Cinthia Magaña just received something all college students desperately need — tuition money.
Campus Reform reported on Thursday that the University of California, Los Angeles gave Magaña a $15,000 scholarship despite the fact that she is in the country illegally.
Until recently, Magaña was a student at Santa Monica College, a community college that embraces illegal immigrants.
She was awarded the Chui L. Tsang Transfer Scholarship in July. It’s a two-year, $15,000 scholarship available to prospective transfer students at SMC who wish to complete their bachelor’s degree at a four-year college or university, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.
Magaña is a DREAMer, who came to America when she was just five-year years old, but she hasn’t let her undocumented status keep her down. Besides winning the scholarship, the illegal immigrant is the first undocumented student ever to work for the Department of Education.
To her credit, she had an excellent GPA as well as volunteer experience for an outreach program for other undocumented students called IDEAS and the Association of Higher Education for Active Dreamers, she also completed an internship in Washington D.C.
She also helps support her family financially and take care of her younger siblings.
Being that she is in the country illegally, she is not eligible for federal or state financial aid, and will likely depend on her scholarship to afford the $13,251 tuition at UCLA.
But there are many young American women who would love the chance to afford college and have the opportunity to pursue their dreams. Yet resources that could have been going to help Americans are being used for illegal immigrants.
