DREAMER STORY

Felipe S. Wants To Help Shape America's Future

DREAMER STORY

Felipe S. Wants To Help Shape America's Future

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I was very academically oriented [growing up]. I’m proud to call myself a nerd. In fact when I was in high school I was able to take both high school and college classes. So while I was there I took as many college classes as I could. I was taking classes after school hours. I was taking classes before school hours, early in the morning, 6AM. And I was even taking classes online—I remember I took AP Computer Science online. And when I could I took classes on the weekends. I remember I took Chemistry classes on the weekends.

Things are changing so fast. VR. AR. Home automation. [Amazon’s] Alexa. There are so many things I could not have predicted or thought of existing a few years ago. In the future I want to be working on a product like that, at the brink of technology. I want to bring a new experience to people. Something they could not imagine before.

I know for a fact that these types of things happen only here in the U.S. This is a center for technology, full of the top minds. There is nowhere else I can do something like this.

One thing that stood out to me was everyone had their own culture but everyone held the same values.”

It was in middle school that I really first started learning U.S. history and civics. One thing that stood out to me was everyone had their own culture but everyone held the same values.

The funny thing about my situation is that after many different processes, my parents were able to become U.S. citizens. Most of my siblings also became U.S. citizens. And I’m the one who’s been left out.

My family lives in Florida. I visit them once or twice a year. I always go back home for the special holidays like Christmas. We do the Columbian style Novena, where nine days before Christmas we read the story of Joseph and Mary and how they traveled through Nazareth to find a place to give birth to baby Jesus. It’s nice family time we spend together, singing songs and making Colombian meals.

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Felipe S.

Dreamer and Technologist

DACA should not be a permanent program. However, it should be a step toward a solution.

If the plan is just to strip us of our DACA status, it’s not a fair thing for us given that the past 5 years we’ve demonstrated we are contributing to society. DACA provides the basic documents someone needs to start a career or to enroll in school. We, as DACA recipients, have shown there are gains to everyone when we can work and study.

The next step logically should be allowing us to adjust our status. There should be some pathway to citizenship based on the record we have maintained and kept.