An undocumented student or DREAMER is a student who lives in the United States but who does not have official legal status as either a citizen or as a permanent resident. Most undocumented students entered the country at a very young age, have completed high school, and consider themselves American.

Many students will naturally feel uncomfortable sharing their legal status among their peers, staff, and faculty. If a student shares this information with you, they have placed great trust in you and expect you to hold this information confidential unless otherwise stated. Please do not share a student's legal status, as this can potentially cause great harm.

Undocumented students are affected by their status in various ways and frequently do not have access to many things that other students do. Here are just a few of the ways that legal status impacts undocumented students:

• No access to federal financial aid, including grants, loans, and work-study
• Not eligible for federally funded research, internship, or fellowship opportunities
• For those without Deferred Action status, they are unable to apply to anything that requires a Social Security Number
• Very limited access to health care
• Fear of being separated from family members, who may or may not have a deferred action status

We encourage staff and faculty to refer students to the Dream Success Center by providing the student with our information and/or by reaching out to us.

Staff, faculty, and administration are encouraged to attend an Ally or Literacy training to learn more about the laws and policies that affect undocumented students and promising practices for supporting these students. We also encourage you to request a literacy training to be delivered to your very own group, office, department, division, etc.