Greetings from Middlebury College. some of you might know me while some of you perhaps have just have heard a little bit about me… or probably have never heard about me (don’t worry you haven’t missed that much).
I am Oscar Portillo, from Wheaton High School class of 2009; now I am a freshman at Middlebury College in Vermont. I am a member of the “Alianza Latina y Caribeña” at Middlebury, the Hispanic organization on campus. I am writing to you because I want you all to be part of a new movement in our country.
Alianza wants to make Middlebury College support the legal reform that would bring more rights to a neglected sector in our society. Mr. Ronald D. Liebowitz, our college president, has been selected by Times Magazine as one of its “10 Best College Presidents.” A person with such an illustrious title is very likely to have some degree of influence in the private sector, the general public, and more importantly in national politics. Therefore we want him to sign a petition in which he supports the Dream Act and asks for a reform to the actual legal system; this reform (Dream Act) would benefit many US students who have not access to higher education because of their legal status (even though they might be more Americans than anything else). But before getting his signature we need to raise awareness about the Dream Act and get many Middlebury students’ signatures; and to do so we need to expose the hardships that many are going through as they see their future blocked by bureaucratic idiosyncrasies. We want to show the human side of the current situation of many Americans who are not legally what they are inside; and more importantly, we want people to realize that just because the legal status of many of our friends differ from those of regular ‘Americans’ it doesn’t mean that they are not American enough to deserve the same opportunities in an issue as important as it is the universal right to education.
Here is where you come to be an important component of this movement: We need biographies (and/or anecdotes) that expose this reality which has not been publicized enough in mainstream media. If you are a person who would benefit from the Dream Act, please write a short biography (no more than a page) where you expose the insanity of our current legal system. If you are not directly affected by this issue, but know of someone who is indeed affected; please talk to that person about this movement, here at Middlebury. You, or your friends, can send the biographies/ anecdotes in a Word document format to [email protected] . THEY ARE DUE DECEMBER 31TH. Once we have raised awareness in our student body and collected many firms, we will present these firms to president Liebowitz who in turn will sign a petition to Washington for a legal reform implementing the Dream Act. The more biographies we have the more chances there are we will get many people to sign the petition (including President Liebowitz ).
Should any question arise during the process please do not hesitate to e-mail me with your query. I will do my best to answer as soon as I can (we are in final exams week).
Be part of this movement, there is no such thing as a small contribution; any action that you do towards helping this movement get started is a step closer to more opportunities for those who need it.
Thank you for your time and I am looking forward to many biographies!
Ps: (if you haven’t noticed) Hablo Español.
Sincerely,
Oscar Portillo
I've copy and paste it.. any questions please E-mail me at [email protected]
