‘It’s a big achievement’

‘UndocuGrad Ball’ celebrates undocumented students

NEW HAVEN >> College students everywhere, along with their parents, face challenges trying to pay for their education — but for undocumented students who don’t have access to federal scholarships and loans, the situation is even more difficult.

Saturday night’s “UndocuGrad Ball,” which attracted students and their families from all over the state, was a chance to celebrate successes so far — including five years of Connecticut allowing in-state tuition for undocumented students — while raising money to provide scholarships for undocumented students in need.

The biggest stumbling blocks for undocumented students, as with many students from challenged backgrounds, are financial, organizers said.

But Artspace on Orange Street was full of success stories, including both recent college graduates — some of them among the first in their families to go to college — and recent high school graduates who are now about to begin college. “Basically, it’s just to celebrate the undocumented graduates, either from high school or college, and also to fundraise for scholarships,” said Tashi SanchezLlaury, a member of CT Students for a Dream and one of the organizers.

The organization raised enough money last year through other means to award two $1,500 scholarships. It was hoping to do better than that this year with its first UndocuGrad Ball, said Sanchez-Llaury, a native of Peru who came here at age 4 and grew up in Stamford.

She expected about 150 people to attend at a minimum of $35 per person.

Sanchez-Llaury, who just graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education, is about to begin graduate school at Southern for bilingual education. But it wasn’t easy. “It’s a big achievement” for an undocumented student to make it through college and “we know how hard it is to achieve,” she said.

How does it feel to make it through?

“It feels awesome!” Sanchez-Llaury said. “It’s not just my accomplishment, but my parents.”

The lack of financial assistance for undocumented students “makes the cost insurmountable for many families,” the organization said in a press release. “Undocumented students do not qualify for financial aid and very few scholarships are open to them.”

Stephanie Marquez, who also was born in Peru but grew up in Hartford and now lives in Willimantic, was undocumented until last October, when she finally got her green card. She came to this country from Peru in 1998.

“It was tough,” but Marquez was a good enough student to qualify for merit scholarships at all five colleges she applied to. She chose to pursue Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut — also working three jobs to get through school.

Meanwhile, Pablo Idrovo of Danbury, a native of Ecuador, just graduated from high school and will attend Fairfield University next year; only the second member of his family to attend college as he follows in the footsteps of his older sister.

“Any undocumented kids has a lot of trouble getting a financial aid package,” Idrovo said. “Thankfully, I got close to a free ride” because of his academic record.

Going to college “was the dream that I had since I was a little kid,” he said — made all the more important by “seeing my family struggle.”