Our 10th Annual College Tour!

Ten years ago, in the fall of 2014, Freedom University embarked on its first ever college tour! Just months after reestablishing Freedom University in Atlanta, Dr. Soltis and six students traveled to the Northeast and visited four colleges in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. By 2016, the tours included as many as 12 students, and covered more than seven colleges in four states over the course of a week!

Today, seven years after the repeal of DACA and with limited opportunities to travel by plane, Freedom University continues its tradition of bringing our students on college tours - this time, to universities in Atlanta where we have helped transform admissions, financial aid, scholarship, and support policies to be inclusive of undocumented students.

This week, over the course of three days, our students visited Emory University, Agnes Scott College, and Oglethorpe University.

On Monday, we visited the beautiful campus of Emory, where three of our recent alumni are currently students! We started the day with a special admissions information session for undocumented students, and split up into groups to gonon official walking tours of campus. We had the pleasure of visiting two courses, where students sat shoulder to shoulder with Emory students and learned alongside them. During lunch, we visited with our many current and former faculty members at Emory and students finally met in person with their tutors from the Emory Writing Center - with whom they work every Sunday at Freedom University!

We spent an hour together resting on the Quadrangle, where students took much needed naps and wrote thank you cards to the many people who had welcomed them on campus. From there, we attended a literature class taught by Dr. Geovani Ramírez, where our students contributed meaningfully to a discussion on a novel that portrayed the life of migrant workers and poultry workers in North Carolina.

We closed the day with a joyful dinner with our friends at the Mariposa Scholars program, where students shared a meal with Freedom University alumni who are now Emory students, and who participated in Freedom University college tours just two or three years before!

Nearly ten hours after we arrived on campus, we all gave each other hugs goodnight and said “See you tomorrow!” to all the women attending the Agnes Scott College Tour the next morning ❤️