LIVE THE DREAM: Don Graham, former publisher of the Washington Post, who celebrates his 69th birthday today, talked about his new scholarship program, TheDream.US, at the ASU+GSV Summit, in an onstage interview with EdSurge's Betsy Corcoran. The program is aimed at supporting college tuition at specific schools or programs for undocumented students who grew up in the US, registered under the DACA program.
Graham co-founded the program a year ago with Henry Muñoz, who chairs the national finance committee for the Democratic Party and Carlos Gutierrez, who served as Secretary of Commerce under the Bush administration. The program fills an aching need that people on all sides of the political divide are embracing. Students who discover that they’re undocumented--typically in high school--have virtually no financial resources to pay for higher education as they are not eligible for Pell grants, loans from banks or other typical lending programs. TheDream partners with schools and learning organizations that will enable students to get a bachelor’s degree for $25,000 in tuition. These programs include Long Beach City College, Miami Dade College, the University of Texas in El Paso and Kaplan (which is making its education available on a nonprofit basis).
Graham says they’ve raised $31 million for the program and hopes to reach $100 million over the next year, and is also seeking advisors and other support for the program. He promised to answer anyone’s email who wants to help.
Editor's note: Graham is an investor in EdSurge.
