Undergraduate Student Government Senator Sabrina Enriquez is leading the charge to get USC students who have arrived in this country illegally a support system of their own.
Enriquez is working on a resource guide for prospective and continuing students who face challenges unique to their immigration status. The guide is expected to go live on USG's website before Thanksgiving break.
The detailed guide will include a list of legal resources, tips on filling out the common application, and a list of scholarships that do not require the applicant to be a U.S. citizen.
"I've been involved in marches for immigration reform since I was nine, so it was really disappointing to find out how behind USC has been in supporting or offering resources for undocumented students when I got here," says Enriquez.
A long term goal of Enriquez is also to establish a support center for undocumented students on campus. She envisions a resource center, modeled after UC Davis' model, that adresses the multifaceted needs of undocumented students.
Enriquez believes that addressing these needs and providing these "resources as a collective would help draw more outstanding students to USC."
This news comes in the wake of The U.S. Board of Education's resource guide for "Supporting Undocumented Youths," which was released earlier this week.
According to the Pew Research Center, there are an estimated 200,000 to 225,000 undocumented students enrolled in four year colleges nationwide.
Students who do not have the benefit of legal residency often face stigmatization from within the university, which is made all the more salient when they don't have the resources to help their unique challenges.
According to Jenny Villegas at El Centro Chicano/Latino, "These students are in the shadows. They can't apply for financial aid and sometimes that economic stress leads to mental health issues."
El Centro does as best as they can for students without legal residency, but are limited in their resources. The overarching goal of El Centro is to provide support for the general latino/chicano community at USC, and they are not able to extensively address the challenges of students without legal residency.
The extent of El Centro's resources for these students, many of which are latinos, is a single page titled "Resources for Undocumented Trojans" in their Latino Resource Handbook. One reason for this is the fact that many students fear speaking out about their immigration status.
"A few students talk about [their immigration status] openly, but for the most part there's still a lot of stigmatization," says Villegas.
Villegas feels that establishing a support center exclusively for students who don't have legal residency would help reduce this stigmatization and enable students to take advantage of the resources available to them.
"The first step is to bring the issue to light," says Villegas.
As of right now, the only resource available to trojans without legal residency is the IDEAS Movement, whose mission is to help "undocumented students receive the support and information required to undergo and complete their education at USC."
Annenberg Media