More than 700 students attend NOVA under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. They are our “Dreamers” and are hardworking scholars and leaders who enrich our classrooms, clubs and communities. There is no doubt that if anyone can overcome a challenge such as the phasing out of DACA, it is our Dreamers, whose resilience, strength and commitment to furthering their education are matched by few.
Following are a few quotes from allies of NOVA’s Dreamers:
“Virginia’s Community Colleges exist to give everyone the opportunity to learn and develop the right skills so lives and communities are strengthened. Our faculty, staff, and students should never question if that mission includes them because it always does.”
–Dr. Glenn Dubois, Virginia Community College System Chancellor
“I also have tremendous empathy for our Dreamer students because as a child I moved four times before I graduated from high school because of my father’s career. Dreamers on average came to the United States at the age of six, the same age that I once moved with my family. I know from personal experience that the natural instinct of children is to be with their parents, even if they do not want to leave behind their friends and the homes that they know. In that respect, I do not believe individuals should be denied the transformative opportunity of education for following the natural instincts of children.”
–Dr. Scott Falls, NOVA President
“A number of my best students have been beneficiaries of DACA or have had friends, family members or loved ones who have benefitted from this reasonable and humane executive action. It saddens me enormously then that DACA is being ended, thus putting the hopes and dreams of thousands of young people on hold, and forcing many of them to go underground. These Dreamers are American in every sense of the word that matters. They have worked, paid taxes, established families, begun businesses, gone to school, volunteered in their communities and, overall, contributed enormously to the well-being of this nation. We are all impoverished when they are threatened.
If you, or anyone you know and love is a DACA recipient, please know that I and other faculty and staff at NOVA support the cause of immigrants, and will do everything we can to assist those at risk. Although our power to help is small, what we can do, we will do.”
–Dr. Michael Amey, English Professor, NOVA
