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The NYSYLC understands that it takes a community to build a leader. For that reason, we acknowledge our role in the community and strongly advocate for the equal access to higher education. Therefore, the awards were created to provide some financial support for exceptional youth, to excel academically and to sustain the leadership in our communities that will ultimately propel the advancement of communities and society as a whole.

We, the NYSYLC, would like to extend a cordial invitation to join us at our 4^th Annual NYSYLC Awards Gala where we will be honoring this year’s NYSYLC scholarship recipients and the community that supports them and fosters their leadership. The reception will be on Friday, August 19th, at 6:00PM at our office located on 220 5th avenue, 5th floor. New York, NY 10010. The tickets to attend our NYSYLC Awards Gala are a minimum donation of $8. Get your tickets in advance here http://bit.ly/awardsgala2011.

These are exceptional students who have overcome many obstacles, but still believe in the power of their dreams. We welcome them into our NYSYLC community and wish them the best in their future endeavors. We hope that you, as a valued ally of immigrant youth, will join us in this special gala celebrating the community that takes to build a leader.

To RSVP or for any questions contact us at scholarships@nysylc.org .

Best Regards,

The New York State Youth Leadership Council

Continue reading »]]> A Piece of my Mind: A Student Without a Country
By Raul

My country…I have none. I was born in a country but remember nothing of it. can study its culture scrutinize it like a germ, but in the end would not really feel its true soul, as if I had lived there. I have been here in the United States all my life. I have studied here for 12 years and breathed 18 years’ worth of its air. English is not my second language; it is my only fluent language. Yet, politicians and lawmakers label students like me as “aliens.” The hopes I had of becoming a full-fledged American citizen are slowly dissipating. Last year a federal legislative bill, the American DREAM Act, passed the House of Representatives but failed to win approval in the Senate. This bill would have given undocumented students (and those living in immigration limbo while awaiting naturalization) a safety net if they met certain conditions. These students would have to attend college for at least two years or perform military service and meet certain other conditions. If all the conditions were satisfied, then these students would be eligible for citizenship. Twice the bill has failed and now my days and resolve are waning. My former optimistic and highly-motivated self is slowly going the way of the American DREAM Act, that is, turning into a nightmare. There are many students, like myself, who have not even set foot in the country of one’s birth since infancy. The only place they can call home is here in the “land of the free,” and the so-called land of opportunity. For example, if someone were to ask me for the location of a good restaurant in Glen Cove, I’d quickly reply, “The American Cafe,” or ask me where where the post office is and i’d point you in the right direction. However, in my birth country, Chile, if someone were to ask me where the bathroom in my parents’ old house was located, I would have to open every door, search every corner of the house before answering. My point is that some people know of no other country than the one they are currently living in. These individuals have been brought here out of desperation, into a land with supposedly more freedom. Most Americans believe that freedom is the most important aspect of this nation, but they nevertheless want to take it away from many deserving students. These students are individuals who want nothing more than to be exemplary American citizens. Their dreams are worth nurturing. They should not be treated like pests that need to be removed or exterminated.

If there’s one thing that kills ambition more than anything else and eats away at our insides, it is rejection. Rejection from scholarships, student loans, a job behind some counter and most of all the dream that society alluded to when we were in grade school. I can’t put my hand on it and words can’t capture it. This sensation is odd. it feels like being caged in. After a while, only anger beings to pile up. Sadness and depression no longer set in. instead, there is confusion and anger towards the injustice being waged against people like me…immigrants. The only difference is that they had the good fortune of having entered the United States in better times. They were able to prosper and gain economic stability. My father, mother, uncles and aunts all work back-breaking jobs to sustain. What keeps them working so hard is beyond me. How does someone remain happy after all the years of hard labor, mistreatment and knowing you left a whole family behind in a distant country? i guess it all has to do with hope. The hope that their children will succeed where they themselves have not. The hope that one day they can look back on their lives and not regret a single thing. Most immigrant parents want their children to become lawyers or big shot businessmen or businesswomen. Those career for people like me are just as difficult to reach as someone who is trying to become a filmmaker, a career I am reaching for and will somehow grasp.

A website, www.nysylc.org, has tons of blog type entries of individuals helping undocumented students and undocumented students sharing their stories, frustrations and words of encouragement. One anonymous blogger speaks about being salutatorian in his class of 2010 in Florida. He says he is “stuck at home, not attending college or working” making him go “crazy.” I point out this specific blog entitled “I graduated salutatorian but….” and the website because it speaks about guidance counselors and their lack of knowledge necessary to help students in these situations. This site is helpful for those who have no clue what to do or where to go for help. I was told of a story where a student attempted to commit suicide after being accepted to a topnotch college and not being able to afford it because he lacked the legal papers necessary to qualify for funding. It’s stories like these that scare me. Most people in school, in this very school, take education for granted while people like this are willing to die for it. I have no idea how I haven’t gone insane knowing that the pressure to succeed is upon me while the roadblocks to success are very difficult to overcome. These difficulties make me furious. I guess it’s the writing, the ability I have to express many of my frustrations that help me cope but, it will never solve my problems.

We need to change things in this still young, developing nation. What about those words at the base of the Statue of Liberty “Give me your tired, your poor, your humble masses yearning to be free..I lift my lamp besides…” Are these words no longer applicable; are they meaningless? I end this note with respect towards a great man who we must never forget…”One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.” Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., you still give me comfort and a shred of hope.

Continue reading »]]> Great news, Senator Reid has scheduled a vote for the DREAM Act tomorrow Saturday. The vote can come as early as 10:00 am EST. The vote is looking close so we need to step it up and make sure that those senators that are on the fence vote yes.

This means there is only 1 day to take action. 1 day to make as many calls as you can make. There is no going back so step up and take action!

* Organize Phone Banking Parties for DREAM at your home, school, with friends or family. Here is the updated target list, pasted below. Make the call during lunch, your break at work or school. Leave a voice mail, call their direct DC or local offices too. The goal is 100,000 calls!

You know the Drill. DO NOT stress if this is your first time:

1. Dial the direct line next to each senators name
2. When the receptionist in the office picks up leave a message urging the senator to vote yes on the DREAM Act.

Tell them “Hi, I am calling Senator___ to urge him/her to vote YES on the Dream Act when it comes up for a vote tomorrow”

Senate Democrats:

Conrad (ND) – 202-224-2043
Pryor (AR) 202-224-2353
Manchin (WV) 202-224-3954
Hagan (NC) 202-224-6342

Senate Republicans:

Brownback (KS) – 202-224-6521
Voinovich (OH) – 202-224-3353
Snowe (ME) – 202-224-5344
Collins (ME) – 202-224-2523

* Come Phone Banking & Watch LIVE VOTE with us!
Many of us cannot go to Washington, DC due to work or school. However, you can still take action right NOW so come and phone bank with us all day today. Also, tomorrow join us to watch the vote.

WHEN: Phone Banking today Friday, Dec 17th @ 12noon til 9pm
DREAM Vote Live Streaming on Saturday, Dec 18th @ 9am

WHERE: YLC OFFICE located on 220 5th Ave 26th ST.
Email US or call 347-755-3303 to RSVP
Media Contact Daniela@nysylc.org or 646-472-9565

* Change your status on facebook, twitter, and other social media networks to encourage your contacts to call their senators for the Dream Act.

* HELP US STOP Selvin’s DEPORTATION set for tomorrow. Sign his petition right now! He is a leader in Portland, Maine and he needs the DREAM Act NOW!

http://immigration.change.org/petitions/view/stop_selvin_arevalos_deportation_in_6_days

Continue reading »]]> The DREAM Act, introduced in Congress on March 26, continues to gain national and local support. It has garnered the co-sponsorship of twenty-two Senators and sixty-two House members.

Last month, the College Board—composed of more than 5,000 member schools and other educational organizations—announced its backing for this legislation. In the report “Young Lives on Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students,” the College Board notes that the DREAM Act would allow 360,000 undocumented high school graduates to attend college and legalize their immigration status. Every year, approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school, only 5 to 10 percent of them attend college.

Most students who would benefit from the DREAM Act came to the U.S. at an early age. They are educated in our schools and encouraged to succeed, but their immigration status limits their progress. As the author of the report states:

[They] have been raised to dream, yet are cut off from the very mechanisms that allow them to achieve their dreams.

According to Professor Allan Wernick, about 3,000 students at the City University of New York would benefit from the DREAM Act immediately. New York City and State representatives have voiced their support and urged Congress to enact it. On March 17, the New York Senate passed a resolution urging the federal government to take action. Mayor Bloomberg announced his support during Immigrant Heritage Week

The business sector has also voiced its support. Microsoft wrote a letter to Congress endorsing the bill. And just last week, Harvard’s president announced her support.