DACA recipient recounts stressful year as she looks ahead to graduation

Senior year can be a stressful time for students, especially as they approach graduation, but for one student at Eastern Mennonite University, her senior year was a different kind of difficult – because she did not know if she would be able to stay in the United States to finish her education.

Keyri Lopez-Godoy moved to the United States when she was eight years old from El Salvador. Four years later, she protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program established by President Obama.

Now she prepares to graduate on Sunday from Eastern Mennonite University.

"It really has changed my life. It has allowed me to get a higher level of education, be able to be here at EMU, be able to apply for a job, so it really impacts a lot of the things that I want to do," said Lopez-Godoy.

She described her last year as a senior as a roller coaster after President Trump rescinded DACA in 2017, passing responsibility to Congress to vote on a more permanent solution, followed by a series of legal decisions temporarilyholding off the suspension of the program.

"I've worked so hard for what I have now, and then all of a sudden that being taken away, it makes it feel like 'What have I done?' or 'why, why me?'" said Lopez-Godoy.

Keyri's protection runs out soon, and there is a level of concern as she starts her new career as a teacher in a local school.

"There is a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of things that I always have to be thinking about, but there's also a lot of hope, too," said Lopez-Godoy.

Her hope comes in the form of marches like the one she participated in

to ask for support.

"We want our voices to be heard, because we are individuals, we are faces to this issue," said Lopez-Godoy.

Keyri said she will continue to stand up for herself, and others in this situation.

She also spoke in-depth with Bob Corso about the Dream Act and her experience as a DACA recipient. You can find that interview

.