August 13-22: The 511 mile Bike Ride | Tour de Dreams

This is the first time I am fundraising for myself. I have fundraised for countless organizations as a teenager, we fundraise for DreamACTivist.org and other undocumented youth whenever we can, but this is the FIRST TIME I have put up a widget for myself.

This past year I got into all law schools of my choice. But I couldn’t afford to go.

I couldn’t take out student loans since my house is going through foreclosure and our credit is bad.

I couldn’t get any federal or state financial aid since I am undocumented.

I decided to delay law school for another year, to delay our dreams. This dream has been delayed since I was 16 and decided to be a public interest attorney.

Now, as I find myself suddenly fatherless, this dream seems more elusive than ever.

It’s not empty fundraising. I will be doing a 9-day, 511 mile bike ride in the summer heat from UCLA to UC Berkeley. It’s a distance that I have never covered and given that my body has adverse reaction to prolonged exposure to sunlight, it is certainly going to be a challenge.

Hosted by RISE-UCB, Tam and I will try and cover this event daily on DreamActivist.org, including daily video uploads and write-ups. I will twitter! We will do a kickass job of bringing the event to you, I promise.

I will survive and hopefully we raise something so I can afford to go back to college next August.