In partnership with over 70 colleges and universities, Jumpstart engages close to 4,000 student volunteers each year — including undocumented immigrants — to provide language, literacy, and social-emotional programming for young children from communities across the country. Through their service, our volunteers support low-income families and local communities and contribute to sustainable solutions for one of America’s most pressing challenges: the education achievement gap. All of our college student volunteers, regardless of immigration status, prepare our most vulnerable young children for lifetime success.
The decision by the White House to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program flies in the face of the American ideals of equality and opportunity. The DACA program has given hundreds of thousands of young adults who entered the United States as infants and young children the opportunity to pursue the American dream by attending college and finding employment. These “Dreamers,” as they are known, are leaders, public servants, volunteers, and other productive members of society. They are also our students, teachers, friends, and neighbors. Eliminating DACA would mean losing their vital contributions to our organizations, schools, institutions of higher education, communities, and our nation.
Today, as Dreamers and their families stand in fear of losing the only home they know, Jumpstart stands for the rights of all young children, students, families, and communities to pursue free and productive lives in the United States of America. We call on Congress to reaffirm the values of fairness and opportunity, and ensure that Dreamers can continue to strive to reach their potential and contribute to our nation’s future.
Naila Bolus
President & CEO at Jumpstart
Permit not your dreams to remain as such, rather, mold them into hopeful reality, lest only the grave should delight in your gifts. Tarna Burgos. This is the advice I offer to all children and young adults. We must allow the Dreamers to dream with confidence and with a non- negotiable sense of purpose, that they might contribute their talents to the furtherance of human development and universal progress, as is the duty of all for the edification all.