Southwestern College holds ribbon cutting ceremony for new Dreamer Center

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – Southwestern College held a ribbon-cutting ceremony today to celebrate the opening of its Dreamer Center. The facility will offer resources to students in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era program that allows roughly 600,000 immigrants who were brought into the country as children to remain in the U.S.

The university received a $125,000 grant from the California Campus Catalyst Fund last year to offer more resources to the students, who are commonly referred to as “dreamers.”

The college also received a donation from the Southwestern College Foundation for its programs for DACA students and students living in the country illegally, but did not disclose the amount.

“We will give these students the support and resources they need to help them come out of their cocoon and continue their pursuit of an education,” said Guadalupe Corona, director of the college’s Office of Student Equity Programs and Services. “Their dreams are our dreams, and we are here to help dreamers.”

In addition to building the Dreamer Center, the college plans to use the grant funding to pay a project specialist to work with students living in the country without permission and develop outreach and scholarship opportunities for them.

The Dreamer Center will also assist DACA students with program applications, renewals and information on local legal services.

The Dreamer Center is located in room 426 at the college’s Chula Vista campus. More information is available at the Dreamer Center’s website, bit.ly/2IXuBfG.