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Let High Schoolers Dream Too
By Yvonne Watterson
BARRIOZONA
August 21, 2008
BARRIOZONA
August 21, 2008
The urge to support American-raised young people who want to realize their American dream of a college education is
heartening to an immigrant like me. The American Dream Fund has also stepped up for this particular group of students
who need their advocacy and their financial support. While the Dream Fund allows us to do something that honors
honorable adult children of immigrants, it unfortunately does not address fulfilling the dreams of many other kids. I’d like to
tell you about some of them.
They are minors, and under federal law are entitled to a free public education regardless of status. In Arizona, they are
also entitled to pursue their K-12 education at a public school of choice, a charter school like mine. My charter is the only
Early College High School in our city. As such, our mission is to support students to earn both a high school diploma and
an AA degree upon graduation.
Typically, our kids come to us from parents who didn’t go to college, parents who perhaps don’t speak English, and
always from parents who want only the best for their children. They also come to us with an unwavering commitment to
‘do college early,’ which will eliminate some of the financial obstacles they would otherwise encounter as ‘first generation’
students. As Principal, I use my state funding to pay for college tuition and textbooks to ensure that ALL 240 students can
participate fully in this innovative mission-driven charter high school.
Until Prop 300 passed, that’s what they did. All dreams were within reach. Students were safe, successful, and in school.
Our data tells the story: since its redesign in 2003, our school’s attendance rate has improved from 50% to 94%, and our
drop out rate has decreased from 50% to 1.4%, our Math AIMs scores reveal that in 2003 NO students met the standard in
math; now over 74% meet the standards. Last May, our 40 Seniors graduated with a combined 802 college credits.
Clearly, dreams have come true here.
The successes belong to the resilient students, documented and undocumented, whose commitment to academic
excellence has been inspiring. But the stakes are much higher for my undocumented students, because their academic
success has been hindered by an action over which they had no control – brought to this country as infants, they now face
an uncertain future not just in this state, but in the very classrooms they attend every day as high school children.
They are no longer entitled to the same opportunity as their American born peers, those with whom they were promoted
from elementary school, those with whom they played and prayed, those with whom they saluted the American flag every
day in grade school. Until Prop 300 passed, I used my state funding to pay for the college coursework that is integral to
our unique high school program. When it passed, my undocumented children, innocent victims, were denied access to
that free public high school education afforded to everyone else.
But, our program is still intact because of the kindness of strangers, strangers I’ve come to rely on ever since the
menacing measure passed. And students have been able to continue their high school program and to dream again.
Students like Jose, who came here to our country as a toddler, and took his first tentative steps on Arizona soil, and saved
every certificate he ever earned including the one he received for good citizenship when he was 1o. Students like Noemi,
who finished our high school program this year as a bilingual Nursing Assistant with 56 college credits (had it not been for
Prop 300, she would have had an AA degree). I find it un-American that supporters of Prop 300 would not be interested in
welcoming Noemi who wants only to contribute positively to the only community she’s ever known.
Recently, a BBC PRI broadcast featured our school, and a kind immigrant couple in Ohio responded immediately with a
$10,000 endowment in honor of Bob Jones, Former Superintendent of the Balsz District. Ironically, Bob had spoken out on
that program about the fear in which these children live. Ironically, Bob died the day it aired, but we have an opportunity
now to remember his work to honor these kids and their dreams and to challenge the dehumanizing stereotypes often
used to label them. I also heard from the great grandson of Hugh Hunter Creighton. Hugh had been an ‘undocumented’
immigrant himself back in the 1870’s. What would he of what’s happening to undocumented high school kids at the
intersection of 40th Street and Washington, not too far away from Creighton schools, which were his gift to the city of
Phoenix?
I am deeply grateful for the kindness of strangers; for the letters of support from all over the country, and for the financial
contributions, most of which range from $25 - $100. I realize it’s a temporary solution, but given the vitriol that
characterizes the immigration debate here, I doubt that Prop 300 is a temporary measure. I need to find new and
sustainable ways of funding an early college high school education for my students. A contribution to the Dr. Robert Jones
Memorial Fund will keep my kids’ dreams alive. They have already proven they can do college early; with grace and
gratitude they have risen to the occasion, but they can only do so if private donations keep coming in. To make a donation,
make checks payable to the Dr. Robert Jones Memorial Fund and mail to Alma Padilla, Maricopa Community Colleges
Foundation, 2411 W. 14th Street, Tempe AZ 85281
Yvonne Watterson is beginning her sixth year of GateWay Eearly College High School in Phoenix. She is the 2008 City of Phoenix MLK
Living the Dream Award and also received the Moral Courage Award form the NAU Martin Springer Institute and the AZ Hispanic School
Administrator’s Association Courageous Principal award .
heartening to an immigrant like me. The American Dream Fund has also stepped up for this particular group of students
who need their advocacy and their financial support. While the Dream Fund allows us to do something that honors
honorable adult children of immigrants, it unfortunately does not address fulfilling the dreams of many other kids. I’d like to
tell you about some of them.
They are minors, and under federal law are entitled to a free public education regardless of status. In Arizona, they are
also entitled to pursue their K-12 education at a public school of choice, a charter school like mine. My charter is the only
Early College High School in our city. As such, our mission is to support students to earn both a high school diploma and
an AA degree upon graduation.
Typically, our kids come to us from parents who didn’t go to college, parents who perhaps don’t speak English, and
always from parents who want only the best for their children. They also come to us with an unwavering commitment to
‘do college early,’ which will eliminate some of the financial obstacles they would otherwise encounter as ‘first generation’
students. As Principal, I use my state funding to pay for college tuition and textbooks to ensure that ALL 240 students can
participate fully in this innovative mission-driven charter high school.
Until Prop 300 passed, that’s what they did. All dreams were within reach. Students were safe, successful, and in school.
Our data tells the story: since its redesign in 2003, our school’s attendance rate has improved from 50% to 94%, and our
drop out rate has decreased from 50% to 1.4%, our Math AIMs scores reveal that in 2003 NO students met the standard in
math; now over 74% meet the standards. Last May, our 40 Seniors graduated with a combined 802 college credits.
Clearly, dreams have come true here.
The successes belong to the resilient students, documented and undocumented, whose commitment to academic
excellence has been inspiring. But the stakes are much higher for my undocumented students, because their academic
success has been hindered by an action over which they had no control – brought to this country as infants, they now face
an uncertain future not just in this state, but in the very classrooms they attend every day as high school children.
They are no longer entitled to the same opportunity as their American born peers, those with whom they were promoted
from elementary school, those with whom they played and prayed, those with whom they saluted the American flag every
day in grade school. Until Prop 300 passed, I used my state funding to pay for the college coursework that is integral to
our unique high school program. When it passed, my undocumented children, innocent victims, were denied access to
that free public high school education afforded to everyone else.
But, our program is still intact because of the kindness of strangers, strangers I’ve come to rely on ever since the
menacing measure passed. And students have been able to continue their high school program and to dream again.
Students like Jose, who came here to our country as a toddler, and took his first tentative steps on Arizona soil, and saved
every certificate he ever earned including the one he received for good citizenship when he was 1o. Students like Noemi,
who finished our high school program this year as a bilingual Nursing Assistant with 56 college credits (had it not been for
Prop 300, she would have had an AA degree). I find it un-American that supporters of Prop 300 would not be interested in
welcoming Noemi who wants only to contribute positively to the only community she’s ever known.
Recently, a BBC PRI broadcast featured our school, and a kind immigrant couple in Ohio responded immediately with a
$10,000 endowment in honor of Bob Jones, Former Superintendent of the Balsz District. Ironically, Bob had spoken out on
that program about the fear in which these children live. Ironically, Bob died the day it aired, but we have an opportunity
now to remember his work to honor these kids and their dreams and to challenge the dehumanizing stereotypes often
used to label them. I also heard from the great grandson of Hugh Hunter Creighton. Hugh had been an ‘undocumented’
immigrant himself back in the 1870’s. What would he of what’s happening to undocumented high school kids at the
intersection of 40th Street and Washington, not too far away from Creighton schools, which were his gift to the city of
Phoenix?
I am deeply grateful for the kindness of strangers; for the letters of support from all over the country, and for the financial
contributions, most of which range from $25 - $100. I realize it’s a temporary solution, but given the vitriol that
characterizes the immigration debate here, I doubt that Prop 300 is a temporary measure. I need to find new and
sustainable ways of funding an early college high school education for my students. A contribution to the Dr. Robert Jones
Memorial Fund will keep my kids’ dreams alive. They have already proven they can do college early; with grace and
gratitude they have risen to the occasion, but they can only do so if private donations keep coming in. To make a donation,
make checks payable to the Dr. Robert Jones Memorial Fund and mail to Alma Padilla, Maricopa Community Colleges
Foundation, 2411 W. 14th Street, Tempe AZ 85281
Yvonne Watterson is beginning her sixth year of GateWay Eearly College High School in Phoenix. She is the 2008 City of Phoenix MLK
Living the Dream Award and also received the Moral Courage Award form the NAU Martin Springer Institute and the AZ Hispanic School
Administrator’s Association Courageous Principal award .
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