Guest Voz - Latina Lista: Texas teen creates special college scholarship for her undocumented peers

LatinaLista — By her own admission, 18-year-old Audrey Vivar has always been a “little ambitious and nerdy.” Two qualities that helped this recent high school graduate of New Tech Manor High School outside Austin, Texas finish her senior year with a distinctive list of accomplishments — Key Club president, Student Council member, National Honor Society co-historian, Valedictorian of her class and — creator of a scholarship for undocumented students.
“I would sell the bracelets and advocate for the DREAM Act at the same time,” Vivar said.
Not starting until spring to raise the money, Vivar was crunched for time and created a Facebook page where she posted pictures of the bracelets and kept people informed of her goal. It wasn’t long before Vivar surpassed her goal of $500 by selling about 200 bracelets. Yet, she didn’t yet have the scholarship application available.
Creating a separate website in May, weeks before graduation, where students could go to apply for the scholarship, Vivar was thrilled that four students applied. A committee judged the applications and chose Manor High School student Nelly Reyna as the first recipient of the scholarship.
“I didn’t help select the winner because I would have been biased,” Vivar confessed. “But I did review the applications.”
In an ironic twist of fate, both Vivar and Reyna are heading to the University of Texas in Austin in September. Vivar plans to major in advertising and communications and has a special interest in marketing, but her dream job is to one day be a director of a non-profit.
Her other dream is to keep her scholarship active and she wants to raise $1,000 to award next year to Manor high school students. “I’m not sure if we would award one $1,000 scholarship or give two scholarships,” Vivar said. “But I know I can raise even more money at UT because there are more people who have already been advocating for the DREAM Act.”