CORNHUSKERS LOVE AMERICORPS: Why Nebraska offers in-state tuition to anyone who serves.

AuthorAbdul-Alim, Jamaal

When Yen Huynh first signed up to serve in AmeriCorps in Nebraska, her goal was to become a resident so she could pay in-state tuition for graduate school.

"My original plan was to move to Nebraska, gain state residency, go to school, and work for a little bit but [then] eventually move back home to Albuquerque," says Huyhn, a 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico, where she got a bachelor's degree in political science and criminology.

The plan worked. Huyhn became a resident, and she is now getting her master's degree in political science from the University of Nebraska Omaha, where she is paying the instate rate. But were Huynh still in New Mexico and planning to join AmeriCorps today, she would qualify for resident tuition a different way. That's because as of April 2021, Nebraska is granting in-state tuition to anyone who has served for at least a year in AmeriCorps, even if that service took place in another state. It's a change that could save program alumni tens of thousands of dollars.

"When I found out that the bill for in-state tuition was passed for those who had finished serving in AmeriCorps, I thought it to be a great benefit," Huynh says. She supports the change, even though she is already a resident.

The person behind the new law in Nebraska is Democratic State Senator Tony Vargas, himself an AmeriCorps alum. Vargas met his wife a decade ago while both were working as educators for Teach for America, the education nonprofit that recruits "promising leaders" to teach for at least two years in a low-income community. (Teach for America operates under the umbrella of AmeriCorps.) Vargas taught in Brooklyn, and his wife taught in the Bronx. The couple eventually moved to Nebraska so Vargas's wife could attend law school. But education remained a passion. Vargas served on the Omaha school board from 2013 until 2016, when he successfully ran to become a state senator.

Vargas attributes his interest in service and education to his parents, who immigrated from Peru to New York City, where Vargas was born. He recalls growing up as a "free and [reduced-price] lunch kid" in elementary through high school. He was a Pell Grant recipient, and only the second person in his family to go to college.

"My parents sacrificed a lot for us and always taught us that education was really important, but also that it was important to give back to communities like ours," Vargas told me.

Service leaders and higher education leaders in Nebraska...

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