Aliento Features: German Preciado
Meet German! Originally from Caborca, Sonora, German is a DACA recipient and a Senior at Bioscience High School!
German is also one of the five student fellows here at Aliento and is an organizer with the Arizona’s Future, an awareness campaign for Tuition Equity for all Arizona HS graduates regardless of immigration status
Why Aliento?
I liked what the organization was doing so I decided to get more involved. When I heard about the campaign, I realized that the work they were doing was very personal to me so I decided to apply for the fellowship. Seeing as I had to have an internship to fulfill my requirements for my classes, I figured Aliento would be the best choice for me.
He also helped out with planning and leading major Aliento events such as Education Day where more than 200 educators and allies from across the valley showed up at the Arizona Capitol for Education Day to speak with both Democrats and Republicans about the importance of tuition equity.
After Education Day, Republican Senator Heather Carter would introduce Senate Bill 1217- A bill that would offer a lower tuition rate for all Arizona high school graduates regardless of immigration status. German was there for the first Senate Court where he testified in front of the Education Committee on why this bill was important for him.
You see, German was accepted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But he wanted to stay here in Arizona with his family and go to the Barrett The Honors College at ASU. But due to the high tuition costs for DACA recipients in Arizona, MIT is a more accessible option.
Aside from Aliento, German was heavily involved with Dragon Robotics 2375 team at Bioscience. The Dragon Robotics mostly consists of students of hispanic backgrounds. They teach students many skills from engineering to how to be professional and friendly in a competitive environment. They mentor 6 elementary school robotics teams around Phoenix, to help give back to schools which may not have access to resources.
This year they went to LA regional competition and made it to World Finals. They qualified for the World Competition in Houston and placed in 33/68 teams their division.
It was an amazing time and we got to talk to many amazing teams. It was a great time for growth and we got to learn loads about how to improve our team's performance for future years.
As a fellow, German formed a team of leaders at Bioscience HIghschool for the Arizona’s Future Campaign. He organized events at his school and communicated his learning from Aliento to his team members.
I would recommend this fellowship because the work is very fulfilling and you learn a lot about politics and group management. It also provides very beneficial leadership development.
In the future, I will attend MIT to study Civil and Environmental Engineering. I am going on a full ride. I am not sure what I will do afterwards, but I will probably get a Masters degree.
