GAP YEAR GRANTS FOR UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS
Travel Access Project (Vancouver, WA) and Pupusas for Education (Durham, NC) are excited to announce a new partnership to pilot two (2) grants exclusively for undocumented students in North Carolina to pursue a gap year opportunity for the 2020-21 school year.
Applications Are OPEN January 15th-February 29th, 2020!
Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. on February 29th.
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Who Should Apply?
- Must be undocumented/DACAmented student
- Must be a high school senior
- Must be graduating from a North Carolina High School
- Must have been accepted to a university/college, have continuing education plans upon return from gap year with a plan to defer enrollment and/or scholarships
- Must plan on taking gap year during 2020-21 academic school year
- Must be willing and able to travel to other cities and states
- Must be willing and able to spend an extended amount of time away from home
Each Grant awarded includes:
- $3000 USD for use for educational travel during your gap year
- Advising and support in the planning of your gap year
- Advising and support during your gap year
- Pre-departure Orientation
- Re-entry Retreat after gap year
Have Questions?
Send an email to pupusas4education@gmail.com.
Want to Help Fund a Grant?
Want to sponsor a student? We couldn’t do this without you! Become a sustainer OR donate what you can!
About our Partner, Pupusas 4 Education & Cecilia Polanco
At 26, Cecilia Polanco owns and manages So Good Pupusas, a social justice food truck serving Salvadoran pupusas, and their partner non-profit Pupusas for Education, which awards last dollar scholarships for undocumented students to pursue higher education.
Born in California to Salvadoran immigrant parents, and raised in Durham, Polanco was a recipient of the Morehead-Cain scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill, and a recipient in the first class of Global Gap Year Fellowship. Cecilia took a gap year between high school and college to volunteer and travel abroad as a global citizen. Her travels took her to Italy, Spain, France, Sweden, Australia, and Alaska. Her passions lie within access to higher education, business as a force for good, and advancing racial equity.
Since graduating Carolina in 2016, Cecilia has been a HPJ Fellow with the social justice consulting firm Frontline Solutions, a Smith Fellow for the Southern Foodways Alliance, and a Fellow with the Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation. She is on the board of the Helius Foundation (small business consulting for need-based and entrepreneurs of color), LatinxEd (high school honors and college prep program for Latinx youth), the Gap Year Association (national gap year accreditation organization), and serves on the Racial Equity Task Force for the City of Durham.
Recently she was recognized as a Local Food Hero by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, and also works as a facilitator on their Committee on Racial Equity in food systems team. She hopes to one day open a second truck or restaurant as a platform for community culinary entrepreneurs to start their businesses, and to return to school to obtain a Masters in Business Administration or Education.