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By Daniella Silva
A Harvard University alumnus made history as the first recipient of the Deferred Action Plan for Child Arrivals, also known as DACA, to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.
Jin Kyu Park, 22, was awarded the scholarship to study at the University of Oxford in the UK next year, the office of the US Secretary of the Rhodes Trust announced Saturday.
Park, who grew up in the Queens district of New York, was born in South Korea and said he arrived in the United States at the age of seven. He is the first beneficiary of the DACA Administration Program, which protects some young immigrants from deportation, to win the scholarship.
The Rhodes Trust provides full financial support to academics who wish to graduate from Oxford University for two or three years.
Park told NBC News that his feat was still down.
"When they first announced it, it was really – I felt that it was an immense gratitude," he said. "Now, this gratitude has given way to some kind of desire to use this opportunity to make sure that I can raise others in the community." It's impossible for such a thing to belong to one single one. nobody."
It was the second year Park had been asking for the scholarship. At the time of his first application, the DACA winners were not yet eligible for the prize, according to the US organizer of the program.
Elliot Gerson, US Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, said NBC News Park was an "extremely qualified" candidate, but the group could not change its eligibility policies mid-way through the process last year. .
Gerson stated that he had made a request to the directors and that they had agreed to expand the eligibility criteria to the DACA recipients the following year and to publish them to the Nationally so that other students can also apply.
"In seeking out these extraordinarily talented Americans, a combination of academic excellence, character leadership and the ambition to serve others, we did not want to exclude the dreamers who, in our view, are as important and so many things to this country. and the world, "he said.
DACA allows undocumented immigrant children to stay in the United States when they were under 16 when their parents brought them to the United States and arrived in 2007. The Obama era initiative allowed 700,000 young people, known as "Dreamers", to avoid deportation.
The Trump administration decided to terminate the DACA program a year ago, but federal courts have blocked this attempt. Earlier this month, a federal court of appeal prevented President Donald Trump from ending the program, now temporarily DACA. Trump urged the Supreme Court to take up the issue.
Park said he hoped to start a conversation and that he was "shocked" by the change in eligibility that occurred so quickly.
"It came out of nowhere, I did not expect that to happen," he said.
Gerson said the Rhodes Trust was grateful to Harvard for endorsing Park last year despite its technical ineligibility.
"I think Jin is a wonderful example to others and he continues to show great courage under the law," he said.
Park said he hoped his success would highlight the stories of other undocumented immigrants and what they had to offer the country.
"I am thankful and I think it is a testament to what if you give American immigrants an opportunity, if you allow us to live fully in our truth and see ourselves totally in our personality, that 's right. is the kind of thing that can happen, "he said.
Park is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular and Cell Biology at Harvard, according to a biography provided by the Rhodes Trust. Park plans to obtain a Masters degree in Migration Studies, Global Health Sciences and Epidemiology from Oxford, according to the biography.
Park is also the founder of HigherDreams, Inc., a nonprofit organization aimed at developing resources for undocumented students in pursuit of graduate studies, and leads the chapter program for Define American, a media organization. and nonprofit cultural that aims to change the conversations about immigrants.
Reverend Ryan Eller, executive director of Define American, praised Park's accomplishments.
"As a long-time leader of our chapter program, Jin is a shining example of how we can work together to make even the oldest and most famous international research awards in the world change their rules and become more equitable, "he said. .
The last class of 32 Rhodesian Fellows also includes 21 women, the highest number ever in a class, and nearly half of this group is made up of first-generation Americans and immigrants.
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