Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca's plans to attend college evaporated when, as a high school senior, her mother revealed that, unbeknownst to her, she was not living in the U.S. legally. Using her personal story for inspiration, she went on to launch DREAMer's Roadmap, a nonprofit mobile app that works to help undocumented students find scholarships to go to college.
Espinoza Salamanca was the daughter of undocumented immigrants and was able to obtain DREAMER status — an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors. She arrived in this country when she was 4 years old and like most other Dreamers, she was able to attend both elementary and high school, not realizing her status in this country.
"For me, growing up in this country from such a young age and going through the whole experience, K-12, I didn't really think that I was any different from all of my classmates," said Salamanca.
It wasn't until graduating high school that she was faced with the inevitable truth. Like many of her peers, she began applying to colleges with aspirations to make something of herself. Soon after, she received a notice in the mail saying her financial aid application was incomplete because it was missing her social security number.
Salamanca then called up her parents who explained that she was not in the country legally and was not able to obtain a social security number. In desperation, she went to her counselor, hoping for some helpful advice, but she recalls the counselor, telling her that "people like [you] don't go to college." For Salamanca, it "was a very hard pill to swallow."
Subsequently, she made a contact who shared that it is possible for DREAMers to go to college, and even obtain in-state tuition in some states, including California, where she lived. She has since used that knowledge to develop the DREAMer's Roadmap app, which helps undocumented students find college scholarships. The app was launched in 2016 and has so far provided information to more than 30,000 students, said Espinoza Salamanca.
"The whole idea behind DREAMers roadmap was to create a database where all of these scholarships would be housed and students all over the country could just download this app and have access to scholarships that they were eligible for to continue their education if that's what they wanted after high school," she said.
She says many parents arrive in the U.S. for better lives not just for themselves, but also for their children, and education can play a big role in that. "For us, it's wonderful that we have that opportunity to be able to be a little part in that success story for immigrants across this country," she said.
While managing the app, Salamanca is also involved in other entrepreneurial projects. She most recently launched the fund, #Supplies4FarmWorkers, which collects food, PPE, and school supplies for farmworkers affected by wildfires.
"It just hit me, 'What can we do to help them?' and being that DREAMer's Roadmap's mission is a lot about education, and immigrant families and most of these farmworkers are immigrants and undocumented, it just aligned perfectly," she said. "It was like a lightbulb moment."
Salamanca said the effort, that began about a month ago, has already handed out more than $50,000 worth of supplies to farmworkers' families.
Inflation remains hot as the January PPI has increased by 1 percent, twice what analysts had been expecting with a jump of 9.7 over the year. Beth Ann Bovino, the U.S. chief economist, for S&P Global Ratings, joined Cheddar News to discuss the rapid pace of inflation alongside higher wages, predicting the Federal Reserve will act quickly and forcefully this year. "They haven't changed their forecast, yet, that's gonna come out soon. But we expect that a March rate hike is basically pretty much baked in the cake," she said. "We think six rate hikes in total for 2022."
For black history month, Cheddar is highlighting black business leaders who are driving the need for representation forward. On February 10, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted an event called 'Developing the Black-Owned Business Ecosystem.' The virtual event was organized under the lobbying group's two initiatives -- the Equality of Opportunity Initiative, and the Coalition to Back Black Businesses. The event highlighted the developments needed to develop more black-owned businesses in the U.S. Dr. Anthony Wilbon, Dean of the School of Business at Howard University, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss his experience as a speaker at the event.
A newly declassified letter by senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich claimed the CIA. has been conducting a Secret Surveillance Program which has been collecting a bulk of data from American citizens. The letter which was written in April of 2021 urges the CIA to come clean about the kind of data it collects and how many Americans have been impacted. According to these two senators, the program did not have the safeguards of congressional oversight.
Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at National Securities, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says investors are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the situation between Russia and the Ukraine and elaborates on the impact higher oil prices stemming from the conflict would have on the market.
Last week, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a a letter airing concerns that the CIA is collecting the data of American citizens without their consent. The lawmakers fear that the program might be exploiting private data. Morgan Wright, the chief security advisor at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, joined Cheddar News to discuss the ramifications of the letter. "We don't have all the dots in one place to connect them," said Wright, cautioning against jumping to conclusions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that diplomacy is still possible, while U.S. officials warn that an attack on Ukraine is imminent. Cheddar News speaks with James Astill, Washington bureau chief of The Economist on the latest developments in Eastern Europe.
As the number of Russian troops rose to 130,000 along its Ukrainian border, hopes for a diplomatic solution remain among world leaders. Jason McMann, head of geopolitical risk analysis at Morning Consult, joined Cheddar News to break down the fluid situation. "We saw signs pointing towards an increase in tensions between Ukraine and Russia, whereas today we're seeing some signs that the Russian government may be willing to continue down a path of diplomatic negotiations to try and find some sort of non-military solution," he said.
Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders are now planning to amend the stop trading on congressional knowledge act, otherwise known as the 'Stock' Act. This 2012 law governs how members disclose the purchase or sale of stocks and amending it would close a loophole, eliminating the trading of individual stocks by members of congress. Pelosi has consistently opposed a ban on stock trading by lawmakers and congressional staff...so what's changed? Kedric Payne, Vice President of Campaign Legal Center, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
In a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed for a controversial new version of the Alabama congressional map to remain in place. The lower court had previously ordered that the state must redraw that congressional map because it violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting the political power of Black voters. Redistricting expert Yurij Rudensky joins Cheddar News to weigh in.
