Scheme Game: DACA Recipients' Approaches to Funding Their Postsecondary Education

• In Event: Shape Shifting Identities in Hip-Hop: Spirituality, Hustle, and Authenticity

Abstract

Due to their liminal immigration status, college-bound DACA recipients are precluded from a vast majority of public scholarships, federal financial aid, and even international student scholarships. Considering the high cost of tuition and exclusion from educational subsidies, students resort to various ways to pay out of pocket for tuition. They refer to these avenues as participating in the “Scheme Game”, a concept epistemologically rooted in hip-hop. This qualitative research features some responsive ways students find to navigate institutionally placed financial obstacles that impede their academic pursuits. Students testimonios serve to highlights their own resilience, dispel notions of meritocracy in higher education, and educate institutional agents about funding inequities in effort to rectify them.

Author

• Luis Fernando Macias, California State University - Fresno