Higher education access and affordability have emerged as key issues in immigration debates across the nation. Undocumented high school graduates have few financial or other resources to support their efforts to gain further education and embark upon a solid career path. Government loans, grants and scholarships are not available to undocumented students; a few private organizations are trying to fill this gap.

We hope that this issue of the ESL Globe will offer some insight into immigrant students' struggles to overcome barriers to post-secondary education, most of which are not of their own making.

Viridiana Martinez
There are two million undocumented young people in the US, 51 thousand in NC. Many of them were brought to this country when they were very young and know no other home. Viridiana Martinez arrived in North Carolina when she was seven. She grew up in Sanford and graduated from Lee County High School. Now she has nowhere to turn in order to pursue a path toward post-secondary education and a brighter future. "Today I am tolerated," she says, "but only if I stay in the shadows." Weary of being "in limbo and stuck," tired of being afraid and ashamed, she has come out of the shadows, publicly declaring her undocumented status and leading the struggle in NC for passage of the Dream Act.
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View an insightful video examining the plight of undocumented youth and offering a closer look at Viridiana's life and work.

Abraham Dones
Abraham Dones is Interim Director for Multicultural Student Affairs at NC State University, a department whose mission is to ensure the retention, academic success, and graduation of multicultural students, particularly those who are African American, Native American or Hispanic.

In this interview he discusses efforts being made to recruit and support Hispanic/Latino students.
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Kristen Danek
NC State ESL Specialist Kristen Danek is currently completing an EFL instructional project for the US Department of State. Her curriculum and materials are for adults 18-40 years old, mainly at the university level. They will be piloted in Cuba and eventually used by American embassies around the world.

She discusses her project and addresses some challenges facing ESL teachers at all levels.
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Karen Brown
Karen Brown is the Director of Professional Development and Instructional Support for North Carolina community colleges. She is program director for English as a Second Language, and grant manager for English Literacy/Civics Education, and for Assessment Training and Technical Assistance/Instructional Support.

She addresses the benefits that the recent El/Civics grants have brought to colleges and literacy council across the state and discusses the wide diversity of educational and socio-economic backgrounds of current ESL students. She describe how stringent admission policies restrict and discourage undocumented immigrants who seek post-secondary education in community colleges.
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North Carolina in Forefront of Preparing Latino Students for College
A partnership in the Triangle is one of twelve in the nation to receive a grant to prepare more Latino students to attend and graduate from college. The grant funds will help provide afterschool college preparation and leadership training for high school students and their families. It will also provide mentors to students and deliver training to school administrators and teachers on the challenges facing the Hispanic student population. The new project will be aimed at US-born Latino students and at students who originally came to the United States illegally.
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Educating an Underclass
In its recently published review of Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society, the Center for Immigration Studies notes that our federal immigration program accounts for nearly all of the increase in public school enrollment over the last two decades. It is estimated that 20 percent of all children in the United States have foreign-born parents and by 2040 one in three will be raised in an immigrant household. This is a social transformation with no historical precedent. Yet there is little discussion of this aspect of immigration. Researchers typically focus on the fiscal and economic impacts of adult newcomers, a critical component but only the beginning of the story. The children of these workers, given their number, will define what type of nation the United States will be in the coming generations. This book examines four factors which significantly influence the lives of immigrant youth and contribute to sustaining this population as an underclass.
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Commentary from The Chronicle of Higher Education
US Education in Chinese Lock Step? Bad Move.
The education systems in China and the United States not only are headed in opposite directions, but are aiming at exactly what the other system is trying to give up. In the United States, through programs such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, as well as calls for more standardization and accountability in higher education, we are embracing the sort of regimented, uniform, standards-based and test-driven education that has dominated Asian education systems for thousands of years. But are we abandoning creativity, individualism, innovation, and nonconformity? The unique aspects of American education which have made it heretofore the best in the world?
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