Genius High School Robot Team Can't Afford College
I picked up this story first on OSNews. The title almost speaks for itself, along with the following from the post:This month's Wired magazine has a terriffic story about a team of students from a high school in an economically depressed part of Phoenix, who took part in an underwater-robot building competition against students from the top universities in the country -- and won. All of the students are undocumented Mexican immigrants who don't qualify for most financial aid or even in-state tuition, and therefore can't afford to attend college, in the US, Mexico, or anywhere. When I read the article I determined to try to do something to help give these kids their chance, and I was delighted to discover that their faculty advisor has set up a scholarship fund for them, and I'm about to donate some money to help. I'd like to encourage OSNews readers to read the story, and if they feel the same way, to donate.
posted by majqa @ 8:17 PM
1 Comments:
My sympathy is somewhat mixed. On the one hand, someone who came here when he was 6 years old probably didn't have a lot to say about what was legal or illegal, and given the performance of the student(s) talked about in the article I'd like to think that the reward would be more than put-downs and told to leave the country. And it would seem that this is exactly the type of immigrant we should want if not outright embrace - legal or otherwise.
On the other hand, ignoring our laws isn't exactly a good thing to reward either, but what does one do when they've grown up here - illegally? Kind of a sad story.
Americans don't seem to mind if illegals work on our farms, work on our construction sites, or in our eating places, but when they start doing great things it suddenly pisses off a lot of people.
If such an illegal immigrant ended up curing cancer or AIDS - should they be expelled from our country? I suspect they would be quickly deported, but their "intellectual property" would remain the property of the US and enrich some corporation accordingly.
I don't which is the greater irony - poor illegals beating the Ivy League kids, or illegal aliens doing good things and the country telling them to leave. A strange paradox.
Post a Comment
<< Home