Dreamer: Let me pay in-state tuition in my home state

• Belen Sisa came to the United States as a 6-year-old with her parents%2C who overstayed their visa
• After gaining DACA status%2C she is attending community college paying in-state tuition
• A decision by the Arizona Board of Regents would allow her to continue her education at ASU

As I walked across the stage, about to receive my high school diploma, I had a feeling in the back of my mind and in the pit of my stomach. A feeling that to this day comes back from time to time.

That feeling was worry, fear, frustration and sadness. The day I was supposed to feel so accomplished and proud had turned into a day where I felt my education had come to an end.

I had done everything right, I had received good grades, I participated in extracurricular activities, but because of my legal status and the inability to accept scholarships, my dreams of higher education seemed to be drifting farther and farther away. I was stuck in a limbo with nowhere to turn.

This is the reality of being an undocumented student. We are not lacking in motivation or potential, but facing roadblocks that stop us from pursuing our academic goals and dreams of attending state universities.

In 2012, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, brought new opportunities. Along with its work permit came the protection we all had been yearning for: legal presence. With this announcement, Maricopa County Community Colleges lead the way for Arizona and opened its doors to DACA students by allowing us to pay in-state tuition.

I can still remember the tears in my eyes after registering for classes at Chandler-Gilbert Community College and realizing I would be able to continue to go to school. This decision helped me find my purpose, it helped me figure out I was good enough to get an education, and to succeed and give back to our community.

Now two years later, with only three classes left until I graduate from CGCC, that feeling of ending and of being treated unequally has once again returned. My dreams and my goals have only become bigger since the community college decision. My aspirations include going to Arizona State University and finishing my bachelor's degree in political science, later going to law school.

My academic future is now in the Arizona Board of Regents' hands. They have the power to make sure no student ever feels that their high school graduation day is the end. With much momentum building, I feel that making the right decision for students and for the state of Arizona is within our fingertips.

As a student, a taxpayer, an Arizonan and a DACAmented American, I am asking for one thing from the regents and that is to follow Maricopa Community Colleges lead and grant 100 percent in-state tuition to DACA students.

They have the law and the citizens of Arizona on their side. It is our time to make Arizona better, it is time to give just and fair inclusion in which all students can participate and prosper. Education is sacred; it is our greatest hope and power to move our lives forward.

As a 6-year-old girl who came from Argentina with my parents, all I have pictured in my head was the day I would take my first step on the campus of an Arizona university as a student. There are thousands of stories like mine, many first-generation college students, with their own dreams, with our own passions to give back to the state we call home, and with a 100 percent desire to have our full dignity.

Belen Sisa, a Florence High School graduate, lives in Gilbert. She studies political science at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.