When my mother was sixteen, she and her family immigrated from Suwon, South Korea to Chicago, USA. She enrolled in high school, and before she even knew it, she immediately had to face the college process. However, her opportunities were extremely limited, especially since she transitioned from having a middle-class family in South Korea to having a lower-class income status in the States. Her family was struggling to get by for their daily living themselves, let alone gather enough money to fund her college education.
 

However, my mom wanted to keep her interest and appreciation for education. After searching for different opportunities, she shared her story in scholarship applications. Fortunately, multiple private foundations and scholarships reached out to support her. After seeing her background as an immigrant, her statistics, and extracurriculars (such as participating in her local church), they sent her small but continuous scholarships. 

 

My mother was accepted into the University of Maryland as an undergraduate and the University of Southern California as a graduate student. There, she met my father and got married after they both graduated. Both of them had little to no student debt because of scholarships. 

 

If you asked my mother as a high schooler where she would be in 2024, she would have never guessed that she would be living comfortably near Los Angeles with a husband, two children, and two dogs. Even today, my mom still expresses her gratitude for these scholarships because they enriched her life, grew her appreciation for education, and kept her interest in pursuing her passions, all getting her to where she is today.  

 

Unfortunately, many other immigrants, refugees, or asylum seekers struggle to find financial support or resources due to a variety of reasons. In California alone, only 14% of undocumented students receive state financial aid for college, according to the California Student Aid Commission. One reason for this may be because many students who need financial aid are unaware of educational resources, or they simply don’t have enough resources to fund their future education. When someone suddenly flees their homeland and has to quickly adjust to their new life in a different country with a brand new culture, it is difficult to know where to ask for help on your own. This is where organizations like Project Atom come into play.
 

Project Atom continuously works to provide resources, including financial aid, to all students, regardless of background. It provides students from different backgrounds with new opportunities they never knew they had, allowing students to chase their academic dreams and study what they genuinely enjoy without having the burden of huge debts. 

 

However, most immigrant students are not exposed to organizations like Project Atom for financial support. I believe that it is the school’s duty to introduce support systems and financial help to these students, like clearly communicating scholarship opportunities, for instance. High school counselors and financial aid offices can also reach out to students more frequently to discuss how else the school can support the students, such as through financial opportunities, or other obstacles the student may be facing. 

 

At a higher level, it is also the state’s responsibility to offer more funding for lower and middle-class students. While there is some funding set in place, it is simply not enough to support most students and their future education. In California, where immigrants heavily constitute a huge part of the state’s population, funding this group of students and families should be a higher priority in order to give them the education they need and deserve. Education should be a priority and readily available all around the world, not just in California or the United States. 

 

Even though I hate waking up at six o’clock in the morning to solve algebra problems, my mom reminds me that “education helps keep one’s dignity as a human being.” Although I still struggle to grasp the full meaning of this quote, I’ve grown to slowly understand it more as I have to worry about my future education, too. As I gradually begin to realize the value of education, I want to reach out my hand to others who may need my help, like my mother did so many years ago; and I hope more people will do the same. 

 

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