CHAPEL HILL (October 21, 2021) – In high school in Hamlet, college seemed a long way off for Camila Perez.
Perez was undocumented until she was 15 years old, she says in the accompanying video.
“So thinking about college kind of seemed like a far concept, just because I knew I would have to face five times as much barriers as the average college student, or the average person who was aspiring to go to college,” she says.
Yet she was surrounded by people – including her parents, even though they didn’t go to college – who urged her to go.
In her junior year of high school, longtime family friend Kiara Aranda reached out to her and urged her to overcome her barriers and join College y Consejos, a free online college advising program from LatinxEd.
“And I was like, ‘Sign me up,’” she says.
The organization is dedicated to helping first-generation Latinx students in North Carolina from 9th through 12th grades. Coaches advise on colleges that might be a good fit, teach students about the application process and how to fill out FAFSA1 – they even host game nights to help students connect with other first-generation college students.
Perez says Aranda helped her most with her college essays.
“I actually wrote about the struggles of being undocumented,” she says. Her father is chronically ill with lupus, she said, and at one point was in the hospital for three months. The family had to survive on less than $30,000 for a year.
“I … wrote about those struggles, and I wrote about how they made me a lot stronger, and … here I am,” she says with a proud grin.
“When I see Kiara and I see someone who had to do everything by herself – had to do FAFSA by herself, had to do the college application by herself – she’s just such a big motivator for me,” Perez says.
“She was able to overcome barriers that we both face. I just know that if she could do it, if she could graduate from UNC Chapel Hill, I know I can….
“This is a strong Latina woman who I look up to and I admire so much.”
And Camila’s gratitude shows on her face.
1 Free Application for Federal Student Aid: https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa.
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