Prop. 300 takes effect.

March 3, 2008

by Sandra Haros/KTAR
Hundreds of students attending Arizona State University may be forced to drop out because of recent legislation which denies in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.“Lizbeth” was brought to the United States when she was four. She is one of 200 undocumented students awarded the private Sunburst Scholarship through the ASU Foundation.

“I’m a 19-year-old girl who’s a freshman at Arizona State University,” she said. “I declared myself as a pre-med clinical laboratory scientist major and I want to go to medical school and become a surgeon.”

Lizbeth now faces an uncertain future. The scholarship sponsor has run out of money and Lizbeth says there’s no way she can pay out-of-state tuition.

“If they could just have some compassion for the students who lost scholarships,” she said. “As of right now, we don’t know how we’re going to to to school next semester, or if we’re even going to be able to go to school.”

Lizbeth said she has worked hard at her schooling.

“I was on the honor roll for many years in high school, and I did just as well or better than a lot of students who were in high school with me,” she said.

She said she now feels that, “They’re making us seem like we’re criminals instead of just people that are trying to better our lives.”

Written by rob · Filed Under Immigration