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Brissia Hernandez and Heidi Perez: Students like us will finally be able to go to college in the state [1]
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Date: 2025-07-04
This commentary is by Brissia Hernandez of Enosburg and Heidi Perez of Milton, members of Migrant Justice who have recently graduated from high school. Heidi Perez is currently in immigration detention after being detained by Border Patrol.
Going to high school in Vermont is really hard when you don’t speak English. We both moved here a couple of years ago to be with our families. We had to leave behind everything that we knew and start completely over: new classes, new friends, new language, new country.
Everything here is very different. People judge you for being an immigrant. We both got lost on the way to class at first, and it was really hard to ask for help. It all makes you feel so alone. At first, they don’t even put you in classes with other students.
But finally, with an interpreter to help, we could start going to normal classes, although it was only in Spanish class that we could talk normally. And now that a few more immigrant students are coming to our schools, we at least have some other classmates who understand.
When we first moved to Vermont, there was basically no hope for students like us to go to college, even though we have been dreaming of it since we were little. College helps you grow as a person and learn so many new things. It gets you ready to help other people and support your community. It helps you get over your fears and be a better person. It helps you become someone important.
Our parents came to this country and work hard every day to fight for a better life for us. But college is really expensive. It wasn’t until last year that we could really hope to make our dreams of going to college come true. Last January, a group of immigrant activists called Migrant Justice started going to the Statehouse to talk with legislators about making college more accessible for students like us.
We both got involved because our moms are community leaders with Migrant Justice. It was weird at first to be there. From the outside, the Statehouse looks like a big castle. But we knew how important it was to be there.
Together, we explained the discrimination that we face and also the dreams that we have. We even talked to reporters and gave interviews that got played on TV. Even though it made us nervous to be in front of so many cameras, we shared our stories because it’s important that our community and our voices are heard.
And we won! Last May, the bill that we fought so hard to pass got signed into law by Gov. Phil Scott. On July 1, 2025, it finally went into effect.
Students like us will finally be able to go to college in the state. We’ll be treated like any other Vermonter and pay the same in-state tuition rates. We will be able to get the same scholarships to help pay for college. These changes will let us go to college in Vermont, close to our families, instead of being separated again.
We still don’t know what we want to be when we grow up. Maybe a dentist. Maybe an architect. Maybe organizers like our moms. Or maybe a plastic surgeon like on Brissia’s favorite TV show. But now we have the chance to find out.
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[1] Url:
https://vtdigger.org/2025/07/04/brissia-hernandez-and-heidi-perez-students-like-us-will-finally-be-able-to-go-to-college-in-the-state/
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