This week, we went on our first college tour in two years!

College tours are central to our mission of fulfilling our students' human right to education, as they give our students the opportunity to visit welcoming colleges across the country, participate in admissions interviews, and serve on panels as experts on undocumented youth access to higher education - which greatly increases their chances of college admission. But perhaps most importantly, by meeting other undocumented students on these campuses - many of whom are Freedom University graduates themselves - students allow themselves to hope again, and see with their own eyes that their dream of higher education is possible.

This week, our director and two students - Yazleik and Victoria - embarked on Freedom University's 7th annual Northeast College Tour, which first launched in 2014, and visited Smith College, Amherst College, and Middlebury College. Like every student, faculty, and staff member at Freedom University, all three are fully vaccinated and grateful to the scientists who helped make their health and safety possible. The visit was especially meaningful, as they had the opportunity to give big hugs and reunite with two of our recent graduates, including Lesly at Smith College and Simi at Middlebury.

Despite the immense joy and laughter, the Northeast Tour was also a little bittersweet this year. At its peak, the Northeast Tour once included as many as 12 students, who were able to travel safely by plane with a driver's license and protection from deportation granted by DACA. However, since the 2017 repeal of DACA - which continues to bar first time applicants - less than 20% of our students now have DACA and the opportunity to safely travel the 1,000+ miles by plane to the many colleges in the Northeast that provide full need-based aid to students, regardless of their immigration status. Yazleik and Victoria, both DACA recipients, harnessed this privilege to travel and went on the tour representing all of their classmates who could not attend.

However, since 2015, Freedom University has also worked to change admissions, scholarship, and financial aid policies at numerous private universities in Georgia, and all of our students - DACA, DACA eligible, and fully undocumented - are excited to embark on Freedom University's annual Atlanta College Tour in November and reunite with our many graduates who are now students at Agnes Scott College, Emory University, and Oglethorpe University.