Sorority hosts events to educate students on the DREAM Act
Published Nov 11, 2011
The TCU Epsilon Rho chapter of the Lambda Theta Alpha sorority hosted a two-day event to raise awareness about the DREAM Act on campus.
The DREAM Act has been debated in Congress since 2001. It would allow undocumented immigrants, who entered the U.S. before age 15, to be eligible for citizenship if they serve in the military for two years, receive a two-year or four-year degree from an institution of higher learning, or spent two years in good standing at a four-year institution.
“We’ve been interested in the DREAM Act because it affects so many students,” senior English major Amanda Balderamos said. “A lot of students at TCU don’t realize that there are a lot of people attending TCU that it affects.”
On Wednesday night, the Lambdas hosted University of North Texas graduate anthropology student and member of the North Texas Dream Team advocacy group, Shaun Chappa, to speak at an open event to TCU students about the DREAM Act.
Chappa covered historical legislature that led up to the DREAM Act and explained who the act affected as well as how students could help to raise awareness.
Chapter academic chair and chapter orientation advisor assistant Balderamos said Lambda Theta Alpha continued their event Thursday evening by openly advocating for the DREAM Act on campus.
Chapter fundraising chair and senior early childhood education major Noemi Mejia said the sorority made bracelets for students to write a dream of their own. Students were also welcome to sign a petition in support of the DREAM Act.
Senior early childhood education major and Lambda Theta Alpha president Diana González said the petition reached 109 signatures by the end of the night.
Balderamos said the petition is a part of a larger national effort to produce enough signatures in support of the DREAM Act that so that the Act can be presented to the House of Representatives.
“I think a lot of people don’t know who the act influences,” Mejia said. “We tend to associate it with the Hispanic community, but it really affects more than that-a much wider audience.”
