Since retirement from UGA in 2014, I've had the privilege of co-founding U-Lead Athens, a non-profit organization, https://www.uleadathens.org.

Mission: To provide an inclusive and safe environment for Athens-area un(der)documented immigrant students to prepare them to pursue higher education, to advocate with students for equal access to higher education, and to provide access to human and financial resources that will allow students to graduate from college.

Why We Exist: Georgia Board of Regents considers us “undocumented” and bans us from attending UGA, Georgia Tech, and GCSU plus forcing us to pay international (3-4 times) tuition at all other Georgia colleges and technical schools. Some of us have DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), some have Temporary Protective Status (TPS), some are undocumented.  We can’t receive any state or federal aid and face additional limitations on specific program admissions policies.

Who We Are: U-Lead Athens is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization with 501(c)3 status dedicated to promoting equal access to higher education for un(der)documented students (DACA, TPS, and other limiting documentation statuses) who are denied admission or in-state tuition by Georgia’s discriminatory admission policies, as well as first-generation citizen children of undocumented parents. Mentors are students and faculty from CCSD and UGA as well as community members.

If you'd like to know more, to start a similar program, or to (yes!) donate to our scholarship fund, please email me at jobethalgmail [dot] com.