Melinda Allen could easily have fallen through the cracks at any college or university. She took time off from school when her parents died, exhausted all of her federal grant aid, owed unpaid tuition, and became a mother when she was two years shy of graduation.

Academic advisers and professors at Dillard University refused to let Allen give up. A financial aid officer at the historically black university urged Allen, 29, to apply for a school grant designed to keep students like her from flaming out.

Dillard, like many HBCUs, is fighting to help its students reduce the need to borrow and keep them from joining the scores of Americans with debt and no degree. But how can schools with few financial resources help students in the same boat?

DACA. Four letters that hold so much weight and the future of thousands.

Scherly Gomez is a graduate of Lipscomb University. She also is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. With the help of a local nonprofit, Equal Chance for Education, she is pursuing her dream of a career in medicine as a third-year medical student at Meharry Medical College in Nashville. 

In this commentary, Gomez contemplates her future if she loses the authorization that allows her to live and work in the United States.