In 2012, just one year before his college graduation, the DACA program was enacted.

'It allowed me to attend school for the first three years, but I wasn't able to work and DACA wasn't around until right before I was close to graduation actually,' explained Hernandez. Instead, he was employed by the college under a scholarship program Still, covering the rest of his tuition was not easy because Hernandez could not get a work permit. Hernandez was able to receive some scholarship money for his outstanding academic achievements.

“But, because I wasn’t a documented student, I was actually being charged out-of-state tuition,” said Hernandez. He had been accepted to several colleges in the state and decided on the University of Northern Colorado. In 2009, Hernandez received his high school diploma from Thornton High School. They would work at water world or Elitches here and that was a fun opportunity for them, and I would hear stories, but I also didn't have this additional income that was starting to come in to do the fun things that they wanted to do.' 'I couldn't work at the time either, I think that was kind of the next level that summer my friends would start getting jobs. “I would say it's not important to me or I don't want to drive or you know I don't need to.” I often had to come up with lies as to why I didn't want to drive,” explained Hernandez. 'Just to hear my friends to be able to start driving, start learning how to drive. It was around that time when Hernandez learned his tourist visa had expired and he was now considered an undocumented immigrant.

That's what the focus of the program is to get you to get some college credits and by the time you graduate from high school and then make it to college,' said Hernandez. 'Very early on I had aspirations of going to college. 'Finished fifth grade here and then went on to middle school and very early on I was in the ESL programs, so really focusing on learning English the first couple of years,' said Hernandez.Īfter about three years Hernandez went from not speaking English to being accepted into the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program, an accelerated curriculum for advanced learners. However, coming to America and speaking no English was their first big challenge. 'For my mom and I it was always about my brother and I having an opportunity to live in the United States to get a better education and really just to be closer to her parents and my grandparents,' added Hernandez. In 2001, his mother was granted a visa and returned to Colorado when Hernandez was 11 years old and his brother nine.

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