By Syra Ortiz Blanes | Miami Herald | OCT. 27, 2023 | Photo Courtesy of Maria Gabriela Pacheco
Maria Gabriela Pacheco knows firsthand what it’s like to be an ambitious teenager who’s told she can’t go to college because of her immigration status. The Ecuadorian-born, Miami-raised immigration rights activist was once an undocumented high schooler in South Florida trying to figure out her next moves.
Two decades later — after rising to national prominence as a result of years of advocacy for new legal pathways and educational opportunities for the nation’s immigrants — Pacheco will lead the largest college scholarship and career development program for undocumented youth.
TheDream.Us, a national organization that has doled out over 10,000 scholarships during its nearly decade-old existence, announced this month that Pacheco would be its next president and CEO.
“This role is not just a responsibility; it’s a privilege, and I am committed to ensuring that we continue to open doors, break down barriers, and empower Dreamers to reach their full potential, adding their unique voices and talents to the diverse chorus that is our nation,” said Pacheco, who currently serves as the group’s Director of Advocacy, Development, and Communications.
Many undocumented students don’t have the information or resources available to pursue a college education and can’t afford university tuition. They are also excluded from getting federal student aid. TheDream.US helps students finance their education and partners with universities to offer them support throughout their studies.
Scholarship recipients include a business student who dreams of launching her own marketing company, and a nurse that helped hundreds of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pacheco starts her new role on Nov. 1, the same day a new round of TheDream.US scholarship applications opens up.
“I understand the challenges our newest class of Scholars faces, as 80 percent lack DACA or TPS. Like me, our Scholars have a lot to offer if given the opportunity to help our nation grow and thrive,” she said.
Prominent Miami educators celebrated the appointment.
“Having known Gaby since her days as an exemplary student at Miami Dade College, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing her transformation into an inspiration for Florida students and Dreamers across the nation. Her unwavering dedication and fervor for expanding educational opportunities for all is precisely why she is destined to be an exceptional President and CEO at TheDream.US,” said President Emeritus of Miami Dade College Eduardo Padrón, who also advises the organization.
Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho, who formerly led the Miami-Dade public school system, said that Pacheco “represents the immigrant student that turned her experiences and difficulties into excellence and leadership.”
“I KNOCKED ON SO MANY DOORS”
Pacheco came to the United States with her parents and three siblings from the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil in 1993. She was eight years old. Her family, fearing street crime and violence back home, decided to stay. But their tourist visa eventually ran out. The family lost its legal status.
Pacheco grew up in Kendall, immersed in immigrant Miami. Her front door neighbor was Nicaraguan and the upstairs one was Palestinian. Her parents, both professionals in Ecuador, would leave to work before sunrise and returned at night.
“I got to see the hustle and the hard work of all immigrants. The adults and parents were constantly working trying to provide for their children, and our number one job was to focus on education,” she said.
But on the cusp of graduating high school, the high-achieving student didn’t know if she could afford a college tuition, or if she’d even be able to put a bachelor’s degree to use. Still, she was dead-set on attending college. An old Miami Herald article chronicles how she worked random jobs to build up her savings, took the hardest classes available, and showed up daily at the international students office at Miami Dade College.
“I knocked on so many doors. And every time I would be told no, I would leave, turn around, and knock on another door and talk to someone else,” she said.
With the support of loved ones and a friendly admissions recruiter, Pacheco became one of Miami Dade College’s first undocumented students in the fall of 2003. She earned associate and bachelor’s degrees in education.
During her college years, Pacheco was a student government leader, who visited Tallahassee to push legislators for in-state tuition for undocumented students and organized protests for immigrant’s rights. After graduating, she walked 1,500 miles from Miami to Washington D.C. with others from Miami Dade College to advocate for new legal pathways for the nation’s over 11 million undocumented people.
She pushed for years for legislation known as the Dream Act that would offer immigration relief for those who came young to the United States, eventually becoming the political director of UnitedWeDream, a national youth movement. The law didn’t pass.
But Pacheco and other activists urged the Barack Obama administration to create what would become the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. DACA, an executive action Obama signed in 2012, has offered deportation protections and work permits to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who arrived as children. Pacheco was a program recipient.
It’s been 20 years since Pacheco’s first day at Miami Dade College. She became a U.S. citizen earlier this year and now lives between Miami and Washington D.C. But Pacheco still holds on to the commitment she pledged to herself when she held her class chedule for the first time: That she would fight so that getting an education would not be so difficult for undocumented students.
She’s made good on that promise.
