DREAM Act will allow young aspiring citizens to be eligible for state financial aid. We spend billions educating our kids in the K-12 school system each year. We should not let these skills and talents go to waste by shutting their door to college.
The DREAM Act will open the doors of opportunity to some of our state’s best and brightest minds. The DREAM Act is about fairness, opportunity, and rewarding hard work – values we all share.
Speaker Chopp tells America’s story