Jared Ponce Deras and his family moved to the U.S. from Honduras about 10 years ago. When he was a senior at a high school in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, he wondered what was next for him after graduation.
"I want to become a doctor, I want to go to a medical school, I want to push myself to get a higher education, but how am I going to be able to do this?" Ponce Deras said he wondered.
In South Carolina, like North Carolina, recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program must pay out-of-state tuition even if they are long-term residents. Students without legal status cannot enroll in South Carolina state schools.
With the help of his guidance counselor, Ponce Deras decided to apply to Golden Door Scholars, a program that provides four-year scholarships to undocumented students who are graduating from high schools in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
"After the interview ... I got an acceptance letter, I got a call, ‘Hey, Jared, actually, you got it. You're gonna be going to college,’" Ponce Deras recalled.
Ponce Deras is now in his senior year of college at Wingate University.
"It has given me the opportunity to make my mother proud, my family proud, to be the first one to graduate from college," Ponce Deras said.
He’s one of 229 Golden Door Scholars actively enrolled in college. Each year, the program accepts around 53 scholars. GDS now has over 400 alumni who have graduated with bachelor’s degrees.
Red Ventures CEO Ric Elias founded Golden Door Scholars, under the nonprofit Road to Hire, and has been one of the primary donors. The nonprofit also receives support from individual donors.
Gisselle Toledo Molinary, a GDS program manager, says it’s more than just a scholarship.
"We provide a wrap-around service that includes summer programming, the one-on-one coaching that you are going to be receiving from our student career coach," Toledo Molinary said.
The nonprofit was founded in 2013, shortly after the DACA program took effect. DACA was intended as a stop-gap measure to protect some of the youngest immigrants who had spent much of their lives in the country. The idea was that Congress would either agree on an immigration overhaul — or pass a bill to give them citizenship.
Next month, a federal appellate court in Texas will hear another challenge to DACA. Immigration is now one of the most heated topics this election season.
Ponce Deras says it’s been a challenge making it through with so much uncertainty.
"I am here as an undocumented student, and it has been a lot," Ponce Deras said. "It has been tough. But I can tell you after four years here in college, having an amazing GPA, having an amazing connection with professors — it is possible."
He hopes to attend medical school and become a doctor. But he’s not sure that’s a possibility with no access to federal loans and limited scholarship opportunities.
The deadline for next year’s scholarships is Sunday, October 6.
