The Kappa Delta Chi sorority at Emporia State is fundraising for a scholarship they created called the My Dream, My Future scholarship for students living in the U.S. without legal permission.
“I just feel like it’s so important,” said Marisleysis Velazquez, Emporia State alumna and current Kappa Delta Chi President. “I work at the high school right now and I know Emporia, in general, has a large Hispanic and Latina population and I know that if a lot of the younger generations knew there were sources of scholarships that they could use to go to school they would be more apt to go to school or be thinking about being able to go to school opposed to going out to work instead of school.”
The scholarship was created by Kappa Delta Chi as a way to give a total of $1,000 in scholarships to students living in the U.S. without legal permission who may need financial assistance during their education careers at ESU. The scholarship was founded in 2019 and the sorority has been fundraising for it ever since, according to Velazquez.
“I know my sisters had seen in the community and knew of individuals who were Dreamers or allies of individuals who were undocumented who were wanting to go to school but because they don’t receive any federal funding, it was really hard for them to continue their schooling because they had to basically come up with the money themselves,” said Velazquez.
“Dreamers” refers to The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act that was never approved.
For one of the fundraising events, they held a raffle in the Memorial Union where individuals could enter to win a manicure from a local nail technician named Dianneeth Jerez, according to the sorority’s flyers that were posted around campus.
“They have given me so much help and I just started doing nails full time in January at my own place,” said Jerez. “They have really helped with my career so I figured the girls plus Emporia have given so much to me so I don’t mind giving back. I really am all for the Dreamer’s scholarship, I love what it represents and what it’s for, and since they were doing that for that specific scholarship, help me decide to do as many as they want.”
The raffle was held from March 14 to March 30 and the winner, Rebekka Schuman, was announced and posted to the sorority’s Instagram. Velazquez said that they exceeded their expected goal from the fundraiser.
The current fundraising event they are hosting is the pie in the face bingo in the Memorial Union until May 4. For this fundraiser, individuals can donate money to see a specific Kappa Delta Chi member pied in the face on May 5, according to Velazquez. Velazquez said that this particular fundraiser is an extremely important project of theirs.
