need advice on how to help a student

mtnmomma
Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:21:36 +0000

Again, even more great information for me to research–I knew I could count on CC parents!

Our state does provide in state tuition for students who have completed 3 yrs of HS in state and graduated from that HS. The in-state cost for the school she was admitted to (all inclusive) is approximately 30,000 per year. There are no 4-yr colleges near us, so wherever she went she would have to move away from home.

Our local CC does have a contract with our HS that all students graduating with >3.5 gpa may attend for free. I know she will go if she must (she is very humble and completely understands the situation her mother put her in). The problem remains being able to work legally (she is not interested in following in mom’s path) so she can save up for future education costs. Looking for a school that does provide assistance for illegal’s sounds like the way to go. I will look into how she would go about applying as an international and getting a green card.

I have to admit that my first thought was also for her to get married ( all ethical issues aside) but she is a very quiet girl that has little experience in the boy department (spends her free time raising her siblings).

I’m with you Poet Girl on the whole inability to get a job if she is able to graduate from college. I hope that by being educated maybe she can go back to her home country and make a life for herself (and try to legally enter the country). If she follows the path of others like her at my HS, she will remain illegally in the country, purchase a fake SS#, and get the same type of minimum wage job her mother has. The illegals are used and abused where we live for cheap labor–everyone knows their SS#'s are fake but the businesses hire them anyway (the law only requires them to document a SS#-not verify if it is legitimate). We also have some (but not enough to permanently scare the illegals) cases of INS “catching” these parents and returning them to Mexico without their legally born children–what a mess! Many times the kids end up in foster care.