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Romero Program Participates in Aliento's Education Day

2/20/2023

PHOENIX – Students from Brophy's Romero Program met other high school students at the Arizona Capitol on Feb. 15, to participate in Aliento's 2023 Education Day. Aliento, a nonprofit founded and led by young people from mixed-status families, works to gain educational access and other basic rights for Arizona's "Dreamers." Dreamers are undocumented citizens who have lived in Arizona almost their entire lives. Usually, they were brought to the U.S. as infants or young children whose families never had the economic means or legal access needed to go through the citizenship process.

Brophy students have been advocates through Aliento since its inception in 2019 and were key to the organization's success in getting Proposition 308 passed. That legislation allows Dreamers who graduate from high school in Arizona to receive in-state tuition. At the Capitol, students met with Governor Katie Hobbs and members of the legislature to encourage support for the Promise for Dreamers Scholarship Program, an extension of Proposition 308 which would provide scholarship funding for undocumented high school graduates. The governor's spokesperson, Josselyn Berry, stated, "The Governor was thrilled to have Dreamers here in the Governor’s office and was deeply moved by their stories. It’s important to us that they feel heard and seen by our administration.”

Brophy senior Daniel Martinez Romero (right in photo) noted that while he would have preferred to stay closer to home, he will attend Washington University in St. Louis due to the lack of scholarship funding in Arizona. For more on this story, read the article from Cronkite News and an article from the Arizona Republic.

Photo: Drake Presto/Cronkite News (used with permission)

Contact Brophy's Communications Office for more information on the Romero Program and our students' work on behalf of Dreamers.